Chapter 897: Fool's Village and Dream State Soul Essence
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 897: Fool's Village and Dream State Soul Essence
"What are you doing~?" I asked, slowly approaching a Fool's Dream hiding in the grass, speaking up as if by surprise.
"Waa~! It's Sage Sister!"
"Is Sage Sister here to play with us?"
"Not today, I'm afraid~ I've brought a very important friend to Fool's Village, and I want to show her its many charms~" I knelt down and explained seriously to the little Fool's Dream who wanted to invite me to play.
"Is it this big sister who looks just like Sage Sister?" another Fool's Dream asked, pointing at Sister Bai standing nearby.
"That's right~ You can call her Sister Bai. To me, she is just as important as all of you~"
"Wow~ Hello, Sister Bai!"
"Hello, Sister Bai~! Do you want me to show you the most beautiful place in Fool's Village?"
"Don't go with her! She'll just take you to the place she created. Let me be Sister Bai's guide!"
"What's wrong with the place I created? I think it's super pretty!"
In an instant, the Fool's Dream spirits swarmed around Sister Bai, all talking at once. More than anything, they were incredibly curious about this "Sister Bai."
Since Sage Sister said Sister Bai was just as important as them, then she must be a friend too!
"It's fine, really... You don't have to go to such trouble... Yes, yes..."
Sister Bai looked a bit overwhelmed by their sheer enthusiasm.
"So, even Sister Bai has moments where she can't cope~" I watched from the side, finding it quite amusing. After all, I rarely saw her like this.
"Xiao Han, honestly. Are you just going to stand there and watch the show?"
"Alright, alright~ listen up, little ones~ Sister Bai is my guest today, so I'll be her personal guide. You don't need to pester her anymore~"
"Eh? Okay. To think Sage Sister is acting as a guide herself."
"Then I'm going off to play~!"
"Sage Sister, if you need anything, you can call me anytime!"
Having rescued Sister Bai, I accompanied her as we bid farewell to the Fool's Dream spirits playing hide-and-seek and finally left that area.
This was the "outskirts" of Fool's Village.
Fool's Village was where the Fool's Dream spirits lived, while the outskirts were their playground. It was a world shaped by their unbridled fantasies, existing alongside their spontaneous "graffiti."
It was a landscape of dreamlike beauty that felt as real as reality itself, yet filled with slightly naive creations. Surprisingly, there was a profound harmony between the two.
This was because one part was the subconscious shaping of the scene by the Fool's Dream spirits—a terrain born from the information they had witnessed within dreams—while the other part was their subjective creation: random, simple, and joyful, yet the most sincere expression of their hearts.
The place where Sister Bai and I had arrived was a nocturnal forest. There were rolling highlands and towering, giant trees, but these trees defied ordinary logic, yet blended harmoniously into the forest as a whole.
Man-made forest paths cut naturally through the woods. Even at night, the moonlight filtered down, preventing the atmosphere from feeling too oppressive.
It was profound, but not dark.
"It's truly hard to imagine, Xiao Han, that you've shaped such a dreamlike world within your own Soul Dream." This was the sentiment Sister Bai expressed most frequently along the way.
"The Fool's Dream spirits shaped all of this themselves~ To be honest, even I didn't expect them to be capable of this much."
"Does that mean even you underestimated these little ones?"
"I suppose so."
"Suddenly, I feel that trading a Great Spellbook for a group of such adorable little creatures isn't such a bad deal after all."
Sister Bai lay down on the grass beside me. The tall trees left a perfect gap in the canopy above, framing the moon like a work of art.
"It was never about whether it was worth it or not, only whether I wanted to do it... I feel like staying here with you forever like this wouldn't be so bad, Sister Bai."
"Yes... but it's a pity."
"A pity for what?"
"A pity that you won't let yourself stop, right, Xiao Han?"
"You're right. At least for now, I won't stop. I admit the scenery here is beautiful, but I know that the scenery further along my path will be even more breathtaking!"
After saying this, I sat up and shouted toward a strange rustling in the nearby bushes: "Stop hiding~ I see you~!"
"I was still found by Sister Xiao Han..." After the bushes shook for a moment, a figure stepped out.
"Yulan? You're here too? Where are Yu Yun and Yu Guo?"
