Chapter 153: Dream Palace

Everyone's nerves instantly snapped their necks, and their gazes simultaneously darted toward the deep pit.

Bao Jing was the first to rush to the pit's edge and peek down.

It was too dark below; nothing could be seen.

"Yi Yang, is there any danger down there?"

Yi Yang glanced around at the grayish earth walls and the faint blue Dream Stones under his feet; what danger could there be, at most the pit might collapse and bury him.

Yi Yang placed both hands on the pit's earthen wall, and gradually, from his palms, the soft soil hardened into solid rock.

He smugly patted his hand, brushed himself off, and said, "All clear now."

"There's no danger down there! You can go down!"

Bao Jing nodded and stood, "Yi Yang says it's safe below; let's hurry down."

The others nodded; Bao Jing cradled Ye Xi'an and descended slowly, while the rest simply jumped.

"So dark?"—they couldn't see their fingers, but they had night vision, so it wasn't a big issue.

"Twenty meters is definitely dark," Yi Yang stretched his arm to Ye Xi'an's chest, obediently awaiting her praise.

Ye Xi'an smiled helplessly and gave his head a hard tug.

Lin Zhi Jing crouched, his bony fingers lightly brushed the soil‑strewn ground, and the stones beneath instantly flashed blue.

"Indeed they're Dream Stones. They look like... many pieces fused together?"

Ji Jiangci moved closer, watching the faint glow; his pallid face was expressionless, save for a barely perceptible ripple deep in his eyes.

He remembered these things.

"The Dream gathers Dream Stones from Zhimeng Xing, then uses saliva to fuse them, creating a Dream Stone palace underground!"

Palace?

Lin Zhi Jing frowned, "You mean there's actually space down there?"

Ji Jiangci nodded, "Yes, the Dream resides there."

Ye Xi'an formed a thought; she wondered if, upon finding the Dream, it could return the life force it had drained—far more reliable than using her own fluids.

"Let me keep looking."

Ye Xi'an's spirit thread slipped out again, cautiously spreading downward.

The moment it touched those "stones," a cold, viscous sensation traveled back along the spirit thread.

Unlike the earlier pure energy ripple, this time she sensed a... living, writhing motion.

Ye Xi'an's scalp tingled.

"This thing... doesn't feel right."

As soon as she finished speaking, the faint glow at the pit's bottom flickered sharply.

An indescribable cold aura seeped up from the pit, carrying a rotting vegetation scent.

The soil on the pit walls began to crumble away.

A few slender, ink‑green vines, like poisonous snakes, silently slithered out of the stone cracks at the pit's base, clinging to the slick mud wall as they climbed upward.

"Bad! Everyone, get up!"

Bao Jing barked, his gray wings unfurling instantly, generating a gust as he lifted Ye Xi'an upward.

Yi Yang also sensed the danger, scrambling upward with hands and feet; the earth‑yellow glow flared again as he tried to reinforce the pit wall.

But the vines moved even faster.

Their target seemed to be Yi Yang.

Several vines lashed like lightning toward Yi Yang's ankles.

"Watch out!"

Ye Xi'an's spirit thread snapped out like a whip, lashing at the vines.

"Snap!"

The vines paused from the strike, and Ye Xi'an paused as well; her spirit thread could hit people? Then she too had a means of self‑defense.

Before Ye Xi'an could rejoice, the vines twisted even more wildly.

More vines surged from the pit's bottom, dense and spreading upward.

They no longer attacked only Yi Yang, but surged toward everyone at the pit's edge.

"Dammit! What the hell is this!"

Bao Jing cursed, and several Wind Blades materialized, slashing at the vines.

The Wind Blades cut through; the vines snapped but immediately sprouted new branches, as if endless.

Lin Zhi Jing's expression grew solemn; he spread his hands, swiftly drawing and condensing metallic ore from the ground.

"Clang!"

Several Metal Shields rose before the group.

The vines struck the shields, producing a dull thud and leaving shallow dents.

"It's draining energy!"

Lin Zhi Jing said gravely, noting that the energy within the Metal Shields was rapidly draining; it seemed they could only attack, not defend.

Ji Jiangci also acted; being wood‑aligned, he could control plants.

But the ink‑green vines ignored his commands, barely affected by his ability.

His power... had waned far too much.

Ye Xi'an sat in Bao Jing's arms; aside from attacking with her spirit thread, she stared at the pit's bottom.

She sensed the vines' core seemed to lie at the pit's base—was it the Dream?

There, a series of heart‑pounding ripples emanated, as if something was awakening.

When everyone got to the surface, vines also crawled out of the hole, and they kept growing.

"Yi Yang! Can you still move?"

Lin Zhi Jing blocked the vines with a metal knife while shouting at Yi Yang.

"Can… can!"

"Then can you seal the hole?"

"Huh?" Yi Yang was somewhat reluctant; he had barely managed to dig it out, and if he sealed it, wouldn't all his effort be for nothing?

"Hurry! The vines are getting more and more." Lin Zhi Jing's golden knife swirled through the sky, tens of thousands of crescent‑shaped metal blades wildly reaping the vines in the air, broken branches and roots falling like rain from above.

Lin Zhi Jing frowned; he never wanted to see creatures like vines again in his life.

Whether it was the earlier Sai Fulola or the current Zhimeng Xing, why are they always vine monsters?

"Alright."

Yi Yang gritted his teeth, and his hands pressed again onto the mound of earth he had piled at the edge of the pit.

The earth element surged, soil collapsing toward the pit, attempting to seal those vines beneath.

However, a deep, guttural screech, as if from the depths of the earth, echoed from the bottom of the pit.

A powerful psychic shockwave burst outward, soil exploding from the pit like fireworks, covering Yi Yang entirely in mud.

When the energy fluctuations struck them, the scene before everyone's eyes began to warp and blur.

This feeling was most familiar to Ji Jiangci; it was the sensation of entering a dream.

"It's using its ability! It wants to trap us dead in a dream! Everyone, don't fall asleep!"

But drowsiness came, and you can't simply choose not to sleep.

Ye Xi'an's pupils dilated slightly, as if she saw countless shattered images.

There were scenes of fighting side by side with Bao Jing in the Yuangu Shoushi.

There was a profile of Lin Zhi Jing concentrating on his experiment in the laboratory.

There was Yi Yang foolishly circling her, calling her "wife."

And… Ji Jiangci gently brushed her hair, though a lingering melancholy hid in his eyes.

A vague, ethereal voice rang in her mind, bearing a bewitching power.