On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Unlike the corrupted nun who descended using "Maria's" body in the Holy Kingdom, the Styutia before them was the real deal. The only one who could stop the nun, the dragon girl, was no match for Styutia because of the energy consumed by the ritual.

At this point, it seems that all of Liao Ji's forces have been wiped out by Styutia. Oh no, there's only one left.

Irene summoned the blood-red greatsword, but the crimson greatsword, which usually gave people a ferocious feeling, seemed more like a toy in the current environment, posing no threat to Styutia whatsoever.

Even with everyone's combined strength, they couldn't harm Styutia in the slightest, let alone now that she's all alone.

Irene's hand gripping the greatsword was indeed trembling slightly. All she could do now was keep calling out to Styutia, trying to awaken their goddess, but the only response Irene received was a swing of Styutia's scythe.

The girl desperately tried to defend herself, but her blood-red greatsword was simply no match for the scythe. Sthiuthia shattered it like tofu, and without her weapon, Irene could only watch helplessly as the nun's black scythe continued to expand within her vision.

Bang!

Before Irene could react, she heard a muffled thud, and the next moment, the huge black scythe stopped, or rather, was forced to stop.

What made the girl's eyes widen in disbelief was...

"Liao Liao Ji!?"

The black scythe, which could even cut and tear apart Jiu You's dragon scales, was actually taken down by Liao Ji with one arm. Even more unbelievable was that Liao Ji's arm was completely unharmed, without even a wound.

"Thank you for your hard work, Irene. Leave the rest to me."

Under the bewildered gaze of the girl, Liao Ji shook his head at her, signaling her to step back. Then Liao Ji turned his head and looked at Styutia, who also had a shocked expression on her face. He exerted force on his arm again, and the nun immediately felt an irresistible force coming from her side, which directly sent her flying, scythe and all!

"This power."

"Lord Ash, you don't... no, no!" Before she could even steady herself, the nun stared intently at Liao Ji, even her darkened heart showing a hint of retreat.

Because Styutia had considered a bad possibility.

Meanwhile, Liao Ji seemed to have also become interested in the nun's words.

After thinking for a moment, Liao Ji suddenly unleashed a massive wave of energy around him. His clothing changed, and a dark brown cloak began to cover his entire body, merging him into shadow.

The cloak itself was not particularly noticeable at first glance, and even looked somewhat tattered, as if it were the remnants of something burned. But for Styutia, who was not far away, it shocked the nun so much that she could not even hold the scythe in her hand.

Because this seemingly "tattered" cloak exudes a sense of continuous and ancient vicissitudes. When one looks at it a second time, it is as if what one sees is no longer the cloak, but behind it, the countless times it has been burned, the pioneers who tried to burn themselves to light up the long night.

Although they eventually burned out and turned to dust, there will always be another person who will continue to appear, inheriting this dust and carrying this will to continue burning. Returning to ashes is their destiny, but it is also their glory.

"No, that's impossible!"

"Lord Ash, how could you... Could it be that you've recovered... It's not fake! It must be fake!"

Styutia kept backing away, a look of fear appearing on the nun's face.

Without uttering a word, completely concealed in the shadow of his cloak, this image was all too familiar to Styutia. It was precisely because of this familiarity that those past memories surfaced, filling the nun with an overwhelming sense of dread.

Her desire to possess Lord Ash is contingent upon Lord Ash not regaining his former power; otherwise, everything she has done is a joke and will only lead to her being despised and abandoned by Lord Ash.

Thinking of all this, the nun completely lost her mind and charged at Liao Ji without caring about anything else, wielding her scythe and trying to "pierce" Liao Ji.

And in response

Liao Ji shook his head.

"Ugly. Absolutely ugly."

“The real Styutia would never do such a despicable thing.”

Looking at the nun opposite him, who only became more hideous after he himself had revealed his "ashes" form, Liao Ji seemed to have lost interest in testing her any further.

Such an ugly dream

It's better to end it sooner rather than later.

Liao Ji didn't even move an inch, but the nun opposite him was horrified to discover that her body was actually collapsing.

"What...what is this?!"

"No! Lord Ash, I don't want to!"

Before Styutia could even reach Liao Ji, her entire body had already turned into bubbles and dust, which vanished completely with a gust of night wind, never to exist again.

After doing all this, Liao Ji, though reluctant to leave his current image as a true "ash," knew it was all just a false illusion and quickly exited, returning to his original state.

So

"What was that just now? And what about the goddess? Am I still in reality? Am I dreaming?"

Having witnessed the entire process, Irene rubbed her eyes. The girl's brain was completely blank, as if it had crashed. She couldn't understand what had happened in the past few minutes.

Liao Ji shrugged and said, "Congratulations, Irene, you're right. You are indeed dreaming. No, I should say, you are a figment of my imagination based on the real you. So you are essentially the same as everyone else, including Styutia."

"What?!"

"Liao Ji, wake up! You clearly took off the Dream Terminal! This is reality, not a dream!"

Seeing the girl opposite him looking anxious and concerned about his brain, Liao Ji smiled.

"I did take off the terminal, but now it seems that I only took it off in a dream. I'm still wearing it in reality, right? To be honest, it really fooled me at first."

"However, it is precisely because I am now awake and realize that this is still a dream that I have regained some control over the dream. Isn't what just happened the best proof? Even you said it felt like a dream."

Liao Ji appears to be chatting with Yilin, but in reality, he is just having a conversation with himself. It's like when people are thinking, they often ask and answer questions in their minds. However, since he is in a dream, the questioner is represented by the image of "Yilin" to help him think about and analyze the current situation.

