Chapter 288: Love Tribulations
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Firecrackers erupted as the joyous wedding proceeded.
"First bow to the Heaven and Earth! Second bow to the parents! Spouses bow to each other…."
Under the master of ceremonies' address, the newlyweds bowed to each other and were sent for consummation.
Donned in a wedding garb emblazoned with red silk across his chest, the groom lifted the bride's veil with a jade ornament. Adorned in a grand phoenix tiara and wedding shawl, the belle's indescribable beauty radiated under the red candle lights with a tinge of shyness.
"My lady!"
"My husband!"
As the wedding candles extinguished, nothing could be heard.
...
Out of the blue, the scene changed.
A wedding entourage was happily celebrating, as the bride inside the marriage sedan wept.
Suddenly, as they travelled across a hill, the bride jumped out of the marriage sedan as though she was crazy and dashed towards the tombstone beside the road.
She took off her ceremonious wedding dress to reveal a solemn mourning dress.
"Lady, please don't!"
The matchmaker and the sedan porter were utterly shocked as they looked at the bride wield a dagger in front of the grave, with her face covered in tears.
"If we can't be together when alive, then I rather be buried together in death!"
The bride appeared resolute as she caressed the tombstone. All of a sudden, she rammed her head into it and a stream of blood flowed down the tombstone.
The tombstone cracked open and two butterflies seemingly fluttered out.
....
Abruptly, the scene changed yet again, now to a dangerous mountain peak.
A young couple was being hunted down by a large group of martial arts experts. Both of them wielded swords, and the woman had an infant swaddled in her arms.
"Father!"
As the young woman turned back to look at a senior, a sorrowful expression appeared on her face, "Brother Tian and I are sincerely in love, in this two hundred over years the two families have been feuding with each other as mortal enemies, how many people have died by now? Isn't that enough?"
"Outrageous! Even if you marry a dog or a pig it's still better than marrying this guy!"
The senior was seething with rage as he spoke, "I rather not have such a daughter. Perhaps, I should have drowned you back then!"
"Master…"
The young man looked at his side's people with a forced smile.
The two sides had been in a bloody brawl for hundreds of years. This time, because of the two lovers themselves, they finally joined forces for once.
"Sigh..., you should just take your own life!"
The master directly declared. It was rare for either of the two sides to be in agreement with their enemies.
"Sister Mei, have you ever regretted before?"
The young man laughed and looked at his wife.
"I have no complaints and no regrets! As long as I am with you, Brother Tian, I will never regret!"
Not long after, a bloody battle erupted…
...
Da Qian Empire.
It was a cold night. The black roc beast let out a loud, abrupt caw and sped up, with its back still steady.
Inside a covert room in Black Roc Inn, Black Roc suddenly opened his eyes, "Array? Dream Entering?"
Although he was supposed to respect the dream masters' privacy, he was allowed to monitor them if they were attacking each other in their dreams.
After looking at the room number, it was all clear, with a slight headache, "As long as the issues between the Realm Alliance and the Divine Lotus Cult don't cause too much action and disturb others, I better care less to avoid being implicated!"
"Eh?"
Moments later, he wondered, "Can't believe the Reserve Divine Lady has such a high tiered treasure, this means the Dream Master is in danger. Hopefully, the issues don't become big problems…"
Luckily, the two rooms were still relatively peaceful and he could finally be slightly at ease.
However, a short while later, his expression changed yet again.
He was shocked to see Liu Mengmei coming out from his room, arriving in front of Fang Yuan's room.
Such Sky numbered rooms had a Spiritual Will Imprint on it that could grant limited control powers. As the door squeaked open, it was evident that the person in the room had granted her permission to enter.
Liu Mengmei hesitated a short while before entering the room.
The events thereafter were what he could not see.
Although he was really curious to know who won during this confrontation, he knew if he were to rashly intrude, he would definitely be discovered and this would foster animosity.
"Perhaps, they are evenly matched and might even make peace?"
Perplexed, Black Roc stroked his chin.
...
"You came!"
Inside the room, Fang Yuan sat cross-legged, smiling without saying anything.
"Of course I came, you perverted guy! You got me into deep trouble!"
Liu Mengmei blurted, as her eyes gleamed with both anger and joy, yet with a tinge of tenderness and surprisingly without resentment. Other people would have been pretty shocked to see such a look.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!"
Fang Yuan shook his head.
"Nevermind..."
Liu Mengmei sighed, "Anyway, you have already become my psychological barrier. No matter what you do, I will still forgive you!"
Just from her state, Fang Yuan could tell she was fully subdued by him. After a mere moment of happiness, a chilling thought emerged in Fang Yuan.
'Deliberately intruding another Dream Master's Dream World is a highly dangerous move. Of course…, this woman put in lots of money to make use of rare treasures' powers to attempt to fully subdue me. Her Real Spirit entered my homeground, the first stage Dream World, and I almost lost. If she succeeded, I am afraid I would have become a marionette under her allure by now.'
'Of course, now that the situation is reversed, not only did she not succeed, on the contrary, I entered her Real Spirit's dream and planted the Eternal Love Tribulations Imprint on her heart. Even though it could only affect the inclination of her fondness, it was sufficient!'
Naturally, it was impossible to fully control a Dream Master, even by any means, it would be discovered by an advanced stage Dream Master immediately.
