Seizing Dreams

He collapsed weakly onto his bed. Before he closed his eyes, he looked at the alarm clock.

11.50.

There was the glowing golden light again, and this time, Yu Hao could sense it more clearly than before. His body floated off the ground, then he flew towards the blazing sun in the sky. Within a blink of an eye, he had rushed straight into the sun.

The sound of destruction and decay blared; the world around him spun round and round as it was accompanied by General’s angry roar.

General, “Why are you back again?! Couldn’t you have waited a day......”

The next moment, the tentacles surrounding the sea monster had entwined around the two of them, and the first thing it tried to do was to ruthlessly stuff Yu Hao into its huge mouth filled with sharp teeth!

Yu Hao couldn’t react in time, but he suddenly felt like his whole body had begun to shine as a warm current coursed through his entire body.

General’s eyes widened as he wore a bewildered expression on his face.

One could only see beams of bright light burst out in all directions from within the clump of tentacles that was covering Yu Hao, and amongst a background of blasting noises, the flickering white lights blew up the tentacles that were entwined around Yu Hao into bits! Above the lighthouse in the distance, the demonic eye let out a loud roar and released an indigo light beam that was shot straight towards Yu Hao!

Wherever the beam swept through, all the debris in its path would be covered with a solid layer of ice. General shouted,

“Be careful——!”

The beam swept towards Yu Hao; Yu Hao felt a tremendous energy bubbling within his body that wanted to burst through his back and gush out — a loud blare sounded as he shook out two bright wings that fluttered open from his back.

The Archangel had arrived!

Sacred Christmas songs rang out from the sky, and the faint ringing of a bell could be heard in the distance.

Dang——dang——dang——the real world was counting down!

At this moment, everyone who was sleeping could hear the ringing of the Christmas Eve countdown bell.

Yu Hao was floating in mid-air. He stretched his right arm out to summon his staff before dismantling it into two knives; he pointed one knife at the sky and the other at the ground, then used them to draw an outline of a full moon wheel!

The beam shot towards him and collided with his full moon wheel; their collision triggered a snow hurricane that made a clean sweep of all the houses within a ten metre radius and instantly crushed them into smithereens!

“Haaaahhh——!” Streaks of lightning crackled around Yu Hao as he circled one round in the air, then he swept across the tentacles that were entangling General and cut them all off one after the other!

General broke free of his constraints and fell to the ground, then climbed back up with much difficulty. As Yu Hao glided down, he withdrew his wings. General said, “You’re really something! You’re the Messiah?! Kill it!!”

“This-this, I don’t really know how to use this power!” Yu Hao brandished his two long knives to deal with the increasing number of tentacles that were swinging toward the two of them.

General, “Don’t you already have wings?”

“But I can’t control them!”

“Consciousness! Use your consciousness to mobilize your power! Then send that power out!”

When Yu Hao used that first move to resist the beam from the demonic eyes, he had relied solely on a conditioned reflex — it was an action he had done in complete haste. Even though he couldn’t use it anymore, he always felt like there was a warm current and holy light whirling around in both his hands, but he just couldn’t send them out.

When the sea monster got injured, it suddenly went crazy and began to randomly bombard its surroundings with its tentacles; the havoc it caused smashed the villages around it to bits. Yu Hao and General instantly fled in a panic as they tried to find a place to hide.

General shouted, “Don’t be scared! Recall your dreamscape! Trust me ——!”

Yu Hao, “Again?! You’re kidding right?!”

General shouted, “Hurry!”

“I......I do want to give it all to you! But how?!” Yu Hao felt like a white flame had begun blazing in his chest and was pulsating wildly at the moment. The energy in this dreamscape had created a whirlpool with him at the centre as it surged uncontrollably into his body, but this energy was overfilling his body to the point where it was about to burst!

General had just taken a step forward when he suddenly stopped. He stood in front of Yu Hao with his back facing him and wielded his sword with both his hands, then shouted, “Press your hands on my back, then transfer your power over——!”

The huge sea monster had risen up again; under the illumination of the light from the demonic eyes, all its tentacles were reviving one after the other. It let out a loud roar before sending its tentacles hurtling toward them.

