Chapter 270: Wisdom Enlightenment, Fool's Dream and Nightmare
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 270: Wisdom Enlightenment, Fool's Dream and Nightmare
I watched the tiny, adorable flower elf—no, she was a Fool's Dream—as she drifted slowly into my hands. She looked as if she were merely asleep. The flower bud that had birthed her had exhausted its final strength to grant her a blessing, causing the entire plant to wither.
Looking at the piles of withered hay stacked beneath the earth here, I finally understood why there was so much of it.
No one came here to clean. The vegetation grew wild and chaotic, yet it maintained a certain order and hierarchy. It was as if everything here existed solely for the sake of the giant stone at the center and the flower elves growing around it; not a single weed dared to compete with them for nutrients.
I looked at the Fool's Dream in my hands. She was tiny and cute, but she felt entirely different from the one who had passed away, Yu Xi.
So… did this even count as Yu Xi’s "reincarnation"?
I didn't know.
But one thing was clear: the final blessing bestowed by the plant that birthed her had transformed into a complex composite rune, merging into the little one’s body.
I saw that rune clearly. It was another one I didn't recognize.
As the Fool's Dream in my hands began to stir, waving her tiny arms and letting out her first soft whimper upon entering this world, I felt the surrounding space begin to vibrate.
No… the dream was shattering!
The fragmenting dreamscape was like breaking glass, stripping away a filter from the world. When we looked around again, everything had changed.
The giant stone, once cerulean and translucent, had turned murky and foul. Dark power, like that of a Nightmare, surged wildly within it. The dreamlike, exquisite scenery was utterly broken.
Tangled, messy weeds choked the ground. The flower elf plants and buds, once so full of life, now looked listless. Their proud buds drooped toward the earth as if bowing their heads in defeat.
In my arms, the newborn Fool's Dream began to cry, her voice filled with sorrow.
I pushed aside the dark, mutated, and twisted weeds, heading back toward the way we had entered. Logically speaking, we had already exited the dream. When we stepped outside, a large group of Fool's Dreams had already gathered.
Leading them was the Village Chief, Yu Hu.
"Why… why are you all gathered here?"
"Gues—Respected Brave, we have brought Yu Xi’s molted shell to the Ancestral Land, so that she may return to its embrace." Upon seeing the newborn Fool's Dream in my hands, Yu Hu’s way of addressing me changed.
"The Ancestral Land?" I asked, feigning ignorance. I certainly wasn't going to act like I already knew.
However, hearing them confirm that this place was indeed the Ancestral Land made me breathe a sigh of relief. This was the place where the meditation technique's spellbook could be reconstructed.
So, what in that place could reconstruct a spellbook? The first thing that came to mind was that massive stone.
"Yes, the Ancestral Land is the most important place for our Fool's Dream race."
"Then why didn't you go in?" I continued to ask curiously.
"I am sorry… to your question, Lord Brave, I can only say that we cannot actively return to the Ancestral Land. To do so would cause us to return to our original form."
Yu Hu explained this much and then stopped abruptly. She didn't say what that "original form" was, but perhaps it was similar to the form I had seen inside that giant stone earlier.
"Brave, please give this newborn child to me. I will have the other Fool's Dreams look after her. As for other matters, please follow me to my home. I will explain everything to you."
"Alright." I didn't hesitate and did as she asked.
The newborn Fool's Dream was then surrounded by the others, who cheered for her birth. Even though they had just lost a friend, perhaps this was their most fundamental outlook on the cycle of life and death.
I accompanied Sister Bai as we followed Yu Hu to her large house.
I hadn't expected Yu Hu to be so cooperative, even willing to clear up our confusion. Usually, such things required a certain level of trust first. If it were always this simple, many Senior Sisters should have reached this stage before, and it would have been recorded in the strategy guides and intelligence reports. Yet, many of the things we were encountering now were rarely mentioned in the intel.
Perhaps our collection wasn't detailed enough, but we preferred to believe that those Senior Sisters were simply unwilling to reveal the truth. There was never a shortage of geniuses in the Witch Academy.
"I apologize. Although you have already agreed to help us through this crisis, I must express my gratitude again. Thank you for bringing a new member to our Fool's Village. If you have any questions, I will provide whatever answers I can."
"Has something like this happened before?" After arriving at the Village Chief’s cottage, I didn't stand on ceremony and asked directly.
"Mhm… it has happened. Or rather, it happens often. We have grown numb to such things."
"Then that newborn Fool's Dream… is she still the original… Yu Xi?" I continued.
"That depends on how you define it, Brave."
"Just call me Xiao Han. 'Brave' or 'Guest' both feel a bit strange," I said.
"Very well… Xiao Han. You guests from the outside seem to place a peculiar importance on death, but to us, it is merely a cycle of life."
