Chapter 109: [shadow Dream Hole]
Driven by curiosity, the Tiger Demon hid in the Shadow Layer, chose a small path with few Practitioners, and cautiously approached the void area dense with Dream Holes, wanting to get closer and investigate.
At this time, it was surprised to discover that those Dream Holes in mid-air had a mysterious attraction to the Tiger Demon in the shadows. Waves of calling voices from unknown sources urged it to quickly open a Dream Hole in the shadows as well.
It was as if completing this action itself represented some kind of Sublimation. A step that all Life Forms pursuing Power and Desiring to Get Stronger must inevitably go through.
After understanding this information, the Tiger Demon became even more suspicious and paranoid, ordering, “Fellow Daoist Yu Jingzi, quickly activate [Spirit Monitoring Mode]. Carefully observe my Spirit state. If I unknowingly get bewitched and choose to open that damn Dream Hole in the Shadow Layer, you must stop me in time!”
The Snake Tail suddenly darted to the side of the Tiger Head, nodding in response: “Got it, leave it to me! Give me Permission, I’ll edit the [Soul Firewall] and add a new instruction. But if you’re in a normal thinking state and insist on opening the Dream Hole, should I stop you or not?”
The Tiger Demon thought for a moment: “If I actively initiate it, give me an active reminder and final confirmation.”
“Okay.” The Snake Tail thought for a moment, then said, “If you’re really bewitched, Boss, my reminder won’t mean anything.”
If the difficulty of the Tiger Demon breaking through the [Shadow Dimension] with pure Strength before entering the Lower Urban Area was 10, estimated to exhaust the entire Mana Bar.
Then at this moment, amid waves of faint calling voices, the difficulty of Perceiving the Dream Hole and following this instinctive impulse to open it seemed to drop to 6. It wasn’t sure if this was real or an illusion from being under Illusion.
“Strange, truly strange! Check my Spirit state, is there any problem?”
Snake Tail: “The data looks normal. And your [Mutated Spiritual Root] is unusually active right now, which is indeed a bit unusual.”
…
Just as the Tiger Demon looked conflicted, glancing up every three steps at the mid-air where one Dream Hole after another frantically drew in the black smoke rising from the ground.
The closer it got, the stronger the attraction, making it increasingly Vigilant and unwilling to approach. But if it moved away from the Dream Hole, it felt unwilling, thinking these Dream Holes must be the most core part of the Underground Insect City, hiding big secrets.
“Boss, I think those semi-circular Buildings are like Incineration furnaces. Look over there, there’s a caravan transporting stuff in that Direction, it’s Bugs!”
Reminded by the Snake Tail, the Tiger Demon focused its gaze into the distance and saw a squad of underground residents using wooden carts to pull basket after basket of polluted Insects toward that semi-circular Building spewing thick polluted black smoke.
Unlike the various Insect Goods it saw at the Central Urban Area market, these Bug corpses had severe Pollution traces, similar to the wild Beetles it drew out and exploded with Illumination Technique after Pollution at the beginning of its arrival.
According to Little Girl’s explanation, these Insects were worthless Pollution Garbage. When gathered in large quantities, they would form small surges. Killing them was laborious, handling them was troublesome, they couldn’t be used, and dumping them randomly would rot and Pollute clean areas.
Now, this Pollution Garbage was being collected in batches and transported to the lower areas, probably sent into that semi-circular Building for Incineration. The large amount of Pollution black smoke was discharged into the Dream Hole, indirectly cleaning up the Underground World’s Pollution and Purifying the Insect City’s Ecosystem environment.
But Yuan Zhu always felt it wasn’t that simple; there must be secrets unknown to ordinary residents. And that Dream Hole was definitely not just a simple sewage channel.
Clearly a special product of the Insectoid Race System, why was it so attractive to itself, making the Shadow Tiger Demon also feel the impulse to ‘open a hole’? It had zero relation to Bugs anywhere.
“Follow them!”
The Tiger Demon traveled through the shadows, tailing behind this civilian Goods delivery Squad, wanting to sneak into that semi-circular Building for a peek. But when passing a checkpoint, it felt a surge of unease. When it stopped and planned to detour.
One invisible wave after another swept over the Streets outside its hidden Shadow Layer. After confirming no Anomalies, these waves gradually dissipated.
