Chapter 11: A Strange Plea in a Springtime Dream

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“Tian Qiong, what are you doing?”
Jiang Yu looked at Xia Tianqiong with a panicked expression, her eyes full of confusion.
“What am I doing? Of course, I’m strangling you to death!”
Xia Tianqiong snorted coldly and gripped Jiang Yu’s neck with force.
Jiang Yu’s face flushed red, then gradually turned purple, tears welling in her eyes, looking pitiful and heart-rending.
“Why? Don’t you like me?”
“Sorry, I don’t like women.”
“That’s impossible!”
Jiang Yu cried out in shock, then fell silent.
Suddenly, the entire space blurred, and Xia Tianqiong felt drowsiness wash over him again.
He closed his eyes, then opened them once more.
He found himself lying in bed, and the naked Jiang Yu was nowhere to be seen, as if it had all been a dream.
“Splash, splash!”
Water sounds came from the bathroom.
Xia Tianqiong hurried over and saw a tall, handsome man showering. The man turned his head and gave him a radiant smile.
“Master, I’m almost done.”
“Damn, you really dare to turn into a man!”
Xia Tianqiong felt a wave of nausea and immediately charged forward, kicking him down.
While kicking, he cursed, “Are you trying to disgust me to death or what?”
The man fell to the ground with a grimace. “You despicable human! You saw through me so early and still dare to play tricks on me?”
In fact, Xia Tianqiong had realized something was amiss since the onset of drowsiness; otherwise, he wouldn’t have told the two strange entities inside him not to wake him.
Because this time, he was facing a dream demon.
This kind of demon traps people in various dreamscapes, triggering death rules within the dream to kill them.
Some dream demons specialize in nightmares, instilling terror—these are called nightmare demons.
Some weave fantastical storylines, making people play roles—these are scriptwriter dream demons.
Some like to transform into handsome men or beautiful women to arouse desire—this is the type Xia Tianqiong encountered, called lust dream demons.
There are many other kinds of dream demons, but no matter the type, in their early stages of arrival, they caused numerous human deaths.
It wasn’t until official information about dream demons and their countermeasures was released that people realized dream demons were actually quite easy to deal with.
Take this lust dream demon, for example; it tempts Xia Tianqiong to feel desire, but if he engages with it sexually in the dream, it triggers the death rule.
Breaking this death rule is simple—just control yourself, and most people won’t fall victim.
You can even counterattack and kill it.
Xia Tianqiong summoned all his strength and fiercely kicked the lust dream demon.
Though a dream, it felt exactly like reality.
Suddenly, drowsiness came over him again, his vision blurring.
If he closed his eyes now, the lust dream demon would escape the dream or weave a new one.
Xia Tianqiong naturally wouldn’t let that happen. “Sword, come forth!”
He shouted sharply, focusing hard, resisting the drowsiness, and mentally conjuring a sharp longsword.
Although the dream was woven by the lust dream demon, fundamentally, it was based on Xia Tianqiong’s memories, so he was the master of the dream.
As long as his will was strong and imagination rich, he could conjure anything there.
This was a technique he had learned from other demon hunters.
With Xia Tianqiong’s shout, his vision cleared, and a longsword materialized from the void.
The lust dream demon looked stunned and pale. “How can you control the dream too?”

