Chapter 145: Waking from the Midnight Dream

"Yes!" Gu Weiyu smiled. "I am truly grateful for Big Brother Chu's help during this time."

Chu Liuxing waved his folding fan with a hearty laugh. "It was merely a matter of raising a hand, Younger Brother Yu, there is no need to mention it again. By the way, when are you and the others leaving?"

"We depart tomorrow." The mere mention of this brought an inexplicable surge of excitement to Gu Weiyu's heart. It was a day she had longed for, for a very long time.

"Be sure to call upon your brother when the time comes!" Chu Liuxing instructed with deliberate care.

Gu Weiyu nodded with a faint smile. "Very well, I shall see you tomorrow at the hour of Mao!"

---

The Harmony Sect, Thousand Mechanisms Peak.

Within one of the luxurious palaces crowning the peak, pink gauze curtains hung low, obscuring everything within and creating an indistinct, hazy atmosphere.

Silence reigned within the grand hall, broken only by the sound of heavy gasps emanating from the center of the hall, where the bed curtains hung low.

In the center of the hall, magnificent and diaphanous crimson bed curtains concealed the person lying upon the bed, making details impossible to discern.

The panting grew increasingly rapid, like that of a drowning person desperately gasping for air, as if enduring some inexpressible torment.

The slender, fragile figure upon the bed suddenly sat up from the grand bed in the middle of the hall. Her gaze was bewildered as she surveyed her surroundings, but she quickly lowered her eyelids in disappointment.

Just now, she had experienced that dream once again!

In the dream, her clansmen were harmed by villains, some slain and others wounded. In the span of a single night, her world had undergone a cataclysmic upheaval.

Red was everywhere, a desolate red that chilled the heart.

Her clansmen were dead, her sisters' whereabouts were unknown, and the family head was gravely injured. The family that everyone had once envied collapsed instantly like a toppling tree scattering monkeys, leaving their gates cold and deserted.

She was no longer a lofty aristocratic young lady, no longer a carefree child, but a commodity priced for sale, liable to lose herself at any moment.

And when the nightmare became reality, she was forced to leave her family, reduced to a prisoner with neither freedom nor dignity.

She was dressed in humiliating garments, placed within a meticulously crafted cage, hoisted onto a high platform, and subjected to the unbridled, appraising gazes of the various people below.

She felt a shame so intense she wished to die, longing to find a crack in the ground to crawl into and hide, never to face another soul again!

Just as she wished to perish on the spot, Elder Qianji of the Harmony Sect appeared, outbidding others to purchase her and bring her back to the Harmony Sect.

At that moment, she felt gratitude toward Elder Qianji; it was he who had ended the time she spent under those strange, scrutinizing stares.

Yet simultaneously, a sense of trepidation lingered in her heart: why had Elder Qianji purchased her? Could it also be for her beauty?

Furthermore, Elder Qianji not only bought her but also took her as his disciple, personally instructing her in the ways of cultivation. In daily life, he was attentive to her every need, humoring her in absolutely everything!

All of this had led her to believe that she had encountered a benevolent master and finally escaped the bitter sea!

Alas, she was ultimately merely deceiving herself.

A pair of delicate hands parted the bed curtains, revealing a young maiden attired only in a crimson translucent gauze gown.

Her brows resembled curved moons, beautiful without adornment, and her face was as exquisite and peerless as a peony. Her eyes were like autumn lakes, brimming with words left unsaid.

Her figure was like a weeping willow, delicate and frail, and the skin exposed beyond the gauze was as white as fine jade.

Barefoot, the maiden walked like a ghost toward the window, gently pushing it open. Bathed in the moonlight, her expression was one of profound loss.

The night was as cool as water, yet she seemed entirely unaware.

In truth, she knew clearly in her heart:

That was no dream at all; it was merely the past she refused to recall.

"Huan'er, why are you standing here?" A gentle voice sounded.

Simultaneously, a Taoist in white appeared before the window.

He was a tall, slender young man, strikingly handsome with an extraordinary bearing.

Upon seeing him, Gu Weiyu immediately bowed submissively and offered a respectful greeting. "Master, Huan'er could not sleep..."

"Did you have another nightmare?" Elder Qianji asked as he reached out to gently clasp Gu Weiyu's hand, gazing at her with lingering, tender affection.

"Look at you, being mischievous again. See how icy your hands are!"

The man's well-articulated thumb gently stroked her delicate hand with boundless warmth.

Yet Gu Weiyu felt utterly ill at ease. She lowered her gaze and withdrew her hand, concealing it within her sleeve. "Master, the hour is late, and Huan'er wishes to sleep a while longer."

"Very well, Huan'er, rest well." Elder Qianji nodded with a gentle expression.

Gu Weiyu closed the window and turned to walk toward the bed in the hall.

Outside the window, Elder Qianji stared fixedly at Gu Weiyu's retreating back with deep, unfathomable eyes.

The corners of his lips curved upward into an expression of absolute certainty.

Even through the window, Gu Weiyu could feel the scorching gaze upon her back, suffocating her heart.

Her master was indeed very good to her, but this kindness had imperceptibly changed in flavor, leaving her at a complete loss as to how to respond.

For instance, her master had specially sent her exquisitely crafted crimson translucent gauze gowns, insisting that she must wear them to sleep at night, claiming that Huan'er looked most beautiful this way.

Yet Gu Weiyu had no fondness for wearing such revealing attire.

She still remembered the time she failed to follow her master's instructions, resulting in his towering rage the following day. Though deeply reluctant, Gu Weiyu had no choice but to put it on.

Or, for another instance, her master always loved to observe her with a scorching gaze, loved to stroke her hand with his thumb, loved to pat the top of her head...

When she was merely eight or nine years old, Gu Weiyu had not paid much mind to it, but now as she grew older, she felt exceedingly awkward.

Neither her parents nor her brothers and sisters had ever treated her thus. Her master acting in this manner made her feel exceedingly strange.

Gu Weiyu returned to the bed and lay down, staring blankly at the crimson bed curtains above, her mind in utter turmoil.

During the day, a young attendant had secretly slipped a jade slip into her hand, containing a letter sent to her by the Gu family.

The letter briefly recounted the recent situation of the Gu clan. Learning that Chu Xingyun was dead and that both her fourth sister and eleventh sister had returned naturally brought her a sense of relief.

However, she felt deeply conflicted regarding whether or not she should return to the clan:

Firstly, when she had earlier expressed with subtle indirection her desire to leave the sect and wander the outer markets, her master immediately declared he would accompany her personally, claiming he worried it was unsafe for her to go alone.

Based on her understanding of her master, if she were to propose leaving the Harmony Sect, he would almost certainly refuse.

Secondly, she had once heard senior members of the Harmony Sect mention that external cultivators always viewed people of the Harmony Sect with strange eyes, considering their cultivation methods unorthodox and heretical.

Of this Gu Weiyu was well aware: a portion of the people within the Harmony Sect indeed cultivated the Dao of Dual Cultivation, raising their cultivation through intimate union.

Yet in reality, the vast majority of cultivators within the Harmony Sect practiced the Dao of Sentience.

The world merely spread falsehoods, harboring prejudice and misunderstandings toward the Harmony Sect.

Over time, however, the perception of Harmony Sect cultivators by outsiders had become deeply ingrained.

Gu Weiyu worried inwardly; what she detested most was living beneath the strange, appraising gazes of others—it felt as though a fishbone was lodged in her throat!

"Eleventh Sister..."

Gu Weiyu retrieved a small rabbit lantern from her storage pouch and placed it at the head of the bed. Resting her head on her arm, she stared and stared, until tears gradually soaked her pillowcase...