Chapter 856 Waking Up from a Dream

Liu Dahu went to refill a waterskin of cool tea for his father, who was sleeping next to the main tent. The cool tea was made by boiling tea leaves with brown sugar and adding some mint. It tasted sweet and refreshing when cooled, and he would refill it for his father twice a day.

The Prince Consort didn’t drink much cool tea; to be precise, he didn’t have much of a sweet tooth.

The Prince Consort said that many people in Jinyuan were still living in hardship, and their lives weren't sweet enough yet, so he couldn’t swallow the sugar.

Liu Dahu believed this;

After all, who could resist the temptation of sugar?

Afterward, Liu Dahu tiptoed into the main tent;

Chen Xianba was sitting there, using the candlelight to review memorials. In fact, they had already been approved and would be sent out by messengers in the latter half of the night, but Chen Xianba would still review them again.

Liu Dahu brought Chen Xianba a plate of toasted bread slices and placed it in front of him.

Chen Xianba put down the memorials, made some room, picked up a bread slice, covered it with his hand, and took small, careful bites;

The toasted bread slices were crispy and easy to make noise when bitten, but the Prince Consort was sleeping behind the curtain, and he didn't want to make too much noise.

Originally, the bread slices were supposed to be spread with sauce, the kind of thick sauce that soldiers ate with their meals, but because it would have a strong smell, Liu Dahu didn't spread any on them.

Liu Dahu sat down, wiped his hands with the slightly damp cloth hanging from his waist, and carefully picked up the memorials to read.

He would read the questions and matters on the memorials, as well as Chen Xianba's replies, so he read very slowly.

In fact, Liu Dahu was handpicked by Zheng Fan to stay by his side as a personal guard not only because he was the Sword Saint's son;

Simply put, if you wanted to tie the Sword Saint to your side to protect you, and then kept his son by your side as well, at a critical moment, would the Sword Saint protect his son or the Prince of the West?

If he really wanted to promote him, he could have sent him to train under some general long ago.

He was kept by his side because Liu Dahu was reliable.

Calling him slow-witted depended on who you were comparing him to. Compared to Chen Xianba, a monstrous talent who could even suppress the light of the Prince of Northern Town, no one's child would seem smart.

But this kind of reliability was rare.

The Prince of the West had worried for a moment whether Chen Xianba would grow up and be able to stand on his own, would he develop rebellious thoughts?

But for Liu Dahu, the Prince Consort had never had the slightest doubt. As long as he was needed, this child would always stand in front of him with a knife.

Outside the main tent,

Zheng Man was already asleep, snoring.

On the other side of the curtain, the sleeping Prince of the West suddenly frowned.

At the same time, the red stone placed beside the bed stood up, and a black figure of a baby slowly emerged.

Mo Wan tilted his head,

Looking at his sleeping father,

Seemed very hesitant.

His father was dreaming, and it seemed like it wasn't a very good dream, but it had nothing to do with him; he wasn't the one who caused it.

Logically speaking, when someone is having a nightmare, you should wake him up, which is... "rescue him."

But Mo Wan knew better that with himself, this "born evil," always accompanying him, normal evil spirits or even chaotic emotions could hardly invade his father.

It was as if a barbarian from the snowy plains felt that even the winter was warm and gentle when spending it in Jinyuan.

So,

His father shouldn't be having nightmares;

Now that he was,

Could it be...

Mo Wan's personality was very violent, which was innate, but that didn't mean he was a simpleton;

A simpleton couldn't have secretly given his own father a "ghostly vasectomy" for several years.

Mo Wan tilted his body, seemingly looking at the two simpletons sitting outside.

One was a simpleton looking at the memorials very seriously,

The other was a simpleton eating bread slices with a surging blood energy that didn't seem so simple,

It seemed that these two were of no use at this time;

In the end,

Mo Wan didn't call anyone.

Instead, he floated to the bed,

Leaned down,

Stretched out his small hand,

And placed it on his father's forehead.

…

Am I dreaming?

