Chapter 31 Xia Wei - Awakening from a Dream
When I returned to Lei Ze, the sky outside had already dimmed, but the ever-bright and blazing, tireless lightning inside Lei Ze made the place as bright as day, with no distinction between day and night.
Ye Jie also saw Xia Wei sitting alone in front of the rocky cliffs. Alone and tired, she looked sleepy and her expression only brightened when she saw Ye Jie.
"Master..." Xia Wei called softly. She dragged her tired body, her pretty face had lost its former luster, and her eyelids were drooping.
"You haven't rested yet?" Ye Jie was a little surprised and hurried forward. "You fought hard today and your arm is injured. You must be very tired. I thought you had already gone to bed. Why are you still sitting here waiting?"
Xia Wei pursed her lips and reached out to grab Ye Jie's robe: "Xiao Wei can't sleep... As soon as I close my eyes, the faces of the dead appear before my eyes again. They question Xiao Wei, saying that Xiao Wei killed them, even my father and brother..."
"Don't be afraid, that's just your inner demon." Ye Jie sat down beside her and comforted her.
With Master's comfort, Xia Wei's expression improved somewhat, but deep in her brows, a frown remained firmly locked. She forced a smile and said, "As long as Master is here, Xiao Wei is not afraid. Xiao Wei knows this request is very willful, but Master, can you stay by Xiao Wei's side and wait until Xiao Wei falls asleep before leaving?"
Ye Jie was helpless: "What if I stay in the underworld and don't come? Are you going to sit here and wait all night?"
Xia Wei did not answer, but just looked at Ye Jie with aggrieved eyes. She would really do that.
"It's as you wish." Ye Jie sighed, "When you wake up, I will explain the technique to you."
After receiving Ye Jie's answer, Xia Wei turned from sadness to joy, and lay down against the leeward mountain wall, still holding the corner of Ye Jie's clothes in her hand, and soon fell asleep.
After Xia Wei fell asleep, Ye Jie, who had nothing to do, took out the book of Bailian Shen from his arms and read it carefully.
With his mediocre qualifications, he was not able to master the skills in the classics, but reading them in advance would add a lot of his own experience and insights to his subsequent explanation to Xia Wei.
Halfway through, Ye Jie suddenly heard a sob in his ear. He looked down and saw Xia Wei curled up in a ball, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her body was trembling slightly, and she murmured helplessly in her sleep: "No... It wasn't me who killed you..."
"The devil is deeply rooted in my heart..."
Ye Jie sighed, seeing that Xia Wei's body was tense, her lips were tightly clenched, her forehead was covered with cold sweat, her breathing was rapid, and her bare hands that were grabbing his robe were secretly exerting force. She was enduring tremendous torture in her sleep. As her master, he naturally could not sit idly by.
Ye Jie carefully pulled back his robe and tiptoed back to a distance. Then he hit the ground with the black stone and escaped. After about a cup of tea, he returned. This time, he was holding a bowl of clear spring water in his hand.
"Although it's impolite to rashly enter someone else's dream, in order to break the demons in my heart, I have no choice but to resort to this last resort. Xia Wei, please don't blame me when you wake up."
Ye Jie drank a mouthful of the Yellow Spring water and poured the rest of the water over Xia Wei's head. The water stretched a thin, glassy thread through the air, not wetting her skin but penetrating deep into her mind. Ye Jie also transformed into a stream of light, diving into Xia Wei's dreamland along with the falling water.
"Um?"
As soon as he entered, Ye Jie frowned, only to find himself walking on a red lake. The water submerged his knees, and his feet seemed to be stuck in mud. Every step was so strenuous.
He bent down and realized that what he was stepping on was not lake water at all, but sticky, warm blood.
"As the old saying goes: What you think about during the day, you will dream about at night... It seems that the tragic scene of the hunters being slaughtered by the shrimp-headed men really scared her." Looking around, Ye Jie sighed. The river bank that was previously stained red with blood was extremely similar to the scene in his dream.
Seeing that there was no one around, Ye Jie shouted, "Xia Wei, where are you? I'm here to find you."
His call was answered, and soon he saw a large scallop floating down from the blood lake. The scallop was bright red and tightly closed. Although he couldn't see the inside, Ye Jie firmly believed that there must be someone inside.
He stretched out his hand, blocked the drifting scallop, and knocked on it: "Xia Wei, are you in there?"
"Master, is that you?" A cry of surprise came from the scallop.
"It's me. Why are you hiding in here?" Ye Jie said.
Before he could finish his words, a crack appeared in the scallop, and before Ye Jie could react, he was caught inside.
In the narrow scallop space, Ye Jie also saw Xia Wei with a vigilant look on her face. She was sitting on the ground, her hands wrapped around her knees, her lips tightly bitten, and her nerves were tense. Even a louder sound could scare her. She was completely different from the stubborn and persevering girl in Ye Jie's memory.
"Are you okay..." Ye Jie asked with concern.
"Shh..." Xia Wei made a shushing gesture, "As long as we hide here, those people won't be able to find me, and no one will be able to break this shell."
"Escape?" Ye Jie saw a lot from Xia Wei's expression. The people she was referring to were obviously those who had been killed by her, and also her inner demons. "Escape won't solve the problem."
A huge knocking sound suddenly came from above the shell. The moment the knocking sound rang out, Xia Wei's whole body shook violently, followed by the lingering whisper.
"Xia Wei is hiding inside the shell."
"We treated her with kindness and good intentions, but she killed us all!"
Emptying his mind and listening carefully, the knocking sound was even more dull than Ye Jie had imagined. It was clearly just the never-ending thunder in Lei Ze. However, to the sleeping Xia Wei, it became a heart-pounding death warrant, and every knock struck her heart.
Along with the sound came the inner demon that she feared. The people gathered outside the shell, ready to pull her out of the shell completely.
"Aren't you worried that the shell will be broken?" Ye Jie asked her at this time.
Xia Wei was stunned. The shell above her head seemed to have some cracks. She quickly shook her head, and the cracks disappeared immediately. "It won't break. The shell will never break."
Ye Jie saw the changes in the shell and understood it.
This is Xia Wei's dream, a projection of reality deep in her mind. Everything she thinks of will come true here. As long as she firmly believes that the shell will not be broken, the shell will be harder than any stone in the world.
The reason why she thought so was probably because the shell that clamped Qi Feng's arm during the day was too hard and left a deep impression on her.
Looking at her, Ye Jie showed a somewhat apologetic expression. Hiding in a shell, blindly avoiding the inner demon, there will eventually be a day when he will be found. You can hide for a while, but not forever. When that happens, the inner demon that attacks will only be more fierce and more harmful.
Not only that, the harm caused by the deep-seated inner demon will also affect Xia Wei's practice. She may be disturbed by the inner demon when practicing, and even go astray and fall into an irretrievable situation.
There is only one way to defeat your inner demons, and that is to face your deepest fears.
It is quite difficult for ordinary people to face the most unbearable memories in their hearts and relive the trauma that makes their souls tremble. It is understandable that they choose to escape, but as a master, Ye Jie’s duty is to guide Xia Wei onto the right path.
Ye Jie said, "I don't think this shell is indestructible. Any powerful cultivator can easily break it."
Xia Wei was stunned. Her complete faith in her master made her believe Ye Jie's words. The next moment, a huge crack appeared on the shell. The crack spread rapidly. Before she could even be surprised, the upper layer of the shell was lifted off.
Xia Wei looked up tremblingly, only to see the familiar pale faces in her memory crawling out of the river of blood and surrounding her tightly.