Chapter 829: Sage Xiao Han and the Three Braves
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 829: Sage Xiao Han and the Three Braves
"Are you the Sage who can save us?" The leading "Fool's Dream" stepped forward a few paces, trembling with excitement as she reached me.
Due to our height difference, she had to strain her neck to look up at me, her eyes brimming with expectation.
"Wait... can you tell me what a 'Sage' is? And what exactly is going on here? Also... who are you?"
My mind was a whirlwind. Though I wanted to follow my intuition and lean into this overwhelming sense of deja vu—to simply accept the logic of how this was unfolding—my rational mind, bolstered by the Tree of Great Knowledge, remained dominant.
Behind me, Yulan, Yu Yun, and Yu Guo huddled close. It was clear they felt a profound sense of strangeness toward these "Fool's Dreams" who looked so much like them.
"A Sage... is the title of respect we give to the great being who can save the Fool's Dream race. She possesses vast wisdom and masters countless secrets of the world. Tell me... are you that Sage? I can sense the aura of our race's Holy Relic upon you."
"Holy Relic?"
I repeated the words, puzzled. If there was anything I possessed that originally belonged to the Fool's Dreams... only one thing came to mind.
The Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art.
More accurately, the [Transcendent Knowledge] used to shape that art.
"Yes, the Holy Relic. As for what is happening here, even we cannot give you a definitive answer, though we have our theories. As for me... I am the Village Chief of Fool's Village."
"It really is Fool's Village?!"
The moment the concept was mentioned, I instantly recalled the Fool's Village Secret Realm from back then.
But clearly, this was no longer that secret realm. This was the true Fool's Village!
After a brief mental brainstorm, I quickly realized why such a coincidence existed.
These familiar concepts—"Fool's Dream," "Fool's Village," and so on—were all matters of "translation." I couldn't literally understand their language, but I understood the meaning they were expressing.
It wasn't the names that were the same; it was the underlying conceptual significance.
Under the warm welcome of the Village Chief and the villagers, we were ushered into the true Fool's Village.
Along the way, the Village Chief began to speak with great fervor.
She explained that once they sensed the aura of the Holy Relic, they had been preparing to welcome the "triumphant return" of the Braves.
These "Braves" undoubtedly referred to Yulan, Yu Yun, and Yu Guo.
In fact, it wasn't just them; every Fool's Dream I had ever known had once been one of the "Braves" she spoke of.
The deeds of these Braves were part of another "ancient" story.
After all, in the Primitive Dream Realm, there is no concept of distance or space, and certainly no concept of time. Thus, terms like "a long, long time ago" were merely ways to describe events of the past.
As I entered Fool's Village, I realized it wasn't a primitive forest like the one in the secret realm.
To describe it more whimsically, it was a world straight out of a fairy tale. There were no intricate material structures here, only conceptual symbols and metaphors.
Walking through it felt like stepping into an interactive storybook theater.
As we passed by, I noticed the "residents" were like characters in a play. They didn't seem truly carefree; rather, they were perpetually living out specific roles within a story.
It felt as though the plot points and behavioral patterns of a storybook had been etched into their very instincts. They "performed" their lives as naturally as an ordinary person follows their daily habits.
From their own perspective, everything was likely perfectly harmonious. But from my vantage point, I saw them living within an inescapable framework.
Yet, if one set aside the perspective of those constraints, this "world" was so peaceful and harmonious it was enviable.
It was like a beautiful dream one never had to wake from. In this world, every Fool's Dream was the protagonist of their own life, achieving a perfect, restrained harmony between the objective and subjective.
That is why I call it a fairy tale.
Because it was all too beautiful to be real.
"A long, long time ago, the Holy Relic descended upon this place. It granted us reason, allowing us to think and escape the ignorance of common dream creatures. Thus, Fool's Village was born."
"We worshipped the Holy Relic day and night, waiting for it to hand down a prophecy to guide us. But it remained silent. Later... we realized it was an unconscious object, yet we continued our worship... because we believed it was a Holy Relic left behind by a Great Sage."
