The Supreme Immortal Aperture.
A grand purple-gold palace hung suspended in the air.
Immortal Gu Killer Move — Light Smoke in Dreams!
The Dragonman clone piloted this Immortal Gu House and immediately released great billowing clouds of thick smoke.
Wherever the smoke reached, it swallowed everything. An Ancient Year Beast that Fang Yuan had specifically relocated here for testing stood no chance — with a single terrified howl, it was swept up by the dream-path dense smoke and vanished without a trace.
"Return." With a thought from the Dragonman clone, the dense dream-path smoke coiled back into the Dragon Palace like a great serpent returning to its lair.
Everything it had previously swallowed was naturally drawn back into the palace as well.
This was the dream-path killer move that Fang Yuan had personally witnessed in his previous life. At that time, the Dragon Palace had unleashed this smoke to corrode even the Heaven Monitoring Tower. Even though the tower had already been rendered ethereal, it had still fallen prey to it.
A single technique truly was enough to conquer all. In a short span of time, the Five Regions' Gu Immortal world — even the Heavenly Court — had severely lacked methods to counter dream-path techniques.
The effects of dream-path were immediate.
However, now that Fang Yuan was activating it himself, he discovered that this Light Smoke in Dreams wasn't the dream-path offensive killer move he had previously assumed — it served more as a means of capturing and subduing targets.
Just now, the Dragon Palace had used only this single move to capture and restrain the Ancient Year Beast's Eighth Transformation level combat power, then suppress it within the palace — all with effortless ease.
The Dragon Palace was a slave-path Immortal Gu House. Even the possession of an Eighth Transformation dream-path Immortal Gu like the Like Dream Command could not alter its fundamental nature.
The Light Smoke in Dreams killer move had been designed specifically to complement the Dragon Palace — first capturing the target to be enslaved, then subduing them.
Besides the Light Smoke in Dreams, the Dragon Palace contained two other dream-path killer moves.
One was called Dream Enlightenment — a wisdom-path effect that could lull a Gu Immortal to sleep and into a dream, providing enlightenment within the dreamscape.
The other was called Dream Within a Dream, which could construct nested dreamscapes within dreams. Just like when the Dragonman clone had explored the dream realm and become Wu Shuai, and Wu Shuai had then entered dreams and repeatedly received Dream Enlightenment — that was a Dream Within a Dream.
As for the dreamscape that had previously shrouded the Dragon Palace, that was the inherent power of the Like Dream Command itself.
After some consideration, Fang Yuan found that at this stage, only the Light Smoke in Dreams was truly practical.
The Dream Enlightenment move was sophisticated, but it consumed not only Immortal Essence but also Heavenly Will! That meant this technique involved the participation of Heavenly Will.
For Wu Shuai, the Heavenly Mandate had decreed that the Dragonmen should prosper. So Heavenly Will supported the Dragonmen, and using this technique posed no problem for him — he could receive the favor and guidance of the Heavenly Dao.
But Fang Yuan was different.
Fang Yuan was an Otherworldly Demon, oppressed and targeted by Heavenly Will. He had always been at odds with it. One of the techniques he had mastered was called "Heavenly Will Dissipation," designed specifically to eliminate Heavenly Will.
How could he possibly expect Heavenly Will to help him?
As for Dream Within a Dream, this technique targeted dreamscapes, not living beings directly.
Once activated, it could form deeper layers of dreams within a dreamscape.
What was the use of this?
It was for restructuring dreamscapes.
Wu Shuai had primarily used it to transform the Dragon Palace's dreamscape, creating nested dreams within dreams. When Fang Yuan's Dragonman clone had explored it, they had repeatedly encountered Dream Within a Dream. Undoubtedly, such restructuring made dreamscapes more complex and more capable of causing explorers to lose themselves within them.
What could Fang Yuan primarily use it for?
In the short term, what Fang Yuan thought of was still dream-realm exploration — he could restructure these dreamscapes, constructing Dream Within a Dream layers within them.
These nested dreams would be constructed by Fang Yuan, and thus belong to him. In this way, he could build forward positions within the dreamscapes — safe resting grounds.
The most important thing of all, however, was the Like Dream Command Immortal Gu!
This Immortal Gu was quite similar to the Soul Beast Command in Fang Yuan's possession — the former was a dream-path Gu Insect with slave-path capabilities, while the latter was a soul-path Gu Insect that likewise served a slave-path function.
The specifics of how to use this Eighth Transformation Like Dream Command Immortal Gu — Fang Yuan had already learned them from the Dragon Spirit.
Back when Duke Long had unleashed Dragonman Extinction, Wu Shuai had not been spared. But he had ultimately made efforts, conducting extensive Dragonman experiments and producing some results that could delay the inevitable.
Wu Shuai had used his final remaining time to activate the Like Dream Command Immortal Gu.
He had expended not only his lifelong reserve of Eighth Transformation Immortal Essence, but also all of his emotions, memories, and willpower.
After completing his arrangements, he had been gaunt and skeletal, his soul reduced to mere fragments. In the end, he sat upon the Dragon Throne, lingering for a brief moment due to the enormous expenditure, before drawing his last breath and perishing.
In the end, he had sacrificed even himself.
He had given everything.
Therefore, at present, the cost of activating the Like Dream Command Immortal Gu was enormous! Wu Shuai had not actually been killed by Dragonman Extinction — it was the activation of the Like Dream Command that had done him in.