The Tiger Demon breathed a sigh of relief, turned Direction to move away, and bided its time to choose a new path, avoiding those checkpoints.
Just as it continued Stealth, not yet 100 meters away, streams of invisible Qi Threads suddenly descended from the sky, precisely landing in multiple positions front, back, left, right in the Shadow Layer. Like casting a net to catch fish, sealing the Tiger Demon in a larger range.
Immediately, more and more Qi Threads descended, intertwining with each other in the air, on the ground, and in the underground Soil, quickly weaving a Domain-like True Qi Barrier.
Insect-shaped Runes similar to Talismans flickered at the Qi Thread intersections, actually forming a Magic Array effect, truly pinning the Tiger Demon in the Shadow Layer in place.
If it forced its way through, it would inevitably trigger this ‘Qi Thread Weave’ Magic Array, like a Bug touching a spider web, inevitably exposing its whereabouts. If it continued playing dead and waiting, the Tiger Demon felt it couldn’t keep it up… Judging by the opponent’s stance, they had really Perceived and discovered it, not a false bluff.
“[Thousand Threads Form Domain. True Qi Barrier]! My Perception was correct; there is indeed something hiding here. Come out now?!”
A slender figure descended from the sky, landing in front of the Shadow Layer, eyes deadlocked on the empty Street: “Stop hiding; you’ve been locked by me. I’ve tracked you all the way and figured out your movement method. Hiding pretty deep, no Qi trace left at all. Are you a Spy from [Cicada City] or a scout from [Earth Dragon City]?”
Since it was discovered, the Tiger Demon stopped playing dead or air. It still had no intention of escaping the Shadow Layer, instead continuously accumulating Shadow Power while releasing more Shadow Perception to envelop the True Qi Barrier locking it, wanting to test its strength.
Thus, massive wriggling Shadows, under the opponent’s gaze, boldly spread and overflowed, turning into one black Snake after another, slamming into the tough ‘Thousand Threads Domain’. Not only failing to break the Barrier, but their heads were shot and exploded by sharp Qi Threads.
“Hmph! Futile struggle.”
The man was equally astonished by the Shadows emerging from the ground. In his past combat career, he’d seen many warriors manipulating ‘Yin Attribute True Qi, Shadow True Qi’, and encountered Earth Escape spies proficient in Stealth, but never such a bizarre attack method.
These revived Shadows had no True Qi traces at all? Even with his mind Perception, he couldn’t lock the spy under the ground, only vaguely sensing the intruder’s position, forced to seal it with ‘Thousand Threads Domain’ but unable to force it out.
After a series of probes, the Tiger Demon discovered this True Qi Barrier had extremely high strength, no less than the Sanctuary Force Field Barrier at full Human Stance burst. Without revealing its true body and full-power attack, it really couldn’t escape.
Just as the Tiger Demon hesitated whether to fight outright, the Snake Tail suddenly reminded: “Bad news, this guy is calling for backup.”
The Tiger Demon also noticed that this Insect Cultivator, after several probes, had countless Qi Threads infiltrating reversely into the liquid Shadows, futilely spreading, searching, and fishing inside the shadows, yet never touching the Tiger Demon wrapped in the Shadow Layer.
So he suddenly burst out a unique True Qi fluctuation, trying to call friends and summon others to force out the intruder.
Yuan Zhu had seen this kind of fluctuation many times along the way. Though unable to clearly distinguish the content, he knew it was the Insect Cultivators’ ‘Pheromone Signal’. Especially mixed with True Qi, it was like firing a flare into the sky for other Cultivators, inevitably drawing a swarm attack.
In this state, pure combat slaughter was already too late.
This Cultivator’s Strength was absolutely not weak, giving it a feeling surpassing its own ‘Holy Light form’, Strength definitely dominating 1 Seal. The number of Qi Threads he manipulated also indicated he was an Earth Rank powerhouse in Little Girl’s terms, Cicada City’s absolute ruling force.
This person could tail it all the way undetected and accurately lock the Tiger Demon’s position, already proving his Strength. Moreover, on the opponent’s Home Ground, he could call more Earth Ranks anytime. If unable to end it quickly and got surrounded, fleeing would be hard.
In a flash, the Tiger Demon scanned all its ‘Supernatural Abilities’, then decisively @Little Spicy Stick: “Snake Snake, fully mobilize the Spatial Power of [Universe Within The Belly] for me and Bless it on the [Claw]!”
