The compass was the traditional flat box shape with the carved circular center, typically used in feng shui and geomancy. The wooden framed panels showed signs of aging and handling but was otherwise in good condition. The tin pin in the center looked like it was still working, pointing to the north magnetic pole. 

“You went into the dream world?” Li Yun wasn’t sure if Shang Cang had entered a meditative dream state or a realm like the woods. “Did you see your grandfather?”

Shang Cang shook his head, “I didn’t see grandfather, but the landscape based on the stories he had narrated to me. My father had a similar dream but grew out of the stories a long time ago. He doesn’t remember anything now.”

“What was it like? A lucid dream? It felt like you were really there?”

“At first, I thought it was a lucid dream, but it felt more real the more I enter.”

“How were you able to enter the dream?” 

“My grandfather told me that two conduits are needed to enter the dream world. The first is a portal, usually contained within an artifact, and the second is someone to activate the artifact.”

“So you need an artifact to enter the dream world?” Li Yun asked. He thought about the statue and ancient cloth. If the compass had a portal, was Shang Cang’s soul able to travel into the other realm? “How do you activate the qi field?”

“I am not sure. But ever since I was a kid, I had difficulty sleeping. My grandfather had taught me a chant to help me sleep. It’s now a habit that I say it before I sleep.”

Li Yun thought about Shang Cang’s dantian. It was slightly bigger than the average person, so the chant had been helping him to grow without him knowing. After a certain period of time, his dantian had grown stable enough to activate the qi field.

Shang Cang’s narration of his experience in the dream world gave Li Yun some confidence that it wasn’t too dangerous. He did not try to enter the statue to avoid going back to the woods. As for the cloth, there were too many unknowns to experiment. However, the world of the compass didn’t look too frightening. He was also more prepared than the last time.

“Do you think I could hold onto your compass for a moment?” asked Li Yun.

Shang Cang passed the compass to Li Yun, who inspected the carving. Judging by the bone script, it was likely created over three thousand years ago. If that was true, the compass would be the oldest known compass in China, far older than the Han Dynasty’s geomantic compass.

Using Qivi, he saw a brief flash of the artisan craving the scripts into the compass. The artisan was in a wooden shack, so likely a location in the southern region of the country.

“I’m going to take a nap, try to wake me up in thirty minutes?” Li Yun asked.

“Wait, you’re going to nap now?” Shang Cang thought it was strange as Li Yun approached the empty bed in the ward and sat down.

“Well, you can’t really enter the dream world without dreaming,” Li Yun only needed some time. It was likely he was going to pass out if he used Spirit Detection. “If I don’t wake up within an hour, contact Rouxi.”

Before Shang Cang replied, Li Yun closed his eyes. While using Qivi, Li Yun entered the dream realm and then activated Spirit Detection. Suddenly, Li Yun felt his spiritual body entering another world. In front of Li Yun stood a vast grassy plain with strange large animals roaming about and a large tree. 

“This is the realm from inside the compass?” he thought. 

Li Yun inspected his surroundings. The world inside the compass was much more stable than his own dream world. Unfortunately, he couldn’t freely control the environment as he had done before. The rules could be different.

He took one step toward one of the large animals. In one step, he appeared in front of the beast several yards away. His speed and lightfoot ability confirmed that it wasn’t reality.

The large gazelle-like creatures were twice the size of the typical creature, towering over Li Yun as it bent its head to graze on the grasses. One of the creatures was a hair length away, but it didn’t notice Li Yun. Instead, it continued grazing on the grasses as though they couldn’t feel his presence. Li Yun moved his hand over the gazelle and simply passed through it as though he was a ghost.

Li Yun turned his attention back to the tree. According to Shang Cang, every time the tree disappeared from his view, the dream resets back to the beginning. Li Yun experimented by heading toward the opposite direction. With a single jump, he moved several meters into the air and into the opposite direction of the tree. Much like the dream, his body felt weightless. As he ventured further back, his body reappeared back into the beginning. There seem to be a border or loop like a game field.

He turned back to the tree and jumped back to the tree. On top of the tree was a single red flower, which Li Yun assumed was one of the artifacts. His fingers lightly touched the tree, but it appeared to be solid, unlike the gazelle. He jumped to the top and grabbed the item. The lantern-shaped flower looked like it had a tiny candle inside.

Red Lantern Flower collected. 1/3 collected.

The lantern flower disappeared. There was no indication of where it had disappeared to, or if it would appear in the real world somehow.

In the distance, a stone tower could be seen rising above the hilly landscape. Li Yun jumped in the air several meters high. Unlike the dream realm, his energy was consumed as he jumped and he couldn’t fly like in the dreamworld. The feeling was a mixture of heaviness like in reality and light-weightless like in the dream realm. It took him several jumps to arrive at the tower. 

Shang Cang had explained how tiring it felt to climb on the stairs up the tower. For Li Yun, it took a simple leap to the top. Inside the rooftop floor, he saw a short iron sword located at the top of the tower. There was an aura around the sword that was similar to the red lantern. The moment he touched the sword, it disappeared.

Receive Tower Iron Sword

2/3 collected. 

From the tower, a snowy mountaintop appeared in the backdrop. After arriving at the base of the mountain, he couldn’t feel the chilliness that Shang Cang had encountered. He understood why Shang Cang couldn’t get to the top. The further up the mountain, the more treacherous the terrain and unforgiven wind. Li Yun felt that the chill was unnatural, as typical cold weather didn’t normally affect him.

Li Yun fought through the wind, with only the upward slope as the only means of navigating. The blizzard of snow rained down like hail, restricting Li Yun’s view. He could barely see past his arm length. Even worse, the whistling sound of the wind had an unusual vibration that blocked much of his cognitive mapping ability. Luckily, there wasn’t any strange creature chasing him.

“S***!” He internally cursed to himself as he finished his last thought. “Why did I have to think about strange creatures?”

A growling sound appeared in several locations, and it appeared that he had been surrounded.

Winter Wolves - Enemies