Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 236 Meeting Again
The man was ragged, unkempt, and sat in a daze next to a pile of cow dung, letting flies buzz around him.

His eyes were empty, as if he had lost all his life, and he sat there motionless like a zombie.

That person turned out to be Tan Qi!

"Tan Qi?" Shi Fei called in a low voice, with a hint of tentativeness and disbelief in his tone.

Tan Qi did not respond, nor did he even lift his eyelids. He just stared blankly ahead, as if the whole world had nothing to do with him.

Shi Fei leaned down and patted Tan Qi on the shoulder. Tan Qi just looked at Shi Fei woodenly. After he recognized Shi Fei, a glimmer of light appeared in his dull eyes.

"Dou... are... all dead! All dead!" Tan Qi's dark hands tightly grasped Shi Fei's arm, as if he had grasped the last straw.

His voice was hoarse and trembling, like a wail squeezed out from the depths of his throat.

"What happened?" Shi Fei pulled Tan Qi up from the dirty ground and looked at his ragged and miserable appearance. He really couldn't imagine that Tan Qi, who used to have a resolute face and high spirits, would fall into such a state.

"They're all dead!" Tan Qi cried in a low voice, tears flowing down his cheeks, mixing with the dust on his face, turning into gray tears, dripping onto Shi Fei's clothes.

"Who is dead?" Shi Fei asked in a deep voice.

"My father, my mother, my family, and officials of the court are all dead! All dead!!!" Tan Qi burst into tears, his voice full of despair and depression, as if he wanted to vent all the pain in his heart.

"All dead...all dead..." He repeated these three words over and over again, as if there was nothing else he could say.

Shi Fei thought about the eight evil gods guarding the eight gates of the capital city. What did the capital city look like?
He sighed, gently took Tan Qi's hand, and said in a gentle but firm tone: "Brother Tan, I'll take you to wash up and eat something."

This is a transit station for cattle and horses, so there are naturally inns and other places to stay. Shi Fei took Tan Qi to the inn, asked the waiter to prepare hot water for him to bathe, and went to the street to buy a set of clean new clothes.

After taking a bath and changing his clothes, Tan Qi finally regained his human form. Shi Fei saw that he had not eaten for several days, so he asked the inn to prepare some porridge and cakes.

After swallowing a mouthful of porridge, Tan Qi realized that it was food, and then wolfed down the porridge and ate two pieces of bread. His movements were anxious and flustered, as if he was afraid that this meal would be his last meal.

"What happened after the incident in Tanzhou that day? Tell me from the beginning." Shi Fei asked after seeing that Tan Qi had regained some spirit.

Tan Qi was silent for a moment, then sighed and said slowly, "There were too many officials involved in the incident at the Governor's Office of Tanzhou that day. I was ordered to go to the capital with my colleagues from Hunan and Hubei. On the way, I met my father's motorcade. It turned out that he had also received an order from the capital to go to the capital."

"After arriving in the capital with great difficulty, I found that something was wrong with the capital. The atmosphere was like... being in the Governor's Mansion again!" When Tan Qi said this, his voice trembled slightly and a trace of fear flashed in his eyes.

"I felt that the capital had also undergone unknown changes, so I advised my father to leave quickly, saying that the capital was too dangerous. But not only did he not listen, he scolded me loudly, saying that he was the governor of Hubei and could not retreat just because of a little wind and rain. So he resolutely entered the palace and met the emperor..."

Tan Qi's voice suddenly stopped, tears welled up in his eyes: "After that, I never saw him again."

He lowered his head and clenched the corners of his clothes tightly with both hands, as if he was suppressing the pain in his heart.

"After that, strange changes occurred in Beppu where we lived at night. Fish corpses with human faces crawled out of the well. Half of their faces were pale beauties, and the other half were rotten fish heads. They bit anyone they saw, and the whole of Beppu was filled with screams."

"And the figures on the screen suddenly turned into ghosts, came alive, and pounced on anyone they saw! The benches and beds also suddenly turned into fleshy tentacles, eating people whole."

"It's so scary! So scary!" Tan Qi's voice became lower and lower, as if those horrific scenes reappeared in front of him. "Then how did you escape?" Shi Fei asked.

In such a terrible situation, the imperial court should have taken action against the officials and their families. There is no reason why Tan Qi should have survived.

"I... I was saved by a knight!" Tan Qi recalled, "The knight held a big knife and cut open the cage made of flesh and eyeballs, and rescued me."

"After that, he asked me to keep running away, escaping from the capital, and then he rushed into the flesh and blood cage again, trying to save more people."

"On the way, I saw that the river water was all emerald green, and there were monsters rolling in it. The city gate seemed to have turned into a monster that devoured people. When I passed by the city gate, I almost felt like I was swallowed by the city gate!"

"Although I know a few sword skills, I could only run away in that situation. I didn't know how my father and mother were doing, so I could only run away... Brother Dou, am I useless?" Tan Qi finally finished telling about his nightmare experience along the way.

"Your parents should be relieved that you survived!" Shi Fei patted Tan Qi's shoulder and comforted him.

For an ordinary person, experiencing that kind of situation would probably be a nightmare for a lifetime! If I hadn't possessed martial arts, I'm afraid it would have been the same. Looking at the ordinary and dull world, it turned out that there were old rulers and indescribable monsters everywhere.

What a mess.

"Maybe... yes!" Tan Qi murmured to himself, his eyes full of confusion.

His parents and family were gone, the court had turned into a monster, and it seemed that all his life's beliefs were gone. So he was in a daze, like a walking corpse.

That indescribable terror immediately broke down his inner defenses.

"Just rest here." Shi Fei left him some money and got up to leave.

"Brother Dou, where are you going?" Tan Qi asked blankly as he looked at Shi Fei who stood up.

"I'm going to the capital!" Shi Fei said.

"Brother Dou, what are you doing in the capital?" Tan Qi asked in astonishment, "It's very dangerous there!"

In his mind, the capital city was a den of dragons and tigers, a place of nightmares. He never wanted to go back in his life.

"Of course, we have to wipe out those bastards! Now that we know where the enemy is, we can make them feel indescribable fear!" Shi Fei sneered.

Tan Qi looked at Shi Fei, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

After that, he watched Shi Fei leave. Looking at Shi Fei's figure, he suddenly had the courage to stand up and said, "Brother Dou, I'll go with you!"

He didn't know how he could help, but he just wanted to go.

Shi Fei looked back at Tan Qi and said, "You stay here until I conquer the capital."

(End of this chapter)