No, gentlemen also guard against

Chapter 879 Meeting the Immortal
It was already evening when the five of them returned.

The high platform in the center of the Dripping Cave Hall was empty.

There was no sign of Uncle Tang.

At the same time, the sunlight that fell from the top of the cave during the day had disappeared, replaced by a faint silvery moonlight.

It shone in obliquely and fell on the bizarrely shaped cave wall.

Under the silver light, the inverted stalactites look like falling stars, and the tall stalagmites look like rising earth.

The sound of dripping water is endless, like a hum, reminding visitors that this is a masterpiece carved over thousands of years.

The strange stalactites around are rich in trace minerals. Under the refraction of moonlight, they are sometimes covered with warm orange-red; sometimes they are deep gray-black.

It is unknown how long this wonder of dripping cave hidden inside the mountain has been formed. Perhaps it is even older than Yunmeng Jianze. It has existed since the day when the first Yue Chuzi founded the sect. Over the past thousand years, it has witnessed the legends of many female monarchs.

A thousand-year-old cave with mottled moonlight.

It was already night, and there were no torches in the Dripping Cave. The moonlight coming down from the cave ceiling and the colorful stalactites were too weak, making the hall a little dim.

Although hundreds of girls gathered, they could only vaguely see the blurry figures of people in the distance.

The hall was dim, but the sound of girls chattering or muttering could be heard. They all held a wooden sign with the number of steps engraved on it, and seemed to be exchanging their results.

A dozen or so Yue women with official titles stood quietly around the hall. The colorful light from the stalactites above flowed on their snow-white Wu costumes, making it seem like a dream for a moment.

They did not restrict the actions and words of these new Yue women as long as they did not leave the cave hall. However, they looked at them gently, as if they were waiting for something.

There are more than a dozen corridors around the Dripping Cave Hall, which seem to lead to many places. This hall should also be a commonly used gathering place.

The girls who had completed the Vietnamese girl assessment were scattered in the hall in groups of two or three.

After several days of getting along, everyone has already formed some familiar friends, such as the small circle of Song Zhian, Yu Xiaoniang and Ouyang Rong.

As the five of them passed through the dim corridor and entered the hall, some girls around cast their eyes at them.

However, Ouyang Rong discovered that their eyes were all looking at Song Zhian, paying attention to her.

As a girl from Bashu, Song Zhian was quite tall, unlike the traditional girls from the southern Wu and Yue regions who were petite and delicate. In addition, she was quite recognizable among this group of Yue girls. In addition, her outstanding performance in the previous rounds should have attracted the attention of some opponents...

The five people stopped at the edge of the dripping cave and did not squeeze in. They were the second to last group to return, and all the other seats in the hall were occupied, so there was really no need to squeeze in.

In addition, the voice of Lu Jinghong's question was also heard. The five of them stopped where they were and became quiet, as if they were thinking about their response.

Miss Yu put away the snack bag, wiped the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, and asked quietly:
"I forgot. My dream seemed to include my mother, you guys, and bad guys... But we seemed to work together to beat the bad guys away, and then we went to a roadside tavern to eat a particularly bad meal, and most importantly, it was very expensive... Oh, by the way, I also dreamed that Brother Liu was very powerful. It turned out that he was a low-key master. He saved us together with Sister Song when we were in the most dangerous time..."

"What a mess." Lu Jinghong was a little speechless and asked, "Didn't you say you could have lucid dreams? How come you forgot so quickly? Are you lucid or not?"

Miss Yu raised her head and chest and said with reason:

"It was a lucid dream. I was awake at the time, and I knew I was dreaming, so I ordered all the dishes I wanted to eat and all the delicacies I had never eaten before to try... But, in the end, this was a nightmare, not a good thing. Why would I remember it so clearly after waking up? Isn't that stupid? Anyway, I forgot most of it after waking up. I'm too lazy to recall it. My memory is all fuzzy and I forgot the details."

The more Lu Jinghong listened, the more speechless he became, but after thinking about it, it seemed that this was indeed a job that Miss Yu could do.

Ouyang Rong glanced at the carefree Miss Yu, nodded, and echoed:
"Me too, I can't remember clearly."

Sha Ergou was silent for a moment, then spoke:
"I dreamed about my sister. In the dream, it seemed like something happened to her, and the boss came to inform me... The situation in the dream was exactly the same as the real thing. I thought it was real at the time and just wanted to go find my sister immediately, but along the way, it seemed that there were always other things popping up, hindering me, and they just didn't want me to go.