"Um... Yu Guo and Yu Xing are with Yu Yun. She's resting under the Tree of Fool's Dream," Yulan replied.
"Resting? Did Yu Yun fall into a slumber again?" I asked, standing up.
"Yes. But I didn't come to ask you to go over, Sister Xiao Han. Yu Yun's condition is stable, and we're watching over her!"
"Oh, please~ Now that you've told me, how could I not care?" I stood up immediately.
"I'll go with you," Sister Bai said, rising to stand beside me.
Feeling her presence close behind me, I instinctively felt a sense of companionship and security that only Sister Bai could provide.
Of course, right now, I was also everything to the Fool's Dream spirits. I needed to provide them with as much security as possible.
I leaned down to pick up Yulan, then turned to look at Sister Bai. "Let's go together."
"Um... okay." Sister Bai nodded with a hint of hesitation, but in the next moment, she understood how we were traveling.
The space she was looking at began to stretch infinitely. Everything she saw was pulled into linear streaks. By the time everything returned to normal, she was standing beneath a massive, unfamiliar tree.
While every Witch's Soul Dream is like a lucid dream where they can do as they please, it was clear that the spatial stretching just now wasn't achieved through the standard authority of a lucid dream within the Soul Dream's core.
But just as she was about to ask, she realized the tree before her wasn't the Tree of Great Knowledge she was familiar with.
"This is the Tree of Fool's Dream. It is the root of the Fool's Dream clan's memories and the cornerstone that links every Fool's Dream spirit together." Seeing Sister Bai's confused expression, I took the initiative to explain. "The Tree of Fool's Dream exists on the other side of the Tree of Great Knowledge. I tore down the old Tree of Wisdom Enlightenment; now... there is only the Tree of Fool's Dream."
"I see." Bai Yu stared at the Tree of Fool's Dream, slightly dazed. She noticed a lingering aura of Faith around the tree—something Xiao Han had already confessed when they met Dean Mei.
Then, Bai Yu saw Yu Xing and Yu Guo taking care of Yu Yun, who was lying beneath the tree.
Bai Yu was very familiar with the four Fool's Dream spirits who followed Xiao Han, though she was relatively less acquainted with the newcomer, Yu Xing.
"What happened to Yu Yun?"
"After undergoing Soul Depiction, Yu Yun frequently falls into... a slumber. Let's call it a slumber for now; I still haven't been able to understand the exact cause," I explained to Sister Bai.
I hadn't really discussed this with her yet, so she naturally didn't know the details.
"But you'll find a way, won't you?"
"Of course! I am the Sage of Fool's Dream. How could I not have a way?" I declared immediately.
After all, one of the reasons I brought Sister Bai into my Soul Dream this time was because the second batch of Dream State Soul Essence had been perfectly purified.
"Yu Xing, Yu Guo... and Yulan. Go to the Constant Dream incubation room outside and bring the purified Dream State Soul Essence here to the Soul Dream," I instructed.
The amount of Dream State Soul Essence I had prepared in this batch was quite substantial.
My main goal this time was to perform a complete Soul Reshaping for Yu Yun, and while I was at it, for the other three little ones as well.
That way, they wouldn't have to compete for it.
They were the pioneers of the Fool's Dream clan. They understood the dangers of becoming living beings, yet they moved forward without hesitation.
Three of them were the original representatives who first followed me, and the other was the former Village Chief of Fool's Village—the watcher of their home.
"Okay~! We'll go get it for you right now, Sister Xiao Han!"
Once they received my instructions, their efficiency was remarkable. I had given them a great deal of autonomy regarding entering and exiting the Soul Dream.
In theory, all Fool's Dream spirits could come here. The Tree of Fool's Dream was their foundation; how could they possibly be unable to reach it?
"Sorry, Sister Bai. I said I'd take you on a tour of Fool's Village, but we only saw a tiny bit of it."
"Why are you apologizing? Do you really think I came in here just to sightsee?" Sister Bai chuckled softly and sat down with me beneath the Tree of Fool's Dream. "I came to walk with you. Is this place not scenery enough?"
The best scenery is always right beside me...
However, Bai Yu didn't say that last part out loud. She felt it was a bit too sappy; it was enough that Xiao Han understood.
Before long, Yulan and the others returned to the Soul Dream, carrying clusters of Dream State Soul Essence.
