Chapter 58: Secret

After having a cup of water, Xiaodong slowly calmed down.

Earlier, he had choked from fright. Returnflow Mountain had many of these thorny trees and bushes, and they grew in a very concentrated manner. Xiaodong thought, forget about there not being any birds or beasts on the mountain, even if there were, with these thorns inhibiting them, the animals shouldn’t even think about breaking through these heavy defenses.

Seeing those sharp thorns, glinting coldly as they pierced towards him, Xiaodong got truly frightened and was now covered in cold sweat.

“Senior Brother, you… have dreams too, right?”

Mo Chen smiled and said, “Who doesn’t have dreams? However, people usually forget dreams after having them. For people like Spiritual Master Hu and his sect members, getting a dream is an important matter, and they would try to figure out the meaning behind that dream no matter what. They believe that dreams can predict if the future is auspicious or not, and so they would truly exhaust everything to decipher these dreams.”

Wasn’t there a common saying? Dream of life, and death would come. Dream of death, and life would be bestowed. Another common saying was along the lines of, life and death, poor or rich, it’s all destined by the heavens. According to rumors, the reason why Heavenly Secrets Sect was named in such a way, was because the ancestor who first erected the sect said that their sect was able to take a peek into a hint of the heavenly secrets within the Three Thousand Mortal Chaos. When entering dreams, people could still see, feel and think, yet they resided within Chaos, and this was the most opportune time to poke a hole through the Heavenly Dao. That was why, no matter what dreams they saw, the first thing these sect members would do after waking up was record everything that they could still remember down hurriedly. Otherwise, they might possibly forget everything they had experienced in their dreams in a blink of an eye.

If it was an invalid dream, then let it be forgotten. If it was a dream that could truly peek into heavenly secrets, it would truly be a blessing rewarded from merits made through multiple lifetimes. If such a dream were to be forgotten in an instant, then that person would be the number one prodigal under the heavens! The great ancestor had tried to feed you with a spoon of rice and yet you didn’t know how to open your mouth! Not only did you not pick up the gold ingot that fell down from the sky, you even kicked it far away!

That was why, no matter if the dreams were good or bad, long or short, useless or not, they had to remember them to heart. Even if the dreams were useless, they wouldn’t lose a dime anyway. As long as one out of the tens and hundreds of dreams was accurate, then they would have struck fortune.

Since he had already posed such a question, Mo Chen asked Xiaodong, “Then what kind of dream did you have?”

“I… I dreamt of Senior Brother Ning. He was holding a compass and seemed to be checking the feng shui of the place.”

Mo Chen laughed out loud, “That’s truly something he would do. You must have been frightened because of his strange and incomprehensible behavior, right?”

Xiaodong shook his head and said, “I wasn’t frightened by him, rather…” He wanted to say that he dreamt of Senior Brother Di, but the moment he recalled that he had promised Senior Sister Linglong that he wouldn’t expose their relationship, he naturally couldn’t talk about Senior Brother Di.

He wanted to tell Eldest Senior Brother that, it wasn’t his dreams were different from anyone else, but rather, they were unlike anyone else’s.

However, he did not know where to begin.

“Senior Brother, sometimes when I dream, the dreams are really strange. In one of my dreams, I saw a scene of Master and Senior Liu together on Sword Conferring Peak.”

Mo Chen still did not feel anything was strange at this moment. He knew that in the few days they were on Sword Conferring Peak, his junior siblings both yearned and worried. They all naturally yearned to watch the sword conferring of two experts. Yet, with how dangerous Sword Conferring Peak was, without any food and drinks, and without even a single wall to block the cold winds, how could they not worry?

“In my dream, I saw that Senior Liu was carrying an empty sword casket on his back. There isn’t a sword inside.”

Little Junior Brother’s voice was very soft, and he was even shivering a little. However, inside Mo Chen’s ears, it sounded as if thunder had roared right before him, and even his hair had begun to stand.

Within the entire Returnflow Mountain… no, the entire world, only at most five people knew that Senior Liu had sealed his sword. Of course, Senior Liu was one of them. Senior Zhou, whom Senior Liu had conferred the sword with was one, and then other than Master and Mo Chen himself, Senior Liu had told no one else this big secret. Little Junior Brother could not have heard about it from someone else.

