Volume 1
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Dream
The cold wind howled, and heavy snow swirled. A petite girl huddled, shivering in the corner of a wooden hut.
How long… had this been going on?
She couldn’t remember.
“If only the instant noodle soup I used to just dump out could appear here…” Luo Xue couldn’t help but fantasize.
This was a world that had experienced an apocalyptic disaster. Less than a tenth of humanity had survived.
Some humans, relying on the legacy of the past, had built superstructures called “Suspended High Towers,” capable of avoiding and resisting the natural disasters and calamities left by the apocalypse.
However, more humans could only wander in the endless wasteland, still permeated with the aura of destruction.
“Tower People” and “Wastelanders,” both human, yet with vastly different fates.
Luo Xue was one such Wastelander. Since she had memories, she had never seen the splendor of the Suspended High Towers. Everywhere her eyes fell, there was only destruction and disaster.
There were many, many Wastelanders like her. They gathered together, struggling to survive in the endless wasteland.
The Wastelanders built settlements to support each other, relying on each other’s strength to eke out an existence in this world.
But these settlements couldn’t last. Remnants of catastrophic aftershocks frequently appeared in the endless wasteland. The settlements were powerless to resist and could only passively relocate.
Or, due to resource shortages, they couldn’t sustain the survival of the Wastelanders within.
Unfortunately, the settlement where Luo Xue lived encountered the latter situation.
All the able-bodied adults in the settlement chose to leave, leaving behind all remaining resources for those who remained.
“We’ll go find a better place, Little Xue’er. You just wait here, we’ll be back soon.”
Luo Xue still remembered how the uncle who had always taken care of her had patted her shoulder and told her this before leaving.
But…
A very, very long time had passed. So long that the uncle’s face in her memory had become blurred, yet she still hadn’t received any news of their return.
The blizzard that had lasted for many days continued to rage outside the wooden hut. Food reserves were exhausted, and only a little fuel remained in the entire settlement.
Calling it fuel was a stretch; it was just barely flammable firewood.
“So cold… If only there was heating…”
Luo Xue’s lips were already frozen blue-purple. Hunger and cold attacked simultaneously, and her frail body was nearing its limit, unable to hold on any longer.
“Light a few pieces of firewood,” Luo Xue thought. “At least, it can be a little warmer.”
The few remaining pieces of firewood were carefully placed in the middle of the wooden hut, meticulously covered with several layers of coarse burlap.
The burlap had been soaked by the wind and snow, and Luo Xue’s frozen, stiff little hands had difficulty pulling it aside.
It was conceivable that without the burlap covering, even this last bit of firewood would have been ruined.
Luo Xue picked up the smallest piece of firewood, a twig only the thickness of two fingers, and took two goose-egg-sized flint stones. Her trembling little hands struck them together several times before finally producing a few sparks.
The splashing sparks landed on Luo Xue’s arm with a slight burn, but her frozen arm couldn’t feel a trace of warmth.
This remaining firewood seemed to be quite good. With just a few sparks, it began to burn faintly.
At first, there was only a tiny flame, seemingly about to be extinguished the next moment. But as a gentle breeze blew past, the few flames gradually coalesced into a small fire.
Luo Xue hugged her knees, huddled beside this small fire.
The warmth of the flames made her frozen blood begin to flow slowly, and the rare warmth caressed her skin.
She even felt a little hot, wanting to take off her thin clothes to cool down.
The small flames flickered gently, the fire gradually spreading, and all the remaining firewood burned.
The scorching heat from the red flames, now half a person tall, began to melt the surrounding ice.
The petite girl leaned against the blazing fire and slowly closed her eyes, about to fall asleep forever.
In a daze, Luo Xue seemed to see a closed door, standing quietly in front of her, as if waiting for her to push it open.
“Is this a dream? Or… the gates of heaven?”
She had a premonition that if she stepped through this door, she would be lost forever.
But now…
“It seems… it doesn’t matter anymore.”
As the thought of pushing the door surfaced in Luo Xue’s mind, the closed door suddenly creaked open.
Blinding white light radiated out, enveloping Luo Xue’s entire body.
…
“Her name is… Luo Xue? Tsk, such a filthy, ugly thing doesn’t deserve such a name. Change it to Ah Chou (Ugly)!”
“How can such trash be sent here? What if this angers the Immortal Master?”
“There’s no helping it. Girls born in the yin year, yin month, yin day, and yin hour are hard to find, especially those under ten. Anyway, this is the last batch, so let’s make do.”
“But why does the Immortal Master need so many yin girls? Could it be…”
“Shh! Be careful what you say! The Immortal Master has great powers and is always watching us!”
“Understood, understood…”
Luo Xue slowly opened her eyes. Noisy voices seemed to be constantly ringing in her ears, but her head felt like it was splitting open with pain.
What was going on?
Luo Xue looked blankly at the unfamiliar surroundings. She seemed to be inside a carriage, her hands and feet bound.
The bumpy carriage was filled with the stench of some kind of excrement. Looking around, Luo Xue saw many girls about her age lying haphazardly.
The conversation she had just heard seemed to have faded from her memory, but Luo Xue could still vaguely recall a little. It sounded like she had been trafficked.
Wait… trafficked?
Did Wastelanders even have value to be trafficked?
As Luo Xue gradually regained consciousness, she became aware of more anomalies.
The calamities in the endless wasteland rarely ceased, usually only extreme heat or cold.
But now the surrounding temperature was clearly quite stable and mild. This was clearly a different place.
There was something even stranger. The snippets of conversation she had just heard were in a language Luo Xue had never heard before, yet she could somehow understand their meaning.
Luo Xue struggled to sit up, shuffling her feet and leaning against the wall of the carriage.
It wasn’t easy to make such movements with her limbs bound.
After calming down a little, Luo Xue’s expression revealed a hint of confusion.
“This seems like a dream…”
She recalled the door she had seen in her hazy consciousness. Was this the world behind the door?
However, the soreness and numbness in her arms felt incredibly real. Could this really be a dream?
Could it be… another transmigration?
Just then, Luo Xue noticed a line of bright red text appear in her field of vision.
[Survival Points: 10]
What… did this mean?
A puzzled thought flashed through Luo Xue’s mind, and the red text began to change, transforming into several lines of small text like instructions.
[Dream Life: Immortal Martial World]
[Survival points will increase after experiencing dangerous events. The higher the degree of danger, the greater the number of survival points gained.]
[“May you remain conscious even within the dream.”]
…It really was a dream?
Luo Xue was dumbfounded. But could a dream really reach such a level of realism?
Just then, several voices came from outside the carriage, identical to the voices Luo Xue had heard in her daze.
“There seems to be some movement in the carriage? Could it be… someone’s awake?”
“Impossible. Those little brats, I gave them a full dose of Soul-Bewildering Powder. They wouldn’t wake up even if you poured boiling water on them!”
“It’s better to be careful. If something goes wrong… No, I have to go take a look.”
“Ha, go ahead if you want. They’ve been unconscious for days. Haven’t even dealt with their piss and shit. It stinks to death in there.”
The voice fell, and footsteps followed.
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