’It’s no wonder this ancestral land has been so corrupted. The dreams of these departed Star Spirits return here, carrying the most intense emotions and experiences of their lives. And these are tied to wishes. The Star Spirit Race can easily come into contact with the greediest, most hidden aspects of living beings, so the contamination was born from this subtle influence.’
’The emergence of a creature like the Colorful Insect was, you could say, an inevitable result.’
Just like reading *One Thousand and One Nights*, probing these bubbles with his Spiritual Power was like immersively experiencing the events of each story. However, while most fairy tales have happy endings, the stories in this Banded Dream Realm always ended in tragedy—
"Tell me your wish..."
"My wish is simple: money!"
"Wealth! Status! Women!"
"I want more wishes!"
"..."
POP!
In a place Shi Ming had yet to probe, a bubble with intensely rich colors burst with a BANG. A vibrant, multi-colored corruption spread out, reflecting from one bubble to the next, rushing toward Shi Ming in a peculiar way.
???
’It’s here?’
[Interesting.]
[The real test is beginning. This is a very famous story; I didn’t expect it to be used as one of the trials.]
[How will you handle this?]
Shi Ming’s expression remained unchanged as, amidst the refractions of the ephemeral bubbles, his consciousness was pulled into a dim, snow-swept world—
...
Outside the tavern, a blizzard raged.
"Look here, isn’t this cat’s eye beautiful! So lifelike! It’s a treasure you’d only find in the royal palace!"
Inside the tavern, a drunkard holding a beautiful gem was showing it off to an old man.
"A cat’s eye? What use do poor folk like us have for ornaments that only nobles would use?"
"My friend! It’s not just an ornament, it can grant you three wishes! Right now, for just 30 rupees, I’ll sell it to you. What do you say?"
"Thirty rupees?"
The old man seemed tempted. Thirty rupees was what his family spent on food for a whole day.
’But just look at the luster on this cat’s eye... it’s clearly no ordinary object! If I took it to the rich quarter, it would surely fetch at least one gold piece! And on top of that, it sounds like it has some kind of mystical value!’
"I’ll take it."
The old man used the money for bread to buy the cat’s eye. He brought it home through the raging blizzard and was, without a doubt, met with a scolding.
"You spent 30 rupees on a glass marble? You must be mad!"
"My dear, it’s not a glass marble. It can grant wishes!"
"Ridiculous! Grant wishes? If it can really grant wishes, then I wish we’d immediately receive a huge sum of 30 gold pieces! We need money for bread to stay alive, and you spent it on a piece of glass we can’t eat! Never mind... The snow’s coming down so hard. Little Ariel is still working in town, isn’t he? Go get him."
"Alright."
The old man put down the cat’s eye and went to the town to pick up his grandson.
His grandson was twelve this year—a lively and cheerful boy who was the light of the family.
The old woman waited at home for an hour.
The old man and the boy did not return.
She waited another hour with still no news. Just as she was growing impatient, a heavy knock sounded at the door.
’That old man never knocks when he comes home.’
A strange sense of alarm grew in her heart.
She opened the door.
Two cavalrymen stood outside.
"Ma’am... we regret to inform you. Your husband and grandson startled the lord’s horses in the snow and have passed into God’s kingdom. His Lordship, forgiving the transgression of his subjects, has bestowed upon you a gift of 30 gold pieces. Please accept our condolences."
Behind the cavalrymen was a flatbed cart.
On the cart lay a straw mat.
And on the mat, the old man and the boy were piled one on top of the other like lumps of dough. Snowflakes dusted their faces, lying on their skin without melting.
The sound of heart-wrenching wails and the clinking of thirty gold pieces rang in her ears as the cavalrymen carried the two bodies into the wooden cabin.
The old woman, having cried until she had no strength left, collapsed onto the floor in a stupor, staring blankly at the lord’s "reward." With a sudden swipe of her arm, she sent the bag flying. Gleaming gold pieces scattered across the dirt floor, kicking up little puffs of dust.
On the table nearby, the cat’s eye glinted with an eerie light.
’The cat’s eye?’
The dazed old woman remembered what her husband had told her that afternoon: the cat’s eye could grant three wishes. And her first wish had been to get 30 gold pieces.
