Chapter 999: 0596 Preliminary Exam

Is this the Dream Realm...?

Gazing up at the dazzling, radiant River of Dreams above, watching the colorful bubbles soaring freely within it, Li Ang couldn’t help but silently marvel.

Even though the Dream Realm ranks lower in cosmic hierarchy than realms like Heaven, the Death Realm, or the Abyss, and its average divine power is significantly weaker, this surreal, half-real half-illusory beauty is unparalleled among all realms.

Just seeing this endless, breathtakingly beautiful river above is worth the trip alone.

“Wow!”

“Is this a fragment of the Garden of Lost Pleasure?”

“It’s so beautiful...”

As Li Ang tilted his head, entranced by the River of Dreams above, a series of low, awestruck murmurs rose around him, accompanied by one after another faint, strange silhouettes.

Men, women, children, the old and young, tall and short, fat and thin, furred and horned, birds and beasts...

Though their base forms seemed human, closer inspection revealed subtle, bizarre non-human traits—some had wings sprouting from their backs, others horns on their heads, some had blue faces and fangs, others were covered in thick fur... in short, none were fully human.

Could these strangely shaped figures be the examinees?

Counting the strange silhouettes, he found exactly four hundred and some—nearly matching the total number of examinees—and Li Ang formed a rough guess about their identities, then immediately checked his own condition.

He wore shoes, not beast hooves; his fingertips and palm edges bore calluses from training, not thick pads or claws; his arms, marked with faint scars and sunburn, were normal, with no strange scales or growths; his clothing hadn’t changed, not even the coffee stain on his cuff remained.

Strange... why am I still human?

Not bad, not bad. These examinees’ quality is quite good. They can all pass the preliminary exam.

As Li Ang puzzled over why only he hadn’t transformed, a hunched old man with white hair and beard sat cross-legged inside a colorful bubble floating in the Dream River, squinting down at the grotesque examinees below, a satisfied expression on his face.

The examinees’ entry into the Dream Realm primarily involved their core consciousness, and within any person’s consciousness, the dominant component is always their self-perception.

Under the Dream Realm’s influence, their consciousnesses had undergone varying degrees of distortion, yet most retained human forms—proof that despite contamination by anomalies, they still maintained a clear sense of self, indicating solid mental stability.

Though... not everyone seemed stable.

Spotting a six-winged white angel, a hooded death god clutching a bloodstained scythe, and a golden-yellow humanoid excrement among the crowd, the white-bearded old man with the twin-fish-and-dung-ball emblem on his chest and a beast-skin notebook spread across his knees let out a sigh.

Fine, let them pass anyway.

These three examinees, though heavily contaminated and fully transformed, still retained humanoid shapes—proof they still believed themselves human. They’ve passed the mental stability preliminary, but their scores must be low.

Squinting his sharply divided black-and-white eyes at the six-winged angel, the hooded death god, and the humanoid excrement, the Twin-Fish Director collected their auras and made special notations in his beast-skin notebook.

Level One - Scorpio Branch - Cleansing Woman - Abigail Dark - Self-Perception: Angel (Full Transformation, Low Mental Stability);

Level One - Aries Branch - Executioner - Mason Tobio - Self-Perception: Death God (Full, Low);

Level Two - Virgo Branch - Plague Alchemist - Amien Bellet - Self-Perception: Excrement? Vomit? (Full, Low);

Alright, these three are the only unusual ones.

Finding the three examinees’ names on the registration forms, he entered 30 points in the preliminary exam column, then stretched his wrist and swiftly collected the auras of all remaining candidates, dumping them into the beast-skin notebook as he scribbled scores with lightning speed.

Level Two - Taurus Branch - Ant-God - Rudy Taurus - Bull Horns (Partial, High, 75 points)

Level Three - Canis Minor Branch - Shepherd - Percy Jackson - Goat Eyes (Partial, Higher, 90 points)

Level Three - Virgo Branch - God-Eater - Li Ang Lian... hmm?

Li Ang Lian?

Seeing his name appear on the beast-skin notebook, the Twin-Fish Director froze, then looked down in surprise—there, standing beside the excrement-being and chatting with her, was none other than the God-Eater who’d caused such a stir recently.

With his level, why is he taking this exam? This is pure bullying. Olivia is way out of line—wait, hold on!

Studying Li Ang’s profile, then maneuvering his bubble through several positions, he observed Li Ang from every angle—no trace of deviation from human norms, utterly, perfectly normal—and the Twin-Fish Director couldn’t help but hiss.

His mental stability... it’s not a matter of high or low anymore.

How deeply must a person believe in their own identity to still see themselves as completely ordinary after consuming an actual god?

“Senior Amien...”

Unaware that anyone was observing him, Li Ang stared at the thing before him—not just resembling a pile, but literally a humanoid excrement—and sighed helplessly.

“Why... are you like this?”

“I don’t know.”

Shaking his head slightly, Amien studied his own curvaceous, alluring figure—yet one that instinctively repelled others—and answered calmly.

“But I don’t mind these changes. It’s not bad this way.”

“...”

Holy hell...

Watching Senior Amien calmly accept his identity as “Excrement Woman,” even pulling out a transparent container to study himself, Li Ang’s lip twitched—he had no idea what to say, so he switched topics.

“Um... Senior Amien, did the Director tell you our main objective this time?”

“Ah, I know that.”

Hearing Li Ang’s question, the Excrement Woman paused her sampling and smiled, nodding.

“I’ll help you win first place. You help me test drugs, right?”

“...”

Pretty much... yeah.