Dream Ghost

The day before his departure, Lin Ye neither trained, nor devoured anything, nor saw anyone. He stayed in the room next to the medical room, turned off the lights, sat on the bed, held the black anchor point in his palm, closed his eyes, and felt its temperature again and again. The anchor point was cool, but the coolness was not the coolness of an inanimate object; it was more like the coolness of a piece of ice—you could feel it slowly warming up, not because of the external temperature, but because it was being heated from within by something.

Lin Ye didn't know what that "something" was. Perhaps it was the remnant of Lin Yuanzhou's consciousness stored in the anchor point, perhaps it was some kind of connection between it and the First Seal, or perhaps it was just his illusion. But he didn't let go of it. He held it like that, from afternoon to evening, and from evening to nightfall.

When Su Wanning knocked on the door, it was completely dark. The streetlights shone through the gaps in the curtains, casting a thin orange line on the ceiling. Lin Ye didn't get up to open the door, only saying, "Come in." The door wasn't locked, and Su Wanning pushed it open. Seeing Lin Ye sitting in the darkness, she paused, then walked to the window and drew back the curtains. The streetlights flooded in, filling half the room.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Feel this." Lin Ye held up the anchor point. The black metal plate lay quietly in his palm, the runes reflecting a fine silver light under the streetlights, as if someone had carved a star map on it with a needle.

Su Wanning sat down beside him, the mattress slightly concave, their shoulders about a fist's width apart. She didn't look at Anchor Point; she looked at Lin Ye's profile. The streetlights clearly outlined his features—the curve of his brow bone, the height of his nose, the line of his chin. Her gaze lingered on his face for a few seconds before shifting away.

"What time do we leave tomorrow?" she asked.

"Four in the morning. Before the mole in the Dreamweaver Society starts work." Lin Ye put the anchor point into his pocket. "Gu Yan's consciousness projection is ready. His consciousness has recovered to 68% of its full strength, enough to last eight hours. That's enough."

"Isn't Captain Chen going?"

"He's not going. The association needs him to oversee things." Lin Ye turned to look at her. "You don't need to go either."

Su Wanning looked at him, and the light from the streetlamp reflected two small orange dots in her eyes.

Do you think I'd let you go alone?

"This isn't just one person. Gu Yan is also involved."

"Gu Yan is a projection of his consciousness. He doesn't even have a physical body." Su Wanning's voice wasn't loud, but it was firm. "Even if you don't let me go, I will still go. You yourself said that the teleportation array doesn't lock."

Lin Ye was silent for a few seconds. He had said those words before. It was a few days ago at lunchtime in the cafeteria when Su Wanning asked him, "What would you do if Captain Chen wouldn't let you go to the First Seal?" He replied, "The teleportation array won't lock." Now she had returned those words to him.

"Okay," he said, "but you have to promise me one thing."

"What?"

"If you encounter danger, you go first. Don't worry about me."

Su Wanning looked at him, her lips moved as if she wanted to say, "I won't leave you," but she didn't. She knew it would be useless. Once Lin Ye made up his mind, no one could change it. She simply nodded and whispered, "Okay." Then she stood up, walked to the door, and paused.

"Lin Ye".

"Um."

"Your father's consciousness—Lin Yuanzhou said he would leave something for you in the first seal."

"What is it?"

"He didn't say. He only said, 'The child will know when he gets there.'" Su Wanning pushed open the door, and the corridor light flooded in, bathing her in a warm yellow glow. "Go to sleep early. Four o'clock tomorrow."

She's gone. Lin Ye sat on the bed, looking at the ceiling illuminated by the streetlights. The orange line was still there, thinner than before, because the streetlights were slowly dimming. They would go out at dawn, then the sky would turn deep blue, then the east would begin to lighten with the first light of day, and then a new day would begin.

He lay down, closed his eyes, and placed the anchor point beside his pillow. The coolness of the metal seeped through the pillowcase, like an invisible hand gently patting his forehead. He quickly fell asleep.

At 3:30 a.m., Lin Ye woke up. He hadn't set an alarm, but his body seemed to be counting down, waking him precisely half an hour before the scheduled time. He sat up and picked up the anchor beside his pillow—it was warmer than yesterday. It wasn't an illusion.

