GRMFBS CH67

Luan Jin was interrupted before he could even issue his “stand-in” declaration.

The lighting in the banquet hall changed, the music switched, and for a moment, everyone’s gaze focused on the stage.

Today’s birthday boy, Old Master Luan, took the stage.

Zhan Yan looked up. Wasn’t this the old man who bought the antiques? The eldest son standing next to him was the one who had picked the old man up from the teahouse.

Previously, he had been strolling down the street in a short jacket, looking exactly like an ordinary retired grandpa. Today, having changed his clothes, he instantly transformed back into the vigorous head of a wealthy, powerful family.

The old man swept his gaze across the audience as if looking for someone, but there were too many people, and he didn’t find them.

Zhan Yan scrolled vigorously through the gossip. It was his fault; he was so focused on talking about the dream that day that he completely forgot to check the old man’s gossip thread. No wonder the old man had such a meaningful expression when he mentioned he was attending this birthday banquet…

Zhan Yan was so preoccupied with reading gossip that he didn’t pay attention to the proceedings on stage. By the time he snapped back to reality, they were already calling out numbers.

Oh, they had added a lucky draw activity. When they registered at the entrance, everyone was assigned a number in the ledger. Now they were drawing these numbers, and each drawn number won a different prize.

Luan Da was a stern-looking middle-aged man. Holding the last card drawn by the old master, he read out, “Number 66, Zhan Yan.”

Zhan Yan paused for a moment before walking up to the stage.

The old man chuckled and whispered in his ear, “How is it? Surprised?”

Zhan Yan: “Was there really no backroom dealing in drawing me?”

The old man: “Of course I rigged it!”

He even sounded quite proud of it.

“Don’t leave later; I invite you to see my collection.”

The old man’s collection consisted entirely of things related to his dreams. Although he had been scammed by fakes quite a few times when buying, everything that made it into the collection room had been verified and was definitely worth a look.

Old Master Luan spent a little time exchanging necessary pleasantries with people, then dumped the rest of the matters onto his son. He pulled Zhan Yan up toward the third floor and mysteriously said to him, “I’m going to introduce someone to you!”

Upon reaching the third floor, they found a small tearoom just outside the collection room. An old man wearing a long robe with his hair tied in a bun was sitting inside.

Old Master Luan introduced the two.

The tea-drinking man was named Weng Yan. He was said to be a person with a high cultivation level and an old friend of Old Master Luan.

Seeing the two enter, Weng Yan set down his teacup, looked Zhan Yan up and down, and frowned. “Old Luan, I told you not to just bring anyone over.”

Old Master Luan explained to Weng Yan, “Xiao Yan had a dream very similar to mine!”

Weng Yan looked at Zhan Yan suspiciously again. No matter how he looked at it, this kid seemed like someone who couldn’t even open the most basic Yin-Yang Eye.

“You didn’t just casually mention your dream, and had someone overhear it and use it to scam you, did you?”

Zhan Yan: Heh. Whether you’re a scammer yourself is still up in the air.

He started scrolling through the gossip threads.

Oh… this guy was actually the real deal. He was from the Chiyang Sect, had received a proper orthodox inheritance, and possessed actual cultivation.

The reason he was unhappy to see Zhan Yan was because he felt Zhan Yan lacked spiritual energy… lacked spiritual energy…

Zhan Yan’s heart was pierced. Wu wu wu, he really couldn’t even open the Yin-Yang Eye…

Old Master Luan firmly vouched for him: “Impossible! I’ve never told anyone else that the dragon tied itself into a knot!”

Weng Yan once again looked suspiciously at Zhan Yan.

While searching for gossip, Zhan Yan felt the name “Chiyang Sect” sounded somewhat familiar. He did a quick search.

Oh—you’re from that Chiyang Sect, the one with the “Disciple tricks the feelings of a Lushu, scumbag gives birth to ten treasures in one pregnancy” scandal~

No wonder his temper was so bad. Understandable, very understandable.

Weng Yan observed him for a long time but still felt he was just an ordinary person utterly devoid of spiritual energy. Logically speaking, someone who could dream about the hidden events from twenty-six years ago shouldn’t be like this.

After glancing a few more times without figuring it out, Weng Yan couldn’t be bothered to care anymore. He snorted and entered the collection room with the two of them.

