Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's dream unfolded before Fang Yuan's eyes once more.
Night. A bonfire roaring toward the heavens.
Around the bonfire, frenzied beastmen danced wildly, letting out bestial howls that rose and fell in waves.
This was a carnival.
A bloody celebration after the hunt.
Fang Yuan surveyed his surroundings with a flat expression.
He had once again taken the form of a human child, bound tightly. Many other boys and girls shared his fate.
"We're done for! We're all going to die!"
"Waaah... I don't want to be eaten..."
The children wept and whimpered, their faces uniformly pale with despair.
A sharp glint flashed through Fang Yuan's eyes. He suddenly stood up and shouted: "I want Wind Knot Grass!"
The beastmen's celebration had reached its most fervent pitch.
Fang Yuan's voice cut in without warning.
In an instant, the beastly howls ceased. Every single beastman fixed their blood-red eyes upon him.
The crushing pressure made the human children fall deathly silent, trembling where they stood. Some even wet themselves on the spot.
Fang Yuan's expression didn't change. He shouted the same words again, even louder.
The beastmen leader snorted angrily and gave his order with murderous intent rolling off him: "Give it to him!"
"You little brat — I'll be watching you. If you so much as damage a single strand of that grass stem, I'll wrap my trunk around your delicate little body and grind you into meat paste and bone shards." An elephant-nosed beastman walked over, shoved the Wind Knot Grass into Fang Yuan's hand, and snarled his threat.
Fang Yuan gave a faint smile. After glancing at the Wind Knot Grass in his hand, he looked up and said: "One? How is that enough? There are this many human captives here. Give me one Wind Knot Grass for each of them. I'm going to untie every single one and save them all!"
Gasps erupted immediately.
Whether beastmen or the children around Fang Yuan, all of them widened their eyes and stared at Fang Yuan with varying expressions.
After a brief moment of shock, the beastmen erupted into raucous laughter.
The children, who had just moments ago surged with hope and excitement, saw their faces fall once more into worry and despair.
Before long, every last Wind Knot Grass was piled at Fang Yuan's feet.
The heap of Wind Knot Grass stood several times taller than Fang Yuan's current height.
To unravel all of this alone, within an absurdly limited timeframe — it was an impossible task.
No one besides Fang Yuan believed he could do it.
Under the gaze of the crowd, Fang Yuan exhaled a turbid breath and set to work dismantling the Wind Knot Grass.
Dream unraveling.
Dream unraveling.
Dream unraveling.
……
This unique Immortal Gu killer move was built around the Wisdom Path Immortal Gu "Decipher" as its core, supplemented by a great many Mortal Gu of the Dream Path.
Fang Yuan found it remarkably effective as he deployed it now.
But while the Immortal Gu "Decipher" could be reused repeatedly, the other Mortal Dream Path Mortal Gu were being consumed at a furious rate with each successive activation of the killer move.
Fortunately, Fang Yuan had never been idle before this.
Virtually every day, he had carved out time to explore his own dreamscapes and painstakingly refine Mortal Dream Path Mortal Gu one by one.
Those Dream Path Mortal Gu, accumulated bit by bit over time, were now put to use precisely when he needed them most. One might well say: opportunity favors the prepared.
"I've finally entered the second act of the dream!" Fang Yuan's spirits lifted in secret.
This time, he had not been ejected from the dream. He had gotten his wish at last, passing through into the second act.
It turned out that to clear the first act of the dream, one had to rescue every last child.
Fang Yuan had attempted this before, but in truth he had been a step too late.
Along the original trajectory of the dream, a portion of the children had already been killed by the elephant-nosed beastman.
The elephant-nosed beastman had obeyed the beastmen leader's orders to bring the children forward. But he deliberately fumbled, letting the tree trunk crash to the ground.
The trunk rolled and crushed many of the bound children. The beastmen scrambled to snatch away the children's flesh and devoured it all.
Though this violated the beastmen's traditions, it skirted the edges of what was permissible.
The elephant-nosed beastman was a renowned warrior of the beastmen tribe. The beastmen leader and the others tolerated his behavior.
When Fang Yuan had been subduing the Scripture-Store Turtle and the Ghost Grass, he had figured out this critical point. By saving every last human child, he finally succeeded and passed into the second act of the dream.
"Clearing the first act should have pushed my Wisdom Path realm to the level of a Grandmaster!"
"I've burned through a great many Dream Path Mortal Gu by repeatedly activating the dream-unraveling killer move. From here on, I need to be careful and conserve them."
"What a pity that, back when I was following Mo Yao's will and tracking down intelligence, I went to seek out that Spring Dream Fruit Tree — only to find that half a year ago, ignorant mortals had already chopped it down. Otherwise, with that tree's help, my stock of Dream Path Mortal Gu would be at least ten times what it is now!"
"The first act was likely derived from a memory of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's childhood. Perhaps it remained a regret throughout her life. I saved all the children, making up for that regret, which is why I successfully passed the first act."
"So then — what kind of situation awaits me in the second act?"
Fang Yuan suppressed his churning thoughts and took in the dreamscape around him.
It was a mountain.
In the silent night sky, sparse points of starlight glimmered faintly.
It seemed to be summertime. Warm breezes blew gently through, carrying the lush, verdant fragrance of the forest.