He washed up, changed clothes—a black tracksuit, dark sneakers—and carried his anchor point and cell phone in his pocket. The phone had no signal, but he carried it anyway. He walked out of the room; the corridor was deserted, save for the dim yellow glow of emergency lights spaced every few meters on the ceiling. His footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, as if someone else was following him.

Su Wanning was already waiting in front of the teleportation array. She was wearing a dark gray bodysuit, which she had changed into at some point, with a small knife at her waist—not for combat, but to cut through the mental constraints within her dreams. Silver threads hung from her fingertips, swaying slightly in the blue light of the teleportation array. Her hair was tied up tightly, without a single stray hair, making her look like a sword about to be drawn.

"Where is Gu Yan?" Lin Ye asked.

"His consciousness is projected into the teleportation array. He arrived before us," Su Wanning said, pointing to the center of the teleportation array. Gu Yan stood in the center of the rune array, wearing a black trench coat, his long hair tied back, and the scar on his left cheek was particularly noticeable in the blue light. His body was clearer than when they last met, and the afterimage at the edges was almost invisible.

"Sixty-eight percent of consciousness intact," Gu Yan said. "It should last for eight hours without any problem. But if we encounter an opponent at the level of a Dream Domain Overlord, this time will be shortened. High-intensity battles will accelerate the depletion of consciousness."

"We won't encounter any Dream Domain Overlords," Lin Ye said. "Lin Yuanzhou said the first seal has been abandoned, and the Dream Weaver Society is just temporarily storing some creatures there. There won't be any high-level guardians."

"He said it 'should' not happen." Gu Yan looked at him. "There are countless possibilities between 'should' and 'certain'."

Lin Ye didn't refute. He knew Gu Yan was right. In the Dream Continent, the word "should" was the most dangerous thing. You should be able to defeat this creature. You should be able to get out before the fog dissipates. You should be able to come back alive. Too many "shoulds" ultimately turned into "I'm sorry."

The three people entered the teleportation array and stood in the center of the rune array. Lin Ye took out the black anchor point and held it in his palm. The anchor point began to heat up, not warm, but scalding hot. It burned his palm until the skin turned red, but he did not let go.

"Coordinates locked." Zhou Zhou's voice came from the console's speaker. "First seal. It's been 372 years since anyone last entered."

"Who went in last time?" Lin Ye asked.

"The record shows: Lin Yuan. Your father."

Lin Ye's fingers tightened slightly. Three hundred and seventy-two years ago, his father—no, that's not right. Three hundred and seventy-two years ago, his ancestor. The Lin family has guarded the seal for generations. Each generation enters the first seal to check its condition, repair cracks, and reinforce its rules. Lin Yuan was the last generation. Lin Ye is the umpteenth generation.

"Start it," he said.

The rune array glowed white. The light engulfed everything.

The feeling of falling. Darkness. The sound of wind. And then—landing.

Lin Ye opened his eyes.

He stood on a pile of ruins.

Grayish-white stones piled up into small hills, some taller than a person, others crumbled into powder, scattered everywhere by the wind. The sky was gray, without sun or clouds, only a thick layer of fog that seemed to never dissipate. But it wasn't the damp, cold fog of the Misty Coast; it was a dry fog with a dusty smell, as if someone had burned something long ago, and the smoke hadn't yet dissipated.

In the distance, the outlines of some buildings could be vaguely seen—stone pillars, arches, and collapsed walls. The style of those buildings was the same as that of the pyramids, with curved runes and rounded lines, as if they had grown out of the ground rather than been built by man.

"The first seal." Gu Yan stood beside Lin Ye, looking around. "It's quieter than I expected."

"Isn't it better to be quiet?" Su Wanning asked.

"Silence means there's nothing alive. Nothing alive means either this place is truly abandoned, or—something has eaten everything else." Gu Yan squatted down, picked up a piece of gravel, looked at it in his palm, and then threw it away. "Those three scroll-level creatures, if they were still here, they wouldn't be quiet. Scroll-level creatures need to eat; their food is dream creatures. If there aren't any other dream creatures here, they've either starved to death or left."

"Lin Yuanzhou said they won't leave," Lin Ye said. "He raised them, and they've come to recognize him as their master. If their master tells them to stay here, they will stay here."

"To acknowledge a master." Gu Yan repeated the word, his lips twitching slightly. "You believe it?"

