Dream Walker: Feng Shui Master Bai Ya

Shang Muchen really didn't want to deal with Li Dingduo, so he ignored him and stopped talking to him, leaning against the wall to doze off.

Li Ding couldn't stay still. Even with his hand injured, he wouldn't behave. Seeing that Shang Muchen ignored him, he went to chat with Tang Jianli.

Tang Jianli ignored him. Feeling bored by himself, he crawled to the doorway and leaned against the iron bars to watch the legal education television program being shown in the cell across the street.

The afternoon passed quickly, and dinner was bland and tasteless.

After watching the news and educational programs in the canteen for a while, Shang Muchen returned to his cell, washed up, and went to bed.

Lying in bed, Shang Muchen recalled his life during military training, and it felt pretty much the same.

The lights in the detention center were turned off early. Although there were several hundred people living there, the whole building was as quiet as if no one was there. Apart from the occasional clattering sound of a small ball falling from the ceiling, there was no other sound.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but Shang Muchen still couldn't fall asleep. The tension and alertness made him feel uncomfortable all over.

The cell housed six people, but three were sleeping in it. Tang Jianli slept on the outermost bed, Li Ding snored loudly on the middle bed, and Shang Muchen was on the innermost bed, his head facing the small warehouse with its iron gate tightly locked.

As night deepened, moonlight filtered through the iron bars of the windows, casting dappled shadows inside the room.

The moon's shadow moved slowly, gradually rising from the ground and clinging to the wall.

The moment the mottled shadow touched the iron door of the small warehouse, Shang Muchen suddenly realized that the shadow seemed to crack.

Like bacteria undergoing mitosis, the striped, alternating black and white shadows also slowly separated, gradually deformed, and began to wander around.

Shang Muchen clearly saw a shadow slowly climb onto Li Ding's body and suddenly envelop him.

In an instant, Li Ding's snoring stopped.

It wasn't just snoring; there seemed to be no breathing at all.

Another shadow slowly drifted over Tang Jianli. Tang Jianli seemed to sense something, cleared his throat, and waved his hand haphazardly as if swatting away a mosquito. The shadow dodged away.

Finally, a shadowy figure crawled towards Shang Muchen.

Shang Muchen was initially terrified, but found himself completely unable to move. His entire body was in a state of sleep-stiffness, and he could only let the shadow slowly climb up his legs, waist, and chest like quicksand.

Just as the shadow climbed onto his neck, Shang Muchen suddenly felt that he could move again.

He sprang to his feet with a somersault, launched himself forward, and flew off the bed, slowly landing on the ground.

The moment he landed, Shang Muchen realized that his physical body was still lying on the bed, only his soul had flown out.

Similar situations have occurred several times before.

At Liu Qingyang's house, in his own haunted house, whenever he was suddenly frightened during sleep paralysis, this out-of-body experience would occur. Shang Muchen was used to it.

After leaving his physical body, Shang Muchen felt light and airy.

Although I could still feel the downward pull of gravity, my feet felt light and airy, as if I were standing on a trampoline in an amusement park, swaying back and forth.

After experiencing several unusual phenomena, Shang Muchen himself had some reflections.

Actually, from childhood to adulthood, I've always lived in a daze, like a kindergarten stroller that, once you put in a coin, will wobble and sing "Daddy's daddy is called grandpa."

When no one inserts coins, it's like a pile of trash, left in a corner and ignored by everyone.

Going to school, taking exams, being busy, busy doing nothing, and somehow I've drifted into my twenties.

All along, I have had no awareness whatsoever of my own body, mind, or even my "eyes".

When they see something delicious, they think about eating it;

Seeing money evokes a bitter resentment, making me feel that I have no money and that life is truly unfair;

Seeing my father, I feel both annoyed and afraid, yet I also love him and can't live without him;

Seeing myself in the mirror—no, I've never really looked at myself in the mirror properly.

If I were to pick up a pen and draw what I look like, or even describe in words what I actually look like, I simply couldn't do it.

Has anyone ever experienced this state of "being aware of dreams within dreams" or even "out-of-body experience" since childhood?

Actually, I did, but I didn't care and forgot about it.

Have you never had the experience of having your "insight" open and seeing through the surface to the essence of things since childhood?

It seems that it did happen, but I always ignored it and forgot about it.

My brother is right. The word "experience" is the most important meaning of life.

Since learning feng shui from my fourth uncle, I don't know why, but I have gradually become more aware and can perceive that I am experiencing life.

Since experiencing this sense of detachment, Shang Muchen began to feel that life is wonderful and the world is beautiful.

The sky is blue, and birds often fly across it.

Birds do sing, and different birds actually sing in different ways.

These are such ordinary things that I had never paid any attention to them before.

Unconsciously, Shang Muchen felt himself becoming more sensitive.

Perhaps it was living in a haunted house and being driven by the elusive ghost neighbors that Shang Muchen's observation skills improved significantly.

As expected, Uncle Si was right. Back then, in order to cultivate his "inner eye," he slept in a cemetery—sleeping in a haunted house himself—forcing himself to become more perceptive.

As your observation skills become sharper, your awareness will improve. Even during sleep, you will gradually become less confused. Seven or eight out of ten times, you will be able to clearly know that you are sleeping and experiencing dreams.

In special circumstances, such as tonight's tense state, one could easily fly out of the body with a little effort—although this process is very unscientific and completely incomprehensible.

However, Shang Muchen wasn't a science student who knew much about science. Perhaps science could explain things like "out-of-body experiences," but he really didn't know.

Floating on the cell floor, it felt like walking on cotton clouds. To move, you couldn't just take a step; you needed to use a "slippery" motion, similar to rollerblading.

This wasn't the first time Shang Muchen had experienced these things, and he had already gained some experience.

What's really amazing is that after leaving the body, the senses are actually enhanced.

The cell was originally very dark, with only a small window with iron bars that let in light. But what Shang Muchen saw at this moment was a scene as clear as if everything was emitting background light.

In addition to sight, hearing and touch also seem to be enhanced; you can clearly feel the "texture" of anything you touch.

The iron bed is cynical, the cotton quilt is aggrieved and resentful, the wooden table is boring and world-weary, and the floor is sarcastic. Subconsciously, everything is given strange meaning.

After pondering for a while, Shang Muchen's mind gradually calmed down, and he remembered that he had been forced to escape from his physical body by the "crawling shadow".

Turning his head and seeing himself sleeping on the bed, Shang Muchen felt he had gotten used to it.

Looking up unintentionally, Shang Muchen suddenly saw a monster floating in mid-air above the prison cell—an ouroboros!

The dappled shadows that roamed around the room were actually two-dimensional shadows cast by this ouroboros in the void!