You've only been cultivating for a few years, and you're already talking about cultivating

Chapter 145 I've Found You

As soon as he realized this, the entire foggy world began to churn violently.

The grayish-white mist was no longer calm; it was as if stirred by an invisible giant hand, rolling and surging in layers, creating silent waves.

The consciousness of the mirage became blurred in the churning, like a person who has sunk into deep water looking up at the surface, where light and shadow intertwined, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion.

He saw many translucent things appearing in the fog.

Sometimes it appears in human form, with a blurry face and indistinct figure, like a lingering shadow rising from the depths of memory.

Sometimes they are animals, running, flying, swimming, each with a different posture, lifelike.

Sometimes it's a sea monster, huge and ferocious, lurking in the fog, breathing out an illusory aura.

These are all—his past dreams.

Thousands of dreams, thousands of lives, thousands of births, aging, sickness, and death, love, hate, and grudges—all were submerged in this mist. Now, with his awakening, they emerge one by one, only to dissipate again.

He slowly woke up.

In the thick fog, he slowly stretched out his massive body.

Its enormous body, which had been curled up in the mist for who knows how long, now stretched out inch by inch, carrying a kind of languidness of just awakening and a sense of exhilaration after stretching.

His appearance resembles a giant snake, yet he possesses far more strange features than a snake.

It has antlers on its head, branching out, and ears with antlers. Its earlobes turn slightly, capturing every subtle sound in the mist.

Reddish-brown mane hung down its neck and back, like burning flames frozen on its shoulders.

Its body is covered in dark scales, as deep as ink, yet faintly shimmering with a bluish luster in the mist. The scales below its waist grow upwards, one overlapping the other.

What's rather comical is his feet.

His feet were so short that they were disproportionate to his enormous body, like a giant with the feet of a child, tucked under his body, looking utterly endearing.

He resembles a dragon but is not a dragon, resembles a jiao (a type of dragon-like creature) but is not a jiao

He is a mirage.

Mountains, cities, people, birds, and beasts—everything in this mist is an illusion he has woven.

He is a dragon born to manipulate illusions, born in the clouds and raised in the abyss; the realm between reality and illusion is his domain.

The so-called Dragon King of the South China Sea, the so-called "Slaying the Three Corpses", and the so-called "Transformation of the Divine Dragon" were all just his dreams.

His illusions enveloped the entire South China Sea, from shallows to deep abysses, from the surface to the seabed, all were covered by his mirage.

Therefore, within the mirage, he could dream of becoming anything—whether it be a dragon, a cultivator, a mortal, or a sea beast—all as if in a dream, yet real and illusory.

He cultivates in dreams, fights in dreams, lives in dreams, dies in dreams. Every time he goes astray, it's just a big dream, and he disappears as soon as he wakes up.

"What a wonderful dream."

Shen recalled this grand dream and murmured to himself.

The dragon's life was arguably the most spectacular of all his long dreams.

He dominated the South China Sea, cultivated the "Divine Dragon Transformation," severed his three corpses, sought the Golden Elixir, and was ultimately killed when a human cleaved his dragon head in two with a single sword strike.

Especially the last sword strike.

Looking back now, it was such a terrifying sword strike.

The sword light pierced through reality and illusion, passing through the layers of illusion he had woven, and struck the "him" in his dream.

He only truly appreciated the power of that sword strike at this moment.

Unless he had already reached the Golden Core stage at that time, there was absolutely no way he could have escaped it.

"Humans are truly the most intelligent beings in the world," he sighed with emotion.

He cultivated for hundreds of years, breathing in mirages and weaving illusions, never ceasing his cultivation, until he reached this point. Yet that human cultivator, having cultivated for only a dozen years, was able to wound his dreamlike body with a single sword strike.

Sometimes he felt that God was really unfair.

"Who can argue with that?"

Suddenly, another voice came from within the fog.

"Who?!"

Suddenly, the scales all over the clam's body exploded, and each of the reverse-growing scales stood upright.

Its enormous body suddenly coiled up, shrinking into a tight circular formation, and its magical power surged like a tide, instantly covering an area of ​​several miles.

This is the deep sea, his lair, his safest place. Why the hell are there other people here?

How did he get in? How long has he been here?

Countless thoughts flashed through the mirage's mind in an instant, each one carrying a chilling edge.

A figure gradually emerged from the thick white mirage.

The person was wearing a gray-blue robe, the hem of which fluttered slightly in the mist, as if it had grown out of the mist itself.

He examined the mirage, his gaze sweeping up and down with the focused interest of someone scrutinizing a specimen.

"I've found you, I've been searching for you for a very, very long time." He spoke, his tone filled with a sense of satisfaction that his wish had finally been fulfilled. "I've finally found you."

"Who are you?" The mirage coiled its body tightly, its magical power already at its limit, the mirage energy surging like boiling water, filling the surrounding space completely.

"Me?" The man smiled slightly. "I'm someone who enjoys observing insects."

He met the mirage's vertical pupils with his gaze: "And you, you are a very good subject to observe."

He was the Insect Daoist, the strange man Qi Fei had met once before, who squatted under a tree observing insects.

"You are different from other creatures in the ocean," the Insect Daoist continued. "Other creatures are relatively simple to me. I can understand them with just one glance."

He looked at the mirage, his interest growing stronger: "But you are different. Observing you can prove my way."

Each object he observes provides him with tremendous feedback, helping him to understand the world.

The more objects he observes, the closer his mental world becomes to the real world.

Therefore, he said that by observing the clam, one can prove his doctrine!

Now that things have come to this point, what else is there to say?

Shen said no more.

He channeled all his magical power and activated the Dao-proving technique he had cultivated for hundreds of years, "The Great Dream of a Thousand Autumns".

Compared to "The Legend of the Dragon" with its dragon in the dream, "The Great Dream of a Thousand Autumns" is his true trump card.

This is a skill he was born with, hidden in his bloodline. It can switch between reality and illusion, making it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Every move is an illusion, yet each can transform into real killing intent.

He had already noticed the fluctuations of magical power emanating from the Insect Daoist, clearly indicating that he, like himself, was a cultivator at the Three Pure Realms.

Since we are in the same environment, what is there to be afraid of?

Shen snorted coldly and made a sudden attack.

But after just one round, he realized he was terribly wrong.

Every move he made, every flow of magical power, every shift between reality and illusion was difficult to achieve against the Insect Daoist.

It's not that it's completely ineffective, but rather that it's only effective on the first use. By the second time, the Insect Daoist had already seen this move before.

He has already observed it. He has already found the flaw.

The Insect Daoist has seen too many creatures, observed too many samples, and accumulated too much experience.

Experience is not a panacea, and it is not always right, but it allows one to glean patterns from complex appearances.

Then use the patterns to verify, predict, and crack them.

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