The Nightmare Experience of a Useless Person

The man's strong hand stroked the little fox's back, finally resting on its soft, fluffy tail, gently combing its messy fur.

Bai Chan tensed up, feeling Mangya's increasingly intrusive approach.

"Can't!"

His hand, like a slender snake, coiled around Bai Chan's tail. Instantly, the sensitive nerves hidden beneath the fur felt as if they had been touched by the frost of winter, causing the little fox to shiver.

Bai Chan glared at him in embarrassment and anger, only to see the culprit smiling innocently.

He's innocent. Yeah, right.

"Don't touch a fox's tail..." Bai Chan's eyes were flushed.

She was unwilling to reject her lover's intimacy, but the sudden encounter, the sudden love, the sudden confession and the wedding all broke through Bai Chan's boundaries too quickly.

"Can't my husband do it too?" He put on a wronged look, but his hands didn't stop moving at all.

This feeling disgusted Bai Chan, and she uncontrollably revealed her fox claws, letting her sharp claws gently caress the swollen veins on his neck.

With just a little more force, just a tiny bit more, the man before her would submit to her claws, and she could rise to power, making everything he did her way. But she couldn't; he was her lover. To kill him would be to kill their love.

The little fox closed its eyes tightly, carefully sensing Mangya's movements. Perhaps this was not an offense, but rather a heartfelt affection.

It's sweet.

She thought, the instinct to overcome moving things must be love.

So she gave up resisting and let herself be swept away by her racing heartbeat.

The red candles before them flickered; from this day forward, they would be husband and wife, sharing joys and sorrows, and dreams together.

The days that followed were also very pleasant. Bai Chan liked this unguarded version of herself. She could laugh out loud, feel annoyed or angry, or even cry her heart out without caring. Her lover would accept everything about her.

Ferry the dream boat with Mangya, feel the river breeze with Mangya, teach Mangya to write his name in the sand, listen to Mangya tell stories of the creatures that come and go in the Dream Abyss, let Mangya guide your insufficient cultivation, or, in the quiet night, explore the clouds and rain with Mangya.

Love can soften the heart, but it can also numb the hands and feet. Compared to the happiness that is within reach, those distant hometowns, dear family members, and the myriad things in the world are much easier to forget.

She's happy, and that's enough.

In his hazy memory, only the scent remained lingering. Lately, a subtle aroma of wine had been permeating the air around Linmengyuan, which Bai Chan keenly noticed. "Mangya, can you smell wine?"

"The taste of alcohol? I don't know what alcohol tastes like, but I do know that there's no alcohol in Linmengyuan. Are you hallucinating because you're too eager to drink?"

"A hallucination?" Bai Chan didn't believe it. If it happened once, it was a hallucination, but how could it be a hallucination three or four times?

The biting river wind carried a faint, lingering aroma of wine, which drifted slowly towards her and brushed against her face. Just this slight scent was enough to whet Bai Chan's appetite; she hadn't had a drink in far too long.

Drinking, drinking, drinking... She remembered the rumor again. Wasn't the reason she came to Linmengyuan in the first place to find the legendary Obsession Wine?

A fascination buried beneath the abyss, sealed away for millennia.

"Let's go into the water and look for it, maybe?" Bai Chan suggested several times, but Mangya stopped her each time. The more she tried to stop him, the stronger the aroma of wine in the air became; it was an obsession calling to her!

Self-reliance leads to abundance; if Mangya refuses to help, then rely on yourself! But gazing at the unfathomable, endless river, Bai Chan still felt a little apprehensive. She tentatively stretched out her toes, letting the river water wash over her ankles.

Aside from feeling a bit cold, she didn't feel anything at all. It wasn't like what Mangya had said about a burning sensation. Bai Chan swung her legs even more boldly, kicking up splashes of water. What Mangya, what Dream God, they were not as good as her, the little fox. It seemed that she and this Obsessive Wine had a preordained fate!

Bai Chan's confidence surged, and she plunged into the water with a splash. The river was murky, and she struggled to open her eyes, trying to discern directions as she searched straight for the bottom of the river.

The abyss is a deep chasm, a trap from which one cannot escape, but also an opportunity for the vast ocean to break free from its constraints. He stood not far away, silently watching the little fox jump into the abyss.

He'll be able to leave here soon, very soon.

The wind that had been blowing over Linmengyuan for a thousand years was the first time he felt so cold. His legs trembled uncontrollably on the vast cliff, and the icy river water splashed high into the air, dripping onto his heart and numbing his meridians.

He'll be able to leave soon, very soon. But...

What should he do? He wanted to speak up. If he just told her that the obsessive rumors were fabricated by him, and that the faint aroma of wine was not an accident at all, she would stop, she would turn around, she would... see through his despicable and selfish behavior, and then leave...

Mangya hesitated, and in that one second of hesitation, everything was irreversible. His decaying, stinking soul would rot completely, sinking into oblivion along with the only glimmer of light in this void of time.

……

The abyss was shrouded in darkness. Bai Chan swam for a long time, but still felt she couldn't reach the bottom, nor could she judge how deep she had descended. Danger was approaching step by step. The fox was still shrewd; she decisively abandoned further progress, pinched her nose, and began to surface.

But she underestimated the coldness of the river. It was like a ravenous beast, greedily stripping away her body heat. Soon, her limbs began to stiffen, and her strength rapidly dissipated.

No, no, it's not just hypothermia, her spiritual power is also dissipating!

Her body grew weak and her consciousness began to blur. As the two slightly separated, Bai Chan seemed to sense that she was not the only one in the river!

The faint, scattered remnants of the Nightmare Beasts were nurtured by the turbid water. Their joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness pierced through Bai Chan's skin and seeped into his body, with extreme and frenzied emotions taking turns to dominate his reason.

Fear, ecstasy, grief, jealousy, rage—emotions that didn't belong to Bai Chan, even her last fear, were completely devoured. They were like a hand tightly gripping her heart, squeezing her internal organs until they bled. It hurt so much, it hurt so much…

Is she going to die? She's a fox, you know. Can a fox with two tails really die?

The last bit of air escaped from her mouth, and her body slowly sank. She gave up, letting her spiritual energy dissipate and enduring the pain.

In her blurry vision, she seemed to see someone approaching, with strong arms supporting her back.

It's Mangya now, I can rest easy. If it's him, he can definitely bring me home safely. That's wonderful, I haven't trusted the wrong person in my life. But it's also terrible, my lover saw me in this embarrassing state...