Chapter 128: “Dream Cultivation and Other Historical Disasters”
In which Li Ming realizes naps can be contagious.
---
The sun rose over the valley — golden light, peaceful air, birds singing in harmony.
And absolutely everyone was still asleep.
Li Ming stood in the middle of the sect courtyard, looking around at hundreds of disciples lying on mats, rocks, and flower beds — all snoring with blissful spiritual resonance.
Even the chicken from yesterday had joined them, head tucked under its wing, feathers glowing faintly.
Bai Guo perched on Li Ming’s shoulder, munching on spirit fruit. "This is beautiful. Look at them — cultivating horizontally."
Li Ming muttered, "They’re cultivating brain damage."
"No, no," Bai Guo said with mock wisdom, "they’ve achieved inner peace by rejecting effort. It’s poetic. Lazy, but poetic."
Li Ming pinched the bridge of his nose. "I created a sect that worships a chicken, and now another one that sleeps professionally. What next, the Dao of Procrastination?"
"Give it a week," Bai Guo said. "They’ll found a monastery dedicated to putting things off until spiritual inspiration strikes."
Li Ming sighed. "You’re enjoying this too much."
"Of course! I’m watching history rewrite itself—and it’s writing comedy."
---
After an hour of trying to wake his disciples with Qi pulses, shouts, and mild electrocution, Li Ming gave up.
He sat on a stone, facepalming. "Even my lightning can’t wake them."
"They’re in deep cultivation," Bai Guo said between bites. "You made them too powerful. The naps are stronger than your discipline."
"Wonderful," Li Ming muttered. "I’ve lost to unconscious people."
Suddenly, Li Wen came running up the stairs, panting. "Master! Master! News from the neighboring sect!"
Li Ming raised an eyebrow. "Please don’t tell me they’ve joined us."
Li Wen’s eyes sparkled. "They’ve adopted our sleeping method! They call it the ’Heavenly Restful Path’! Even their elders are lying down to cultivate!"
Bai Guo nearly choked on his fruit. "It’s spreading!"
Li Ming’s jaw dropped. "They copied this?"
Li Wen nodded earnestly. "Yes! They said it brings peace, balance, and incredible dreams! One elder claims he met an immortal while napping!"
Bai Guo gasped, laughing so hard he fell over. "You’ve created a continent-wide sleep epidemic!"
Li Ming stood there in silence for a full ten seconds before muttering, "If the heavens strike me dead right now, I’ll thank them."
---
By noon, representatives from three more sects arrived to pay "respects to the Master of the Sleeping Dao."
Each brought tribute: soft pillows made from cloud beast fur, incense that induces tranquility, and a plaque reading ’May the Great Dream Never End’.
Li Ming sat cross-legged on the main stage, staring at the offerings like a man trapped in his own prank.
Bai Guo perched beside him, solemn-faced but trembling with laughter. "Accept your fate, Dream Patriarch."
Li Ming groaned. "I’m not a patriarch, I’m a victim."
"You’re both," Bai Guo said cheerfully. "History loves multitasking."
Li Wen bowed deeply before him. "Master, the sects have asked if you would bless their disciples personally — perhaps with a grand sermon on the Dao of Sleep?"
Li Ming blinked. "You want me to give a speech about napping?"
Li Wen nodded eagerly. "They’ve already gathered ten thousand people outside the mountain gate!"
Li Ming looked at Bai Guo. "If I jump off this cliff right now, do you think I’ll wake up in my own timeline?"
Bai Guo patted his shoulder. "No, but you’ll make an excellent moral lesson for future dreamers."
---
Outside the sect, the valley was packed with cultivators sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, waiting to be enlightened.
Li Ming stepped up to the podium, internally screaming. "Alright. Breathe. Just say something so meaningless, no one can quote it."
He raised his hands and declared,
> "To truly rest... is to understand the motion of stillness."
The crowd gasped in awe.
> "When one sleeps deeply... the universe dreams with them."
Someone in the back shouted, "Profound!"
> "And when the body snores, the soul awakens!"
The crowd erupted into cheers.
Li Ming froze. "...You people are insane."
Bai Guo was lying on his back laughing. "They’re inscribing that into sacred scrolls as we speak!"
Li Ming sighed, already dead inside. "Future me is going to hate this timeline."
---
By the next morning, Li Ming had officially given up trying to fix anything.
He brewed tea. He sat down. He accepted his fate as the "Grand Dream Patriarch."
Unfortunately, fate wasn’t done with him.
