Chapter 899: Crossing the Boundary of Reality and the Ley Line Shackles
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 899: Crossing the Boundary of Reality and the Ley Line Shackles
"Since you’re still busy, Xiao Han, maybe... I shouldn't stay and disturb you? It might help you concentrate better."
After experiencing this trip to "Fool's Village," Sister Bai felt a lingering sense of wonder, but she also realized she was somewhat superfluous here.
In this particular field, she couldn't offer Xiao Han any direct assistance. Her greatest help, it seemed, was simply to do nothing and stay out of the way.
"Eh? You’re leaving already, Sister Bai? I was planning on having you witness how Fool's Dream and the others cross the gap between dreams and reality!"
"You want me to stay, Xiao Han?"
"Mhm! After all... there are so many things worth witnessing together! If we succeed and there’s no one to share it with, how boring would that be?" Of course, such things had to be shared with the right person, and right now, that person was Sister Bai.
"Then I’ll stay," Sister Bai said. If she could provide Xiao Han with emotional support... that counted as being useful, didn't it?
Besides, she didn't have anything urgent to attend to anyway.
"Hehe~ Let’s go then. Let’s go witness a miracle," I said to Fool's Dream, who was already practically vibrating with impatience.
Leaving the specialized cultivation room, we headed to another laboratory I frequently used.
This one was chosen primarily for its size; if anything went wrong, I could react immediately. Even if an explosion occurred here, the site could be cleaned up quickly and easily.
While having Fool's Dream cross the boundary between dreams and reality didn't seem like a dangerous experiment, it was fraught with uncertainty.
Currently, the four little Fool's Dream were drifting within the shallow dream. Having acquired dream-state souls, they seemed much more adapted to the dream world.
However, they still couldn't do whatever they pleased.
The interaction of information between the shallow dream and reality bestowed a certain degree of reality's order upon the dreamscape. Consequently, the Fool's Dream couldn't simply float, fly, or create objects out of thin air.
As for dream-rewriting spells... those were actually spells intended for use in reality. After all, the foundation of spells—energy, runes, rituals, and so on—existed in reality. By relying on the order and magical rules of reality, one could rewrite the information between reality and dreams, thereby influencing the information within the dream itself.
Looking at those spells now, they truly felt crude from top to bottom.
Those spells merely utilized order, whereas now, I could directly dominate and confront the order within the dream!
Returning to the experiment at hand.
I walked over to a professional-grade workbench and began using the Tree of Great Knowledge to set up and interface the functions for recording and collecting information.
Meanwhile, Sister Bai demonstrated her dominance over information perception within her nascent dream domain.
It wasn't that I strictly needed her help; I could do these things myself. Sister Bai was doing it because, without deep-dream observation methods, one wouldn't even know what this experiment was accomplishing. As a professional spectator, she was simply doing what a spectator ought to do.
After a period of setup and preparation, the experiment officially began.
"Sister Xiao Han, let me go first, okay? I have experience with this, after all!" Yu Yun suddenly volunteered.
"Hmm... Alright." I hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided Yu Yun was right.
Moreover, I could sense her lingering frustration over her previous attempt. If I didn't let her go first, it might truly become an obsession for her. I wasn't about to let her suffer like that.
"Take it slow. Start when I say 'start,' and if I say 'stop,' you stop immediately. Don't be disobedient like last time!" I made Yu Yun promise before we began.
She had been far too reckless during the previous attempt!
"Understood! I’ll definitely be good this time!" Yu Yun nodded, her excitement tempered by a touch of maturity, her eyes full of sincerity.
I chose to believe her.
I glanced at the data monitoring the dream's stability via the Tree of Great Knowledge, then finally spoke. "Begin."
The moment my voice fell, Yu Yun didn't hesitate.
Standing on the workbench, she reached out her hand as if to tear through the barrier between dreams and reality.
From another perspective, entering the dream from reality didn't actually require such dramatic flair. It was more like an instinct; once you found the right feeling, it happened in an instant.
What Yu Yun was doing now followed the same principle.
The laboratory was currently in a state of superposition between dream and reality. However, my Floating World Level Spirit Vision allowed me to easily distinguish between the two. I could clearly "see" Yu Yun's form gradually becoming "substantial."
