Book 7, Chapter 13: Into the Dreamrealm Once More
Now that the three Demonic Lords had finished their discussion, it was time to eat.
Ye Fenghan and the others still had no other option but to wait.
Finally, the Demonic Lords finished eating and prepared to leave.
Just as they were about to go, however, they suddenly received a report from one of their Demonic Emperor subordinates. “Emperors, we discovered nearby traces that some Carefree Gra.s.s was recently harvested.”
Upon hearing this, the three Demonic Lords simultaneously stopped in their tracks.
Crow Skyking darkly asked, “Are you sure?”
“Yes!” the Demonic King replied confidently, “The earth was freshly turned, which means that whoever did it probably pa.s.sed by not long ago.”
The Purple Heart Demonic Emperor said, “Us Demonic Beasts have no interest in Carefree Gra.s.s. Only the humans would ever use that stuff.”
“There are definitely humans nearby!” The Red-Eyed Demonic Emperor roared with bloodthirsty as his eyes began to glow with a brilliant red light.
Ye Fenghan and the others groaned silently in their hearts. They could have never imagined that their cover would be blown by the subtle traces they had left behind while harvesting Carefree Gra.s.s.
The perceptive abilities of Demonic Beasts were incredibly high when they were actively searching for something. They most likely wouldn’t be able to avoid being detected this time around.
Chang He almost threw caution to the wind for a preemptive attack, but Ye Fenghan forcibly restrained him.
Strangely enough, the Red-Eyed Demonic Emperor searched the area for quite some time but didn’t seem to find anything.
What? Were the Boundless Sect’s Origin Formations strong enough that they could even fool Demonic Emperors?
Everyone gazed up with bated breath. The Red-Eyed Demonic Emperor searched the entire area, but he never glanced at the rock beneath him.
The members of the scouting expedition let out a collective sigh of relief. Indeed, the most dangerous place was oftentimes the safest.
They silently prayed that the Red-Eyed Demonic Emperor wouldn’t look down.
The Red-Eyed Demonic Emperor searched far and wide but found no signs of any humans. He sighed, restrained his senses, and helplessly said, “I couldn’t find anything.”
He was the Demonic Emperor with the keenest perception out of all three of them. Even though his red eyes were not specialized for detection, his eyesight was still extremely keen. Since even he couldn’t see anything, the Purple Heart Demonic Emperor and Crow Skyking didn’t bother worrying about it any further.
The Crow Skyking offhandedly commented, “They probably came here to harvest some Carefree Gra.s.s and ran away when they saw us approaching.”
Purple Heart agreed. “I think so too.”
“They’re just a bunch of lowly thiefs. Let’s go.” After the three Demonic Lords failed to find anything, they stepped back into the dust cloud and went on their merry way.
Chang He was just about to step outside when Ye Fenghan held him back yet again.
The scouting expedition remained silent and motionless as they continued to wait even though the Demonic Beasts had left. Time slowly trickled by.
After an unknown period of time had pa.s.sed, everyone started growing impatient, and the Origin Formation was also reaching the ends of its energy reserves.
Chang He desperately wanted to say something, but Ye Fenghan wordlessly covered his mouth and then pointed in front of them.
Something suddenly burrowed out from the ground, right where Ye Fenghan was pointing — it was a pangolin, which then morphed into the form of an armor-wearing human wielding a long spear. It was a Demonic Lord.
The former pangolin glanced around, muttered something under its breath, and then burrowed underground again. This time, it disappeared for good.
No one knew where this pangolin had run off to, and none of them dared to move for some time afterwards. Finally, after another long stretch of time, Ye Fenghan said, “Alright. It’s gone now.”
As he spoke, he deactivated the Origin Formation and stepped out.
“Hey, how did you know that it truly left? Maybe it’s still nearby, hiding around somewhere.”
Ye Fenghan coldly explained, “My Dream Beauty Aspect allows me to sense nearby consciousnesses. Even though this creature hid itself quite well, its consciousness was as bright as a lamp in a dark night. Don’t worry. This guy has tunneled away, and there aren’t any other Demonic Beasts nearby either.”
