"Those wretched dream creatures — we clearly signed a contract with them before, and we had the protection of our bloodlines..."
"The changes in the Dream World's rules are far too bizarre to be understood through traditional thinking..."
Leilin had already vaguely guessed the reason, but he naturally wouldn't say it outright: "Perhaps the dream creatures you signed a contract with last time aren't the same batch anymore..."
His words silenced Belinda.
"That's true! The strength of creatures in the Dream World follows no pattern at all. Maybe the nightmare creatures we contracted with before are long dead, and these new ones... they could be earthworms that evolved just yesterday..."
After a moment, as if she'd come to terms with it, a bitter smile appeared on Belinda's face.
"When it comes to wielding the power of dreams, even with our bloodline enhancements, we can't possibly match these native dream creatures... This is going to be trouble..."
The gaze she directed at Leilin carried a hint of apology, clearly feeling sorry for dragging him into this situation.
"It's fine — after all, I agreed to take this route back then too!"
Leilin urged his Earth Lizard mount forward, pushing it to greater speeds, the glow in his hand showing no sign of weakening.
"Chip! Can you detect the exact locations of these nightmare creatures?"
Secretly, Leilin communicated with the Chip.
[Ding! Scanning... Unable to locate due to unknown interference!] The Chip gave Leilin a regretful reply.
Crash!
At that moment, the ground transformed as if it had become ocean waves, heaving violently.
Massive black trees roared as they tore their roots from the earth. Sky-blocking vines blotted out all light entirely.
Pop! A swarm of black bats swept past like a dark hurricane. The ball of light in Leilin's hand was instantly snuffed out.
"We can't lose the path! Only this route is confirmed safe!" Belinda's expression was one of urgency.
"Roar roar..."
A host of Cyclops Treefolk formed a wooden wall, sealing off the barely-visible path and completely blocking Leilin and Belinda outside.
"Damn it!" Leilin cursed under his breath. At that moment, the Chip's notification sounded again: [Violent Dream World energy fluctuations detected beneath the host. Recommend evacuation!]
"Move!" Leilin grabbed Belinda and began leaping at full speed.
Swoosh! The instant Leilin leaped into the air, a dark red point of light suddenly erupted from the ground, turning the void into countless lines.
Numerous lines twisted and rotated, eventually forming an irregular sphere.
The sphere contracted violently, unleashing terrifying waves of energy.
Boom! A massive explosion erupted. Leilin's mount was instantly obliterated without a trace. The terrifying shockwave caught up to Leilin and Belinda in midair almost immediately, slamming into them as if they'd hit a solid steel wall and sending them tumbling wildly.
Thud! Leilin crashed heavily to the ground, the fabric on his back torn open in a large swath, revealing a layer of fine scales underneath.
Thanks to this layer of defense, he hadn't suffered catastrophic damage from the explosion.
"Belinda! Belinda!" Leilin slapped the dirt off his body and called out, but received no response.
He looked around. This was a pristine garden. White marble fountains still sprayed clear water. The forest and Belinda from before had both vanished.
[Ding! Surrounding environment scan complete. Dream World energy concentration has surged dramatically. Assessment: Dream World!]
The Chip's notification appeared before Leilin: "Just as I thought. That explosion pushed me directly through the overlapping rift between the Dream World and the Infernal World and into the Dream World itself. This process..."
Leilin had a premonition that if he could deeply analyze this process, it might bring enormous benefits to the Chip's Dream Traversal Mission analysis.
Perhaps, once he fully comprehended this traversal rule, he would no longer need the Devil White Phosphorus Serpent's bloodline to enter the Dream World, and it would bring great convenience to traversing other worlds as well.
"The Dream World..."
Leilin gazed at the garden and fountain that looked so much like a real scene, his expression sinking into deep thought.
This time, he had entered the Dream World in his true body, without a main body or the Chip as a coordinate. If not for the previous situation where the Astral Laboratory overlapped with the Dream World, he might have been trapped here for life.
"However, for the Dream World, the Devil White Phosphorus Serpent's bloodline I carry serves as both the key to enter and the key to leave..."
Leilin stroke his chin, considering another aspect.