“Weren’t you just advising me to guard against arrogance and impatience to preserve my lifespan? Why is your own temper so hot?” Old Master Luan remarked.

Weng Yan had indeed been in a rather foul mood lately.

Their Chiyang Sect was originally an ordinary, mid-sized sect—not famous, but not destitute either. Everyone lived a peaceful, quiet life, and everything was fine.

Although they would occasionally envy the resources of the large sects next door and mutter about when they might produce a genius disciple to carry the sect to fame, they genuinely only muttered about it occasionally!

Ever since the terrible deeds committed by that little bastard Zhao Qingnan were exposed, their Chiyang Sect became famous!

From then on, whenever they went out and mentioned which sect they were from, it would attract all sorts of meaningful glances. Some people with no filter would directly ask him: “Is that the Chiyang Sect with the one birth, ten treasures?”

The hell with “one birth, ten treasures”! Zhao Qingnan committed the sin himself; why did it have to implicate his innocent sect?!

Weng Yan’s anger surged just thinking about it, making him wish he could drag that little brat Zhao Qingnan out and thrash him three times a day.

His senior brother, the Sect Leader, was always soft-hearted and protective of his disciples. When Weng Yan initially wanted to beat the guy up, his senior brother stopped him, saying they should wait until after he gave birth to hit him, because brutally beating a pregnant, pregnant… pregnant father wasn’t very good.

Later, Weng Yan dragged his Sect Leader senior brother out for a stroll. When they returned, his senior brother threw that wretched thing straight to the group of female cultivators blocking their door. His senior brother had never placed righteousness before family like that before.

At the time, Zhao Qingnan had knelt before the ancestral tablets, crying so hard he couldn’t catch his breath.

His senior brother slowly clapped his hands. “Qingnan, ah… Your master is a mediocre person. I’ve always been caught between high ambitions and low abilities, and for all these years, I haven’t been able to elevate our sect. Master has always hoped that a brilliant disciple would emerge from our ranks, so that our Chiyang Sect could finally make a name for itself.”

“And you actually did it…”

Sticking out his huge belly, Zhao Qingnan tearfully wailed that he was wrong.

Finding the sight an eyesore, Weng Yan looked away.

How did their Chiyang Sect end up producing such a complete disaster?!

Unable to stand it anymore, Weng Yan came to his old friend’s place for some peace and quiet, and then learned about this recurring dream his old friend was having.

The collection room was kept at a low temperature of 18°C year-round. Old Master Luan wrapped himself in a jacket, took Zhan Yan on a quick tour around the room, and then went back out. He let Zhan Yan browse slowly on his own while he returned to the small tearoom to drink tea with Weng Yan.

Zhan Yan was going through the collection one by one using the item descriptions. Every item inside depicted the image of a dragon or snake—either one-eyed or holding fire in its mouth. They were all genuine antiques, but also ordinary objects containing very little useful information.

[This is a stone containing a trace of demonic energy, analyzing…]

Huh?

Zhan Yan was currently squatting in front of a wood carving; the item description just now belonged to the carving’s stone base.

The stone was dark red, naturally filled with many pores and holes, somewhat resembling a miniature Taihu stone, with its bottom ground flat.

The item description hadn’t fully refreshed yet; it just kept displaying [Analyzing… Analyzing…]

Zhan Yan’s interest was piqued, and he remained squatting there.

In the small tearoom, Old Master Luan murmured, “Every time I have this dream, I feel like I’m dying once inside it.”

“My third son was just a teenager back then, kneeling beside me, crying as he dug through the rubble.”

“And I thought to myself, what are you crying for? Run…”

On the other side, Weng Yan was advising Old Master Luan, “This dream isn’t entirely fake.”

Zhan Yan pricked up his ears.

“Have you ever heard of parallel universes?”

Zhan Yan: …

Aren’t you guys quite trendy?

If he hadn’t confirmed it through the Gossip System, he really would have thought Weng Yan was a fraud.

“Do you mean what I dreamt about were events from a parallel universe?” Old Master Luan asked.

“Pretty much,” Weng Yan said. “But the events in the parallel universe have nothing to do with the present you, so don’t overthink it. If you don’t want to have this dream anymore, I can give you a talisman to place under your pillow when you sleep. After three months, you won’t have this kind of dream again.”

Zhan Yan was currently flipping through the gossip thread.

