Chapter 135 The End of the Dream

The spiritual fire gathered and submerged into the fragments of flesh and blood.

The remnants contaminated by the fire trembled as they crawled up, then crawled faster and faster, quickly disappearing at the end of the street.

This mass of flesh and blood, no longer capable of thought, embarked on its journey home—but whether it could truly return to a certain "main body," or whether it would exhaust its life force and dissipate on the way, or be intercepted and purified by something, even Duncan couldn't be sure.

He was just trying to mitigate any hidden dangers to the best of his ability.

After Shirley and that bizarre black shadow began to fight, he quickly analyzed the origins of this "attacker" that appeared in the nightmare, while also guessing the opponent's abilities. After seeing the thing's reaction to the spiritual fire, he further confirmed that this attacker, which had appeared out of nowhere, was likely just a split-off "pathfinder."

The attacker showed no will to fight after encountering the spiritual fire. Its first reaction was to split into pieces and break through in all directions. This could be explained as a hasty escape, but it could also be explained as a "pathfinder" trying to send intelligence away—if this vast dream was truly woven by some behind-the-scenes mastermind, then the appearance of himself, an "intruder," would undoubtedly be a major piece of information.

Duncan thoughtfully looked in the direction where the fragments disappeared. After crawling a certain distance, the other party disappeared into thin air in a cloud of rising smoke, which further confirmed his conjecture:

The suddenly appearing attacker was more familiar with this dream than he and Shirley were. The opponent had more convenient methods of movement here and also knew some invisible "passages." That was why the figure with the umbrella could suddenly appear nearby without him noticing.

In comparison, he and Shirley, and A-Dog, as "explorers" visiting for the first time, were like headless flies in the dream. It would be difficult to find those hidden guys.

But it didn't matter. The fire had been spread, and a faint connection was still looming in his perception. Duncan believed that the flames he had spread would yield some gains. As long as that bit of spiritual fire began to spread, a clearer perception would be established, and he would eventually find some hidden guys in the spreading fire—then Nina and Shirley wouldn't have to have nightmares anymore.

"Mr. Duncan?" Shirley looked at the suddenly silent Duncan with a little fear, hesitating for a long time before plucking up the courage to say, "Do you know what that... thing was just now?"

She was referring to the attacker with the black umbrella.

"…Hard to say," Duncan pondered briefly and shook his head, but then he looked at the burned-out street around him and said thoughtfully, "But do you remember that figure I mentioned standing at the edge of the square on the way back from the museum before?"

"The one only you could see?" Shirley immediately remembered. "Ah, the one who attacked us just now was the one you saw?"

"Can't be sure it's the same one," Duncan shook his head. "But it's definitely the same 'kind,' and I suspect it's related to those cultists who worship the sun god—appearing in scenes related to 'fire' both times, it's very suspicious."

"Related to those cultists?" Shirley blinked and quickly reacted. "Could it be the 'Sun's Descendant' that those cultists were talking about?!"

"Let's suspect that for now, although there's no evidence," Duncan sighed softly. "But more than the identity of the attacker, I'm more concerned about why this thing would appear in your and Nina's 'dreams'... The museum and your dreams, what's the connection between them?"

As he spoke, he raised his head, his eyes sweeping over the tall tower.

At the top of the tower, Nina's figure was still nowhere to be seen—but Duncan was almost certain that this was the place Nina had seen in her dream.

"This is really Nina's dream?" Shirley also curiously looked around, her face full of disbelief. "How did you know?"

"She mentioned this dream to me. In the dream, she was standing on that tallest distillation tower, overlooking the burned-out city," Duncan said, pointing to the nearby tower. "This location is about two blocks away from the little house in your nightmare. Although I don't know why, your dreams are obviously connected to each other on a deeper level."

Shirley was very surprised. She seemed to want to ask something, but suddenly, A-Dog next to her seemed to have discovered something: "Hey, Shirley, look, the umbrella that guy was holding seems to still be there!"

Shirley and Duncan looked in the direction A-Dog was pointing at the same time. Sure enough, there was a large black umbrella lying quietly on the side of the street!