Everyone sighed with relief when they heard this.
But Chang He vengefully muttered, “You’ve had the Dream Beauty Aspect since forever, but I’ve never heard you mention its detection abilities before.”
Ye Fenghan didn’t bother replying.
Chang He was, in fact, correct — Ye Fenghan had possessed the Dream Beauty Aspect for a long time, and even at the stage of Great Success, its detection abilities should have been very limited. After all, that was not its primary specialty.
There was one other reason why he could sense the leftover Beast scout: because of the golden pill within his body.
This mysterious golden pill had greatly enhanced the sensitivity of his consciousness, allowing him to detect the pangolin hiding underground.
Ye Fenghan didn’t know what was happening to him, and all he could do was relay everything that had just happened to them to Su Chen through his transmission box.
Within the Boundless Sect’s palace.
Su Chen fell silent for a long period after hearing Ye Fenghan’s report.
“What’s wrong, my husband?” Gu Qingluo walked over and amorously wrapped her hands around him. Not far away from them, Zhu Xianyao was boiling water to make some tea. Even though Zhu Xianyao was more than capable of instantly causing the water to boil with Origin Energy, she preferred to slowly boil it over a normal open flame — it felt more personal that way.
“It’s not a big deal. We just found three of the little bandits that escaped from us earlier. They’re trying to cut us off from behind,” Su Chen calmly replied.
These emperor-level creatures had been relegated to the status of little bandits in Su Chen’s eyes.
When Gu Qingluo heard Su Chen’s dismissive response, she smiled slightly. “I’m surprised they thought of such a plan. Do they really believe that they can sneak behind our back lines and strike at human territory?”
Su Chen, however, shook his head. “They’re not planning on going through Cloud Rising. They’re going through Owl Country instead.”
“Owl Country?” This time, it was Gu Qingluo and Zhu Xianyao’s turn to be surprised.
“Yes,” Su Chen said, nodding. “This Crow Skyking is quite innovative with his tactics.”
It was true that Su Chen hadn’t stationed any troops in Owl Country.
Though this wasn’t because his considerations were incomplete — rather, it was because that wasn’t something he could practically consider in the first place.
Every leader knew that spreading their troops thin across a long defensive front was a horrendous mistake, and any competent leader knew how to deploy their soldiers for maximum defensive coverage across an area. Otherwise, any significant offensive would punch a hole right through their defensive line.
Even so, Su Chen had still left some Boundless Sect disciples behind at Owl Country. However, he hadn’t antic.i.p.ated that the three Demonic Lords would be sneaky enough to evade detection all the way until they reached Owl Country’s border. If it weren’t for Ye Fenghan’s timely discovery, then Owl Country really might have suffered a disastrous calamity. Even though the human race wouldn’t be wiped out, they would definitely suffer some painful losses if no further action was taken.
But now that Su Chen had discovered their plan, it was only natural that he would leave a few surprises for them to discover.
After a moment’s thought, Su Chen chuckled and said, “This Crow Skyking is quite an impressive figure, but he is still an ant in my eyes. Qingluo, Xianyao, why don’t you two go and deal with them?”
“Us?” Zhu Xianyao was caught off guard by Su Chen’s suggestion.
“Yes. Especially you, Xianyao,” Su Chen replied sincerely. “Don’t you feel that this Crow Skyking is very suitable to be your next servant?”
Zhu Xianyao’s eyes began to sparkle at his words.
With Su Chen’s help, her bewitching abilities had skyrocketed. At this point, she was definitely more than capable of bewitching a Demonic King, though a Demonic Emperor was still a bit outside of her range.
And even though the Crow Skyking was powerful enough to reach the Demonic Emperor level, he was still a Demonic King, making him the perfect target for her bewitching abilities.
Zhu Xianyao’s strength would definitely increase by leaps and bounds if she could subdue and take control of this Demonic King.
She clapped her hands in delight and said, “That’s perfect! Then what about you, husband? Are you not going to come along?”
