Chapter 932 — Taking the Initiative
Blade of Dawn · Page 4 of 4
Luo Yan lifted his head. The familiar objects of the study were swiftly changing shape, and certain ancient, stale phantoms long since vanished from history were overlaying the furnishings he knew so well. Rustling whispers and light laughter, their source impossible to trace, rose from every side, as though a banquet were being held just beyond the study's wall, the guests' merry voices carrying through the wall and through some balcony; it even seemed that guests had already passed through the wall into this very room and were murmuring something at Luo Yan's ear.
Luo Yan ignored these phantom sounds entirely, gazing quietly toward the door. In the next instant, the laughter and whispers vanished all at once.
Beyond the firmly shut study door, out in the corridor, a shuffling footstep—as though dragging something heavy—suddenly sounded after the whispers died away, and seemed to draw a little nearer.
The next second, a knock came from the direction of the study door.
Luo Yan made no reply, and the knocking continued with great patience.
It knocked for a long while, so long that time itself seemed about to stand still in that eternal dusk, before Luo Yan broke the silence: "You can keep knocking, or do you expect to break this door down by knocking?"
The knocking stopped abruptly. After a few seconds of deathly stillness, a voice—low, as though countless voices blended into one—came from beyond the door: "The strength of your mind truly is astonishing... countless times I thought you were about to collapse, and yet you are still yourself..."
"Astonishing?" Luo Yan shook his head. "But you are not a man."
"What a meaningless detail," said the voice outside the door. "I dislike details. So let us get to the point... why did you enter this dream of your own accord? That is a rather rare occurrence."
"I suddenly grew curious about certain things, and in the world of mortals I could find no answers—perhaps you would care to answer something?"
Hardly had his words fallen than an uncanny atmosphere abruptly filled the whole dream-space, an atmosphere that seemed to mingle surprise and delight, while countless sensations of being watched pressed in from every direction. It was as though deep within this dream, among those ancient corridors of memory, halls, and courtyards, the eyes of innumerable "guests" had all been drawn in an instant and were now fixed coldly upon the place where Luo Yan Augustus stood.
In the study before Luo Yan's eyes, the wall that had hung with an ordinary decorative oil painting suddenly rippled like the surface of water; the ornamental painting was swallowed by the wall and then spat out again, and the image upon it had become the likeness of Marjorie Augustus.
"Ah, my dear son, have you finally decided to return to our great family?"
Then Marjorie became George Augustus: "This is truly a day worth celebrating!"
"You celebrate a little too early," Luo Yan said, casting the oil painting a cold glance. "Keep quiet over there."
The figure swaying to and fro on the canvas blurred at once, and the low, overlapping voice beyond the study door gave a soft laugh: "So full of confidence—yet seeking knowledge from the gods is no simple matter... But be that as it may, I am rather willing.
"Ask, then. I am glad to answer any question—so long as you dare to hear it."