The second layer of Nightmare Island consisted of countless dreams.
And Leilin was currently drifting through the multitude of dreams, searching for the key to his breakthrough.
A massive sensation of weightlessness washed over him, and then Leilin found that his surroundings had changed once more.
Adi had now grown into a young man, but the scar on his cheek had never faded.
After a brutal life-and-death struggle, he seemed to have unlocked some kind of innate talent, managing to survive the siege and becoming that Nightmare
The Nightmare Wizard's method of training his disciples was brutally simple. Several other apprentices alongside Adi all endured what could only be described as inhuman torture—many died outright. Only Adi's burning desire for revenge sustained him, and his strength advanced with astonishing speed.
Among the countless dreams, the scene with his junior sister—a female apprentice—was the warmest memory Adi possessed.
"Next comes the thick darkness... that must be the reason for his transformation..."
Leilin murmured, his hands tracing strange symbols that tore through this layer of dreams, pushing deeper into the abyss.
What appeared before him was a dense, impenetrable darkness. Countless tendrils of malice had coalesced to their absolute limit, assaulting his consciousness, trying to drive him into complete madness.
"No matter what it is, nothing can stop me!"
Leilin's expression remained calm as he took a single step forward!
Buzzing! The darkness parted, revealing a faint orange-yellow candlelight within, and fragmented images scattered across his vision.
"Hehehe... My dear apprentices, your final trial is to fight to the death within the secret realm. Only one may survive, and that one will absorb all of your life force and creative potential, becoming my most outstanding disciple..."
The Nightmare Wizard cackled madly as he sent every last apprentice into a blood-red secret realm.
Adi clenched his fists, looking at a female apprentice beside him who resembled a white lotus.
Her complexion was slightly pale—she could only be called pretty, at best—but she possessed an unusual quality that had drawn Adi in completely.
"No! There must be another way! There must be!" Adi bit his lip so hard that blood trickled down.
...
"Next should be the dream of the bloody secret realm..."
This level of darkness was nothing to Leilin now. His right hand brushed forward as though drawing aside a curtain.
But what followed was somewhat unexpected.
Rain poured down in torrents. Terrifying nightmare energy surged in all directions, and the surrounding ground was devastated—clearly the aftermath of a fierce battle.
"Haha... Adi, my dearest apprentice, are you going to betray me?"
A Nightmare Wizard composed of countless shadows laughed wildly, gazing at the young wizard before him. This wizard was unmistakably the same Adi from before, but now his body radiated an aura of death. One eye had lost its pupil entirely, while the other had turned purple.
"Don't you know? My Nightmare Clones have spread across an entire world. Without the resolve to destroy a world, it's impossible to kill me!"
The Nightmare Wizard cackled, his dream magic manifesting as a three-headed hellhound wreathed in infernal flames that slammed Adi to the ground.
"Every spell you know, I taught you. What do you have to fight me with?"
The Nightmare Wizard laughed as two blood-red beams shot from the shadows. "Tell me... how do you want to die?"
"I want YOU to die!"
Adi screamed wildly, both arms wrapping around the summoned hellhound.
Whoooosh... A terrifying vortex formed on his forehead as a third vertical eye—crimson—materialized. Veins bulged as the eye opened wide, and a beam of light shattered the hellhound into nothing, then absorbed every last trace of the dispersed dream energy.
"Ah... Ah..."
Adi's clothing exploded away piece by piece as he instantly transformed into a bizarre giant—five meters tall, with horns, red scales, and a third vertical eye in the center of his forehead.
"This is... the Nightmare Energy-Draining Physique!!! How is this possible? I already confirmed there's no way you carry that bloodline..."
"Nothing is impossible, old man. You can go die!"
Adi—now a towering giant—roared and reached both hands into the void.
Countless phantasmal shadows were forcibly ripped from the dreams of sentient beings across the world, then annihilated one after another.
"So that's where your true body is hidden—in the Dream World. I've found you!!!"
Adi bellowed. Then he tore open a direct passage to the Dream World itself, and a massive surge of dream force expelled a wizard in the form of an old man.
The shadows from before lunged at the old man upon seeing him, transferring their wounds along with their assault. The old man's face twisted in rapid succession as he spat out great mouthfuls of black blood.
"Hehe... worthy of the Nightmare Energy-Draining Physique! The prophesied darling of the Dream World! *cough*... You've actually connected to the Dream World and rejected my true body... *cough*..."
