Book 7, Chapter 61: Fragments
The floating eye glowed brilliantly for a moment, then began to dim.
“Trying to leave?” Su Chen replied with a slight smile. “Not on my watch. I still need to use you for my experiments.”
As he spoke, he calmly waved his hand. The floating eye began to expand as if it had suffered some kind of stimulation, beginning to unleash a shocking amount of energy.
In that moment, Ye Fenghan wondered whether he would have died if the floating eye had unleashed that much energy all at once against him.
The notion that the Dream God couldn’t kill people in the physical realm was likely outdated.
As the cracks in the Barrier began to grow larger, the gods’ power would begin to leak through. Killing someone would be easy to do.
Boom!
Suddenly, the violent explosion of energy seemed to have been frozen in place, incapable of advancing even the slightest bit.
“Lord of the Dreamrealm, you have definitely grown stronger if you can make your illusions tangible. Unfortunately, even the most tangible illusions are still false, and you will never be able to do anything to those with real power.” As Su Chen spoke, the wave of energy began to dissipate. Ye Fenghan realized that the wave of energy was not as terrifying as it seemed.
Not only so, but even the skeleton giant was largely made up of water.
While the decline of the Barrier had allowed the gods to exert more influence on the real world, the only reason the earlier attacks had seemed so terrifying was because of the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s unique mastery over illusions, which made it hard to differentiate between reality and illusion.
Unfortunately, this was useless in Su Chen’s eyes. He was able to easily identify what was real and what wasn’t.
The floating eye hissed and shrieked in anger.
Strangely enough, the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will had been able to manifest in the past, but now he could do no more than hiss incomprehensibly.
Su Chen, on the other hand, knew that this was not the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s actual will. Instead, it was an illusory projection he had constructed. In order to conceal this secret, he had purposefully withheld his divinity from it. This way, if his plan ultimately failed, his opponent would not be able to extract any secrets from it.
This also decreased the difficulty for Ye Fenghan. Otherwise, he probably would not have been able to withstand an attack from the main body’s consciousness. Allowing Ye Fenghan to smoothly obtain the Divine Crystal, then control him using the main body was a much better idea.
Unfortunately, the plan failed. There was nothing the floating eye could do now but tremble in anger.
Su Chen completely ignored the floating eye’s angry roars and faintly said, “Did you think that I wouldn’t be able to figure out your secret if you removed its connection to your main body?”
Su Chen reached out and picked up the Divine Crystal.
At least this item was real.
“RRAAGHHH!” the floating eye howled.
This time, its anger was genuine.
If the plan failed, some losses would be sustained no matter how much the Dream God had tried to mitigate them.
This Divine Crystal was one such price.
To Su Chen, dealing with a strand of divine will was exceptionally easy.
In but a moment, Su Chen was able to get a rough idea of what was happening. He said, “Fenghan.”
“Master, your disciple is here!” Ye Fenghan replied.
“Do you want to help me with an experiment?”
“I am willing to walk through fire for you, Master.”
“Good.” Su Chen reached out and tapped Ye Fenghan with his fingers a number of times. All Ye Fenghan knew was that a mysterious energy began to pervade his body, along with a strand of will.
Su Chen’s will.
Ye Fenghan didn’t resist, enduring the discomfort and pain.
Su Chen said, “Take this.”
He handed the Divine Crystal to Ye Fenghan.
Even though Su Chen had said before that picking up this item would turn him into a consciousness slave, Ye Fenghan accepted it without hesitation.
Strangely enough, this time nothing happened. Ye Fenghan held the Divine Crystal while standing there motionless.
“Are you afraid?” Su Chen chuckled coldly. “Even if you refuse to try and take over his body, I will force you to! Fenghan, devour it!”
Ye Fenghan opened his mouth and put the Divine Crystal inside.
Just as he was about to swallow the crystal, a faint image began to appear on its surface, seemingly trying to extract itself from the crystal.
“Who said you could run?” Su Chen harrumphed as he jabbed out with his finger. The illusory image was forced back into the crystal, which was quickly swallowed by Ye Fenghan.
Su Chen placed his palm on Ye Fenghan’s forehead. “Guard your sea of knowledge very carefully and forget about everywhere else. Let it go where it pleases. I will keep you safe.”
“Your disciple is not worried at all!” Ye Fenghan replied decisively, relinquishing control of the rest of his body.
An instant later, a sinister, evil intent began to permeate his body, attempting to control him. Ye Fenghan’s face contorted as he roared, “You’re forcing my hand, Su Chen!!!”
“Oh, so now your consciousness is intact?” Su Chen chuckled coldly.
In order to prevent his secret from being divulged, the Lord of the Dreamrealm had only sent a creature with basic-level authority to oversee the operation here. No matter how he tried to distance himself from it, however, he still needed to provide it with the most basic commands. For instance, the main body would be awakened after the host was controlled; otherwise, there would be no point in having control of a powerful body if an idiot was in charge of it.
Su Chen was using this to force the Lord of the Dreamrealm to appear within Ye Fenghan’s body and attempt to control him from within.
As the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will began to return to the crystal, his ability to vocalize his anger also increased.
Even so, he knew that he was in trouble, and attempted to disperse his will as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, Su Chen would not allow him to do so. A powerful wave of consciousness power surrounded Ye Fenghan’s body, forcibly pushing the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will back into Ye Fenghan’s body.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm had no intention of trying to take over Ye Fenghan’s body, yet Su Chen wouldn’t let him leave.
The two of them fought in a back-and-forth fashion like this for some time.
