Chapter 831: Dream Creatures, Fool's Dreams, Nightmares……
The dream creature seemed to understand my provocation in this instant, its unstable form twisting continuously as it transformed into a ferocious demon.
It opened a massive mouthpart; its hideous fangs did not resemble a naturally evolved creature at all, but rather a fantasy construct similar to one designed to maximize the deepest fears within a living being's heart—that kind of negative emotion.
But in the next moment, a piercing pain greeted its mouthpart as the information-converged "Pseudo-Book in the Casket" spun like a cannonball and tore through its body.
The solid book body burst out from behind the dream creature, physically smashing out a hole.
This was the only way I had managed to figure out in my haste to cause injury to the opponent: the most direct form of information contact interference.
Simply put, dream creatures appeared in the Primal Dream State through a form of "materialization," and the information gathered to form their bodies was itself a part of information.
Therefore, the information structure could be damaged through a contact-based method.
As for my means of constructing the Pseudo-Book in the Casket, it was composed by gathering information using mental power.
Mental power was essentially a type of force that touched the level of Transcendent energy, and this force could also indirectly serve as a perception channel.
Therefore, mental power was a very perfect "Transcendent means" that could be utilized within the dream state.
However, attempting to use mental power to outline runes, construct rituals, or cast spells was impossible.
Because reality and dreams were incompatible.
So, switching to another way, using mental power in coordination with the five senses to wield information was essentially not much different from wielding spells.
It was just that my mental power at this stage was still too strained to construct dream creations.
My most powerful means within the dream state should be… the Sacred Object!
Or rather, the Grand Spellbook, or [Transcendent Knowledge]; whatever it was called, it was merely a title.
The reason spellbooks could not be used within the dream state was because there was no foundation for casting inside the dream; this included but was not limited to the absence of runes, rituals, Transcendent energy, and other external factors, as well as many other indirect reasons.
The reason a Grand Spellbook could be used within the dream state… was because within the dream, the Grand Spellbook possessed [Transcendent Knowledge] that did not rely on the external foundation of spells.
With such a Grand Spellbook, many abilities could not be used, such as the spell-related portions, or the runes, or the spell frameworks…… thus, such a Grand Spellbook only had its purest part remaining—[Transcendent Knowledge].
Namely… the Sacred Object in the mouths of the Fool's Dreams.
At this moment, after taking a hit from my Book in the Casket, the dream creature fell into a frenzy.
However, the strength of the dream creature seemed to be… much weaker than I had estimated.
Clearly, weakness was only relative.
They were simply very difficult to kill; furthermore, this was within the Primal Dream State, where killing a dream creature was extremely difficult.
Therefore, what I was thinking about now was not how to defeat it, but how to "subdue" it.
The reason for such trouble was that after that strike just now, the urge to study it sprouted within me.
This was a rare experimental material!
Otherwise, within Fool's Village, I couldn't exactly start researching the Fool's Dreams directly, could I?
Following that, I began attempting to use mental power to condense information constructs to surround and block the dream creature.
Although I really wanted to try some other methods, I chose the currently most familiar plan for the sake of safety.
Ultimately, after consuming quite a bit of time and a large amount of mental power, I finally completely locked this dream creature within a massive information black box.
Although this battle appeared very unadorned compared to my previous battles, for the Fool's Dreams, it was undoubtedly a hearty and dripping battle!
When the dream creature was locked within the black box like that, unable to escape no matter what, the scene immediately resounded with the celebratory voices of countless Fool's Dreams.
Far away on the Starlight Tower, the Dream Picture Scroll also silently recorded this battle……
"Truly, thank you so much, Sage Xiao Han."
The Village Chief stepped forward at this time, representing all the Fool's Dreams to express her gratitude to me.
During the battle just now, this Village Chief had also intended to rush up at the first moment, but she was stopped by me.
I did not know exactly what kind of means the Village Chief possessed to deal with dream creatures that ordinary Fool's Dreams could not handle, but I didn't want to know either.
What if she intended to grab the dream creature and break away from Fool's Village with it, falling into the external Primal Dream State in an ultimate one-for-one trade?
That was not an impossible possibility, right?
I turned my head to look at the distant Starlight Tower; the Dream Picture Scroll atop it could not be seen from here, but countless past moments were drawn upon it, images of the Fool's Dreams dealing with dream creature invasions.
Standing here in Fool's Village, I could not see the night sky atop the Starlight Tower; only then did I understand that the white sky here in Fool's Village… was also fake.
The light illuminating everything here was merely an illusion beneath the Starlight Tower; no… perhaps it was a longing for beauty?
