Chapter 167 — Courting Death
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The Eternal Sleeper.
When Gao Yang heard those three words, he was not particularly surprised.
He had considered who or what force might come after him, and what kind of "unconventional" means they might employ. The scheming nobles of the royal capital would only dare to trip him up in secret; the royal family had no reason to oppose him for now; and beyond that, the Cecil family had no conflicts of interest with any power in the world—save for those cultists who were born to antagonize everyone.
And among the principal cult factions, the Eternal Sleeper was the most bizarre and unpredictable, and the most skilled in psychic heresies.
With curiosity, Gao Yang surveyed his surroundings once more. He could not help but marvel at the artistry of this "illusion." Everything in his field of vision seemed real—the towering magic towers, the colossal energy shield shrouding the imperial capital, the beam of the Deep Blue Well beside the city—none showed the slightest flaw of illusion. There was even genuine tactile sensation: the round table before him and the chair beneath him felt solid and real. Gao Yang had every reason to believe that the tea snacks on the table would taste of something if he put them in his mouth.
This was truly a world in which one could easily sink and lose oneself.
But the more real this world seemed, the more vigilant he grew.
So he controlled his expression, striving not to betray the slightest emotion as he remarked casually, "I've heard the Eternal Sleeper excels at crafting illusions and dreams, but this is my first personal encounter. I must say, your technique in this regard is superb."
"If people rely on so-called sight, touch, and smell to perceive the world's existence, then as long as these things are perfectly simulated, what difference remains between reality and illusion?" the white-robed figure said in that strange voice of indeterminate gender. "Compared to a fallen, darkened reality, isn't a perfect dream better?"
"But in this 'perfect' dream, isn't your attire a bit conspicuous, sir?" Gao Yang looked at the white-robed figure before him, finally unable to tolerate the other's outlandish getup and androgynous voice. "Whatever you wish to discuss with me, shouldn't you show your true face? And you still haven't introduced yourself—that hardly seems to conform to the etiquette of conversation."
"I am but a humble seeker of the Way. The Eternal Sleeper has no need of surnames or names. As for the so-called true face... that is indeed the sort of thing someone shackled to the real world would say," the white-robed figure said with a sigh, and his image suddenly began to change. The mask seemed to melt away like flowing water, but beneath it was a visage in constant flux, shifting even between the faces of men and women, old and young. "Pity that those bound to reality can never understand how great the dream of eternal sleep is. In this perfect world, the so-called appearance of an individual has become utterly meaningless. So which face do you think suits me better? This one... or this one?"
The white-robed figure's face kept changing, but every face bore mockery and contempt. Gao Yang merely watched in silence as he sculpted faces for himself, waiting half a minute before saying mildly, "Just keep cycling through them. Constant refreshment is quite nice."
The white-robed figure's face suddenly stopped changing, settling on the stern visage of a middle-aged man.
"It seems you have ample patience to while away the time with me. Unfortunately, I have run out of patience," the stern-faced middle-aged man finally stopped spouting nonsense. He stared straight into Gao Yang's eyes. "I called you to this place, sir, simply because I wish to learn one thing from you."
"What thing?"
"In those lost seas, what exactly did you see?"
Gao Yang's earlier composure had been partly performance, but his bewilderment now was genuine: "What did you say?"