Chapter 10 In a Dream

• Perhaps the sight of my wounds from the fall made Medusa let me off the hook relatively quickly. She merely warned me not to be late again before allowing me to take my seat.
• I sat down beside Mindy. Exhausted, I tried to catch my breath.
• Mindy passed a book to me and muttered, "You're lucky. Medusa's in a good mood today."
• I smiled. "Thanks for calling me. I would've missed this class if you didn't."
• "No need to be so courteous with me." Mindy raised her eyebrows and smiled knowingly. "Be honest now. Who were you with last night?"
• I was with a corpse.
• Well, I couldn't tell her the truth, so I came up with a random lie. "I went over to the academy of fine arts next door."
• A few of my high school friends were studying there. As we were from the same hometown, we met up often. Mindy also knew about this, so I thought she wouldn't ask anything else once I told her this.
• Thus, I was thrown for a loop when she widened her eyes and asked me eagerly, "Did you sleep with your crush?"
• By crush, she meant a guy I knew in high school. I developed a crush on him during my junior year and was going to ask him out once we were in college, but as soon as the semester started, he started dating someone.
• In the past, my heart would twist a little at any mention of him, but now, I felt nothing. When Mindy mentioned my crush, it was Cassius' face that popped into my head instead.
• I was shocked.
• No way… I can't possibly be developing feelings for that snake, right?
• "Hey!" Mindy elbowed me when she saw me spacing out. "Look at all the hickeys on your neck. It must've been pretty intense last night, huh?" she commented with a cheeky grin.
• I was completely red as I covered my neck with my hands.
• Mr. Lee's room didn't have a mirror and I was in such a rush to get to school that I didn't notice I had marks on my body. Wasn't it enough that he drained all the life out of me?! Why did he leave marks on my body?!
• I was furious and mortified.
• At long last, the class was over. I borrowed some concealer from Mindy and rushed to the restroom to hide the hickeys.
• Well, it wasn't surprising that Mindy made fun of me. After seeing the hickeys littered along my neck through the mirror, I figured I would've used the word intense to describe what happened, too.
• There were red marks along both sides of my neck, and whenever my collar shifted back ever so slightly, it would reveal a set of teeth marks left on my nape.
• He's a beast, alright! Why does he like biting so much?!
• I fumed to myself as I covered everything in concealer. Although it wasn't good enough to hide all traces of the marks, they were still fairly undetectable if people didn't take a close look at my neck.
• Once I finished, I pocketed the concealer and walked toward the exit.
• Just as I was leaving the restroom, I felt as if my foot had banged into something again. I was prepared this time, so instead of falling over, I stumbled a little. As soon as I regained my balance, I whipped my head around to look at the spot.
• Again, it was completely empty.
• It could've been a coincidence if it were just the one time, but it happened twice now…
• I felt a chill down my spine, and I quickly sprinted back to the classroom.
• The class was over and most of the students were gone. There were only a few who stayed back to go over their notes, and Mindy remained in her seat, waiting for me.
• When she saw me, she asked, "My dad's back, Celeste. Do you still want to remove your tattoo?"
• I shook my head. I was Cassius' disciple now, so it no longer mattered whether I removed the tattoo.
• "What's wrong? Do you feel very warm? Why are you sweating so much?" she asked in concern.
• I'm not feeling warm! It's cold sweat! I just had a fright!
• I looked at Mindy and composed myself a little before saying, "Mindy, why don't you go back to your dorm first? I just remembered I still have something to do, so I won't be leaving with you."
• My plan was to ask Cassius to come over and see if I ran into a ghost. If there really was a ghost, then he could take care of it to stop it from harming anyone else.
• Mindy left after confirming that I was fine.
• I didn't know where Cassius was and how I could get in touch with him, so I figured I'd give Mr. Lee a call. I fished out my phone, but before I could make the call, I received a call from my father.
• "Celly." When I answered the phone, it was my grandma's voice that I heard. She sounded frantic as she asked, "Celly, be honest with your grandma, okay? Recently, did you encounter… anything unusual?"
• Why is she asking me this straight off the bat? Does Grandma know something? But I only just became Cassius' disciple, and I haven't told my family about it. How did she find out?
• I was perplexed, but I was honest about the whole deal with Cassius, though I omitted the part about me sleeping with him. Once I finished filling her in, I asked, "Grandma, how did you know I encountered something unusual?"
• "The third mistress told me about it in a dream. She said you ran into some trouble and couldn't get out of it, but I never thought that the supposed trouble would turn out to be a good thing." Grandma's voice sounded a little choked up as if she was crying right now. She took some time to calm down before continuing, "Celly, since you're Mr. Cassius' disciple, you must do whatever he says and be filial to him. You'll be atoning for our family."
• She used the word 'atoning.'
• I recalled Cassius mentioning the grudge between our families, so I asked, "Grandma, what am I atoning for? How did our family wrong him?"
• "It's me. I did it." Grandma's voice was filled with guilt. "I made a terrible mistake. Celly, I never told you, but when I was young, I had a deity in me too…"
• My grandma said that the deity in her was the third mistress of the Boyd Family—Cassius' wife.
• It didn't matter when the disciples joined any given sect. What determined their standing was the rank of the deity in them. The sect owner of the Household Deity Sect didn't take in any disciples, so among the Five Great Household Deities, the ones with the highest standing were those who were the sect owner's partner, sibling, or child.
• Among the Boyd deities, Cassius was the one who remained in seclusion and focused on his cultivation for over a thousand years of cultivation. He never took a disciple before. He was high up in the hierarchy and was a powerful deity, so a lot of disciples wanted him to join their sects.
• My grandma was one of them. She figured that her deity was already Cassius' partner, so she would surely be able to invite him to join her sect.
• As she pleaded for the third mistress to bring it up with Cassius, she continued to expand her sect. It flourished and had over a hundred fighters. Everyone in the tri-state of Devostok who talked about disciples knew of her.
• I was stunned. "Grandma, you were so amazing when you were young."
• Grandma chuckled bitterly. "I thought I was amazing, too. That's why I foolishly accepted a task that no other sect dared to accept. I never thought that a simple business transaction would end up ruining the entire sect…"