Chapter 212: Silver's Ring
Pale white petals danced in the air, blending into the flurry of falling snow.
Lin Jie opened his eyes, gazing ahead. The graceful back of a silver-haired lady dressed in white satin came into his view. Her head was raised, staring at the giant tree above before her.
The scenery surrounding him was dream-like, but Lin Jie now understood that these were all illusory objects created by aether. If he wanted, he could alter and deconstruct the entire area.
He continued onwards along the flowery path he was well acquainted with.
Having heard movement, Silver turned around and gave him a smile. An ivory-white thorn of crowns sat on her head, and tucked behind her ears was the iris flower Lin Jie had given her at their first encounter.
No matter how many times I look at this virtually perfect face, I still can't help but be stunned by her beauty... Lin Jie thought to himself.
He then walked over to Silver's side and willed a white wooden bench to appear amid a flutter of snowflakes and petals.
He sat straightaway and patted the empty space beside him.
With a slight grin, Silver lifted the hems of her skirt and sat down beside him. "It seems you are getting more proficient in building and altering dream realms."
Find the original at h*sted novel.
Lin Jie glanced at Silver sitting regally on the bench, as if she were royalty, and felt like he was in the movie 'Roman Holiday.'
Just like the reporter who had 'abducted' Princess Ann, he too felt like he had dragged a fairy into the undeserving realm of mortals.
He coughed lightly and replied, "It's just passable. I've already tried out making the dream realm descend and hence influencing reality. It felt... wonderful."
"When your dream realm overlaps with reality, it results in the folding, projection, and distortion of time and space. Those who are shrouded by the dream realm also experience changes, and their consciousness will be guided by your dream realm, just as if having a dream," sailed Silver.
"In the end, a dream realm is still a dream realm, after all. If yours isn't stable, the fluctuations within will be of a larger extent, resulting in greater discrepancies with reality."
Lin Jie gave a thoughtful nod. "I see."
This explanation was close to his own thought process. The fantasy scenes he had witnessed in the dream realm was most likely a result of those people letting their subconscious go wild because they had been forcibly dragged into the dream realm.
With Silver's explanation, he now had a better understanding about what had happened then.
Who would've thought that those bunch with their bushy eyebrows all have a case of 'Chuunibyou-ism.'
This had also been why Lin Jie had given Joseph and Vincent a strange look when he saw them after waking up. Still, he wouldn't poke fun at them, for he understood that all men would be young at heart till the day they die.
As for Mu'en... It was even more straightforward for this child. She had already said she wished to become the Moon and enforce justice...
She was Sailor Moon in the dream.
Lin Jie gazed at the towering dragon tree above him and said, "One of my customers gave me a dragon heart, but ..."
"But you ended up absorbing all of the energy within the heart," Silver replied with a smile.
Lin Jie nodded, heaving a sigh of relief at the same time. His guess had been right all along.
Since Silver had known of this and it didn't seem like something bad, then it means that the fruit she gave before as well as this fruit tree are all linked to dragons... The fossils of this world aren't of dinosaurs, but actual dragons of legend!
Furthermore, it seemed that there were changes to Lin Jie's body after he had eaten the fruit, which resulted in a resonance with the dragon heart, allowing him to drain all of its energy.
I've blamed you wrongly, Blackie!
With a slight glance, Silver could tell that the current Lin Jie before her radiated with an aura very similar to those of Dragonkind — a tint of dark gold hidden within his onyx eyes, pronounced heartbeats, and a constant intimidating pressure all around him.
Although, it would seem that he was still unaware of it.
If Lin Jie was willing, becoming a fully-fledged dragon wasn't too hard to achieve.
And that dragon heart... was definitely no coincidence.
Everything mystical had its own flow.
Akin to water flowing toward the lowest point, when one's level of mystery were to reach a certain concentration, other mysteries would also be attracted.
Interesting... Silver eyed Lin Jie with piqued curiosity.
Lin Jie wasn't embarrassed from the prolonged stares. After all, being looked at by someone didn't hurt.
"Oh right, should I continue expanding my dream realm?" Lin Jie shrugged it off and continued the conversation.
He took out the human skin book and explained the entire gist of it.
Then, he asked, "I would like to section a part of my aether to learn these spells, can you teach me how?"
Silver blinked twice, then her lips curled into a slightly crafty smile. "You've yet to master your swordsmanship, and you want to learn something else now. Where are my lesson fees?"
Lin Jie gave a nervous cough as beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Why did I say that? I just made myself seem half-hearted in my efforts to learn!
This was the very principle of 'don't bite off more than you can chew.' However, compared to swordsmanship, Lin Jie was more interested in magic. After all, as a civilian, fighting and killing wasn't really his cup of tea.
Silver smile then widened. "How about this? Give me that ring on your finger."
She had already noticed the ring Lin Jie wore ever since his arrival.
The contractual ring of Walpurgis... or in other words, two out of the four Primordial Witches that went into hiding within dream realms had already interacted with Lin Jie since then.
Lin Jie lifted up his hand and discovered that the ring he had just worn had also followed him into the dream realm. When he tried to take it off again, he found that the ring actually loosened here and it could now be removed.
But he hesitated for a moment as the image of the Mu'en sulking appeared in his mind. She seemed rather fond of the ring, even going so far as to throw a tantrum over it.
If Lin Jie were to give the ring away without saying a word, wouldn't Mu'en get angrier...
"Let's change it to something else. This ring is rather important." Lin Jie gazed at Silver, and the latter wasn't insistent.
Instead, Silver reached out and plucked an iris flower in front of the bench. She promptly plucked all the petals, leaving behind the stem which she fashioned into a ring.
Beaming as she passed the flower stem ring over, Silver's said, "Well, put on my ring as well, and I'll teach you magic."
"..." Lin Jie reckoned that this wouldn't be too big a deal based on the smile she gave. And just like learning swordsmanship, he felt that he could only gain from this.
Moreover, having already rejected her once, doing so a second time would be impolite.
"Alright."
Before Lin Jie could reach out his hand, Silver had already put it on for him.
——
A wide-eyed 'Mu'en' pushed open the door to her boss' room and entered.
Had Lin Jie been awake, he would've immediately figured out that this Mu'en was a fake.
How could a stoic girl like her display such rich emotions? It was impossible.
In truth, this was Walpurgis possessing Mu'en's body.
Ever since recovering the Moon's authority, Walpurgis had also regained her power. Now, she was once again free to voluntarily exit the dream realm.
She was met with the sight of dense flesh scattered throughout the room like cobwebs as she pushed open the door. She mouthed to herself in disgust, "How dare Silver be so full of herself, not even bothering to conceal herself when..."
She was then at a loss for words where she caught sight of an iris flower sprout from the wall with a twisting vine which landed softly on Lin Jie's other hand and formed a ring.
Staring in shock, Walpurgis could tell a covenant was being made... A Witch so arrogant she never even considered a covenant with humans, Silver, had actually made one with a human?!