He felt Weng Yan’s sudden “parallel universe” theory was just him feeding nonsense to Old Master Luan!

[Weng Yan is worried that Luan Hanyi awakening a supernatural power at his advanced age would harm his body and shorten his lifespan. Therefore, he uses the “parallel universe” theory to coax Luan Hanyi and seal off his spiritual sensing abilities.]

Zhan Yan scrolled through a few more threads and slowly understood. People who could dream of Candle Dragon tying itself in a knot twenty-six years ago had a high probability of awakening a supernatural power. However, this kind of power, which didn’t come from cultivation, put an enormous toll on the body during the awakening process. There were even cases where people couldn’t endure it and died midway through the awakening.

Old Master Luan was nearly seventy. Even if his body was still reasonably healthy, it was almost impossible for him to withstand this kind of torment. With good luck, it would shorten his lifespan; with bad luck, he might just die.

Having settled Luan Hanyi on his end, Weng Yan hadn’t forgotten about Zhan Yan.

“Um… young man, how did you have that dream… What are you looking at?” Weng Yan turned his head and didn’t see Zhan Yan. He only then noticed him crouched in a ball in the corner, studying who knows what.

Zhan Yan turned around. “Oh, oh, I think this stone is quite special.”

Old Master Luan took a look. “That wood carving?”

Zhan Yan: “The red stone underneath it.”

Weng Yan also looked over, and upon seeing it, he couldn’t help but pause.

“Huh?”

This stone wasn’t ordinary.

Old Master Luan tossed the wood carving aside and placed the stone on the table, allowing the three of them to study it together.

Weng Yan stared at it seriously and solemnly. Zhan Yan stared at it with empty eyes—he was waiting for the Gossip System to finish analyzing. Seeing both of them staring so intently, Old Master Luan also joined in to scrutinize it closely.

After staring for two minutes, he couldn’t hold back anymore. “How about I get someone to file a bit off and send it for testing?”

“Don’t speak!” Weng Yan said.

[Weng Yan suspects this is a fragment of candle tears.]

Zhan Yan first saw this message pop up in the Gossip System. Immediately after, the item description that had been stuck analyzing for ages without any progress suddenly seemed to have found the keyword and refreshed rapidly:

[This is a stone containing a trace of demonic energy. It has solidified with some candle tears dripped from the candle of Candle Dragon, and possesses a hint of the profound power of Candle Dragon. Analyzing…]

Zhan Yan couldn’t help but glance at Weng Yan. This guy was a human accelerator!

As long as Weng Yan could figure out the correct keyword, Zhan Yan’s side could instantly make huge progress!

Weng Yan reached out and carefully touched the stone again, shaking his head regretfully. “It contains some demonic energy, but it’s too little. It has no practical use, though it’s fine as a collectible.”

He was done studying it, but Zhan Yan was still staring eagerly at the stone—there was still a section at the end of the Gossip System‘s text that hadn’t finished analyzing!

Seeing that he liked it, Old Master Luan said generously, “I’ll give this to you!”

Zhan Yan: “No need, no need, just looking is fine.”

“You won the lucky draw, but I haven’t given you a prize yet.”

“But wasn’t that rigged?”

The old man waved his hand domineeringly. “It’s my birthday! I’ll rig it for whoever I want! If I tell you to take it, take it!”

Weng Yan was currently looking at Zhan Yan. He glanced at him, couldn’t help but glance again, and asked, “How exactly did you experience that dream? How many times have you had it?”

“Just once. I didn’t dream about myself, nor did I dream about anyone else. I just dreamt of that dragon tying itself into a knot, circling a burning candle,” Zhan Yan said. “Is that dragon the legendary Candle Dragon? Does it represent any meaning?”

Weng Yan frowned in confusion, casting a doubtful gaze at him once more. “That shouldn’t be. Generally speaking, you should have dreamt of yourself.”

Old Master Luan explained, “Xiao Yan is only nineteen. He wasn’t even born back then.”

Weng Yan was still very puzzled. He had Zhan Yan place his arm on the table so he could check his pulse.

He took his pulse for a minute. He still felt this was a person who couldn’t even open the Yin-Yang Eye!

But if he was just a little scammer making up stories, how could he pick out that exact stone at a glance among a room full of ordinary antiques?

Could it be that my own skill level is insufficient?

Weng Yan began to feel extreme doubts about his own cultivation.