Chapter 835: Soul Essence Returns to the Primitive Dream Realm’s Fool's Village
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 835: Soul Essence Returns to the Primitive Dream Realm’s Fool's Village
The Primitive Dream Realm.
Fool's Village.
"Lord Sage... what... what is happening to you?"
The Village Chief watched as the young girl's body gradually turned ethereal. She felt that the presence before her was no longer a distinct individual, but a symbol—an icon.
The girl stood there, motionless, as if all "life functions" had ceased.
She was like a beacon standing tall atop the Starlight Tower.
The Village Chief naturally had no idea what was happening. Scholar Xiao Han had not told her what to do if such a situation arose. She reached out, trying to touch the Sage, only to find her hand passing straight through the Sage’s body.
But before she could investigate further, a strange phenomenon appeared in the star-studded sky above Fool's Village.
The stars transformed into pitch-black vortices, as if the erosion of the Primitive Dream Realm was beginning to pour back in. As the vortices intensified, the entire sky took on an aggressive, predatory quality.
Even the Fool's Dream inhabitants living beneath the false sky felt something unusual. They instinctively looked up, but all they could see was the harmony depicted for them by the Dream Scroll.
Only the Village Chief stood there, facing the cruel truth alone.
Fool's Village was beginning to merge with the Primitive Dream Realm!
This was incomparable to the previous incident where a single dream creature had broken into the village. In the Village Chief's eyes, the pitch-black sky swallowed the stars. Those countless black dots... every single one was a dream creature that any Fool's Dream inhabitant would flee from in terror!
They gathered along the vortices, converging into a dream tide. It was as if they had discovered a peerless delicacy, driven by the most primitive urge to consume.
And Fool's Village was the feast laid out on the platter.
Terrified by this overwhelming force, the Village Chief—who had lived for untold ages—collapsed onto the roof of the Starlight Tower. When she instinctively turned to the Sage for help, she found that the illusory figure had almost completely vanished from her sight.
The despair that followed the extinguishing of her last spark of hope crushed the venerable Village Chief in an instant.
If there were only one or two dream creatures, or even three or four, she might have been able to fight and push them back into the Primitive Dream Realm. But with so many... she could think of no way out.
"No... how can this be? Did the Lord Sage... did she fail?" the Village Chief murmured. In her panic, the thought of resistance that had just begun to rise was gradually abandoned.
"Perhaps this is for the best... at least the Braves in reality are still living for us... for the existence of the Fool's Dream..."
Yet, as she watched the dream creatures descend from above, she still could not accept it calmly. She only blamed herself for lacking the strength to protect everyone!
"We finally found the Lord Sage, so why is this happening?" The Village Chief scrambled up from the tower roof. At the very least, she felt it wasn't time for total despair yet.
They still had the Holy Relic!
The Dream Scroll—this Holy Relic gathered the memories of all Fool's Dream inhabitants and the history of their past. It was the foundation and the legacy that had protected Fool's Village until now. It used the power of a Holy Relic to weave the past of every inhabitant, using memory to shape the collective Fool's Village in their hearts.
As the power of the Primitive Dream Realm poured into the village, the Dream Scroll reacted most violently.
As the leader recognized by all her kin, the Village Chief had the ability to command the memories and pasts within the Dream Scroll. When she activated it, countless memories surfaced from the scroll. The invisible information woven from countless "years" and "event nodes" resisted the wash of the Primitive Dream Realm and the gnawing of the dream creatures.
She did her utmost to hold the Primitive Dream Realm at bay, fighting for the meager survival space of the Fool's Dream inhabitants, wanting only for their daily lives to remain undisturbed.
As a sea of memories washed over her, the Village Chief watched them being "consumed." For the first time, she felt a sense of repetitive numbness.
Those memories repeated day after day, weaving the current Fool's Village and creating a facade of prosperity and harmony. But these daily routines, repeated an unknown number of times, began to erode her cognition in this short span. For the first time, the Village Chief felt numb and lost regarding their existence.
