Chapter 2: The Dream that Became a Nightmare


    A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative.


    Well, Enjoy the chapter...


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    The memories of the dream and the girl became increasingly vague as the days went on until they became a mere bundle of longing and mncholy tucked away at the edge of Shane''s consciousness ever-present but always out of reach.


    This obviously frustrated him to no end just that he couldn''t remember why he was frustrated All in all, it was very vexing. Shane also realized that although his mind fully recovered its sharpness, his body did not. He felt weaker than before and always seemed tock energy, a side effect of his condition no doubt.


    Four more years passed and as he grew older, Shane understood the gravity of his situation and the reality that his illness would one day im his life. Strangely he was ok with that on some level as he felt little to no attachment to this world.


    He loved his parents and his family of course but he had matured considerably after his experiences and understood that it was better for him to spend his time achieving whatever he could and doing things that made him happy rather than worrying about an eventuality. He also knew that his parents and family were probably suffering even more than him so he tried to always show a smile and rarely if ever cried and never in front of them.


    During these four years, Shane had studied hard and achieved the first thing on his list to do, which was to graduate High School a year earlier than normal and with high enough grades to earn a ce in a university of his choice. Of course, his family were saddened to think he would leave them, well that was until he reassured them that he would learn locally and mostly from hisptop at home.


    He had just excitedly finished selecting his new course (Biochemistry Major with a minor in Toxicology) when he started to feel lightheaded and before he knew it he was once again within that strange yet familiar dreamscape.


    The memories of thest dream crashed into his mind and at first, caused a minor headache coupled with a strong feeling of vertigo, but as soon as the feeling came it was gone, and instead Shane''s head was full of HIS memories of the dream and the girl.


    Thest thing she said to him was still vague as if trapped behind a wall of fog, not unlike the world he once again found himself in but he did remember the word ''Cultivation''... Shane being an avid reader and if he were honest with himself, a bit of a nerd for Asian Light Novels and Web Novels recently, of course, was now familiar with that term.


    ''Cultivation, like one of those Wuxia novels... No, it can''t be it''s just a dream! A mere hallucination made up by my childhood psyche to protect myself'' He shook his head to clear his thoughts although another voice in his head, made a very good point


    ''She talked to you about Cultivation years before you heard that term the first time but at that time you just thought it was nonsense that kids say'' That was a very good point. By now, Shane was almost pulling his hair out in frustration. Why oh why did he have to be so smart!? Always overthink ''Wait I have hair!?'' He hadn''t had hair since the second rpse and it felt nice to run his fingers through it for a few seconds.


    ''Right Shane get back on track and find that garden and maybe you can have a nice chat with Qingyue and hopefully find some answers!'' With determination and purpose in his stride, Shane walked towards where he could see faint shadows in the fog. The closer Shane came to those shadows the slower he advanced until he came to a stop, his breath visibly adding to the fog around him.


    ''Why is it so cold here? The temperature has always been the same and never fluctuated before this'' Shane was puzzled, it was cold, not unbearably so but still the closer he got to where he assumed the familiar stone path would start, the colder it became.


    Shane wandered further into the fog and as he did, he noticed that the grass beneath his feet started to turn white with frost. At first, it was just the tips and then the stalks of the grass until before he noticed it, he was on the stone path and thewn around him had changed from green topletely white with a thin covering of sparkling frost.


    The normally vibrant nts all had their flowers frozen in time and covered with a thin sheen of translucent almost crystal-like ice and the old Chinese willow tree branches were static as if frozen mid breeze.


    At the center of all this was the pond. Still barely managing to remain in liquid form, it took on a deeper hue of blue than its normal crystal clear. In the middle of the pond, sat atop a sheet of pure white ice in the lotus position and with eyes closed, was a girl no older than thirteen. Shrouded in pure white robes and with a veil of ice covering the bottom half of her face she still could not hide her doll-like beauty.


    She looked cold, indifferent, and unapproachable but to Shane, she was familiar and warm Hell at this point she was practically his only friend.


    Not thinking about the fact that the whole dreamscape seemed to not wee him this time and avoiding the rather morbid train of thought that he only gets to see her when he is suffering a rpse of his illness, he called out to her in a hesitant voice.


    "Qingyue is that you over there?" No answer, he called again. The girl furrowed her brows but did not open her eyes so Shane took a step forward and then another. Suddenly when Shane was but a few feet from the edge of the pond, he felt it.


    POWER, the likes of which he had never felt before but it seemed to resonate with his very being as it washed over him. A multifaceted, crystalline barrier made from the purest ice manifested itself in front of him and an invisible shockwave pushed him a few meters backward and onto his rear.


