After hearing Zhan Ye’s insane idea, Meng Ruji only wanted to know how he planned to do it and how she could stop his plan.

But she couldn’t ask directly, so she kept her head down in contemplation.

Zhan Ye went on to tell Meng Ruji another round of “world destruction” theories—nothing more than human nature being inherently evil and seeking rebirth, and such talk.

Meng Ruji let it all go in one ear and out the other.

Seeing she had no interest, Zhan Ye stopped talking and got up to leave.

Before leaving, he told Meng Ruji: “When we return to the mortal realm, perhaps I can let you come with me to meet that god named Mo Yi.”

“Weren’t all the heavenly gods killed by immortals long ago?”

Zhan Ye shook his head: “She’s still alive.”

The stone in Meng Ruji’s chest jumped again, but with her arms folded, she showed no abnormality.

Zhan Ye left.

Meng Ruji sat on the bed for a while longer. After the unpleasant aura in the room completely dissipated, she began to sit cross-legged, close her eyes, concentrate, and regulate her breathing.

This time, her mind was somewhat troubled, and it took quite a while before she entered the dreamscape of consciousness.

However…

Unlike the dream space she had entered before, this time, Meng Ruji seemed to have fallen into an even darker, more deathly abyss, surrounded by pitch-black darkness where she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

There were no gray fog clouds either. Meng Ruji couldn’t help calling out: “Mo Li?”

Then she discovered that her voice also fell into the darkness.

Just as Meng Ruji was wondering if she had somehow gone astray in her cultivation due to mental instability, a low, muffled groan came from the deathly silent darkness.

Meng Ruji’s ears perked up. She looked tentatively toward where the sound came from, and sure enough, there she vaguely saw a “brightness” different from the black background.

It was a fog cloud of a slightly lighter color.

Was it a dream?

Meng Ruji drifted toward that only fog cloud. As she got closer, she saw nothing, but the sounds she heard changed from gasps to murmured whispers.

A voice was saying…

“Kill them…”

Rustling sounds, sometimes hateful, sometimes weeping…

“Kill them.”

Meng Ruji approached the mist. She leaned forward to peer into it, wanting to see clearly which of her dreams this belonged to, but suddenly, a hand landed on Meng Ruji’s shoulder.

Meng Ruji drew in a sharp breath, somewhat startled and angry as she turned around: “Mo Li! What are you pretending to be mysterious about now?”

After scolding, she saw that the person in front of her wasn’t Mo Li, but… Mu Sui.

He carried a bit of light that illuminated the surroundings. Before Meng Ruji could react, he waved his hand to drive away the mist behind her.

Mu Sui’s expression was calm and cool. He glanced at Meng Ruji, and seeing her expression was normal, said: “Don’t call other people’s names in dreams. Change this habit.”

“You even care when I scold him?” Meng Ruji was somewhat speechless. After saying a couple of sentences, she turned to look at the fog cloud, only to discover that Mu Sui had already driven it away. “I hadn’t finished looking. Was that your dream?”

“Nothing worth seeing.”

Meng Ruji pouted: “So mysterious.” She stopped investigating further and looked around. “How did I end up in your dream?”

“It’s our dream.” Mu Sui pointed in a direction. At the other end of the darkness, many light-colored fog clouds were floating over from that direction. “The nightmare technique connected our dreamscapes.”

“Husband went back and fell asleep right away—quite quickly.”

“To meet my wife in dreams, I should naturally do my utmost.”

“Tsk tsk, husband truly says the sweetest words but uses the coldest tone.”

“Likewise.”

Having sparred to a draw, Meng Ruji turned to look around: “I don’t know where Mo Li went. Let’s find him—he should be here. I have things to ask him.”

Seeing Meng Ruji speak seriously, Mu Sui didn’t say much, just glanced around and pointed in a direction: “Over there, where you have the most dreams. Let’s look—they might gather around the nightmare technique master.”

Meng Ruji was somewhat surprised: “You know quite a lot.”

“I’ve read many books.”

Meng Ruji scoffed, walking alongside Mu Sui while saying: “What a coincidence—my body happens to be in your Zhuliu City right now. Tell me, where is your study in Zhuliu City? Let me go broaden my knowledge and see what books you’ve been reading.”