Yu Hao circulated the energy in his body, and oddly enough, a glaring light burst forth from both his hands which he pressed onto General’s back——

General had brandished his weapon and was about to rush over when he received this energy. There was a sudden faint pop, and like a cork that jumped out of a wine bottle, the golden circlet on his forehead was lightly flicked off.

General, “???”

Yu Hao, “?”

The sea monster opened its mouth full of sharp teeth, bowed slightly and dove towards the ground! It swallowed up all the snow around it as it rushed towards them with a loud rumble, ready to devour the two!

“Hurry!” Yu Hao shouted, “We’re going to die!!”

General subconsciously grabbed the golden circlet and with a buzz, the golden circlet shot out two glaring beams of light on both its right and left sides, then it turned into a giant stick that he held horizontally in his hand!

“Ding, hai, shen, zhen——!”

In the twinkling of an eye, the huge monkey had let out an angry roar while Yu Hao took a quick step back; General grabbed his ruyi jingubang and wielded it with both his hands, his ruyi jingubang instantly elongated until it was about ten metres long while this rod had become as thick as a giant tree trunk. This one rod stirred up the heavens and the earth as it swept across the mountain ranges, and with the irresistible force of a thunderbolt, it smashed down on the sea monster!

There were hurricanes whirling with snow and crushed ice everywhere. Yu Hao couldn’t even see what had happened; he only heard the sound of a loud explosion and had felt the earth reverberate violently before they got caught up in a strong wind that blew them away. With one slam of the Great Sage’s1 rod, the sea monster had been smashed into a pool of mud; its entire body exploded and black juices spewed out in all directions which dyed the snowfield within a thirty square metre radius entirely black.

Yu Hao couldn’t stop gasping for breath. General withdrew his ruyi jingubang and turned it into a rod as long as a shaolin cudgel2. His red cloak flapped noisily in the wind, and his whole body was glowing with a golden glimmer. A golden hoop appeared around his neck while his chest was now covered with a heavy scale armour, and his tattered martial clothing had somehow been repaired automatically. General was clad from head to toe in a resplendent, golden Great Sage chainmail!

This huge monkey turned sideways with a provocative look on his face. He placed his ruyi jingubang on one shoulder with his right hand, then with his left hand, he beckoned the demonic eyes above the lighthouse in the distance.

“Bring it on!”

Yu Hao was standing behind him as he thought, so damn cool......

Then, the demonic eye trembled before it let out a mad roar. All the ice within a 10-mile radius of the seafront shattered within an instant; the black sea surged up and formed a tsunami that was nearly five metres high.

Yu Hao, “......”

General, “......”

Within the tsunami, almost ten sea monsters similar to the one they encountered before rushed to the fore and leaped out!

Yu Hao, “No way!! So many of them?!”

“Stop fighting! Follow me!” A girl’s voice shouted.

One human and one monkey abruptly turned their heads and saw several white reindeers rush over. General said, “The master3? Let’s go!”

Yu Hao and General mounted the reindeer; the reindeer herd scattered in all directions to lure the sea monsters that had rushed over away. Yu Hao could only hear the whirring of the wind in his ears as a snowstorm was raging all around them and they couldn’t tell where they were going. More and more reindeer rushed along the seaside villages and scattered themselves amongst the villages to divert the sea monster herd’s attention. Dozens of sea monsters wreaked havoc in the coastal villages, while the two reindeer who were carrying Yu Hao and General rushed into an inconspicuous village one after the other. They slammed into the door of a woodshed and rushed inside.

Their surroundings instantly plunged into darkness; a yellow light was shining at the end of this darkness which lit up a slanted passage that lead underground. The reindeers gradually slowed down as they made their way into a small room.

There was a warm fireplace in this small room, as well as a bed. The bedside was filled with display shelves which was stocked full of comic books. A little girl sat on the bed — it was Shi Ni, and a beautiful reindeer was lying near the bottom of the bed.

Yu Hao had finally found a warm place in this bitterly cold world, it’s just that he didn’t expect to arrive at Shi Ni’s inner safe haven in such a way. When he looked around the room, he had a hunch that this place might be Xiaoxiao’s bedroom.