"That old fogey! Since you say it's all a dream, we need to get out of here right now!"

Faced with the girl's urging, Liao Ji nodded thoughtfully and said, "Indeed, but here's the problem: how do I wake myself up?"

"Do you want me to pinch you? Didn't they say pain would wake you up?"

"It's definitely not that simple, otherwise I would have been able to leave long ago when I was backed by the Sthitia Contract. Forget it, there's no use thinking about it like this. It seems that the one who tied the knot must untie it."

As Liao Ji spoke, under Irene's bewildered gaze, he turned his eyes to the corpse of the first maid whom Styutia had "killed" not far away.

Chapter 157 Awakening from the Dream (Part 2)

As Liao Ji explained to Yilin before, regarding dreams, if you're not aware that you're "dreaming," then even if you are the owner of the dream, it's useless. But once you're "aware" that you're dreaming...

With just a thought from Liao Ji, the maid's body, pierced by Styutia's scythe, began to rapidly recover. Her lost arm grew back, and in just a few breaths, the maid stood up as if nothing had happened, leaving Irene, who was standing beside her, completely dumbfounded.

"Master? I'm not right! Run, Master! Quick... Huh?"

The maid, who was "resurrected" by Liao Ji, was initially confused. Then, she seemed to still be immersed in the threat of Styutia. When she looked around again and could no longer see the shadow of the corrupted nun, she became confused.

This series of inner thoughts was perfectly conveyed by the maid through her tone of voice and facial expressions, making her seem just like a lost soul like Irene.

but

"Alright, forget about the acting for now. Tell me, who are you?"

The maid seemed not to have reacted yet. She first looked around and, finding no one else, noticed that Liao Ji was speaking to her. Then, tilting her head, she said in a very confused tone:

"I'm very sorry, Master, but 86 doesn't quite understand what you mean?"

"86, fine. Since you won't say, I'll just call you 85 for now. 85, do you know what first made me feel something was off?"

Liao Ji pointed at the maid and said, "Actually, it's you."

"Me?" The maid's face showed an even more puzzled expression.

"That's right, because the real '86, to use your earlier statement as an example, should be said like this."

"Me?" Number 86 asked, looking puzzled and reflecting on what he had done to make his master feel something was wrong.

Liao Ji made a simple imitation of someone born in the 86s.

Seeing the maid opposite him fall silent, he didn't mind and continued, "You should have noticed the difference. 86 doesn't have as many tones and expressions as you, which is why it has evolved into 86's special way of speaking, where he expresses his inner thoughts all at once."

"That's one reason for the awkwardness. The second reason is that I deliberately brought up a topic to have Irene talk to you. I can understand if others didn't notice your abnormality like I did, but it's only Irene. Irene has been with you for so long, and given her personality, she would never hide anything. She would definitely make a fuss immediately and ask 86 why your voice has changed. But the truth is..."

Liao Ji glanced at the girl next to him who had a "Huh?" expression on her face. It was clear that Irene in this dream really believed that the original maid spoke like that.

At this point, the contradiction became clear, and Liao Ji's thoughts became clearer and his speaking speed increased.

“Irene didn’t find you strange, which is clearly inconsistent with the character of Irene in my dream, unless it’s not just my dream anymore, but someone else has also entered my dream, and in her dream, she thinks she’s disguised herself very well, so apart from me, the other characters in the dream don’t find you strange at all.”

"Furthermore, I must say your plan was indeed excellent. You found the two points of Styutia and 'darkening,' making my subconscious accept this dream, with the intention of killing me in the dream?"

"But unfortunately, you were too hasty. From the moment Styutia broke free from my contract, it made me even more suspicious. And then, when I showed Styutia my ashes, but she still attacked me, I was completely certain that she was fake just like you. I was still in a dream, and in our shared dream."

After finishing his long string of deductions, Liao Ji let out a long sigh. The reason he insisted on stating all of this was because the more he could prove that this was a dream, the greater his power within the dream would be.

Having realized this, Liao Ji had already figured out how to get out. Feeling much more relaxed, he even had the leisure to complain a few words to the silent maid opposite him.

"I'm not trying to be mean, but 85, do you have some kind of grudge against Styutia? Or did Tia do something that you hate? Why do you have to smear Tia like this? If you hadn't made Styutia so crazy and ugly, I probably wouldn't have found out so quickly."

Maid: "."

"Fine, I've already guessed a bit about your identity. If you're going to keep this up, I'm not going to keep you company. Dreaming is nice, but I actually prefer something more realistic."

After saying this to the maid, Liao Ji returned to Yilin's side.

That's right.

The key to leaving the Dream World lies with Irene.

Based on the dream rules he had previously comprehended, the reason he couldn't exit the dream was because his power wasn't great enough; in other words, he wasn't "enough" to realize that it was a dream.

You need decisive evidence, a more compelling proof, to "convince" yourself.

And Irene is that evidence.

"Luckily, you haven't been of much use before," Liao Ji muttered to himself.

"What!?"

"What I mean is, thankfully I've never used the Touch of Calamity on you!"

Yes.

Dreams are derived from reality, but if it's something that has never happened in reality, then dreams can't capture it.

For Liao Ji, what Yilin was "materialized" by the Touch of Turbidity was this unknown.

The key to his escape from the dream was that anchor point.

The skill flashed, and a murky red mist instantly enveloped the two. Liao Ji placed his hand on the girl, activating the Touch of Murky Calamity, but this time it was pulled out of Yilin's body.

It was a blank space.

Obviously, this is not reality.