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Chapter 461: Trapped

After sending off Chu Liang and the others, the elderly chancellor quietly sat cross-legged at the entrance of the Bone Palace, seemingly in wait for something.

A long while passed, and a figure descended from the distant sky.

It was a woman dressed in a brightly colored silk dress. She had a slender figure, smooth and fair skin, and a pair of seductive fox eyes. However, those eyes were not flirtatious in the slightest. She had a deeply imposing and wise gaze; she had the eyes of someone who had seen the vicissitudes of life. Those who met her face to face usually avoided her gaze, not daring to harbor a single impure thought about her.

She walked lithely toward the Bone Palace.

The soldiers of the former dynasty turned their halberds toward her, intending to stop her. Yet, the moment they gazed at her, they collapsed to the ground.

The sound of the soldiers hitting the ground rang out continuously, and by the time she arrived in front of the palace, a large number of the former dynasty\'s soldiers were already lying in a huge pile behind her.

She hadn\'t glanced back even once.

"I respected your loyalty, so I believed your words, but you deceived me," Caiyi stated calmly, looking at the elderly chancellor.

The elderly chancellor fearlessly met Caiyi\'s gaze with a smile. "I am loyal to my fallen kingdom and to the human race, yet you expect me to assist the demon race? That is wishful thinking."

"But by doing this, you have completely destroyed any hope of restoring your kingdom."

"If our descendants are going to have to kneel as slaves under the rule of the demon race, then that means the Land of the Divine will no longer exist. What is the point of restoring our kingdom then?" The elderly chancellor shook his head. "How could you beasts in human form ever understand?"

Caiyi fell silent for a moment before speaking. "I do admire the... integrity of you humans. Your will power is intangible, yet it is the key distinction between humans and the other demonic clans. The reason humans have long ruled over the nine provinces is because there are so many like you."

She paused and then said, "I will give you one last chance. If you are willing to serve me, I promise that I will allow you to establish a kingdom. Even if the demon race returns to the nine provinces, you will have an independent territory.

"You must know the situation you\'re in. Once the Nightmare Demon King awakens and this dream world shatters, you will immediately revert to being irrational and uncivilized lingering spirits... And if the people of the Yu Dynasty rush over here, they will annihilate you. In other words, I\'m the only one who can save you now."

"It seems you still don\'t understand," the elderly chancellor replied.

He shook his head again and then closed his eyes.

The expression on his face conveyed a single message: Do what you will.

Caiyi sighed and stopped trying to persuade him.

She just leaped. Ripples instantly appeared in the air, and she disappeared into them.

The barriers between the dream realms were impenetrable for Chu Liang and the others, so they needed to find the connecting portals to get to the next dream realm. However, Caiyi was a greater demon at a cultivation level that might even be on par with the creator of this dream world, the Dream Immortal. So, she was able to enter and exit the dream realms effortlessly.

As for these remnants of the former dynasty, she was unwilling to kill them herself, nor did she need to do so.

As she had said earlier, if she succeeded in awakening the Nightmare Demon King, the dream world would shatter, and these people would become lonely wandering ghosts again. Even if she failed, it would undoubtedly attract the attention of the Yu Dynasty, and these remnants of the former dynasty would face the most brutal purge.

Yet, even under such circumstances, the elderly chancellor refused to serve her. This was indeed outside her expectations.

Humans were always like this.

Caiyi hadn\'t been a part of the Demon God War, but she knew of what had happened back then. Despite facing a god-like ninth-realm being, the humans had resisted relentlessly and ultimately achieved the miracle of slaying a god.

Caiyi believed this was the power of civilization, so that\'s why she had been studying human culture in the Far West. Nonetheless, how long would it take for the demon race to become like the humans?

She did not know.

…

"Qingyuan..."

"Lianhua..."

In the main hall, Gu Qingyuan and Ji Lianhua sobbed as they embraced each other. Their reunion after thirty years was deeply moving.

"Lianhua, you\'re finally here," Gu Qingyuan said, holding Ji Lianhua\'s hand. "It must have been a difficult journey."

"It\'s my fault for coming so late." Ji Lianhua shook her head vigorously, looking at her beloved with pity. "You poor thing. You\'ve been living all alone in the desolate mountains, waiting for me for a long thirty years..."

Watching their heartfelt reunion, the others found it hard to interrupt the couple.

After the initial burst of emotions, Gu Qingyuan glanced back at the group.

"Lianhua, time is running out," he said seriously. "All of you must escape from here and gather reinforcements."

"Right!" Ji Lianhua responded. "Let\'s leave together!"

"I..." Gu Qingyuan uttered, suddenly hesitant. "I can\'t leave..."

Ji Lianhua narrowed her eyes. "What are you saying?"

Hearing Gu Qingyuan\'s words, the group turned to him with serious expressions.

"You must have noticed. Right now, I am merely a primordial spirit..." Gu Qingyuan explained. "My corporeal body is beneath this hall, suppressing the Nightmare Demon King."

"Huh?"

Ji Lianhua had indeed sensed that something was off, but she hadn\'t had the chance to ask earlier. Nevertheless, as a seventh-realm Eminent One, Gu Qingyuan\'s primordial spirit appeared complete and showed no obvious anomalies, so the others hadn\'t noticed anything either.

"Years ago, I obtained an ancient map and ventured into the Southern Bastion Mountain in the Southern Regions to search for the hidden treasures of the Great Noble Dream Immortal. I was hoping to find something that could give me the opportunity to break through to the Heavenly Gate[1]. However, once I entered this hidden realm, I realized something was wrong.