But he didn’t know why Xiaoxiao would take the form of a reindeer.

Shi Ni looked a bit bewildered as she looked up at the two of them. She had a very beautiful and delicate appearance, and looked just like a princess who was waiting in her attic.

“Nini?” Yu Hao said.

“Hello......” Shi Ni hesitated a bit before she said, “Great Sage and......Christ.”

“I say...” General casually picked up a comic book and flipped through it — they were all shoujo mangas — before he placed it back.

“My strength is weakening.” The reindeer actually spoke, and Yu Hao remembered that this was Xiaoxiao’s voice.

“I know.” Yu Hao said, “This safe haven will disappear tomorrow, right? Because you’re going to......”

General immediately made an almost imperceptible “shh” gesture to motion that he would talk instead.

Shi Ni put down the comic book in her hands and got off her bed. She looked uneasily at General and Yu Hao.

“I will bring her to her totem.” General stated.

“What’s a totem?” Shi Ni asked with a confused expression.

“A totem is the most important thing in your heart.” General said, “It is the cornerstone of this world and the source of your strength. Do you want to seize back this world?”

Shi Ni looked at the reindeer, then she looked back at General and said, “After I get it back, will everything return to normal?”

General nodded and said, “Yes.”

“You must be brave.” The reindeer said in a gentle voice, “Nini.”

Shi Ni’s gaze passed by General and landed upon Yu Hao. Yu Hao smiled and said, “Nini, we will protect you. We will protect you all the way until you get your totem back and become yourself again.”

Shi Ni said, “I trust you, Christ.”

Yu Hao, “Don’t call me Christ. Only you can truly save yourself.”

“Ai.” General was displeased, “What about me, the Monkey King? The first person you summoned here was me you know?”

Shi Ni asked curiously, “Who are you?”

General could only wave his hand and said, “Forget it.”

Those words had suddenly tugged on Yu Hao’s heartstrings, and made his previous vague conjecture a little clearer.

However, right at this moment, the ground far above them began to tremble violently.

Shi Ni immediately looked up in terror.

“Don’t be afraid.” General said to Shi Ni, “For tonight, this place is absolutely safe.”

“Let’s go out to take a look.” Yu Hao explained.

“When we meet again tomorrow, I will come and pick you up.” General said to Shi Ni again before he left the safe haven with Yu Hao, then they closed the small underground door.

The overhead passage kept quaking, and the dirt overhead shook off with a rustle and fell to the ground.

“What will happen if the safe haven disappears?” Yu Hao said.

“In a normal conscious world, there are no safe havens.” General was walking in front as he ignored the impending crisis, “It’s only when the conscious world is in turmoil that a safe haven will be created by the owner.”

Yu Hao asked again, “Then will she create a new safe haven?”

General said, “Un, maybe. But don’t tell her too much. Not everyone can accept these things like you did.”

Yu Hao frowned as he said, “But she’ll remember when she wakes up.”

General said, “She’ll forget it soon enough. If you don’t believe me, just think about it. Aside from a few events that are linked to the real world and the key points that had left a deep impression on you, how much of your own dream can you remember?”

The moment Yu Hao thought about it, he realised that General was right. He couldn’t even remember what had happened in his dream clearly. If he hadn’t come into Shi Ni’s dream with General again, then in a few years time, there would probably only be a few fragments of their fortuitous encounter left in his memory: the meandering Great Wall, the black dragon that circled in the sky, the iron man clad in a suit of armour......

......if he had recalled it a few years later, Yu Hao probably would have subconsciously given himself a reasonable explanation for his dream —— when he was 18, his life was filled with despair and he had been driven to desperation, so he had a strange dream one night, and when he woke up again, the light from the sun gradually returned to his life again.

Would it be the same for Shi Ni? Perhaps she would think that after she was woken up by Yu Hao on Christmas Eve and went back to sleep again, she had a dream that was related to Yu Hao. The phrase “one dreams at night what one thinks of in the day” would thus be the most apt explanation for such an occurrence. But how would she explain General’s existence in her dream?