Inside the Shadow Layer, the Tiger Demon first detonated the Supernatural Ability [Claw]. Pale and ferocious Exoskeleton Armor quickly crawled over the Tiger Demon’s entire body, wrapping and covering its Head and spine, extending to the Skeleton Tail before stopping.
Then from the barbed spine position, it spread downward along the ribs on both sides of the Tiger back, ultimately covering the limbs, extending five blade-like claws outside the Tiger Claws.
At the same time, the Spatial Power contained in [Universe Within The Belly] was fully injected into the Plagiarized Sanctuary Spatial Force Field model, entwining the Bone Tiger Claws. Two major Supernatural Abilities stacked, Shadow Power crazily surged into the Bone Claws.
A pair of blood-red beast Eyes deadlocked the figure outside the shadows; at the same time, it maxed out its Perception, fully opened its mind, and responded to those waves of urgent summoning voices in the void.
In the underground Cicada City, the Cultivator who had just released Pheromones trying to Summon Teammates suddenly felt a chill rise in his heart, as if targeted by some extremely dangerous and terrifying beast, making him deeply uneasy, even impulsively wanting to retract Thousand Threads Domain and flee?
He then forcibly suppressed this discomfort, looking suspiciously at that boiling yet unchanging Shadow mass. Guessing if this was some kind of ‘Fright Technique’?
“Boss, I must solemnly remind you: are you really going to open the [Dream Hole]? You didn’t lose your head in the heat of the moment and act desperately, right?”
The Tiger Demon now not only locked the ‘Thousand Threads Domain. True Qi Barrier’ pinning it, and the Practitioner standing in Reality Space. It also used Spatial Perception Ability to lock the weak node of the ‘Shadow Dimension’ in front of him, and aligned the three positions in a straight line.
It was this malicious gaze that made the outside Cultivator sense unease.
“I’m very Calm and certain! Normal clash absolutely can’t end in an instant, but the [Dream Hole]… might bring an unexpected surprise.”
Little Spicy Stick: “You’re serious?”
“Strong premonition from instinct.” The more it responded to the calls in its mind, the stranger the Tiger Demon’s state became, inexplicably gaining massive Knowledge in its Brain, Mutated Spiritual Root producing strong impulse. “I heard it; this is the call from the Bloodline, this is the path of evolution!”
Fully unleashing rational suppression, the Tiger Demon’s connection to the [Shadow Dimension] grew tighter. It followed some instinct, toward the Shadow Layer/Shadow Dimension in front, toward the outside ‘Thousand Threads Domain’, toward the Practitioner outside the True Qi Barrier, and swung this Claw.
Shadow Power was frantically drawn and Consumed; with this Claw swung, Space was severed, Shadows torn. One sword Opens Heaven’s Gate, one Claw cracks the Dream Hole.
As the Bone Claw swung, the Spatial Force Field entwining the fingertips turned into blades, deeply piercing the [Shadow Dimension], like a paper cutter piercing an Express Delivery box, smoothly cutting along the tape, tearing open a ‘Space Crack’ in front.
As soon as this Crack appeared, it connected with the [Tiger Demon], mutually anchoring. Then without the Tiger Demon actively expanding it, this ‘Crack’ began drawing its body’s Shadow Power and spontaneously expanded both Sides, rapidly forming a huge pitch-black round Hole with diameter 1.7m piercing Reality and Shadows.
This Claw of its was like dropping a drop of oil on water. Under surface tension, it spontaneously formed a standard round oil film. The oil drop’s volume was proportional to the Shadow Power drawn from it.
As the Tiger Demon opened the pitch-black round Hole, a piece of information surfaced in its mind: [Shadow Dream Hole: Quantity 1/?. Can be opened (Closed state)]
While reading this information, it also felt waves of weakness and powerlessness. Its body’s Shadow Power instantly evaporated 2/3.
The Tiger Demon glanced at the Mana Bar; Shadow Magic Power remained only 27%, fallen below the alert line. And with the Shadow Layer quickly injecting into the body for Mana recovery.
“Phew… good, not an illusion, not drained dry!”
Good news: that invisible call wasn’t an illusion; it really reduced the opening Consumption. As the [Shadow Dream Hole] formed, more information backflowed from the ‘Dream Hole’ into its Brain, impacting the Tiger Demon’s mind.
