Chapter 828: The Primitive Dream Realm and... Fool's Village Within?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 828: The Primitive Dream Realm and... Fool's Village Within?
"Where... is... this place?"
After breaking free from the shallow rules of reality interfered with by my Domain, I entered a place I had never been before.
But there was no need to guess—this had to be the Primitive Dream Realm!
After sensing that the consciousness anchors I had placed in the shallow layer and reality were still intact, my courage grew.
Everything here was bizarre, resembling a massive junkyard. Everywhere I looked, I saw concepts formed by the convergence of information. When my gaze fell upon them, those informational concepts transformed into concrete objects within my subjective perception.
Furthermore, these objects shifted constantly according to my cognition, transitioning as seamlessly as a hallucination brought on by poisonous mushrooms.
Even I couldn't define exactly what tools or implements these fragments belonged to, yet it was such existences that constructed this vast "dream world."
"Everything deposited here is information the dream world harvested from reality... Is the source... the dreams of living beings?" I was somewhat surprised to see the dream realm in such a state.
It brought a possibility to mind: the Primitive Dream Realm might be like a landfill, and those who sleep and dream are like people dumping trash. They bring dreams constructed by their own perceptions, and once the experience ends, those dreams become part of the Primitive Dream Realm...
Just as I was about to explore further, I felt the dream creatures I had captured begin to struggle.
"Oh, I almost forgot about you." Looking at the dream creatures I had brought along, I remembered what I was supposed to do.
"I was going to... what was I going to do again? Can this Primitive Dream Realm even influence my cognition?"
Regardless, memory is continuous. After sorting through my thoughts, I used logic to reconstruct my plan.
"I need to use these dream creatures for an experiment, and then go back... Wait, what experiment was I doing?"
When I realized I couldn't resolve this crucial question, a cold sweat instinctively broke out across my body.
No!
I am a consciousness entity; how could I break out in a cold sweat?
The moment I touched upon a question beyond my current cognition, a fragment of memory was immediately triggered.
"No... Sister Bai is still waiting for me..."
As that memory sparked my instincts, I felt myself being forcibly dragged out of this unknown dream world.
* * *
Reality.
At this moment, I was like a lucky survivor pulled from the water, gasping for air to alleviate the soul-deep oppression and terror.
After a period of recovery, I began to organize what I had learned from my dive into the Primitive Dream Realm.
First, I could confirm that I hadn't encountered any external dangers. Second... my memories had returned, and they weren't damaged...
Therefore, the danger was the Primitive Dream Realm itself!
It used a different method to place me in a state of cognitive obscuration, much like how one cannot realize they are dreaming while inside a dream.
After entering the Primitive Dream Realm, I had actually begun to discard my original perceptions and plans. Specific memories became shrouded in a fog that made them impossible to recall, and related memories could only be reached through very limited logical deduction.
What terrified me was that, after instinctively realizing this, I feared I would even forget the memory anchors that allowed me to return!
If that happened, I would be lost in the Primitive Dream Realm forever!
I couldn't bear such a consequence, which was why I had returned so decisively.
"Sister Xiao Han, are you feeling better?" Yulan stepped forward, asking with concern.
"I'm fine. It was my first time trying to enter such a deep layer of the Primitive Dream Realm; I just need a moment to recover," I said, patting Yulan’s small head with a smile.
With the comfort of the Fool's Dream, I quickly found a solution: I would interface my consciousness with the Tree of Great Knowledge again, using it as a safeguard for my cognition and memory.
While this still wouldn't entirely overcome the dream's influence, it would be enough for me to do what I needed to do.
"Sister Xiao Han~ let us go with you this time, okay?"
"You're coming too?" I looked at the three little Fool's Dream. Although I knew they were dream creatures and were familiar with the Primitive Dream Realm, I was still afraid something might happen to them.
"Well... alright then..."
After hesitating, I thought back to my brief experience in the Primitive Dream Realm and finally nodded.
However, agreeing didn't mean I wouldn't take precautions. For instance, when anchoring and awakening memory points, I would synchronize my consciousness with the Fool's Dream. Otherwise, if they couldn't find their way back... I would truly be heartbroken.