Zheng Fan had already realized that he was dreaming. He was standing in a land of singing birds and fragrant flowers, surrounded by lush green grass and a sweet fragrance.

He remembered where he was and knew that he was currently at war and couldn't possibly be here, but when he raised his head and saw the figure sitting on the hillside with his back to him, Zheng Fan deliberately didn't let his consciousness forcefully break the dream.

Dreaming is like diving;

When you realize you're dreaming, the next thing that happens is probably being pushed to the surface by buoyancy, which is... waking up.

But some people are able to control the continuation of their dreams, and Zheng Fan, even more so.

This wasn't because Zheng Fan had anything extraordinary in terms of mental strength; the Blind Man was a mental strength user, but he wasn't;

The reason was that Mo Wan had possessed his body many times, which was essentially a way of forcibly stimulating the body with mental strength, because after each possession, Zheng Fan's strength still depended on himself, but Mo Wan could overlay his own combat experience and consciousness to achieve extraordinary results.

Anyone who was possessed by a ghost time and time again would inevitably undergo some changes, just like a river channel that was constantly impacted by floods would naturally widen.

Zheng Fan couldn't use mental strength now, but his mental strength was already terrifyingly resilient, at least in his own "consciousness," he could make more manipulations.

He took a step and began to walk toward the hillside.

The slope wasn't high, but it was tiring to walk up, and the air seemed to be getting thinner and thinner, and he began to pant.

But he still gritted his teeth and persevered, almost lifting his feet step by step;

Finally,

Zheng Fan reached the top of the slope.

Turned his face,

And looked at the person sitting on the hillside.

Coincidentally, that person also turned his head at this moment.

Zheng Fan saw... himself.

Yes,

The person sitting on the hillside looked exactly like him.

"Are you disappointed?"

Zheng Fan sat down, panting, and said:

"A little."

"Then who did you want to see?"

Zheng Fan didn't answer.

"I know, you wanted to see the Prince of Jingnan."

Zheng Fan still didn't answer.

"But this is your dream, your own dream."

Zheng Fan smiled and said, "So, in my dream, I can't even look at others?"

"What's the point? My face, of course, can turn into other people's appearances, the Prince of Jingnan's, the Prince of Northern Town's, the Late Emperor's, Ji Lao Liu's;

Even,

Si Niang's, Xiong Liqing's, Liu Ruqing's, even, the Consort of the Prince of Blessing, all are possible.

Do you want to see them?

But what's the point if you see them?

Essentially, what you see is still me, still yourself, it's just a change of skin. In your own dream, don't deceive yourself."

"Am I being lectured by myself in my own dream?"

"Is that strange? The words I say are the words you say. You're actually talking to yourself. I'm just a part of you."

"This conversation is too clichéd. If you keep saying that you're my inner demon, another me that has split off, I'm really going to puke."

"You're just a martial artist, where would you get an inner demon? Are you worthy?"

"Fuck!"

"Only in the beginning, in the desert conscript camp, when A Cheng and San'er caught a few fish and you practiced with them, the first time you killed someone, you were absent-minded for a few moments.

But do you remember,

After the barbarian's blood splattered on your face, you even licked it. You probably thought that blood tasted pretty good at the time.

The first time you killed someone, you always felt like you suddenly became a man.

The first time you were absent-minded was nothing more than on the night when Tian Wujing annihilated his entire family, but you weren't surprised by the dead people. What haunted you was Tian Wujing's words: From my Tian family onward.

After that, your path was actually pretty smooth.

After all, you have seven demon kings by your side.

Even if they were assisting a pig, they could still assist it to success."

"Are you sick?"

"Are you getting anxious? Why be anxious? What I'm saying is actually what you're thinking. Of course, you're much, much better than a pig.

In fact, you're already very powerful and very outstanding. Look back at the you in the Huto City Inn, and then look at the you now. Look back at the relationship between you and those demon kings in the past, and then look at the relationship between you now.

You have increasingly mastered the initiative and are gradually beginning to truly, meaningfully become their master.

The demon kings

Are all preparing to get pregnant and bear children for you."

"I don't believe that's what I really think about Si Niang."

