Chapter 75: In a Dream

Chapter 75: In a Dream

After coming back to herself, Audrey maintained her faint smile while becoming vigilant.

She vaguely sensed that some unseen force had pushed her toward Hedrak, that village with dragon-worship customs.

It was like an arrangement of fate.

Audrey had once entered the Hall of Honesty and discovered that its murals had all become reality. Furthermore, she knew that Sequence 1 of the Spectator pathway was called Author, and had previously made certain associations from that name. At this moment, it was difficult for her not to suspect that something was wrong.

Just then, Hibbert laughed.

“I have heard of this village. I remember that the family has an estate nearby.”

As he spoke, he raised his head and glanced at the sky.

“It is almost evening. Why not stay here tonight and continue the hunt tomorrow?”

Alfred had no resistance to his elder brother’s suggestion. To him, there was no essential difference between which estate they stayed at tonight.

He nodded.

“Then send someone back to inform Father and Mother.”

Audrey did not speak. Her emerald eyes shifted slightly as her gaze swept across the faces of her two elder brothers.

Hibbert’s brows immediately furrowed faintly. After several seconds, he added,

“On second thought, let us return. The estate here has not been notified in advance and certainly has not made any preparations. It may not be able to serve so many horses, hounds, and attendants.

“Besides, there is still over an hour until evening. That is enough time to return.”

Seeing his elder brother change his mind so quickly, Alfred instinctively wanted to argue. But after the thought turned over in his mind, he felt that the other party’s words did make some sense.

Considering that his younger sister was also here, he gave an “Mm.”

“Then let us return as soon as possible.”

After saying that, he did not wait for Hibbert. He tightened his legs against his horse’s sides, whipped the reins, and took the lead in galloping back the way they had come.

Hibbert frowned once, then quickly relaxed.

He said nothing further. Leading his younger sister, along with a group of attendants, servants, and hounds, he turned and followed the edge of the forest back toward the estate on the other side.

Audrey quietly followed behind, expressing no opinion on how the matter had developed.

…

Late at night, inside an estate in East Chester County.

Audrey, who had used her Manipulator abilities to change the thoughts of her two elder brothers and prevent them from approaching Hedrak Village, lifted the velvet quilt, lay down, and entered sleep.

Amid hazy awareness, she suddenly sat up.

She then looked around and saw the familiar dressing table and the entrance to the washroom, discovering that she was still inside her room. Yet outside the window, the crimson moon and the stars had vanished, leaving only deep darkness.

This is not the real world… Audrey instantly made a judgment and examined herself.

Very quickly, she reached a conclusion:

This was a dream—a rather strange dream that had deliberately allowed her to remain lucid.

So it did come… Audrey did not panic. She only felt a little vexed.

Her handling of the matter that afternoon had not been meticulous enough, causing the problem to spread to the estate where her parents were staying.

She now believed that, at the time, she should have followed Hibbert’s idea and gone directly to the family estate near Hedrak Village. Then, in a reasonable manner, she could have “arranged” for Hibbert and Alfred to return to this side, leaving only herself there to wait for possible changes.

In that way, even if some accident occurred, it would not affect her parents, her elder brothers, or the majority of the male and female servants.

However, her primary thought at the time had been that she could not follow the “arrangement of fate.” If she could avoid Hedrak Village, she should avoid it as much as possible.

Who would have known that sometimes, even if one did not seek danger, danger would take the initiative to seek one out?

Avoidance and delay were not universal solutions.

Audrey immediately turned over and got out of bed, standing barefoot on the thick carpet.

She had already preliminarily confirmed that, with her demigod-level Dreamwalker abilities, she could directly leave this strange dream and return to the real world, thereby once again avoiding the suspected “invitation.”

After glancing left and right, Audrey pressed her lips together, took the blue cloak hanging on the nearby coat rack, and draped it over herself.

Then she inhaled deeply and walked toward the door step by step.

During this process, a deep crimson “tattoo” like a cluster of stars surfaced on the back of one hand.

The “tattoo” then faded away, as though it had never existed.

This was a mark left behind after she first entered the ancient palace above the gray fog. For a very long time, it had shown no special trait. Only at the beginning of this year had Mr. Fool told them that when there was no time to pray, they could activate the corresponding “tattoo” to replace the step of reciting His honorific name.

Simply put, this was the treatment of one favored by God.

Of course, it could not transmit any information. It could only be used in dangerous situations, allowing Mr. Fool to cast His gaze over.

More importantly, that star-like deep crimson mark was rather conspicuous and could easily be noticed by nearby people and hidden observers. Therefore, when she needed to conceal her uniqueness, Audrey preferred using the various abilities of a Manipulator to implant the idea of praying to Mr. Fool into the mind of some inconspicuous person nearby, having that person complete the prayer at the proper time and in the proper scene on her behalf, requesting protection.

