Nightmare of Dreams

"M-Master Huan Xue, t-the lady?" Zui Qingxing anxiously muttered while looking at Qiaolian. His two hands clutched the vine tightly, still trembling from the indescribable emotions within his chest.

This merchant had specifically used the boat with no cabin to make sure that he won't get sleep. He was confident to traverse the sea despite the rumors of sea monsters sighting for this reason. He did not even taste any alcohol just for the trip.

But who is he to tell the master of the Scarlet Island not to let his lady sleep?

Rumors had it that when sea monsters sense a vulnerable scent, they would not hesitate to capture any sea traveler and devour their flesh, rob their cultivation, and make their skulls a decoration to the deeper level of the sea.

Such a scent only occurs when a traveler falls asleep in a field of vast waters. Thus, sleeping during sea travel had become taboo on their continent.

Another tale had also circulated that those sea monsters were in fact, beast hunters afflicted by a curse from the sea beast they had harmed.

For those few survivors, they testified that the sea monsters actually feed on the mortal's blood to retain the inch of humanity in them.

But, some of the victims did not become food. Instead, they became the slaves of these monsters from the bottom sea.

Naturally, Zui Qingxing was initially worried after seeing Qiaolian had almost fallen into slumber. They were in the same boat. If the sea monsters attacked her, he would also be dragged by them!

But, after knowing the identity of Huan Xue, the old wine merchant instantly felt bad about the poor accommodation that he had presented. There was no space to have a comfortable sleep on the boat.

"Strange... the waves are making me sleepy," Qiaolian mumbled and shook her head. Her eyes fluttered and blinked several times as she tried to remain conscious.

Hearing her words, Huan Xue faced the side and looked at the calm sea, a frown became visible on his forehead. The water was actually peaceful. Just what waves were Qiaolian talking about?

The green aura in his eyes glowed and the sea grass below them rapidly moved. Huan Xue examined the entire underwater but he could not sense any presence of an enemy around them.

"My lady, there are no waves in the sea... The water is motionless and clear that I can even see the fading reflection of the sky on it," Huan Xue whispered to Qiaolian's ear.

"Hmm... then sea vibrations? It might be someone else... It should be near here, No... Maybe very close... Check the bottom and side of this boat if someone is hiding there. If not someone, maybe something, anything suspicious... Take it," Qiaolian muttered weakly. "There is a technique used by those practitioners who have Silver Celestial Elixir Field... It's called Declination of Suffering."

Huan Xue was slightly stunned but his crimson vines immediately jumped out of the boat and hastily check the area.

"I happened to read a cultivation manual of Divinity before... Those cultivators who had attained a divine bloodline can block all harmful elements, especially when the element will cause them suffering. Once the cultivator declines the element, he must transfer whatever he had rejected to someone else. I think..." Qiaolian paused and shook her head harder, forcing her eyes not to close. "---Whatever being is causing me to be sleepy using vibrations... it is refusing to sleep. Someone is rejecting the element of sleep and is transferring it to my body. Maybe... it does not want to trigger its vulnerable scent to avoid the sea monsters?"

Huan Xue opened his mouth but Qiaolian beat his chance to utter a word as she spoke again.

"Aha! I change my mind, let us help this pitiful being. Master Huan, I'm just going to sleep a little bit and accept the elements he is channeling in me. I'm quite curious about what this practitioner is avoiding! Don't worry, old Zui... with Master Huan here, even if I produce vulnerable scent, those sea monsters won't dare attack our boat."

Huan Xue had no time to voice his reaction, Qiaolian hastily sat on the floor of the boat, her back was leaning on the wooden wall, and then she did not resist the sleepiness.

After Qiaolian closed her eyes, Huan Xue could only take a seat next to her. This lady could actually change her mind in just a split second!

Unbeknownst to Huan Xue, it was only the physical body of Qiaolian that had fallen asleep. The moment she closed her eyes, her consciousness had hastily departed and flown above the dark sky to examine the entire sea.

The movement was too fast that Huan Xue only glance at the side where her consciousness flashed.

