Chapter 873: A Second Case of Dream Domain?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 873: A Second Case of Dream Domain?
Inside the laboratory.
Bai Yu’s soul was curled within the Primitive Dream Realm. What had once been a controllable patch of Primitive Dream Realm the size of a fish tank had now expanded enough to accommodate the soul of an adult witch.
This expansion had not come without a price. After a series of compromises, this laboratory and several surrounding ones had been incorporated into a Dream Overlap Buffer Zone.
At this moment, dozens of witches had gathered in the designated safe zone of the laboratory.
Even Dean Mei Lind had sent a clone specifically to witness this moment, which had the witches buzzing with excitement.
It had been nearly half a month since Bai Yu arrived at the lab, stating her intent to conduct a verification experiment for a "Dream Domain."
Word of this specialized "Primitive Dream Laboratory" had already spread among certain circles of witches. One by one, dozens of them had applied to conduct experiments or collect data here.
However, they weren't gathered here today for their own projects. Having caught wind of the situation, they had set aside their work to witness the birth of a miracle.
"Dream Domain."
This technical term, which had left many witches bewildered, was gradually becoming common knowledge within this group. After all, these witches were the ones who had already begun dabbling in Primitive Dream Realm experiments.
Since they were permitted entry into this lab, Mei Lind had naturally shared certain restricted information with them. For instance, she revealed that this specific Primitive Dream Laboratory in the Experimental Zone was built upon a little witch who had successfully mastered a Dream Domain.
If a Dream Domain was merely a unique, unrepeatable talent, it would be nothing more than a temporary convenience.
But! If this ability could be learned and mastered...
That changed everything!
This revelation was even more shocking to the witches than the discovery that Body Cultivation could derive self-generated mana. After all, that discovery primarily benefited non-transcendents, whereas this ability was something even Saint Realm transcendents envied.
Who wouldn't want to possess a domain of their own within the Primitive Dream Realm?
The gathered witches watched the curled figure of Bai Yu with bated breath.
Bai Yu was not unconscious, nor was her awareness lost. She was perfectly lucid, enduring the constant baptism of the Primitive Dream Realm every passing second.
Bai Yu was not a natural-born Body Cultivator; she had simply chosen to walk that path. However, the soul essence power granted by Body Cultivation was the capital that allowed her to endure within the Primitive Dream Realm.
The core of a Dream Domain was, in fact, the construction of a domain prototype—the shaping of a specific "Order."
For example, in a spell domain based on a spellbook, the internal Order is the spell itself.
Take the Fireball Spell as an illustration: the Order within a Fireball Spell Domain is the Fireball Spell. Because this Order is wielded by the domain's master, the caster can unleash fireballs regardless of the circumstances. With a single thought, a fireball can appear anywhere within the domain—even inside an enemy's body.
This was a broad description, representing the most basic application and the "floor" of a domain's power. The "ceiling" depended entirely on an individual's creativity and capability.
In the Primitive Dream Realm, a Dream Domain also required the construction of Order. However, the Primitive Dream Realm lacked all the orders and frameworks of reality. Consequently, conventional spells were useless there, and spell domains were incompatible with the Dream Domain.
More importantly, a domain required a massive amount of energy. In the witch system, for instance, a domain required a minimum of one hundred million mana sources to achieve an internal energy cycle. That was the baseline.
But the Primitive Dream Realm contained no energy.
Because of this, it was a long-held, fixed belief that constructing a domain within the Primitive Dream Realm was impossible.
Body Cultivation, however, focused on the essence of life. In the era when soul-essence lifeforms were dominant, Body Cultivation had no room to shine. But now, the witches had mastered the Great Soul Subject, allowing the Body Cultivation system—which utilized the essence of life—to find its purpose within the Primitive Dream Realm.
First, the most fundamental element: the Five Senses.
When the essence of life gains subjective conscious recognition within the dream, Order is born.
Thus, the Primitive Dream Realm was not entirely devoid of order amidst its chaotic treachery. The ability to be perceived was the most direct form of Order within the Primitive Dream Realm.
The transcendent system that utilized this Order was simple: Body Cultivation. Or more specifically—Five Senses Body Cultivation.
