My Master Was Driven Mad by the Plot

Dream Within a Dream

Characters: Mu Liyao (aloof, unhinged Immortal Venerable Zhanheng) × Bai Yuli (scheming, lovesick disciple who takes the lead)

Mu Liyao was locked in the Icebound Prison, iron shackles biting into his flesh. Plum blossoms, conjured from Bai Yuli’s blood, clung to his skin, their vivid red searing his bones. He murmured, “So cold.” He knew it was a dream, yet the chill of the Icebound Prison and the pain in his bones and blood felt real enough to pierce him. One moment he had been idly watching the snow from the Star-Gathering Terrace at Kunlun Ruins; the next, Bai Yuli had forced him into a dream with an Immortal-Slaying Nail. His mind drifted between reality and nightmare.

His consciousness shattered, and he suddenly found himself in a lavish bedchamber, his injuries completely healed. In the bronze mirror, he wore silk spun from silkworms and a black jade hairpin. A red mole at the corner of his eye made his peach-blossom eyes look both aloof and unhinged. Bai Yuli appeared moments later, snow dusting his black robes, obsession churning in his eyes. He bluntly declared that he would trap Mu Liyao in this dream. Mu Liyao mocked him for having spoiled his disciple, only to be pulled forcefully into his arms, the scent of dark plum blossoms mingling with his frenzied possessiveness.

Before they could confront each other, Mu Liyao plunged into a snowy mountain peak, where a crowd of cultivators hunted him down. He summoned the Tongxi Sword to fight back, but a sudden, searing pain ripped through his lower abdomen. Bai Yuli’s black iron sword had pierced him from behind, and all that remained in those peach-blossom eyes was a sickened satisfaction.

Mu Liyao gave a faint laugh as his consciousness faded. When he opened his eyes again, he was back in a rocking chair in the Star-Gathering Hall, the Drunken Immortal Wine still in his arms. Bai Yuli stood nearby, gazing at him tenderly with a plum branch in hand. His fingertips brushed his lower abdomen: there was no scar, no pain. Yet the bone-deep agony from the dream convinced him that his disciple had truly gone mad.