Black blood gushed from the old man's mouth in thick torrents, yet as he stared at Adi, his eyes shone as though he were gazing at a priceless treasure.
"*cough*... The Nightmare Energy-Draining Physique—its bearer can naturally commune with dream force and receive the Dream World's primordial infusion. The pursuit of my entire life has finally appeared before me..."
The old man's eyes burned with fanaticism, like a zealot beholding his god.
"Are you done talking?"
The colossal giant strode up to the old man, the cross-shaped scar on his face twisted and glaring.
"I swear I'll shatter even your true soul—you won't get a chance to enter the Astral Plane!"
An enormous torrent of Dream World primordial force poured into Adi, elevating his state to rival that of the Rule Realm.
BOOM!
After the tremendous tremor subsided, Adi reverted to his true form—only faint traces of black blood still trickled from his right fist.
"From this day forward... I am the Nightmare King!!!"
...
Light flashed, and the scene shifted once more.
"Little Adi! Great Wizard Bofeiert is here to take on apprentices this time—you absolutely must succeed!"
Adi's mother's careful admonitions echoed in his ears...
...
"Just as I thought—the dreams have started to repeat. This is a dream labyrinth composed of the Nightmare Wizard's entire life journey, isn't it? If I can't crack the lock and find the entrance to the third layer, I'll probably be trapped here forever..."
Leilin watched the scene play out for the second time, feeling as though he were watching a rerun of a film.
"But... the Nightmare Energy-Draining Physique. I never expected such a legendary physique to actually exist! According to ancient texts, those who possess this physique are born as favorites of the Dream World—even capable of receiving the Dream World's primordial force infusion directly, enjoying privileges surpassing even those of a Plane's Chosen... With the Nightmare Energy-Draining Physique, massive amounts of Dream World energy pouring into his body, and the bottleneck of dream energy decay resolved, this Nightmare King Wizard's power must be approaching the ninth rank..."
"But... how do I navigate out of this dream labyrinth?"
A glint of light from the Chip flickered through Leilin's eyes: "According to the Chip's analysis and calculations, within the dream just witnessed, there are 38 critical nodes that could directly alter Adi's fate. For indirect changes, there are 34,198 opportunities... However, the most crucial element may be the memory of the secret realm blood trial that's been cut off... I'll begin testing one by one..."
"Plan One..."
Leilin nudged the milk on the table, sending an entire glass spilling across Adi's clothes.
"What?! What happened? Adi, your clothes!" the mother exclaimed. "Did you really intend to meet the esteemed wizard in this state?"
"Sorry, Mother! I'll go change right away!"
Little Adi ran to the adjacent room to change his clothes.
Naturally, he did not rush out of the house on a sudden whim. Shortly after, a violent explosion engulfed the entire building...
Light flashed, and the scene shifted once more.
"Little Adi! Great Wizard Bofeiert is here to take on apprentices this time—you absolutely must succeed!"
Adi's mother's careful admonitions echoed in his ears...
"Fine! It seems simply letting Adi die won't work. I'll have to try something else..."
Leilin watched the scene repeat with a sigh and began attempting different approaches...
...
"Let him escape successfully and become the Nightmare Wizard's apprentice... Failed!"
"Save his parents and have the family relocate to another city... Failed!"
"An experimental accident leads to discovering a new path of power... Failed!"
"This is the 17,862nd attempt... At this rate, my spiritual energy may not hold out much longer. But I've found the key to the critical memory zone!"
Leilin's expression was resolute. The scene had returned to the moment the Nightmare Wizard ordered the apprentices to kill each other.
"After all these experiments, I've finally found the most critical node—Dream Force, freeze!"
At Leilin's command, the entire scene froze. The cackling Nightmare Wizard, the worried apprentices, and Adi biting through his lip—all became like sculpted statues.
The world lost its color in that instant, reduced to a black-and-white photograph.
"Break!"
Leilin walked directly up to the female apprentice Adi had feelings for and stared at a jade pendant hanging from her chest—one bearing the image of a white lotus.
A needle-thin thread of concentrated dream force pierced straight through the pendant. Crack! Crack! The entire scene shattered like porcelain, and the dreams did not cycle again but sank into darkness.
Two passageways, each glowing with a dim crimson light, materialized before Leilin. From somewhere beyond them, he could faintly sense a mysterious gaze.
"Two directions—one should lead to the final lock of the third layer, and the other to the sealed memory..."
Leilin stroked his chin. "If I were the Nightmare King, and I discovered someone had dared to pry into my sealed memories... the consequences would be..."