Book 7, Chapter 110: The Final Battle (7)
Naturally, the god who had fallen from the sky was the Dream God.
He was unlucky enough to be the first seriously wounded god, and even unluckier that he had run into the Human Ancestor once more.
Of course, he could not have possibly recognized the Human Ancestor, nor could he have realized that he was actually the child who had once escaped from him.
But even if he had recognized the Human Ancestor, so what?
He wanted to live.
And if he wanted to live, then he needed vitality!
His instinctual response upon seeing the Human Ancestor was to devour him.
Even the Human Ancestor found the situation somewhat comical.
He was abandoning his physical body to be eaten by the Dream God once again.
This time, however, the situation was going to be different.
Last time, he had done so for the sake of survival and to preserve a lifeline for the Immortals.
This time, he was going to take over!
He had once been a Dream Spirit, so in terms of lifesource, the Human Ancestor was somewhat compatible with the Dream God.
As such, after being devoured, the Human Ancestor’s consciousness began to supplant that of the Dream God. As he did so, he was no longer a mere seed, but instead, he became a distinct consciousness hiding directly within the Dream God’s consciousness.
This period of hibernation lasted for thousands of years, and he slowly but surely absorbed the Dream God’s power, growing stronger every day.
However, this also meant that the Human Ancestor could no longer travel to the outside world, even after fully maturing, and he could only interact with others in their dreams.
To the Human Ancestor, however, this was actually ideal.
Now that he could move through other people’s dreams, the Human Ancestor was able to constantly stir up trouble by amplifying the gods’ jealousy, hatred, anger, and frustration.
The former Dream God had merely wandered through other people’s dreamrealms and never tried to actively stir up trouble. The Human Ancestor’s actions, however, increased the might of the Dream God by a significant amount. Suddenly, he became capable of subtly influencing the other gods’ emotions, causing his status and influence to skyrocket. In fact, he even ascended an entire tier to become a mid-tier god.
The gods who were under the Dream God’s influence, however, were in a much precarious situation. As their environment worsened, conflicts began to occur more and more frequently. The battle between the gods soon reached a feverish pitch, eventually resulting in the Twilight of the Gods.
This cataclysmic battle left no more than twenty or so gods alive at the end.
In order to survive, the rest of the gods agreed to sign the Eternal Treaty.
At that point, the Human Ancestor felt that he had succeeded in his mission and that he could depart now.
That was when he discovered that he could no longer depart.
He had already become inseparable from the Dream God as he was the Dream God’s hidden aspect, his other face. There was no way for the two of them to be separated now.
And that was also when the Dream God realized that there was another presence within him.
Of course, he had no idea what the Human Ancestor’s origin was. He could only faintly sense that his own consciousness had become divided at some point without him realizing it.
He immediately began trying to expel this foreign influence.
The Human Ancestor was more than happy to cooperate, using this opportunity as an excuse to regain his former freedom.
Both of them very quickly discovered, however, that their vitality was now linked. Expelling the Human Ancestor meant that both him and the Dream God would die.
One wanted to drive the other out, and the other wanted to leave, but neither of them had any choice in the matter; they could only coexist in such a manner.
That would have been fine as well.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm, however, was very displeased with this outcome.
He was very much afraid that this secondary consciousness would weaken his power and siphon away his strength, causing him to lose the lofty status that he had only just earned. As for the consequences of removing this secondary consciousness, he was not too worried. As long as they weren’t overly harsh for him specifically, he didn’t care.
And the Lord of the Dreamrealm did in fact eventually find a way to resolve this issue.
Via the Barrier of the Gods.
The Barrier of the Gods had been created by the gods and possessed a powerful, divine aura. At its most powerful and complete state, it was completely impenetrable.
However, it did not actually have a physical form; otherwise, it would have been possible to see the Barrier with one’s naked eye. Instead, its power existed at the intersection between the realms of illusion and reality.
Real objects could not pass through the Barrier of the Gods, including Origin Energy and divine power, but consciousness power could.
Consciousness power, however, would still be worn down if it tried to cross through the Barrier, which meant that most consciousnesses would be destroyed before they could reach the other side.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm decided to use this method to rid himself of the parasite that had attached itself to him.
It was simple; he repeatedly extended his consciousness into the Barrier of the Gods.
Every day, he would unleash his consciousness power at a particular spot on the Barrier, which caused that spot to start becoming transparent.
At the same time, the Human Ancestor had done all that he could do in Kun’s Territory. So, since he had run out of targets, he ceased his activities.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm thought that this meant that his method of repeatedly thrusting his consciousness into the Barrier had successfully purged that rogue fragment from his mind.
The Human Ancestor could not remain totally still, however. Every once in a while, there would be some small task to do, such as investigating a certain god, or sometimes he made a move just to shake off his boredom...... In any case, he was active from time to time, which was in turn sensed by the Lord of the Dreamrealm, who would restart this expelling process.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm would try to purge his consciousness whenever he had any spare time. But later on, the Lord of the Dreamrealm eventually concluded that this division was impossible to fully remove, and that it would even reappear on its own. As such, it would take a long, long time to properly exterminate this parasite.
