Oliver groaned as the beeping of his alarm dragged him from sleep. Just as he shifted to sit up, a dull ache pulsed through his body—phantom pain from Elder Han's attack that seemed to have followed him into the waking world. The psychological trauma from the dream was still fresh, lingering longer than he'd expected.
But there wasn't time to process it fully.
As he twisted in bed, he felt an odd weight atop him.
"What the…?" Oliver mumbled, still half-asleep. His thoughts were tangled in the remnants of the dream—the flirtations, the tension that had almost led to an engagement, and the elders' martial prowess still vivid in his mind.
Drowsiness clung to him as he lifted the blanket, revealing scattered garments.
They were familiar. Too familiar.
These were the very clothes he'd worn in his dreamscape. But that wasn't all. Lying next to him were a sword in its sheath, his master's pill recipe, and a stack of intricately detailed papers.
No way, Oliver thought, rubbing his eyes. Is the weed from last night still messing with me?
He pinched his eyes shut, then opened them again.
Still there. Real. Solid.
His heart raced.
Somehow, he had brought pieces of his dream into reality.
The first time had been when he unlocked his cultivation ability using the dream pattern. But now… this was different. The teleportation talisman, Fang Xiu's sword, and a makeshift hanfu were here, physically in his room.
"This can't be real…" he muttered, reaching for the talisman. As he injected Qi into it, his spiritual senses stretched—reaching the edges of the neighborhood. His power was still limited to the Qi Establishment Realm, but with a single thought, he could perceive anything within that range.
The sensation of his spirit stretching was strange. But after a moment of adjusting, he began to grasp the talisman's true potential.
Even if he wasn't teleporting, it gave him a vague sense of his surroundings. Not a visual, but a spiritual outline—trees, birds, the faint movement of people inside their homes.
Then he noticed something off.
A girl in his school uniform stood on the roof of the second house from his window.
At first, it seemed harmless.
But then he looked closer.
She wasn't alone.
A massive creature, the size of the room she stood in, was beside her—its chameleon-like skin blending into the roof, its bulging eyes scanning the surroundings with unsettling precision. Thanks to the talisman, Oliver could see every detail. Intricate magic circles hovered around the girl, their patterns weaving in the air, sending pulses of information directly into his consciousness.
He froze. His pulse quickened.
He had accidentally pierced the rune carved into her eye—briefly catching a glimpse of its observer properties.
And that's when he saw the truth.
She was looking directly at him.
Something pulsed in his core—heating up, ready to ignite as it sensed his unease. And in his heightened awareness, he saw it clearly: the empty yin half of the All-Seasons Divine Cauldrons—Yin and Yang Eternal Garden.
It pulsed within his spirit sea, faint traces of Fountain Qi swirling as the flames around the moon-like sphere floating above the cauldron shifted from jade green to blazing red.
Click.
His eyes snapped toward the wardrobe. His heart skipped a beat.
Something—no, someone—was inside.
A pale red-haired girl stared at him through the cracked wardrobe doors. But she wasn't just sitting in it—she existed in a different space entirely, resting on a red-cushioned base within the wardrobe's small abyss. Three oni masks hovered behind her. A fourth one was worn on her face.
She smiled softly behind the mask, idly curling a lock of dyed blond hair with black roots.
But that wasn't what shook him.
The longer he looked at her, the more familiar she felt. And the more familiar she felt, the more he remembered.
Mika!?
A cold sweat broke across his brow.
He had forgotten something major.
No—not just once. He had forgotten a world-changing event twice. Along with an entire year's worth of memories.
This… What have I stepped into!?
His foundation treasure reacted, releasing waves of heat into the air—ready to materialize at a moment's notice and unleash havoc with a single command.
Click. Click.
Click.
What should I do? He gulped.
His instincts screamed at him—he couldn't take either of them on.
His thoughts raced as his senses spread out, searching for options.