I had learned during the experiments with Yu Yun that Fool's Dream spirits cannot come into direct contact with Dream State Soul Essence.
Dream State Soul Essence is essentially Nightmare in its raw form. If a Fool's Dream spirit touches it, it acts like a curse, causing them to "degenerate" into something like a chaotic dream creature.
Dream State Soul Essence possesses similar traits, but it won't turn them into those creatures. What causes the transformation are the things that are purified out of the Dream State Soul Essence.
Those discarded elements seem to contain more than just negative emotions and conceptual information; they hold many other unknown concepts.
This was the primary reason my other purification methods had failed repeatedly. Whether it was the Information Deposition Method or others, they all focused on me specifically targeting and removing things like negative emotions or malice.
Only the Incubation Purification Method, which used Soul Depiction for indiscriminate purification, had succeeded in my experiments.
Of course, doing so came with a price. But for the current me, who was essentially "starting from nothing," those costs were negligible.
Regardless, it was still very risky for the Fool's Dream spirits to handle Dream State Soul Essence without my guidance.
I had set up protective measures for the purification and preparation experiments. These were meant to protect the Dream State Soul Essence and, more importantly, to protect the Fool's Dream spirits during our collaborative work.
I took the Dream State Soul Essence from Yulan and the others and "released" it.
The essence floated within the Soul Dream, circling beneath the Tree of Fool's Dream. If I didn't let it float like this, there was nowhere else in the Soul Dream to store such a large quantity.
"Yulan, tell the nearby Fool's Dream spirits not to touch this Dream State Soul Essence out of curiosity. Also... bring all the Dream State Soul Essence prepared via the Incubation Purification Method here."
"Okay~ Eh? Wait! Sister Xiao Han, did you say all of it?" Yulan asked hesitantly.
"Yes. Everything prepared with the Incubation Purification Method," I nodded, confirming.
"But... didn't Sister Xiao Han say we should save some for the Witch sisters to study...?"
"If there's any left over, I'll naturally send it to them. But right now, I need to make up for the incompleteness of Yu Yun's last Soul Depiction experiment and perform the same Soul Reshaping for all of you. Your needs come first. Do you understand~?"
"Understood!"
Hearing my explanation, Yulan went off happily to finish the task.
As for what I had mentioned before—well, there would only be leftovers if there was anything remaining!
After all, when I said I wanted to give the Fool's Dream spirits the very best, I wasn't joking.
Of course, I had deliberately prepared extra Dream State Soul Essence this time, so there would definitely be some left over.
"Free-floating Dream State Soul Essence... it looks just like dream bubbles drifting through the air. Who would have thought such things were the raw materials for deliberately shaping life?" Sister Bai remarked, watching the essence drift beneath the Tree of Fool's Dream.
Soul Essence cannot be measured by volume. Once released from the culture dishes, the Dream State Soul Essence expanded rapidly, shifting shapes like shimmering bubbles.
I kept them from drifting too far with my power. Meanwhile, Yulan was busy informing the surrounding spirits of the precautions.
I could have simply used forceful means to restrict the Fool's Dream spirits from approaching, but I didn't want to be that strict with them yet, so I let Yulan handle the warnings.
If I encountered any disobedient little spirits, I would let them know that their Sage Sister had a stern side too!
After all, blind indulgence is just another way of leading them astray. I didn't want them to become increasingly reckless in their exploration of the unknown.
As Yulan and the others brought more Dream State Soul Essence into the Soul Dream, a massive swarm of bubble-like essence gathered around the Tree of Fool's Dream.
"Sister Xiao Han~! We've brought it all!" Yulan and the others said excitedly as they approached.
"So fast? Your efficiency is impressive~" I knelt down and patted their little heads. Who could resist the sight of a Fool's Dream spirit practically vibrating with the desire for a headpat?
Moreover, since this Dream State Soul Essence was the very thing that would shape their life essence, they were naturally even more excited.
The commotion at the Tree of Fool's Dream had attracted many onlookers from the village, but they were already warning the newcomers not to get too close.
To the Fool's Dream spirits, those bubble-like things felt "dangerous."
Of course, some spirits couldn't help but marvel at the sight.
"What pretty bubbles~! I'm going to make bubbles like that and use them to decorate the whole sky! I want them everywhere!"
"I'm going to paint them!"