"Do I need to lie to you? Do I need to lie to myself? When Si Niang said she wanted to bear a child for you, what you felt more of was actually the sense of accomplishment from a man's desire to conquer."

"I'm not doing this dream anymore. For the first time, I feel like I'm an idiot."

"Where can a person's heart really be clean? Even children, who seem pure, how cruel are they when they play with ants on the ground?

Facing your inner self is indeed painful;

Because often, you simply can't discover that your inner self actually hides so much filth.

But what you think in your heart is actually secondary. It's about what you're actually doing.

You've always done very well, really;

Also, you're sincere to Si Niang, but you're much less sincere to the other women.

Also, recently, with that Consort of the Prince of Blessing, when she suggested that Zhao Yuan be made to wait outside, you actually had a kind of eager to try impulse in your heart, which is more so than anything else…”

"Shut up!"

"I understand how you feel. Think about it, it feels completely different to suddenly have another person say this to you, even if this person is also you, right?

It's like a sketch drawn from your own photo. When you stare at it, you'll feel more and more unfamiliar.

Just like when you used to draw the *Mo Wan* comic, in a plot you wrote,

When Mo Wan looked at himself in the mirror,

He felt a kind of... fear."

Just then,

A cloud of dark clouds appeared in the sky, and then, the face of a baby emerged.

Mo Wan,

Came in;

He saw the two people sitting on the hillside,

Then,

Mo Wan got angry.

Immediately afterward,

Mo Wan left.

He thought something terrible had happened to his damned father,

But it turned out that his father was just playing with himself,

And by the way,

Scared his son quite a bit.

Mo Wan was angry,

So he went back.

"So, why am I having this dream?" Zheng Fan asked.

"Because you have doubts and fears. This is the first time you've officially led so many troops as a general to go on an expedition.

There's no Prince of Jingnan, and no Liang Cheng.

When you set off, you were actually a little flustered. You were afraid that you were too confident;

Because you've won so many, many times, you can't afford to lose.

What you can't afford to lose is never Yan, but yourself.

This is your second life, and it's a life you want to cherish and live well. You don't want to have any stains in this life.

In Zhao and Liang, facing the cowardly Qian-Chu allied forces, you actually don't have any way to break the deadlock. Even if you seem to have everything under control, you're actually very anxious.

So,

You chose the path you used to take most often,

You led a lone army deep into Qian, wanting to achieve your goal in a way that you're most accustomed to. However, in the past, the Prince of Jingnan was there to back you up, but this time, he's gone.

You're afraid,

You feel that this journey into Qian is too easy. You seem to have calculated everything, and the Qian people seem to have been led by the nose by you all along.

Now,

To your north,

An old man in his eighties is leading tens of thousands of rabble to try to stop you. You think it's a joke.

After you defeat him, you'll march south and soon be able to descend on Shangjing again.

It's too smooth, it's really too smooth. You're starting to feel anxious and uneasy. The closer you get to winning, the more afraid you are of a sudden collapse."

"Yes, I admit it. So, can you tell me what to do?"

"You are me, and I am you. How could I know something you don't know?"

"Ask your inner self, isn't that the eternal and supreme answer? Follow the reflection of your inner self and let your inner self guide you in the direction you should go.

Aren't you my inner self?"

"A useless, plaster-like answer;

You obviously don't believe it, so why are you asking me?"

"So, you pulled me in..."

"No, it's what you needed. It's that you need yourself to be able to peel yourself away and think it over and weigh it carefully.

You needed this scene, so this scene appeared. You needed this dream, so this dream appeared.

Otherwise,

With Mo Wan by your side, how could you possibly fall into a nightmare?

Oh,

That's right,

You also noticed just now that Mo Wan came in and left angrily again.

In his view, you're just bored and playing with yourself.

Your anxiety has turned into this dream. Before you fell asleep, you were thinking, if Lao Tian were leading the army at this time, would he be like you are now?

Whether, under his eternally calm expression, he had ever been uneasy?

Do you see the old Tian of the past like Chen Xianba and Liu Dahu see you now?

