Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 664 Fantasy
shuh~
Swish swish swish~
The towering Yu the Great wielded two blades as thin as cicada wings, moving with lightning speed across Qin Huaizhou's body. In the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, he had shaved Qin Huaizhou's left hand down to the bone. The white, gleaming bone, as translucent as jade, shimmered with a hazy luster under the setting sun.

"If you can recover to normal before sunset, then you will have passed the Serpent's Evolution."

Although it was called the death by a thousand cuts, King Yu actually only shaved Qin Huai's relatively insignificant left hand clean, and his actions were very measured.

Can I recover with the help of external objects?

Glancing at Iber, who was collecting the sliced ​​meat, Qin Huai endured the excruciating pain and asked.

"No, but if you give up, I can use snake venom to heal you."

Carefully collecting the blood and flesh that had fallen from Qin Huai's body, Iber shook his head, pointing his scepter at the huge snake nest next to the tower: "It's not too late to change the trial content now."

"No need, I was just asking."

Upon hearing Iber's well-intentioned suggestion, Qin Huai waved his hand and refused outright. He had no desire to discuss the true meaning of life with a group of snake people, even if he was currently only using a host body.

After saying that, Qin Huai had a thought, and the scalding hot Heavenly Dragon Blood gushed out from the cross-section of his left arm. Under the wrapping and shaping of the Returning True Qi, it not only did not dissipate into the air, but instead, based on the hand bones, it wove and grew the prototype of flesh and tendons.

To Yu and Yibo, Qin Huai seemed to have grown a new left hand in the blink of an eye. Although it looked bloody and mangled, its terrifying self-healing ability had indeed met the requirements of the [Serpent's Derivation].

"Alright, Iber, let's continue."

Yu the Great shifted his gaze from Qin Huai's freely moving left paw, nodded, and sat back down on the throne in the tower, handing over the responsibility of presiding over the trial back to Iber.

"Next is the fifth and final level, [Serpent's Dream]. You need to enter the dream immediately and fully relax. Only in this way can you enter the [Illusory Dream] and see the little remaining rationality of Ba Hui."

As Eber explained the details of the next level, Qin Huai immediately thought of what Cao Yuanchao, the Feather Lord, had said before he entered the fruit.

If you encounter any tricky but not fatal danger, you can seek refuge in your dreams; it may be the only truly safe place for this fruit.

Is there any connection between the two?

While thinking this to himself, Qin Huai asked casually, "【Dream Illusion】? What is that? Could it be that Ba Hui has mastered the nature of 【Dreams】?"

"To be precise, we've grasped a portion. Long, long ago, in ancient times, the [Daughter of Dreams] and the [Serpent of Pain] were a pair of lovers. Later, during the War of the Gods, the [Daughter of Dreams] was besieged by the Gods of Destiny and vanished into thin air. The essence of [Dream] was also shattered and devoured by the Gods of Destiny. The powerful Ba Hui managed to reclaim a considerable portion of [Dream]. Unfortunately, the [Daughter of Dreams] could not be resurrected, which benefited us. Since then, the serpents have been able to experience a purer, deeper, and more extreme pain through dreams."

Iber stretched out his claws and pointed to his head: "But it is precisely because he has devoured too many complex sexualities that Basil has long been half-mad, indifferent to the Serpent City and the mortal world. Apart from the extreme suffering of the believers' sacrifices that can attract His attention, very few other things can elicit His reaction or His divine pronouncements."

'Hmm? So the Fate Master who controlled [Dreams] has already fallen?'

After hearing Iber's explanation, Qin Huai's intuition told him that there must be some connection between them. Perhaps it was because of the demise of the "Dream Maiden" that the dream of this fruit became less dangerous.

"Sleep now, and when you enter your dreams, you will see Ba ​​Hui."

Qin Huai nodded. He was extremely tired. Whether it was searching for clues, digesting knowledge, and skinning himself before entering the Snake City, or climbing the tower and recovering from his injuries, his mind and body were in dire need of rest.

Immediately afterwards, he lay down on the ground and fell asleep, letting exhaustion spread throughout his body.

Upon seeing this, Iber, who was standing close by, immediately extended his scepter. An invisible wave emanated from its tip and spread out, gently brushing over Qin Huai's body.

Wow!
Blood splattered.