At this moment, she believed the dream’s owner already knew she had a problem. Thus, there was no need for overly complicated arrangements. She only needed to hide which existence she was praying to.

After arriving at the door, Audrey reached out, grasped the handle, gently turned it, and pulled it open.

A rather dim corridor immediately entered her eyes.

The main building of this estate already had a history of over a century. Many places still retained features from the past, especially the corridor. It had no gas wall lamps; instead, one candleholder after another, made either of silver or bronze, was embedded along the walls. Different numbers of candles stood upon them, emitting dim yellow light that made the entire corridor flicker with shadows, giving the impression that it might become haunted at any moment.

The dream even replicated this… Audrey glanced left and right, then stepped into the corridor.

As the thought flashed through her mind, a long, thick, pale-yellow carpet appeared beneath her feet.

Stepping on the carpet, Audrey followed her spiritual intuition and walked toward the right.

After taking two or three steps, she suddenly stopped. She felt that something seemed to be hidden behind the tightly closed doors on both sides—something that stirred within her an intense desire to explore.

This is Father and Mother’s bedroom. This is Hibbert’s sleeping room. This is Alfred’s room… Audrey distinguished them briefly and frowned slightly.

Under the glow of the dim candlelight, the classical doors carved with reliefs appeared especially mysterious, making one want to know exactly what lay hidden behind them.

As her thoughts raced, Audrey abruptly understood what they represented within the dream.

They were doors to the mind. Behind every door lay its owner’s mental world.

In other words, if Audrey pushed open Alfred’s bedroom door, she would see all kinds of secrets hidden deep within his heart.

By the same logic, she could also peer into the true minds of Earl Hall and Lady Caitlyn.

Slowly withdrawing her gaze, Audrey closed her eyes and continued walking forward, refusing to let herself be affected.

After experiencing so many things, she increasingly understood one principle:

A demigod of the mind domain had to know restraint and respect others.

When one could already read others’ true thoughts from body language, facial expressions, and emotional fluctuations in ordinary situations, if one still greedily and insatiably explored the hearts of others, digging into privacy and secrets, that greed might ultimately backlash onto oneself.

It was a very simple principle: every person more or less had some dark and unpleasant thoughts. But most people controlled them well and did not allow them to affect their behavior. Under such circumstances, if a demigod of the mind domain insisted on digging out those thoughts and excavating the ugly portions beneath the mask, it would be extremely easy to become disappointed in humanity, be stained by all kinds of negative consciousness, and gradually go mad without realizing it.

This was one of the reasons why Spectators, though clearly able to Soothe themselves and treat corresponding psychological problems, were still prone to becoming abnormal or insane.

They were both safe and dangerous.

Therefore, the behavioral rule Audrey had set for herself was this: toward acquaintances, she would only observe and “read minds,” avoiding dream infiltration as much as possible; toward strangers, there was no such restriction; and unless necessary, she would not enter anyone’s mental world.

Following the corridor, Audrey, draped in her blue cloak, arrived at the end.

She then opened her eyes and turned her gaze toward the room on the left.

It was a half-open sunroom.

Pressing her lips together again, Audrey breathed steadily and reached out to grasp that door’s handle.

As the wooden door swung open behind her, the scene within gradually revealed itself.

It was no longer a room. On the ground lay one smooth, round stone after another and clusters of dark-green weeds. The depths were swallowed by darkness and impossible to see clearly.

Audrey slowly walked inside, and the door closed behind her with a creak.

Within that darkness, the outlines of certain things rapidly took shape:

An enormous stone pillar dozens of meters tall stood upright, and above it rested a slender, lizard-like monster.

The monster crouched atop the pillar like a small mountain. Its body was covered in huge grayish-white, stone-like scales, and its pale-golden eyes were vertical.

This was a mind dragon straight out of myth and legend.

With a rustle, the two wings of the mind dragon spread open, almost covering that stretch of sky.

Their skeletons were like metal and leaf veins, covered by grayish membranes etched with mysterious patterns.

As Audrey looked up, the mind dragon let out a buzzing voice:

“You have been to Liveseyd.”

It was unquestionably speaking in Dragonese.

The City of Miracles, Liveseyd… How does it know… No sooner had those two thoughts flashed through Audrey’s mind than the mind dragon across from her spoke again:

“The consciousness within every mind constantly exchanges with the sea of collective subconsciousness to a certain degree. Liveseyd is a very special existence, and the mark it formed in your mind is equally special. When your virtual persona roamed the sea of collective subconsciousness and drew not far from me, I naturally sensed it.”

This already exceeds the scope of my abilities. Nor is it something a Dreamweaver can do… Does this mind dragon correspond to Sequence 2, Discerner? It did not directly manipulate me… While Audrey’s thoughts flickered, the mind dragon spoke again:

“I am quite certain you currently bear no malice.”

Audrey was silent for two seconds, then raised her head and asked,

“Are you not worried this is a trap?”