"The extraordinary Kulanis created Osh Nalgai and Serranian in a dream, so he was forever enshrined as the ruler of the land. "The old cat chief doesn't know when he has come to my side," this is one of the most intuitive manifestations of his pursuit of beauty. Let's go down there, talk as we go. ”

So we walked down the stone steps, through graceful arches, and on the cobblestone path. Only a few cats followed us, and the others scattered separately, presumably familiar with the city floating in the clouds. The Old Cat Chief once again raised his question—but I was just as puzzled by the planes-crossing experience, and in fact, the idea sprung up so suddenly that I had no idea that I would actually be able to jump from the roof of the tavern in Selefith to the Serranian.

"I felt like I was inside a transparent gel...... I couldn't move, I tried to break free, and then the formless and colorless presence was broken—and I pierced through it, and it seemed to fall in some dark space, and finally I ended up in Serranian. ”

The Old Cat Chief was puzzled by this—it wasn't what the cats experienced when they jumped, and it wasn't like the subjective feelings of the casters of the ancient magic he knew were in effect. He speculated that perhaps my ability was not as simple as changing the speed of time passing, but rather the tip of the iceberg of some great power that involved deeper changes in time and space.

Serranian didn't have the obvious distinction between night and day on the ground, so sleep didn't seem like a daily task, but I had to think about the reality of school time—on Thursday morning, November 14th, I woke up on my bed in my dorm room, washed up as usual, and walked to school with Yitong, but I couldn't help but feel a little lost in my heart.

The network of the school city is isolated from the outside network, and the Internet can only be accessed through a facility called an "external connection terminal". However, there are only four such facilities in the entire city, located in the third school district in the north, the twelfth school district in the east, the second school district in the south, and the thirteenth school district in the west, and the student application process is very troublesome, and when I went home during the last summer vacation, I spent most of my time experimenting with the "Void Primordial Stone", so I haven't had a good time with Mo Yufei for a long time. I miss her.

Although the excitement of the time diluted the feeling of exhaustion, the fact that the jump from Seleface to Serranian took a lot of energy, so on the night of November 14th, I did not enter the dream land, but chose to rest in peace. On Friday afternoon, when I came to the institute for a routine check-up, Sora Akiyama made a surprising announcement.

"Yun Chengyu, one party, Misaka, are you interested in going to school outside of the school city for a year as an exchange student?"

Looking at our shocked looks, he then explained that this was what the Governing Council had just told him today, and that it was a propaganda ploy, not a mandatory requirement. If we agree, we will be enrolled in a middle school called the Private Makoto School in April next year, and he will follow us as a teacher for the ability development course and a temporary guardian to prevent the theft of the school's advanced technology.

To be sure, I'm happy to experience a different cultural atmosphere from the city of Hwasaki Gakuen, and I'm a little curious about the magical side of Japan, the old rival of Hwakokudomon. All in all, all three of us thought it was a great proposition, but Mikoto Misaka and I needed to inform our families about this – and Sora Akiyama said that he had already applied for the right to use the external connection terminal in the third school district in advance. After talking to my family about this, looking at the little time I had left, I hesitated for a moment, and still asked about Mo Yufei.

"Miss Feifei? It just so happened that she was home at this time. ”

Mo Yufei's family lives next door. Less than a minute later, with the sound of clattering footsteps, the girl rushed into the room in a rage, and the school uniform on her body had not had time to change. There is a generation gap of twenty or thirty years between the science and technology of the outside countries and the school city,The image on the screen is far less clear than when you usually use the smart terminal,But looking at the familiar smiling face,My memory suddenly gushed out like a spring.,As if she really came to me.。

We stared at each other for a moment, and she burst out laughing.

"What a meeting...... Ah, long time no see, did you miss me?"

When Mo Yufei said this, those bright eyes stared at me without blinking.