It took an hour to prepare everything. One shouldn't underestimate the time required to modify Primitive Dream Realm runes, especially when linking them to the consciousness of the Fool's Dream. This was my first attempt at such a thing; I had no experience and had to figure it all out on my own.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
When I dove into the depths of the Primitive Dream Realm again, I encountered the same situation as before.
My memories and cognition were being "interfered" with by the dream itself.
"Tree... of Great Knowledge..."
I called out to the connection between myself and the Tree of Great Knowledge. Soon, a massive, phantom image of a tree surfaced in my vision.
"I remember now..." After sorting through the cognition and memories reserved by the Tree of Great Knowledge, I quickly reconstructed my sense of self.
"Yu... Yulan? Yu Yun...?"
"Sister Xiao Han, we're here~" A voice suddenly rang in my ear, but I couldn't see them anywhere. It wasn't until they actively touched my "body" that I suddenly became aware of their presence.
It was as if I had only just perceived them; their forms reshaped themselves into the appearance of the Fool's Dream within my "vision."
"Was that your form in the Primitive Dream Realm just now?" I asked curiously.
The Primitive Dream Realm held too many unknowns that felt terrifying and alien to me.
The Fool's Dream had been right beside me, yet I hadn't sensed them until they made contact with my consciousness entity, completing an "informational touch" that allowed me to "see" them.
In other words... this dream wasn't empty. There were too many things here that I couldn't touch, couldn't observe, and couldn't even know existed.
They were passing me by in the dream in a completely different state of existence.
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
What if what passed me by was a terrifying dream creature?
"Yulan... just now... how did you find me? I couldn't see you at all."
"I just saw Sister Xiao Han like this?" Yulan tilted her head, looking curious as to why I would ask such a strange question.
"Instinct, then..." I muttered to myself.
Only then did I notice my location. I seemed to be standing atop a high pile of ruins. Beneath my feet were fragments of reality, and in the distance... was a vast, unimaginably empty area.
Broken things drifted in eerie postures, yet they merged harmoniously into this place that looked like a "wasteland" to me.
My "vision" was somewhat blurry, occasionally clearing.
Suddenly, for a brief moment, I felt as if this area was a city. Those jagged rises and falls seemed like the towering skyscrapers of a metropolis.
The moment that thought was born, everything before my eyes seemed to sharpen. The scene in front of me... truly transformed into a bustling city!
"So this is... a dream." I couldn't help but marvel.
Once I regained my composure, I realized I was standing beneath the phantom of the Tree of Great Knowledge.
The phantom emitted countless tiny specks of golden light. The Power of Knowledge that inadvertently radiated from it protected my entire body, but a certain feeling began to take root in my mind.
That feeling was... I didn't belong here.
"Mm~ Sister Xiao Han, this is the Primitive Dream Realm. Many places here don't follow rules; it's very absurd and strange," Yulan added from the side.
"Then... Yulan, what does the Primitive Dream Realm—this place—look like in your eyes?"
I had a theory: dream creatures like the Fool's Dream saw the dream world differently than I did.
The difference was likely similar to how someone without Spirit Vision sees the world compared to someone who can see Real Time.
"What does it look like?" Yulan looked at me strangely, then began to describe it seriously. "It's a very busy city... I can't see the far-off parts clearly, but there are so many people living here..."
"So many... people?" Out of Yulan's long description, I caught the anomaly that concerned me most.
Because, from where I stood, I couldn't see a single "living thing" other than the Fool's Dream!
Was I seeing ghosts?
"Yeah... they should be people, right?"
"Could they be dream creatures?" I asked.
"Maybe?"
"Yulan... you're silly. This is the Primitive Dream Realm; they must all be dream creatures!" Yu Yun corrected her from the side.
"Oh, right!"
I looked at the "desolate" city. I couldn't see the dream creatures the Fool's Dream were talking about. Perhaps that was the gap between us.
However, I made a bold decision: I was going to go in and see exactly what was happening.
