Chapter 206: This Old Man is Soft-Hearted After All

「Dream Island Resort. The main hall.」

Daji’s pupils contracted violently.

The Evil Qilin had said before that the Dream World was completely different from the real world.

Half a second in reality could be an eternity in the Dream World—long enough for the Evil Qilin to kill her husband, trapping him in death here forever.

Daji didn’t dare hesitate, forming a seal with one hand.

“Dream-Entering Seal!”

Daji transformed into a streak of faint light and dove into Jiang Chaosheng’s mind.

…..

「The Dream World.」

The young Chaosheng’s mind raced as he searched for a way to break the stalemate.

Just then, a flash of fluorescent light erupted on the grassy field.

“My love!”

Su Daji recognized the young Chaosheng at a glance. She ran over and swept him into her arms, holding him so tightly it was as if she feared he would vanish the moment she let go.

Liu Niu stood to the side, blinking, her mind still struggling to catch up.

‘My love? I have a daughter-in-law? And she’s this beautiful?’

The Evil Qilin looked down from on high, its indifferent voice rolling like thunder across the sky.

“Patron, you are in too much pain. Allow this humble monk to help you escape this sea of suffering!”

It stretched out a hand, fingers splayed, and reached for the young Chaosheng.

The hand was as massive as a five-fingered mountain, each digit like a pillar holding up the heavens, descending with the power to crush everything in its path.

Su Daji watched the colossal hand draw near and snorted coldly.

“How dare you!”

She formed a Sealing Technique with both hands. Nine enormous white fox tails erupted from her back, whipping wildly in the wind, each swing stirring up a gale force.

The young Chaosheng frowned.

He saw a grave look on Su Daji’s face. The last time she had assumed her nine-tailed form was when she faced the Sea Coachman.

‘In her eyes, is the Evil Qilin right now even more terrifying than the Sea Coachman?’

Su Daji let out a sharp, piercing cry.

“Nine Flood Dragons Leaving Water Shield!”

The river’s surface began to churn restlessly. Ripples swelled into giant waves, and a thousand-meter-high wall of water erupted from the river, rising to shield them.

But no matter how high the wall of water was, it only reached the Evil Qilin’s knee.

Its giant hand pierced through the water wall without pause and continued reaching for the young Chaosheng, sending water splashing down like a cascading waterfall.

The Evil Qilin’s voice remained indifferent, like a divine oracle from the highest heavens.

“Patron, in this world, this humble monk is a true and genuine Buddha. You may be known as the Human Peak, but do you truly have the power to contend with a Divine Buddha?”

Resentment flashed in Su Daji’s eyes. She gritted her teeth, grabbed the young Chaosheng’s shoulder with one hand, and seized Liu Niu with the other.

“Mother, forgive my rudeness!”

She pulled them into the air and fled toward the horizon.

Dangling in midair, Liu Niu was so astonishingly unflappable that she was actually still thinking: ‘She called me “Mother”? Doesn’t that just mean mother-in-law?’

The Evil Qilin pressed its palms together and chanted a Buddhist mantra.

“Boundless Buddhism!”

In the sky, countless golden swastika symbols materialized from thin air, forming an inescapable net that sealed the entire space without a single gap.

Su Daji was forced to the ground, her eyes filled with terror and frustration.

‘We can’t escape.’

‘Are… are my love and I going to die here?’

A wicked smile touched the corners of the Evil Qilin’s lips as it reached for them again with its giant hand.

“Patron, allow this humble monk to deliver you from your suffering!”

The massive hand blotted out the sky as it pressed down, its shadow engulfing the three of them.

Just then, an old, stern shout boomed like a crack of thunder.

“Audacious demon! How dare you commit murder before me!”

The Evil Qilin looked down, curious.

It saw an old man in a long robe hurry from the mouth of the Yellow Mud Road onto the green grass, his sleeves fluttering and snapping in the wind.

The Evil Qilin was perplexed.

‘Why is there a crazy old man like this in Dusk’s dream?’

The dream was infinitely close to reality, like another parallel universe.

‘What, did Mr. Dusk’s village have a character like this when he was a child?’

‘Instead of running away at the sight of me, he’s coming closer like a foolish roe deer?’

It asked with amusement:

“And who might you be, Patron?”

When Liu Niu saw the long-robed elder, she cried out in pleasant surprise.

“Master! It’s you!”

She shook the young Chaosheng, who was still in Daji’s arms, and said incoherently:

“This is the master I was always telling you about! He’s been living in our village for the past few years! He’s the one who said you and I were fated to be mother and son, and he also said…”

She couldn’t continue.

Because that master had said she and the young Chaosheng only had a four-year bond as mother and son.

‘I used to think it was nonsense, but now… the master saw it all along. He knew that today, four years later, I would die, right?’

The long-robed elder looked at the young Chaosheng and Liu Niu, a self-mocking expression in his eyes.

“The divination clearly said I should meddle less in others’ affairs.”

He gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

“To think… this is all fate. I’ve made the mistake of being soft-hearted again.”

With that, he slowly drew a rust-covered sickle from the small of his back.

The sickle was covered in rust, its blade so dull it probably couldn’t even cut grass cleanly.

But the moment Li Qinglian gripped it, a dark red light suddenly glowed from the sickle, as if a slumbering beast had opened its eyes.

The smile on the Evil Qilin’s face froze.

It stared at the sickle, its pupils constricting bit by bit…

‘This… This is…?!’

The old man’s gaze grew firm. He looked up at the Evil Qilin’s true form as the Joyful Buddha, his graying beard trembling in the wind, and enunciated each word coldly:

“I am Li Qinglian!”

The young Chaosheng stared blankly at Li Qinglian’s back, the corner of his eye twitching violently.

‘So, the master from the village back then was Li Qinglian!’

‘How is Li Qinglian here?’

‘Is it… to retrieve a Taboo Item?’

‘There’s a Taboo Item in this village?’

‘Li Qinglian has been here for over four years and still hasn’t managed to retrieve it?’

The young Chaosheng murmured in disbelief:

“This… is such a coincidence?”

‘He said his divination told him to meddle less?’

‘That’s right, he really should meddle less. He shouldn’t be so soft-hearted. He should have cast aside that stench of a pedantic scholar long ago!’

‘Otherwise, how could he have lost so many Taboo Items and ended up falling under a Curse?’

‘I remember…’

‘The sentence he wrote most often in his journal was… “I should not have been soft-hearted.”‘

Because he was soft-hearted, he let the Evil Crow guard the Wang Family for a hundred years, but the Evil Crow showed no gratitude whatsoever.

Because he was soft-hearted, he didn’t use the power of the Taboo Sculpture to suppress the Old Dragon King’s resentment.

‘There were too many incidents like this…’

Li Qinglian tightened his grip on the sickle, its tip pointed at the Evil Qilin. His aged voice carried a chilling killing intent.

“I don’t care if you’re a Buddha or a demon. If you dare to touch this innocent woman and child…”

He paused, his back ramrod straight, like an old blade that had been dulled by time but never broken.

“…you’ll have to step over my dead body first!”

Liu Niu stared blankly at Li Qinglian, then suddenly smiled, tears streaming down her face as she did.

“Master… you’ve come to help my Chaosheng again.”

Li Qinglian didn’t turn back, his hand merely tightening its grip on the sickle.

He muttered something under his breath that was carried away by the wind. Only the young Chaosheng, who was closest to him, heard it clearly—

“This lifetime… I’ll be soft-hearted just one more time.”

The young Chaosheng knew Li Qinglian was lying.

In the next twenty years, this man who was soft on women and children would be soft-hearted countless more times.

And every time he was, he probably said the same thing.