"I understand." I nodded. "Then I want to ask, you mentioned that if you go to the Ancestral Land, you return to your original state. What state is that?"
"It is simply how we were originally," Yu Hu said seriously.
"I see…"
That answer was as good as no answer at all. However, Yu Hu definitely knew a lot; she just wouldn't say anything unless I asked. It was just like how she hadn't mentioned the Ancestral Land when talking about the meditation technique earlier.
I didn't believe that no Senior Sister had ever obtained this information before. If a Senior Sister had followed the script to that point, reconstructed her spellbook, and gained information, then Yu Hu shouldn't be ignorant of it. Could it be that this Yu Hu was a successor chief who didn't know about the past?
But she gave me a very "ancient" feeling, the demeanor of an Elder, even if it clashed with her outward appearance.
"Then do you know where the Nightmares come from?"
"They were born alongside us, like maggots in the bone. They are also the end of our destiny."
"Born together… are you of the same source?" I pressed.
"Yes."
When Yu Hu’s "Yes" echoed in my mind, I managed to construct a rough picture of the situation. They were of the same source. If I were to make a reasonable deduction, did that mean their "original state" was a combination of Fool's Dream and Nightmare?
In other words, the crazed Yu Xi I saw earlier—that was their true form.
Combined with Yu Xi’s barely intelligible words—asking to be killed, wanting to throw herself into that giant stone to strip away the Nightmare and be born anew using the flower elf’s shell—it all made sense.
I noticed they referred to Yu Xi’s original "corpse" as a "molted shell," which seemed to imply this very fact. Because the flower elf wasn't nurturing a life, but rather a shell waiting for a Fool's Dream, the birth process was so rapid.
Finally… there was that blessing…
And the secret of that giant stone. Did Yu Hu know the stone could reconstruct spellbooks? Or rather, had Yu Hu also experienced this cycle? And how did she become the Village Chief?
I asked Yu Hu these questions one by one, but the answers were somewhat beyond my expectations. Yu Hu had experienced the cycle, and more than once. Most importantly, she remembered all of it. As for how she became the Village Chief, she said she had always been the Village Chief.
Just as I was about to dig deeper for more profound information, Yu Hu suddenly snapped, startling both me and Bai Yu.
"Outsider, aren't you asking too many questions!"
"You… I… we…" For a split second, a black mist resembling a Nightmare erupted from Yu Hu’s body, but it was quickly suppressed.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry! I… I apologize…" Yu Hu looked distraught, as if she had just come to her senses, and she apologized to us repeatedly.
"It's fine, but… have you also been corrupted by a Nightmare?" I asked, frowning seriously.
"No… it is not corruption."
"Not corruption? But what just happened was quite obvious. Are you hiding something from us?"
"The Nightmare… sigh… actually, there is no harm in telling you… The Nightmare is our cognition; it carries our memories… I… Yu Hu, I carry the legacy of the Fool's Village Chief. I cannot be as innocent as they are…"
Her brief, almost disjointed words suddenly revealed another truth, one that made my frown deepen. It was similar to my guess, but it seemed far more troublesome…
"Does… that sort of thing happen often?"
After Yu Hu’s explanation, I suddenly became very interested in her. If a Fool's Dream was an incomplete existence—a life of absolute innocence and simplicity created by stripping away the Nightmare—then why was this the case?
"No… it doesn't. Perhaps your questions just now were too… sharp. When I said I would answer your questions, I was prepared for such an abnormality, but please, do not tell this truth to the children in the village."
Yu Hu spoke with a tone of pleading. Although she was an Elder, her thinking was still so simple. To hand over the initiative to a stranger she had only known for a few days—wasn't that a form of innocence in itself?
"I give you my word."
"Thank you. Thank you so much." Upon receiving my promise, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
"It's nothing. But behaving like this is ultimately a ticking time bomb. Aren't you afraid of being exposed one day?" I asked curiously.
"To maintain this state, I must constantly enter the Ancestral Land for self-reincarnation. Every loss of control is a warning, reminding me that it is time to reincarnate. Because of this, I often lose my composure in front of the children, acting like I did just now. That is why most of the children are somewhat afraid of me."
"I see…" I nodded. So the Fool's Dreams in the village didn't just respect her; they were also afraid. That was why Yu Hu lived alone in a house isolated by the lake.
Furthermore, her tone was indifferent and her emotions were very cold. She was likely suppressing the so-called Nightmare outbreak every waking moment. But even so, I still had one question.
"Wait, if you're going to reincarnate, how do you manage to avoid having the Nightmare completely stripped away?"
"That… goes back to the blessing I received after my first birth."
"A blessing? That rune?"
"I don't know anything about runes, but the blessing every Fool's Dream receives upon birth is unique. Mine is the most special, which is why only I can be the Village Chief."
I continued to learn more about the situation from Yu Hu, but I didn't dare to be as sharp as before, only asking other questions indirectly.
