Day and night tour

Chapter 406 The Dream of the Human Heart
“Bifang, I have gone to great lengths to finally bring you down to the mortal realm.”

Zhou Xuan said with a smile, "Fortunately, you're still in prison. In terms of the outcome, it's not bad."

Bi Fang sighed. Seeing Mr. Bai Liu standing respectfully beside Zhou Xuan, he naturally knew that this disciple of the storyteller's troupe had already become Zhou Xuan's man.

"Bai Liu, I never expected that you would actually side with Zhou Xuan!"

“Master, it’s not that I’m surrendering, but I also want to take advantage of the great master’s influence to get rid of you and restore the honor of my storytelling lineage.”

In Zhou Xuan's eyes, Mr. Bai Liu had always been a gentle and refined man. He was always adept at navigating social situations, skillfully maneuvering among the various powerful forces in Jingchuan Prefecture without offending anyone.
But at this moment, he showed a hint of "ferocity".

"Restore the glory of storytellers? Bai Liu, do you know what you're saying?"

Bi Fang questioned.

“Bifang, you have ruled the storytelling hall for over three hundred years. In these three hundred years, has a single disciple ever broken through the eight incense sticks’ time limit?”

"Those are disciples of the sect, their skills are lacking, what does it have to do with me?"

"That's because you've planted traps in the methods you teach for spreading the incense offerings, constantly instructing your disciples to 'discipline themselves' and not to harbor any domineering tendencies in their methods."

This self-discipline prevented the entire sect from producing any more masters beyond the level of eight incense sticks burning.

Mr. Shirayagi's eyes were red. He spoke these words so skillfully, which suggests that he must have carefully prepared them in his mind over the years.

He's had a problem with Bi Fang for more than just a year or two.

Zhou Xuan, standing to the side, also found it somewhat interesting; this Mr. Bai Liu really did have quite a lot hidden in his heart.

However, Bi Fang is already in prison and cannot escape. Letting Mr. Bai Liu vent his anger is fine and won't interfere with important matters.

"If it were merely that I concealed the meaning of 'domineering' and taught you 'self-discipline,' you wouldn't be able to burn eight incense sticks. Is it because you disciples are of such poor quality that after so many years of comprehension, you still can't grasp the true meaning?"

"With talent at this level, why would one cultivate the path of incense and deities?"

Bi Fang's skin was as thick as a city wall. Even when his inner filth was exposed in front of his disciples, he remained unfazed and continued to argue illogically.

"Heh, Bifang, if a disciple were to truly comprehend the domineering method and ascend to the Eight Incense Sticks stage, I suppose you would eliminate him, wouldn't you?"

Wearing a dark blue long gown, Yuan Buyu leisurely walked out of the side room, her steps light and quick, but her eyes revealed hatred.

He gripped the folding fan so tightly that the veins on the back of his hand stood out. He said, "Back then, Senior Brother Feng was on the verge of breaking through to the Eighth Incense Burner level, but he sensed that you wanted to kill him. In order to avoid being found by you, he took the initiative to remove his own incense."

"Those without exceptional talent will not be able to escape the trap you set in the incense offerings. Those with exceptional talent, like Senior Brother Feng, will be intercepted and killed by you if they are more than eight sticks of incense burning."

“Bifang, with you around, the disciples of the storyteller’s hall will never get ahead in their entire lives.”

The senior brother Feng that Yuan Buyu mentioned was none other than Mr. Feng, who was once known as the peerless master of Mingjiang Prefecture.

From Mr. Feng, Yuan Buyu learned the truth that storytellers who had been in the air for more than eight incense sticks would be killed by Bifang.

From Zhou Xuan, he also learned that "a storyteller needs to be domineering, not self-disciplined," and he also learned about the foreshadowing that Bi Fang had laid in the "incense and divine way."

He also harbored deep hatred for Bi Fang.

After learning the truth from Yuan Buyu, Mr. Bai Liu stared coldly at Bi Fang: "With a deity like you in the sect, how can it prosper? Bi Fang, you deserve to die."

“Bifang, the pain you inflicted on me by turning me into a beast is still fresh in my memory. If it weren’t for my good disciple who used the Red Ginseng Boy to prolong my life, I would probably be a wild beast, an animal that is rejected by heaven and earth and kills people indiscriminately.”

Yuan Buyu had already assumed an attack stance, his gavel raised and his folding fan open.