Five Senses Body Cultivation was considered a "niche" choice among Body Cultivators because it focused primarily on sensory channels, and its advancement path only reached the "Transcendent" level.
Moving from the Five Senses to the Real Five Senses meant crossing the boundary of Real Time. These so-called Real Five Senses were the contributions made by Five Senses Body Cultivators toward the exploration of Real Time.
As a result, Five Senses Body Cultivation was mostly treated as a supplementary tool rather than a primary power system. Furthermore, its other advancement path—birthing a Sixth Sense, Seventh Sense, and so on—was notoriously difficult.
This made Five Senses Body Cultivation the top choice for a secondary discipline, but almost never a primary one.
Currently, Bai Yu was using the power of her Five Senses to constantly adapt to the environment of the Primitive Dream Realm.
Yes, adaptation. It was the bluntest, yet most effective method.
If one were to ask what the most powerful ability of a transcendent lifeform was, many might instinctively say strength or spells. But the most powerful ability of a transcendent was "adaptability"!
Even for those who had not yet ascended to the Saint Realm, once their life essence reached a certain stage, they possessed a degree of "Immortality." This Immortality was the cornerstone that allowed a transcendent lifeform to command its own adaptability.
Transcendents could survive in the "Void" outside of worlds; that was the ultimate manifestation of transcendent adaptability.
Bai Yu was proceeding in this manner, using the power of Body Cultivation to influence her soul essence as she adapted to the Primitive Dream Realm.
Before this, many witches explored the Primitive Dream Realm by adapting to it in a similar fashion. The Primitive Dream Realm was dangerous and unknowable, but that didn't mean transcendent witches couldn't explore it; the only difference was whether they could make it back.
Bai Yu was using her sensory channels to perceive the "information" within the Primitive Dream Realm. To understand this information, she relied on her Sixth Sense: Heart Sense.
She didn't have a Tree of Great Knowledge to rapidly process the information she needed to comprehend.
However, Sister Bai had an advantage no other witch possessed: me.
Although the Tree of Great Knowledge would be reduced to mere [Transcendent Knowledge] upon entering the Primitive Dream Realm, I had already used the tree's information-processing methods to reconstruct the functions of that Great Spellbook.
Otherwise... how could a Primitive Dream Realm version of the Seed of Wisdom be born? How could an information exchange channel be constructed within the Primitive Dream Realm? How could information flow between the dream and reality?
Besides, Sister Bai wasn't working alone. Was I supposed to just stand by and watch?
Of course not.
In half a month, Sister Bai had made incredible progress—it was an ideal scenario. If any other witch with Sixth Sense Body Cultivation had tried this, expecting to make progress through sheer physical adaptation in just two weeks?
Forget about it!
If it were that easy, what would that say for the witches who had been lost in the Primitive Dream Realm for hundreds of years?
By now, Sister Bai had used her Heart Sense to adapt to the Primitive Dream Realm's information, turning that "cognition" into an instinct. Even if she didn't have [Transcendent Knowledge] as a backup, she was now capable of shaping her own Order within the Primitive Dream Realm.
That was the most fundamental Order of the "Five Senses."
However... even if a kind-hearted witch offered Sister Bai a piece of [Transcendent Knowledge], I wouldn't recommend she use it haphazardly.
Sister Bai had no familiarity with it, nor did she understand its traits. If those traits were useless within the Primitive Dream Realm, that [Transcendent Knowledge] would be a burden rather than a boon.
More importantly, she might not be able to control it. My own success was largely due to a series of coincidences, the assistance of the Tree of Great Knowledge, and the unique traits of the Fool's Dream Holy Relic.
As Sister Bai’s soul form opened its eyes, a phantom imagery resembling a giant eye flashed momentarily within that localized patch of Primitive Dream Realm.
I understood immediately: this was the outward sign that the Order of the Five Senses had been successfully structured within the Primitive Dream Realm!
I hurried to pull Sister Bai back from the Primitive Dream Realm. We had an agreement: if she encountered any situation, she would open her eyes, and I would immediately pull her into the shallow layers of the Primitive Dream Realm.
"Don't be in such a hurry, Xiao Han..."
Sister Bai’s voice echoed through the Primitive Dream Realm, reaching directly into reality.
