Chapter 2823

Mingke Xianren blamed himself and asked for forgiveness: "Emperor, it was my negligence—I fell into the heavenly demon's trap and caused so many casualties!"

If he had identified the heavenly demon's trap earlier, the Mother Earth Plains might not have fallen into such a passive situation. "The heavenly demon may have come for you, hoping to lure you alone into the Mother Earth Plains."

The Nine Abyssal Great Emperor, dwelling deep in the Chixiao Golden Hall, was like a dragon lurking in the abyss—surrounded by countless talents and commanding a million-strong army; which heavenly demon would dare come to Jucheng to kill him?

But if he came here alone, trapped in the distant Dragon-Prison Moat, heh, that would be a dragon trapped in a shallow moat.

He Lingchuan knew this even before crossing over, so he waved his hand and said:

"You also rescued He Yue—Guo State's army is a great help. Otherwise, with just your few people plus this small garrison, you couldn't have held out until I arrived."

Time was urgent; he only discussed pros and cons, offering no comfort.

"How many great heavenly demons are currently in the Panlong Secret Realm?" He Lingchuan cut straight to the point: "I only found Jia Lou Tian."

"The teams of Bai Zhan Tian and Tong Ming Zhenjun are still on the way and will soon reach the secret realm."

He Lingchuan nodded.

Therefore, his opponents today are three great heavenly demons—this situation is several times more dangerous than that of the Panlong World.

Of course, he still has some advantages—for instance, the Nine Abyssal Great Emperor in reality can employ methods far surpassing those of the Tiger-Wing General in the Panlong World.

In the Panlong World, their real troubles besides the great heavenly demons were the Bei Jia army; but here, He Lingchuan does not need to face the threat of ten thousand troops, so he is much more at ease.

While calculating in his mind, he immediately asked: "And what exactly happened with the Mother Earth losing contact?"

The little stone figure also appeared; He Lingchuan glanced at it and knew it was a Mother Earth clone—lacking spirituality, only following basic rules.

Mother Earth is one of the essential conditions for them to deal with the demon horde's descent. Battles occur on the plains she controls; if she returns, He Lingchuan's confidence in handling today's situation would increase by at least forty percent.

"We fell for the heavenly demon's scheme." Then, Mingke Xianren briefly explained the events in a few words.

He Lingchuan's eyes flickered: "Before the Mother Earth's divine soul disappeared, did you notice any omens?"

Mingke Xianren felt both ashamed and self-reproachful, but the Mother Earth's whereabouts being unknown truly baffled him.

Yet he immediately added: "Pak Chi Hai said he saw the dream barrier."

"Where is Pak Chi Hai?"

As soon as the words fell, Pak Chi Hai floated down from above the city wall, hurriedly knelt before him, his voice filled with exhaustion: "Emperor, you have finally come!"

His whole body was wounded—whether moving or speaking, tiny particles drifted from his wounds like black mist, then dissipated in the air. Especially, Pak Chi Hai's right hand's five fingers kept vaporizing; within a few breaths, only his wrist remained.

His left eye had long since become nothing but a black hole.

Nightmares do not bleed, but they cause loss of function—these are the energies he has lost.

The lower his energy, the less distinct his physical form—or rather, his spiritual body—becomes.

"Absurd!" He Lingchuan casually scooped a ladle of water from the plaza and handed it to Pak Chi Hai: "Drink."

As he bent over, his hands were empty; but when he reached out, a green ladle mysteriously appeared.

Pak Chi Hai felt nothing strange—after all, the Nine Abyssal Great Emperor is the creator of this Secret Realm; producing a water ladle here is trivial, let alone a water dragon.

He took the green ladle and drank it all in one gulp.

Within just a few breaths, Pak Chi Hai's wounds stopped emitting smoke and began healing at a visible speed.

He is the Plains Night Wanderer God appointed by the Nine Abyssal Great Emperor; as long as the Great Emperor approves, he can draw energy from the Panlong Secret Realm / Great Yan Heavenly Pearl to replenish himself.

While Pak Chi Hai drank water, He Lingchuan asked: "How did the Mother Earth's divine soul disappear?"

"We regularly patrol the plains' dreams to drive away foreign evil spirits and nightmares, protecting the Mother Earth Plains' dream world from invasion." From the night wanderer's perspective, this world is broadly divided into inner and outer realms—the outer world is reality, while the inner world is the dream realm.

The Mother Earth Plains are no exception.

Mother Earth herself, along with the immortals and garrison on the plains, can resist external invasions, but certain evil spirits invade the inner world—the dream realm—where their movements are especially covert, requiring the night wanderers to act. In short, they guard another layer of the Mother Earth Plains' security.

Pak Chi Hai scooped a handful of water, palm upward, spreading it open—the droplets that should have fallen instead floated upward, continuously merging, eventually forming several suspended water balls of various sizes:

"But dreams come in big and small, solitary and shared, and they are often not interconnected. This layer of water skin enclosing them is the dream barrier!" Pak Chi Hai continued: "Our nightmares can almost freely roam all the dream realms of the Mother Earth Plains, except—"

He clenched his hand; the other water balls shattered, leaving only the largest one, solitary and suspended in midair:

"—except Mother Earth's own dream realm, which forbids our entry."

This is completely understandable. Mother Earth, as the master of this plain, enjoys the utmost privacy and naturally refuses to let night wanderers pry into her dreams. Moreover, she is in a cooperative relationship with Cang Yan and the Nine Abyssal Great Emperor—not a direct superior-subordinate one—and the night wanderers merely reside upon her, usually treating her with great respect.

Mother Earth dreams. This obscure fact, He Lingchuan knows. Otherwise, how could Guan Biao have previously imprisoned her in the void? "She probably sleeps very little."

Mother Earth's true form is merely a massive stone, unlike humans who lack sleep.

"Yes, but Mother Earth is too exhausted; upon returning to her birthplace, she buries her head and sleeps deeply, and her dream realm has erected a barrier."

He Lingchuan suddenly understood.

Indeed, Mother Earth has complained of fatigue several times, but as Nine Abyssal Great Emperor, he faces complex worldly circumstances and has encountered a great opportunity to disrupt the Heavenly God's plan, so he has repeatedly demanded Mother Earth mobilize troops.

For Mother Earth's condition, this is nothing short of adding frost to snow.

Sigh, perhaps every morsel of food and drop of drink is predestined.

Pak Chi Hai continued: "Originally, we wouldn't disturb her, but one of my subordinates, a nightmare, discovered that Mother Earth's dream barrier had strangely turned light purple. At first, it was still clearly defined, but when I rushed over, I found her dream realm completely wrapped in a mass of purple mist!"

As he spoke, the water ball in his hand changed—originally colorless and transparent, its surface slowly crawled with purple smoke threads.

Soon, the entire water ball was enveloped in purple mist.

Then, the purple mist began to expand and differentiate. If Mother Earth's dream realm was originally a water ball, now the purple mist fused with it forms an outer shape like a peanut—narrow in the middle, bulging at both ends.

Mother Earth's dream realm suddenly became abnormal; of course, the night wanderers had to go inspect it.

(End of Chapter)