Chapter 1550: Dominating the Inner Realm, Looking Back, Reincarnation Exists

Wang Lin's trance while gazing at the campfire was interrupted by the sound of someone swallowing saliva. Turning his head, he saw a middle-aged man not far away, staring at the dry rations in his hand, licking his lips repeatedly with a pitiful look in his eyes.

Seeing the man's appearance, Wang Lin smiled. At that moment, he no longer felt like a stranger to this middle-aged man; instead, he felt compassion.

"Here you go." Wang Lin took some dry rations from his bamboo raft and handed them to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man's eyes went wide. After swallowing hard, he hurriedly ran over, grabbed the dry rations, shoved them into his mouth, and swallowed them in two bites.

"Delicious, delicious! This King hasn't eaten for several days… Huh? This King? Why did I say 'This King'?" The middle-aged man paused in confusion, but shaking his head, he stopped thinking about it and looked at Wang Lin with eager eyes.

"What is your name? Why are you here? Where is your family?" Wang Lin took out a few more dry rations, handed them to him, and asked softly.

This middle-aged man gave him an indescribable feeling. This feeling grew stronger the more he interacted with him, as if he had known the man somewhere before, and vaguely, there was a sense of guilt in his heart.

The middle-aged man took the dry rations, and just as he was about to put them to his mouth, he froze after hearing Wang Lin's words. He stared at the dry rations in his hand and burst into tears again.

"I don't know my name either… I was in the deep mountains when I woke up, and I can't remember… Golden light, I remember there was golden light all around me when I woke up, and many people wanted to catch me. Hmph, but they couldn't find me." The middle-aged man's voice became muffled amidst his crying.

Wang Lin's eyes softened even more. Watching the man swallow his meager rations in a few more bites, he shook his head with a smile, took a water flask from the bamboo raft, and handed it to him.

The middle-aged man took a few large gulps, let out a satisfied burp, and beamed at Wang Lin. He handed over a chicken leg he had been holding the entire time. "Here, this chicken leg isn't tasty anymore."

Wang Lin laughed, took the chicken leg, but didn't eat it; instead, he wrapped it up and placed it in the book box on the bamboo raft.

The rain outside the temple grew heavier. Thunder and lightning crisscrossed the sky, causing the temple doors to shake continuously, occasionally slamming against the adjacent walls. Along with the creaking, there were thumping sounds echoing about.

The entire world was pitch black, save for the faint light from within the temple, which emitted a weak glow in this eerie world.

Wang Lin and the middle-aged man sat by the campfire, and their damp clothes slowly began to warm up.

"Perhaps not knowing who you are is also a good thing. Sometimes, even if you do know, you might wonder if you are just someone else's dream… I've been dreaming a lot lately. The world in those dreams is so real that it's hard to tell the difference." Wang Lin gazed at the campfire and spoke softly.

The middle-aged man took a sip of water, shook his head, and muttered. "Who says that? You try not knowing who you are and see how painful it is. Hmph, if you ask me, whether it's a dream or not, as long as you're happy, as long as you feel joyful, it's a good thing."

Wang Lin's eyes narrowed. The man's words had faintly touched him.

"As long as one is happy, as long as one feels joyful, it is good… My ideal is to pass the imperial examinations and become an official, so my parents can live a good life in the future and never have to look at the faces of our relatives again…" Wang Lin fell silent, and after a long while, he nodded.

"What about you? What are your ideals?" Wang Lin looked up, added some dry branches to the fire, and asked.

The middle-aged man yawned, appearing somewhat sleepy, but upon hearing this, he perked up, a look of pride appearing on his face as he spoke excitedly. "Me? I have so many ideals! I want lots and lots of Spirit Stones, I want lots and lots of silver, and lots and lots of delicious food…" As he spoke, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"What are Spirit Stones?" Wang Lin was stunned.

"Spirit Stones? Huh? Did I say Spirit Stones? What are Spirit Stones?" The middle-aged man was also taken aback, scratching his head as he looked at Wang Lin.

Wang Lin was silent for a moment, then gave a dry laugh. He stopped asking about this and, instead, began to converse slowly with the madman inside the temple on this rainy night.

The two seemed to have endless things to talk about. The madman had originally been sleepy, but as they talked, he became increasingly energetic. He didn't know why, but seeing Wang Lin made him feel very warm in his heart; the man gave him a feeling like a relative.

The wind outside was howling, occasionally blowing in with a mournful sound, causing the campfire to sway violently and bringing in damp, cold air. However, it no longer gave the two of them a feeling of coldness.

Even the large statue of the Earth Deity behind them seemed to have its inscrutable smile soften slowly, enveloping the entire temple and dispelling the coldness here.

The night deepened, and the rain, instead of easing, grew heavier, raging outside the temple. The campfire in front of Wang Lin, lacking any more dry branches, slowly grew weaker, as if it could be extinguished at any moment.

"I'll tell you a secret, a secret I haven't told anyone else." The middle-aged man whispered mysteriously beside Wang Lin.

Wang Lin glanced at him, nodded with a smile, and a look of interest appeared in his eyes.

The middle-aged man proudly extended his right hand and placed it in front of Wang Lin. "Look, look here. Do you see anything?" The middle-aged man pointed to his right wrist, his expression even more smug.

However, his right wrist was just dirty; there was nothing else there. Wang Lin looked for a long while before shaking his head with a bitter smile.

"Huh? You didn't see anything? That's impossible. Wait, wait for me to wash it." The middle-aged man hurriedly got up and ran to a puddle of water in the temple, washed his right arm, and then returned to Wang Lin's side. He raised it again and whispered mysteriously, "You see it this time, right?"