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Besides weaving dreams and transforming into various people, it had no other offensive abilities.
Most importantly, it could be killed within the dream.
Seeing Xia Tianqiong wield the longsword and strike at it, it quickly begged for mercy, “Brother, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have disturbed you. Please spare me this once.”
“You want my life yet beg for mercy? Impossible.”
Without further words, Xia Tianqiong swung the sword and severed the lust dream demon in two.
It did not bleed nor die.
Instead, it turned into a mist, then reformed into human shape.
However, the recovery consumed much of its spectral energy.
To completely kill it, one must continuously wound it in the dream until its spectral energy is depleted, causing its core to shatter and vanish forever.
Unwilling to die, the lust dream demon tried to make Xia Tianqiong fall asleep again within the dream.
But after his revival, Xia Tianqiong’s will was strong enough that he could not be made to sleep again.
The bathroom was small, and the lust dream demon had nowhere to run, being slashed repeatedly by the longsword.
Repeated regenerations caused its body to shrink and become semi-transparent.
“Brother, I surrender! Can I sign a contract with you?”
The lust dream demon finally gave up and begged again.
“Sure!” Xia Tianqiong had been waiting for this. “But I only accept human master contracts!”
“That’s impossible! Humans don’t live a hundred years. If I sign a human master contract, I’ll age and die with you.”
“At least you’ll live for decades. If you don’t agree, you’ll die now!”
Xia Tianqiong threatened, but the lust dream demon stubbornly refused to submit, preferring death over signing the contract.
Xia Tianqiong thought about it. This lust dream demon’s abilities only worked on humans and were useless against other demons, so accepting it wouldn’t be very beneficial.
Besides, he urgently needed spirit coins, so he decided to kill it.
With a flurry of slashes, the lust dream demon’s body grew more transparent until with a pop, like a balloon bursting, it dispersed into nothingness.
At the same moment, Xia Tianqiong instantly exited the dream and fully regained consciousness.
It was now the scorching summer, but the room suddenly felt cold as a cellar, the air thick and sticky.
This was the vast spectral energy released from the lust dream demon’s death, which would dissipate completely within minutes.
Xia Tianqiong quickly grabbed dozens of gold ingots beside the bed and scattered them around the room to absorb the spectral energy and convert it into spirit coins.
After three or four minutes, most of the spectral energy was absorbed, some dissipated.
Xia Tianqiong counted: all 48 gold ingots had turned into spirit coins, though their sizes varied.
Some shrank to the size of peanuts, others were as big as apples.
The spectral energy’s density varied around the room; the more energy a gold ingot absorbed, the heavier it became, and vice versa.
“Looks like I need an electronic scale, otherwise, I won’t know how much gold this is.”
Xia Tianqiong weighed a gold ingot in each hand but couldn’t estimate their weight.
After all, he had no experience with this.
“Master, I have experience. I can tell the weight just by touch.”
Suddenly, the big head of the delivery demon floated out from his chest, grinning slyly and trying to please him.
Xia Tianqiong thought it made sense; demons were very precise in sensing spirit coins, so he let it out to weigh each gold ingot.
Five minutes later.
“Master, the smallest weighs two taels, the largest fifty-six taels, totaling four hundred eighty-five taels.”
“That much!”
Though prepared, Xia Tianqiong was still quite surprised.
Four hundred eighty-five taels of gold equals four thousand eight hundred fifty taels of silver. If converted to paper spirit bills at a ratio of 1:1000, that’s 4.85 million yuan.
This was a huge fortune!
He hadn’t expected killing a wild-level lust dream demon would yield so many spirit coins.
Looks like he should hunt demons more often.
A pile of gold ingots of various sizes lay on the bed, casting a golden glow over the entire room.
The delivery demon squatted by the bed like a lapdog, drooling uncontrollably.
It looked up at Xia Tianqiong and grinned, “Master, you haven’t forgotten what you promised me before, right?”
“Of course not. How many spirit coins do you need to restore your previous state?”
In good spirits, Xia Tianqiong answered readily.
“Well... fifty taels of gold will get me back to peak condition. If you give me all this, I could almost advance to a fierce ghost.”
“Advance to a fierce ghost? How much would your abilities improve? Could you create new death rules?”
Demons could upgrade by absorbing or devouring spirit coins.
With each level gained, their abilities strengthened, and new death rules might emerge.
The delivery demon was stunned; it hadn’t expected Xia Tianqiong to know so much about demons.
“My door-opening skill would be faster, and the food I conjure would be more abundant and varied. As for death rules, we delivery demons rarely create new ones.”
Xia Tianqiong felt somewhat disappointed.
Wild demons were indeed the lowest level, with little cultivation value. Wasting so many spirit coins on them wasn’t worthwhile; better to use them on other things.
“I’ll give you the biggest one. When I have more spirit coins, I’ll let you upgrade.”
He casually tossed the gold ingot about the size of an apple to the delivery demon.
The demon looked a bit downcast but said nothing.
“Ee ya ee ya!”
The demon infant suddenly ran out, pointed at the delivery demon, then at the braised ribs in the corner.
Xia Tianqiong laughed, “Alright, you can eat your fill.”
The demon infant could also absorb spirit coins but preferred food condensed from spectral energy.
Xia Tianqiong tossed several tens of taels of gold to the delivery demon, who absorbed them and conjured various foods daily for the demon infant.
“Master, you’re biased!”
The delivery demon grumbled but obediently complied.
Afterward, Xia Tianqiong leaned against the headboard, stacking gold ingots, waiting for demons to appear.
But no one came all afternoon.
“Maybe the spectral energy released when the lust dream demon died alerted other demons. They know here can kill wild-level demons, so they don’t dare come.”
Xia Tianqiong speculated.
“If you won’t come to me, then I’ll go to you!”
There had to be other demons nearby, just hiding or tormenting others.
Xia Tianqiong activated his demon technique, “Shadow Teleportation,” sensing shadows in every room around—above, below, left, right—all within his perception.
He didn’t intend to teleport but to observe others’ shadows to detect abnormalities.
For example, he sensed a figure lying motionless on the bathroom floor downstairs.
The bathroom was filthy; no normal person would lie there.
Either they collapsed from a sudden illness or were killed by a demon.
Xia Tianqiong focused his mind and instantly appeared in the shadow behind the downstairs bathroom door.
Peeking out, he saw an elderly man with white hair, emaciated, lying on the floor, eyes hollow and lifeless.
“This person’s life force has been completely drained by a demon!”
Xia Tianqiong immediately judged. There were indeed other demons in this building.

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