Yet her cognition kept telling her: Is this not the beauty that life pursues?
Everything deposited within the Primitive Dream Realm—all the yearning for beauty—seemed to play out this way. But the Village Chief, who had never truly experienced the living impulse toward beauty, did not understand one concept:
To be lost in an endless world of beauty was no different from being in hell.
Once the Dream Scroll had fended off the first wave of dream creatures, the Village Chief realized that continuing like this was merely a drop in the bucket. Looking at the dream creatures about to break through, she knew the Dream Scroll could not withstand them forever.
Was she to accept her fate?
Just as she thought this in despair, she felt a familiar throb from the Dream Scroll.
"It's the Lord Sage!" the Village Chief cried out in excitement.
Only the Sage, who held the Holy Relic, could trigger such a reaction from the Dream Scroll!
In that moment of excitement, a sight bloomed in the starry sky that left her speechless with shock. A long staircase wound its way down from the depths of the Primitive Dream Realm.
She could never mistake that majestic figure!
"Lord Sage!"
The Village Chief called out from the bottom of her heart. It was as if she suddenly had a pillar of support, someone to lean on. Perhaps she had never been a truly qualified Village Chief; she had simply been prepared from the beginning to sacrifice herself for the village. To trade her own descent into the Primitive Dream Realm for the peace and stability of Fool's Village—that was her mission.
At that moment, her call seemed to catch the Sage's attention.
The Sage's form was so radiant that the Fool's Dream inhabitants could not see her clearly. Even the dream creatures did not dare to approach the Great Witch in the slightest. The pitch-black nightmares formed an absolute vacuum around her, a domain that could not be violated.
"I'm sorry... I didn't realize my actions would have such an impact on Fool's Village..."
My voice echoed over the village. Looking at the Village Chief on the Starlight Tower, I felt a great deal of regret. But clearly, a verbal apology was meaningless now. The best apology was to take action and solve the village's troubles!
"I'll handle everything now." As my voice reached the Village Chief's ears, a creation in the form of the Book in the Box appeared in my hand once more.
However, this was still not the actual Book in the Box, as physical matter from reality cannot appear in a dream. This book in my hand was a creation of my domain, representing the order within my Dream Domain!
The concept it anchored was "Weapon," and it was the manifestation of the order of the Power of Knowledge within the Book in the Box.
The pages flipped open, and a massive amount of the Power of Knowledge erupted from within. Knowledge transformed into golden chains, imbued with the sealing power of the Annotation Technique as they pierced through the bodies of the dream creatures.
And it didn't stop there. The chains of knowledge wove into a massive golden net, completely sealing the vortex where the Primitive Dream Realm was pouring in. The endless dream creatures could not penetrate the order of my domain.
And just like that, it ended with effortless ease.
I lightly tossed the Book in the Box upward. it acted as the final shackle of the seal, completely blocking the invasion of the Primitive Dream Realm.
"Wonderful... as expected, no dream creature can withstand the true power of the Lord Sage!"
Seeing my figure gradually descend toward the Starlight Tower, the Village Chief rushed forward in excitement.
"This disaster was caused by us in the first place. It is only right that I quell it. I only hope you won't blame me," I said, helping the Village Chief up and comforting her.
"No... that's not it. Lord Sage is the hope of our Fool's Dream race. How could we possibly blame you? If anyone is to blame, it's those wicked creatures! Taking advantage of the Lord Sage's return to launch a sneak attack on the village..."
"Let's not argue about that then..." Seeing how stubborn she was, I stopped trying to take the blame. Regardless, this matter was more or less settled.
My initial attempt to ferry my soul into Fool's Village had been successfully deployed. The soul's entry into the village had been incredibly smooth. This wasn't because the dream creatures were weak, but because my foundation was deep enough to allow me to adapt to this Primitive Dream Realm.
I wouldn't go so far as to say my Dreamification domain made me invincible in the Primitive Dream Realm, but for now, this power was enough for self-preservation and to protect these Fool's Dream inhabitants.