Li Wen burst into the meditation hall, frantic. "Master! Terrible news!"
Li Ming didn’t even look up. "Did someone dream themselves to ascension again?"
"Worse!" Li Wen said. "The Heavenly Rest Sect has declared us heretics!"
Li Ming blinked. "...For what? Sleeping incorrectly?"
Li Wen nodded grimly. "They say our doctrine of ’Full Sleep’ is lazy. They follow the Power Nap Path — short, efficient dreams to maximize cultivation time."
Li Ming stared blankly into his teacup. "I can’t believe I’m hearing this."
Bai Guo snorted. "Oh, it’s getting good. We’ve got theological schisms now. This is how religions start — and collapse."
Li Wen continued breathlessly, "They’ve challenged us to a Duel of Dreams!"
Li Ming slowly turned his head. "A what."
"They want to see whose disciples can cultivate faster through synchronized sleeping! Whoever loses must disband their sect!"
Bai Guo fell off the table laughing. "Oh heavens, this is divine comedy!"
Li Ming stood up, dead calm. "No. Absolutely not. I refuse to participate in a sleeping competition."
Ten hours later, he was sitting on a stage beside a line of sleeping disciples, a jade gong in his lap.
---
The grand event was held in the valley, witnessed by thousands. Two banners flapped in the wind:
•The Eternal Dream Sect (Li Ming’s accidental cult)
•The Power Nap Alliance (the angry competitors)
Drums rolled. Clouds parted.
The referee announced: "Contestants — begin slumber!"
Instantly, both sides lay down in perfect synchrony. The air shimmered with spiritual energy. Dream energy rippled like waves, reality bending as imagination collided with consciousness.
Li Ming stood behind his sect’s row, rubbing his forehead. "I’m surrounded by sleeping heroes."
Bai Guo whispered, "You’re about to witness history’s first dream battle. Take notes, descendant."
Li Ming muttered, "I’m taking damage."
---
Inside the dream realm, the battlefield was... surreal.
Floating islands made of pillows. Rivers of moonlight.
And in the sky — two armies of dream-projected disciples wielding glowing blankets as weapons.
Li Ming watched through spiritual sense, horrified. "They’re actually fighting inside the dreamscape!"
Bai Guo grinned. "Look on the bright side — at least no one’s dying."
The moment he said that, a disciple screamed in their sleep, flailing violently.
Li Ming snapped, "You jinxed it."
The spiritual pressure surged.
Lightning flickered across the dream realm.
Two colossal entities formed — the "Avatar of Deep Rest" and the "Spirit of Productive Napping."
They clashed with a sound like muffled thunder. The shockwave shook the mountain.
Li Wen shouted, "Master! The dream energy is overloading reality! We’ll be dragged in!"
Li Ming’s eyes widened. "Everyone, wake—"
Too late.
The air split open, and the entire valley was swallowed by golden light.
---
When the light faded, Li Ming found himself standing on a landscape of stars — silent, endless, unreal.
Time felt thick here, like it was half-asleep.
Bai Guo hovered beside him, eyes wide for once. "Descendant... this isn’t just a dream realm. This is..."
Li Ming’s voice was a whisper. "A temporal echo."
Before them, shapes began forming — figures made of mist, frozen mid-movement.
They weren’t random. They were familiar.
Li Ming took a step closer.
There — a figure meditating beneath a great tree. Calm, ancient, powerful.
It was him.
An older version of himself, surrounded by the same glowing sigils he’d been researching before the time accident.
Bai Guo whispered, "That’s your future self... no, your real self.*"
Li Ming’s heart pounded. "If this is a dream tied to time... maybe this is how it started. Maybe I can finally—"
The older Li Ming opened his eyes.
For a heartbeat, the two versions of him locked gazes across time and dream.
Then the older one smiled faintly and said—
"You’re not supposed to be here yet."
The entire realm shattered like glass.
---
Li Ming woke up on the mountain floor, gasping. The sect was in ruins, disciples still unconscious.
Bai Guo fluttered beside him, voice uncharacteristically quiet.
"...Descendant. That wasn’t just a dream, was it?"
Li Ming looked up at the darkening sky, heart still racing. "No. That was a message."
A wind swept through the valley, carrying faint echoes of his own voice — deeper, older:
> "Find the Dream that Never Ends."
The sky rippled once... and then went still.
Li Ming stared upward, cold realization creeping over him.
If his future self had said that—
It meant this wasn’t just time travel anymore.
It was a loop.
To be continued...