Just now, their attention had been focused on the attacker. After the latter's main body split, the umbrella was left on the side of the road, and no one had noticed its existence for a while.

Duncan strode over. He finally had the opportunity to observe this black umbrella up close, but after seeing the inside of the umbrella, he couldn't help but say "Huh."

He had imagined what the umbrella that the attacker had always been holding would look like—it might be a transcendent item engraved with runes, or it might be an abnormal object that looked ordinary on the outside but actually possessed many characteristics, but in any case, considering the attacker's own strange and terrifying abilities and form, the style of this umbrella should definitely develop in an evil direction.

However, the part below the umbrella surface was completely different from what he had imagined—

He saw extremely complex man-made structures. Hexagonal, delicate crystal lattices were densely arranged on the skeleton, forming a form that resembled some kind of... solar panel. In the gaps between the deep purple crystal lattices, he also saw tiny pipes and bundles of wires. In the center of the umbrella, there was also a delicate device like some kind of control hub connecting the umbrella handle and the surrounding crystal lattice array. Its precision and complexity far exceeded any steam engine in the Principality of Prande.

Duncan stared at this thing in stunned silence.

A sense of technology, his first reaction, was a sense of technology!

This thing was definitely not a transcendent item, and its style was completely different from some "abnormalities," and it was not a machine made by the current city-state civilization. This umbrella was an extremely delicate and complex technological creation.

It... came from a civilization that modern city-states could not understand!

"What is this thing?" Shirley looked at the internal structure of the umbrella in astonishment and confusion. She couldn't understand what it was at all, and she lacked Duncan's knowledge from another world. She only felt that this thing was a hundred times more complex than she had imagined, and it even looked a little dazzling. She subconsciously reached out her hand, "It looks like..."

"Don't touch it!" A-Dog suddenly interrupted Shirley. "This looks like some kind of Blasphemous Prototype."

Shirley was stunned: "Blasphemous Prototype? What's that?"

"Creations from some forbidden histories, things that shouldn't appear in the real world, but are forcibly retained in the real world," A-Dog said seriously in a low voice. "I don't know how to explain it to you... because I don't know what the principle behind it is. Anyway, just remember that there are some histories in the long river of time in this world that are 'locked,' and the things that were born in these forbidden histories are Blasphemous Prototypes. Under normal circumstances, their existence itself is harmful to creatures in the real world... Don't touch them if you see them!"

Shirley immediately retracted her hand nervously, while Duncan glanced at A-Dog thoughtfully: "Is this also the 'knowledge' that Deepsea Demons are born with?"

"Sort of," A-Dog shook his head. "Not all Deepsea Demons know these things, it's just that I was born closer to the head of the Deepsea Saint, so I have more knowledge in my head."

Duncan gave a noncommittal "hmm" and kept his eyes on the strange black umbrella. At this moment, as if it had lost some kind of "support," the umbrella suddenly began to collapse and disintegrate rapidly before his eyes.

The delicate crystal lattice structure gradually became transparent, the skeleton and wires faded and turned into gray-white debris that scattered in the wind, and the complex device that served as the core also melted and flowed down like heated wax. Before this thing completely melted away, Duncan's eyes suddenly caught sight of tiny writing printed on a certain part of the device.

That was not the common language used by city-states today, nor was it any other language he was familiar with—but the meaning of the text still appeared in his mind:

"K-22 Spectrum Filtering Crystal Core."

The next second, including this last part, the entire umbrella scattered with the wind.

Duncan slowly stood up, and just then, Shirley, who was standing next to him, suddenly exclaimed softly: "Ah! What's wrong with my hand?"

Duncan looked at Shirley's arm and found that not only her arm, but her entire body was gradually becoming transparent and blurry.

Shirley was immediately shocked: "Save, save, save..."

"Save my ass!" A-Dog directly interrupted Shirley. "You're about to wake up! You're waking up from this dream normally for the first time—why don't you thank Mr. Duncan quickly?"

Shirley then realized and quickly looked at Duncan, but saw that his figure was also gradually disappearing in the dream.

Duncan smiled and waved to the girl in front of him: "Good night, and good morning—don't forget to wake Nina up for breakfast later."