This meant I now had enough time, energy, and capital to conduct the experiments I wanted within the Primitive Dream Realm.
What could be a more perfect start than this?
Lest we forget, my original intention was to complete the shaping of life for the Fool's Dream race. It was only a series of accidents that forced me to explore the possibilities of Dream State Soul Essence. Even though I had encountered a different group of Fool's Dream inhabitants, my original goal remained unchanged.
After calming the Village Chief, I led her away from the Starlight Tower. Such a major event had just occurred; even if the false sky created by the Dream Scroll had hidden it, many inhabitants had sensed the anomaly.
After some discussion, the Village Chief and I decided not to tell everyone the truth for the time being. Such things easily cause panic, and even with an explanation, they would leave a lingering sense of unease. Since the final outcome was good, there was no need to create unnecessary complications.
In the end, the Village Chief simply told everyone that their Lord Sage had once again driven away the invading dream creatures and protected them all.
And that was the truth, wasn't it? We just didn't mention exactly how many dream creatures there were.
After a brief celebration, everyone returned to their normal "lives." However, as the Village Chief watched everyone return to their familiar "routines," a strange feeling surfaced in her heart.
"Is something wrong?"
I sensed the conflict in the Village Chief's heart. Even without Heart Sense, I could read it from her expression... she seemed to be grieving for the other inhabitants.
"No... it's nothing. Seeing them return to their normal lives so happily makes me very glad!"
"Really?"
"Yes, really..."
"Alright then~"
I looked at her, causing her to turn her head away in slight embarrassment. I wasn't sure exactly what she was thinking—Heart Sense isn't mind-reading, after all—but I sensed a feeling of... resentment toward the status quo?
In short, it was a very complex and conflicted emotion, so much so that she kept trying to avoid the feeling.
Returning to my small hut, I played for a bit with Yulan and the others before starting my proper work.
Previously, I had made a bold hypothesis regarding the concept of Nightmares: that Nightmares are Dream State Soul Essence, only polluted by negative information and concepts. Therefore, the next step was naturally to try and separate the pollution from the Nightmare.
I had already verified that Nightmares possess the characteristics of raw material for the Soul Depiction technique when I used my consciousness to perform an incomplete depiction. Once I solved the issue of why it couldn't be elevated to a higher-level concept, the answers would follow.
However, this would undoubtedly be a long process with many problems to solve. For example: how to perceive the emotions within a Nightmare, how to define negative emotions, and how to strip those negative emotional concepts from the Nightmare based on those definitions...
All of this required a vast number of experiments and bold conjectures to move forward.
* * *
While the crisis in Fool's Village was being resolved, the reality of the Expansion Realm was still abuzz with various explorations of the Primitive Dream Realm.
"Are those witches really that eager to court death? They actually stepped into the Primitive Dream Realm and even walked onto that staircase." The people on the side of the Transcendent Wizards watched the Witch Academy's movements with a mix of envy and fear, not daring to imitate them.
They, the Wizards, represented rationality! Facing such unknown entities, recklessness was the height of irresponsibility toward oneself.
But this also reflected the terrifying foundation of the Witch race.
As the initiators of the Fourth Life Interpretation, the witches had offered the Great Soul Subject as their Truth Dedication, turning it into the foundation of their race's life essence. This was something other races could never match. The advantage the soul concept provided in the Primitive Dream Realm was unprecedented.
The reason the soul concept couldn't be widely promoted was, naturally, because the race that started this wave was the Transcendent Witches! To accept the soul concept was equivalent to walking within the framework established by the witches. The history of the void had already shown them where that path led.
It was better to stick with soul essence as the framework for life. At least the development of soul essence had a long history, and every race had its own foundation for the system of soul essence life.
As for the "soul"... that was a different story entirely.
However, the advantage of the soul in the Primitive Dream Realm forced every race to take it seriously, even if they continued to resist it on the surface.