Chương 591: Chapter 586: Tian's Epiphany

Tian's eyes struggled to focus on anything, he seemed to be in a daze, his lips moving, but the words were barely a whisper.

"I've been… I've been living a lie…" The words were the words of a man whose life had shattered around him, and that everything he had known was not true. The two Lucid Lawbearers didn't waste any time. Song Wei acted first, his spiritual pressure flared out, zeroing in on Tian's still form. Shen Bolin followed suit. They were determined to figure out if my friend had become another victim of the Dreamgod's madness.

They weren't the only ones curious, Li Na stepped forward, which didn't surprise me, she had spoken well of Tian before so it was clear to me they were friends or something of that sort.

"Stay back!" Shen Bolin commanded, making the young girl freeze in place.

"Is he…is he infected?" She whispered, her voice trembling. Before anyone could respond, Tian shook his head but I couldn't tell if he was answering the question or was trying to clear the fog in his mind.

"The trial…I needed it," his voice grow stronger the more he spoke.

"I needed it more than I realised." That got everyone's attention. Song Wei's eyes narrowed on Tian as his spiritual pressure bore down with more weight.

"What did you see?" He asked.

"Tell us, boy." The extra pressure didn't seem to affect Tian at all. His gaze just met the Lucid Lawbearer in the eyes like he was looking at an equal, or even someone below him in status.

"The truth." Song Wei and Shen Bolin exchanged looks and I knew exactly what was going through their minds. Tian's replying by claiming he saw the truth sounds like something that someone corrupted by the Dreamgod's madness would say. I couldn't blame them for thinking that. After all, that would have been my first thought too had it not been that I knew that Tian, or should I say Wu Kangming, was going through the strangest mix up of identities there could ever be where he thought he was me, Ke Yin, his rival.

"And what do you mean by 'the truth'?" Song Wei asked, moving slowly to his right so that Tian was boxed in between him and Shen Bolin.

"Everything that I thought I was," Tian began answering, seemingly not bothered that he was being surrounded.

"Everything that I believed I was, it was all a lie. It had always been a lie. I had just been too blind to see it."

"That's not an answer," Song Wei said flatly, his posture told me that he was going to attack at any second.

"It's the only answer I can give right now." Tian straightened his posture, looking more like himself.

"But I'm not infected by whatever it is that you think I am. I'm just... I finally understand who I actually am. That's got nothing to do with the Dreamgod." Song Wei scoffed at that and he looked like he was going to continue arguing but Shen Bolin cut in.

"The boy is clean," he confirmed, retreating his spiritual pressure.

"I couldn't find any trace of foreign consciousness or corruption. His spiritual foundation is stable. It's actually more stable than before." Song Wei didn't look convinced but he also withdrew his own spiritual probe.

"You better be right. You know just as well as I do that we can't risk adding another compromised cultivator to our group." That reminded everyone of Pan Jun. We all turned to look for him and found him twenty feet away, pressed flat against the stone floor. His arms were spread wide with his fingers splayed. Honestly, it looked like he was trying to become one with the ground or something equally ridiculous, and what he was muttering under his breath only confirmed that.

"We're one surface. Horizontal brothers. You know that don't you, little floor? All three of us are the same. Three makes perfect geometry. But why don't they admit it? Why do they lie? I'm not a liar. I was never a liar. So how come they can lie?" It was difficult to know if there was anything real behind those murmurs or if they were the muttering of a madman. I wasn't the only one concerned. Xu Feng and I exchanged glances, he shook his head sadly.

As for the two Lucid Lawbearers, they had a lot less empathy, but they showed it in different ways.

"Before the corruption spreads further, we should kill him," Shen Bolin said quietly.

"That's the merciful thing to do at this point. Thinking you're part of the floor…what is that? That isn't a life worth living."

"No!" The shout surprised me, because it came from Song Wei, and he was the last one that I thought would turn down the opportunity to kill someone that had become a problem. I wasn't the only one surprised by the rejection. Shen Bolin's head snapped towards his lifelong enemy.

"No? You're the one who's been pushing us to move faster, to take fewer risks. This is a risk we don't need. What are you thinking?" The look of suspicion was back in Shen Bolin's eyes. He knew that his rival wouldn't choose mercy unless he had a nefarious reason in mind. And Song Wei proved him right with his next words.

"You're right. The boy is already lost," Song Wei agreed.

"But that doesn't make him useless. On the contrary, it makes him very useful." A look of disgust crossed Shen Bolin's face.

"You…you want to use him?" Even though it was phrased like a question, we all knew it wasn't one, there was no doubt in our minds what Song Wei was planning. Song Wei didn't seem bothered by what anyone else thought. He replied as practical as ever.