How could he possibly see this in his dream?

“It’s true.” Xiaodong softly said, “I really saw it.”

Mo Chen slowly sat next to Xiaodong. After being stunned for a moment, he asked, “Is there anything else other than this?”

Xiaodong pondered for a moment. They talked quite a lot during the sword conferring, but Xiaodong could not comprehend most of it, so he couldn’t remember too clearly.

The thing that he remembered the clearest, was a small incident in the past.

“I even saw Senior Brother Jiang placing the cleaning oil next to the well. After that, when he couldn’t find it after searching everywhere for it, I told him that it was next to the well and he found it there.”

Mo Chen, coincidentally, knew of this incident. Junior Brother Jiang mentioned before that he was unable to locate something for two days during the winter last year. After that, he said he found it.

However, Mo Chen didn’t know that it was Little Junior Brother who reminded him.

Though this matter could not be compared to the one he mentioned earlier, when Little Junior Brother brought it up at this moment, Mo Chen was certain that Xiaodong’s words were indeed true.

No, he wasn’t just certain.

Ever since Little Junior Brother brought up Senior Liu’s circumstances, Mo Chen had never suspected that his words were untrue.

Little Junior Brother would never lie to him.

However… However, this matter was truly too astonishing, Mo Chen could not accept it so easily.

When he regained his senses, Mo Chen immediately realized that Little Junior Brother was even uneasier than he was.

Mo Chen held Xiaodong’s hand.

It was already spring, and furthermore Xiaodong had only just woken up, so it should be the time when his body should be the warmest. However, his hand was currently ice-cold, and his palm was entirely covered in cold sweat.

Little Junior Brother was afraid.

Mo Chen understood in an instant.

Little Junior Brother was actually afraid all this time.

He must have suppressed this secret in his heart for a very long time. He did not understand it, nor could he discuss it with anyone else. He simply held it in all this while. Just how uncomfortable must it have been? Even if he revealed it now, he wouldn’t feel relieved either. He must still be afraid, fearing that people would not believe him when told about it. Or, he might be afraid that people would believe his words and see him as a monster.

He had now revealed his biggest and deepest secret, and without any measures to protect himself. He was just standing openly in front of Mo Chen. He definitely would not be able to endure even the slightest harm.

Mo Chen held both of Little Junior Brother’s hands with his own, lowered his voice, and gently said, “Trust Senior Brother. I believe everything that you’ve said.”

As expected, Xiaodong instantly became spirited and his head was raised up high. Earlier he was like a frosted eggplant, but now he seemed like a little sunflower swaying after receiving a bit of sunlight.

“Really?” Xiaodong stammered a little from his anxiety, “Senior Brother, do you really believe me? Actually, actually, you don’t have to console me. Even I don’t really believe it myself.”

Mo Chen felt that even with how huge this matter was, he still could not help but laugh at Xiaodong’s antics.

“Really, what are you saying.”

“It’s true. I really can’t believe in myself.” Xiaodong hurriedly continued, “I-In the past, I couldn’t remember the dreams that well. After I came to Returnflow Mountain, not every dream was like this either. Some dreams are different too… Aiya, it’s just that sometimes I know they are dreams, yet in my heart I faintly understand that they aren’t just normal dreams.”

His words were a little all over the place, but Mo Chen strangely understood him. Rather, Mo Chen understood even more than what Xiaodong had described.

It was hard to ascertain the authenticity of such things. Little Junior Brother was unclear about it himself, and there weren’t many things that he could use to prove that everything was true. Furthermore, to speak about something like this, rather than just talking about the “effect”, to ensure that others would believe him, he had to clearly describe the “cause” as well. Little Junior Brother clearly knew nothing about this, so how was he going to describe it?

“I know. I know everything.” Mo Chen suddenly felt his shoulders turn a little heavier.

Little Junior Brother’s secret was really too important, and he was a little simple-minded. He did not have much defense against other people, as he had told Mo Chen so easily.

If he didn’t know, how could Mo Chen not understand?

How big was this matter?

It was to the point where, if others knew about it, then Returnflow Mountain might not even be able to protect him.

That was why he had to carry Little Junior Brother’s burden. Mo Chen had to protect him, and fully investigate this in his stead.