Leaning against the corner of the rock wall, Qin Huai, whose face was splattered with stench and hot blood, suddenly opened his eyes. He saw a snake that had disemboweled a fat, white human sacrifice, pouncing on him menacingly with its blood-soaked claws. The expression on its ugly face was twisted madly, and the violent and bloodthirsty emotions in its pupils were barely suppressed.

Qin Huai raised an eyebrow, and with a single powerful lash of his tail, he sent the ungrateful snake flying, crashing it onto the stone platform and turning it into a bloody, mushy mess.

Qin Huai looked around and found that there were still many Shu believers attacking each other and offering their suffering to the Ba Hui. The place he was in was the same exaggeratedly large hollow he had seen before.

The heavy stench of blood filled the entire cave. Looking at this scene, Qin Huai suddenly felt that the Blood Asura who controlled [Slaughter] and the Ba Hui who controlled [Pain] were a perfect match. If one could possess both of these attributes at the same time, the future seemed very promising.

"Could this be the reason why Officer Yu sent me here?"

Qin Huai, lost in thought, ignored the snakes and vipers in the hollow cave that were harming and sacrificing themselves for each other, and scanned his surroundings, trying to find something.

Soon, he found several tall figures shrouded in brown robes on the narrow walkway high above the cave.

"Sure enough, the dream I'm having now is a replay of the scene from that last mural!"

Just as Qin Huai was about to make a move, he saw those brown figures leap down from the heights, their arms outstretched like bat wings, their wide robes fluttering like wingsuits, helping them adjust their posture as they rushed straight into the enormous void portal in the center of the nine sacrificial stone platforms.

"Is their target Snake Town?"

Qin Huai took in the movements of these brown-robed figures and deduced that they were outsiders. He immediately strode forward, knocking away all obstacles in his path, and followed them with unstoppable momentum, also breaking into the portal composed of countless ripples.

Unlike the coma he had fallen into after collapsing into the portal, Qin Huai's senses were now incredibly clear in the dream world. However, he did not feel any changes when he entered the Snake City from the void, nor did he even experience the slight discomfort of changing spaces.

Finally, a glimmer of light appeared before Qin Huai's eyes. He fell out of the darkness and into a strangely textured gray-white cloud.

In the boundless, chaotic starry sky, countless enormous, grotesque shadows lurk in the hazy gray haze. Icy waves pour down, only to be shattered by a colossal sword reaching to the sky. Mighty flames devour everything, only to be scattered by the moth wings that obscure the sun.
Qin Huai flapped his bony wings, breaking free from the swallowing of the gray-white clouds, and stared wide-eyed at everything before him.

What appeared before him was the Outer Heaven, where those powerful spirits of destiny resided, or rather, the Outer Heaven where the War of the Stars took place countless years ago.

Suddenly, Qin Huai felt a sharp pain in his left arm, as if his tough scales had been cut by a sharp blade, causing excruciating pain.

"Hmm?" Qin Huai subconsciously looked down and saw that there were five large characters carved on the outside of his left arm.

"Reset time, run!"

Qin Huai knew very well that these were words carved in blood with his fingernails, but he couldn't recall when he had carved them, no matter how hard he tried.

"Oh no, I'm in a dream now, I don't know if the storage items will work."

Just as Qin Huai was about to try to inject himself with a Dragon Blood Enhancer to escape this time-abnormal area, he suddenly noticed that new small characters had appeared next to the five characters.

"Time zero."

At the same time, Qin Huai could clearly feel a surging, scorching power flowing within his body. The molten, scalding Tianrui Blood erupted, immediately creating a domain to resist the abnormal time.

The next instant, Qin Huai's wings flapped wildly, and he shot outwards.

Once the bloody words on his upper arm stopped appearing, Qin Huai finally breathed a sigh of relief. This meant that he had broken out of the loop area where time was constantly resetting and was temporarily safe.

Just then, Qin Huai noticed that the brown-robed figures had reappeared not far in front of him. They had somehow acquired flesh and blood balloons, and with hands no different from humans, they tightly gripped the balloon strings, floating and sinking in the chaotic starry sky, seemingly with a clear goal, drifting into the depths of space.

Without the slightest hesitation, Qin Huai immediately chased after them, maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far, carefully avoiding the thick demonic influence in the void.

Following the figure in brown robes, Qin Huai ventured deeper into the area, witnessing many of the brown-robed figures and flesh-and-blood balloons burst open for various reasons, dying tragically.