"I can only watch those bad guys outside bullying my sister. I am so anxious... These bad guys seem to be those corrupt officials outside."

The short-haired young man gritted his teeth.

Ouyang Rong, who had a dull expression, looked sideways slightly. He made an exception and asked:
"Where is your sister now?"

Sha Ergou shook his head, his eyes a little confused:
"My sister used to work in Taoyuan Town and would send some money back every month. Later, she came back and helped to patch up the hole in the thatched house roof. She also spent money to move my parents' graves together, erected a new tombstone and repaired it. This saved them from having to go to the lake to pay homage every Qingming Festival.

"She also said she had saved some money for me to find a wife. I didn't want it, but she forced it on me. I told her to give the money to her, but on the morning she left, she secretly put it in my shoe..."

Sha Ergou was not well educated and had trouble finding the main point in his speech, but Ouyang Rong and Song Zhian did not interrupt him, and even Lu Jinghong, who had the least patience, did not make a sound.

Ouyang Rong asked again:
"Why did she leave the money? Why didn't she take it with her? Where is she going? Is it dangerous?"

The short-haired young man choked up as he spoke:

"My sister said she was going to go out with her boss to do some business, which was a bit far. She said she would bring me some delicious food when she came back, but... she hasn't come back yet...

"I came to Taoyuan Town this time because I wanted to look for her, but I was afraid of delaying my sister. Her employer is very generous and honest, and gave her a lot of money. I was afraid of disturbing her. I finally mustered up the courage to look for her, but I got lost and couldn't contact anyone..."

Song Zhian asked in a gentle voice:
"What's your sister's name? We can ask her for you when you return to Taoyuan Town some other day."

Sha Ergou scratched his head and said gratefully:
"Oh, my sister's name is Sha Daya...so my name is Sha Ergou."

Ouyang Rong nodded: "That makes sense."

The corner of Lu Jinghong's mouth twitched slightly.

What strange names, duck and dog.

"What about Miss Song? What nightmare?" he suddenly asked.

Song Zhian was silent for a moment and shook her head gently:

"These are some tragic things I saw when I encountered the chaos and war in Jiannan Road. It has been a long time, and I had almost forgotten them. But this time when I entered the palace, I had a nightmare and remembered everything. In the dream, they were all connected together, which was quite scary..."

She took a deep breath, stopped talking, and said in a very affirmative tone:
"It's great here in Tiannan. I...I never want to go back to my hometown again."

Lu Jinghong nodded in agreement:

"In Jiannan Road, the emperor is far away, and there are indeed many corrupt officials, especially the pacification envoy named An, who made a mess of Jiannan Road. The key is that the court indulged him and decentralized power, making him like a local emperor.

“In addition, right now in the southwest, Li Zhengyan and the Kuangfu Army are in rebellion, and the court needs the help of Jiannan Road to send troops to attack from both sides together with General Qin’s expeditionary army. This will cause the power of the man surnamed An to become even greater, and the court will also have to protect him.

"But, in the final analysis, the government offices all over the world are the same, oppressing the people, the only difference is the severity... This is why I don't want to follow the path of my father and become an official. I can't do such things as oppressing the people. On the contrary, it's easy to offend people by showing disdain. If I were in such a situation, I would be corrupted by the company I keep... I still prefer to be a swordsman."

Song Zhian looked at Lu Jinghong's expression carefully and nodded slowly:

"Indeed, Master Lu, that's a good point."

Sha Ergou also puffed up his cheeks: "My sister said that those corrupt officials out there deserve to die."

Miss Yu remembered something and asked curiously:
"What did Master Lu dream about? What did you just say about cannibalism? What's that about?"

Lu Jinghong suddenly became quiet. Everyone saw that he seemed to tighten the sword in his arms. After a while, he took a deep breath and slowly said:
"It was just a weird dream. Don't laugh at me when I tell you this. I dreamed that I had mastered swordsmanship and cultivated a lot of skills in Yunmeng Sword Lake. One day, I received a message from the eldest lady. It turned out to be from my aunt. My aunt seemed to be in danger, so I went to look for her with my sword. On the way, I met some companions. You seemed to be there, but you also seemed not to be there. I forgot. Anyway, we were a group of people traveling together..."