Lin Ye didn't answer. He walked deeper into the ruins. The rubble under his feet crunched and groaned, like stepping on dry bones. Su Wanning followed behind him, her silver threads already unfurled, weaving an invisible net between her and Lin Ye. Gu Yan brought up the rear, his consciousness projected with exceptional clarity in the grayish-white light, like a photograph printed from a high-resolution printer.

The ruins were vast. They walked for nearly half an hour before reaching the place Lin Ye had seen in the anchor point's view—a downward-facing entrance in the center of the ruins. On either side of the entrance stood a stone pillar, its surface engraved with curved runes. These runes were identical to those in the pyramids, but larger and denser, as if someone had painstakingly carved them stroke by stroke with a chisel.

The entrance was a black hole, with no bottom in sight. Lin Ye extended his senses inside, but couldn't detect the end. The passage stretched downwards for at least two hundred meters, and it wasn't straight; it had many curves.

"I'll go first," Gu Yan said, stepping into the cave entrance. His consciousness projection didn't need lighting; he could see everything clearly in the dark. Lin Ye followed behind him, with Su Wanning bringing up the rear. The passage was narrow, allowing only one person to pass at a time. The walls on both sides were covered with runes, some of which were still glowing, but the light was very faint, like a flashlight about to run out of power.

They walked down for about ten minutes. The passage widened until it became a huge underground space.

Lin Ye stood at the exit of the passage, looking at the scene before him, and stopped.

This was an underground cavern, at least three times larger than the main hall of the Fourth Processing Plant. The dome was inlaid with countless crystals, the same as those in the pyramids, but most had dimmed, with only a few still emitting a faint blue light, like eyes sleeping in the darkness. On the cave floor were seven grooves, exactly the same as those in the Third Seal and the Fourth Processing Plant. But these seven grooves were empty. The crystals were gone, the fragments were gone, nothing was left.

But deep inside the cave, there is something.

Lin Ye's extended perception detected three consciousness entities. They were powerful and quiet, as if they were asleep. Their forms were blurry in his perception, like looking at something through frosted glass. But he could sense their level.

Roller stage.

Three.

"They're sleeping," Gu Yan said softly. "Scroll-level creatures can hibernate. During hibernation, they don't need to eat, move, or do anything. They can sleep like this for decades, even centuries, until they are awakened by their owner."

"How do we wake him up?" Su Wanning asked.

"Lin Yuanzhou said they wouldn't attack him. But Lin Ye isn't Lin Yuanzhou." Gu Yan looked at Lin Ye. "You have Lin Yuanzhou's bloodline. Your consciousness has a similar aura to his. They might recognize you, or they might not."

"What if you don't know how?"

"Then we'll have to fight three scroll-level creatures." Gu Yan's tone was calm, as if he were saying, "The weather's nice today." "Su Wanning and I will hold off two, and you can take down one. After you're done, come help us. We'll take them down one by one."

"Can you win?"

"We have to fight even if we can't win," Gu Yan said. "We're already here."

Lin Ye gazed at the three blurry consciousnesses deep within the cave. They were curled up in the darkness, like three sleeping giants. He could feel their breathing—not with their lungs, but with their consciousness. With each inhale, the surrounding dream rules would converge towards them; with each exhale, the rules would disperse, spreading outwards like ripples on water.

"I'll go over there alone first," Lin Ye said. "If they recognize my bloodline, we won't have to fight."

"What if they don't recognize it?"

"Then come over here again."

Su Wanning wanted to say something, but Lin Ye had already left. He walked deeper into the cave, his footsteps light, almost making no sound on the gravel. The darkness parted before him, as if making way for him. The few still-glowing crystals on the ceiling seemed to brighten a little.

He walked about fifty meters. The three consciousnesses became clearer and clearer in his perception. Their forms began to emerge from the edge of his consciousness—the one on the left was like a huge wolf, but with three tails; the one in the middle was like a wingless bird, its body covered in scales; the one on the right was like a snake, but with horns on its head.

Three.

Roller stage.

Lin Ye stopped about twenty meters away from them.

"I am a descendant of Lin Yuanzhou," he said. His voice was not loud, but it echoed far and wide in the empty cave.

The three creatures remained motionless. Their consciousness, in his perception, remained vague and dormant.

"I'm here to take you home," Lin Ye said.

The wolf-like creature twitched its third tail slightly.