After accepting the gratitude of the Village Chief and the crowd of Fool's Dreams, we also had to face many things that followed.
The evacuation of the Fool's Dreams.
The blockade of the Fool's Village entrance.
And… the Fool's Dreams injured by the dream creature's attack!
These injured Fool's Dreams were not bleeding from wounds, but rather, it referred to them being "cursed" by the dream creature's Nightmare.
In not many days, they would gradually lose their rationality and become dream creatures whose consciousness was in symbiosis with a Nightmare!
"Village Chief… in the past, regarding injured Fool's Dreams like this, what did you all do?"
After listening to the Village Chief tell me what would become of a Fool's Dream in symbiosis with a Nightmare, I still asked this question.
"It's fine… Sage… we will have a really good meal before we lose our rationality… then drink a large cup of Fool's Dream Drink, and finally… leave Fool's Village……"
The injured Fool's Dream I picked up spoke very excitedly to explain to me, as if being able to explain things the Sage didn't know was a very glorious thing.
"To go… outside Fool's Village… to do what?"
I felt my breathing grow somewhat heavy at this moment.
I somewhat didn't want to hear the words "wait for death" from the mouth of a Fool's Dream.
"To go outside Fool's Village…"
"Is it to go find the Sage to grant you salvation?"
I beat her to it and asked in response: "It's fine, now your Sage has already come, so you don't need to go outside Fool's Village anymore, because… your hope has already arrived in Fool's Village."
"Sage… you…"
The Village Chief stepped forward at this time.
As the Village Chief, she possessed a maturity other Fool's Dreams did not have; those were illusions bestowed upon her by memory.
She naturally knew very well that Fool's Dreams voluntarily left Fool's Village so that more Fool's Dreams would not repeat their mistakes as they had.
And they did not want to become dream creatures and spread Nightmares within Fool's Village.
It was precisely because every Fool's Dream within Fool's Village was so innocent that Fool's Village could continue until now under one "accident" after another within the Primal Dream State.
"It's fine, haven't I already gradually begun to master power? But power is not my trump card; knowledge and wisdom are. I will try to solve the problem of the Nightmare. Just give me time… even in the worst case, I will not let them become dream creatures and harm the other Fool's Dreams of Fool's Village."
I looked at the Village Chief and spoke.
"Since this is the Sage's guarantee, we will naturally follow your arrangements."
"Thank you for your understanding… can you first prepare a residence for me? Bring them over there as well. I want to crack the curse of the Nightmare; I need a quiet place. You go ahead; I will process this dream creature here first."
"Naturally! I will handle everything together with everyone!"
"We'll help too."
At this time, Fool's Dream and the other two little ones who had been following me also spoke.
"Really? Truly, thank you so much……"
"You are the Heroes who brought back the Sage, right?"
The Fool's Dreams being supported looked at Fool's Dream and the others, similarly very excited.
"Mhm."
However, Fool's Dream and the others only thought about being able to help at this moment and did not mind their feelings of gratitude.
After the Fool's Dreams all got busy, I began to get busy as well.
In Fool's Village, only I could deal with dream creatures.
Looking at the dream creature encapsulated within the black box, I also began attempting other means.
Although mental power means were very useful, I felt this kind of means could not last long; dealing with a single dream creature felt somewhat strenuous, and the efficiency was not high either.
Although this was like a "creation-like" miracle within the dream state and was very impressive, I was still very dissatisfied.
Since mental power could interfere with information, what about the five senses derived from Body Cultivation?
This was not a specific type of Transcendent power, but a perception channel.
Therefore, the five senses, sixth sense, and seventh sense remained effective within the dream state.
For example, in the brief battle just now, the five senses helped me clearly perceive the information of the dream state's data, assisting mental power in completing the shaping of the information.
Another example was the sixth sense, Heart Sense, which allowed me to feel that kind of posture displayed by the dream creature within the Primal Dream State—a cognition dominated entirely by negative emotions, as if the dream creature was a collection of negative emotions itself.
However, this was merely Heart Sense, so dream creatures were not just collections of negative emotions; there were also other concepts gathered to form the complex dream creature.
As for the seventh sense, Time Sense… this ability to subjectively influence the flow of time was "infinitely" magnified within the dream state.
In fact, the perception of Time Sense could even reverse-influence the information itself.
And it achieved an ability similar to the "Time Sense" mastered by Big Sis Bai!
Although I did not have enough energy to shape a Time Sense Body Cultivation domain, there was no Transcendent energy within the dream; there was only information, and the perception channels to interfere with it!
