Chapter 99: The Dreamweaver

“Wen Shuqing! I see you, don’t hide!” Yang Wennan’s voice was almost a roar.

Wen Shuqing—who exactly was he?

Originally, he had been a disciple under Shan Hongxing, entering the Xuan Yun Sect on the same day as Yang Wennan. The two had even collaborated within the Illusory Realm but eventually got separated.

One day, on a whim, Yang Wennan went to Feng Lei Peak to call out to Shan. All of Shan Hongxing’s disciples got roughed up that day. Young and headstrong, none were willing to back down. Afterwards, Wen Shuqing privately challenged him to a few bouts.

Private duels among disciples, if witnessed by no one, were strictly forbidden by sect regulations.

Normally, such private matters would be quietly settled. But Wen Shuqing lost repeatedly and then brought a group to cause trouble for Yang Wennan.

Had this happened to anyone else, it might have passed unnoticed. But Yang Wennan was a disciple of Wen Jinge, and he also had a troublesome junior sister who loitered and freeloaded everywhere.

Once the matter was exposed, Wen Shuqing’s habit of picking fights came to light, leading Shan Hongxing to sever their master-disciple relationship. Even the peak master refused to accept him; so the outer mountains dared not take him in either, and he was expelled from the Xuan Yun Sect.

Although the cave was visible, the lighting was poor. Yang Wennan wouldn’t have recognized Wen Shuqing if not for one thing: his leg had been injured by Yang Wennan himself. Such a distinctive trait made it undeniable. If he couldn’t recognize him, he would truly be unworthy of his master’s teachings.

“Why are you here, Wen Shuqing? Speak clearly! Did you arrange everything here?”

“Wen Shuqing!” A sinister voice echoed from the other side of the cave, like a demon’s whisper. “So that’s my name, huh!”

Yang Wennan furrowed his brows and shook his face.

A spider had crawled onto it.

“I’m called that name!” Wen Shuqing raved wildly. “Oh, let me think… I do know you guys. You’re called—what’s your name again?”

A shadowy figure emerged from the darkness, clad in a black cloak. Only when approaching Yang Wennan did he pull back his hood, revealing his face.

Yang Wennan remembered Wen Shuqing as belligerent and competitive, with a somewhat effeminate appearance.

At first, when they faced off on the martial stage, he had told him he didn’t fight against female disciples. Even during their cooperation in the Illusory Realm, he had assumed Wen Shuqing was a girl.

But now, Wen Shuqing’s face glowed with a faint green light, covered in pustules that bubbled like scalding water—disgusting.

“Look at me! How am I supposed to look like Wen Shuqing? Huh?” He grabbed Yang Wennan’s throat. The spider seemed afraid of him; as soon as his hand reached out, it scurried away as if fleeing a deadlier poison.

“Yang Wennan, it’s all because of you!”

“It’s got nothing to do with me!” Yang Wennan shouted back. “If it were up to me, you wouldn’t be living so comfortably!”

“Oh?” Wen Shuqing seemed stunned.

He lifted his head, a wicked grin curling on his face. “You made me get expelled from the sect. Isn’t that miserable enough? Just because you’re Wen Jinge’s disciple? Why should that matter?”

Wen Shuqing chuckled as if recalling something amusing. “You know? I was originally heading for the Wan Zhang Peak, but because of you people meddling, I couldn’t go. Had to settle for Feng Lei Peak instead. I thought I still had a bright future, but then you…”

“Hehehehe… Yang Wennan, tell me—have you become the person you hate most? I heard you were driven out by Jian Ting and his brothers, and now you’re doing the same to me…”

“Yang Wennan, do you ever feel afraid in the dead of night?”

“Hahaha… Afraid I’ll come and take your miserable life? Hm?”

“Did you ever expect this day to come?”

Yang Wennan let him rant and wildly express himself. The closer Wen Shuqing got, the safer Yang Wennan felt.

The diligent spider had fled, perhaps a trick of his mind, but with it gone, the webs binding his feet seemed to loosen.

He looked up at the pitiful man. “We are not the same.”

“How aren’t we the same?” Wen Shuqing punched Yang Wennan’s face. “Tell me! How aren’t we the same? What makes me worse than you, a crude brute? You’re just jealous of me!”

“True jealousy means striving to improve oneself, hoping one day to surpass the other, not endlessly complaining about one’s life. I have my own path to walk. Yours is none of my concern,” Yang Wennan sighed. “These are lessons I learned from my master.”

He smiled bitterly. “I suppose even my master would be surprised to hear that. Many in the sect envy him, but none dare lay a finger on him. Wen Shuqing, I don’t know how you became what you are now, but it seems you’ve consorted with the demon clan.”

“Ah, yes! The Demon Clan’s Saint Son! What a formidable figure!”

Yang Wennan’s heart sank. So he hadn’t come to the wrong place—the Saint Son truly was here.

Since his master wasn’t here, he must be close to finding the direction.

Click, click.

The cocoons on the ground were still breaking open. The little spiders hurriedly avoided this side, retreating hastily.

“Wen Shuqing, truly strong people don’t waste time on trivial distractions or seek paths that lead nowhere. You once wanted to follow our master—why change your mind? Our master recently took on another junior disciple.”

“Another one?” Wen Shuqing smiled bitterly, gripping his sword. “I was counting on threatening Master Wen with you, but it seems I won’t need you after all.”

He glanced toward two people still trapped within a cocoon. “One of them is your senior brother, right? My cultivation is limited now, so I can only deal with you.”

Wen Shuqing brandished his sword. “Remember this move? It’s how I lost to you and got crippled. Today, I’ll return the favor!”

“One last thing—did you break the chain between me and my master?”

“Something like that.”

“Good. Let’s begin.” Yang Wennan lay still in the cocoon, holding a small spider that hadn’t yet escaped. It bit his fingertip.

He had only seen this move in his master’s hand scroll. These spiders were no ordinary creatures—they were dreamweavers, essential for completing certain tasks.

Dreamweavers differed from normal spiders. When Yang Wennan opened his eyes, the spiders had human faces, but when he closed them, they appeared as ordinary spiders.

He trusted his heart’s vision more than his eyes.

Both the Great Master and the Buddha of Sorrow and Joy had fallen into dreams crafted by these dreamweavers. These creatures were fragments of the demon clan’s residual consciousness, able to enter dreams and feed on a person’s essence through their cocoons. Prolonged entrapment could slowly kill the victim.

Now, he needed such a dreamweaver—not to enter a dream himself, but to transform himself into one.