"We believed that one day, that Great Sage would descend to this place to reclaim the Holy Relic that was always hers..."
"The Holy Relic descended here?"
I voiced my own doubt. If that were true... why did this [Transcendent Knowledge] have a connection to the Fool's Dreams? Was it merely because it had granted them reason and cognition?
"It is a story... passed down from a time before the Fool's Dream race even existed. No Fool's Dream witnessed the actual event... so the truth is something you must discover for yourself, Sage Xiao Han." The Village Chief shook her head and smiled at me.
It was a paradoxical problem. No Fool's Dream could provide a correct answer.
Or perhaps, whether the answer was "correct" no longer mattered.
What mattered was that the story "presented" the supreme concept of a Sage.
Over time, the concept evolved: any life form that truly mastered and wielded the Holy Relic was, by definition, the Sage.
This was the primary reason the Village Chief addressed me as "Sage Xiao Han."
This "Fool's Village" sat within the Primitive Dream Realm.
No one could describe exactly where it was located. Since the dream realm lacked objective spatial concepts, a sense of localized visual space only existed through conscious perception.
My arrival here was only partially due to coincidence.
What had truly brought me here was the moment I touched the Tree of Great Wisdom Enlightenment. Using the "Holy Relic" as an anchor, it had guided me to this place.
"Can you tell me the story of the Braves you mentioned? If I'm not mistaken, did the Braves leave Fool's Village carrying the Holy Relic?" I asked.
"Yes. The Braves set out on a journey to find the Sage, and we saw them off."
"Chief, do you really remember things from so long ago?" I asked curiously.
The concept of memory is very blurred for dream creatures. While dream consciousness creates the creature, the memories they hold become the accumulated history of the Primitive Dream Realm itself.
"It is not I who remembers these things... but the Dream Scroll. It... it is like a long tapestry that records our history. As the Village Chief, my sole mission is to protect these scrolls."
"The Dream Scroll? What kind of existence is that?" I asked, intrigued.
"It is... a part of the Holy Relic. It is the foundation left in Fool's Village, the very root that sustains our existence."
"A part of the Holy Relic?!"
I was stunned. According to my understanding, the Holy Relic was the [Transcendent Knowledge]. If the scroll was a "part" of it, did that mean it was a fragment of [Transcendent Knowledge]?
Was the [Transcendent Knowledge] within the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art actually incomplete?
This realization was a massive shock to my system. Could an incomplete [Transcendent Knowledge] still form a Great Spellbook?
After thinking for a moment, I realized... it wasn't impossible.
But now wasn't the time to obsess over that.
"Yes, a part of the Holy Relic. I am sorry, but I cannot give that part to you, Sage Xiao Han. At least, not now. If Fool's Village loses it, our existence will be swallowed by the Primitive Dream Realm."
"Is Fool's Village... not part of the Primitive Dream Realm?"
The moment I asked, I felt I had been foolish. It was like saying a world is part of the Void. If the world is destroyed, can the life within it survive?
"Fool's Village is part of the Primitive Dream Realm," the Village Chief explained. "But this is a home of order that we have constructed. If this place is destroyed, the home and order we have built will be instantly swallowed by the chaos of the Primitive Dream Realm... and we would lose our reason, becoming no different from the mindless dream creatures out there."
"I see. Don't worry, I won't destroy this place. But could you take me to see the Dream Scroll? I'd like to take a look."
"Of course. The path I am taking you on leads to my residence. That is where the Dream Scroll is kept."
The Village Chief pointed toward the tallest building in the entire village, indicating it was her home.
"That tall building... does it have a name?" I stared at the tower-like structure, slightly dazed.
"That is the Starlight Tower. It is the tallest building in Fool's Village, the place closest to the sky and the stars. There, the Dream Scroll uses starlight as its brush to record everything that happens within the village." The Village Chief introduced it with great excitement, as if describing a sacred ritual.
