Chapter 229: Lin Jie Is Watching
Chapter 229: Lin Jie Is Watching
Doris?
Lin Jie was briefly stunned as his flitting between dreams came to an abrupt halt.
He stood at the edge of the dream, watching from above and once again carefully verified what he had seen.
Standing in the forest and gazing into the distance, the solemn yet beautiful elf gleamed with splendor.
It was that rich lady *ahem super customer who had visited the bookstore on a rainy night under Ji Zhixiu's recommendation and purchased a whopping thirty copies of Emblems & Totems.
"It's really her... What a coincidence."
Lin Jie broke into the usual affable smile he used for greeting his customers.
"It's been a few months, I wonder if her clan has finished the 'preview' of that book."
Just as he usually did when spectating other dreams, Lin Jie let his consciousness sink down, transcending the boundary between the outer void and dream realm, arriving into the other party's dream.
At first glance, the initial impression this dream gave off was that it was all green, because its setting was what appeared to be a primeval forest.
As Lin Jie wandered around, the environment reminded him of a time when he had ventured into an old forest while conducting some folklore research, and it evoked a sense of nostalgia.
All around him were huge intertwined roots of gigantic, vine-infested trees covered in algae and a forest floor covered in a bed of fallen leaves. As if in the dark night, cryptogams twinkled and emitted bright, blue lights in nooks and crannies both near and far.
Of course, what shone the brightest in this place was undoubtedly Doris herself.
Gleaming with splendor wasn't just an apt description of the elf lady's ravishing beauty. She was literally glowing (physically)...
Doris had on a magnificent white gown with mysterious yet beautiful gold patterns on the edges, and this faint gold texture could indistinctly be seen on the soft fabric. An emerald pendant on her forehead complemented her pure, turquoise eyes perfectly.
In her hand was a birch scepter, with intertwining vines and an iris flower at its tip.
Together with her long, flowing golden hair, her upright, elegant posture and solemn expression emanated a disposition of sacrosanct. Combined with the strange sources of glowing light around her dispelling the darkness around, she seemed exactly like an elven queen from a fairy tale.
I thought that her previous cosplay was chuunibyou enough... So this is actually the final form?
Lin Jie stroked his chin as he stood behind her, pondering about the plot of this dream and what it reflected about Doris's internal desires.
While in other's dream realms, Lin Jie currently wasn't able to manipulate it as he wished most of the time.
His body wasn't visible nor material to others either, and it was as if he was an apparition that only had the ability to observe.
Only if it was like Silver's case, where he was willingly accepted into her dream realm with complete authority, could Lin Jie do whatever he pleases.
Otherwise, wanting to change anything or to reveal his body would require aether...
Till now, Lin Jie has only accumulated a meager amount of aether — and it was what he had recovered after the dream realm of the Church of the Dome's Central Chapel collapsed.
Naturally, Lin Jie couldn't bear to use it on such an occasion, and just observing would suffice.
Having specifically read Sigmund Freud's book previously, he had gained some theoretical understanding about dreams.
Although the initial purpose was to interpret his own dreams, after quite some time and effort interpreting, Lin Jie eventually verified that he hadn't dreamed of Silver... but had intruded Silver's dream realm by accident.
However, he was still confident in his ability to interpret dreams!
While he might not be able to interpret his own dreams, the dreams of others could still be doable.
"Mhmm... There's movement, is the 'plot' of this dream beginning to unfold?"
Lin Jie raised an eyebrow as he watched Doris tilt her head and gaze afar before raising the staff in her hands. At this instance, a radiant glow of light started to spread in all directions as though it was forming a formless enchantment
Initially, vague tremors started but were contained by the enchantment. However, they soon became more violent as the earth shuddered and even the surrounding trees felt as if they were just hanging by a thread.
At the same time, the surface of the ground began to crack and swell as though a massive earthquake had ripped through this place.
Only the area around Doris that was shrouded by light remained unscathed.
Dreams could be fragmented and bizarre, yet sometimes weave together a self-consistent logic to complete a story.
Lin Jie enjoyed rummaging through these dream realms to kill boredom by seeking stories and also to satisfy the innate human desire of voyeurism.
From the looks of things now, it seemed as if Doris had incorporated her cosplay character, creating a true elf dream.
Haa... Chuunibyou-ism at its finest.
Lin Jie had a strange look on his face as he wondered if he was imagining things. It seemed that in these dream realms of his customers, every one of them seemed to suffer fromChuunibyou-ism...
"Tsss... Isn't this way too often? Something doesn't add up." Lin Jie shook his head with a frown.
Doris can't possibly be an elf, could she?
No, no, no, that can't be possible!
While he knew that elves had once existed in this world, that had been a long time during the Second Era which was several tens of thousands years ago.
How could there possibly still be elves at large in Norzin.
Moreover, Doris was recommended by Ji Zhixiu and she wants to restore the glory of her clan.
If she's indeed an elf, why would she be introduced by an ordinary human to come here for help and even heed it? And even bought 30 copies of the same book?
Judging from the look in her eyes back then, Lin Jie could tell that Doris completely trusted him.
If she's truly an elf, wouldn't she be able to tell that my book is merely an ordinary academic book and not some magic book?
"I must really be overthinking," Lin Jie muttered as his tightly scrunched brows started to loosen. The doubt that surfaced gradually disappeared.
"It must be the recent surfacing of traces of supernatural powers that's making me paranoid. In fact, after proper thought, if even a weakling like Gabriel can control the Church of the Dome, how could there be powerful transcendent races existing in this world now."
He put his mind at ease and continued to watch Doris's silhouette.
Following the direction of Doris's gaze, Lin Jie He saw an enormous figure from the ground leaping high into the sky as if it were a whale breaching the ocean's surface.
Lin Jie blinked and watched on intently as the dominating figure descended on Doris.
In the gloomy darkness, the titanic lamprey-like figure revealed a large circular mouth full of sharp teeth as it extended countless horrifying tentacles and came oppressively plunging toward the minuscule elf beneath.
Doris had once again foresaw a dream realm fissure capable of threatening her entire elven clan.
Just as always, she would have this foresight beforehand and inform her clansmen to take refuge before devising a strategy to deal with the foe.
This time, she decided to use herself as bait to lure the enemy's attention.
But from the moment it began, it just seemed like something was just a tad amiss...
As if she could feel a piercing gaze staring at her intently from somewhere unseen.