Chapter 112: Erlang Shen
Erlang Shen.
He was a character created based on Journey to the West, the Level SS Dream Seed of the Celestial Empire, or the incomplete prehistoric world.
The Dream Seed carrying him was extended from a Level S Dream Seed based on prehistoric times. He was one of the characters of the prehistoric world, apart from Jiang Ziya and the Monkey King.
Qiu Ren remembered that there were quite a lot of movies and drama series about Erlang Shen. The most popular one was a drama series that talked about his life journey, and it was where the original version of this character was created at the beginning.
However, Erlang Shen, who was supposed to secure the borders, keep peace within the country, and protect the people, was pointing his spear with three points and two blades… at someone who was probably his birth father, the Dream Maker who once partic.i.p.ated in the production of the drama series “Erlang Shen.”
Even if this Dream Maker was accused of collaborating with the enemies and treason, he should be taken back to the country for interrogation instead of being executed privately.
Qiu Ren suspected that the force behind Erlang Shen, the Heavenly Court… was hiding something, which was why he was doing this.
Qiu Ren looked at Erlang Shen in front of his eyes. His appearance was almost the same as in his impression: the man was fit, handsome, and casual… Compared to the Jiao Enjun version in Qiu Ren’s mind, this Erlang Shen seemed even more soldierly.
However, he had no intention of answering Qiu Ren’s question. He directly rushed towards the Dream Maker behind the Darkin Blade with his spear.
“It looks like I can only ask you with ultimate means!”
Erlang Shen suddenly stopped rushing forward and stayed right where he was. The Darkin Blade was clenching his right hand, and a huge amount of blood was pooling around him. After an unrestrained shout, the blood wings on the back of the Darkin Blade spread abruptly.
“Great destruction!”
The interior of the entire building was covered by a field of blood. Light golden glitters shone on Erlang Shen’s body to prevent the vicious attack of the Darkin Blade.
The Darkin Blade brandished the big sword in his hand at Erlang Shen, who blocked the first attack with the body of the spear.
And yet, the ground underneath Erlang Shen’s feet shattered and began to collapse. Scorching hot blood spewed out of the cracks on the ground.
The second attack mercilessly hit the spear again. The sound of steel clashing resounded inside the entire building.
Then, the third attack! This one hit the spear again, but the ground Erlang Shen was standing on was completely crushed by the Darkin Blade. The two of them fell to the bottom floor of the building together!
The erosion domain from the nightmare of the Darkin Blade also expanded and surrounded the bottom floor.
Unfortunately, the Darkin Blade couldn’t enjoy a delightful battle with this powerful enemy again as he wished. Although Qiu Ren couldn’t stop the Darkin Blade from killing in this Nightmare Dungeon, he could still change his opponent.
“This is one of the deepest places in this Nightmare Dungeon, and the nightmare domain from the Shadow Beast inside the body of this character has also expanded completely. What I’m trying to say is… people outside won’t be able to hear our conversation for the moment. So, can we talk now? Erlang Shen?”
Qiu Ren’s words were refuted by the Darkin Blade. “No, I have to kill him…”
“There are more powerful enemies waiting for you… up there,” Qiu Ren repressed the discomfort in his body and said to the Darkin Blade.
“…”
The Darkin Blade looked at the expressionless Erlang Shen with the giant sword in his hand. Under Qiu Ren’s control, he flapped his blood wings and directly left.
The sound of various buildings collapsing and exploding came from above again. Darkin Blade’s movements gave Qiu Ren and Erlang Shen a lot of s.p.a.ce to talk.
Qiu Ren also took this opportunity to come to the bottom floor to meet Erlang Shen with the help of Tapir and Mia.
Erlang Shen’s att.i.tude changed a lot after seeing Qiu Ren’s original body. He walked over to Qiu Ren, trying to use the energy in his body to help Qiu Ren contain the erosion from the Shadow Beast.
“I can still stand it. If you do this, people outside will notice.”
Qiu Ren created a chair for himself and sat down a bit weakly. Tapir, who was helping Qiu Ren next to him, was looking at Erlang Shen vigilantly like a female leopard.
The Lords of Nightmare and these dream consciousnesses didn’t have a good relationship. Especially when Erlang Shen tried to kill his former Dream Maker, this dream consciousness had already been labeled as extremely dangerous in Tapir’s eyes.
“I’ve heard about you. You’re indeed a bit different from the other Dream Makers.”
Erlang Shen put away his weapon to show that he wasn’t thinking about continuing the fight anymore.
Even though the Dream Maker he was asked to eliminate was missing right now, his mission on the surface was still to bring Qiu Ren back safely.
