Chapter 1389 The Truth of Dreams

The process by which Hao Ren saw through the truth of Lahraine was actually more complicated than he let on – because some things like intuition and extrasensory perception were hard to describe in words. He had to thank his experiences these past two years for his ability to judge in this regard. Whether it was the Realm of Madness of Lockmarton corrupting reality with dreams, or the Dream-Weaving Brain forging the Nightmare Legion, the terrifying nightmares they had created had left a deep impression on Hao Ren, and also caused some subtle changes in his spirit as it was tempered time and again.

The most significant effect of this change was that it made him particularly proficient in controlling his own mental strength, and extremely sensitive to the sense of incongruity he felt after entering an illusion or dreamland. That incongruity was almost imperceptible to ordinary people – even weaker demigods.

Dreamers found it hard to realize they were in a dream, but Hao Ren did not. He was exceptionally clear-headed in any dream, even if the dream was god-made.

Of course, all this only improved his ability to judge in Lahraine’s dream. What really confirmed his judgment was the little weakling. This muddle-headed and extremely weak little thing had almost no power, but its only “talent” was irreplaceable. A thoroughly chaotic creature, with the same source as the Lord of Madness, but harmless, she was definitely the best detector when it came to mental interference.

The silver-haired, blood-eyed goddess looked curiously at the little thing running around her. She could feel the hint of maddened aura emanating from the little dot, but did not attack because of it, because she could feel that the little weakling was harmless, and could also tell from the attitude of these people whether they were malicious.

After understanding how Hao Ren had seen through the dream, she smiled helplessly, “I never thought that the dream world I created would be exposed by such a little thing… Unexpected, unexpected.”

As she spoke, she turned her gaze to Vivian, “I can feel the aura on you, it’s what I left behind, but…”

Although Vivian was prepared, she could not help but feel nervous when the goddess of creation focused her gaze on her. She took half a step forward, opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“You’re not what I expected…” The goddess blinked in confusion, “Both the form of power and the soul structure have deviated from expectations, and you don’t seem to have generated the personality and memories I set for you. I can feel… apart from those auras, you have completely grown into an unplanned individual.”

At this point, she struggled to prop herself up, then sat on the big rock she had been leaning against. Her gaze swept over everyone, “And your appearance was completely unexpected. Alas, it seems that in the end, everything has escaped my plan.”

“I rejected the Seat of the End,” Vivian finally mustered up the courage to say proactively, “And I didn’t complete the work of the Guide either, because I lost my memory when I arrived in another universe…”

Hao Ren pressed Vivian’s shoulder and looked at the goddess of creation, “The Seat of the End has flaws. Although I don’t want to tell you this when you’ve just woken up, your plan was actually impossible from the start. There are loopholes in the system you designed, the guardians you left behind have split apart, and even Vivian – that’s her – was actually contaminated by the power of the Lord of Madness from the very beginning. We spent a lot of effort to solve this problem. So…”

Hao Ren didn’t continue, but his meaning was already clear. The expression on the goddess of creation’s face was very calm when faced with such a truth, as if she had expected it, “Is that so? So that’s how it is. It seems I really underestimated that old opponent… Vivian, is that your current name?”

She looked into Vivian’s eyes, seemingly seeing the latter’s nervousness, so she smiled, “Don’t be nervous, I won’t eat you. Are you worried that I’ll be angry about the Seat of the End? Actually, it doesn’t matter at all. I guessed this when I discovered that you had developed an unplanned personality.”

Hao Ren looked at the goddess of creation, then at Vivian, and quickly understood what the former meant.

Just as he had thought, the goddess of creation was not the kind of god who would impose a mission on anyone. Perhaps she had set a set of primitive memories and instruction sets for that divine incarnation, but after the divine incarnation split and Vivian’s personality was born from it, those “missions” belonging to the Guide and the Lord of the Throne lost their meaning.

This put Vivian at ease, and also relieved Hao Ren. After all, if possible, he would have been too embarrassed to take out that Bible with chains…

“Tell me about the situation outside now, I’ve been asleep for too long,” the goddess of creation gently covered her forehead, seemingly not fully recovered from her ten thousand year slumber, “Your ability to come here means the outside world isn’t too bad, right?”

“In fact… the situation isn’t much better,” Hao Ren shook his head helplessly, “The Age of Life in the Dream Plane is over, and now it’s a time of withering. The only good news is probably that the seal you left behind hasn’t completely collapsed. As for us, we actually came from another universe.”