Su Chen shook his head. “I still need to take care of some matters.”
Even though the Crow Skyking’s actions had caught him off-guard, he was still a mere small fry.
In Su Chen’s eyes, Ye Fenghan’s other report was far more worthy of consideration.
Namely, the golden pill’s abilities.
Within Su Chen’s cultivation room.
Su Chen sat cross-legged in the room and revolved his Origin Energy as he activated his Dream Beauty Aspect to its limit.
His Dream Beauty Aspect had long since reached the stage of Great Success, but no matter what he did, those demons that Ye Fenghan had encountered remained nowhere to be found.
But Su Chen didn’t grow impatient. After a moment’s thought, he pulled out a vial.
Smoke began to waft out of the uncorked vial, which then a.s.sumed the form of a spirit — it was the physical manifestation of a Dream Spirit in the real world.
Su Chen grabbed the Dream Spirit by the neck and said, “Bring me to the Dreamrealm.”
The Dream Spirit howled, “You are the enemy of the Lord of the Dreamrealm! He has refused entry to you. Do not even dream of entering!”
Su Chen harrumphed lightly. “Do you really think that I need his permission to enter? You all must really underestimate me.”
As he spoke, his eyes suddenly began to glow mysteriously as a powerful wave of consciousness energy burst forth from his eyes and entered the Dream Spirit’s body. The Dream Spirit shrieked with pain as its body slowly morphed into a seal — it was the very same seal that had once been inscribed on the back of Su Chen’s hand.
However, this seal then revolved in the air until it gradually expanded to form a tunnel.
Through this pa.s.sageway, it was possible to see a vibrantly multicolored world on the other end. The idyllic atmosphere almost appeared to be beckoning for Su Chen to enter. From time to time, he could even hear sounds of tinkling laughter echo through the tunnel.
Su Chen, however, harrumphed coldly. “Trying to trick me with these simple tactics?”
He ruthlessly smacked out with his hand. The pa.s.sageway formed from smoke immediately dissipated into nothingness.
But just as the smoke was on the verge of dissipating, however, Su Chen reached out and made a grasping motion. The smoke suddenly restabilized, and the pa.s.sageway reopened; but this time, the world on the other side was no longer a vibrant and multicolored paradise, but rather a plane filled with darkness that exuded a sinister aura.
Su Chen, however, said, “That’s more like it!”
Even though the Dreamrealm he had interacted with in the past was completely different from what lay on the other end of this tunnel, Su Chen knew that this was the real Dreamrealm.
His eyes began to glow with light once again as his consciousness flowed through the tunnel.
As he did so, he watched as an illusory creature took form inside.
It was himself.
Or at least, his outward appearance.
This was the image that his own consciousness a.s.sumed within the Dreamrealm.
So it was as he expected.
Only consciousness energy could survive in this special world, and all consciousness energy would take on a physical appearance here. As such, all kinds of mysterious creatures could theoretically appear here.
At the same time, however, the Dreamrealm’s users were also linked to the real world.
The Dreamrealm was not a realm of dreams; rather, it would be more accurate to say that its users were put in a dream-like state.
The two seemed to be similar but were in fact very distinct situations.
Su Chen had grasped this distinction, which was why he was able to force his way inside — underneath all its unique qualities, the Dreamrealm was just another isolated realm.
The consciousness version of Su Chen immediately appeared within the sinister environment.
There was only darkness surrounding him. Gone were all the flashy, multicolored displays of light that he had grown accustomed to in the past.
Just as Su Chen was reorienting himself and adjusting to this new environment, countless shadows shrieked and rushed in his direction.
These shadows were identical to the ones that Ye Fenghan described in his report.
“As expected. You slippery b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, you’re already trying to invade me as soon as you got a chance,” Su Chen chuckled coldly, “But I’m afraid that you’ve misplayed your hand this time around.”
As Su Chen spoke, a powerful wave of consciousness power surged forth from within his mind, instantly swallowing all of the demons like a tsunami.
He had come specifically to collect these demons.