“Would he let you move freely?”

“I can make him let me move freely.”

Hearing this, Mu Sui looked at Meng Ruji with displeasure: “If you have such ability, why not explore the whereabouts of that golden staff instead?”

“Oh.” Meng Ruji realized. “Speaking of the golden staff, I roughly know where it is. When we see Mo Li later, I’ll tell you both my guess together. But before that, you must explain those three golden beans you brought to find me—what’s that about!?”

Meng Ruji accused: “I’m honest with you, yet you’re hiding private money!”

Mu Sui looked somewhat helpless: “I’m not hiding anything.”

“Ha… so it fell from the sky?”

“I used the silver coins you gave me and went to Linlan Mountain.”

These three words, Linlan Mountain, truly surprised Meng Ruji.

“That Luo Yingfeng who tied us up and threw us in the river would give you money?” Meng Ruji couldn’t believe it. “Didn’t we seriously injure him just a few days ago? You still dared to ask him for money?”

“If he helps me, he still has tomorrow to fight me. If he doesn’t help me, your old friend won’t give him a tomorrow. Luo Yingfeng is bad, not stupid.”

Meng Ruji pursed her lips: “Makes sense.”

Luo Yingfeng wouldn’t be unaware of Zhuliu City’s situation—malevolent qi running rampant, citizens being robbed. As another “financial backer” living in the Land of No Return, he wouldn’t lack a sense of crisis. Moreover, he was currently injured, so taking action himself would certainly be difficult.

When Mu Sui came to him willing to actively handle this trouble, although he hated Mu Sui, he wouldn’t do anything stupid at this juncture. Giving some money made sense.

“How much did he give you?”

“Not much, ten gold.”

“A fortune!” Meng Ruji got excited for a moment, then quickly calmed down. “Is it enough to deal with Zhan Ye?”

“Perhaps enough, but if he can use Zhuliu City’s golden staff, then it definitely won’t be enough.”

“What exactly is that golden staff?”

“A staff made of gold.” Mu Sui answered. “Worth three hundred thirty-three gold.”

Meng Ruji’s eyes went round: “With that staff, wouldn’t one be close to a thousand gold? When you had over three hundred gold, why make this golden staff? Why not just save up to get a thousand gold and buy your life back?”

Mu Sui glanced at Meng Ruji: “Hengxu Mountain wasn’t wealthy either, was it?”

“Who are you insulting?”

Mu Sui stopped there:

“When I was here, I made this golden staff to better control Zhuliu City. All the city’s vital mechanisms can be operated and driven with this staff. Making it didn’t make me poor, but made money flow to Zhuliu City faster. When I’m not here, the golden staff also maintains Zhuliu City’s operation. Without accidents like Zhan Ye, Zhuliu City would be the safest place in the Land of No Return. Safety, reputation, more and more gold and silver can attract even more wealth.”

Mu Sui looked at Meng Ruji again: “Relying on manual labor won’t work.”

Meng Ruji felt somewhat insulted…

She was a bit angry, but regarding making money, she indeed had nothing good to say.

Hengxu Mountain didn’t rely on her to make money either. When she first picked up children to raise, it was by everyone working hard on the mountain—clearing land, digging stones, building stairs, and constructing houses. Later, when there were more people and her spells became more powerful, she used magic for these tasks.

Even later, after experiencing Zhan Ye’s incident, when she rescued those suffering children, she required them to study and become literate. When she couldn’t teach them, she had scholars from the foot of the mountain teach them.

With more people, through various interactions, there would always be some who could make money.

Among her Five Guardians, one of them managed such matters.

Previously, Meng Ruji had the Inner Core with Creation Power and was a woman blessed by fortune. She hadn’t suffered poverty for many years, until she came to the Land of No Return…

“Husband’s mastery of wealth-making is naturally best,” Meng Ruji said sarcastically. “After all, it’s half and half between us—you worry, so I’ll worry less.”

The two chattered all the way and had arrived at the place with the most fog clouds.

Compared to Mu Sui’s side of endless darkness, Meng Ruji’s fog clouds seemed excessive in number, crowded enough to block the path at times.

