Nightmare's Call

The sea breeze was refreshing yet noisy at times.

Lin Sheng combed his messy hair as he looked at the cargo ships calling into port.

He had calmed down by now.

“But I’ve been here for a while, why is it so deserted still?” He recalled this place usually had a lot of people milling about.

And now as he swept his gaze, a few cargo ships were unloading their cargo on the dock.

The dockhands moving the cargo were friendly and all smiles with their merchant counterparts.

The stories about the dockhands holding cargo hostage or striking was nowhere to be seen.

“Seems like much of the rumors are off the mark.” Lin Sheng nodded. AT the very least, the port he was seeing is a totally different one.

He then stood at the railings for a while longer, before realizing it was time for dinner. Lin Sheng then turned away and headed off.

Half-way through his turn, his gaze swept past the girl. He remembered her already being there when he came.

And she was still there when he was about to leave, almost unmoving. Everything aside, that persistence was admirable.

What he did not know was, that gaze alone almost scared Xie Qiaoyue out of her wits as her legs threatened to give way.

She had been standing for far too long in a straight posture. Her thighs were already screaming murder.

Lin Sheng, ever carefree, left the port as he hailed a cab and departed the place.

Only until the car had totally disappeared into the distance did Xie Qiaoyue heaved a huge sigh of relief. She then wiped her forehead, and found it drenched in sweat.

“I can’t deal with this... Oh, my poor heart. If this keeps happening, I’ll really die!”

She had been out and about the port area for three years now and was one of the veterans there.

She had a naturally sharp sense of danger, and that allowed her to prosper in this forsaken place, and rose to the leader of one of the thieves’ group.

And because of that, the terror and the urge to escape the moment she saw Lin Sheng was the strongest in her career as a pickpocket!

An unknown aura seemed to circle around Lin Sheng that drove fear into everyone, and that seemed to affect humans as well.

For her sharp senses, it was even more telling.

“Bloody hell!” Xie Qiaoyue let out another deep breath as she bent down to massage her stiff lower thighs.

Just as she bent down, a necklace with a pink color stone in the shape of a droplet fell out the cavity in her chest.

The stone seems to be jadeite but had a milk-colored hue in its core as intricate patterns were carved around it.

Xie Qiaoyue immediately stuffed the necklace back into her chest and adjusted it.

It was something she had stolen from a sorry foreigner ship captain a few days ago.

The necklace looked interesting and pretty at first glance, so she took it for herself. Later she found it even more pleasing to the eye, and decided to bring it along with her.

While she may be just a petty pickpocket, she still knows the value of things.

While it may not look all that valuable, but its engravings probably meant it has some history to it. In case it was an antique, then it would be nothing but profit for her.

After patting her leg, she got up and stretched again. As she looked at the sea, she felt relaxed and refreshed.

“Hm? What is that?” Just as she was about to leave, her sight caught onto something floating on the surface of the sea.

It was a dark blue, almost gemstone-like blue sea hawk.

And what caught her eye was the neck and wings of the hawk had gold pattern to it.

If it was a normal sea hawk, she had seen it all too many times. She had grown up by the sea after all.

But a sea hawk that had golden markings on its wings and neck, that was a first.

“Sadly... this thing is so eye-catching I can just forget about it.”

This place belonged to the Black Wolf Gang, and amongst those who had escaped before her, at least a dozen belonged to the gang.

With so many eyes seeing it, this unique sea hawk naturally was beyond her.

And so she stood by the railing and looked on as the sea hawk slowly floated over, unmoving.

What surprised her was that, until the sea hawk floated its way about ten meters before here, no one seemed to notice.

“What’s going on?” Xie Qiaoyue felt something was off.

She swept her gaze around, and none of the passersby actually bothered with such an eye-catching sea hawk.

It was the size of a basin, with golden markings on it. Under the bright sun, it was particularly eye-catching.

“Something’s not right.” Xie Qiaoyue’s face darkened.

This was something totally unusual.

She had noticed that no one near her seemed to have seen the sea hawk at all.

A sailor who had just gotten off his boat even walked past the railing above the sea hawk, and bent down to pick up a penny before leaving with a grin. He totally paid no heed to the hawk floating just right beside him.

As if he... did not even see it at all.

“Little one... you can see me?”

An old, calm voice suddenly rang out in her head.

She immediately froze as her muscles tightened, ready to make a run for it.

This unnatural phenomenon was beyond what she could take.

There was no one around there, yet it sounded as if someone was whispering beside her ears. Without any distance.

“Don’t worry...I’m wounded, badly. And I’m just on the surface just before you.” That voice rang out again.

Xie Qiaoyue swallowed hard as she looked at the surface of the sea.

Then, to her surprise, the floating sea hawk had somehow had opened its eyes and was calmly looking at her.

She was just a simple pickpocket, and the strongest person she had seen since the day she was born was the boss of the Ironfist Society.

Never did she saw something like this before.

“Can you please help me? Little miss, and your reward, I can teach you something.” The sea hawk spoke with an old man’s voice.

“Gulp...” Xie Qiaoyue swallowed her saliva hard, as she felt her throat dry...

What she did not noticed was, the stone on the necklace in her chest was letting out a faint golden glow.

...

The moment Lin Sheng got home, he went about training his holy power, and also meditated on the Ashen Seal until late evening.

After dinner, he accompanied Lin Xiao to watch some television before partaking in the supper his father had bought home. He then quickly washed up and went to bed.

As he had failed to find an exit and had drowned in the progress, he could not re-enter the dream in for two days and could only sleep normally.

He slept all the way until late at night before a faint firecrackers-like sound roused him from his sleep.