This represented her dream-state soul gradually integrating into the order of reality!
Last time, Yu Yun had "risked her life" to force a crossing of the reality boundary, proving that a dream-state soul could descend into reality. But trying it again now brought a completely different level of excitement!
"How does it feel? Any problems?" I asked hurriedly, feeling a bit nervous.
"No... I’m fine..."
As Yu Yun spoke, the information collected by my Tree of Great Knowledge began to grow at an explosive rate!
This was because the data was "depicting" the interaction and interference between a dream-state soul and the order of reality! The changes involved far exceeded what could be observed by the naked eye.
Then, as if she had grasped a secret knack, Yu Yun swiftly crossed the boundary of reality and arrived fully in the physical world.
Yes... she was here...
Though it was only her dream-state soul that had arrived, without a physical body, it was still enough to shock me!
I instinctively took half a step back, but as Yu Yun succeeded, nothing abnormal happened. It was as if she had simply done something "insignificant."
"I... I did it!" Yu Yun announced proudly to herself.
"Yes! You did it!" I rushed forward, ignoring the data for a moment—it wouldn't be lost within the Tree of Great Knowledge anyway. Right now, I just wanted to celebrate with her; I didn't want her joy to be met with cold clinical indifference.
After a brief celebration, I began a comprehensive check of Yu Yun's current state to see if there were any hidden dangers or abnormalities.
After a simple inspection, it seemed the dream-state soul wasn't constantly collapsing like it had during her last attempt to cross the boundary. It was as if once her soul reached the threshold required to cross, the boundary no longer exerted a destructive influence on her.
Yu Yun's biggest issue now was soul fatigue caused by the crossing. This was common; if a person constantly entered dreams and returned to reality, they would suffer similar fatigue. It was the kind of thing that would resolve itself with a bit of rest.
Once I confirmed there were truly no issues, we began guiding Yulan, Yu Guo, and Yuxing through the experiment.
Unsurprisingly, the others, having never tried it before, failed on their first attempts. Crossing into reality as a dream-state soul was a completely different concept from crossing back into the dream as a dream-consciousness.
At this point, Yu Yun used her advantage as the first success to explain the process.
Though she couldn't quite put it into clear words, her encouragement was vital. Since Yu Yun had succeeded, they would too!
However... during her first attempt, Yu Yun had literally put her "life" on the line! That reckless courage had allowed her to find a sliver of opportunity in that state. That sliver of opportunity had finally become the key to success in her second attempt.
This experiment couldn't be forced. It was like an ordinary person trying to figure out how to fall asleep; you can't always fall asleep the moment you realize you need to. For the Fool's Dream to cross into reality as dream-state souls, they needed technique, but they also needed a certain... feeling and state of mind.
While Yu Yun was wholeheartedly explaining how to enter reality, a change she hadn't noticed began to manifest bit by bit within her dream-state soul.
At first, I didn't notice it either, as my attention was entirely on the three Fool's Dream who hadn't succeeded yet. It wasn't until the Tree of Great Knowledge sent me a routine report of data anomalies that I realized something was wrong.
"Yu Yun, wait a moment!" I suddenly interrupted.
"Eh? What is it, Sister Xiao Han?" Yu Yun paused, startled. The other three Fool's Dream and Sister Bai also looked over, curious about what was happening.
Only I had detected the anomaly at that moment.
"Ley Lines... what's going on?" I frowned, deciphering the somewhat blurred information.
I bypassed the functional interface of the Ley Line Identification Art and interpreted the information directly as raw data to reduce "translation distortion." After studying it for a long while, I finally realized what this "Ley Line" information meant.
Ley Line Shackles!
On Yu Yun's dream-state soul, subtle data feedback similar to Ley Line Shackles had appeared!
"Ley Line Shackles? How can there be Ley Line Shackles?!" I reread the line repeatedly.
If you wanted to find someone who understood Ley Line Shackles, there was likely no one who knew them better than me! After all, I was the one who had "witnessed" them with my Spirit Vision! I had even traced them back to the River of Ley Lines... which was why my Spirit Vision could recognize the information now.