"I was not the first to arrive here. The Nightmare Demon King and the young emperor of the former dynasty had come in before me, and they were already in a dream state, adding to the levels of this dream world. The dream I entered was that of the young emperor. But at the time, the true self of the Nightmare Demon King was on the verge of awakening."

Hearing that, everyone immediately understood what Caiyi had come searching for.

In some dreams, the dreamer viewed everything from a third-person perspective and did not get involved in anything. In other dreams, there was a true self in the dream that experienced everything firsthand. If this true self encountered a strong enough shock, it might wake up from the dream.

For beings at the level of the Great Noble Dream Immortal and the Nightmare Demon King, leaving their true self in the dream was a matter of choice. It was evident that the Nightmare Demon King had deliberately left its true self in the dream to prepare for its eventual awakening.

After three thousand years, the consciousness of the Nightmare King\'s true self had gradually developed, and it was now preparing to awaken.

Fortunately, around that time, a group of intruders also entered its dream. It was the army that the former dynasty\'s chancellor led.

The Nightmare Demon King\'s true self was not as powerful as its corporeal form. In the dream, its cultivation level was only at the seventh realm, so the two parties were evenly matched.

Gu Qingyuan continued, "At that time, I chanced upon the chancellor fighting against the Nightmare Demon King\'s true self. I stepped in to help, and in a moment of desperation, I restrained its true self with my bare hands. The chancellor then sealed both my consciousness and that of the Nightmare Demon King in ice, temporarily preventing the demon from awakening.

"With the chancellor\'s help, my primordial spirit left my corporeal body and has continued to exist here. I also found the cultivation legacy of the Great Noble Dream Immortal—the Dream Techniques."

He smiled bitterly.

Sighing, he told Ji Lianhua, "How ironic. My lifelong wish was nothing more than to reach the seventh realm, impress your family, and then ask for your hand in marriage. But after breaking through to the seventh realm, I still couldn\'t go find you. I endured an agonizing wait here for so many years until I finally found someone who could help me send a message."

Chu Liang felt rather ashamed. If he had realized earlier that Second Madam Gu was Ji Lianhua, perhaps they could have arrived sooner and been one step ahead of the female demon king.

However, after hearing the whole story, Chu Liang understood why the elderly chancellor of the previous dynasty refused to even consider helping Caiyi awaken the Nightmare Demon King.

It turned out that the elderly chancellor had sealed the Nightmare Demon King\'s true self with his own hands. Even if he were to help awaken the Nightmare Demon King now, it would not end well for him. So, rather than betray the human race again, he chose to stand firm in his integrity.

Of course, this was just a dark conjecture. Regardless, the elderly chancellor was worthy of respect.

Gu Qingyuan urged, "The most important thing right now is for all of you to leave here. This matter is of great importance. As long as you can find a Master of the Heavenly Origin to take action, the crisis will be resolved."

"Yes, you must leave quickly," Ji Lianhua chimed in. Then she turned to Gu Qingyuan. "But I won\'t go. I\'ll stay here with you."

"Lianhua..." Gu Qingyuan uttered, still thinking of trying to persuade her.

Hearing that, Chu Liang smelled trouble. Were they going to drag things out?

Fortunately, Yan Qihu flung out his sleeves and pointed out, "It\'s not about whether you want to leave; it\'s about whether we can! Let\'s first see if we can even break through that barrier! If we can\'t, we\'re all dead!"

His loud, gruff voice shattered the dismal atmosphere between the two, pulling everyone back to reality.

The group stopped wasting time and flew to the edge of the Deep Pool of Dreams.

There was a thick cocoon-like barrier overhead. It seemed like countless strands of white thread had been densely wrapped around the hidden realm, blocking off the view of the outside world from every possible nook and cranny. The Deep Pool of Dreams was completely enclosed.

This white cocoon not only blocked corporeal bodies but also all spiritual energy from passing through. No divine abilities or techniques could move through it, including Dimension Compression.

"Mister Wei and I studied it for a long time," Gu Qingyuan replied. "But even with our combined strengths, we still couldn\'t break open the cocoon."

Long before the group arrived at the hall, Gu Qingyuan and Wei Lang had already tried multiple times to break through the cocoon and send a message out. However, while Confucian divine skills might be profound, they lacked the power to break through such obstacles.

If a seventh-realm cultivator wanted to break open this cocoon, they would probably need a sword cultivator like Daoist Yan.

"Let me try," Yan Qihu said resolutely.

Channeling his qi and blood, he gathered all his strength and threw a fierce punch at the barrier!

Boooom.

Unexpectedly, the white cocoon, woven from an unknown material, was incredibly sticky and tough. Yan Qihu\'s punch was strong enough to shatter a mountain, yet it only made the barrier bounce a little.

Then countless strands of white thread shot out, trying to bind Yan Qihu to the cocoon-like barrier!

Fortunately, he was agile and swiftly moved out of the way. The threads extended more than ten zhang into the air, hovered for a moment, and then retracted back into the cocoon.

Yan Qihu\'s punch didn\'t just fail to damage the cocoon; it had the side effect of inadvertently alarming the enemy. The loud boom had echoed across the mountain peak, ringing out several times.

Soon after, an ethereal laugh drifted over from afar.

"Trying to leave, are you?" It was a soft female voice. "Just tell me where the Nightmare Demon King is, and I\'ll let you go..."

1. The third and last cultivation gate, realms 7 to 9. ☜

GLTD Alternate Universe\'s Thoughts

Translator: LD