High School of Demon Hunting-Chapter 390 - 59 Dreams Beyond Reality_1

The sun was setting in the west.

The warm, orange hue gently brushed against a protruding mountain ridge.

At the mouth of the ridge, a lone courtyard stood.

On one side of the courtyard was a dirt road along the cliff, green leaves hung on a wall made of tree branches, and several peach trees in the yard extended their abundant fruits over the wall to the roadside.

On the other side of the yard was a steep slope.

At the edge of the slope, a robust walnut tree stood, a young man was reading under it, an elderly man was leisurely laying nearby, and a robust yellow ox was resting as well.

The yellow ox was squinting its eyes, contentedly chewing dried grass.

The elderly man was propped up in a lounge chair, holding a tobacco pipe, staring with cloudy eyes at the silhouette of the young man reading in the distance.

The young man had a clean complexion, his eyes were dark and bright, he held a Taoist Scripture in his hands, his face a picture of dedicated focus yet with an air of tranquility and sufficiency.

A long while passed.

Not until the orange hue gradually faded and a cool evening breeze arose.

The young man finally rubbed his sore eyes, put down the book and stood up, he lazily shuffled his way over to the yellow ox, leaning onto the ox’s hefty back and satisfyingly stretched his body.

The elderly man tapped out the tobacco ashes in his pipe, took a deep breath, and asked:

"How’s the reading coming along?"

"I can recognize the characters, but I don’t quite understand the meaning." The young man replied in a slightly bitter tone while leaning on the back of the ox.

"Recognizing the characters is good, recognizing the characters is good." The elderly man pondered for a moment, and said with a hint of sigh: "Recognizing the characters is enough... Starting from tomorrow, you will read by yourself. Read a book a hundred times and its meaning will present itself. You will understand it gradually as you read more."

"What?" The young man sat up in surprise: "And what about you, sir?"

"Me? I am off to build the road." The elderly man squinted his eyes and turned to look at the winding mountain road that went off the cliff to the other side.

"But hasn’t the road been built? How else will it be built?" The young man scratched his head.

"Build along the way, build it further." The elderly man raised his pipe and pointed to the depths of the mountain: "At present, this road only stretches from the foot of the mountain to the ridge. It has not yet reached inside the mountain. It’s so dangerous inside, and without a road, it is inconvenient for everyone."

"Then I can help to build it too!" The young man’s face was full of revolt: "You build the road ahead, and I’ll watch our stuff... Old Yellow can carry the stones."

The yellow ox beneath him snorted disdainfully.

"Ha ha ha!" The old man laughed heartily: "The road is long and winding, long and winding... You’re young, there’s no rush! The road’s very long, I have to go and explore first, see if it can be built."

"Is it very far?"

"Far, very far... very far."

"Does it have to be built?"

"The road is long and winding, I shall search high and low."

"Sounds difficult."

"The road is long and winding, take the path and you will arrive." The old man chuckled, tapped the case of his tobacco pipe: "Difficult, difficult, most mysterious is the Way. Don’t talk about it if you haven’t walked it."

"Why the rush to build the road?" The young man seemed to be a little restless: "We can wait until there are more people on the mountaintop before going to build the road."

"You also said it’s about rushing the road... rushing, rushing, walking even if you can barely carry your tail. If you wait for the mountaintop to be full of people, you won’t be able to lift your tail at all." The old man laughed playfully.

The young man didn’t seem to catch the hidden meaning, so he just scratched his head, giggled foolishly, and bent down to grab the tail of the yellow ox.

The yellow ox glanced at him, its tail remained motionless, and its mouth was still chewing leisurely.

Above them, the lush walnut tree laughed in the night wind, chuckled and chuckled.

The elderly man laughed, and suddenly, his expression stiffened, and he struggled to stand up, peering down at the foot of the slope.

"What’s wrong?" The young man jumped up to support the elderly man, looking in the direction of his gaze.

Just a barren yellow earth, truly mundane.

"Didn’t you say you want to go build the road with me?" The elderly man turned his head, revealing a mischievous smile: "Then you go first and lead the way, see if you can recognize the way home."

With that, his frail arm trembled slightly.

The young man stumbled and rolled down the steep slope.

"Ah..."

In the open world, only this long cry remained.

...

...

During the summer mornings in the North, fog often envelops the air.

Especially near the riverside forest parks, the fog seems even denser.

At Fenhe Park, there’s a serene river on one side of the riverside running track, and a lush willow grove on the other.

The willows, planted on man-made hills and trimmed neatly by the parks department, become increasingly engulfed in fog as they go higher up the slope, creating a peculiar sight.

Suddenly, a black cat screams, shattering the thick fog, and tumbles down the small slope.

To the early morning joggers, this is a typical sight. Perhaps a cat or dogfight took place in the woods, and the black cat, defeated, was kicked down the slope.

Therefore, the black cat rolling down to the edge of the track didn’t attract much attention.

The black cat lay on the slope for a while, stretching its claws and shaking its head and tail, as though it was crawling with fleas.

After a while, it struggled to its feet and began to run off along the lakeside rubber track.

Perhaps due to its increasing movement, the black cat’s running became more agile, and its speed gradually increased.

Until it ran into a familiar figure.

A middle school student with an arm bag.

The black cat halted in its tracks.

If the student had paid attention to the cat then, he would have noticed the shock and confusion in its human-like eyes.

But, there was no if.

The young student, immersed in the cheerful music from his phone, didn’t notice the black cat that had suddenly appeared next to him.

However, as time went on, the repeated appearances of the black cat in his line of sight piqued even the most sluggish person’s interest.

With curiosity came action.

And thus, a well-rounded middle school student, while on a morning run, was led astray by a black cat.

...

...

The black cat led the student into a six-story, mustard yellow building. After surveying the surrounding scenery with a sense of nostalgia, it turned around and leapt into the lush shrubs nearby.

But when it crossed the shrubs, it found itself back in the willow forest on the hill of the lakeside track in the evening, for some unknown reason.

By this time, the fog had cleared.

The originally thin clouds in the sky started to ignite slowly.

It was growing, burning, coming closer.

From orange-yellow, to reddish-orange, to scarlet, to fiery red, and then slowly turned brilliant red.

The scarlet color filled the sight. There was nothing in the world but this heavy red. A seemingly familiar, yet vague whisper slowly rose, gradually became louder, until it filled the entire space, overwhelming all of its senses.

The small figure of the black cat stood amid the endless flames, gradually distorting and deforming.

It’s as if it was melting in the deep combustion.

Dull thunder rumbled in the distance.

Growing more and more intense, more and more deafening.

Ultimately, the rolling thunder echoed across the whole world while the burning world collapsed and was destroyed following the rumble.

The black cat’s figure completely disappeared.

At the last spot where it had lingered, a young man was sleeping.

"Boom!"

With the last blast of thunder, the sleeping man was finally awakened.

...

In his dormitory, Zheng Qing, once asleep, suddenly opened his eyes.

A streak of scarlet appeared and then quietly faded in his eyes.

He mumbled before slowly closing his eyes again.

Turning over, he fell deeply asleep once more.

Under the moonlight, black, dense shorthair began to quietly creep along his bare arm.