    At this distance, he could see the barrier almost in its entirety and what he saw had him inplete awe but for some reason, it also saddened him to no end. The crystalline nature of the barrier reminded him of a perfectly cut gemstone and itpletely wrapped itself around the pond and by association Qingyue while its height was so massive that it disappeared into the fog above.


    Then he heard it. In a voice so cold it was like the frozen air itself and with her perfect and unblemished eyes filled with icy indifference, she finally spoke to him.


    "Shane, you should not be here! My master has told me that you are a figment of my imagination, created to help me deal with the loss of my mother. I will not let you weaken my mentality again! Begone from this ce now!" And with that Shane was catapulted out of the garden and found himself gasping for air within his hospital bed. Memories of the dream, as disheartening as they were, refused to fade from his mind this time.


    Once again alone in the garden, Qingyue spoke to herself in a tone filled with mncholy.


    "I''m sorry Shane but I must not indulge myself in these distracting feelings of self-pity when I could be cultivating to once again see my mother. I don''t need to get over the loss anymore, I just need to grow strong enough to see her again"


    The girl clenched her fist with determination before once again assuming the lotus position and closing her eyes. As she immersed herself into a meditative state, the temperature began to drop by a small amount and the ice on the ground and nts began to grow ever so slightly thicker.


    Shane took a few moments to calm himself down and tried to fall asleep once again, although this time sleep seemed to evade him desperately and it was a few hours before he managed to enter the dreamscape again. What he saw dumbfounded him as he was back at the start on the grass and in the thick fog which carried an even greater chill than before. Normally, Shane would start the dream on the stone path after finding it for the first time but now it would seem he would need to find it again.


    When he finally found the garden again, it was still covered in ice and frozen in time. Shane decided not to call out to Qingyue this time but to sit upon the ground next to the Willow and observe her instead. ''Perhaps if i sit here long enough she will talk to me'' Only he himself knew that what she had said to him had hurt a lot and he was being rather petty but he didn''t care. Besides, he had a lot to think about and this time, the fatigue had followed him to the dream and so he merely wanted to rest for a while.


    Days passed in this way and Shane, being as smart and observant as he was, had learned some things about the new Qingyue. Firstly, if he approached the barrier or tried talking to her for more than a simple greeting (which she never replied to by the way), she would immediately eject him from the dream using that shockwave of power.


    Secondly and most importantly, she still showed some facial expressions no matter how hard she tried to keep up her indifference. At the very least, her eyebrows would sometimes furrow at his presence.


    Thirdly he was tired, so very very tired... it wasn''t body fatigue as he first thought, no it was mental fatigue. Just being here in this dreamscape drained his mental strength and honestly, that coupled with Qingyue''s indifference hurt him so much more than his illness ever had.


    The days turned into weeks and Shane recovered yet again although this time his body was much weaker than before, he could still move around just fine and his mind felt even sharper and clearer than it had ever felt previously.


    This just made the pain of his all too recent loss that much harder to bare... Qingyue never spoke to him again after that first day and it tore him apart inside. This time as well by some sort of cruel punishment, the memories did not fade. No, they remained in perfect rity and refused to leave.


    ''I was sure it was a dream, a figment of my imagination Yet why, why do I feel like this!?'' For the first time in almost ten years, Shane cried. Silent tears of sorrow ran down his face as he felt hisst bastion of hope and with it, hisst attachment to this world fade away. Ironically, it was obvious the girl didn''t belong to this world but she had managed to keep him grounded during his darkest times.


    After that rpse and the incident in the dream, Shane became a lot more withdrawn and only really interacted with his family and his course professors as he refused to make friends with new people that he could leave at any time.


    Over the next three years, he excelled at his coursework and immensely enjoyed studying his chosen subjects as well as bing deeply infatuated with all sorts of Chinese and Japanese fantasy Web Novels. Every moment he wasn''t studying, eating, or sleeping, he could be found reading them as he was in love with the thought of cultivation and obviously could not forget the overbearing aura he felt from the girl in the dream (although whether that was real or not remains to be seen).


    Unfortunately, during this time Shane''s body began to grow weaker and by the time he managed to graduate from university three yearster, he could barely leave the house anymore. Ironically during this time, his mind had only grown sharper and he sometimes wondered to himself jokingly whether or not he could be the next Stephen Hawking.


    Inevitably, not long after his graduation day, Shane''s illness rpsed once again. After fighting to stay awake through the initial stage, he chose to forgo treatment. The decision wasn''t popr with his family but it was his to make and the treatment this time had a high chance of failure so he decided he would go out on his terms.


    A final Fuck You to whatever powers that be had cursed him with this shitty life and with a middle finger pointed at the sky, he allowed unconsciousness to take him.