Chapter Thirteen: The Ball Shatters

Brighter! It grew ever brighter, like a blazing sun suspended high in the heavens, radiating dazzling light with all its might. The brilliance was so intense that it nearly brought tears to the young woman’s eyes. She hurriedly averted her gaze, her heart caught between awe and confusion.

Could the Dream Spirit Orb be broken? Why was it shining so brightly?

She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust her eyes to the light. Then she fixed her gaze on the display screen, only to see it erupting with flashing red exclamation marks!

“Huh?” she muttered. “What does this mean? Is there an error in the test?”

Utterly bewildered, she fumbled uncertainly, unsure how to proceed. The Dream Spirit Orb glowed with unnatural intensity, and the device was reporting an error—surely the orb itself had malfunctioned.

At that moment, a sharp, clear sound rang out in the examination chamber.

Crack!

Suddenly, the blinding light vanished, as though the filament of a bulb had flared and then burned out in an instant. The room was plunged into utter darkness. A thin crack appeared on the surface of the Dream Spirit Orb, from which steam hissed and surged.

The girl gasped, her voice trembling. The orb... it had cracked under her touch!

Panic overwhelmed her. Had she made a mistake in handling it? The Dream Spirit Orb was expensive, but she could afford to pay for it. What distressed her most was that this was her first job, and already she had caused a mishap…

On the verge of tears, she turned desperately to the man in black guarding the door and waved frantically for help.

The man, dressed in a black suit and wearing sunglasses, strode over with a cold, imposing air. “Don’t panic. Stay calm,” he said, approaching the device.

He peered at the screen, which was still flashing enormous exclamation marks. His stern façade faltered at last.

“What the—!” he exclaimed, his voice louder than intended.

The girl’s knees nearly buckled in fright. Even Du Fang, standing nearby, was startled—would he have to pay for the damages?

But he quickly understood and glanced at Luoluo, who stood nervously clutching her pink pig plush.

“Daddy, I didn’t mean to...” Luoluo murmured timidly. She had only wanted to help her father.

Du Fang patted her head affectionately. “How could my Luoluo have any bad intentions? If the instrument broke, that’s its own problem, not yours.”

The man in black, still struggling to compose himself, looked at Du Fang in disbelief. “You’re new, so it’s understandable you wouldn’t know… This isn’t a malfunction. The Dream Spirit Orb was overloaded. There’s only one explanation: this candidate’s dream spirit intensity exceeded the orb’s maximum capacity!”

He took a deep breath. “Overloaded? Exceeded the Dream Spirit Orb’s detection limit?” The girl was dumbfounded. So it wasn’t broken by her touch?

The man in black manipulated the device, explaining, “A Dream Spirit Orb overload… The last time this happened was a year ago. The tester was a young chosen girl who survived a city-level nightmare disaster alone—a calamity far beyond the ninth grade of spectral nightmares. Her survival shocked the entire dreamwalker community. That time, the orb also overloaded and burst. The National Dreamwalker Association convened a special meeting and named this condition ‘Infinite Dream Spirit!’”

His hands trembled. After all, he’d only heard of it before, but now… he’d witnessed it himself!

“Dreamwalkers with Infinite Dream Spirit can wield their unique powers without end, never worrying about running out of energy. Their futures may even reach the ranks of world-class dreamwalkers, standing at the summit of the world!” The man’s face shone with envy and longing.

He worked the controls for a while until the device returned to normal. The young woman, however, was still in shock, her mind reeling.

She had thought Du Fang would falter quickly—instead, his endurance was unending, like the sun at its zenith!

“But…” The man in black eyed Du Fang with suspicion. “I can sense his dream spirit intensity… it doesn’t feel like Infinite Dream Spirit. By my perception, it’s barely at a single energy unit—not even enough to qualify as a lower-rank dreamwalker.”

“So… something’s off here.” To become a lower-rank dreamwalker required ten energy units, or one hundred points of light in the orb—Du Fang was nowhere near the standard.

“So how do we proceed?” The girl was at a loss. As a newcomer, she was ill-equipped to handle such a situation.

“I know this kid. He’s taken the test many times and never awakened any special abilities, so he’s never become a full-fledged dreamwalker. Maybe his awakening is Infinite Dream Spirit itself? If so, that would be quite unfortunate.”

“For now, consider his dream spirit intensity a pass. Take him to the next assessment for forbidden artifact handling. I’ll report this to the higher-ups and let them decide.”

The man’s voice was grave. The girl nodded repeatedly.

Taking another deep breath, the man thought to himself: a genius with Infinite Dream Spirit—or perhaps just a malfunctioning orb? Either way, this was beyond their authority and had to be reported.

He departed, while the girl, awed and anxious, led Du Fang to the next phase of the examination.

…

Clang! The door to the testing chamber swung open.

In an instant, the three waiting outside—Chen Xi, Zhang Changlin, and Lin Liuli—rose to their feet at once, like anxious family members awaiting news outside a delivery room.

“Well? Did he pass the test?” Zhang Changlin, cigarette dangling from his lips, called out to the man in black who strode out.

The man shot Zhang Changlin a complicated glance. He recognized him—the captain of the Silver Team in Jiangling City.

“Old Zhang, is that young man inside really joining Wildfire?” the man in black asked.

Zhang Changlin paused, puzzled by the question. Then, tapping the ash from his cigarette between two fingers, he replied coolly, “Yes. I plan to have him join my Wildfire squad.”

The man in black regarded him intensely and gave a thumbs-up.

Sharp eye! After all, someone with Infinite Dream Spirit, even without special abilities, would be worth having as a team mascot.

Zhang Changlin was left even more confused—what was this guy getting at?

“The Dream Spirit Orb cracked,” the man in black said, striving to maintain his aloof demeanor. He offered nothing more, turning briskly to leave—he had a report to make.

Zhang Changlin scratched his buzz-cut head, pondering the man’s words.

“The Dream Spirit Orb… cracked?” he mused. “And he asked if Du Fang was joining Wildfire…”

Brows knitted, he analyzed the situation.

Chen Xi pursed her lips, as if she too had realized something.

Suddenly, Zhang Changlin slapped his palm with his fist, a gleam of understanding in his eyes. “Is that old Wen trying to make me pay for the orb?”

“…” Lin Liuli.

“…” Chen Xi.

Was that really the point? Shouldn’t the focus be on the fact that the orb cracked?

Lin Liuli’s crimson lips twitched. With intelligence like this, how had Zhang Changlin ever led Wildfire to silver-tier status?

“Captain…” Chen Xi glanced at Zhang Changlin, whose expression soured at the thought of losing money. She whispered, “Captain… it could be Infinite Dream Spirit.”

Zhang Changlin froze, his pupils contracting.

The Dream Spirit Orb shattered… Infinite Dream Spirit… Du Fang?

He hadn’t considered this possibility—not once. After all, he’d sensed Du Fang’s intensity before: just a single energy unit.

The gap between one unit and Infinite Dream Spirit was as vast as the gulf between a firefly and the radiant moon—between earth and sky!

Zhang Changlin, suddenly exhilarated, inhaled his cigarette to the filter in one long drag.

Now he understood the man in black’s enigmatic look.

So that was it—it was envy, plain and simple!

“Haha, did we just strike gold?! Come on, Du Fang should be taking the simulated nightmare test now. Let’s go have a look.”

Zhang Changlin’s face split into a grin, his middle-aged features blooming like a chrysanthemum swaying in the wind.

Beside him, Lin Liuli trembled almost imperceptibly, her hands clenched tight in her pockets.

“Infinite Dream Spirit,” she murmured softly. “So it really was her…”