Chapter 112: Mortal (2)

The transition from the River of Years Pagoda to the fabricated reality of the dream domain was instantaneous, as Lin Yuan's consciousness slammed into his new vessel.

He gasped, drawing in a harsh, ragged breath that burned his throat and rattled painfully in his chest. His eyes snapped open, and his vision was immediately swallowed by the dim, flickering light of a single, nearly exhausted oil lamp.

He was kneeling on the floor, the cold absolute. It seeped through the thin fabric of his tunic, biting into his joints with an aching persistence he had not experienced since his earliest days in the outer-city slums.

Lin Yuan's instincts, built over years of cultivation, surged to the surface. His first instinct was to release his aura and drive away the biting cold, as naturally as breathing.