"The trials that are waiting for us are designed to break cultivators," Song Wei shrugged.

"Someone who's already partially merged with the palace's consciousness could be valuable." I knew what he meant by that. Since Pan Jun had a piece of the Dreamgod's consciousness with him, he might have access to knowledge about the palace that we don't have. And if he didn't, then I'm sure Song Wei would still like to keep him as a meat shield for the trials that involved fighting.

"The boy is a person," Shen Bolin argued as a righteous air surrounded him.

"He isn't some tool you can just use and discard when you're done."

"The boy was a person," Song Wei corrected.

"Now? Not so much. Just look at him, he thinks he's part of the floor, is that something a person would think?" When no one argued with that, he continued.

"Right now he's a liability that might become an asset. Would you rather I just kill him? That'd be a waste of potential." Shen Bolin didn't have a counter to that, all he could do was release his spiritual pressure in frustration as he whispered to whichever deity that he believed in to give him strength. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Finally, he looked at the Tian and Li Na, and his expression shifted into a grim acceptance.

"Fine," Shen Bolin spat out like he hated himself for agreeing.

"But if he endangers my people, I'll end him immediately."

"Sure, sure, you can do that," Song Wei waved his hand in a dismissive motion. Shen Bolin's jaw clenched at that but he didn't take the bait. As the tension dissipated, I thought about the reality of the situation. Unfortunately, this was just how humans were. How cultivators were. They used others and found ways to rationalize it. Song Wei wrapped his exploitation in pragmatism: Pan Jun was already lost, might as well extract some value.

Shen Bolin accepted it because protecting Tian and Li Na mattered more than his principles about treating the corrupted with dignity. Everyone found their justifications. Everyone made their compromises. They all slept fine afterward because they'd convinced themselves they'd made the reasonable choice. That was the only way they could live with themselves. Even though this was pretty clear to me, it didn't make me better than them because in truth, I wasn't any different to them really.

I had my own rationalizations for the things I did. The difference was that at least I tried to be honest with myself about it.

"Thirty minutes," Song Wei announced, studying his jade timepiece.

"Then we move on to the next trial. Be ready or you'll be left behind." Everyone nodded as they all dispersed to different areas of the corridor. Xu Feng went over to sit with Pan Jun and speak to him in. I had no idea if he was going to have any luck getting through to him or if it was all falling on deaf ears. Xie Ling found a wall to lean against, her eyes closed in meditation, which was basically her way of telling us all to leave her alone.

Li Na simply faded into the background again, I was used to it by now and didn't bat an eyelid to it, though I made a conscious effort to keep her within my senses. After all, this was a trial and we were all competitors at the end of the day. What I decided to do was go check up on Tian. It was what a friend would do in a situation like this. It was also what a competitor would do. I couldn't say for certain which of the two reasons made me move.

Tian was staring at one of the stone walls like it had the answers to questions he hadn't asked yet.

"Hey," I pat his shoulder with my right hand.

"You doing okay?" His head snapped towards me and for the first time since he emerged from the trial, he looked me in the eyes, and what I saw made me feel sorry for him. There was a lot hidden in there: recognition, pain, understanding, and even some emotions that I couldn't quite identify.

"How can I be okay?" He whispered.

"Everything that I believed was true was in fact a lie. And the truth seems more unbelievable to me than the lie did." I didn't say anything. Sometimes the best thing you could do was just be quiet and let the other person vent. That was exactly what he needed right now.

"All my life," Tian continued, "I had dreams and memories of things that happened that weren't mine. Or at least I thought they weren't mine. I spent years trying to understand them, trying to figure out who I really was. And I thought... I thought when I became a Dream Disciple that I'd finally found the answer." His hands clenched at his sides as he let out a bitter hollow laugh.

"But it was all a joke. The identity I'd built, the person I thought I'd been searching for this whole time... none of it was real. None of it was me. What's worse, it was someone else." On the outside, the expression of my face looked sympathetic, concerned, and confused, exactly what one would expect from a friend because that's what Tian needed right now. But on the inside, I was putting the pieces together. He'd stopped believing he was Ke Yin.

The trial had shown him enough to make him realize the truth: he was a fragment of Wu Kangming's consciousness that had been shaped into something new by the Dream World itself. As for how that made me feel, honestly I didn't even know, this was all getting too complicated. On one hand, I was genuinely happy for him. Why wouldn't I be? Imagine living life without knowing who you truly were, that had to be a special kind of torture.

The constant uncertainty, the feeling that you were missing something fundamental about yourself, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Not to mention how it only got worse when you get false clarity and end up believing that you're actually someone else and that someone was your rival. The enlightenment he received from the trial must have felt like finally being able to breathe after drowning. On the other hand, this made things significantly more difficult for me.

