"Look up at the sky. Can you see any anomalies?" Fang Xiu suddenly spoke.
Zhao Hao was startled.
"Anomalies! Where are they?!" He hurriedly looked up, but all he saw was the bright moon and a starry sky, dark as a velvet curtain.
"Fang Xiu, where are the anomalies? Did you make a mistake?"
"Mm, perhaps I mistook a bat for an anomaly."
Fang Xiu's brow furrowed involuntarily.
When others awaken their spiritual abilities and become Spirit Masters, can they not see the anomalies that fill the world?
Is it because Zhao Hao is too weak after just becoming a Spirit Master, or do even Spirit Masters truly fail to perceive the anomalies that surround them?
Fang Xiu hoped it was the former, for that would mean he was not alone—there were others like him, capable of seeing the anomalies.
"Let's go home and sleep," he said.
"Go home and sleep?" Zhao Hao was astonished. "Fang Xiu, our colleagues are dead, and we've encountered anomalies, yet you still want to go home and sleep?"
"Why? Do you want to call the security guard?"
"I... well, I guess you're right. Anomalies should be dealt with by Taoists."
"No need to look for anyone. Someone will come to us. Since this world harbors anomalies and Spirit Masters, there must be an organization dedicated to dealing with them. If not, the world would have already descended into chaos."
He paused, then added, "By the way, how did you break the dream?"
"Well..." Zhao Hao's expression visibly shifted to one of awkwardness.
"How else? I just followed the method you taught me, ignored everything, and immersed myself in the film."
"Then why were you touching and kissing the air earlier?"
"Huh!? I did that too?" Zhao Hao's face turned bright red in an instant.
"Mm, not only did you make the motions, but you also made sounds... and your pants got wet..."
"Ah! Please stop, Fang Xiu! I beg you, don't say anymore! If you do, I'll die of embarrassment."
"Alright then, tell me about your experience in the dream. Of course, I'm not interested in your dream, I just want to know why you lack abilities. Could it be that something went wrong during your awakening?" Fang Xiu said with a calm expression.
"Really, Fang Xiu? Okay, but you must promise me you won't tell anyone else."
"Mm."
"Actually... it's nothing special. After entering the illusion, I kept my eyes shut, and my mind was filled with the teacher's lectures. Then, I started hearing all kinds of terrifying sounds, and even cold hands, like corpses, touched me. I got so scared that I panicked. To distract myself, I... I..."
"You... took matters into your own hands?" Fang Xiu interjected sharply.
Zhao Hao's face turned even redder as he defended, "I did it just to distract myself, okay?"
Fang Xiu nodded approvingly, "And then?"
"Then... then the sounds around me changed. They became Li Feifei's voice, soft and gentle. The hand that touched mine became warm and smooth, so I..."
"Opened your eyes? Do you really like Li Feifei that much?"
"Fang Xiu, didn't you say that if we saw Li Feifei, we should give her a pinch to check if she's real? That's the flaw in the illusion."
"Did you figure out if it was real or not?"
"I... didn't pinch either..." Zhao Hao said, feeling a little aggrieved.
"What happened next?"
"Afterward, Li Feifei kept tempting me. I couldn't resist, but it's not my fault. She was wearing a JK uniform, with a black ribbon bell around her neck, and her stockings were torn—how could any man withstand that?"
"Then she started teaching me. As she spoke, her eyes turned blood red, and her mouth split wide open, all the way to her ears. I almost died from fright, my mind was filled with nothing but terror."
Fang Xiu nodded, understanding. Zhao Hao must have been terrified during that period.
"How did you pull yourself together afterward?"
"At that moment, Li Feifei had her mouth wide open, ready to bite me. I knew I was done for, but I thought... I'm still a virgin. If I die now, it would be a waste of my life.
If I'm going to die, I refuse to die this miserably. So, I steeled myself, and no matter if she was an anomaly, I decided to fulfill my wish before dying."
Fang Xiu: "..."
Now he understood why the anomaly had never appeared after the dream was broken—it must have been too embarrassed to face Zhao Hao, the anomaly's conqueror.
Zhao Hao, noticing Fang Xiu's silence, felt awkward and quickly added, "What's the point of caring about so much when you're about to die? Life's about no regrets, right, Fang Xiu?"
"I think it's time for you to go home."
Zhao Hao: "..."
After a few more words of advice from Fang Xiu, ensuring Zhao Hao knew what to say if anyone came to find him, the two parted ways and returned to their respective homes.
...
Back home, Fang Xiu found his gentle wife waiting for him.
"Darling, you're back! Have you eaten yet? Would you like me to... serve you?"
She smiled tenderly, dressed in a moon-white silk camisole, her slender, fair legs exposed to the cool air.
Seeing his usual gentle wife, Fang Xiu felt a great weight lift from his heart.
It felt so good to be home, to see her again.
He stared at her delicate face, amazed at her beauty, more stunning than any photo edit could capture.
"Mm, I'm home," he smiled in response.
In an instant, her tender smile vanished, replaced by a fierce, greedy, and mad expression.
Her transformation was as swift as a master of facial expressions.
"You see..."
Before she could finish, a flash of silver appeared.
A surgical knife, like a blur, struck toward her pale neck, filled with Fang Xiu's dark spiritual energy, the pain amplifying to its maximum.
During the time he had been away, his spiritual energy had fully recovered, allowing him to control the surgical knife.
Just as the knife was about to pierce her neck, everything went dark before his eyes, and his consciousness was swallowed by darkness.
When he awoke again, he found himself back at the doorstep of his home.
"Did I die? The location of the death rewind has changed," Fang Xiu muttered to himself, the dim light from the old corridor casting shadows across his face.
"So this is the true power of my wife? I never expected that after awakening my spiritual energy, the gap would feel even larger. This time, I didn't even know how I died. Sure enough, there are different levels of anomalies—perhaps the gap between them is even greater than between people.
It was a good choice not to continue exploring the mental hospital."
Actually, after the female doctor had fled, Fang Xiu had thought about continuing his exploration of Qing Mountain Psychiatric Hospital. But after some consideration, he decided against it. It seemed pointless.
He was too weak, unfamiliar with his spiritual energy, and knew nothing about Spirit Masters and their ways. There were too many risks.
The female doctor was merely the weakest anomaly in the hospital, and he couldn't even handle her. Who knew what other anomalies were locked in the rooms?
Let's not forget that some rooms had open doors, one of which housed the anomaly controlling dreams, while the others were still hidden.
This time, he was lucky to encounter a non-threatening dream anomaly, which allowed him to escape. If another anomaly had blocked the door, even with the death rewind, he might have been trapped forever in the mental hospital.
In the face of absolute power, no amount of rewinds would make a difference.
So, Fang Xiu planned to first familiarize himself with his spiritual energy, learn about Spirit Masters, and connect with related organizations. Once he had more information, he would make his next move.