Yu Hao looked at General’s back. This huge monkey was walking in front of him as he dragged his Dinghaishenzhen along, and he had to bend over as he walked to avoid knocking his head into the apex of the passageway. His irritated look was a bit amusing.

“May I ask you a question?”

“Why do you have so many questions?”

General turned around and looked at Yu Hao helplessly as he scratched his neck. Yu Hao laughed and moved forward to observe his Jingubang.

“Why will the Jingubang......”

“It came from your conscious world and is a part of your totem. When I took it from you, it might have lacked some sort of activation mechanism.”

“But shouldn’t its original form be a shield?” Yu Hao asked.

“Who knows?” The huge monkey shrugged indifferently, “I don’t know how these symbols in the dream world operate. It’s just that I’ve seen a lot, so most of my knowledge is based off my own conjectures.”

Yu Hao realised something and said, “Your personality seems to have changed a little compared to when we first met, is it because of the dreamscape’s owner?”

General subconsciously looked at Yu Hao and said, “Maybe. After I turned into a monkey, I always seem to speak like a monkey without realising it. I scolded you a few times right? Are you angry?”

“Nope.”

“I’m a little anxious.”

“What are you anxious about?”

Yu Hao and General pushed the door open together and returned to the surface, and within an instant, Yu Hao had seen an incomparably terrifying scene! They were only surrounded by a vast expanse of water, and the world had undergone another huge change. The sea monsters had found the safe haven and were currently attacking the barrier around this woodshed one after the other!

General raised one hand and said, “They can’t get in.”

Their surroundings had already turned into a winter apocalypse. The sea monsters roared in the sea; raging waves were tossing about, and the tsunami had destroyed almost all of the villages’ houses along the coastline. Only this small, lone island was left amidst the boundless body of water — it looked just like a large-scale maritime disaster scene with no end in sight.

General, “This dreamscape is filled with so much despair that it’s affecting my mood to a certain extent.”

“Tomorrow night?” Yu Hao stared at the sea monsters in front of them vigilantly.

“Tomorrow night.” General said, “You still need to work a little harder in the real world.”

Yu Hao, “Is it because you wanted to help me that you......”

General, “Good night.”

Within that apocalyptic scene, the huge monkey suddenly smiled. The smile had appeared on a monkey’s face, yet Yu Hao thought it made him look very handsome and his heart began to jump wildly within an instant.

General didn’t wait for Yu Hao to finish asking his question before he stretched his palm out and pressed it against his face. Yu Hao’s soul was instantly ejected from Shi Ni’s dreamscape.

Yu Hao suddenly opened his eyes underneath the glow of the sun. Remnants of the sensation of his palpitating heart remained in his consciousness, and as it accompanied the warmth of his blanket as well as the feeling of waking up on a winter morning, it made him feel extremely happy.

“Fuck! It’s already 10?!”

Yu Hao got up and kept Zhou Sheng’s clothes, then went to his dormitory to find him. No one answered the door after he knocked for half a day. When Yu Hao was about to call him, he received Zhou Sheng’s message.

【Get one breakfast set and come to the field.】

After Zhou Sheng finished his ten-mile morning run on a wet field, he sat side by side with Yu Hao next to the field and began to wolf down his breakfast. He listened to Yu Hao narrate a rough overview of the entire story, and Yu Hao was afraid that he would suddenly curse Mr. Shi so he had prepared himself to be splashed with rice noodles.

But unexpectedly, Zhou Sheng only patiently listened to his story before saying, “When will her father come back?”

“At the very least, she’ll be safe for today.”

“We can’t afford any further delays.” Zhou Sheng cleaned up his trash and threw them away before he said, “Let’s leave after I take a bath, we need to call the police immediately. I have Huang Ting’s number so I’ll call him, you go and contact Nini.”

1. Full title is Great Sage, Equal of Heaven which is the Monkey King’s title↩

2. its English translation is Shaolin Cudgel Level with Eyebrow...... which is a very literal translation....I found a nice pic of it here:

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3. The term here used was for the real monarch of a country↩