The Cultivator outside Thousand Threads Domain, after seeing the ground Shadows boil, suddenly had a pitch-black ‘circle’ appear before his eyes, his expression drastically changing as he blurted, “Dream Hole?”
But this eerie ‘black circle’ was vastly different from the Dream Holes he’d seen before. No time to think too much, he instinctively wanted to retreat urgently, but it was already too late.
As the Tiger Demon’s Claw tore through the [Shadow Dimension], the Cultivator on the same attack line, along with his deployed True Qi Barrier, were both anchored by the [Shadow Dream Hole].
The moment the ‘Dream Hole’ appeared, his massively extended Qi Threads had already connected to this eerie ‘black circle’. No matter how he pulled, retracted, or even actively dispersed and abandoned them, he couldn’t sever the connection to the circle.
Intense unease surged in his heart; when he tried to struggle again, it was all too late.
“Open!”
Still in the Shadow Layer, the Tiger Demon directly opened the [Shadow Dream Hole] closely linked to itself.
As the Dream Hole opened, a Shadow Space three-dimensional projection about 30m in volume appeared in its mind—this was the world behind the [Shadow Dream Hole].
A very cramped cubic Space, about the size of an ordinary study room.
This Shadow Space had uneven walls on all sides, all showing violent fluctuations and instability, like one-way Mirrors from which it could peek at the bizarre, distorted colors of the outside world.
It was an indescribable sense of Chaos and dizziness; the seen scenes were nearly incomprehensible, unable to even clearly construct in the Brain. Like after viewing an image, trying to recall it, the impression immediately blurs into Color Blocks, and no further recall possible.
Eyes clearly read a passage of text, let alone understanding it in the mind— even each character’s outline began distorting and deforming. After reading each character, it was so laborious it couldn’t be recognized, and then the Brain’s related text Memory also blurred into Chaos.
Hiss!
The [Soul Firewall] sounded an alarm; the Tiger Demon’s Spirit felt a stab of pain, then it inhaled sharply. It couldn’t comprehend the things outside the Shadow Space, yet knew that was the unviewable [Nightmare Layer]. And with the ‘Shadow Dream Hole’ opening, more Knowledge surged into its mind.
…
This Bubble World was utterly dilapidated, inside and out, having undergone a great catastrophe.
If a normal ‘Bubble World’ is understood as a sealed, sturdy ‘Glass Ecosystem Bottle’ with a complete Ecosystem inside, then the current world was a shattered, cracked, leaky Ecosystem Bottle everywhere.
The Plants (Immortal Realm Tree) originally planted in the bottle had died and been uprooted, but the world’s overall structure wasn’t destroyed, so Soil still existed, with surviving microorganisms burrowing into the rotting Soil, clinging to life via Soil’s Root Tendrils.
But the broken world structure couldn’t resist the ‘Nightmare’ and ‘Chaos’ Erosion from outside the bottle.
The Surface World had long been in apocalyptic state, world Ecology slow to recover, massive Pollution backflow forming Demonic Calamity; while the Underground World prospered, its world structure was incomplete and uneven, easily breaking the world Barrier and sinking into the [Nightmare Layer].
The Underground World’s [Shadow Dimension] was like a layer of plastic wrap, barely separating the [Nightmare] from the material world boundary. Thus, the Tiger Demon could draw Energy from [Shadow Dimension] in this world, but had no [Shadow World] to enter.
The [Shadow Dimension] was too weak; one misstep and it would fall into the [Nightmare Layer]…
Or rather, this 30m small Space opened by the [Shadow Dream Hole] was the Shadow World that Yuan Zhu Escaped into, belonging to itself.
The [Shadow Dream Hole] was the portal to its exclusive ‘Shadow Space’. At this moment in the Bubble World, it had achieved the Du Ling World-recognized higher realm of [Gate]!
“I already have [Gate]? Wait, where’s the Shadow’s [Seed]?”
The Tiger Demon now felt exceptionally subtle; its [Holy Light] hadn’t even reached ‘Seed (Soul Crystal)’, yet [Shadow] inexplicably skipped two levels, Breaking through to the [Gate] tier?
And the Breakthrough was exceptionally perfunctory: just slightly forcing it pierced the [Shadow Dimension] poking a hole, and then it became its own [Gate].