“In the past three hundred years, I, Bifang, have often thought about how I will perish. I have imagined hundreds of answers, but I never thought that one day, those disciples in the human world, who are as insignificant as ants, would dare to open their folding fans at me.”

Bi Fang sighed and said, "Bai Liu, I used your lectures as a means of passage, and now you blame me. I want to return to the Heavenly Vault, but you certainly won't open the passage for me again."

In your eyes, I am already doomed, but you are still too weak. The two storyteller disciples are only seven incense sticks in length; as for Zhou Xuan… how many incense sticks are you?”

"It doesn't matter how many incense sticks I have, what matters is how many incense sticks they have."

Faced with Bi Fang's obvious question, Zhou Xuan pointed, and the helpers who had been arranged in advance stepped out of their hiding rooms and into the courtyard of the main hall.

Xishan Wang, Zhou Lingyi, and Di Tong took the lead, followed closely by Peng Sheng, Yun Ziliang, and Jiu Daren.
Li Changxun, on the other hand, showed none of the grandeur of a celestial deity. He walked timidly, hiding in the crowd as if afraid of being discovered by Bifang.

Looking at this group of people, Bi Fang suddenly felt a sense of suffocation.

"How could such a small main hall harbor so many experts? Impossible, impossible. I used my perception to probe the main hall through Bai Liu's book, and there wasn't much incense smoke here."

Where exactly are you hiding?

Bi Fang was quite flustered by the sudden blow.

Zhou Xuan poked his chest and said, "They are all hidden in my dreams, sleeping soundly in my dreams, sleeping even more soundly than corpses. How can there be any incense smoke?"

"Your dream? I haven't sensed any dream system in the main hall."

"Because I hypnotized myself, I was asleep."

Zhou Xuan said.

Bi Fang looked incredulous. He was the patriarch of storytellers and a god in the heavens. In the Kingdom of Jing, his understanding of dreams was perhaps only inferior to that of the God of Dreams.

Since he knew himself and his enemy, how could he not know that the storyteller's dream could hypnotize anyone but himself?

"You're talking nonsense, you must be talking nonsense."

"Oh, Lao Bi, let me ask you a question. Which shrine did I use for my fifth incense offering?"

Zhou Xuan asked abruptly.

“A bitter ghost,” Bi Fang said decisively.

Zhou Xuan shook his head and said, "That's what Jia Dao told you, but my fifth incense stick is not a bitter ghost, but a magician."

"A mere show, like a phoenix and a swallow, fooled the gods?"

Bifang realized what was happening.

"If you have the skills of magic tricks, no wonder you can hypnotize yourself; you've deceived yourself with magic tricks."

"Jia Dao, you actually managed to capture my Daoist, Zhou Xuan, you are quite capable."

"The world is a deep and treacherous place, full of traps," Bifang sighed once more.

He also recognized the situation before him and said, "I have no way out today. If time could be turned back to the day when you, Zhou Xuan, lit incense and worshipped the gods, I would not let you into my storyteller's hall, even if I offended the Nuo God."

When Zhou Xuan lit incense and worshipped the gods in Pingshui Prefecture, the first stick of incense was offered at the storyteller's hall.

"If only we could go back to the past."

Bi Fang said this.

"Bi Fang, you still don't understand. My disciple's strength lies in him as a person, not in the fact that he joined a storyteller's shrine. No matter what shrine he established, today is your death day, Bi Fang."
This is your destined death.

At this point, Yuan Buyu began the ritual of slaying the god, waving his left hand and sending the wooden clapper crashing into Bifang.

Mr. Bai Liu then launched his fan, using the Dream Fish to protect himself from Bi Fang's dream while simultaneously controlling the fan and using its sharp edges to attack Bi Fang.

It was clearly a civil war among storytellers, and the storytellers were famous in the Kingdom of Well for their ability to create dreams, yet now they were all engaged in close combat.

It wasn't for any other reason than that Bifang's level was simply too high. The difference in the level of incense offerings between Mr. Bailiu and Yuan Buyu was enormous. Even in a dream, the dream realm couldn't trap this celestial-level deity. He could only attack using a fan and wood as weapons, employing the "divine weapon counterattack."

"You dare to bare your teeth at me? I taught you all your skills."

Bi Fang's figure and gait resembled a crane. After his toes touched the ground, he stirred up a gust of wind, which swept Yuan and Bai's fans to the ground.

