Chapter 27: Silver-Haired Du Fang, The Onslaught of Dream’s Calamity

Chen Xi was trembling all over. Yet, strangely, she no longer felt that overwhelming fear. Because she noticed the dream disaster space around her beginning to ripple and surge like waves. This was a sign the dream disaster was breaking. They were about to awaken from the dream. She ought... not to die after all.

Chen Xi let out a sigh of relief. With the little time remaining, her gaze drifted to the desk ahead. Du Fang still sat quietly, and that blood-soaked hand rested calmly on his shoulder, gently kneading. Luoluo squatted atop the desk, clutching her little pig doll, her hands clapping with delighted glee.

The scene... gave Chen Xi a damned sense of warmth, almost affectionate. Perhaps it was because she'd spoken up earlier. When Luoluo turned to look at her, though still terrifying, she seemed less dreadful than before. In fact, Chen Xi even found Luoluo—with her mouthful of sharp teeth and a tongue long and covered in backward-facing barbs like a demon—strangely cute.

Chen Xi: "_(:з」∠)_"

Oh no! Something’s not right with these feelings! Her sense of aesthetics seemed to be warping.

Her gaze quietly slipped away from Du Fang’s back, and a faint curiosity stirred in Chen Xi’s heart... For an instant, she seemed to see Du Fang’s dark hair turn silver. And his silhouette radiated a powerful unfamiliarity—a completely different aura, supreme, cold.

Suddenly, she felt an intense urge to see Du Fang’s face at this moment. She wanted to know... whether Du Fang was still Du Fang.

…

Within the second layer of the dream disaster space.

All members of the Wildfire Squad except Chen Xi and Du Fang had gathered here, surveying their surroundings intently. Playfulness aside, after teasing their captain, they knew what responsibilities they bore as Dreamwalkers.

"This should be the second layer of the dream disaster space…" "That blood-red hand must have escaped from here and combined with the first tier’s second-grade nightmare, making the danger of that disaster impossible to predict." "But one thing is certain—this dream disaster is extremely dangerous."

Zhang Changlin, his face battered and bruised, shook out his coat and drew his broken blade, speaking gravely.

Zhao Lu, Si Nan, and Su Jiuming grew serious as well. Trapped within this dream disaster, each felt the urgency. Their earlier banter with Zhang Changlin had partly been to lighten the mood.

"Captain, is there any way to estimate the strength of this disaster?" Zhao Lu, round and plump, his eyes squeezed into slits by the flesh of his face, asked.

"Difficult, but judging by the dream spirit strength of the blood-red hand that thrust us into this space, it’s absolutely a high-tier disaster… Even though I didn’t fully unlock the forbidden artifact 'Sequence—098', from our brief clash I can tell the opponent possesses at least seventh-grade nightmare power."

Zhang Changlin replied.

Su Jiuming pinched a white rose, his alluring face shadowed with grave concern. Dream spirit waves radiated from him, and as he twisted the rose stem, a slender black shadow slowly emerged behind him, wrapping around his form.

The white rose danced.

In the next instant, it burst open like an explosion.

From afar, it looked eerily like a giant white cat's face!

Si Nan, meanwhile, took a pair of sunglasses from her coat pocket and donned them. From her waist bag she first drew a thick, heavy gun barrel, then began assembling its components one by one.

With a series of clicks, in mere seconds she expertly pieced the weapon together. It was a unique firearm, reminiscent of a rapid-fire Gatling gun, but it could conduct dream spirits. As dream energy poured in, the barrel began to glow red-hot like a branding iron. Faintly, evil spirits seemed to roar within.

Zhao Lu, the squad’s main defender, had abilities focused on protection. He stepped back, his round body crouched low. Both palms pressed to the ground. Instantly, the earth began to writhe, and two enormous hands of soil burst forth, ready for him to command.

As the silver-ranked team of Jiangling City, Wildfire’s members were highly coordinated. Together, they had survived countless dream disasters.

Zhang Changlin gripped his broken blade and bit through his finger, blood spurting forth. This time, he meant to fully unleash the forbidden artifact. As for consequences… Zhang Changlin could hardly afford to care. He was close to death, but he couldn’t let his teammates die too. At the very least, he had to ensure they made it out alive.

That was a captain’s duty.

Buzz...

In the darkness, a flicker of light suddenly ignited. Then, flames began to flow rapidly, like fragrant water or a serpent of fire waking from slumber. In an instant, it stretched endlessly, like a train heading deep into the shadows, illuminating the surroundings.

As the light grew, they finally saw...

They saw the scene of the second layer of the dream disaster space!

Zhang Changlin’s hand paused as he unlocked the artifact.

Behind him, Su Jiuming, Si Nan, and Zhao Lu, poised for battle, stopped short in astonishment.

For before them appeared a small glass box.

The box was filled with black matter, but its lid was shattered, letting some of the black substance spill out. The indentations in the black matter faintly formed the shape of a hand.

Embedded in the empty imprint were bloodstained black nails, cruelly driven in, with fresh blood still glistening on them.

The terrifying, imagined horror did not materialize.

"This must be... the thing that sealed the hand?" Su Jiuming’s narrow phoenix eyes narrowed in earnest.

"I see. That blood-red hand escaped from this dream disaster space…" "The hand must have been nailed and sealed inside this box…"

Si Nan caught onto the truth. She stowed her gun, and the red-hot barrel slowly cooled.

"So… there’s no danger now." "We won’t die?"

At these words, the group all let out a long breath.

If given the choice, who would want to die?

Even the battered Zhang Changlin couldn’t help but smile.

The hand’s murderous intent wasn’t that strong… Otherwise, it would have killed them outright rather than sending them here. Perhaps it meant to imprison them?

"I’m suddenly curious. If just a hand can be so powerful, how strong must its owner be? And who was it that cut off the hand and sealed it here?"

Zhang Changlin, holding his broken blade, even had the leisure to shake out a cigarette and light it.

Yet as soon as the cigarette was lit, the entire second layer of the dream disaster space began to shudder violently.

Cracks appeared all around, and the space started to collapse…

"This is… the dream disaster breaking?!" Si Nan shrieked.

Zhang Changlin was startled as well, then snapped out of it, abandoning his smoke and rushing straight toward the shattered glass box that had sealed the hand.

That thing… pulsed with dense dream spirit waves. It was possibly a forbidden artifact of sequence-level power!

However…

The dream disaster was dissipating too quickly.

Zhang Changlin only managed to grab a handful of black matter before the scene before his eyes dissolved into nothing.

The dream ended.

Awakening.