Wang Lin's expression was strange, and he shook his head again. He truly saw nothing.

The middle-aged man grew angry and roared loudly at Wang Lin. "Look carefully! Open your eyes wide and look! You… you… how can you not see it? You're cheating! You clearly saw it!"

Wang Lin rubbed his forehead, took the middle-aged man's right hand in front of him, looked at it carefully for a while, and then nodded with a bitter smile. "I see it, I truly see it."

"Hehe, how about that? I'm amazing, right? Hmph, I'm going to find this person. I suspect he must know me." The middle-aged man sat to the side, satisfied, staring at his right arm as he slowly began to daze off.

"I want to find him. I have a vague feeling that he once promised to take care of me. He promised to take me out to play, but he left… No one cares about me anymore, I'm all by myself… I must find him, I must find him."

As he muttered, his expression dimmed. He curled up, staring blankly at his right arm, his voice slowly growing weaker until he finally fell asleep.

Wang Lin sighed softly, stood up, and took out a thick garment. Not minding the man's filthy appearance, he covered him with it. Perhaps the action of covering him disturbed the middle-aged man; he raised his right hand, grabbed, turned over, curled up, and began to snore loudly, his right hand resting to the side, facing Wang Lin.

Wang Lin sat by the campfire, watching it grow weaker and weaker until it slowly extinguished. Amidst the silent temple and the sound of the rain outside, he fell into silence.

His heart gradually ceased to be lost. A dream is just a dream; it cannot change anything. Even if this life were truly just a dream, then in this dream, he would be happy, and he would walk forward firmly.

"Just treat that dream as another life for me, Wang Lin! That life might have been brilliant, perhaps magnificent, but the loneliness and solitude, the sorrow brought by that dream, were heart-wrenching and painful…" Wang Lin seemed to understand something.

At that moment, the firelight dimmed, and the campfire extinguished completely. A wisp of blue smoke rose, and darkness once again enveloped the temple. Wang Lin leaned against a temple pillar, drowsiness washing over him amidst the middle-aged man's snoring. Just as he was about to close his eyes to sleep, he suddenly opened them wide and turned to look at the middle-aged man.

On the man's right arm, now that the temple was pitch black, a faint golden light was flickering. The golden light emanated from the man's arm, and there, strikingly, was a blurry mark!

It was as if an invisible hand had once grabbed the madman's right wrist, leaving this mark behind.

Staring at the mark, a very, very familiar feeling kept rising in Wang Lin's heart. He was stunned for a long time, lowered his head to look at his own hand, but because the mark was blurry, he couldn't identify it from the fingerprints. Wang Lin froze in mid-air, then shook his head.

The rain fell all night, and it wasn't until dawn broke that it slowly stopped. The fragrance of the earth after the rain permeated the world and drifted into the temple.

One night, without dreams.

Wang Lin opened his eyes, stretched his body, and gazed at the daylight outside the temple. He stood up and exercised his slightly stiff body. Turning back, he saw the middle-aged man still snoring away, his right arm having returned to normal, the golden mark from last night no longer visible.

Hiding his doubts in the depths of his heart, Wang Lin packed his belongings, changed into a clean cloth gown, and stepped forward to nudge the middle-aged man a few times. Seeing him open his bleary eyes, Wang Lin smiled and cupped his fists in a salute.

"Meeting for a night can be considered fate. I am Wang Lin, and I must go to the county town for the imperial examinations. If, in the future…" As Wang Lin was speaking, he slowly stopped. The madman was looking down, his expression very dejected and lonely.

After a moment of silence, Wang Lin left only one day's worth of rations for himself and placed the rest in front of the other man. He whispered, "I'm leaving. You will definitely be able to find that person. Definitely."

He didn't know why, but a sense of reluctance welled up in his heart. He glanced at the man, sighed inwardly, and turned to walk out of the temple. But before he could step out of the temple door, he heard the man's crying coming from behind.

"Everyone ignores me. He left, and now you're leaving too. No one cares about me anymore…"

Wang Lin's footsteps paused. He gazed at the sky after the rain, and after a long while, he turned around, looked at the crying middle-aged man in the temple, and spoke softly.

"I… I am in need of a page boy. Although you are a bit old, it should be fine…"

At this moment, Wang Lin did not know that this single sentence was a Reincarnation. Years ago, he had once seen the madman vaguely resemble a person. That person was the page boy, like a steward, whom he had seen by his side in another version of his life in the Inner Realm during the Vermilion Bird trial in the Land of Falling.

That person held the osmanthus wine from Su City, constantly feeling heartache over the price of the wine.

Many Fellow Daoists have seen the Karma between the Human Realm and the Dream Mortal world; this is Er Gen's foreshadowing. I remember when I wrote the plot of the Three Treasures with the madman, Xu Ligou, and Liu Jinbiao, some Fellow Daoists thought it was filler and inappropriate, not knowing that even at that time, that plot was also a link in the foreshadowing.

Please read until the end.

Who is to say that there isn't foreshadowing in the first few chapters of this Dream Mortal arc? When Er Gen writes books, what I seek is for a Fellow Daoist to have a feeling of sudden realization and applause when reading a certain chapter.

In my opinion, this feeling is worth more than a thousand pieces of gold. Do you still remember the life of Wang Lin and his son during the second Mortal Transformation? At that time, how many people were saying they hated Wang Lin, were angry at why Wang Lin wouldn't let Wang Ping practice cultivation, and felt Wang Lin was selfish and unforgivable.

But in the end, didn't you have that feeling of sudden realization? I have said enough; to say more would be a spoiler, hehe.