CHAPTER 62: IS IT A DREAM? IS IT REALITY?

Lu Chen tried to summon the Hunyuan Greatsword, but nothing happened.

He attempted to call forth the Green Sovereign Divine Tree. Still, nothing appeared.

Even when he reached for the Twin-Fish Medallion to open the small world, there was no response at all.

"How could this be? How could it not appear? That's impossible..."

Spirit qi surged from his body as he waved his hands frantically, his actions growing increasingly erratic. "The spirit qi is here, I can feel it! So why won't the Hunyuan Greatsword appear?"

"Little Lu, what's going on with you? Aren't all the things you mentioned the protagonist's moves from The Butterfly Dream of Nanke?"

Little Pup picked up the small notebook from the ground, flipped it open, and held it up in front of Lu Chen, pointing to each line as he read them out one by one.

Lu Chen froze. "What did you say? Are you saying everything I went through was just a written script?"

For a moment, he couldn't process it. He stared blankly at Little Pup and muttered, "The hardships, the cultivation, the spirit qi... It all felt so real."

"You passed the baptism a few days ago, remember? Maybe you just got too excited and mixed things up."

Little Pup pointed at Lu Chen's waist. "Besides, the reason the storyteller agreed to let you be the protagonist this time is because you can finally cultivate. Otherwise, someone else would've taken the lead role."

Lu Chen looked down. At some point, a Heavenly Spirit-Gathering Disk had quietly appeared at his side.

Little Pup waved his hand in front of Lu Chen's dazed eyes, but there was no reaction at all.

He explained, "The Daoist said you couldn't pass the baptism before because your meridians were too wide to open all at once. But now that they've cleared, your cultivation speed will be faster than that of ordinary people. He even said your meridians are a once-in-a-century talent."

However, Lu Chen remained in a daze. His thoughts were a mess.

In his mind, the memories of the hardships he had endured still felt like his real life, while everything now seemed more like a dream.

Yet everything around him was so vivid, so tangible, so real that he couldn't help but believe this was reality.

In the end, he came to accept it. He believed that he had simply gotten too excited about being able to cultivate and had mistaken the protagonist in the script for himself.

Seeing him still unresponsive, Little Pup grabbed his arm and dragged him home. "You can figure things out later. Your grandpa and the storyteller are still waiting for you."

As soon as they entered the house, Lu Chen saw the back of an old man with the air of an immortal. That was the storyteller he had grown up listening to.

Little Pup led Lu Chen straight up to the man. "Grandpa Xiu, I found him!"

Lu Chen looked at the old man, and his heart jolted. His face wasn't the same as the storyteller he remembered. The man standing before him... looked exactly like Nantian Xiu, the character from the script.

Lu Chen stepped forward and asked, "Grandpa Xiu? Why is it you? Where's Wan'er?"

The old man lifted his head. "Wan'er? You mean the female lead? So, you've figured it out? I have already assigned that role as well. The female lead this time is Nantian Wan'er, the youngest daughter of the Nantian Clan."

"What do you mean? Aren't you Wan'er's grandfather, Nantian Xiu?"

Lu Chen stepped closer and took out the identity token from his robe. "Didn't you give this to me?"

The old man chuckled and continued, "Heh...You really allowed those stories to get to your head. I'm just a storyteller, not Nantian Xiu. That token? It's a prop for the script. I only gave it to you a few days ago. Did you already forget?"

Lu Chen stared at the man in front of him. His clothes were the same, but the face didn't match the one in his childhood memories.

He clutched his head, trying to recall the storyteller's original appearance.

However, the face in his memory only grew fuzzier, while the old man's current face became clearer and more defined, until it replaced the one from his memories.

Blindman Lu gently patted Lu Chen's head. "Little Lu, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Lu Chen shook his head. "I... I guess I truly spent too much time listening to all those stories, and got lost in them."

Hearing this, the elder stroked his beard and smiled. "You've loved listening to my stories since you were little. And now, even after all these years, nothing's changed. Heh..."

He glanced up at the sky outside, then turned to Lu Chen. "It's getting late. I'd better head back and finish writing the next part of the story."

The old man slowly stood up and was about to leave when he noticed the long sword hanging on the wall. He turned to Lu Chen and reminded him, "Oh, right. Don't forget your cultivation. The props we use for performances are real enchanted treasures. They still need your spirit qi to function."

Lu Chen walked him out the door and responded loudly, "I understand, Grandpa Xiu. I'll practice hard!"

As he turned back inside, he saw Blindman Lu and Little Pup staring at him. Lu Chen asked, "What? Is there something on my face?"

He wiped his face with his hand but didn't find anything.

