Chapter 57 - Nightmare Beast

The night was draped in an eerie veil. The woman’s song grew increasingly suffocating.

Inside the main hall, Xu Zimo smiled at Steward Hu, then drew the broadsword on his back, Shadow Tyrant, and stabbed himself in the abdomen.

The curved blade pierced his body, but instead of the expected gush of blood, Xu Zimo's entire figure began to fade and become illusory.

Little Gui and the others exchanged glances and swallowed hard.

“Just suicide, what’s there to be afraid of?” Lin Ruhu muttered, then grabbed a blade and stabbed himself as well.

Steward Hu and Little Gui, seeing this, nodded to each other, gritted their teeth, and followed suit.

The four of them collapsed silently in the hall. The night deepened, and the flickering lamplight nearby began to dim and waver.

There was no pain as the blade entered.

Xu Zimo and the others simply felt the scenery around them distort. The image of the main hall twisted and warped.

When their vision cleared again, they found themselves sitting at the dining table in the side hall.

Leftover food still sat on the table, with the smell of fish lingering in the air.

“What is this?” Steward Hu asked in confusion.

He distinctly remembered that after dinner, the servants had cleared the table, and they had all gone to the main hall.

Standing up, he noticed that the only two remaining servants of the Hu estate were standing by the door of the side hall.

Both had their eyes closed.

Steward Hu patted their shoulders hard, no reaction. They were breathing steadily, like they were just asleep.

Seeing everyone’s confused expressions, Xu Zimo stood and smiled.

“The darkness has come. The whole town has been pulled into a dream world. Before dawn breaks, everyone will return to reality from the dream.”

“You’re saying... everything that just happened, even our suicides, was all a dream?” Steward Hu asked, visibly shaken.

“Light dream states can be broken by fright,” Xu Zimo explained. “But deep dream states… you can’t escape unless you commit suicide inside the dream.”

“I get it now! That explains Wang Tao’s death!” Little Gui’s eyes lit up. “That night when they were ‘patrolling’ the Hu estate, they were actually inside a dream. In reality, they’d all already fallen asleep, helpless as lambs to the slaughter. No wonder by the time morning came and the dream collapsed, Wang Tao had been dead for six or seven hours. He was killed during the dream itself!”

“Exactly,” Xu Zimo nodded. “In fact, tonight, we were pulled into the dream world right after dinner. The table being cleared, us going to the main hall, even our suicides, they were all part of the dream.”

“I see...” Steward Hu nodded in realization, then asked, “Young Master Xu, then… who’s the killer?”

“We all had dinner together,” Xu Zimo said with a smirk. “So who’s missing now? That’s your answer.”

Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

“But we’re all here,” Little Gui said.

“Are you sure?” Xu Zimo asked, the smile still on his face.

The next moment, a realization struck them all like lightning. Their eyes widened as they shouted in unison:

“Hu Yingying!”

“That’s impossible! My daughter is only four years old!” Steward Hu stumbled backward, unwilling to believe it.

“Didn’t your daughter fall seriously ill not long ago?” Xu Zimo asked slowly. “Are you certain… she’s still really your daughter?”

Steward Hu’s face went pale.

He thought back carefully. Ever since her illness, his daughter had felt… different.

But he’d dismissed it, chalking it up to a child’s unpredictable temperament.

The mournful singing still echoed in the air, but unlike the distant, ethereal quality it had in the dream, this time it felt chillingly real.

Steward Hu walked out of the side hall, following the sound of the voice.

On the way, Little Gui asked, “Senior Brother Xu, if we were all trapped in the dream earlier, why didn’t she just kill us all at once?”

“She didn’t want to kill us all at once,” Xu Zimo replied with a smile. “She was fattening us up.”

“Fattening…?” Little Gui repeated, clearly not understanding.

Xu Zimo smiled and didn’t elaborate.

Walking at the front, Steward Hu felt the singing grow louder and clearer. The group soon stopped in front of a small courtyard.

“This is Ying’er’s courtyard,” Steward Hu said grimly.

They entered. Xu Zimo kicked open the central room’s door.

The singing abruptly stopped.

Seated on the windowsill, dressed in a pure white dress, was Hu Yingying.

Her slender little legs dangled in the air as she played a mouthpiece that resembled a harmonica.

She looked up in surprise at the intruders. In her hands, she still held the instrument to her lips.

At her feet lay a small red beast. It had no limbs and resembled a dolphin. Its body floated weightlessly like a jellyfish.

It opened its eyes slowly, hovering silently in midair.

Its nose and mouth were barely visible, but its big round eyes looked soft and innocent, almost cute.

“Ying’er… is that really you?” Steward Hu asked in a trembling voice.

“Daddy, what are you saying?” Hu Yingying blinked her big, innocent eyes.

“You’re not Yingying,” Steward Hu muttered, then slowly stepped aside.

The girl didn’t panic. She simply looked at them with a mocking smile.

The red beast hovered above the floor, clearly ready to attack.

“Well, well... so someone from the Divine Gate came all the way from the Elden Lands to stir up trouble in the Western Region?” Xu Zimo said as he stepped forward, smirking.

“Oh? Looks like you’ve seen the world,” Hu Yingying replied with a light “oh?” of surprise. “You were the one who broke my dream world, weren’t you?”

“Your dream world?” Xu Zimo chuckled. “If I’m not mistaken, the dream world was actually created by that little guy.”

He pointed at the red creature and clicked his tongue.

“A Nightmare Beast, ranked seventh on the List of Celestial Wonders!”