When I made the request, the Fool's Dream happily led the way forward.
They didn't seem to have a single worry.
"By the way, Yulan, aren't you afraid the dream creatures here will bully you?" I asked suddenly halfway there.
"Nope~ Don't we still have Sister Bai?"
"But... I can't see them, so I can't protect you," I said, shaking my head.
"But we can just go back~"
"That's right! We can go back with Sister Xiao Han~"
"True... you can follow me back." I nodded, accepting the explanation.
But I felt as if I had forgotten something...
Why could the Fool's Dream follow me back, while these other dream creatures couldn't?
Thinking of this, I suddenly stopped in my tracks.
I searched for the answer within the Tree of Great Knowledge. In my memory, I had explored this question before. The Fool's Dream could enter reality because of... the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art!
The moment I reached that answer, it was as if I had a sudden realization.
But in the next instant, the "world" suddenly inverted... and I fell into the sky.
"Sister Xiao Han!"
The sudden anomaly startled the three little Fool's Dream. They watched helplessly as I fell upward toward the sky.
However, my sensation at that moment was wonderful. I felt as if the sky was a mirror. The earth and sky had swapped places—a sensation I had experienced before.
It was the transition between my own Sea of Consciousness and the Dream Sea.
I landed steadily in the sky. The sky was like the surface of reflected water; when I landed, it sent out shallow ripples.
When I turned back, the tree was still there.
But it was no longer the Tree of Great Knowledge.
It was... the Tree of Great Wisdom Enlightenment!
"As I thought... the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art is linked to dreams as well?"
At this moment, it was as if I had broken into a peculiar world. The previous sense of dissonance had vanished, and the Tree of Great Wisdom Enlightenment behind me no longer felt out of place in the Primitive Dream Realm.
And I... seemed to have merged into this place as well.
Everything seemed to be going a bit too smoothly... I stared at the Tree of Great Wisdom Enlightenment behind me, sensing a strange, sudden throb from it.
"Sister Xiao Han! Are you okay?"
"Sister Xiao Han... just now, you really scared me!"
"I'm fine, sorry for worrying you." I picked up the three little Fool's Dream. What had just happened was indeed unexpected even for me, but the anomaly of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art had truly produced an unknown effect.
After comforting the Fool's Dream, I continued walking.
Toward that... city?
When I looked at that "city" again, it had lost the appearance I had originally perceived.
In this moment, distance in the dream seemed to lose its original meaning. The massive city that had been so far away was now pulled right in front of my eyes.
And now... it was no longer a city, but a massive village. Stripped of the cloak the dream had draped over it, it was as if everything I had seen before was an illusion.
It wasn't far away; it was actually very close.
It wasn't a giant city, but a sprawling village.
Like an optical illusion game, I had triggered some strange "switch," and it now presented itself to me in a different guise.
This was the irrational, illogical Primitive Dream Realm.
As I stood at the entrance of this village, a strange sense of familiarity washed over me.
Because this place looked so much like the Fool's Village Secret Realm from back then!
"Yulan... Yu Yun, Yu Guo, do you know where this is?"
"Um... I'm not sure..."
The three little ones looked hesitant; they truly didn't seem to know where this was.
However, the instinctive curiosity and affinity in their eyes inadvertently revealed a special meaning.
"But there's a strange sense of closeness here..."
"A sense of closeness?" I repeated the key words, feeling as if I had stumbled upon an extraordinary place.
I really should have learned more from Dean Mei about what happened when she encountered the Fool's Dream...
Otherwise, I wouldn't be so clueless now.
While the Fool's Dream and I were dazed, the gates of the village suddenly swung open, and countless blurry shadows poured out.
Only when I looked at "them" did their forms gradually resolve into distinguishable shapes.
And the forms they took were actually incredibly similar to the Fool's Dream appearance I had crafted!
"Welcome back... our Braves. We are glad to see you return... Are there only three of you left... Have you found the Sage who can save our Fool's Dream race?"
I couldn't understand the sounds they made, but the meaning they expressed was imprinted clearly in my mind.
Braves? Sage?
"Who are you...?"