"These detestable dream creatures! We clearly had a contract with them before, and we had the protection of our bloodlines…"
Belinda was panting heavily, her face flushed.
"The changes in the Dream World's rules are far too bizarre to view through conventional thinking…"
Lei Lin had already vaguely guessed the reason, but he naturally had no intention of saying it outright. "Perhaps… these dream creatures are no longer the same batch that signed the contract with you last time…"
His words left Belinda silent.
"That's true! The strength of creatures in the Dream World has absolutely no pattern. The nightmare creatures that signed the contract with us before might have died out long ago, and these new ones — maybe they were just worms yesterday that evolved…"
After a moment, as though she had worked it out, Belinda's face still wore a bitter smile.
"When it comes to wielding the power of dreams, even with our bloodline enhancements, we're no match for these native dream creatures… This time we're in real trouble…"
Her gaze toward Lei Lin carried a trace of apology, clearly feeling quite bad about dragging him into this situation.
"It's fine — after all, I agreed to this route back then too!"
Lei Lin urged his earth lizard mount to pick up speed, though the light in his hand showed no sign of weakening.
"Chip! Can you pinpoint the exact locations of these nightmare creatures?"
Behind the scenes, Lei Lin silently communicated with the Chip.
【Ding! Scanning… Unable to locate due to unknown interference!】The Chip gave Lei Lin a disappointing reply.
Rumble!
At that moment, the very ground transformed as though it had become ocean waves, surging violently.
Massive black trees roared as they ripped their roots from the earth, and canopy-blocking vines blotted out every trace of light.
Pop! A swarm of black bats swept past like a dark hurricane, and the sphere of light in Lei Lin's hand was snuffed out on contact.
"We can't lose the path! Only this route is safe — I'm certain of it!" Belinda's expression turned urgent.
"ROAR ROAR…"
Massive numbers of one-eyed treefolk formed a living wall of wood, blocking the previously half-visible trail and sealing Lei Lin and Belinda firmly on the outside.
"Damn it!" Lei Lin cursed under his breath, but just then the Chip's alert came through again: 【Vigorous dream-force fluctuations detected directly beneath the subject. Recommend immediate evacuation!】
"Move!" Lei Lin seized Belinda in one arm and began leaping forward at top speed.
Whoosh! The instant Lei Lin launched into the air, a dark crimson point of light erupted from the ground below, transforming the void into countless intersecting lines.
The countless lines twisted and rotated, ultimately coalescing into an irregular sphere.
The sphere abruptly contracted inward, and terrifying fluctuations radiated outward.
Rumble! The deafening explosion erupted, and Lei Lin's mount was instantly reduced to nothing. The horrifying shockwave caught up with Lei Lin and Belinda in an instant, as if they had slammed into a solid wall of steel, sending their airborne bodies into a violent tumble.
Bang! Lei Lin crashed heavily into the ground. The fabric across his back had torn open in a wide swath, revealing a layer of fine, dense scales underneath.
It was thanks to this layer of defense that he had avoided sustaining devastating injuries from the blast.
"Belinda! Belinda!" Lei Lin slapped the dirt from his body and shouted, but there was no response.
He looked around. This was a neatly kept garden. A white marble fountain still sprayed crystal-clear water into the air. The forest from before and Belinda were both gone.
*Ding! Surrounding environment scan complete. Dream World energy density has surged dramatically. Assessment: Dream World!*
The Chip's notification appeared before Lei Lin's eyes. "So the explosion really did push me straight through the overlap between the Dream World and the Infernal Abyss, landing me inside the Dream World. This process..."
Lei Lin had a premonition that if he could thoroughly analyze this process, it might bring enormous benefits to the Chip's Dream World traversal task analysis.
And once he fully comprehended this traversal rule, not only would entering the Dream World no longer require the Devil White Phosphorus Serpent's bloodline, but traversing other worlds would become far more convenient as well.
"The Dream World..."
Lei Lin stared at the garden and fountain, which looked like a perfectly real scene, his face sinking into deep contemplation.
This time, he had entered the Dream World in his true body, without a main body or the Chip to serve as an anchor. Had he not encountered the overlap between the Astral Laboratory and the Dream World from before, he might have been trapped here for the rest of his life.
"However, for the Dream World, the Devil White Phosphorus Serpent's blood I carry serves as both the key to enter and the key to leave..."
Lei Lin rubbed his chin, his thoughts drifting to yet another consideration.