Fighting a Tian who knew exactly who he was and could access all those memories and experiences from Wu Kangming's life wasn't going to be easy. There was a real chance I could lose. But there was nothing to be done about it now. And honestly, defeating a Wu Kangming who was fully aware would be more satisfying than defeating one who wasn't. It would feel like a proper conclusion rather than taking advantage of someone operating at a disadvantage. That just didn't sit right with me.

Plus, it might mean Wu Kangming would be less likely to want a rematch after the tournament. If he lost knowing exactly who he was and what he was capable of, that would be harder to rationalize away. But then again, cultivators weren't known for being rational so I should probably expect a demand for a rematch either way. And I didn't mind, just as long as he wasn't trying to cripple or kill me.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"I can't imagine how that must feel." I wasn't even lying, I actually meant it. Even though we were competitors, it was a crappy situation for him to be in.

"It doesn't feel good," Tian nodded.

"But at least I know now. At least I know why I'm here, what I was made to do."

"That's something," I said, ignoring the fact that the thing he was created to do was hunt me down and kill me.

"Yeah," he smiled slightly even though it looked painful.

"I guess it is." I wasn't saved from continuing the conversation as Song Wei's voice cut across the corridor.

"Gather around," he released a sliver of Lucid Lawbearer aura to show he meant business.

"We need to talk about the third trial." With a brief squeeze to Tian's shoulder, I joined the group as we all took our place in front of the two Lucid Lawbearers. Even Pan Jun had come, though he walked with his arms held straight out like he was trying to become a perfect horizontal line, but what was even stranger than that was his unintelligent murmuring.

"I'm Shen Bolin. Yes. Yes I am. No, no I'm not. I'm Song Wei. No that's not right. I'm Shen Bolin and Song Wei. Yes, that's it." I held back a sigh, the poor guy's situation was just getting worse as time passed.

"Unlike the first two trials," Song Wei began, "the third trial isn't consistent, it will adapt to whoever enters it. For my first time it was a negotiation trial. I found myself in a courtroom where I had to defend my entire cultivation journey against prosecutors who knew every mistake I'd ever made."

"During my first expedition here, it was as a combat trial," Shen Bolin added.

"Wave after wave of dream constructs. And each wave only got stronger. The final opponent was a perfect copy of myself with all my techniques and memories. I…I still don't know how I survived that."

"My second time, it was a memory reconstruction," Song Wei continued, "I had to relive specific moments from my past and make different choices. Each choice locked me into a new timeline until I found the one that led to the exit."

"For me it was a labyrinth that kept changing," Shen Bolin said, "The only way forward was to let go of your sense of direction and trust intuition. It worked out for me, but I can't say the same about the group that came with me." They kept going, and we found that expedition really did present something different: A library where you had to find one specific book among millions, but the book changed every time you looked away.

A garden where you had to grow a specific flower, but every action you took caused unexpected consequences in the ecosystem. A music hall where you had to compose the perfect song despite having no musical training. A chess game against an opponent who could see all possible moves. As they listed example after example, I felt my estimation of both Lucid Lawbearers rising. They'd been here more than just a couple of times. This had to be their eighth or ninth expedition at least.

That level of determination was impressive, but what shocked me was that they'd survived this many attempts. The Sunken Dream Palace had a legendary reputation for killing even the most powerful cultivators, which was why most Lucid Lawbearers died on their first try. Yet somehow, these two had survived who knew how many runs through the trials. Either they were incredibly skilled, incredibly lucky, or both.

"The point is," Song Wei concluded, "we have no way to predict what you'll face. The only thing we know is that it will test something the palace believes is your weakness or your greatest desire. Sometimes both."

"Any advice?" Xu Feng asked.

"Remember who you are," Shen Bolin said, which made Tian flinch like he'd been struck.

"The trial will try to make you forget."

"And if you can't complete it within a reasonable amount of time," Song Wei added, "you will be left behind, lost in the trial forever."

"Are there any questions?" Shen Bolin asked, but when no one spoke, he continued.

"Then let's begin. Same as before, we enter one at a time." We lined up near the mirror entrance. Li Na went first, disappearing through the silvery surface without hesitation. Then Xu Feng, then Pan Jun, who seemed confused about whether he should enter vertically or horizontally. Xie Ling went next, followed by Shen Bolin and Song Wei simultaneously. That left Tian and me.

"Good luck, brother," Tian said, giving me a pat on the shoulder.

"You too," I replied as he stepped through the mirror. I took a breath to centre myself and followed.