Before I had "witnessed" them, I couldn't understand their form; my Spirit Vision couldn't see them—or rather, I saw them but didn't realize what they were. Only when you can "see" and "realize" can you truly understand their existence.
"Xiao Han, what Ley Line Shackles?" Sister Bai asked. She could tell I was in a state of utter disbelief.
Furthermore... she didn't see any shackles.
To be fair, "seeing" Ley Line Shackles was an overstatement. No one could truly see them; even the act of ascending to Transcendent and severing them was an instinctive behavior of a transcendent life form. If transcendents could see them, they could simply help others sever them, but that wasn't how it worked.
Even when Dean Mei helped sever mine, it required a Transcendent Heart and my own autonomous observation to cut them. The Dean herself had admitted she couldn't see them; the existence of Ley Line Shackles was simply too abstract.
"There is data feedback of the Main World's Ley Line Shackles on Yu Yun... I can see them. I wouldn't mistake that information."
"Ley Line Shackles..." Sister Bai was also bewildered.
She instinctively disliked the concept of Ley Line Shackles—perhaps the name itself was unpleasant. More importantly, because they were once the thing Xiao Han hated most, she hated them by extension.
"Xiao Han, what do you plan to do? Sever them?" Sister Bai asked.
"No... no, wait." I shook my head.
As my perspective broadened, I had begun to look at things more objectively. For instance... Ley Line Shackles.
Nothing is entirely bad, and that included these shackles.
When a life form within a world breaks free from its Ley Line Shackles, it essentially detaches itself from that world's pace of development and evolutionary order. While they gain freedom, not every life form has the ability to enjoy that freedom as I do.
A world is a world that nurtures life. Ley Line Shackles are like an umbilical cord between every living being and the world. That was a metaphor Dean Mei once used with me. It showed how important they were.
If the Fool's Dream manifested in reality and showed traces of Ley Line Shackles, did that mean... the Main World was accepting the Fool's Dream as legitimate existences?
But I had no way to prove this hypothesis.
The reason I didn't immediately stop the process was that even in the worst-case scenario—where the shackles trapped the Fool's Dream—I could still sever them later.
But I didn't dare gamble recklessly, because I wasn't sure if this was the very opportunity the Fool's Dream needed to truly become "living beings." I didn't want to be the one to personally extinguish their greatest hope.
"Sister Xiao Han... so what exactly is happening?" Yu Yun was confused. She knelt on the workbench, propping herself up with her hands, tilting her head as she waited for my response.
"Yu Yun..." I called out softly, then turned my gaze to the other three.
"Yes~" Yu Yun replied quickly.
"And you three—Yulan, Yu Guo, Yuxing."
"Sister Xiao Han, did something happen?"
"Just now, an accident occurred—well, not exactly an accident, but something beyond my expectations. It’s a choice. Do you want to hear it?" My tone became solemn.
"Yes!" the four little Fool's Dream chirped in unison, nodding vigorously.
"Then I’ll be blunt." I looked at Yu Yun again. "Just now, through the Tree of Great Knowledge, I detected abnormal data on Yu Yun. She is showing a reaction to Ley Line Shackles. I can't say for sure if this is good or bad."
"Now, you have two choices. We can gamble on what this means. If the Ley Line Shackles are the Main World Consciousness's recognition of your lives, then this could very well be the turning point that allows the Fool's Dream to become true living beings!"
"What! Really?!" Yu Yun was the most excited of them all.
"Don't get ahead of yourselves. I’m not certain, so this is a massive gamble," I said, shaking my head. "If we lose the bet, you might be trapped within the Main World. But don't worry—if that happens, I will find a way to free you from the shackles' grip."
"So... do you choose to accept the Ley Line Shackles, or reject them? If you reject them, they haven't fully formed yet, and I can find a way to clear them shortly. If you accept... you can just act as if nothing happened."
"This... of course we accept!" Yu Yun only hesitated for a split second before choosing without the slightest doubt!
As long as there was even a sliver of a chance, they were willing to try!
Even if they lost the bet, hadn't Sister Xiao Han said she would find a way? So, was there really anything to hesitate about?