The road is vague

Chapter 9: Misty Box

at night.

Listening to the sound of thunder and rain outside, Li Mo gradually fell asleep and entered into a vague dream again.

The summer floods came and thunderstorms continued. Li Mo felt that the frequency of his entering the ethereal dream had increased significantly, but the situation this time seemed a little different from the previous times he entered the ethereal dream.

Li Mo, who seemed a little confused in his dream, instinctively looked down at his feet.

It was a slightly abrupt shadow.

The reason why it is a bit abrupt is that this shadow is constantly flickering, just like the fleeting lightning in the sky, leaving a brief light and shadow in the dark clouds.

Because he was in a dream at the moment, Li Mo did not react much to this.

He stopped and observed for a moment, then looked up at the sky. It seemed as if a huge monster was passing through the dark clouds. Its shadow flashed by, and he couldn't see clearly what it was.

So Li Mo continued to walk forward with a confused look in his eyes.

He walked forward for a long time on the boundless ancient land, but still did not find any changes. Although he was in a dream at this moment, he gradually became a little anxious.

Sudden.

Li Mo stopped again and looked at his shadow that appeared and disappeared from time to time. Every time the lightning flashed, the shadow seemed to be struggling hard to break free.

"Thunder and lightning?"

The thought flashed through his mind, and the confused Li Mo suddenly shuddered!
He instinctively lowered his head and saw that the original shadow on the ground suddenly turned into himself in his dream, lying on the bed with his legs spread out. It was as if he was looking at his real self through a mirror.

The self in the dream turned into a constantly flickering shadow without any entity.

At this moment, his soul seemed to have completed the exchange between the dream shadow and the real body, and he was looking at everything that happened from another perspective.

So Li Mo in the dream seemed to gradually wake up, gain rationality, and also develop a little fear of the unknown, no longer acting instinctively as before in ignorance and confusion.

"How could this be?"

Li Mo stood in the empty and misty land. He felt extremely lonely. It seemed that this was a world belonging to him alone. He looked down at his hands, which were constantly changing in light and darkness. Fear gradually overcame curiosity. Then he felt like a drowning man, feeling that the surrounding space was pressing towards him. He kept struggling, trying to grab something.

In a daze.

Li Mo faintly heard countless beast roars and bursts of murmurs. These sounds were mixed with endless despair and crazy evil intentions. They came one after another from the depths of the ethereal and illusory world, like the echo of flowing light.

They tried desperately to get into Li Mo's head and turn him into a fool and a madman.

"Sun Palace, Piaomiao Peak..."

"Lingzhao Mountain, Goddess Palace..."

Li Mo howled in agony, his eyes bloodshot, and instinctively covered his ears. Wave after wave of drowning-like pain made him struggle continuously. Just before he felt he was about to suffocate, he suddenly sat up, opened his eyes and gasped for breath, and found that it was already dawn outside.

After a long time.

Li Mo's intense heartbeat gradually calmed down, and he swallowed instinctively.

He sat on the bed in a daze for a long time before he gradually realized that he had woken up. He recalled the last few place names he heard and analyzed the mysterious changes in his dream.

After careful recollection and reflection, he came up with several possibilities.

"The Misty Box is a real thing. I am gradually adapting to it, and I will gradually gain rational consciousness in the Misty Dream."

"I've been reading the 'Three Combinations Sword Technique' constantly lately. What I think about during the day, I dream about at night. Therefore, I've also changed in my dreams, just like when I studied medical books and gained many inspirations in my dreams. However, I haven't yet mastered the specific method of improving the 'Three Combinations Sword Technique' in my dreams."

"Perhaps the changes that occurred in this ethereal dream were just a special reaction that happened by chance, or a cyclical reaction... No!"

Li Mo suddenly thought of the hunter who was also influenced by the "Piaomiao Box"!

The reason why he kept muttering about the Sun Palace and Piaomiao Peak and went out to look for them was that, like himself now, he had experienced all kinds of changes in the Piaomiao dream and was affected by the noisy beast roars and inexplicable hums?

After thinking about it for a while, Li Mo sighed.

It’s getting late, time to start a new day’s work.

So Li Mo quickly put on his clothes, washed carefully, and went to the bronze mirror to tidy up his appearance. After he looked radiant, he walked to the front hall and greeted several senior brothers.

Soon people came to seek medical advice, and he became very busy.

After noon.

Li Mo returned from Laoyaling.

He looked a little absent-minded, as if he was still thinking about the vague dream he had last night. He didn't seem to have much emotion about his first solo medical consultation, or perhaps he had already made up his mind.

"Senior Brother Wang."

"Well, Li Mo is back. How's the situation at Old Crow Ridge?"

"It's just a minor illness, nothing serious. The plague probably hasn't spread over there yet."

But only a moment later.

An old man in his fifties ran into the house, gasping for breath.

"My home is in Lihua Village. My son suddenly vomited blood last night and has been unconscious. Doctor, please save my son! I kneel down before you!"

"Pear Blossom Village?"

Li Mo shuddered and woke up.

Seeing that Wang Ben had already picked up the medicine box and left, he immediately shouted, "Brother Wang, wait a moment, I'll go with you!"

Wang Ben was stunned for a moment, but didn't say much. The three of them left quickly.

Lihua Village is very close to Hua'an Town, and the three of them arrived in less than half an hour.

Looking at the unconscious man lying on the bed with blood coming out of his mouth and nose, Wang Ben's face was solemn, revealing a hint of doubt and letting out a low sigh.

"The plague has actually spread here. We can't delay any longer. We must report this to Bai'an County immediately and ask the court to send someone here. Otherwise, if the plague spreads, the consequences will be disastrous!"

Next, Wang Ben prescribed a herbal medicine to calm the mind and replenish qi.