“Actually, I already guessed that, because I sent her… sent Vivian beyond the world, I’m very sure of the existence of other universes,” the goddess of creation smiled, “But to be able to see visitors from another universe with my own eyes is really an interesting thing. If it were before, I would definitely treat you well, but now it’s not like it used to be. Just stay here and tell me about things in another world.”

“Of course, this has to start with the God of our place. You should be able to guess easily that since there is you in this universe, then it is normal for there to be a God in another universe, and I am here on behalf of the God of our place…”

It was difficult to explain the setting of another world in a few words, so Hao Ren chose to explain the origins of his party as concisely as possible, and introduce the background of Raven 12345. Of course, he also mentioned the current situation of the Dream Plane, including some of the progress he had made in the Dream Plane so far – about the remaining ecological planets, the crazy First Born, the surviving Guardian Giants, the Gates of Sulun, the Creation Engine that was being rebuilt, and a great war in the Nexus Star System, as well as the Salamander Guardian Legion currently waiting in the Prime Material World.

“A huge pantheon? I have no idea about these things at all, it seems I’m really isolated…”

“Is that so? So they were mostly corrupted… I tried to save them, but in the end even I fell into this situation…”

“Ah, Lockmarton, Lockmarton, he was my first child, I made too many mistakes with him, such an ending is probably a kind of relief for him…”

“Amanthiel was destroyed too… I created the Guardian Legion separately, hoping that they would watch over that place, but I didn’t expect that corruption would still spread to them.”

After ending this conversation, the silver-haired, blood-eyed goddess shook her head embarrassedly, “It seems that you really helped me deal with a lot of messes.”

“To be honest, they are really a pile of messes, but who told me that my job is to deal with this kind of thing?” Hao Ren spread his hands helplessly, “Inspectors deal with messes.”

The data terminal floated over and said, “But not every mess is left behind by gods.”

“Say less,” Hao Ren glanced at the data terminal, “She’s already embarrassed enough.”

“It’s okay, after all, they’re all facts,” the goddess was very magnanimous, she seemed to have recovered some energy at this time, and she was much more energetic, “I’ve been immersed in the dream for too long, it’s time to face reality. But then again… couldn’t you have used a gentler method to wake people up? You actually summoned a projection of the Star of Creation in Lahraine, and in front of me… There’s nothing more cruel than this.”

“I knew it, you are Leah,” Hao Ren looked at the goddess’s face, which was almost the same as Leah’s, with only the hair and eye color different, “Actually, I didn’t want to use this method to wake you up, but I really couldn’t think of any other kind of stimulus that could wake a true god from a dream.”

“Leah is an incarnation of me in Lahraine, but I’m very curious about one thing, how did you know – or rather, guess – that she was my incarnation?”

“Perhaps you were quite invested in this ‘role-playing’ process, but onlookers see clearly,” it was not Hao Ren who answered her, but Nangong Sanba, who had been standing next to her without saying a word. Although the latter was still confused like everyone else not long ago, after understanding the truth of Lahraine, he immediately understood many things, “No one dares to approach the Great Pit Road, no one dares to study the Great Pit Road, no one can make such unique judgments about the Great Pit Road, but ‘Leah’ did it all. Perhaps Leah is an ordinary female magician in Lahraine in terms of strength and background, but on the other hand, Leah is quite a special person: she is the only one who is curious about the truth of that dream world and takes action, and ordinary dream residents will not be interested in this at all, and will instinctively stay away from it.”

“And there’s another very important reason,” Hao Ren continued, “We are a group of outsiders, unstable factors that ‘invaded’ the dream from the real world, and unstable factors are the easiest to cause a dream to wake up. According to the normal operating rules of a dream, a ‘rejection’ mechanism will come into play under this circumstance. In fact, the disaster that occurred in Lahraine in the end was an extreme manifestation of this rejection mechanism – of course, before the rejection progressed to that step, we had already first come into contact with the first layer of insurance in the dream.”

“That’s me, or rather ‘Leah’,” the goddess smiled, “Because the entire dream world revolves around her, so she is the most stable and most assimilating part of the dream. If you were a group of ordinary intruders, you would probably have been assimilated the moment you saw Leah, and then wholeheartedly believed that you were a native of Lahraine, and worked as a mercenary for half your life…”

Lily stuck out her tongue, “Sounds exciting.”

“In fact, this assimilation effect did take effect,” Hao Ren paused deliberately for a second before reminding everyone else, “It took effect once – look at your hands, is the mark of the World Tree still there?”