Having slept 

for the whole day, I had

strange dreams. I dreamt 

of myself wearing 

tattered clothes

. I was competing against stray dogs 

for food. I dreamt of myself standing atop a mountain with my 

hand in the air. 

After a wave of my hand, the picture of imposing battlefields appeared. I saw myself wearing an imperial robe

. I was

 sitting on the Dragon Throne inside a lavishly decorated imperial hall. In another dream, I saw myself drinking poison. Outside the city wall, people’s uproar shook the sky. When I died, I didn’t close my eyes… 

My 

mind

 told me that these were the old stories of the spirit. He wanted to use these images to affect me

 and make 

me feel touched so that I would be on his side. 

After thinking

 about the scenes I had just dreamed about, I felt upset. 

My dreams were the unfolding picture of Hong Xiuquan’s entire life. In 1864, the three major armies of the Qing Dynasty 

conquered

 Nanjing, the capital of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Hong Xiuquan died in his Heavenly King Mansion. The cause of his death was unknown. 

From what I 

saw

 in my dream, he drank poison to kill himself. I guessed he wasn’t willing to see the kingdom

—

half of the nation that he had exerted a lot of effort to claim

—

vanish.  

But 

that wasn’t

 the reason he set people’s houses on fire! 

It was normal 

for

 dynasties 

to change

. It was inevitable that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would eventually 

be brought to its downfall

. More than one hundred years had passed. 

H

ow could he restore his kingdom now? 

When I finally pulled myself together, the pressure disappeared. I got up from my half-

asleep

, half-awa

ke

 state. As soon as I woke up, I saw Old Hong standing next to me

. He was looming over 

and looking at me with his dark face. His hands were still tied with an iron chain. 

I got up immediately

 and grabbed 

the Sirius Whip. 

It was no

 wonder I had that strange dream

.

 He had come to trouble my sleep

!

 I felt scared. If he had attached to me 

as

 I 

slept

, I would have

 likely died

. With this thought, my 

back became damp

 with sweat. 

Unexpectedly, while I was so tense, 

he 

acted as if he was 

my

 friend

. He sat 

next to me. 

Then, he began to talk as though he was talking to himself. “We were just a bunch of farmers. If we weren’t 

forced

, wh

y

 would we rebel hoes and shovels as weapons? We couldn’t help it. We couldn’t put up with it anymore. That’s when we 

came up with

 the idea of a rebellion. Afterward, we couldn’t stop it. I was with Yang Xiuqing and the other brothers that nurtured the same 

dream

. Together, we brought the enormous army of farmers

 and headed 

North. The corrupted Qing army wasn’t our equal opponent. Soon, we got Nanjing. When we made it the capital, we 

held

 a three-day party to 

celebrate

.”

He continued, 

“I was their King! I provided the citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom with equal 

treatment

. They were well-fed, and they wore warm clothes. Why, why did my army collapse

after a dozen years? When the Qing army besieged Nanjing, I knew I would be defeated. We were just a group of scattering sand grains that gathered to fill our stomachs. However, after we got what we 

dreamt

 of, we lost our goal. We began to indulge ourselves in pleasure. We had a pool of wine and a forest of meat. Each of us had so many women. We hadn’t overthrown the Qing Dynasty

. We 

had created another Qing!

Why did our original dream 

turn 

into that? I 

didn’t dare to

 face my failure. I chose death instead of 

watching

 the government I had established get 

dismissed

. I wasn’t resigned to it! I wasn’t resigned to it!” 

When he came to this, Old Hong’s eyes glowed with a red light. I grabbed the Sirius Whip

 and gulped 

my saliva. 

W

ould he 

turn into a frenzy

 in the next moment? 

I hurried to comfort him. “

W

e 

live

 in the modern worl

d now. It is the

 world that you 

dreamed about. 

Justice is carried out

. E

verybody is well-fed and wears warm clothes.” 

He sneered when he heard that. “Really? But it wasn’t made by me! I didn’t establish all of 

this

!” 

I got it immediately

. H

is desire for power got the best of him. He was telling lies 

about doing 

everything for the people to have a better life. 

Old Hong touched the red turban on his forehead in a provoking way. “I’m warning you. You shouldn’t offend the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!”

Then, he turned and left. 

I slumped on my back. I was still scared 

due to 

t

he fight I had with him recently, and 

I didn’t have 

an

 item that could help me defeat him. 

The strange thing was, we were loud enough to alert Hong Tianbao and his brother. But they 

never showed

 up. It

 wasn’t logical. 

No, 

something was

 wrong. Old Hong’s room 

was

 locked up. How 

did

 he get out? I ran out of the room. At first glance, I was completely baffled

.

Th

at

 place 

wasn’t

 Old Hong’s house! It

 was

 a graveyard! 

I turned around to check. The place where I had just slept was a tombstone that had collapsed. 

I felt a chill 

run

 down my spine. Was this an 

illusion

 scene Old Hong fabricated

? Or did 

h

e have

 the power 

to

 bring me to this place without waking me up? 

I hurried to bite my middle finger and smeared the blood onto my 

eyelids

. I looked around but my surroundings didn’t change…

In other words, I was in a real graveyard! Why did he have to bring me here? He knew this sort of graveyard 

wouldn’t be

 a threat to me. 

