Chapter 7

Wu Pifu had a dream.

A very lonely, very desolate, very terrifying dream.

It was in a boundless void, with no front, back, left, right, up, or down, and no passage of time. There was only boundless emptiness. He floated in it, dazed, shouting, hoarse, going crazy... but nothing changed, the void remained the void...

Wu Pifu tumbled up from the ruins of the fire pile. His eyes no longer had pupils, only the same pitch black. It wasn't black, but a void without light. Because even light couldn't be reflected, it appeared black.

The trace of calm spiritual light obtained from the Tiger Demon Art's "entering the hall" stage remained motionless. In his inner observation, it seemed as if something was about to surge out...

But just at this moment, a crisp shattering sound came from afar, accompanied by the wails and moans of thousands of lives. Pain, despair, death, all kinds of emotions rang out in this sound.

With the explosion of this sound, Wu Pifu's body shook violently. The void in his eyes began to dissipate. He stumbled, in pain everywhere, but inexplicably had strength, a strange strength born in his body.

(Could it be that after the Tiger Demon Art entered the hall, it has begun to instinctively evolve the body?)

Wu Pifu didn't know the reason. Now, although he had a thought of clarity, in the distracting thoughts of the Tiger Demon Art, he maintained clarity. But after all, he had only just entered the hall, and his overall thinking was still chaotic and irritable. At this moment, he was in the fire pile, instinctively struggling to jump out, and then he saw the Yaksha.

The Yaksha was holding his head and wailing. The black-red muscles on his body were shrinking, and a large amount of darkness turned into loose sludge and dripped to the ground. His body fell from 2.3 meters to 2 meters, and then, under Wu Pifu's witness, it gradually fell to about 1.9 meters. However, this fall stopped. He was still a strong man who exceeded Wu Pifu in height and width.

The bizarreness dissipated!

Wu Pifu immediately knew what had happened. The anchor of this Rank Two Nightmare had been damaged or destroyed.

Once a Rank Two Nightmare leaves its original Dream World, if it leaps to a higher Baseline Reality, its strength will not increase or decrease. Some need anchors, some don't.

But if a Rank Two Nightmare falls to a lower Baseline Reality, its bizarre concentration will be diluted because the Dream World itself has a higher bizarre concentration. So it needs to find an anchor in the Dream World it is in—either a life, a non-life, or very occasionally some kind of concept. Once the anchor is injured, the Nightmare's strength will drop significantly. If the anchor is destroyed, the Nightmare will also dissipate and perish.

This Yaksha was actually not the anchor of the Rank Two Nightmare!?

Yes, yes, its previous words indeed mentioned something like a master...

What appeared in Wu Pifu's heart at this moment was not joy. In the "entering the hall" stage of the Tiger Demon Art, he began to possess a kind of instinct similar to supernatural power. Although it was far inferior to "the cicada knows before the autumn wind moves," it also transcended the realm of mortals.

Tears suddenly rolled down from his eyes.

He inexplicably knew that he would never see that little mute again.

"Give it to me!"

Wu Pifu didn't even know what he was saying. He just strode toward the Yaksha... even though the Yaksha was still stronger than him, even though his remaining hand was fractured, even though he was covered in heavy injuries and near death. But at this moment, he moved like a tiger, his intent like a demon, and between his movements, there was a faint sound of a demonic tiger roaring.

The Yaksha opened his mouth and hissed, but his feet were slowly retreating.

"Give me... your life!!"

When the two were five meters apart, Wu Pifu leaped forward. It was the "Mad Tiger Pouncing on the Ravine" from the Tiger Demon Art. The last time he used it, he was fleeing from this Rank Two Nightmare. This time, he was pouncing toward the derivative of this Nightmare.

The Yaksha scrambled to raise his hands to block, but Wu Pifu, although looking like he was about to die, had his strength increased by 30% for some unknown reason. With one collision, he directly pushed aside the Yaksha's hands and arms. In a flash, Wu Pifu's broken bone spur stabbed into the Yaksha's throat. The two collided, and the bone fragments and bone spurs were deeply embedded in the Yaksha's throat tube.

The Yaksha struggled madly, and the huge force snapped Wu Pifu's broken arm bone, with a piece of bone remaining in his throat tube. Wu Pifu didn't move his face at all, just retracted his arm, ignored his palm that was already broken in half, and used the broken bone spur with sharp corners to stab at the Yaksha's face.

Once, twice, three times...

At first, the Yaksha was still struggling madly, using hands and feet, but Wu Pifu pressed firmly on his chest, and his arm kept stabbing down. Even his palm broke and fell off, but he didn't care. Then the Yaksha's body began to twitch, and there was no movement, no sound. A large amount of black sludge flowed all over the ground, but it had lost all activity.