Having learned all this, I roughly understood why Yu Hu only answered what we asked. Even if she knew some truths, as long as we didn't ask, she absolutely wouldn't speak of them. She had to be responsible for herself and the village. Although many Fool's Dreams were afraid of her, her role in the village was vital; she had become its most indispensable character.
I also understood why she hadn't told me about the connection between the Ancestral Land and the meditation technique earlier. That information involved very deep truths that she didn't want to touch voluntarily. With so many outsiders coming through, if she had to explain it every time, she would probably have to reincarnate every few days. That was why she had compiled a booklet to provide information; everything she told us was just what was recorded in that booklet.
And I finally understood what the information left in the spellbook meant by "gaining the trust of the Fool's Dreams."
It wasn't really about trust. Perhaps it was that by knowing too much and asking too much, one would cause Yu Hu to expose herself. As long as one promised to keep her secret, that counted as gaining her trust. This method of gaining trust was quite absurd.
But now, Yu Hu had indeed invited me and Sister Bai to accompany her during her reincarnation. It seemed that for the innocent Fool's Dreams, such an act truly counted as establishing trust.
She needed to reincarnate to maintain the cognition and memories granted to her by the Nightmare, while clearing the Nightmare’s erosion of her "pure Fool's Dream" half, and then find a new body to carry her existence.
The most crucial step was… she needed our help. She needed the participation of the meditation technique so she could use her blessing to preserve a portion of her Nightmare.
Furthermore, because no outsiders had arrived recently, Yu Hu hadn't been able to undergo "reincarnation" whenever she needed. That was why Yu Miao, under Yu Hu’s instructions, had brought us to her the moment she encountered us.
So… completing this so-called Wisdom Enlightenment task really did require a certain amount of luck.
But there was no rush yet. Even though we had just experienced a dangerous battle, it wasn't dawn yet. Yu Hu gave us time to go back and sleep for a while, while she needed to announce to the other Fool's Dreams that she was going to reincarnate again.
Of course, we also asked about the possibility of the Nightmare attacking the Fool's Dreams again, fearing a repeat of the previous incident.
But Yu Hu told us not to worry about that. At the same time, we learned a startling truth.
The Fool's Dreams were supposed to stay here and live their lives day after day without any external cognition or new concepts appearing. This preserved the "purity" of the Fool's Dreams. Outsiders brought new things, different temptations, and new cognitions. Once a Fool's Dream reached its cognitive limit, it would attract a Nightmare attack. This was unavoidable.
So that was why the Nightmares appeared alongside the arrival of outsiders.
The existence of the Fool's Dreams was the result of an external force stripping them apart. Over time, they would instinctively and spontaneously return to their original selves.
When the Fool's Village Secret Realm was first opened, a massive number of Senior Sisters flooded in, bringing a huge amount of unexpected and novel cognition. That was when the Nightmares were at their most rampant.
Therefore, I guessed that the decline of the Fool's Village Secret Realm was likely the result of Senior Sisters who had realized this truth and deliberately guided things to reduce such tragedies. They wanted to let more capable people come here to see if they could change the status quo. Now that fewer people came, the one having problems was Yu Hu, the Village Chief.
This was truly…
For a moment, I didn't know how to judge such actions.
I could feel their desire to become independent beings with cognition, but they were originally those chaotic, non-cognitive monsters mixed with Nightmares. Perhaps the Nightmare was the price they had to pay for becoming Fool's Dreams…
And right now, was the Village Chief Yu Hu in front of me still a Fool's Dream?
If the truth were revealed, Yu Hu would likely become an outcast in the village…
Being a pure and innocent creature didn't necessarily mean being purely good. Just as they had faced death one moment, the next moment’s new birth could completely shatter their previous silence and make them cheer.
Yu Hu wanted us to keep the secret because she had seen through this point. Or perhaps she hadn't just seen through it, but… experienced it?
I couldn't imagine such a thing happening, and Yu Hu didn't explain those matters to me. I didn't want to take the initiative to ask and provoke her. That would be a sign of very low emotional intelligence, and it really wasn't necessary.
"Then, see you later."
After a final farewell to Sister Bai and Yu Hu, everything seemed to be going a bit too smoothly.
"What's wrong, Xiao Han? You look like you have something on your mind."
"Nothing, it just feels like everything is going a bit too smoothly."
"Isn't smooth good? Things with lots of twists and turns, that's…" Bai Yu was about to say something when a force stopped her.
"I know, I know~ Sister Bai, don't say it." I naturally knew Sister Bai wanted to talk about things related to the script. I didn't know how that confidentiality contract was judged; clearly, this hadn't happened before.
"But I can't sleep now anyway. Let's just call it being cautious. How about you walk around the village with me? The scenery here is really beautiful, and the atmosphere is great. Don't you think so, Sister Bai?"