If he didn’t want to harm me, why did he bring me here? I remembered what he told me… He said h

e was the one that 

established this 

place.

 It seemed 

h

e wanted to remove me

 from the picture as I was an

 ugly 

thorn

 in his eyes. 

Did he know what I was about to do? 

Hong Tianbao and his brother must be in danger 

at this

 moment. I didn’t have time to think that much. I navigated my way then rushed away. 

When I reached the village, everything looked normal except for the Hong family’s house. Dark air reached the sky. However, the dark air looked 

as though it had

 shifted between expanding and lingering above the house

.

I dashed to the house. I saw Old Hong

. He had red eyes, and 

dark air 

winded

 around him. Hong Tianbao and Hong Tianjiang had knives placed at their throats. 

The two men were threatening Old Hong, asking him to 

take

 off his red turban

. Otherwise, 

they would kill themselves right in front of him. 

Now I understood why the dark air 

was 

lingering in the air. 

Although Old Hong was being controlled, he was Hong Tianbao and Hong Tianjiang’s father. Hong Tianbao had a cut on his neck already. I guessed he did that to put more pressure on Old Hong. 

Hong Tianbao told me that he would get the red turban within three days. I guessed this was his last resort. 

I was shocked. What they were doing was dangerous. We didn’t know how long Old Hong could keep his sane mind. 

“Get lost!” 

Indeed, as soon as Old Hong knew that his sons wanted to take his red turban, he was enraged. 

The dark

 air t

hat 

arose from him then expanded

 and covered 

Hong Tianbao and his brother altogether. 

In this urgent situation, I didn’t have time to wait for Li Mazi. I immediately took out the Sirius Whip and used the 

Big

 Dipper Sirius Spell to attack Old Hong. 

As soon as 

I read the spell,

 the entire Sirius Whip glowed in 

a 

beautiful silver light. It looked like the real seven stars of the Big Dipper. Wherever the whip passed by, the black mist vanished. 

Old Hong recognized how intimidating I was. He swiftly controlled Hong Tianbao and his brother. 

Wisps of dark air entered Hong 

Tianbao and

 his brother’s mouths. I knew that if it succeeded, the two brothers would become Hong Xiuquan’s puppets. I 

w

ouldn’t be able to deal with the three of them 

at once. 

I bit the tip of my tongue

 and spat 

blood on the Sirius Whip. I seized the chance I still had

 to lash Old Hong one last time with the

 powerful whip

. 

Old Hong panicked

 when he realized 

that I was about to risk all 

that

 I 

had

 with him. He raised both hands to resist, which made him release Hong Tianbao and Hong Tianjiang. 

I took the chance and swayed my whip

. Then, I pulled 

Hong Tianbao toward me. The dark air had already affected him. He looked absent-minded now. I had to press hard on his medial cleft. He then shook his head and got a hold of himself. 

“I’m going to save your brother and draw your father’s attention. You should find a chance to get the red turban!” I quickly muttered to Hong Tianbao. 

He gave me a confirming nod. I turned to face Old Hong. Old Hong laughed sinisterly. He grabbed Hong Tianjiang again

 and hurled 

the man toward me. 

At this critical moment, I had to 

play hard

. I rolled away and got up swiftly

. I 

didn’t show mercy 

as I 

coiled the Sirius Whip around Old Hong’s neck. 

Old Hong 

didn’t expect

 that I would ignore Hong Tianjiang. He wasn’t cautious enough

. I 

got him at that moment. 

The Sirius Whip hit his glabella

, and

 I saw a dark shadow 

fly

 away from him. Old Hong shivered then slumped on the ground unconsciously. Hong Tianbao took the chance and got the red turban

. He handed 

the item to me. 

I was thrilled. After waking up Hong Tianjiang, I 

stuck

 a few medium-level spirit talismans on the red turban.

Without 

a

 host, the otherworldly item’s fighting power dropped sharply. Moreover, th

e spirit

was

 hit hard by my Sirius Whip. It wouldn’t have enough power to break the talismans. 

The three of us heaved sighs of relief. We had been playing this chess match for a few days in a row. And now, we 

had reached

 a point to break through the bottleneck. 

When Old Hong woke up, he didn’t have 

a

 strong reaction to his missing red turban. It seemed it was the ghost of Hong Xiuquan 

that

 had made him consider the red turban as important as his life. 

As the old man was affected by the spirit, I went out to pick some herbs and made 

a

 concoction to replenish him. At the same time, I asked him about the origin of the red turban. 

Surprisingly, 

this was really

 Hong Xiuquan

’s

 turban! 

The legend said that when Hong Xiuquan drank poison to 

end

 his life, he spat blood on this red turban and handed the turban to his subordinate, who was Old Hong’s ancestor

. He had one final wish, which was t

hat they continue to fight against the Qing imperial court. 

The 

bloodstains

 on the red turban helped Hong Xiuquan’s ghost stay in this turban. Moreover, he used Old Hong’s body to nurture his incomplete soul. 

It was too

 bad for him that I foiled his plan before he c

ould

succeed

. 

When Li Mazi arrived, I told him 

that the case was over.

Once

 Old Hong recovered, we would leave. 

But w

hen I thought everything 

had

 finally come to an end

… It turned out I was wrong

. 

I

t was just the beginning!