Chapter 77

Xia Zhi finished his bath and went upstairs.

"Miss Shenhe, you can go take your bath now."

"Alright."

Shenhe took her clothes and went into the bathroom. Soon after, she emerged from her bath.

Steam lingered in the air, the lights were dim, and her hair cascaded down. Her skin was as white and delicate as snow. Combined with her otherworldly temperament, she looked like a stunning beauty who had stepped out of a painting.

Zhu Zi was momentarily stunned. Then she noticed Shenhe holding a bucket of clothes, which contained not only her own clothes but also the clothes the boss had changed out of after his bath.

Zhu Zi quickly said, "Miss Shenhe, just leave the boss's clothes there. I'll wash them later."

Shenhe glanced at her and said calmly, "It's fine. I need to do laundry anyway, I can wash them together."

Zhu Zi had nothing to say and could only watch helplessly as she took away the boss's clothes.

Suddenly, she felt a sense of crisis.

Zhu Zi hugged her pajamas and quietly walked into the bathroom to take her bath.

The bathroom was still filled with lingering warmth, mixed with a faint fragrance like orchids and musk.

It smelled nice, seemingly Miss Shenhe's natural scent.

Zhu Zi turned her head, looking at the empty wooden basin in the corner, and suddenly let out a quiet sigh.

For the first time, she had a colleague to work with, and for the first time, she didn't have to wash the boss's clothes. These two happy events overlapped, and she should have been even happier, but... why couldn't she feel happy?

---

Upstairs, in the room.

Xia Zhi took out the [Blazing Incense Burner] and crafted 8 portions of [Perfect Joy Incense], completing today's point earnings.

His current point balance was 27 points.

Xia Zhi put away the [Blazing Incense Burner] and took out a piece of [Perfect Calming Incense], placing it in the incense burner and lighting it.

This was for feeding the female ghost. Tonight she should be able to gain about [15%] progress on her bar.

Xia Zhi leaned back in his chair, rested for a moment until he felt his spirit power recover a bit, then took out paper and pen and wrote down several names.

Yun Jin, Silver.

Zhongli, Diamond.

Guoba, Gold.

Female Ghost, Gold.

Xingqiu, Silver.

Baizhu, Silver.

Xia Zhi stopped writing and looked at the names on the paper, falling into contemplation.

Zhongli was a deity, so he couldn't be too proactive. He mainly relied on him coming to the shop daily to drink juice to increase progress.

Yun Jin was a big star, that would have to wait.

As for Guoba, he was quite familiar with it now. It drank a lot of juice each time, so he should be able to max it out within two weeks.

The female ghost was simple - light incense every night, and it would max out in a week.

Xingqiu was the second young master of the Feiyun Commerce Guild. During their conversation today, he seemed very interested in the rainbow juice. He could wait for him to come on his own.

Baizhu was a doctor. Although he seemed extraordinary, they could interact when buying medicine and checking on Qiqi at Bubu Pharmacy.

After organizing his thoughts, Xia Zhi picked up his pen, crossed out Yun Jin's name, put the paper away in his inventory, and then turned his attention to a golden chest in his inventory.

This was what he had gotten from Shenhe this afternoon.

He just hadn't opened it yet.

Now that he had taken a bath and burned incense, his luck should be better, right?

Xia Zhi chose to open it, and a soft white pillow appeared before his eyes.

[Dream Pillow]

Quality: Gold

Type: Auxiliary Item

Property: Dreamscape

Effect: When sleeping on this item, there is a chance to enter the dream world - First Layer Dream (98%), Second Layer Dream (2%).

Hidden Effect: Spirit power recovery speed +50% while dreaming.

Recyclable: 100 points.

This was a supernatural item related to dreams, and its effects involved multiple dream layers.

Xia Zhi wasn't very familiar with this, so after thinking for a moment, he searched the [Shop] and found a book called [Basic Knowledge of Dreams], spent 1 point to buy it, leaving him with 26 points.

He opened the book and read it carefully.

The First Layer Dream belonged to the shallow dreamscape, which was the commonly known dream state. When ordinary people dream during sleep, they enter this layer.