Even a fierce hand-to-hand combat can't withstand a gentle breeze; this is the difference between a god-level being and a mere seven incense sticks in the mortal realm.

With a single drop of water, Li Changxun forced Li Zougui to remain motionless. Without the ability to unleash his life-giving dream, even the combined strength of Bai and Yuan might not be enough to defeat Li Zougui.

However, the main point of these two attacks is to project momentum. Whether they can actually win is not important. What is important is that someone has to make the first move to deal with Bi Fang and lead the others to attack together.

The two men's fans were swept away, and they were blown back by the breeze. At this moment, the skilled and brave King Xishan followed closely behind and joined the battle.

He flew close to the ground in his snow-white fox fur coat, and when he reached Bi Fang, he suddenly leaped up to trap Bi Fang.

Bi Fang flew backward, intending to strike the gavel and conjure a dream from the ground.

The Earth Child, who was standing guard nearby, immediately realized that Bifang was about to make a move. Making a storyteller of god-like status create dreams was certainly not a wise choice.

He raised his right hand to the sky, and a paper banner that blotted out the sky took root on the ground.

A red light emanated from the umbrella, and the wails and screams of wandering spirits and vengeful ghosts began to rise up.
And this place is Mr. Ye's headquarters. The blood on the ground is the blood fetus that has been nurtured in the headquarters for many years.

The blood quickly coagulated, the fetal wall swelled up, and the baby cried.

Several strange and unusual sounds intertwined, making Bifang uneasy, his fingers unable to bend and unable to strike the gavel.

Seeing that Bi Fang was at a disadvantage, Yun Ziliang immediately took action with ten large dragons.

The ten great dragons were the ten cloud patterns on Yun Ziliang's Taoist robe. The cloud patterns moved greatly, and the ten dragons emerged from his body.

Yun Ziliang led the dragon forward, aiming to launch a surprise attack on Bifang from the side entrance.

Taking advantage of his weakness, Yun Ziliang and Da Long simultaneously rushed towards Bi Fang.

Zhou Xuan was also acting at the same time as him.

Zhou Xuan put on the "Dao Ancestor" mask and used the "Escape Armor Incense" technique to remain in a state of tortoise-like breathing for a thousand years.

His figure disappeared right before Bi Fang's eyes.

Behind him, a surprised "Eh!" came from behind.

To remain in a state of tortoise-like stillness for a thousand years is to completely conceal one's incense offerings and sensory abilities, and then the caster hides in the cracks of heaven and earth.

Li Changxun once said that this technique depends entirely on the strength of one's perception. The stronger one's perception, the less likely one is to be discovered once the technique is concealed.

Zhou Xuan's perception was comparable to that of a god. He relied on this method, and even the avatar of the Dream God spent a great deal of effort to find him when he was hiding, let alone Bi Fang.

He became one of the people who disappeared during the battle.

At this moment, Yun Ziliang arrived with the dragon, pursued from the front by the King of Xishan Fox Fur, and from behind by the Earth Child throwing out the Soul Banner, using demonic sounds to interfere with Bifang.

Two powerful figures, each with the strength of nine incense sticks, joined forces to exert pressure, which even Bi Fang found difficult to withstand.

Yun Ziliang, however, felt the time was right, so he used the dragon's power to severely injure Bifang... even if it wasn't a severe injury, it would be good to leave this god-level being slightly bruised. "Jingchuan Dragon, entangled with Five Thunderbolts."

Yun Ziliang's figure was only inches away from Bifang, and the dragon was known for its fierceness. Upon receiving the command, it burrowed into Bifang's body.

"You wretched beast..."

Bi Fang was attacked from both sides, so he swirled a gust of wind with his right hand to block Yun Ziliang's giant dragon.

This wind contains the divine power of Bifang.

The wind is invisible, but it seems to carry the accelerated flow of time. When the fierce and incomparable Jingchuan dragon entered that wind, it rapidly aged. Its scales and divine lightning were etched with aged patterns by the rapidly passing time.

In just a few moments, it felt like a thousand years had passed.

The divine lightning was rapidly dimming, and the dragon's majestic scales were curling up piece by piece, losing their luster and falling off its body in patches.

The shed scales, in the winds of time, turned into a wisp of white smoke. That wisp of smoke did not drift beyond the reach of the wind, but was directly annihilated in time.

The dragon was magnificent, but due to its rapid aging, its body shrank quickly. In the blink of an eye, its body was less than three feet long.

