Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 357 Desert
The sandstorm, like a moving wall of bronze and iron, rolled in from the horizon, emitting a low rumble.

Yellow dust swallowed the entire sky, diluting the sun into a blurry, pale circle, like an old photograph soaked in bleach, having lost all warmth and vitality.

The air was filled with a rusty, bloody smell, a pungent odor produced by the mixture of oxidized metal and radioactive dust.

The cracked earth resembles a dried-up network of blood vessels, with eerie fluorescent green lights occasionally flashing deep within the cracks—the result of chemical waste leaked in the last century continuing to decay.

A section of rusted highway guardrail juts out of the ground like a broken rib, with plastic sheeting hanging on it fluttering in the wind, like the last flag of some kind of post-apocalyptic civilization, stubbornly proclaiming the order that once existed here.

The sand grains struck the abandoned oil tanks, making a rustling sound like a drizzle; this monotonous rhythm was like a timer for the end of the world.

In the distance, the steel frame of a transformer tower swayed in the wind and sand, its shadow cast on the sand twisted and deformed like a walking skeleton.

Occasionally, sharp metal fragments are swept up by the gale, whistling sharply in the air like the wails of the dead.

The heat distorted the distant scenery, making the wreckage of those abandoned cars appear to be writhing.

On the ridge of a sand dune, the remains of a mechanical scorpion are half-buried in the sand, its solar panels long since polished into frosted glass by the sand grains.

Further away, fragments of a giant billboard appeared and disappeared in the sandstorm. The faded smiles of the models on the billboard had been eroded by the wind and sand into hideous faces, their empty eye sockets staring at this desolate world.

There were no birds, no insects, not even a single tenacious blade of withered grass. Only the ceaseless wind tirelessly sculpted this desolate wilderness, grinding the last traces of civilization into dust, which then merged into the eternal sea of ​​sand.

Amid the roar of the sandstorm, the faint groans of metal could be heard, as a distant skyscraper was collapsing, but in this desert, not even the echoes could be heard.

Shi Fei frowned as he looked at the desolate wasteland before him, the cold sand lashing against his face. He didn't understand why he had come to this place.

After talking with the clown, Shi Fei left the dream and arrived here in a daze.

He tried to extend his senses, only to be astonished to find that the world was far larger than he had ever imagined. With his current power, his senses could cover an area of ​​tens of millions of square kilometers in an instant.

He rarely did that because it was too boring and would make all the exploration lose its surprise.

But here, his perception extended to an unprecedented distance, far exceeding the surface area of ​​a normal planet, yet he could still only see this endless post-apocalyptic wasteland!
"Whose dream is this?" he murmured to himself, his voice immediately swallowed up by the howling sandstorm.

He looked around and found no sign of life except for eternal desolation.

What troubled him even more was that the dream seemed to refuse to let him leave.

He tried to enter the dream world several times, but all attempts failed, as if this place was the end of all dreams, the edge of the dream universe.

Shi Fei stared at the swirling yellow sand, feeling bewildered. He had never encountered anything like this during his long journey through dreams.

After a moment of contemplation, he decided to choose a direction to move forward. With his current strength and speed, he would one day be able to escape this prison of yellow sand.

He set off without hesitation, his figure flashing like lightning amidst the yellow sand. He was very patient, releasing his senses as he walked.

He set off without hesitation, his figure blurring into a streak of lightning amidst the yellow sand. He maintained astonishing patience, continuously scanning his surroundings with his senses as he moved at high speed.

Time loses its meaning here. Perhaps a year has passed, perhaps two years, perhaps many years have passed, and he continues to walk through this desolate wasteland.

Before my eyes, cracked earth, undulating sand dunes, the spire of abandoned factories, and the occasional glimpse of a corner of city ruins appear alternately.

These scenes repeated themselves endlessly, like a never-ending nightmare. A very long time passed, so long that Shi Fei's method of calculating time using atomic oscillation frequencies began to blur, and those precise atomic movements seemed to be eroded by the endless yellow sand.

Abandoned factories, shattered cities—all traces of civilization have been swallowed by quicksand, as if the world is undergoing a self-cleaning process.

This dream is not static; this might be the only good news Shi Fei has received!

Yellow sand, still yellow sand.

The monotonous yellow became the eternal background color on my retina, even the sky in my dreams, which should have been unpredictable, was stained a murky amber color.

Finally, one day, Shi Fei stopped. He estimated that he had traveled a distance that was enough to cross the Milky Way, yet he was still trapped in this labyrinth of sand.

He lay down in the desert.

Fine, he'll just lie here, whatever.

He closed his eyes, preparing to try to sleep. If he could fall asleep, he could dream and escape from this place.

The sand, like a gentle executioner, gradually covered his body. Just as the yellow sand was about to engulf his nostrils, Shi Fei's senses suddenly detected a jarring presence.

A boy appeared out of nowhere in this desert, and judging from his appearance, he seemed to have been walking for a very long time!
He shouldn't have shown up, but he did.

The boy stood on the sand dune, his long robe fluttering in the wind.

His attire had an exotic feel, unlike anything from the Central Plains or the Western Regions, with strange symbols embroidered on the lapel. His handsome face had a pair of slender eyes that were slightly narrowed.

He seemed a little lost amidst the endless yellow sand, but soon he saw Shi Fei lying in the sand.

He approached Shi Fei, looked at him as he was swallowed by the yellow sand, but offered no help. His cold eyes remained fixed on Shi Fei's body.

"Why not lend a hand?" Shi Fei said, suppressing his joy at encountering a living person.

Who knows how long he'd been here? Finally, he saw a living person.

Could this boy be the master of the dream?
The boy took a half step back, the hem of his robe sweeping across the sand: "Your breathing is too even, your clothes too clean."

His voice was like the chill of a desert night: "Doesn't seem like someone who needs help."

Shi Fei sat up, and grains of sand slid off his body.

"My name is Shi Fei." He tried to make his voice sound friendly. "What's your name?"

Shi Fei noticed the boy's appearance and clothes, as well as his slightly small eyes.

Those two eyes were watching Shi Fei warily, and finally he said, "I have no name."

"Did you spring from a rock?" Shi Fei said with a laugh. "That's why you don't have a name?"

The boy shook his head and said, "I didn't spring from a stone, I sprang from a Gu nest!"

(End of this chapter)