The Truth

At dusk, a golden seedling was facing a smartphone screen, curling its leaves with great effort as it attempted to emit a voice similar to the recording of a teenage boy playing from the device.

After several attempts, the seedling made some progress.

“…In this, there is a true meaning; I would explain, but have forgotten the words.” The seedling finally succeeded in mimicking the audio’s vocal timbre. Beside it, Xu Feng, who was slurping her cold skin noodles, set down her bowl and nodded in satisfaction.

“Not a bad imitation.” Xu Feng gave the seedling a thumbs-up, and the sprout relaxed its leaves to rest.

“Can it serve as your voice now?” Wei Jiu asked from behind, tugging at Xu Feng’s hand.

“The voice sounding right isn’t the issue. It would be better if it could synchronize with my thoughts in real-time.”

Hearing this, the seedling curled its leaves once more and spoke in Xu Feng’s teenage male voice.

“As long as you grow me to maturity! I can do that!”

“Oh? Really?” Xu Feng leaned her face closer to the sprout, her red eyes narrowing as if peering directly into its soul.

“Truly! Spirits never lie!” The seedling emphasized its status, drawing its stem and leaves up tall and proud.

The origins of this seedling seemed far from simple, and it possessed a remarkable degree of intelligence.

“Who delivered you to my doorstep?” Xu Feng asked.

“A person. I do not know the name.”

“And what is the basis for your claim of being a ‘spirit’?”

“Is the radiance of this body not enough to prove my status as a spirit!” The seedling seemed incredulous at the doubt, giving its body a deliberate little shake.

“My lightbulb is brighter than you. Whatever—where do you come from?”

“I come from the Forest Holy Altar. The Great Gods cultivated me by hand and bestowed wisdom upon me and my kin. But hatefully, a group of men in black calling themselves the ‘Dream Praise Society’ stole us away! They even gravely wounded our Great God!” The seedling spoke with the teenage voice of the recording, its leaves trembling with indignation.

“You and your companions were dug up by the Dream Praise Society?” Xu Feng felt a wave of confusion. What kind of organization was the Dream Praise Society?

“Yes! Many of my kin were planted in the soil by them. Some sprouted and were fed a foul-smelling liquid, which utterly twisted their original forms, turning them into nothing but monsters! Some were even planted into the bodies of animals for horrific modification experiments!” The seedling’s tone was solemn, devoid of any exaggeration.

“Hold that thought for a moment,” Xu Feng paused the conversation. The seedling reined in its emotions, nodding its leaves in agreement.

“Wei Jiu, come with me for a second.” Xu Feng waved Wei Jiu over. Though puzzled, Wei Jiu followed her out of the room.

Bang.

The bedroom door shut. Xu Feng pulled Wei Jiu to the side and turned on the phone Uncle Shui had given her, scrolling through a file to show her an image.

【Dream Seedling Cultivation.jpg】

“Eh? The color of this seed?”

“It looks familiar, doesn’t it?”

Xu Feng tapped the screen to scroll down. More images of “Dream Seedlings” appeared, though most were in their unsprouted state. However, all Dream Seedlings shared a common trait: a faint halo surrounding their exterior.

“Is that seedling the sprouted form of a Dream Seedling?” Wei Jiu wasn’t entirely certain, but the resemblance was striking.

“And how does that fit with this description?” Xu Feng flipped to the introduction for the Dream Seedlings.

A type of artificial, micro-dream materialized plant seed. It can forcibly pull a person into a dream state while maintaining their conscious awareness.

It was obvious that both Xu Feng and Wei Jiu were still in reality; they hadn’t entered a dream.

“Is the description wrong?” Wei Jiu asked.

“Maybe something changed—the conditions for sprouting, for instance,” Xu Feng guessed. She turned to glance at the door, checking for any abnormal phenomena.

“Then what the seedling said… about being dug up, and the ‘Great God’ who taught them wisdom… mmuu…” Wei Jiu’s thoughts were getting tangled. After all, she wasn’t from this world to begin with, so her perspective was different.

As for Xu Feng, the logic was starting to click into place.

Combining the seedling’s story with the files from the Dream Protection Bureau, the situation could be pieced together like this:

Someone had cultivated a certain plant. In its seed form, it was called a Dream Seedling, possessing the potential to bridge dreams and reality. Once sprouted, however, its abilities likely specialized or solidified.

The person who cultivated them was, for now, referred to as a “God.” A group of men in black calling themselves the 【Dream Praise Society】 stole the seeds to exploit them, giving birth to “monsters.” This concept of “monsters” was, in fact, synonymous with what the Bureau defined as “Dream Husks.”

Xu Feng closed her eyes to keep thinking, her mind suddenly racing at high speed as all the possibilities connected into a single line.

She recalled the scene of the trade that day. The two men in black weren’t on the same side, but the party in possession of the Dream Seedlings must have been from the 【Dream Praise Society】. One of them had sounded terrified, as if he were afraid of some secret being discovered.

Clearly, the 【Dream Praise Society】 wasn’t a unified front. One man had stolen the seeds and tried to make a fortune by selling them to others.

Xu Feng began to weave her own experiences into the narrative.

The man who had obtained the Dream Seedling passed by her home. To evade detection, he planted it. The seed pulled her and that college student, Zhao Yi, into a dream, using a strange fog as the medium—one that didn’t seem to belong to Fei Guang.

The man in black thought this would help him escape the organization’s pursuit, but he was eventually killed in that abandoned building. It was likely the work of the 【Dream Praise Society】—or perhaps someone else—but definitely not the Bureau. The Bureau wouldn’t have been so sloppy as to leave a Level 4 Dream Husk behind.

Xu Feng opened her eyes and smacked her forehead, everything much clearer now. Wei Jiu watched her, tilting her head in confusion.

“Why did you hit your own head?” Wei Jiu asked softly, thinking Xu Feng had thought herself into a headache.

“It’s nothing. I’ve just figured it all out. I’m doing this because I’m happy.” Xu Feng put her hands on her hips, her chest puffed out with newfound confidence.

“Then what about the seedling?” Wei Jiu looked toward the door, still quite concerned about the beautiful plant.

“We keep it. It’ll be useful to me. Besides, it calls itself a spirit, which means it must have some special function. It was cultivated by a ‘Great God,’ after all.” Xu Feng was now itching to see what this so-called spirit would look like once it fully grew up.

Creak.

The door opened again. The seedling had been waiting for a long time before it curled its leaves and asked:

“Are you two done talking?”

“Yeah. I have one more question for you. Have you seen any men in black recently? Or anyone else?” Xu Feng asked.

“Oh, now that you mention it… some of my kin and I were taken out by the men in black. I saw them fighting a man. But that man was very strong; he was shrouded in mist. After defeating the men in black, he took me and my companions away. But it seemed he received a box halfway through, and then… I was here.”

The moment the seedling finished, Xu Feng froze in shock.

“Fei Guang… it really was him who sent it,” Xu Feng murmured, looking out the window as doubt flooded her heart again.

First, Fei Guang tried to capture her, then he helped her. What exactly was he doing? Or was someone behind him pulling the strings?

She truly couldn’t understand why they were targeting her.