"Great Lord of Chaos,
The rune pattern of a great bird spreading its wings upon the array blazed with dazzling light.
"Hmm! Very difficult to connect! Especially as a fourth-level ritualist, and I've already consumed a Chaos Power Crystal!"
Leilin closed his eyes, using his True Spirit to feel the force of the connection.
The Path of Rituals circulated only within the Infernal World, and naturally had its limitations. The first was that once one left the Infernal World, the signal that could be received was subjected to severe interference.
In practice, powerhouses from other worlds who cultivated the Path of Rituals gained virtually no benefit from it.
Within the Infernal World, the Path of Rituals flowed like open commerce, passing through relatively few checkpoints. But once outside the Infernal World, it was as if not only had the trade route lengthened, but several additional bloodsucker-like toll barriers had been added — this was devastating. Every transmission of power would result in a net loss, so the Path of Rituals naturally could not flourish.
Thus, in the
The same held true within the Dream World.
However, through Leilin's relentless efforts — especially at the cost of expending Chaos Power Crystals — he finally managed to connect his True Spirit to some mysterious will across the void.
Compared to in the Infernal World, where the Defiled Bird's will could descend at any time, the connection here was extremely troublesome. The other side was like a transmitter with terrible reception, the information arriving in broken fragments.
"Your... location... must be the Dream... World..."
The Defiled Bird's voice was somewhat intermittent, but Leilin still understood its meaning.
"The barrier force there is too strong. Even I cannot transmit much power. Only my Feather of Chaos might bring you hope..."
"Feather of Chaos!?" Leilin still had questions, but the Ritual Magical Array provided no further response.
The communication was severed quickly, and even these few brief exchanges had consumed nearly half of Leilin's previously stored Chaos Crystals.
One had to remember that these Chaos Power Crystals were rewards the Defiled Bird had given him after he destroyed the Eye of Judgment's offshore branch on the
If one truly calculated it, these Chaos Power Crystals would be enough to perform attribute enhancements for a fourth-level ritualist more than a dozen times over — at the very least, they could bring someone to Governor Iyasi's level.
"Dream Power and Chaos Power... these two do share some similarities..."
Leilin reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a gray dream feather.
"The power of the Feather of Chaos is chaos and concealment! While Dream Power is filled with uncertainty! The two appear similar on the surface, but their differences are far greater... Especially once the effects of Chaos Power are layered on — what kind of changes would that bring to the Dream World?"
"Chip! Record all of the following scenes in full! Store every last byte of data!"
Leilin commanded.
[Ding! Task established. Activating full-spectrum detection mode!] The Chip's mechanical voice came through.
"Chaos Power!" Leilin took out another Chaos Power Crystal and placed the gray crystal beside the feather.
Hummm! A brilliant radiance burst from the crystal as the Chaos Power transformed into streaks of light that flowed into the Feather of Chaos.
A layer of gray fog-like color began radiating outward in all directions.
Wherever the Feather of Chaos's light touched, bizarre changes occurred. Countless flowerbed tiles began warping and distorting — some cracked directly, while others twisted into irregular shapes.
Even more of the ground transformed into countless human faces.
Where the fountain had been, the white marble instantly turned pitch black, peeling away layer by layer, while the clear water within turned blood-red in the blink of an eye. The entire basin became like a blood pool, steeped in an aura of sinister evil.
Crack! Crack! As the gray light continued to spread, even the space itself began fracturing.
The entire scene seemed to freeze, like a black-and-white photograph drained of all color.
"Good afternoon, sir! We meet again!"
A gray owl fluttered its wings and landed at the edge of the fountain, its form striking Leilin with an overwhelming sense of familiarity.
"Yes, we meet again!"
Leilin bowed slightly: "The 'key' Your Grace gave me last time was of tremendous help, but now I find myself having to trouble you again. Might Your Grace know of a way to exit the Dream World?"
"The key? You mean the future me?"
The owl preened its wing: "That had nothing to do with me — the future me acted entirely on its own... As for the matter of leaving... Perhaps Madam Mizner can help you..."
"Madam Mizner? Where?"
Leilin asked urgently, but just then, he suddenly realized the owl before him had completely vanished.