It's too real, but it's also too fake.

You want to dream back to the scene on Tianhu Mountain one more time in this dream. You even want Lao Tian to take you down the mountain path again.

But you also feel that doing so would make you seem too childish. More importantly, you don't want to do these fantasies that won't help in reality.

The path has to be forged by oneself. In the past, you could cross the river by touching the shoulders of those in front of you, but now, it's your turn to put your hands under the water and personally feel for the stones."

"I don't know if I should trust my intuition."

"Trust your intuition, and if you win, it's the victory of intuition; if you don't trust your intuition and win in the end, it's the victory of rationality, the victory of curbing desire."

Zheng Fan nodded,

His gaze,

Looking down the hillside,

One side of the hillside was lush with green grass, but the other side, the one in front of him, was littered with corpses and rivers of blood.

On a pile of corpses,

Zheng Fan saw Li Fusheng, covered in blood, standing there with a large saber propped up;

His gaze also turned here, making eye contact with him.

Li Fusheng was probably smiling;

Heh heh...

When Zheng Fan turned his head to look at his side again, he found that the "himself" had disappeared.

Looking down,

He saw that "himself" was standing in front of Li Fusheng.

Zheng Fan got up and started walking down.

The downhill path was much easier than the uphill path. He quickly walked down, and the mountain of corpses and sea of blood was probably a hellish nightmare for ordinary people, but Zheng Fan had long been accustomed to it.

He climbed up the pile of corpses,

And stood in front of Li Fusheng.

Li Fusheng seemed frozen, or already dead.

Zheng Fan looked at "himself" and asked, "Then what?"

"This is your heart knot."

"I know."

"Not just his death."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a saying, 'Take history as a mirror.' Your unease comes from this.

Since leading the army into Qian, everything has been smooth, but in your heart, you have asked yourself a question countless times...

The question is,

When Li Fusheng left Nanmen Pass, was his mentality exactly the same as yours now?

Then what?"

"I shouldn't have asked you."

"Yes, I can't answer you either."

Zheng Fan nodded and said, "I can ask him."

"Mm."

Zheng Fan looked at Li Fusheng,

At this time,

The wind started to blow, and Li Fusheng's lips and expression also changed,

He propped up his saber,

And shouted:

"Old Brother Zheng, I really enjoyed killing this time!"

Zheng Fan still stood in front of Li Fusheng, watching calmly.

This was not a soul-summoning, nor was it a sacrifice. The Li Fusheng in front of him was actually exactly the same as the other "himself."

He,

Was exploring the root of his unease deep in his heart, and at the same time, analyzing the essence of this unease.

After Li Fusheng shouted these words,

He paused,

His body staggered slightly, but he managed to maintain his balance:

"The Qian people are still the Qian people, still that group of pigs, but I, your old brother, was actually forced into a dead end by this group of pigs."

The next moment,

Li Fusheng suddenly raised his head,

Stared at Zheng Fan standing in front of him,

And let out a low shout:

"Old Brother Zheng, don't repeat my mistakes!"

Buzz!

…

The Prince of the West suddenly sat up from the blanket. Beside him, the red stone swayed a few times, probably meaning: Have you finished playing?

Perhaps, in Mo Wan's view, being immersed in one's own dream but deliberately not waking up was a very childish thing.

Zheng Fan reached out,

And touched his face,

But there wasn't the exaggerated cold sweat.

After all, this wasn't a nightmare.

The sound of him getting up startled Chen Xianba and Liu Dahu outside. They immediately walked over. They didn't expect that the Prince Consort would suddenly wake up from a dream. They only thought that the Prince Consort had woken up naturally, so they made the corresponding preparations to serve the Prince Consort to get up.

When marching and fighting, having irregular rest was a very normal thing.

Liu Dahu brought tea, while Chen Xianba brought a basin and towel.

Zheng Fan didn't take the tea,

But used the towel to heavily wipe his face a few times, and then, threw the towel into the basin.

Zheng Fan licked his lips,

And said;

"Xianba."

"Your Highness?"

"We've been, set up."