Chapter 118: Dream Within a Dream

Thud—.

Liu Can was choked down to the ground by Luo Feng.

Uh...... ho......

A sound like a broken wind box squeezed out of Liu Can's throat, and his face, which always wore an elite‑style arrogance, turned purple with the strain.

He stared hard at the Luo Feng before him, his brain buzzing from lack of oxygen.

"Luo Feng...... wake up! This...... is a dream!"

"I am Liu Can! No...... not Liang Hao!"

He desperately tried to awaken the other, but the hands gripping his throat were like the hardest iron tongs, their strength incomprehensible and still tightening.

It had no effect at all.

Liu Can only then realized that Luo Feng had entered a deeper layer of the dream—a dream within a dream.

He could easily interfere with a dream, but he had no way to, within a short time, intervene through one layer of dream to affect the deeper dream within a dream!

Liu Can's prideful hypnosis, his ability to shatter a person's mental defenses in a second and toy with their mind at will, seemed utterly ridiculous at that moment.

This Weird thing wasn't constructing a dream at all; it was manipulating!

It directly warped the boundary between reality and dream, trapping Luo Feng in a deeper nightmare, and could even reverse‑control his body to commit violence in reality!

What a terrifying dream‑manipulation ability!

For the first time, Liu Can felt an uncontrollable surge of fear in his heart.

He felt his throat bones emitting an overburdened "gurgle" sound, the world before his eyes darkening, his lungs' air completely drained.

He was going to die.

He would be strangled to death like a stray dog by a target he was "saving" in a third‑rate university dormitory.

Just as Liu Can's consciousness was about to sink into darkness.

Bang—!

A deafening crash.

Nie Yang's face, which always bore a warm smile, now showed no warmth at all; he lifted a sturdy solid‑wood chair, used all his strength, and smashed it hard onto Luo Feng's occiput!

Thud!

Luo Feng's body jolted stiff, his blood‑red eyes instantly lost their luster, and his whole form went limp, falling forward onto Liu Can.

Cough! Cough cough cough cough......

Liu Can was pressed down with a muffled groan, but once the restraint on his neck loosened, he immediately coughed greedily and painfully like a fish out of water, gulping the hard‑won air.

He clumsily pushed away Luo Feng's heavy body, crawling backward with hands and feet until his back pressed against the cold wall, then stopped.

The lingering terror of surviving the calamity made him shiver all over; he touched his burning neck, where five distinct purple‑black finger marks remained.

He looked toward Nie Yang, who had calmly set the chair down not far away, and a trace of gratitude entered his eyes.

Meanwhile.

In Luo Feng's dream.

Ho...... ho......

Liang Hao's struggle grew weaker and weaker, and finally his body completely collapsed.

Luo Feng released his grip, watching Liang Hao's face twisted and deformed by asphyxiation, feeling the other's body temperature gradually fade.

He first let out a sigh, then a strong fear rose in his heart.

I killed someone!

I killed someone with my own hands!

But immediately, a strong urge to justify himself replaced that fear.

It was...... it was you who wanted to kill me!

I was acting in self‑defense! Yes, self‑defense!

Luo Feng gasped heavily, slowly calming down from that primal fighting state.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, scheming in his mind.

He must report to the police immediately.

No...... can't report! Even if the police came, it wouldn't make sense.

He should find a lawyer first; the Luo family's legal team can turn black into white.

But before that......

He had to first check the outside situation; the fight's noise was so loud, maybe it startled the neighboring dorm residents.

Luo Feng steadied himself, tiptoed to the dormitory doorway, and gently twisted the doorknob.

But outside the door, it wasn't the familiar male dorm corridor he knew.

It was a deep, silent stone‑built corridor exuding an ancient aura.

On both sides of the corridor stood heavy oak doors carved with crosses.

The air was filled with the mixed scent of burning Candle and old wood.

High on the vaulted ceiling, dim yellow light filtered through stained‑glass windows, casting mottled, bizarre shadows on the floor.

Where... is this place?

Luo Feng's brain instantly crashed.

This is not Haibin Daxue's dormitory building!

This damn... looks like a European medieval monastery!

Like... a scene from a Ghost Nun movie!

A bone‑deep chill surged from the soles of his feet straight up to his Heavenly Spirit Cover!

He abruptly turned his head, wanting to flee back to the dormitory where he had just "killed" Liang Hao.

But when he turned his head, he was completely stunned.

The dormitory behind him also changed in the instant he turned around.

The original dormitory room turned into an ancient, heavy oak door identical to the one at the far end of the Corridor before him.

Where were the bunk beds, where was the computer desk?

Even Liang Hao's corpse had disappeared.

Everything had vanished.

It seemed as if the bloody struggle just now had merely been his hallucination.

The transition of this scene came without any warning, like an unreasonable hard cut in a film.

One second ago, he was still in the modern university dormitory, acting in "self-defense".

The next second, he was abandoned all alone in this gloomy, Weird Corridor of the Seventh: Xiu Dao Yuan.

"No...... no...... impossible......"

Luo Feng's lips began to tremble; he could not comprehend what was happening before him.

Just then.

At the far end of the Corridor, within a mass of thick darkness, a tall figure in a black nun's habit slowly emerged.

It lowered its head, its pallid face hidden in the shadow of the hood, indistinct.

But Luo Feng could feel it.

It was looking at him.

That gaze pierced the darkness, pierced the distance, like two icy steel needles, viciously stabbing deep into his soul.

Luo Feng's scream caught in his throat; his whole body's blood congealed.

He finally understood.

—He had never woken up.

From the moment Liu Can's voice appeared, or perhaps even earlier, he had sunk into a deeper layer of the dream.

A dream disguised as "reality".

The so-called "killing of Liang Hao", the so-called "self-defense", were merely traps meticulously designed by that terrifying presence before him.

A perfect closed loop that let him go from extreme terror, to grasping hope, and finally plunge utterly into despair.

"Boom......"

"Boom......"

Heavy, slow footsteps echoed from the far end of the Corridor.

Eighth: Ghost Nun, began walking slowly toward him.