"We arrived at the place where my aunt had sent the message, which was an island in the North Sea. We took a boat there. While sailing on the sea, we suddenly encountered a strange fox. We didn't know if it was a fox, but its face looked like a fox. It could swim freely in the sea and followed the boat all the way... At first everything was fine, but halfway through, we suddenly encountered a storm. The boat was severely damaged, the deck was damaged, and it started to leak. There was no room for many people, and some people began to fall off...

"Every time a person fell, the fox would eat him. Its appetite was like a bottomless pit. It kept following and ate everyone one by one... We rowed in panic, but there were fewer and fewer people. Later, there was even an internal conflict... Later we found out that it could speak human language. It was so weird. It kept teasing us. In the end, when we were close to the shore, it asked us to vote and only one person could live..."

Song Zhian frowned and asked:

"What a weird dream. Who did you choose in the end?"

Lu Jinghong lowered his head and murmured:

“I forgot what happened afterwards, but in the end… I don’t know why, but it spared me and let me onto the island, but it ate everyone else, including the people who voted for it. In the end, I was the only one left… I went all the way to the island and thought I had escaped and found my aunt, but then the fox came out again. This time, it ate my aunt directly. Even my aunt, who had great magical powers, couldn’t fight back. I… I was scared to death. It was too scary.

“After it finished eating, it changed into my aunt’s appearance and talked to me… This demon seemed to be able to change into the appearance of the person it ate. It smiled and asked me if I wanted to become an immortal… I was so scared that I didn’t answer.

"It told me as if it was chatting that it actually didn't like to eat humans because it would only increase its karma, waste its stomach, and cause digestion problems. It asked me not to misunderstand it. It said it was an immortal, and its favorite food was... was..."

Ouyang Rong suddenly asked: "What is your favorite food?"

Lu Jinghong rubbed his face vigorously, his eyes showing some fear left over from a nightmare:

"It said that it just saw my aunt and me, and its appetite was whetted, so it ate some pre-meal dessert. Its favorite food was my aunt and me...

"It also said that we were born to be eaten by it, and that we are also the luckiest and can become immortals with it and live forever."

There was some silence among the five of them.

Ouyang Rong listened silently, with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

He had experienced the strangeness of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity before, but today's third level of assessment was conducted in the outer hall of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity. Judging by the concentration of white fog and its safety, if he guessed correctly, the place with white fog that trapped his "mind" yesterday should be the inner hall of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity.

The "heart-nourishing white mist" in the inner hall is thicker and more dangerous.

The effect of the thin white mist in the outer hall was slightly weakened, but it could also evoke some things hidden deep in everyone's hearts.

Judging from the dream descriptions of the four friends, this nightmare may have been experienced before, or it may be in the subconscious, or it may be a worry in the mind...

It’s not clear whether it’s true or not, and it doesn’t even matter. What’s important is that the white mist can bring out these things in everyone’s mind, turning them into nightmares to train everyone’s mental toughness.

After all, they are all a group of young girls and boys, and most of them have not experienced the "heart-nourishing dead end" that made them soberly involved but terrifying when they thought about it carefully last night.

It is more of a nightmare alternative.

Lu Jinghong's nightmare of encountering a man-eating fox demon was definitely not something he had experienced before. It was probably a foreshadowing of some kind of mental anxiety. As for whether it was true or not...all we can say is that many of the various elements that were pieced together might be true.

The same should be true for Sha Ergou's nightmare and Song Zhiruo's nightmare that she didn't mention.

In fact, we can see something from the fact that the Queen Mother's Palace uses this level as a test of one's mental toughness.

Senior Sister Yuan and the others did not ask in detail, nor did they care about the nightmares of the teenagers. They only paid attention to how many steps they took forward in the nightmare dilemma, and used it as the purest assessment indicator...

Therefore, nightmares should not involve any important prophecies.

However, Lu Jinghong's cannibalistic nightmare is indeed weird enough.

Ouyang Rong, an "old customer of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity", had roughly anticipated the nightmares of Sha Ergou, Song Zhian and others, but Lu Jinghong's was so strange and outrageous.

So, what elements are hidden beneath the surface of his subconscious that unconsciously pieced together this terrifying nightmare?
In addition, for some reason, Ouyang Rong had a vague feeling of déjà vu about the man-eating fox in Lu Jinghong's dream...

(End of this chapter)