’The lord’s "compensation" was also 30 gold pieces?’
’Did the wish come true?’
’Like this?’
A chill ran through the woman’s body. She wanted to throw the cat’s eye away, but her grief was so immense that she couldn’t stop herself from picking it up.
She wanted to make her second wish.
She wanted to bring her husband and grandson back to life!
Even if it meant paying another price, she was willing to accept it. ’I’m just an old woman with nothing left,’ she thought. ’What more could I possibly lose?’
She was about to make the wish.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. The wooden door rattled again.
The old woman’s thoughts were interrupted. She didn’t move to open the door, simply sitting there in a daze, passively shutting out the world.
The knocking from outside was incessant, as if it wouldn’t stop until the door was opened.
The old woman stood up woodenly. Without bothering to pick up the gold pieces scattered on the floor, she slid open the bolt on the wooden door. She saw a young man in his twenties standing outside, covered in wind and snow.
’Is he looking for a place to stay for the night?’
The old woman glanced at her family members inside the house, ready to refuse him, but the young man walked straight into the cabin.
He looked at the two figures on the straw mat.
"I’m... a doctor from the army."
"I’ve saved many people who’ve been trampled by horses with my medical skills. The people in town told me your husband and grandson were trampled... Maybe I can help them."
The young man didn’t glance at the gold pieces, his eyes sweeping only over the cat’s eye on the table.
He squatted down, took a cloth roll from inside his clothes, and unfurled it to reveal rows of silver needles. With his right hand, he began inserting the needles into specific acupoints on the two rigid bodies. And then, the eyelids of both the old man and the boy fluttered open at the same time as they miraculously awakened from the stillness of death.
This was not an application of the Supreme Sanctuary.
This was Spiritual Power fighting against the Colorful Insect, forcibly changing the course of the story.
"Is this ancient acupuncture?"
"See? I told you my medical skills were excellent!"
The young man put away his silver needles.
Tears flowed endlessly down the old woman’s face.
"This is wonderful! Wonderful! Thank you! Divine Doctor, how much is your fee? We’ll pay whatever you ask! We have money, we have a lot of money..."
"Thirty gold pieces. And... that cat’s eye, the one worth 30 rupees."
"Alright!"
The old woman picked up the 30 clinking gold pieces from the floor, placing them into the young man’s hands one by one. Finally, as if warding off a Demon God, she wrapped the cat’s eye in a handkerchief and placed it in the young man’s palm.
"Divine Doctor," the old woman warned, "this cat’s eye... it’s cursed."
The young man smiled.
"Cat’s eye? What cat’s eye?"
He opened the handkerchief. Inside was only a wisp of colorful dust. As he shook it out, a worm, invisible to the naked eye, hidden within the dust, tried to flee out of the cabin. But it was bound by an invisible force and compressed into a distorted, rupee-sized object.
COUGH COUGH.
On the straw mat, the newly awakened grandson coughed twice.
The old woman rushed over to pat his back. Then, she saw that her old man had also regained consciousness and was propping himself up to sit.
"You two, hurry and thank the doctor!"
The old woman turned her head, but the doctor was already gone.
In the spot where he had been, 30 rupees had been left behind.
The price of the cat’s eye.
...
...
...
Shi Ming’s consciousness returned to reality.
In his hand, he held a worm, condensed from the corruption and curled into a tight ball.
Shi Ming had some impression of the story he just experienced. On Earth, there was a similar story called "The Monkey’s Paw." In the original tale, the outcomes of the three wishes grew progressively more twisted and tragic.
Shi Ming’s consciousness had forcibly intervened just as the old woman was about to make her second wish.
He changed the course of the story,
And captured a Colorful Insect alive.
This insect wasn’t the most powerful one, but it could help him find clues leading to the source of the corruption.
It would just require a bit of... "communication."
An invisible borer worm emerged from Shi Ming’s eye, quickly found a vulnerability in the Colorful Insect, and burrowed inside, probing the essence of this strange creature. Meanwhile, the power of the Eye of Destiny was gradually being replenished.
Soon, the creature would hold no secrets from Shi Ming’s eye.