Even though it was only three feet long, Yun Ziliang's fighting spirit remained strong, because he discovered that the divine power in the wind was also being exhausted, forcing the great dragon to age at a slower and slower pace.

“Even if the dragon is only three feet long, I am still confident that it can penetrate the divine wind of Bifang and tear off one of his arms.”

The clashes between deities and religious figures are always like this; victory or defeat hinges on a single, intimate moment.
Opportunities are fleeting.
Yun Ziliang believed he had seized an opportunity and continued to guide the dragon toward Bifang.

Finally, just as the wind was about to disappear, only an inch of divine lightning remained suspended in the air from the Great Dragon of Jingchuan.

The dragon is dead, the divine thunder has lost its guidance, and Yun Ziliang has lost his greatest trump card, but he feels that there is still a chance.

He is a domineering person, especially in the battles between the gods and the incense. His domineering personality makes him always forge ahead. Once he sets his mind on something, he will not hesitate to pay a great price.

Without much thought, Yun Ziliang instinctively grasped the divine thunder and reached his hand into the remnant divine wind.

Although the divine wind is already broken, its remaining divine power will cause Yun Ziliang's right hand to age rapidly.

But Yun Ziliang was gambling, gambling that his right hand could withstand the aging, or rather, that he would sacrifice one of his hands and use divine lightning to tear off a section of Bifang's arm.

Trading an eight-incense stick's worth of hand for a god-level hand is worth it.

He grasped Shen Lei's right hand and probed into Shen Feng inch by inch. A large amount of life force was extracted from Yun Ziliang's arm at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Just a little bit more, just a little bit more, and I could have crippled Bifang's hand."

His eyes were fixed on Bifang; because it was a matter of "fortune favors the bold," he was exceptionally focused.

He was so focused that he didn't even notice the fluctuation of perception behind him.

Even though he sensed that power, it was of no use, because it came too fast and too quickly, so fast that few people in the world could react in time.

"Old Yun, behind you!" King Xishan was the first to sense the power and loudly reminded Yun Ziliang.

Just as Yun Ziliang turned his head, another Bifang appeared behind him, stabbing his back with a folding fan.

Why are there two Bifang?

The earth child was immediately stunned.

"Because we were already in his dreams."

Zhou Xuan's voice appeared later than his figure.

After releasing the concealment of "Turtle Breathing for a Thousand Years", he first stood behind Yun Ziliang and activated the "Star Law".

Besides the skills of the Five Incense Sticks, Zhou Xuan also possesses the "Law of Destiny" in the first realm and the "Law of Stars" in the third realm.

The laws of the stars include both indestructible "celestial bodies" and the art of "transforming into a star" that can turn one's body into nothingness.

At this moment, Zhou Xuan activated his celestial body, his body becoming like a block of blue ice, using his own body to forcefully confront Bi Fang's folding fan.

"clang!"

The folding fan made a clanging sound after colliding with the celestial body.

Even with the Star Laws of the Third Realm, Zhou Xuan, after his divine incantation, was only at the level of seven incense sticks in battle, a far cry from Bi Fang's level of nine incense sticks or higher.

The blow from this fan made Zhou Xuan feel as if his body was about to break apart, as if a towering mountain was pressing down on him, causing his bones to break and his tendons to snap.

The power in Bi Fang's hand surged forth like a mighty river, and Zhou Xuan had no choice but to release his perception to sense Yun Ziliang's location.

When he sensed that Yun Ziliang was no longer behind him, he quickly activated the "Star Transformation" technique of the Star Law, turning his body into nothingness. He instantly became like a shadow without any substance, dissipating Bi Fang's excess strength.

"Zhou Xuan, you can actually see through my storyteller's dream?"

Bi Fang's attack, which was originally meant to kill Yun Ziliang, was blocked by Zhou Xuan using the Star Law.

This made him feel extremely frustrated.

“I cannot see through your dream, but I do know that even if a Celestial God is attacked by two Nine Incense Sticks disciples, he would never be unable to strike the sledgehammer.”

Zhou Xuan was also a storyteller, so he naturally knew that all the storyteller's techniques were activated by the wooden clapper.

If a god-level being can't even strike the awakening wood, what right does he have to stay in the heavens for three hundred years?
However, Zhou Xuan dared not be certain that Bi Fang had indeed experienced a dream – because he truly did not perceive the essence of a dream.