Wu Pifu still didn't stop his movements. At this moment, his mind was filled with rage, killing intent, and sorrow...

He didn't know how much time had passed. The ground was covered with broken corpses, and one couldn't even tell they were human. Only then did Wu Pifu look up at the main hall.

There were still three or four living people on the platform in front of the main hall, including nuns and guests. They had all been skinned, but they didn't die for a while. Originally, they were still wailing and moaning, painfully wanting to roll on the ground, but the gravel ground prevented them from doing so.

At this moment, they were all looking at Wu Pifu in terrified silence. They didn't dare to have any movements, and didn't dare to make any sounds. They had witnessed the entire fight.

They had witnessed a human and a Yaksha fighting and killing each other. In the end, it was this human who tortured and killed the Yaksha. But... is he really human?

Wu Pifu didn't care about them, just walked into the main hall step by step.

Then he saw the collapsed and broken Buddha statue, and also saw the little mute who had been crushed to death under the Buddha statue.

The Buddha statue collapsed and broke on the ground, just crushing the little mute underneath. And the little mute was still holding a table leg in her hand, a table leg of the wooden table that offered the Buddha statue...

Everything was understood.

Wu Pifu looked at everything in front of him with sorrow.

His life was saved by the little mute... twice!!

Why?

Just because of a chance encounter?

Just because of a few short conversations?

Or because he promised to take her away?

Wu Pifu didn't know. There were no more tears in his eyes. He just lowered his body, lifted the little mute with his arm that had no palm, held her against his chest, and then slowly picked her up.

Very light, very thin, very small...

Then Wu Pifu looked at the broken Buddha statue. There was still sludge surging out of the Buddha statue, and it still had life activity. What he did was very simple: he kicked the remaining large pieces of the Buddha statue with force, kicking them into pieces. The sludge let out terrifying wails. The people who had been skinned outside the main hall all covered their ears and wailed in pain, and then they all fainted.

But as Wu Pifu kicked the last piece of debris, all the sludge began to spread and dissipate. Only a black sphere about the size of a soccer ball appeared in the center. It looked like sludge, and also like plastic.

"Event achieved, Clay Buddha Yaksha."

"1124 AD, the sixth year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty, outside Kaifeng City, Bianliang, a shocking murder case occurred at Jing'an Temple in Niu Village. All 32 nuns in the temple and 13 tourists suffered a disaster. Only four survived, but all of them suffered the torture of skinning and died within a few days to a few dozen days."

"According to them, red light rushed into the sky that night, and the Buddha statue spat out sludge, which merged into the body of a ranger. The ranger thus became the Yaksha, the protector of Buddhism, and killed and skinned everyone in the temple."

"There was a strange man, one-armed and alone, who broke into the temple and fought with the Yaksha, finally killing the Yaksha on the spot. Afterward, he destroyed the Buddha statue, picked up the corpse of an unnamed nun, and fled, not knowing where he went."

"When he left, an emerald-green little bird landed on his shoulder. The bird might have divinity, and it disappeared with the strange man."

Wu Pifu perceived the information sent by the Mainframe in his mind.

This was establishing a sanctuary.

As far as Wu Pifu knew, there were three ways to establish a sanctuary.

First, exchange with equivalent items in the world. For example, in the Baseline Reality 0.9 Shanghai Bund, he used twenty silver dollars to buy a tailor shop and established a Rank One Sanctuary. The more expensive and well-known the building, the higher the rank of the sanctuary established after purchase.

Second, increase influence in the Dream World, such as how many slaves, farmers, soldiers, employees, or partners you have, and then form a force. You can also establish a sanctuary. For example, if Wu the Skinflint became the master of Liangshan, the so-called "Gathering Hall" could be anchored by the Mainframe as a sanctuary. The stronger the force, the higher the rank of the sanctuary established.

Third, achieve a historical event, which means the Dream World will record it in history. The greater the influence, the more powerful the dynasty recorded, and the higher the rank of the sanctuary established.

In fact, integrated together, it is the acquisition of influence in the Dream World.

Buying a building itself is gaining influence, and making money is the same. No matter how the money is obtained—stolen, robbed, or earned by hard work—this is actually gaining influence. As for forces or historical events, it is the same.

In essence, this is a process of the Mainframe invading the information code of the Dream World through these maintenance personnel to gain influence... if these Dream Worlds are really just programs.

The information in Wu Pifu's mind continued, and he just clamped the black sphere under his armpit and also clamped the little mute.

Just as the event description said, when he walked out of the temple, the emerald-green little bird flew onto his shoulder, chirping incessantly.

As if crying about something...

That kind, thin, little mute who could only make "ah-ah" sounds could no longer respond to it.

(End of chapter)