This was actually a very natural transmission of information; most of the witches nearby could achieve something similar.
But there was something different about Sister Bai’s voice. It was being transmitted through a specialized channel within the Primitive Dream Realm.
"True Hearing"!
It was the same logic as the difference between conjuring a fireball by hand and releasing one within a Fireball Domain. Though both were fireballs, the one within the domain carried a much higher level of significance!
Sister Bai had used this method specifically to stop my next move.
"You succeeded?!" My eyes widened in disbelief.
Unless Sister Bai had completed the architecture of the Five Senses Order within the Primitive Dream Realm, this would have been impossible!
Sister Bai didn't respond. She immersed herself once more in her own cognition, finalizing the constructs she had envisioned.
At this stage, she could only rely on herself. Only she could help herself; even I couldn't interfere. I had already said everything that needed to be said. She had to reach her own understanding to achieve her own breakthrough.
Nearby, the other witches were gripped by intense curiosity at my exclamation. If she truly had succeeded, they were witnessing history!
"Is it true? Did Bai Yu succeed?"
"I can't tell what she did at all. This must be a miracle born from taking your methods and forging her own understanding..."
"I... I don't know how to define success yet. There’s no established classification for Dream Domains, not even a clear line between success and failure." I shook my head, trying to explain as best I could. "But I am certain that Sister Bai has finished building the Order of the Five Senses. The appearance of Order means that... with one more step, she will have a 'domain prototype' in the real world."
"So... that counts as success, right? Does that mean Bai Yu will be able to whip up a Dreamscape Calamity whenever she wants?"
One witch sighed in admiration, her mind racing. When a power has no known counter, it is a dimensional reduction strike!
It was like the early days of magic in smaller worlds. In a society that had just discovered Evocative Magic, where everyone was playing with fire, water, wind, and lightning, if someone suddenly mastered mental illusions, they would be unstoppable because there were no conventional defenses against it.
Taking a broader view, this was why transcendent races needed to develop all their systems comprehensively. If a gap appeared in any field, other races would exploit it, and that race would be one step closer to extinction.
If the concept of a "Dream Domain" were exposed, it would be like the birth of the first "Saint Realm" in the Void—it would bring nothing but absolute suppression. The cycle of conflict would only end when a worthy competitor emerged.
"No, Sister Bai can't do that yet," I said, shaking my head to dispel the witch's fantasy.
"Setting aside what the traits of her Order allow her to do, the Order of the Five Senses definitely isn't capable of that. Plus, Sister Bai isn't a natural-born Body Cultivator. The foundational nodes of her Dream Domain are unstable, and her degree of control over the dream's order is still uncertain..."
"I see... so she still needs to take it step by step?"
"Yes."
I nodded and said no more, simply waiting for Sister Bai to transform everything she had learned into her own power. I even set aside my experiments regarding Nightmares and Dream State Soul Essence for the time being.
The four other Fool's Dreams stood beside me, watching expectantly as if praying for Sister Bai’s swift success.
My gaze remained fixed on the imagery of Order surrounding her. I could feel that this small patch of Primitive Dream Realm manifested in reality was far from enough to allow her to fully spread her wings.
"Dean, please keep an eye on things. I'm taking Sister Bai into the deep layers of the Primitive Dream Realm. There isn't enough room for her here."
As my voice rang out, my physical body collapsed in reality. I had fully projected myself into the Primitive Dream Realm.
"Sister Bai... let me take you to a larger stage to wield your power." My voice resonated through the True Hearing channel built upon her soul essence.
In the next instant, both my soul essence and Sister Bai’s vanished from the laboratory.
All that remained was a small, empty patch of Primitive Dream Realm.
"Wait, I'm just a clone! How am I supposed to watch over them?" Dean Mei Lind frowned, looking troubled. She was only there in spirit, so to speak.
Entering the deep layers of the Primitive Dream Realm would be the end of this clone. Even her main body would have to think twice before entering, let alone a mere projection.
"I'll do it, Dean." Another witch stepped forward. Her figure appeared in the center of the lab, within the radiation zone of the Primitive Dream Realm, and she gently moved Xiao Han’s body to the side.
"Thank you."
"It's no trouble at all."