“I’m not really special. Don’t talk about me yet. We have limited time… I want to know the reason why the Heavenly Court is working with the Army.”
Qiu Ren directly pointed out that Erlang Shen’s actions just now had told him… that the Heavenly Court was one of the forces responsible for this.
Qiu Ren had already guessed a lot of reasons why the Heavenly Court would do this. First, many characters in the Level SS Dream Seed, Prehistoric World, had self-consciousness.
Erlang Shen, Yang Jian, and Jiang Ziya could be considered as some of the most powerful members of the Heavenly Court right now. Excluding them, a lot of immortals and G.o.ds in the Heavenly Court also had their own combat power and personal thoughts.
However, the most popular character in the entire Prehistoric World was the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. The Heavenly Court wanted to use the power of the Army to retrain Wukong, which was the most stupid speculation Qiu Ren had in his eyes.
If a dream consciousness really wanted to borrow the power of the Army, this wouldn’t be infighting anymore. Instead, it would stand on the opposite side of all human beings.
So, the possibility Qiu Ren could think of was…
“Is the Heavenly Court trying to rely on the power of the Army to rise above ‘creators’ like us?”
Qiu Ren used his hands to make the gesture of a quotation mark. This was the only reason Qiu Ren could think of.
Seeing Erlang Shen remain silent, Qiu Ren believed that his guess had hit the mark.
Everyone was denouncing Supernova, but there should be a lot of dream consciousnesses that agreed with his ideas.
Dream consciousness and Lords of Nightmare were different.
The Lords of Nightmare could disobey the orders from the Nightmare Makers. Let alone disregarding them, after the Nightmare Makers constructed a Nightmare Dungeon, they could even turn against the Dream Makers and burn them into cremations, even making meat puree out of them.
This was also why Nightmare Maker was a high-risk profession.
And yet, normal dream consciousnesses weren’t capable of doing this. Dream Makers were literally their “creators.” They couldn’t defy the orders from the Dream Makers and could only obey them.
Even those superior immortals of the Heavenly Court might be dragged to partic.i.p.ate in certain blessing activities because of the requests of the Dream Makers.
Although the ident.i.ty of an immortal was a character image created by the Dream Maker, dream consciousnesses had their own thoughts and life.
“That is just one of the reasons…” Erlang Shen said.
“May I ask why? What are you dissatisfied with about the dream environment the Central Research Inst.i.tute constructed for you? You can talk to the Central Research Inst.i.tute.”
In Qiu Ren’s expression, the Central Research Inst.i.tute wasn’t as seriously commercialized… as Supernova Pictures.
Although the immortals in the Prehistoric World were forced to partic.i.p.ate in all kinds of events and training that fixed their image, Qiu Ren thought that the life of these immortals was much less stressful compared to the busy superheroes.
It seemed that this actually wasn’t the case. Qiu Ren felt the lingering gloominess on Erlang Shen’s face.
“Or you can tell me directly. Whether it’s the threat from the Heavenly Court or the constraints of the Central Research Inst.i.tute, these aren’t problems for me at all.”
As a Nightmare Maker, even though Qiu Ren belonged to the system of the Central Research Inst.i.tute, he could provide the dream consciousnesses and nightmare consciousnesses with an excellent shelter.
If Erlang Shen really wanted to rebel against the Heavenly Court, Qiu Ren could also step up to help him bear the pressure.
Erlang Shen looked at the young Dream Maker in front of him and glanced at Tapir standing next to Qiu Ren. He then expressed his little wish carefully.
“You have the ability to help me get rid of this immortal ident.i.ty? I haven’t been in the human world to experience human relationships and affection for a long time…” Erlang Shen said.
You’re all insane… This was Qiu Ren’s first reaction. Falcon Huntress didn’t want to be a superhero and Erlang Shen didn’t want to be an immortal anymore.
According to their worries, would Qiu Ren be unwilling to be a human one day?
Looking at the expression of Erlang Shen, there seemed to be deeper considerations and thoughts in this request that he made.
Qiu Ren could think of many solutions to his request. One of the simplest ones was…
“You can contact your own Dream Maker and ask him to film some drama series with a lot of scenes in the human world. Your Dream Maker should be able to satisfy you.”
“What I want is to have nothing to do with this immortal ident.i.ty, appearance and responsibilities, everything.”
Erlang Shen pointed at the third eye on his forehead. He wanted to completely abandon his ident.i.ty as Erlang Shen and get rid of the responsibilities this ident.i.ty brought him, which were so heavy that he couldn’t breathe at all.
This was the Central Research Inst.i.tute. The Dream Makers behind him would never allow such a wish.