There was a fixed time difference between the First Layer Dream and reality, with a ratio of 1:12, meaning one night in reality was equivalent to six days and nights in the dream.

The Second Layer Dream belonged to the deep dreamscape. Only people with relatively strong spirit power would occasionally enter this layer while dreaming. It had the same 1:12 time flow ratio with the First Layer Dream.

The book also mentioned the Third Layer Dream and Fourth Layer Dream, but the deeper the layer, the higher the spirit power requirement. These were considered forbidden zones.

Xia Zhi closed the book, having roughly understood the existence of the dream world.

Currently, this [Dream Pillow] had three uses for him.

First, it could give him more time. Many things he couldn't conveniently do during the day could be freely practiced in dreams.

Second, it allowed him to collect some dream world specialties, like twilight mushrooms, which could be directly recycled or kept as alchemy materials to further increase his point gains.

Third, it could help him craft more incense, as its hidden effect could speed up spirit power recovery.

Overall, this gold-quality item was quite excellent.

Xia Zhi took out the [Blazing Incense Burner] again, bought three sets of raw materials from the [Shop], and continued crafting [Joy Incense] until his spirit power was depleted.

He put away the [Blazing Incense Burner], went over and fell onto the bed, replaced the original pillow with the [Dream Pillow], closed his eyes, and fell into deep sleep.

Moments later, Xia Zhi opened his eyes and found himself standing at the wharf in Liyue Harbor.

"My eyes... they've recovered in the dream?"

Xia Zhi turned his head, looking at the magnificent blue sea and sky in the distance. His expression froze for a moment before breaking into a smile.

"Such a nostalgic feeling. The scenery beyond twenty meters is so beautiful... So this is my dream? Thoughts by day become dreams by night. I didn't expect that what I've been thinking about and missing was this seascape."

Xia Zhi stood in place, watching for a few minutes before turning around to see the empty wharf.

"It's so quiet in the dream, not a single person in sight. Could it be that my subconscious doesn't welcome others?"

Xia Zhi tried and found that he could still summon the system panel in the dream, and the items in his inventory still existed and could be used normally.

"Let's go back to the shop first. That's the place I'm most familiar with, and it's where the dream energy is strongest. I should be able to find some twilight mushrooms."

Xia Zhi walked straight back to his shop and soon arrived.

There wasn't a single person inside. It was completely quiet.

Xia Zhi searched carefully and found one twilight mushroom in the front hall, one in the bathroom, and two in his bedroom.

Four in total. If recycled directly, that would be 4 points, already half of yesterday's point income.

The main thing was that this acquisition had absolutely no cost, making it pure profit.

Xia Zhi satisfactorily put them away, walked out of the shop, and decided to look "outside" for more.

This "outside" referred to outside the dream.

After all, dreams were manifested based on memories, and memories had limitations. This meant dreams couldn't be infinitely large. He just needed to walk in one direction continuously to walk out of the dream.

Xia Zhi left the shop and walked along the street toward the outskirts of Liyue.

This gate wasn't the direction he had originally entered the city from, so logically, he shouldn't have memories of outside the city.

Sure enough, when Xia Zhi walked out of the city gate, the scenery around him changed.

What appeared before his eyes were countless colorful bubbles of various sizes. These were the dreams that the people of Liyue were having tonight.

According to the [Basic Knowledge of Dreams], warm-colored bubbles meant good dreams, while cool-colored bubbles meant nightmares.

Xia Zhi curiously looked at the two dream bubbles closest to him.

Not surprisingly, the larger cyan bubble should be Shenhe's dream, and the smaller crimson bubble should be Zhu Zi's dream.

Cyan represented fear, while crimson represented joy.

Xia Zhi looked away, choosing not to peek into their private dreams, and continued walking forward. Then he randomly chose a warm-colored dream bubble from a passerby and reached out toward it.

A strange attractive force came over him, and Xia Zhi's vision blurred. Just as he was about to enter the new dream, he suddenly heard a distant and broken woman's voice in his ear.

"World... legacy..."

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