True Solution of the Sword Dao

Suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps approached from outside the door, growing louder as they neared the entrance to the ward.

Chen Jing instantly awoke. She looked around but could not see Chen Wu, and the other beds in the ward were empty. The patients who had been lying there were all gone. Chen Jing felt a wave of panic.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The footsteps stopped right at the door, and silence enveloped the room. Chen Jing anxiously fixed her gaze on the door. She didn’t know why Chen Wu was gone, nor why the other patients had disappeared, and she didn’t understand why everything had become so quiet. At that moment, all her attention was concentrated on that white door.

The sudden footsteps seemed to have halted right outside. Chen Jing could feel that someone must be standing at the door, yet she didn’t understand why there was no further sound. The quiet was so complete that she could only hear her own breathing.

"There must be someone at the door!" Chen Jing thought to bury herself in the covers but was afraid to lose sight of what lay beyond. She didn’t know why the person had stopped right at the doorway.

Perhaps they were listening for sounds inside the ward.

With this thought, her fear intensified, and she dared not breathe too heavily.

"Who’s there?" she asked with courage.

No one answered.

"Is that you, Xiao Wu?" she asked, trembling.

Still, no one answered.

Chen Jing clenched her teeth, realizing that if this continued, she might lose even the courage to defend herself. She glanced at the bedside table and saw a fruit knife used for peeling. She grabbed it tightly in her hand.

"Bang!" Suddenly, the door was violently pushed open.

"Ahh!!!" Chen Jing let out a shrill scream, about to throw the fruit knife forward.

"Don’t be afraid! It’s us!" A somewhat familiar voice reached Chen Jing’s ears. She focused her eyes and saw it was Wang Chunli. The tall woman was panting, hastily closing the door. She turned the lock with a click.

At her side, Chen Da leaned against the wall, his face pale and gasping for air.

"Finally... huff... got away. My God." Chen Da bent over, breathing heavily.

Chen Jing then calmed down, quickly putting away the fruit knife and getting out of bed.

"What happened to you two?" she asked, rushing to their side.

Wang Chunli sat down on the ground, sweat drenching the strands of hair on her forehead. Disheveled hair stuck to her skin, but she didn’t seem to mind.

"You awakened, and we lost our hiding places. We’ve been running around, and those red boots have been chasing us for a long time. As soon as you fell asleep, we hurried over here," Wang Chunli explained. "I was planning to tell you not to sleep in one place because if you were still in the operating room, Red Boots could just wait for you there. Luckily, you moved."

"Let’s not talk about that now. What do we do?" Chen Da asked from the side, his breathing somewhat recovered.

"Dream Eaters have their restrictions, so for now, we don’t have to worry. In..." Wang Chunli looked towards Chen Jing.

The latter quickly introduced herself, "I’m Chen Jing, ’Jing’ as in ’female youth’ Jing."

"Oh, Chen Jing, as long as your world isn’t consumed before your awakening, we are safe. Right, Chen Jing, try to estimate how much time we have left," Wang Chunli asked.

Chen Jing frowned and roughly calculated the feeling of time passing. "One hour... no... maybe two hours."

"That’s a long time. We have time to talk about some basic facts about Awakeners," Wang Chunli gestured for Chen Jing and Chen Da to sit down.

The three formed a circle, and she took a deep breath before speaking softly, "We Awakeners have always moved through dreams, which is why we are unknown to the public, and we belong to a sphere entirely separate from the outside world. For example, everyone dreams, but we Awakeners can fully control our actions and words within the dream. We aren’t helpless like ordinary people. It’s like the difference between ordinary internet users and computer hackers in the online world."

"What is Red Boots then?" Chen Da asked.

"It is a Dream Eater in this city," Wang Chunli said gravely. "Every area has a Dream Eater ruling over it, and to them, humans are merely food. They can freely enter a person’s dream and consume all of it. Red Boots is one of the more notorious ones."

"There must be some restrictions," Chen Jing pondered, "otherwise, they could simply kill anyone at will, couldn’t they?"

"Of course, there are restrictions. Although I’m not completely sure, it seems like Dream Eaters cannot act in places with lots of people. Furthermore, the real bodies of Dream Eaters are generally quite weak, so they would absolutely not reveal their identity or tracks," Wang Chunli paused for a moment, "so as long as we wake up and stay in reality, we won’t be in danger. As long as we don’t sleep."

"Wait a minute!!"

Chen Da suddenly stood up and walked to the door.

"There’s movement," he whispered to the two behind him.

Wang Chunli was initially stunned, then her complexion turned pale as well.

"There are only three of us here, why can I hear the breathing of a fourth person!!"

Both Chen Jing’s faces changed dramatically at the same time.

*****************

"Wake up!! Wake up quickly!!"

Chen Jing’s eyes flew open, and beside the bed stood a tall woman with two intersecting scars on her face.

"I’m Wang Chunli! I’ve finally found you."

Chen Jing noticed there was also a tall but pale man behind her, it was Chen Da.

"I found my way here following the environment in the dream. The three of us must act together, otherwise Red Boots will definitely not let us go!" Wang Chunli said anxiously.

"Chen Wu? Where’s Chen Wu?" Chen Jing looked to the right side, where Chen Wu was fast asleep, sprawled beside the bed.

She shook Chen Wu vigorously and called out several times, but there was no response whatsoever.

"Stop calling! This is the ability of Red Boots, who can put anyone he wants into a deep sleep," Wang Chunli explained. She pointed at the other patients in the ward. "They are the same."

"So what do we do now?" Chen Jing, upon hearing this, also panicked.

"Red Boots can’t act where there are many people and few sleeping, we need to go to where the least people are sleeping!" Wang Chunli answered decisively.

The sky was just beginning to lighten outside the window, the gray and overcast sky, shrouded in a white mist. It looked quite unreal and mysterious.

************

In the middle of the city’s central street.

Wang Chunli and Chen Da were helping Chen Jing to sit on a bench by the roadside.

"This is the main street, most people around here are on the move and hardly anyone is asleep, it should be quite safe," Chen Da scanned the surroundings.

Sanitation workers in uniforms had already begun cleaning the streets, and people who worked the night shift were hurrying home. The occasional car drove by, and there were even people out for a morning jog.

"You’ve had surgery, and your body is still weak, but for now, we are safe. Rest for a bit," Wang Chunli said as she let out a long breath. Both she and Chen Da had dark circles under their eyes, clearly suffering from severe lack of sleep.

"I... I need to use the restroom," Chen Da suddenly said. "I’ve been holding it for a while." His face was a bit flushed.

Wang Chunli looked around. "Let’s go together. There are restrooms inside the Central Trade, I remember. I need to go too. As long as we don’t sleep we should be fine. And since there are fewer people sleeping here, he can’t use his power," she assessed.

Although Chen Jing didn’t really want to go, she didn’t want to separate from the other two either. So she nodded her head in agreement.

With Wang Chunli supporting her, and Chen Da leading the way, the three of them entered the Central Trade. Security was patrolling all around, and cleaners were starting to pick up the trash inside. But overall it still looked very empty, with only a few shops open.

The restroom was in the corner on the first floor of the trade center.

Chen Da went to the men’s restroom first, looking back at Wang Chunli and Chen Jing.

"I’ll be out quickly," he said as he pushed the door and went in.

Wang Chunli also helped Chen Jing to push the door open.

"Something’s wrong!" Chen Jing was startled, "How come there’s no sound when Chen Da went in?"

Logically, there should be the sound of footsteps upon entering, but as soon as Chen Da went in, everything went quiet.

"Chen Da?" Wang Chunli tried calling out.

No response!