"This medicine can replenish blood and qi, but whether your son can survive this or not depends on himself."

When the old man heard this, his hands trembled and he almost fell down.

The old ladies, women and children nearby were in a mess when they saw this. Some of them knelt on the ground and begged Wang Ben and Li Mo for help, while others cried in panic.

After the two of them opened their oil-paper umbrellas and left the old man's house, Wang Bencai's mood grew increasingly grim. "I feel like something's not right."

"what happened?"

Li Mo, who was originally absent-minded, came back to his senses after hearing what Wang Ben said.

Wang Ben said in a low voice, "As the saying goes, after a disaster, there will be a plague. This is caused by environmental degradation and water pollution. It's a natural law. But this time, the heavy rain hasn't even ended yet, and the plague has already begun to spread. I doubt this is a natural plague."

Having said that, he stopped talking and looked at Li Mo solemnly.

Li Mo's face showed horror.

"You mean, there's an evil spirit causing trouble?"

Wang Ben did not respond, but the solemn expression between his brows was self-evident.

At this time.

The two passed the west end of Lihua Village. There was a simple brick house on the edge of the village with blue smoke coming out of the chimney. This was the hunter's house where Li Mo accompanied Doctor Zhang on his medical rounds. It was also here that Li Mo obtained the "Piaomiao Box".

When Li Mo saw the blue smoke, he knew there was someone at home. After thinking about it, he decided to go and take a look.

"Brother, that's the house of the Jingfeng Hunter that I accompanied Master to visit before. I want to pay a return visit."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ben was stunned for a moment and then showed admiration in his eyes.

"No wonder Doctor Zhang thought so highly of you before. Okay, go ahead. I'll wait for you here."

"No need. This place is not far from the town. Brother, you go back first. I will go back right after I finish my visit."

"Alright."

Wang Ben nodded, holding an oil-paper umbrella and walking away in the heavy rain. Li Mo came to the gate of the hunter's house and knocked gently on the wooden door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me. I came here with Doctor Zhang for treatment before."

Upon hearing this, the stout woman opened the door and was immediately surprised to see Li Mo coming alone.

"Is there a problem?"

Li Mo smiled and said, "I just came to visit and check on your husband's condition. He said he needed to rest for a few months. How is your husband's recovery from the convulsion?"

"It's all right now!"

The woman smiled and said, "He is at home. Come in and take a look."

Li Mo smiled, put away his oil-paper umbrella, and followed the woman into the house. He saw that the hunter had indeed recovered and was leaning on the bed, wondering what he was thinking.

The man didn't look over until Li Mo entered the room.

After learning about Li Mo's purpose, the man revealed a slightly meaningful expression and gestured for the children and women in the house to go to the side room and wait.

"Have you read that book?"

The man asked straight to the point.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Mo's expression became slightly solemn, but he finally nodded slowly.

Seeing this, the man revealed a strange look of pity. He turned his head to look at the heavy rain outside the window and made a low and hoarse sound.

"At first, you'll find it full of novel stories, and you'll be incredibly curious. Then, you'll try every possible way to enter that magical dreamland, and discover that dreams can help you in various ways. You'll be pleasantly surprised by this discovery, and gradually become dependent on it, treating it as your own secret... Until one day, you realize that there's more to it than just a dream."

Li Mo's expression became even more serious when he heard this.

"You've finally reached this point."

However, when the man heard this, he chuckled and turned to look at Li Mo with a mocking look on his face.

"No, I'm long past that stage."

Li Mo's face changed.

"What happened to you?"

The man changed his position and lay on the bed, continuing to respond to Li Mo in a distant voice.

"Then I saw some terrible things, terrible things in real life. They all thought I was crazy. It won't be long before you see those things with your own eyes, just like me."

The man looked at Li Mo with a playful expression, and Li Mo's face became uglier.

"What kind of horrible thing is that?"

The man took a deep breath, then let out a long sigh, without answering.

Li Mo asked, "So you went to look for Piaomiao Peak and the Sun Palace?"

"No, that was just a lie I told them. I was going there to avoid those horrible things, things that were beyond description. I once thought Hua'an Town was a cursed place. I thought as long as I walked far enough, I could leave it. But then I found out... I was wrong."

The man slowly stretched out his left hand and showed it to Li Mo.

Li Mo noticed that the skin on his left hand was very old, like the skin of an elderly person, or the skin of a dead person, but it was now on the body of a middle-aged hunter, which was very unreasonable.

"Then there was Xiyue that year. My hand was only exposed for a few breaths, and it became like this, simply because they saw it."

Having said this, the man's facial expression gradually began to become somewhat hideous and distorted, mixed with emotions of despair, madness, and fear.

"That book gave me a lot, including the ability to see them, but as a price, they will also be able to see me. This may be the real world, a terrifying world, a crazy world, a hopeless world!"

The man ignored Li Mo's increasingly dark face and his expression became more and more crazy, as if he had a mental illness, his eyes were full of hysterical madness.

"Just being seen by them would kill us, like the weeds on the roadside that no one cares about. So when they are most active, we can only curl up in dark corners, like mice, worms, and ants, to avoid being discovered by them. After understanding this, I knew that even if I ran far away, it would be useless. So I came back and gave up the book."

The man looked at Li Mo with a sarcastic look and laughed sinisterly.

"The facts proved that I was right. To enter that dream, I had to use that book as a fulcrum. Without that book, I never saw those horrible things again, nor could I be seen by them. From then on, I returned to my ordinary life and could walk freely on this land. I survived, hehe, hahahaha..."

The woman ran over from the side room and apologized to Li Mo.

Li Mo felt a drop of cold sweat on his forehead. After saying goodbye in a hurry, he left Lihua Village.

(End of this chapter)