Chapter 129 - 129: The Great Dream Sovereign, The Truth of Dream Ruins City!
He Zhao hesitated upon hearing Ru Shou’s words. But remembering that Ru Shou was a senior from the Immortal Tomb Organization, known for his reliable demeanor and speech, He Zhao trusted him not to deceive.
Amidst the chaos, the young man turned and ran towards the direction Ru Shou had indicated.
Hong Feng quietly left the battleground. He had orchestrated this team ambush, knowing he couldn’t control the Nightmare Demons but his wooden carving could make the two-headed bird ignore him. He sought He Zhao but found him not heading towards Dream Ruins City but diving deeper into the darkness, unlike the others.
Thanks to the strange wooden carving, Hong Feng could see clearly within a thirty-foot radius in the darkness outside the city. He saw a fleeting figure disappearing from his view. “You can’t escape,” he sneered, following in pursuit.
Meanwhile, with He Zhao, a soft light appeared. Lu Xuan’s miniature projection, sitting on He Zhao’s shoulder, held a small rod with a Dream Lantern attached.
“Senior… Where did this Dream Lantern come from?” He Zhao was astonished.
“It’s the one Li Rui threw just now,” Lu Xuan explained. “I saw it lying there, possibly getting damaged in the fight, so I picked it up.” Considering that Captain Zhang was engaged in close combat with the two-headed bird without needing a lantern, Lu Xuan felt it would be more useful for guiding He Zhao.
The darkness outside Dream Ruins City not only obstructed vision but also suppressed the souls of cultivators, preventing them from using their consciousness to probe their surroundings. Lu Xuan speculated that warriors of Dream Ruins City, upon reaching the Orifice Solidification realm, could partially resist this suppression.
“Someone is following you; increase your speed, turn right, and shake them off…” Ru Shou instructed.
As He Zhao moved further from Dream Ruins City, the landscape began to reveal itself. The ground was rough with sand and stone, desolate. The plants were black, small, and sparse, with leaves like serrated blades intertwined with each other.
“Stop, there’s a presence ahead… Similar to the bird we encountered earlier,” Ru Shou cautioned. “And something different on the right – a ghostly entity, probably the Evil Spirits you mentioned.”
“Hide behind that sand dune and extinguish the lantern, we’ll use it later,” Ru Shou directed. His consciousness, unaffected by the darkness, sensed the surroundings and made judgments.
After nearly an hour, He Zhao came upon a ruin. Members of the hunting team knew that venturing too far in the darkness outside the city might lead them to such ancient city ruins, referred to as “relics.” These relics, often ancient with weathered walls, appeared desolate.
Some believed these cities were once thriving like theirs but fell to the Nightmare Demons and Evil Spirits outside. Others speculated that cities moved when resources depleted, suggesting Dream Ruins City might have relocated from another place, leaving these ruins behind.
He Zhao recalled his father mentioning that each relic harbored resources. Although lacking in food and meat, ancient magical weapons could be found in these ruins. Even if their divine nature had faded over time, the Dao patterns inscribed within remained intact. Bringing these back to the city yielded rich rewards. Some even found Dream Stones in these ruins.
However, the dangers in the relics were immense. While Nightmare Demons preyed on Dream Tapirs outside, relics were strongholds for Evil Spirits, so fearsome that even martial artists avoided them.
“Let’s go in and see,” Ru Shou said.
Nodding, He Zhao entered the relic through a gap in the collapsed city wall…
Inside the relic, a profound silence enveloped He Zhao as he walked cautiously. The city ruins were vast, and as he traversed the streets, he saw houses on both sides largely weathered and collapsed.
Lu Xuan observed the buildings on his side. The walls, now fractured, exposed stones dulled in color with black spots. The materials originally used to construct these houses were extraordinary. Yet, over time, even these stones had lost their spirit, becoming mundane.
Turning a corner, a thin, ghostly shadow emerged silently from the darkness, reaching its gaunt hand towards He Zhao’s neck.
“Zing—”
A sound of a sword rang out. It was Ru Shou acting swiftly, his sword qi sharp, piercing through the ghostly figure. Ru Shou, leveraging the mysterious and powerful space of the Immortal Tomb, projected his spirit onto a wooden puppet and could summon a fraction of his original body’s strength. Hence, he didn’t take Nightmare Demons and Evil Spirits too seriously.
The ghostly figure slowly dissipated, turning into a wisp of black smoke. Aware that such entities were untouchable, He Zhao quickly avoided it.
“Keep moving, check out those houses,” Ru Shou instructed calmly.
He Zhao, not daring to disobey, did as told. In the relatively intact houses, covered with layers of dust, several Evil Spirits lurked, all swiftly dispatched by
Ru Shou..