Some were sliced ​​into countless pieces by the invisible sword energy, some were devoured by the swarm of purple-black insects, and some were swept away by shadows and never to be seen again.
Fortunately, with these brown-robed men acting as vanguards and early warnings, Qin Huai used all his skills and managed to follow them without any major incidents. When he passed through a layer of mud-like, semi-transparent swollen material, his keen hearing detected painful screams and the sound of metal clashing in the darkness ahead.

"arrive?!"

Seeing the few people in brown robes, unable to contain his excitement, he released the balloon string and sped toward the source of the sound.

Qin Huai hurriedly sped up to catch up, and after struggling through the endless murmurs and traversing the deep darkness once more, he found that the space in front of him suddenly opened up.

First to bear the brunt was the massive giant formed from a large mass of dense dark clouds. Around it floated two yin-yang fish of comparable size, along with a whole array of sixty-four bronze hexagrams that resembled a laser-like suspended array.

The brown-robed figures had already hidden themselves in a strange black cloud of unknown composition. Above the cloud was a giant mermaid, tightly bound by seaweed and coral, with hundreds of tentacles and limbs, and covered in fish-head-shaped blisters.

However, he looked rather disheveled at this moment. Not only were many of his deformed organs missing, but his complexion was also somewhat dull, indicating that he had suffered severe injuries.

"What the hell is all this?"

Qin Huai cursed inwardly, then moved swiftly, instantly finding a large, broken bronze mask among the many floating shelters. He hid behind it and waited to see what would happen.

This enormous mask is more than five people tall, with a square face, large hollowed-out eyes, a triangular nose, and wide ears. The material looks like bronze, with some areas covered in verdigris, making it look very much like the bronze mask unearthed at Sanxingdui in Sichuan.

As time went by, more and more powerful spirits came here. These deformed and terrifying monsters, which were indescribable, were difficult to describe in words.

The enormous, greasy giant worm has a mouthpart made of countless interlocking sharp teeth on its head, and its body is covered with strong, jet-black tentacles. Its bizarre size can expand and contract freely.

The shaman priest, with empty eyes and no ears, mouth, or nose, wears a shamanic robe sewn from countless wild animal hides, with a constantly spinning, hazy vortex behind him.

There was also a huge, scarlet single eye, whose vertical pupil continuously fired dangerous crimson lightning in all directions, leaving long-lasting burn marks each time it swept across the void.

Not only that, Qin Huai also saw a strong hunter wielding a weapon, a drunken mad monk engulfed in flames, and a kind-faced woman whose body was composed of countless insects.

However, at this moment, they were all attacking each other indiscriminately, just like the believers of the Bahui outside. One second they were allies, and the next they became enemies who stabbed each other in the back. Countless fragmented forms dissipated into the void.

However, these things did not seem to be the brown-robed men's ultimate goal. They carefully avoided the crowds and lost several more men before passing through the scattered stars and arriving at a chaotic, colorless, blooming lotus flower suspended between heaven and earth.

This giant lotus seemed to have existed since the beginning of time, existing since time immemorial. No matter how fierce the aftershocks of those powerful demons were, it remained unaffected. It seemed to be a wondrous object existing between reality and illusion, yin and yang, or an anomaly that transcended the three realms and five elements.

"The Bailian Sect?"

Upon seeing this chaotic giant lotus, Qin Huai immediately thought of the Hundred Lotus, which was considered a heretical cult by the four mortal kingdoms.

With this chaotic giant lotus as its core, there was a hazy, watery dividing line, like frosted glass, that split the entire void into two parts. The three remaining brown-robed figures simultaneously pulled out what looked like fragments of scales from under their robes, placed them on their heads, and rushed in without hesitation.

Qin Huai, who was following closely behind, also wanted to go in, but was blocked by the semi-transparent dividing line. He could only press his face against the frosted glass-like surface and try to make out the hazy figures inside, trying to figure out what was going on by guessing.

He saw the Blood Asura with hundreds of sword arms on its back, the Fearful King who was drinking heavily, and other monstrous figures like Si Chen. Qin Huai counted them; there were exactly twelve of these terrifying figures.

"Is it possible that only Si Chen can cross this place and reach the other side? What is that place? The other shore?"

Qin Huai muttered to himself, observing the movements of those enormous figures, he could tell that the twelve Sichen were fighting fiercely over something.

The other side was shrouded in mist, and I couldn't see very clearly.

"The Daughter of Dreams? But how come she's on the other side? Could she also be the Goddess of the Stars?"

Qin Huai thought about what Iber had said before and felt that it was somewhat impossible.

(End of this chapter)