Even though the Lord of the Dreamrealm was powerful, the Divine Crystal only contained a small fragment of his will. When the will fragment realized that it couldn’t escape from Su Chen’s control, it began to howl, “Su Chen, do you not care if your disciple lives or dies?”
“Kill him, if you can,” Su Chen replied coldly. It seemed as if Ye Fenghan’s life meant nothing to him.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will fragment was incensed. Do you really think I can’t do anything? I’ll tear this fishnet apart even if I die in the process.
The will began to gather itself as it charged at Ye Fenghan’s sea of knowledge.
This sudden explosion of power would be enough to turn Ye Fenghan into a vegetable.
At that moment, however, an image of Su Chen appeared in Ye Fenghan’s sea of knowledge like the incarnation of a god. He easily stopped the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will fragment outside.
“NO!” The Lord of the Dreamrealm hadn’t expected that Su Chen would ambush him from Ye Fenghan’s sea of knowledge. All his will fragment had time to do was to let out one final cry of defiance before it came under Su chen’s control.
Because it had been so intent on attacking, it was captured by Su Chen before it even had the chance to destroy itself.
Su Chen began to sort through its memories, allowing the stream of memories to enter his own mind. A flood of information poured into his sea of knowledge.
“Hiss!” the floating eye shrieked fiercely.
Unfortunately, this cry of anger was totally pointless.
“You’re useless to me now.” Su Chen kept his eyes closed, continuing to filter through the information he was receiving. With a simple finger strike, the floating eye immediately burst open.
Now that the Dreamrealm had been shattered, all of the people that had been caught up in it stumbled out.
Some of them were members of the Demon Hunters, while others were the heartless worshippers.
“Sect Master!” Chang He exclaimed in happiness. He had just been pulled out of a fight with a large swath of fog.
Su Chen slowly opened his eyes. He surveyed his surroundings, then muttered to himself, “So many spies.”
In the Boundless Sect’s eyes, anyone who worshipped the gods was a traitor. In order to obtain some table scraps, they had sold out the entire human race.
But no matter how much Su Chen despised their existence, the fact remained that they still existed.
The gathering in Wolfheart Valley was an assembly of traitors, and almost all of the important ones amongst the human race were present with the goal of resurrecting the Dreamrealm.
The gods’ plan for this place was extremely simple.
The first was to establish a new Dreamrealm, by which the Lord of the Dreamrealm could harvest faith as divine power. After the Boundless Sect had destroyed the initial Dreamrealm, the Lord of the Dreamrealm desperately needed a replacement.
The second was to control a powerful member of the Boundless Sect through this Divine Crystal, gaining a spy amongst their ranks.
Actually, this second goal was more of a backup to the first one. If the first one failed, there was a possibility that the second one would succeed. If the first did succeed, the second would potentially be more useful later on.
Unfortunately, both of these plans had been destroyed by Su Chen. Not only had the Lord of the Dreamrealm failed to resurrect the Dreamrealm, but he had suffered even greater losses.
Su Chen glanced at Ye Fenghan. “Are you doing alright?”
Ye Fenghan’s expression was pale. Even with Su Chen’s protection, the consciousness surge had still affected his sea of knowledge a little bit due to the resulting fluctuations of energy.
Even so, Ye Fenghan nodded. “I’m alright.”
Su Chen smiled. “I’m sorry to have put you in a little danger. But you should have received some benefits as well. Try perceiving your consciousness.”
Ye Fenghan gingerly sent out his consciousness, then exclaimed in joyous surprise, “My consciousness power has increased?”
Su Chen nodded. “I destroyed the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will fragment, a majority of which fell into your sea of knowledge. If you absorb them properly, this will only be the beginning.”
Ye Fenghan was overjoyed.
This was the consciousness fragment of a god, after all. No wonder his consciousness had suddenly gotten substantially stronger. And if this was only the beginning, it seemed as if the sky was the limit.
So it was true that great gains could only be obtained from great danger. He no longer harbored any hesitations over Su Chen’s request.
“Many thanks, Master!” Ye Fenghan replied loudly.
“You deserve it.” As Su Chen spoke, he turned to face Chang He and the others. “How are you all feeling?”
“We are fine, Sect Master,” the members of the Demon Hunters replied in unison.
Su Chen said, “You all have worked hard this time. There is no need for you to participate in what happens next.”
Hm?
What else was there to do?
They all glanced at each other, confused.
Su Chen strode towards the seven statues.
He came to the center of them, then suddenly stomped his foot.
The ground beneath his feet began to glow, expanding slowly but surely to cover the entire area. The soft glow was like starlight, illuminating the entire sky.
“This is......”
Everyone present gazed around, stunned by the sudden appearance of this realm illuminated by starlight. At the very center of the area, a small door appeared.
Su Chen walked towards the door.
As they watched the door close behind Su Chen, everyone fell into a befuddled silence.
Chang He walked over and asked Ye Fenghan, “What should we do now?”
“Let’s go,” Ye Fenghan replied.
“What should we do with this scum?”
Ye Fenghan glanced at the evil worshippers, then replied indifferently, “They don’t really have any use for us anymore.
“Don’t we need to interrogate them first?” Chang He was stunned.
“There’s no need.” Ye Fenghan tapped his own head. “It’s all in here.”
The Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will fragment had not only boosted Ye Fenghan’s consciousness power, but also given him quite a few memories.
He knew exactly what that door was, what the gods were up to in this place, and the statuses of those evil worshippers.
From this day onwards, these worshippers would not be allowed to continue existing in this world!