Hence, Fang Yuan chose another method, which was through utilising dreams within dreams, pestering for an eternity and planting hints, which made Liu Mengmei unknowingly fall in love with him.
It was a choice she made herself, out of natural instincts, without being manipulated by any external powers. Expectedly, it would leave no trace behind while appearing seemingly fitting and reasonable.
Clearly, such situations were very rare, it required the Dream Master to deliberately intrude the opponent's dream with its own Real Spirit, and then be fought back by the opponent, with the Real Spirit falling into Dream World, and finally, the opponent can then possibly make its move.
A Dream Master who deliberately invaded another person's dream world must either be profoundly skilled or fully prepared, so how could she make such a rookie mistake?
And it was the fact that Liu Mengmei picked the wrong opponent that led her to such a state.
"What are you thinking about, my dear husband…"
Noticing that Fang Yuan was in deep thoughts, Liu Mengmei said, "I brought with me my whole heart for you to fully trust this time around, with just a command of yours, I will definitely not leak the whereabouts of my dear husband. Although the Divine Lotus Cult is giving us trouble, it's nothing but a death feud between you and Meng Lian, I will scheme for you and there will be no more future complications!"
"This sounds good!"
Fang Yuan then said, "But can you not call me 'dear husband'!"
"My love for you is already deeply rooted and resolute…."
Liu Mengmei was on the verge of tears, she let out a distraught sigh and said, "Besides, in the Dream World, my dear husband has already taken advantage of me. Are you not going to admit it?"
Even though Fang Yuan was shameless, his face turned red upon hearing that.
Initially, she deliberately designed the Dream World and did not let him take any advantage of her.
However, eternities later, it was him who was toying with her Real Spirit. Naturally, he had no scruples. After having formed such a loving relationship, there were no secrets left in front of her.
"Okay, up to you!"
Through that experience, Fang Yuan knew he broke her heart and has already become a psychological barrier in her heart.
For her to progress, she could only either have the wisdom to break the bond between the two of them or to fully submit to him and there was no other choice!
A wrong thought could cause devastating consequences beyond redemption, and such was the horror of battles between Dream Masters.
"Also…, we have to maintain our hostile relationship on the surface, there must be a reason for you to come and find me tonight. Hmm, let's just say we were evenly matched as we fought in the dreams, so you came to provoke me. Let's create a small commotion later to prevent Black Roc from suspecting…"
Now that Fang Yuan had gained so much from her, it was certainly not too much to utilise her even more. Fang Yuan then asked again, "Have you brought any rare treasures with you?"
"As a Divine Lady, I am under the protection of the Divine Lotus Print, the Green Yang Divine Lantern,..."
As Liu Mengmei listed her rare treasures, cold sweat dripped from Fang Yuan's forehead.
Not only has she cultivated to the Illusionary Divine stage, she possessed numerous protective treasures. The odds were definitely even if they fought face to face.
"Very good, you and I continue to do what we should do, after you reach the Middle Region, you notify your cult that you have aborted the mission as I was too troublesome to handle. There is no need to go too overboard in order to protect your own safety!"
Fang Yuan immediately started to plan, as with her as his pawn, it was definitely beneficial.
"Thank you, my dear husband, for caring about me!"
Fang Yuan knew Liu Mengmei was definitely very happy from the way her eyebrows moved as she smiled beautifully.
After all, he experienced so much in the Dream World, he should be extremely familiar with her.
"Also, when you are back, help me take note of two things. First, it's news about the Evil Divine Sect, things regarding Tian Xiezi…, and also, pay attention and look for the refinery of different spells, especially rare dream elemental force spells.
Fang Yuan closed his eyes and said slowly.
Liu Mengmei solemnly said, "Regarding the intelligence about the Evil Divine Sect, I can sort them out for you tomorrow. Whereas, regarding the refinery of rare elemental spells? With my current status, I only have information regarding one kind, which is the complete version of the 9 Smelting Technique that can refine rare elemental forces… However, they are ineffective to dream elemental force, but I also heard my Elder mentioned that the 9 Smelting Technique has another version which was known to exterminate all living matter and I believe the rare dream elemental force would not be able to survive it too!"
"Just exchange the complete version of the 9 Smelting Technique for me!"
Fang Yuan said directly, as he pulled out the small sword Elder Smelter gave him, "Do you recognise this item?"
"I don't recognise it!"
Liu Mengmei shook her head immediately.
Fang Yuan had a small glimmer of hope, but could only let out a sigh as he kept the small sword.
The item had a strange build and Fang Yuan did not dare to court death by keeping such an item with unknown origins in the real Dream World.
Moreover, he suspected the item could not even be kept in the Dream World, else the Elder Smelter would not have spent so much effort to look for people to send him the mail.
'I guess I can only start solving this mystery when I reach the Middle Region, at Tianmu Mountain?'
At that moment, he had already made up his mind that he wanted Liu Mengmei to exhaust all channels to source for information regarding the mountain.
Although the dreams kept cycling, he was detached from it, whereas Liu Mengmei was still deeply trapped in it. The stark differences between their situations naturally resulted in different mentalities.
Truth be told, if Liu Mengmei succeeded initially, the Fang Yuan now would be way more miserable than the Liu Mengmei now.