Therefore, within the dream state, I could also achieve a certain degree of "local time reversal"!
Although this essentially belonged to the informational backward regression.
But its manifestation within the dream state was "local time reversal"!
As for the eighth sense, Space Sense, which was still in a "theoretical" state for me…
I seemed to have gained a brand-new cognition of it this time under the strengthening of the Primal Dream State.
This further proved that my previous cognitions and guesses were correct!
Space Sense, like Time Sense, was not a shallow "surface" ability like manipulating time or space.
This was a brand-new dimension of understanding and mastery of "control" and "dominance" by the Body Cultivation perception channels!
After gradually becoming familiar with these abilities, I also became confident.
The richness of my means gave me enough foundation to respond to various sudden situations.
Thus, I officially began processing the black box before me.
After dismantling the black box, the dream creature inside lunged over once again.
But it was destined to fail.
The reason I wanted to dismantle the black box was because such a big fellow was inconvenient to carry; I needed a smaller and lighter container to hold it.
Quickly, a sealed and transparent jar compressed and encapsulated it.
The reason for choosing transparency was naturally so I could intuitively see if it had escaped or not.
When the time comes, after returning to the place Fool's Dream arranged for me, I would still need another way to "restrain" it, so that I could carefully study it and the "Nightmare" portion atop the dream creature.
After finishing these things here, I also followed the Village Chief to the place where I would be residing next.
The house where the Fool's Dreams lived was still a bit small for me; after all, the Fool's Dreams were only that big, so the houses they lived in naturally wouldn't be particularly large.
Thus, Fool's Village was more like a Lilliput.
However, the house the Village Chief prepared for me was of a size very suitable for my residence.
I looked at this house somewhat lost in thought.
After step-by-step understanding the dream state, I understood that the concepts of large and small were also chaotic within the dream.
It was just as if before I had cognitively recognized the Fool's Dreams of the Primal Dream State, they would not have been in a posture like Fool's Dream's.
And once their body size was anchored, many other things followed as being "reasonable," such as utensils, housing, and the like also becoming reasonable.
The dream state was both fragile and resilient; it was so fragile that even time, space, concepts, and size could not be established, yet it could also achieve the limit of integrating these concepts for the sake of being "reasonable."
After no longer caring about these trivialities, I walked into this small house.
Even though such bad news had suddenly occurred in Fool's Village, the Fool's Dreams still very insistently held a celebratory banquet for me.
This was not only to hope to tell every Fool's Dream of the Sage's arrival, but even more to hope to tell all Fool's Dreams that the Sage had stopped a piece of bad news that was about to spread through Fool's Village.
They did not like to remember pain; they only hoped that beauty could continuously carry on.
And I participated in the entire duration of this banquet.
Although the difference in size between the Fool's Dreams and me was not small, as the Sage, in the mouth of the Village Chief, I should be this tall—a great existence that attracted the attention of the Fool's Dreams!
And I beautifully enjoyed the delicacies of the Fool's Dreams: various fruits and vegetables, and also… Fool's Dream Drink.
Sure enough, a thing like Fool's Dream Drink was truly a special concept that existed alongside the Fool's Dreams.
Fool's Dreams could lose anything, but they could not lose Fool's Dream Drink.
Even though this was within a dream, a certain concept carried by the Fool's Dream Drink itself was what the Fool's Dreams needed.
Of course, the reason I participated in the Fool's Dreams' activities throughout the process was for another matter.
That was for that inadvertent… Revelation expressed by the Fool's Dreams!
After having witnessed the Dream Picture Scroll, I felt even more that the Fool's Dreams were closely related to this [Transcendent Knowledge].
This banquet lasted for a long time, but ultimately there was a time for it to end.
Returning to my small house, there were still quite a few injured Fool's Dream personnel here who had been affected by the dream creature.
They were eroded by Nightmares, so they could not participate in this banquet; otherwise, the Nightmares might stain other Fool's Dreams.
They were here, and I had also arranged a sumptuous feast for them.
Fruits, dishes, and Fool's Dream Drink filled the table, like a small-scale banquet.
If I had not come to Fool's Village, they would have had to leave Fool's Village after finishing this meal.
But now, I had come, and they didn't have to leave anymore.
"It's Sage Xiao Han!"
"Actually, there's no need to call me so distantly. I will still need your cooperation later; just call me Big Sis Xiao Han like Fool's Dream and the others do."
I spoke gently to these few Fool's Dreams.
"Um… that… Hello, Big Sis Xiao Han."
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