Chapter 73: Dixiya's Father

The next day.

When Luo De woke up.

It left him feeling refreshed, and the fatigue from days of travel vanished completely.

Although he had spent a night in Nadixa's dream, appearing as if he hadn't slept, this not only didn't add mental strain but instead made him feel especially relaxed upon waking.

It was Luo De's practical questions about farming and animal husbandry that made the already insecure Nadixa withdraw even further.

Just thinking about it made Luo De laugh and cry at once.

Nadixa, this deity, is fine in every way.

It's just that she's too soft‑eared.

After generations of Great Sages drilled into her the idea that 'You are not as good as the Great Merciful Tree King,' she truly etched those words into her heart.

No matter how hard she tried, she never gained confidence, always believing she was inferior to the Great Merciful Tree King.

This also explains why, despite being able to break free from the Academy's confinement, she never dared to step even a foot out of the Pure Good Palace.

But knowledge is inherently endless.

Old knowledge hasn't even been finished learning when new knowledge appears.

Like A De Ba Yi's theory of cross‑grafting and avoiding inbreeding, this is a brand‑new body of knowledge derived from old knowledge.

Therefore, trying to reach satisfaction by doing exercises and studying textbook knowledge is simply impossible.

The exercises can never be finished; you'll never finish them in this lifetime.

Moreover, it's not just about doing exercises; you also need practice to uncover truth.

The result of rote memorization of textbook knowledge was that this deity, who ought to be omniscient, was taken down on first encounter by Luo De with a problem that required actual practice to solve.

This made Nadixa, who already harbored the deep‑seated belief 'I am not as good as the Great Merciful Tree King,' break out in a sweat.

Anyway, when Luo De left the dream,

Nadixa was still there, agonizing over his mushroom‑chicken crossbreeding problem, and directly in the dream conjured up various mushroom‑chickens, using on‑hand materials to begin simulation.

It must be said.

Nadixa's ability is indeed enviable.

As long as one knows the detailed data, one can conduct simulated deduction in the dream.

Even more astonishingly,

this dream Nadixa can fully control.

In other words,

Nadixa's dream is essentially a super‑large, high‑intelligence simulator; she only needs to input data, adjust time, climate, and other environmental factors, then she can fast‑forward, skip the lengthy practice period, and quickly obtain the data and results she desires.

"If only I had this ability."

Luo De sighed.

Having this ability would also mean he wouldn't need test fields; he could conduct hands‑on operations in the dream, at least greatly reducing the risk of losing everything.

Unfortunately.

Divine power isn't something one can covet.

Dixiya also got up early.

Luo De had just finished washing up when she came to knock on the door.

During the meal,

Seeing Dixiya wearing a Void Terminal on her ear, Luo De set down his meat patty, pondered, and asked: "Did you have a dream last night?"

"A dream?"

Dixiya blinked at the question: "What kind of dream? I haven't dreamed in ages."

"If you don't wear the Void Terminal, you still won't dream, right?"

Luo De stared at Dixiya's Void Terminal and asked again.

This question left Dixiya even more confused.

"What does dreaming or not dreaming have to do with the Void Terminal?"

"We Sumeru people hardly ever dream; only children dream. Elders say that when you stop dreaming, it means you've grown up."

"Back when I was escorting scholars on a commission, I even heard those bookworms explain this."

"Let me think… how did they put it back then? Uh… ah, that's how they said it."

Dixiya cleared her throat, imitating how scholars speak, and gestured: "Wisdom means rationality, while things in dreams often lack both rationality and wisdom. In dreams, people are frequently troubled by their own worries, so the benevolent Wisdom God, the Great Merciful Tree King, bestowed grace upon the Sumeru people, allowing us to stay away from the foolishness of sleep."

Upon hearing this, Luo De understood.

It seems that as long as the Void Terminal is activated, the Void will draw back dreams to harvest them as energy for maintaining the Void; regardless of whether one wears the Terminal, the user's dreams become targets for harvesting.

That doesn't mean it's a bad thing.

Judging by Nadixa's current state, the Academy's god‑making plan surely hasn't officially started yet—that is, it hasn't reached the point where it needs to siphon power from dream energy.

So the Void is still operating normally.

And the Void system's harvesting of dreams isn't solely for the energy needed to keep it running.

The Academy's sages' explanation that Sumeru people don't dream is mostly nonsense, but there is a grain of truth to it.

Dreams are indeed irrational and uncontrollable.

Therefore, as the contamination of the World Tree by forbidden knowledge grows ever more severe, harvesting uncontrollable dreams can prevent some possibilities that would spread the contamination.

This is an act of solving the problem at its root.

No wonder.

No wonder the experimental report in which Ashier explained dreams as wisdom, found among the stack of old Academy books he sold me, is preserved as badly as a piece of trash.

Such a heretical paper, in the Academy, not only would it not be valued, but merely not being expelled counts as mercy from the Great Sage's subordinates.

Looking at Luo De, who always seemed to be in thought, Dixiya asked with a puzzled expression: "Why are you suddenly asking this? Did you have a nightmare last night?"

Luo De is not a Sumeru person, so naturally he can dream; Dixiya still knows that.

Oh.

It's not really a nightmare; I just dreamed of someone else's dream.

Luo De swallowed a bite of meat patty and didn't go into further detail.

Dreaming of someone else's dream?

Dixiya felt curious and asked: "How does that work? Tell me, hehe, I'm not afraid of your teasing—I haven't dreamed in ages, I'm almost forgetting what it feels like to dream."

I forgot the specific content.

I just knew it was a dream within a dream; after waking up, my head felt swollen, a bit uncomfortable, and it took a long time to recover. In my hometown's saying, this is called a nightmare, not something good.

As for Nadixa's matter, it's not the time to talk about it now, and this isn't the place to discuss it; Luo De simply brushed it off with a random excuse.

Dixiya didn't suspect him.

Back when she could still dream, she had also experienced the feeling of such a nightmare that Luo De described.

It's just that Sumeru people have a different term for this kind of nightmare that makes one feel awful upon waking.

"Let's go to the Grand Bazaar later to see if Nilou has a performance today."

"After a nightmare, looking at pleasant things is an effective way to relieve it."

Saying this, Dixiya paused slightly, her expression inscrutable, and said: "This is what my father taught me."

"Your father?"

Hearing that name, Luo De frowned slightly.

He recalled something.

Dixiya's father—at this point in time, he should still be alive, right?

(End of chapter)