Blindman Lu patted him on the shoulder. "Little Lu, I meant what I said. Hard work always pays off. Now that you can cultivate and you've landed the lead role, give it everything you've got."

He then stepped outside and began to play his guqin.

Little Pup ran up beside Lu Chen, grinning. "Hahaha, thanks to you, Little Lu, the whole village got to take part in the play.

"It was just the scene where the protagonist's village gets massacred, but still, it was great. We even got to show our faces. Now, everyone's begging the storyteller for a chance to be in a scene.

"Oh, right! You haven't eaten yet, have you? Come to my place. Come over to my place. My mom saved something good for us."

Before Lu Chen could reply, Little Pup grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward his home.

***

In the days that followed, Lu Chen gradually settled into a life where everyone in the village was still alive, a life he had dreamed of since childhood.

In this world, he had a loving grandfather, kind villagers, the ability to cultivate, and even fields to tend. Life had skipped past all hardships and landed straight into happiness. As for those haunting memories, Lu Chen dismissed them as a fevered hallucination from reading too many books.

As time went on, those memories gradually faded into dust.

He no longer thought about the painful past. Each day, he cultivated and farmed alongside Little Pup, played music with his grandfather, and quietly waited for the storyteller to finish the next part of the tale.

***

A year passed. Lu Chen continued to wait for the storyteller to finish the story.

***

Two years later, Little Pup took the Heavenly Pool baptism.

Lu Chen joined him in entering the Heavenly Flame Sect and became Daoist Rufa's disciple. They trained side by side.

After finishing his daily cultivation, Lu Chen would always seek out the storyteller to ask whether a new chapter of The Butterfly Dream of Nanke had been written. But each time, the storyteller would only shake his head.

He looked at Lu Chen and said, "Ever since I met you that day, I haven't been able to write another word."

***

Three years went by. Lu Chen's cultivation advanced rapidly, and he was promoted to an inner disciple of the sect.

Still, he continued to ask about the story's progression. It had become an obsession, a fixation in his heart. Slowly, the memories buried deep within began to stir.

The storyteller remained stuck. Not a single new chapter was written. It was as if the story had forever halted at the scene where the protagonist battled the Thousand-Legged Centipede.

***

Five years passed. Thanks to the solid foundation he had built, Lu Chen's cultivation surged, and he was made a core disciple of the sect.

During this time, he met Nantian Wan'er and eventually married her.

This Nantian Wan'er was different from the one in the story. She was just an ordinary person without any cultivation, suffering from an injury caused by cold poison.

Together, they waited for the story to resume.

Fifteen years later, Lu Chen and Nantian Wan'er had reached middle age.

Unfortunately, ordinary humans rarely lived beyond a hundred years. Blindman Lu passed away, and the villagers who had cared for Lu Chen followed one after another.

Lu Chen no longer had regrets. He had accompanied Blindman Lu until the very end.

Around that time, the storyteller passed away as well. It was said he died from depression, unable to move the story forward.

***

Two years later, his apprentice took over the role and became the new storyteller. But The Butterfly Dream of Nanke remained untouched.

***

Twenty years passed. Lu Chen had become the oldest person in the village.

Now, apart from a lifetime spent farming, only the unresolved tale lingered in his heart.

After long contemplation, Lu Chen returned to the sect with Nantian Wan'er and Little Pup, continuing to wait for the next chapter.

As his cultivation deepened, so too did the stirring of the long-sealed memories.

He began to examine his life and realized something felt off. Too much of it didn't make sense.

He had lived more than half his life, yet most of his memories centered around cultivation and The Butterfly Dream of Nanke. Everything else was vague.

Whenever he tried to recall events outside of those two things, he was struck with excruciating headaches.

Even after all these years of marriage to Nantian Wan'er, they had never had a child.

To Lu Chen, it felt too unnatural, as though time itself had intentionally skipped over anything deemed unimportant.

***

Thirty years passed.

During a trial, Little Pup was framed and ultimately died a tragic death.

Lu Chen hunted down the enemy for three years to avenge him. He eventually succeeded at the cost of losing an arm in the process.

Still, he waited for the story to continue. He had to know where things had gone wrong.

***

Fifty years passed. Lu Chen had become a wise and composed sect elder.

He was now regarded as a senior figure among the cultivators, leading the sect to grow stronger with each passing year. Yet the one thing he never let go of was waiting for the next chapter.

A hundred years had gone by. His obsession had taken root, becoming a true inner demon.

He was determined to uncover the truth behind it all. With relentless determination, he threw himself into cultivation, journeying far and wide in search of resources.

However, in doing so, he failed to notice that Nantian Wan'er—his loyal companion for so many years—was nearing the end of her life.