"This is bad! A person's dreamworld is brimming with that person's emotions and sentiments. Right now, Qi Xingzi's laughter is stirring happiness inside me — a sure sign that the emotions within the dream are growing stronger and infecting me!" Trapped inside Qi Xingzi's dream, Fang Yuan cursed inwardly.
He had experienced this in his previous life and naturally understood the dangers lurking within dreams. A single misstep could cause even a mighty Gu Immortal to become lost within the dream, eventually perishing entirely.
Right now, Fang Yuan had not sunk too deeply. The most effective means of breaking free was to stimulate himself with intense pain.
But the cruel irony was that as a Zombie, he had long since lost all sense of pain. If he had not deliberately preserved his pain receptors when transplanting the Return to Reality Bat Wings earlier, he would have been completely swallowed by Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's dream.
The encounter just now had been terrifyingly close. Fortunately, Fang Yuan's past-life experience allowed him to immediately recognize that he was caught in a dream, and before sinking too deep, he had already been thinking of how to escape.
Thank heavens for the Return to Reality Bat Wings — the excruciating pain from their self-detonation had just barely surpassed the pull of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's dream, shoving Fang Yuan free from the Ninth Transformation Immortal Venerable's slumber.
But no sooner had Fang Yuan escaped the tiger's den than he fell into the wolf's lair.
Qi Xingzi was an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal — obscure in name, yet his strength was extraordinary. He surpassed Fang Yuan by a wide margin, whether in his previous life or this one.
Without intense pain to draw upon, Fang Yuan found himself at a complete loss, seized by a helpless feeling of waiting for death!
"No — there has to be a way. There must still be a way…" Fang Yuan's mouth went dry, his nerves stretched taut as he clenched both fists tight.
Hmm?
Sensing the fist he was gripping, sharp light blazed in Fang Yuan's crimson eyes, and he was overjoyed: "There's a chance! Qi Xingzi may be Eighth Transformation, but there is still an enormous gap between him and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable. In Star Constellation's dream, I couldn't move at all. But in this dream of Qi Xingzi's, I haven't completely lost my ability to act."
With that thought, Fang Yuan struggled to raise one arm.
It felt as though a massive mountain sat pressing down on his hand. A movement that had once been effortless — simply lifting his arm — had become agonizingly difficult.
"Rise — rise!" Fang Yuan's eyes nearly cracked with the strain as he fixed his gaze on that arm, pouring every ounce of strength into the effort.
A full quarter of an hour passed before he finally managed to lift his arm to the right angle.
Then, with tremendous difficulty and agonizing slowness, he spread his fingers open. In the center of his palm, a cluster of starlight began to gather.
Within the starlight, countless minuscule ice crystals crackled and popped, sending tiny snaps through the air. The azure radiance cast everything nearby in a frosty blue glow.
Looking at this ball of starlight, Fang Yuan felt a powerful surge of happiness and satisfaction wash over him.
"Damn — the same happiness has been stirred in me again. The deeper the dream infects me, the more of my mobility I lose." Fang Yuan caught himself and hastily suppressed the emotions welling inside.
Sure enough, just as he had suspected, his ability to move had plummeted. Moments ago he could still lift his arm; now he could only move his fingers.
That ball of starlight he had painstakingly condensed through a thousand hardships in his palm — this was his final hope.
"A hidden dream cannot be struck by ordinary means. But this corner of the dream is different — it has already manifested externally, interfering with outside objects. Naturally, it can also be interfered with and destroyed by them."
Although this fragment of dream contained the dreams of both Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and Qi Xingzi — its value beyond immense — destroying it was a terrible waste. But if Fang Yuan didn't act now, his life was forfeit.
He had no choice but to make this decision!
Fang Yuan summoned every last shred of his strength, shook his five fingers, and the cluster of ice-crystal stardust drifted out from the center of his palm.
Carrying Fang Yuan's hopes, the ice-crystal stardust drifted slowly and struck Qi Xingzi's back.
"Hahaha — I succeeded! I unified the seven stars! Hahaha… uh?!" Qi Xingzi's booming laughter cut off abruptly. He whipped around, but his body was already fracturing like the surface of a mirror, cracks spreading at dizzying speed.
Fang Yuan caught only a glimpse of his refined profile before his entire form utterly collapsed.
"Now!" A sudden lightness swept over Fang Yuan's entire body, as though the invisible mountain pressing down on him had been swept away.
Mobility restored, Fang Yuan immediately retreated at full speed. If he didn't pull back now and the dream reconstituted itself, it would be far too late.
But Qi Xingzi's dream proved far more fragile than Fang Yuan had anticipated.
Not only did Qi Xingzi's back shatter — the surrounding clouds, even the full moon in the sky, rapidly disintegrated. In the span of a few blinks, this entire dream of Qi Xingzi's dissolved into nothingness.
"How is that possible? My ice-crystal stardust isn't particularly powerful — at best it should have cracked Qi Xingzi's back temporarily before he quickly recovered. Wait — this situation… could it be?!"
A flash of insight suddenly struck Fang Yuan's mind, and a certain possibility surfaced.
As if in answer to his thoughts, a piercing roar erupted from the depths of the Eighth Star Hall, its shockwave tearing through the air: "Who is it?! Who dares disturb my slumber?!"
Deep within the dark heart of the Eighth Star Hall, high upon the throne, two dazzling blue eyes flared to life.
Then, a Zombie of ordinary stature shot upright and strode forward, his furious gaze sweeping in every direction before locking onto Wan Xiang Xing Jun, Hei Loulan, and Fang Yuan.
In that instant, a powerful sense of danger blazed through Fang Yuan's heart!