Moreover, the mist concealing Meng Ruji’s dreams wasn’t thick, unlike Mu Sui, who had just that one dream, deeply hidden away. Meng Ruji’s dreams could be roughly seen at a glance.

Walking and looking, Mu Sui saw that Meng Ruji had saved many suffering children, saw the hardships of building Hengxu Mountain, and some unavoidable conflicts and struggles in the cultivation world.

After seeing some, Mu Sui actively averted his gaze from those dreams and only looked at Meng Ruji beside him.

Meng Ruji’s expression remained unchanged as she pushed aside fog cloud after fog cloud, focused only on finding someone.

“You don’t seem to mind these dreams being seen by me.”

“Let you see—there’s nothing unseemly about them.”

Mu Sui was startled and slightly closed his eyes: “You’re quite open.”

“Over there!” Meng Ruji’s eyes lit up as she pointed ahead, immediately grabbing Mu Sui’s hand and walking forward.

Mu Sui looked at Meng Ruji’s hand, grasping his wrist. He miraculously felt a familiar warm sweetness transmit from the point of skin contact to his heart.

He could even sense that his physical body, currently lying on the ground sleeping, had its fingertips move slightly.

How strange—wasn’t this in a dream? She wasn’t touching him…

Why…

Could there still be rules between life-sustaining objects and half-dead people?

Mu Sui couldn’t understand.

Meng Ruji naturally didn’t know his delicate thoughts, only leading Mu Sui quickly to Mo Li’s side: “We’ve been looking for you for ages, and here you are watching my dreams.”

Meng Ruji’s voice naturally reached Mo Li’s ears, but Mo Li didn’t immediately turn to look at her. Instead, he continued staring blankly at the scene in Meng Ruji’s dream: “Shh, almost there.”

“Almost what?”

Curious, Meng Ruji also leaned forward to peer into the mist.

The scene in the mist was from long ago, the day she met Mo Li. She was digging tree roots in the forest when she saw Mo Li, pale-faced and covered in blood.

Then, Mo Li gave her that Inner Core with Creation Power without any explanation.

“I’ll send you straight to success.”

In the misty scene, Mo Li said these words softly.

But because this was Meng Ruji’s dream, Mo Li’s expression in her memory had become somewhat blurred, making it unclear.

Meng Ruji turned to look at Mo Li. This time, she finally saw his expression clearly as he watched this “memory” of their meeting, his eyes trembling slightly, seeming deeply moved: “After all these years, seeing that Inner Core again, I still think it’s beautiful.”

“You’re here just to see this Inner Core?”

“Yes, I haven’t seen it for a long time.”

As Mo Li spoke, he finally moved his gaze from the dream. He glanced at Meng Ruji and Mu Sui behind her, his eyes lingering on Mu Sui’s dantian area: “Now it has changed hands again.”

“Sooner or later, I’ll get it back.” Meng Ruji glanced at Mu Sui, but saw that he seemed completely oblivious to her conversation with Mo Li just now.

Mu Sui stared fixedly at the dream scene, where Meng Ruji, who had been forcibly “sent to success” by Mo Li, was rolling on the ground in agony.

She looked like she was about to die from pain.

But the Mo Li in that scene only stood coldly and calmly to the side, like a cold stone statue. At the same time, because this was Meng Ruji’s dream, the Mo Li in it became somewhat more terrifying.

His dark robes seemed like the claws of a death-seeking ghost, floating around Meng Ruji. The Mo Li in the dream had a sharp, piercing voice: “I just want to toy with you! You ant! You speck of dust! You deserve to encounter me! You’re just unlucky! Hahaha!”

The more Mo Li watched, the more confused his expression became: “I wasn’t like that back then.”

“Dreams…” Meng Ruji waved her hand somewhat embarrassedly, dispelling her dream. “They tend to exaggerate.”

“I gave you Creation Power, yet you defame me like this. Good son-in-law, look at her—if not for me, where would you…”

Before he could finish speaking, Mo Li looked up to meet Mu Sui’s gaze, which looked at him as if he were looking at a dead man.

“You tormented her like this?”

Mo Li: “…Are you planning to avenge her and beat me up now?”

—

Mo Li: Sir, please calm down!