I led Yulan and the others behind the Village Chief as we walked toward the Starlight Tower. The "residents" we met along the way greeted us with great enthusiasm.
When the Village Chief opened the doors to the Starlight Tower, we climbed the spiraling staircase until we reached the very top.
Pushing open a small door, I found the world outside had grown dim. Looking up, I realized it was no longer day; it had transitioned into a soft, luminous night.
The deep sky was speckled with stars, and their light gathered like a silver river pouring over the world.
The starlight converged into ink. In the sky, an invisible brush seemed to dip into the stardust, painting strokes to create a... childish yet adorable pattern.
The scene was so breathtaking I was momentarily speechless.
I had expected the Dream Scroll to be something like paper, but no one had told me it would be so staggeringly vast.
Once the shock passed, I was filled with endless curiosity.
Accepting the premise, I realized it was like a giant picture book. The Starlight Tower was like a child's crayon, sketching out innocent, whimsical images.
But as I looked closer, I realized it wasn't just random scribbling.
These were short stories and scenes. It wasn't until I saw a familiar setting that I realized with a jolt: these images were the "performances" of the Fool's Village residents!
The drawings used the simplest lines to depict warm, simple scenes of daily life. What everyone was doing was recorded there without reservation...
I scanned the images quickly until my gaze stopped.
I saw a familiar scene.
It was the gate of Fool's Village.
There... I, along with the three little Fool's Dreams, made our appearance.
As we moved through the village, the Dream Scroll followed us as the main storyline. We wove through various stories, appearing in every incidental corner until... we reached the top of the Starlight Tower.
The image froze on a bird's-eye view looking down from the tower. It depicted the full scope of the Dream Scroll covering the sky above Fool's Village, with every scene on the scroll corresponding to the interlaced stories within the village below.
"Do... do other Fool's Dreams ever come up here?" I turned to ask the Village Chief.
"No. Only the Village Chief can come here to guard the operation of the Dream Scroll," she replied.
"Then, based on what you said, you aren't the only Village Chief? Which generation are you? And where are the previous chiefs?"
"I am indeed not the first. But even I do not know which generation I belong to. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere within the Dream Scroll, but clearly, I am unable to find it."
"Even though you are dream creatures, do you have a lifespan? Do you pass away?"
"Lifespan? We have no such concept. But we do die..."
"You die? Why? Where does the danger come from?" I pressed.
"The danger... comes from outside Fool's Village, of course. In the Primitive Dream Realm beyond our borders, any dream creature is a mortal enemy. Moreover, the Nightmares they carry would destroy the peace of Fool's Village."
"Nightmares?!" Hearing the term again startled me. I suddenly realized that these villagers, including the Chief, lacked the characteristic Nightmares of dream creatures!
"Yes, Nightmares. It is a terrifying curse. It causes a Fool's Dream to lose their reason and become an enemy to everyone. As the Village Chief, it is my duty to protect them."
"I see..." I still had many questions.
For instance, how did the Fool's Dreams fight off dream creatures? Did every Village Chief spend their life battling monsters and Nightmares?
And... how was a Village Chief born?
But clearly, these weren't appropriate questions to ask right now.
"Yes. Oh... I've spent so much time talking. You are the Sage who has come from afar, leading the three Braves back to us... so, I would like to ask the Sage for a favor. For the sake of Fool's Village, and for all Fool's Dreams..."
"What kind of favor? Is it... to help you become true life forms?" I asked.
That obsession was etched so deeply into the consciousness of every Fool's Dream I'd met that I couldn't imagine it being anything else.
"To become... true life forms?" The Village Chief looked at me with utter disbelief. "That is indeed our ultimate dream... but what I was going to ask was for you to use the Holy Relic to grant us strength. Strength enough to stand our ground here. Fool's Village provides us with eternal sanctuary, but it has also become a cage we dare not break. We wish to master power—we don't ask for much, only enough to protect ourselves. I simply do not want tragedy to strike this world again."