Yes, that was his conclusion.
But whether or not the Human Ancestor played along with the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s conclusions was entirely dependent on the Human Ancestor’s mood. If he was in a good mood, then he would abide by those faux rules, but if he was in a bad mood, then he would act unpredictably. It was at those moments that the Lord of the Dreamrealm realized that these rules were not set in stone.
Even so, the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s misunderstandings resulted in him continuously wearing away at the Barrier for a long period of time.
Until one day, he suddenly discovered something.
Hm?
He had broken through?
Yes, his consciousness energy had actually passed through the Barrier and reached the other side!
Both the Lord of the Dreamrealm and the Human Ancestor were stunned by this development.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm’s continual process of infusing consciousness energy at a single specific point in the Barrier had created a small consciousness tunnel that allowed one to pass through the bridge.
Even though the bridge was incredibly small, it still made the Lord of the Dreamrealm extremely excited.
Wasn’t this the same as saying that, with enough time, he would be able to completely destroy the Barrier?
He informed the other gods of his discovery, causing them to grow excited as well.
It was this discovery that had led to the plan to destroy the Barrier of the Gods in the first place.
The gods soon discovered that, apart from using consciousness power to wear the Barrier down over a prolonged period of time, there were other methods to wear away at it as well. They all began to try out all kinds of different tactics so as to wear down the Barrier more quickly.
At the beginning, they did so in a chaotic and unorganized fashion. Each god tried out their own ideas, and some truly succeeded, leaving behind marks on the Barrier.
Eventually, they discovered that the best way to wear down the Barrier was to infuse divine power into it over a long period of time.
Thus, they all joined forces and began to expand the breach that the Lord of the Dreamrealm had initially created.
This made the Human Ancestor quite unhappy.
However, now that the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s consciousness power had already bored a hole through the Barrier, the Human Ancestor could see through to the other side.
He could see that, after being freed from the control of the gods and the Origin Beasts, the human race had started developing a cultivation system of their own. Even though they could not use immortal energy, they had not given up on their quest to understand the world, and their constant desire to grow stronger had not diminished in the slightest.
This made the Human Ancestor incredibly excited.
Now, however, a bunch of isolated gods wanted to return and ruin the paradise that he had created. How could he possibly accept that?
He resumed his activity.
Since the Eternal Treaty was still in place, he could not incite any internal conflicts amongst them.
This left him with no choice but to pursue other options.
As the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s parasite, he directly planted a plan into the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s mind.
A plan to join thousands of dream realms together into one.
This aggregate Dreamrealm would also be able to absorb the consciousness power from the humans on the other side. By using Dream Spirits as connective nodes, they would function as a gigantic consciousness network that connected Kun’s Territory to the Origin Realm through both sides’ residents’ dreams. This would give the Lord of the Dreamrealm access to a massive consciousness kingdom and help him in his quest to become a high-tier god.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm was incredibly excited by the prospect of becoming a high-tier god. He immediately set aside the project to bore through the Barrier of the Gods and instead focused on creating this aggregate Dreamrealm.
And this was indeed something that only he could do.
From that point on, this illusory kingdom came into being on the Primordial Continent. Humans were able to communicate with people tens of thousands of kilometers away through their dreams, spreading knowledge and information without limit.
The Lord of the Dreamrealm was in turn supplied with vast amounts of consciousness energy, causing his strength to surge rapidly. Soon after, he reached the level of a high-tier god, qualifying him for the title of “Lord of the Dreamrealm.”
If it hadn’t been for the environment’s unique restrictions, then he probably could have gone even higher!
At the same time, the Human Ancestor was busy planning out his next steps.
While the Lord of the Dreamrealm was constructing the aggregate Dreamrealm, the Human Ancestor’s consciousness was also exploring this newly constructed network, attempting to exert his own influence on it. Unfortunately, he could not do so with a pure consciousness body. In order to deal with the parasite latched onto him, the Lord of the Dreamrealm had placed tight restrictions on the usage of this Dreamrealm. He would immediately know if the Human Ancestor tried to use the Dreamrealm for any purpose.
As such, the Human Ancestor had no choice but to remain low-key. He now needed a way to escape from the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s detection so that he could do whatever he needed to do without being discovered.
After trying out a number of different possibilities, the Human Ancestor finally happened upon one.
He had once been the Bloodbat’s clone, which gave him the ability to generate clones of himself. However, that ability required a droplet of blood.
At least a single droplet.
So he patiently waited.
Waited for an opportunity for a droplet of fresh blood to pass by.
Eventually, this opportunity revealed itself.
One day, a Dark Astral was scammed in the trade that took place in the Dreamrealm. Because he was in the Dreamrealm, he could not attack his opponent. Thus, out of anger, the Dark Astral consumed all of his energy to convert part of his physical body into consciousness power.
That “part” of him was actually a drop of fresh blood.
A precious droplet of blood!
The Human Ancestor immediately took the droplet of blood for himself and formed a clone.