'Where is the being?' Qiaolian's consciousness blended its figure in the air until it materialized in an illusory physical form.

In fact, the celestial cultivation technique she had mentioned, Declination of Suffering had an equivalent martial technique called Detachments.

Perhaps, in the entire continent, only Qiaolian had understood that most of the cultivation techniques have an identical purpose, only their methods were altered according to the elixir field of the practitioner.

The Detachments could only be utilized once the cultivator who possessed the Scarlet Martial Elixir Field gained the comprehension of its martial body, martial soul, and martial spirit. A rare skill allowing them to detach their soul from their body, or their spirit from the body if needed in combat.

To the experts in this technique, it was said that if the body is greatly damaged, the cultivator can still save his life by creating a new vessel for his soul and spirit.

In terms of complexity, Detachments is indeed a difficult technique. However, at that time, Qiaolian utilized it with a simple thought: If the physical body is incapable, then, the martial soul can.

Qiaolian's consciousness wandered farther away, tracing the source of the Declination of Suffering until she saw a floating ribcage skeleton just a few meters away from her.

When she approached closer to the skeleton, its size shrunk to the size of a paddle and she noticed that its frame does not belong to a human... and there were 9 silk strings attached to it. It was a string instrument!

For a few seconds, she observed the weapon and realized that each time the water touched a string, it would send a wide, but invisible vibration to the air.

"Fortunately, I am in my martial soul right now. If not, I would not notice the vibrations it caused. But, where is the cultivator?"

There must be someone that used the invisible vibrations to trigger the Declination of Suffering technique!

However, weapons like this are used by martial cultivation practitioners. And it does not match the technique that afflicted Qiaolian. It had to be two different practitioners blending their techniques!

"H---Help! Come down!" a weak voice finally sounded.

Qiaolian then realized that the one she was trying to track down was probably trapped in the water.

"How unfortunate. You have picked the wrong person to help you! I never learned how to swim!"

A subtle smile suddenly crossed Qiaolian's face and her expression changed into a playful manner. "OHHH...? I think you've really made a mistake. In fact, you don't need help down there! It's just that you've picked the wrong person to trick! So, if you want me to guide you in some arts of deception, I might give you good advice."

"HAHAHAHA..." the weak voice suddenly laughed wildly. "It's enough that you came. Now, I can devour all the force in your inner core. I can finally attain good energy!"

Hearing this, Qiaolian also laughed, even much wilder than the owner of the weak voice.

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHA... How about you go to sleep and never wake up! At least, you can keep dreaming of devouring the force of my inner core!" In an instant, Qiaolian plucked two strings of the skeleton near her and created a repulsive vibration in the sea.

"You---"

"Me? Hahaha... Now it's clear to me... the owner of this skeleton must have a divine bloodline. It's the one who wants to sleep. But you've taken leverage of the sleep elements and used its bones to trigger the Declination of Suffering. These strings are probably a spiritual weapon of yours? Quite spectacular!"

"H-How did you--- Y-You cannot kill me!"

Qiaolian's chuckled, her thumb and index finger suddenly tweaked the same strings that she had plucked to create the repulsive vibration. This time, a zizzle of air flowed directly below the sea.

"You don't know this tune? It won't kill you. This is called Nightmare of Dreams. Let's see if you have the ability to use Declination of Suffering!"

In fact, when Huan Xue told her about the Tune of Calmness in Chaotic Seas, Qiaolian already knew about it.

There is a Tune of Calmness that is practiced by the cultivation world. And there is a Tune of Madness that was assumed to be lost.

And this Nightmare of Dreams was actually a technique under the Tune of Madness!

Qiaolian was just pretending not to know about the cultivation method to examine how far Huan Xue's understanding of cultivation techniques. It was for the same reason that she asked the question, "That's it?" to Huan Xue.

All along, her curiosity to learn the technique was nothing but fake. The Zhou Clan was once rendered top level experts at musical instrument talents!

However, Qiaolian was not also aware that there were crimson vine formations that had documented what she was doing. And Elder Xia was actually watching her use the string and activate the tune called Nightmare of Dreams!