Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 782 - 723 The Invisible Child

The City of Wandering’s most outstanding Soul Scholar, Hugh Point, once expressed this view, "At the deepest part of a dream, one connects to the Gate of Souls." Since the advent of mystical soul studies, scholars have indulged in wild conjectures about individual dreams and the psyche, convinced of a deep-seated link between the two.

They were only half right.

It wasn’t until Andrey, the lich, joined the City of Wandering that the Resentful Spirit adept with souls told the scholars that the Land of Souls indeed exists but it’s a realm beyond life and death, accessible only by particularly resilient souls that can transcend mortality. And as everyone knows, the dead do not dream. The Land of Souls is not in dreams, but in another place unreachable by the living.

Then the Dream Elves joined the City of Wandering, bringing with them another answer to this enigma.

The deepest part of a dream is not the Land of Souls, but it’s far more perilous.

The deepest part of a dream is the subconscious ocean of the Ancient God Sleeper, the dreams of a god, the dreams of all things.

Here, it’s necessary to emphasize the subordinate relationship of the Sleeper and all entities in the world. Following the mystery organizations’ pursuit back to the source of their knowledge and skills, they confirmed a single origin for all—the teachings of the Evil God. Although this conclusion is somewhat disheartening, all wise scholars tacitly agree that this world and all within it are mere byproducts of the Sleeper Triton’s creation, insignificant remnants of his growth. Discarded husks from his maturation became planets, diluted "fallen" blood turned into water sources and the atmosphere, scattered energy transformed into magical webs buried in the earth, and his jumbled thoughts became the dreams of all things.

He remains dormant to this day, his subconscious power forming an ocean. The scholars of the Dream Elf race, perhaps to aggrandize themselves, have stated as much. They say that through their exploration of dreams, they’ve found that dreams are a whole, a manifestation of the spirit, and every individual’s dreams connect to form a vast network, which in turn constitutes a world.

The first Dream Druid, the first dreamwalker, the elven leader Irason, established the Emerald Dream, linking the dreams of the elven race together. This was undoubtedly a monumental achievement, even though she later became indolent.

Emerald Dream, famed as the homestead within the dreams of all sentient beings, is capable of embracing the dreams of all living creatures. However, the truth is that the entire Emerald Dream is but an isolated island within the subconscious ocean. The Dream Druids managing this place always stand silently staring at the endless waves.

The exploration of the subconscious ocean progressed anew after the arrival of Susanna.

"Those are the dreams of all things, those wandering, chaotic subconscious thoughts are the dreams of flowers, birds, insects, snakes, trees, rocks, sand, and storms. All matter dreams, but they lack the brains to form language like you do, a mouth to speak, and the capacity to perceive their own dreams. That’s why it’s called the subconscious; these thoughts are vague, lacking even self-awareness."

At this, the Elf Executive’s eyes filled with sorrow.

"The slumbering Father God governs all dreams, and in fact, your ability to dream, to think, to be aware of your own soul, is all a boon from the Father God. But don’t be grateful; he carelessy packed the less significant spirit inside a monkey-shaped vessel just as a child might stuff grains of rice into the hollow of a toy. If He had a change of heart back then, the species now dominating the world would not be primates. It could have been amphibians, birds, or mollusks; in fact, primates were not the Father God’s first playthings..."

We did not receive much more from this knowledgeable lady, especially when we were bound by vines, suspended upside down above a thorny thicket, our focus was more on the steel spike-like thorns below rather than her so-called antiquated historical remnants.

—City of Wandering, "Scholar" Magazine, Excerpt from "Dreams and Souls"

...

Emerald Dream was divided into many parts, each managed by a Dream Druid, but each region had at least one border touching the subconscious ocean, and one of the duties of the Dream Druids was to monitor the ocean’s anomalies.

Dreamland, before Lyle used it as a virtual game, was an area jointly overseen by the two great Dream Druids, Susanna and Irason, and it had a long narrow coastline.

It was a sheer cliff, vertically descending, which had been terraformed, and administrators had set a height limit off-limits to players.

Lyle climbed up to that line and atop the barren cliff, he saw Susanna gazing into the dark, writhing ocean. She stood there like a stationary rock, her armor bristling with spikes, her frosty and stern aura dissipating upon noticing Lyle’s presence. Without Irason’s company, there were only the two rebels of the Evil God’s side, Susanna and Lyle.

"Can you feel it?" Susanna extended her long arm, like a spear, pointing toward a certain part of the writhing ocean.

Lyle closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked up at the majestic observer. "No."

"Use your other part, the part of you that disgusts me."

"Oh." Shadow crawled out from the darkness, and the moment the Ominous giant emerged from Lyle’s shadow, the atmosphere dropped to freezing point. Now, Susanna gave up maintaining her human form and transformed into a fully-armed quadrupedal beast, with sharp fangs and claws, staring at Ominous.

In response to the Nightmare Beast, Ominous let out a disgustingly sarcastic laugh and bent its head to initiate communication.

"There are energy fluctuations over there, like a balloon being inflated. Sleeper, are you venting waste gases?"

The crouching beast transformed back into its tall stature and coldly replied.

"Change back, unless you want me to beat you up, Lyle."

Lyle shrank back very quickly, and the moment a blush appeared on his cheeks he immediately began to explain.

"That was Ominous; I can’t control it! We are independent entities with different wills; we shouldn’t share hatred!" Lyle’s mind instantly thought of everything Andrey saw at the final court, and he felt sure of himself.

Susanna didn’t buy his lame excuses and turned her gaze back to that dark area, where only a mysterious connection between Evil Gods could sense the turmoil. Susanna directly revealed the enigma.

"There it is proliferating, birthing, creating new beings, belonging to the guardians of the Father God."

"Having babies? Now?" Lyle hadn’t expected the enemy to reproduce so quickly.

Susanna pressed down on Lyle’s head, her height at the moment completely allowing her to do so. Her caress wasn’t exactly gentle, but it was comforting.

"There is still time. The newborn guardians haven’t taken shape yet. Although these invisible children are very powerful, they are not my match for now, let alone you, who are of higher purity. You are the true Divine Child, the successor." Susanna withdrew her hand, propped up her chin, as if watching this process invisible to the naked eye, "We still have five hours, more than enough time to discuss solutions."

Lyle was surprised, "Susanna, you seem quite familiar with this proliferation ritual?"

"I’ve seen it a thousand times. And a fully-formed invisible child is right in front of you." Susanna narrowed her eyes, her upturned mouth revealing her enjoyment of Lyle’s surprise, "That’s right, I was born this way, as a white blood cell born from the Evil God’s immune system, a cleaner."

Lyle’s heart sank. If after maturing, all the invisible children were on Susanna’s level — Elf Executive, Master of Dreams, Child of the Evil God, each as mighty as a dragon, with enemy grunts all elite monsters — it was frightening.

"How do we handle them, Susanna?" Lyle felt an extreme sense of urgency.

Susanna tilted her head and tapped Lyle’s forehead with her fingers.

"I was going to ask for your opinion. I’ve dealt with this many times before, but it was always just me. I want to know if you, as the Divine Child, have any better ideas. If not, we’ll go with mine."

Susanna unexpectedly gave a devilishly charming smile, her expression enchanting.

"If all else fails, we’ll just eat them."