Xing Yue felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his blood freezing instantly.
The city lord carrying the lamp in his dream, the prisoner with white threads seeping from his seven orifices, the human cocoon wrapped in those same threads...
All those terrifying images overlapped with the figure of the middle-aged vendor currently sleepwalking before his eyes.
The vendor stumbled along, his feet half an inch off the ground. His knees seemed incapable of bending, and his movements were extremely disjointed.
His wrist joints were bent backward in an unnatural manner, his neck was tilted to one side so far that his chin almost touched his collarbone, and his head nodded rhythmically.
His arms hung limp at his sides, swaying slightly as he moved like two boneless ropes of meat.
The vendor would walk for a while, then stop to face a wall, his forehead nearly pressed against the cold masonry.
He stood there in silence, as if listening to whispers from within the wall.
For a moment, Xing Yue could not tell whether he was in reality or still sinking within a nightmare.
Was his supposed escape from the Blackwater Dungeon and his meeting with Zhao Qianjun merely a dream within a dream?
He gave his arm a sharp pinch.
Hiss—!
A clear sensation of pain registered.
"It hurts, so it shouldn't be a dream, right?"
Xing Yue muttered to himself, his voice carrying an uncertainty that even he couldn't resolve.
The middle-aged vendor paced back and forth at the mouth of the alley for a long time, his movements repetitive.
His eyes were tightly shut, but Xing Yue noticed that beneath those thin lids, the eyeballs were darting around in high-frequency, irregular movements.
That was a normal physiological response for someone dreaming.
Yet for some reason, Xing Yue felt that perhaps something else was hidden beneath those eyelids.
The thought made his skin crawl.
As the vendor faced the wall in contemplation once again, another figure appeared at the corner of the street.
It was a well-dressed young woman, also with her eyes closed, her body surrounded by a faint glimmer.
She was on all fours, crawling like a beast, but moving with incredible speed.
Her neck was craned up at an impossible angle, her pitch-black hair dragging across the ground.
When the woman passed the vendor, there was no interaction between them. They seemed to follow invisible tracks, crossing paths without a single collision.
The vendor passed the alley entrance several times, each time sending Xing Yue's heart into his throat.
However, looking at the little beggars around him, though they also held their breath and huddled in the shadows, their eyes held more of a sense of habit than terror.
Only when the vendor's figure finally disappeared down the other end of the street did Xing Yue let out a long breath.
It was only then that he realized he had unconsciously pinched his arm until it was bruised.
Why were such bizarre things happening even inside Lantao City?
Xing Yue couldn't feel even a trace of the wicked aura that usually accompanied the presence of demons or monsters.
Could this also be related to the city lord?
That powerful figure he had once looked up to from afar, the ruler of an entire city.
As Xing Yue pondered, a small hand tugged at his sleeve.
Jiu'er looked up at him and whispered, "Don't be so nervous. If we hide here, it'll be fine. They won't find us."
Xing Yue suppressed his doubts and asked in a low voice, "Are you so sure those sleepwalkers won't come in?"
Before Jiu'er could answer, Erya chimed in from the side, her tone laced with a hint of pride.
"Of course! Big Brother Jiu'er always brings us here to hide at night. He's great at hide-and-seek, a real hide-and-seek expert!
"As long as we're tucked away, those Blackwater Guards won't find us during the day, and these sleepwalking freaks never come in at night either."
The little girl's words were innocent. Xing Yue simply took it as the children being lucky or the alley being particularly well-hidden, giving it no further thought.
Jiu'er nodded and said to Xing Yue, "Just stay here and relax. When dawn comes, they'll wake up. You can leave then."
"Wake up?" Xing Yue caught the word and pressed, "What do you mean?"
Jiu'er looked at him strangely, as if he were asking an obvious question. "Once they've finished sleeping, shouldn't they wake up? They're sleepwalking right now, so they aren't technically awake."
Xing Yue was momentarily speechless, finding himself unable to argue.
"But... but is that even a form a normal person can have? They've turned into such ghostly things. Can they really wake up?"
"They can," Jiu'er said. "Don't let that uncle's weirdness tonight fool you. He's quite normal during the day, and very kind too."
Jiu'er thought for a moment and added, "I think it's just a strange sickness that causes sleepwalking."
"It's not so bad. They just wander around at night and don't go too far. They only drift around this part of the outer city district. At most, it's just very contagious; if you touch them, you'll start sleepwalking too."
He counted on his fingers. "There have been a lot of strange sicknesses in Lantao City lately. Sleepwalking is one, and then there's the human-face sores."
"That one is much scarier. It's also contagious. Pus-filled sores that look like human faces grow on your body. Not only does your body rot, but it also eats away at your spiritual power. It's terrifying!"
"Luckily, there are the lords from Heart's Desire Hall. They have ways to treat the sickness."
Xing Yue leaned against the wall, listening to Jiu'er's words in a daze.
The city's defenses were relatively lax at night, which should have been the best time to leave.
But now, the outer city district was crawling with sleepwalkers. They seemed numerous, and some were very agile. A single touch meant infection.
He wasn't confident he could cross half the outer city district to reach the walls without alerting anyone.
During the day?
That was even worse. The city's defenses were several times stricter during the day.
From what he knew, Lantao City was currently a place where people were allowed in but almost never allowed out, like a massive siege.
As an escaped prisoner, appearing on the streets during the day would be no different from turning himself in.
For a moment, Xing Yue felt he had nowhere to go, trapped in a dilemma.
Erya added, "Oh, right! That kind vendor uncle told us about Heart's Desire Hall. The lords there cured Big Brother Jiu'er and even gave us divine pills!"
"It's a pity the vendor uncle didn't go to wait in line himself. He doesn't seem to know he's sick."
"We told him during the day, but he didn't believe us and even chased us away. It seems no one knows they get sick at night."
Erya was full of confusion, genuinely feeling sorry for the man she considered a kind uncle.
Heart's Desire Hall?
Xing Yue felt his brain was struggling to keep up.
How long had it been since he left Lantao City?
How had the commandery city he remembered—oppressive, yet at least orderly—become so surreal and filled with endless bizarre occurrences?
"Heart's Desire Hall? What kind of place is that?" Xing Yue asked.
Jiu'er immediately gave him a look that said 'You don't even know that? You really are a country bumpkin,' and explained.
"It was opened by several very kind lords who recently arrived in the outer city district. They save people from suffering; they're amazing!"
He pointed in a certain direction. "If there's any safe place left in the outer city district at night, it's probably the street where Heart's Desire Hall is."
"Those sleepwalkers seem to avoid it. They never dare to go near."
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