So he simply went into hiding and waited to see what would happen.

Fortunately, he had a keen sense of combat, otherwise, Yun Ziliang would have been stabbed right through the heart.

At this moment, everyone around them suddenly realized that their struggle with Bi Fang was nothing more than a storyteller's dream.

The real Bifang lurks in dreams.

"The storyteller strolling leisurely."

Like everyone else, Mr. Bai Liu finally saw through Bi Fang's scheme.

The third skill of a storyteller, "strolling leisurely," is that the storyteller can come and go freely in the dreams he creates.

It appears in my dream one moment and disappears from it the next.

Meanwhile, King Xishan and Ditong were still besieging the "fake Bifang in the dream." As they fought, Ditong asked Mr. Bailiu, "Old Bai, how come this fake Bifang is so powerful?"

"Boss, that's another technique we storytellers use—divine intervention in dreams, which is extremely difficult to deal with."

Mr. Bai Liu was also filled with emotion when he said this. He had been a storyteller for most of his life, and with Meng Yu'er by his side, he had never realized that Bi Fang had already dreamed.

The strength of a celestial deity is truly beyond human comprehension.

"Everyone, please note that Bifang can create dreams without striking a wooden block; he only needs to speak to create dreams."

Zhou Xuan made another judgment.

"They didn't even need to use the gavel to wake him?" Yuan Buyu looked at Zhou Xuan, wondering how his precious disciple had managed to identify him.

“Master, with my strong senses and keen perception, how could I not hear the sound of the wooden clapper? I didn’t hear it, which means that Bifang did not strike the wooden clapper. But dreams need sound to be driven, so I guessed that he creates dreams by talking.”

Zhou Xuan said this.

“Zhou Xuan, I have to admit that you are very difficult to deal with. You have already seen through this dream technique, but it doesn’t matter. I will just try a different approach.”

"I, Bifang, am not confident of victory today, but even if I perish here, I will take a few people with me."

“Zhou Lingyi is your sister, and she is very good to you; Yuan Buyu is your master, and he regards you as his successor; Yun Ziliang has lived with you for many days and is both a teacher and a friend… If they were to die in front of you, you would probably spend the rest of your life in regret and remorse.”

Bi Fang has already named names; he not only said it, but also made that decision.

Since death is inevitable, it's better to take a few with you before you die, so that Zhou Xuan can experience the pain of losing his closest relatives and friends.

"Then I'll see what other tricks you have up your sleeve to stir up trouble again, you unlucky bastard."

Zhou Xuan immediately raised one finger and said, "However, I must remind you, this is the first time."

"I'll remember this, the first time."

He emphasized it again.

"The first time what?" Bi Fang asked.

But Zhou Xuan deliberately remained silent, his hands behind his back, refusing to continue the conversation.

"What exactly is this 'first time' you're talking about?"

"Guess for yourself," Zhou Xuan said with a cold laugh.

"I don't care about your first time or second time... I only care about how I do things."

The irritability in Bi Fang's voice had lessened somewhat. He said, as if in a show of defiance, "The eighth level of a storyteller's technique is called 'entering dreams with dreams.' I will plant my dreams into your bodies, and those of you who have been planted with dreams will be at my disposal."

After he let out a loud laugh, the atmosphere in Mr. Ye's establishment changed completely.

This place resembled an ancient altar, with early inhabitants dressed in black hoodies everywhere.
Zhou Xuan and the others were among them. The sacrifices performed by those ancestors were extremely cruel. They involved hanging several adult men upside down from trees, and then having the tribe's henchmen peel off their skin.

Such methods are naturally extremely painful, and their eyes were filled with resentment as they looked at Zhou Xuan and his group.

This glance
Everyone felt a jolt of energy.

"Alas, praise be to the god of dreams."

"God of Dreams, bestow blessings upon us."

The ancestors immediately knelt down and kowtowed, their expressions frantic.

Seeing this, Zhou Xuan released his perception and carefully examined the surroundings.

The voice of Bifang echoed in this grand dream of "ancestral worship".

"Zhou Xuan, among you, two people have already fallen victim to my dream-entering-dream technique. You're so clever, can you guess who they are?"

"I'm warning you beforehand, you have to kill the people whose dreams I've planted in your heads. Otherwise, they will kill you. Don't be merciful... whatever you do, don't..."

Bifang's mournful, sinister laughter drifted through my dreams...

(End of this chapter)