"Well, I miss you. The kind I really want to have. I reminisced about my trip to the dream realm two days ago, "I dreamed of you, the night before yesterday. ”

Hearing this, the corners of her mouth raised slightly, like a blooming magnolia, elegant and quiet. Then, unexpectedly, a crisp voice with a sudden increase in volume sounded inside the headphones:

"Ahhh

In the few minutes remaining, we talked as fast as we could, and finally I told her that I would surprise her on her birthday on December 23rd—yes, the "Illusory Stepping Spirit", so that we could meet from time to time in the Land of Dreams on Earth.

On the night of November 15th, with a relaxed and happy mood, I once again entered the dreamland of Serranian. I waved to the cats waiting nearby, and followed one of them to the bottom entrance of a cloud-shrouded tower. The guards were already aware of my presence, and from them I learned that the old chief of the cat was already up there.

In one of the parlors on the upper floors of the tower, I finally met Kulanis: he looked to be about fifty years old, dressed in a rich robe studded with jewels, but not wearing the crown that belonged to the king. The old cat chief sits elegantly in a high-backed chair covered with velvet and inlaid with gold. As soon as he saw me, he enthusiastically introduced me to Kulanis. Although the latter does not have the frame of a king, and his words are quite sincere, he occasionally reveals a melancholy that is difficult to hide.

The conversation unfolded casually and naturally, and Kulanis was very curious about me, a young dreamer who was rare from the East. In the faint fragrance of the burning of a certain spice, I spoke of Usa's cat, of the devil's ploughing of Hatig, of the lost city that I encountered on my way north from the port of Dilas Lynn, and likewise I was glad to hear Kulanis speak of the past in that quaint accent.

Regrettably, Kuranis had only heard a little about the deeds of the Xuanyang Daoists, and when I asked about the fabled, extra-starry ultimate void, he refused to answer in a gentle and non-offensive way. He expressed his appreciation for my willingness to explore the unknown and discover beautiful things, but when I involuntarily mentioned the strange dreams of me and Mo Yufei, he sighed melancholy, and his expression seemed to be reminded of a long time.

"Young sir, it is a great blessing – and a remarkable thing – that you have been able to become a skilled dream traveler at this age of fantasy and joy. However, I sincerely hope that you don't get too caught up in the beauty of those dreams. ”

For many years, he said, he longed to go to the valleys of the lovely Selefis and Os-Nargay, to the freedom, the colours and the pleasant experiences of his childhood, but also to avoid the shackles, customs and follies that existed in life.

But now that he had come to the city, to the land, and even to become the king of the land, he found that the freedom and the brightness were soon worn away, leaving only a monotonous longing, a desire to find anything that was tied to the things that were firmly anchored in his feelings and memories. Selephas's time is eternal, and he has lived like this for almost a hundred years. He missed the bell that came from the church in Cornwall and echoed on the meadows and hills, but his physical body in reality had long since decayed, and the Xuanyang Daoist's ability to be inseparable between the two worlds and the transformation of the yang god was so far away.

I can only keep silent about it. Those long years were too heavy for a twelve-year-old boy, and the countryside of England, far away on another continent, was a place I had never experienced at all. But Kuranis didn't get bogged down in endless reminiscences, and in the end, he offered to observe my ability to planeswalk.

"There's another room on the other side of the wall, I think...... I can try. ”

I stood up and faced the wall, trying to recreate the scene. The kind of travel that ignores distance and space is similar to the hyperspace travel in science fiction works, and if you are a party, you should be able to figure out those complex mathematical models, but for me, this ability is more like the random swishing of the pen of will and the ink of the mind. At some point in time when I didn't seem to exist, I disappeared into the living room and then instantly appeared on the other side of the wall.

"Unheard of, inhuman. ”

It wasn't long before Kulanis and the old chief of the cat walked in. The latter spun around at my feet, a pair of vertical pupils looking up and down, but the former fell into thought as he finished speaking. I waited patiently and quietly until he rubbed his temples and focused his gaze on me.

"I vaguely remember some very old texts that record this phenomenon, but those memories are so old and vague that it will take me a lot of work to recover them......"

Kulanis's voice grew quieter, and by the end it was already muttering to himself, as if he had fallen into deep thought again, until the silence was broken by a squire's knock at the door. Anyway, at his invitation, I had dinner with him in the tower, and finally ended my dream journey for the night.