Stronger with Crimson Modifier

Chapter 370 - 334: Deceitful Painting Fragments (Part 1)

A gray, hazy mist filled the air.

Vague shadows occasionally flitted through it. Enormous silhouettes twisted and stretched, as if terrifying, man-eating monsters lurked within.

Hu Qi’s figure materialized from the mist.

He walked forward.

With each step he took, a translucent, mirror-like surface materialized beneath his feet, forming a series of stairs that propelled him onward.

The scenery below him shifted constantly—dirt roads, cities, mountain forests...

CHITTER.

Just then, a noise came from below.

His gaze fell upon a spherical creature.

It had countless twisted legs and rolled steadily forward. With every step, it left behind a puddle of fluorescent slime in which undigested, severed limbs still writhed.

It let out a bizarre cry.

SPLASH!

Just then, a massive wave surged from out of nowhere.

It sent the creature flying.

The next moment.

A winged octopus monster poked its head out from the wave.

Its wings were fashioned from tattered ship sails, adorned with strange Runes. Various mariners’ heirlooms dangled from its tentacles, which dripped with seawater and dark red blood.

Two thick, black, sucker-covered tentacles, like pythons, coiled around the green slime monster and dragged it over with immense force.

Yet, a moment later.

The scene changed once again.

A massive chasm suddenly opened in the ground, swallowing both monsters and the seawater whole.

A closer look revealed it wasn’t a chasm at all, but a gigantic mouth. After devouring the two monsters, a colossal white tongue snaked out, covered in numb, twisted, and ghastly pale human faces.

Just as the giant mouth was about to close and retract...

...a massive, skinless hand with exposed, blood-red tendons descended from the sky and slapped the mouth flat.

Such occurrences were common here. The place was filled with the bizarre and grotesque, constantly in flux.

However, all these monsters appeared translucent, almost illusory.

Hu Qi’s expression remained impassive in the face of this spectacle.

This was, after all, the depths of the Mind Realm—the Nightmare Gap.

According to the memories from Hu San and the Blood Word Script, all the Dream Eyes in this world originated from the depths of this Nightmare Gap.

That was why the Blood Word Script had previously manipulated and dispatched its "actors," sending them randomly into the Nightmare Gap to collect Dream Eyes.

Dream Eyes were like manifestations of Nightmares, filled with a bizarre and absurd power.

Hu Qi hadn’t dared to explore this place before, as he lacked the necessary strength.

But now that he had entered the True Body Realm, Hu Qi wanted to investigate the Nightmare Gap.

If the Mind Realm was the convergence of all living beings’ minds, then the Dream World was a deeper concept. The Nightmare Gap, in turn, could be understood as a still deeper layer of dreaming.

As he pressed forward, the Power of Nightmare rippled from his body, parting the mist before him.

This world was very unusual.

The Mind Realm was a collective of all living minds, existing as an extension of the physical world.

Logically, any world with life should possess its own Mind Realm.

Take Earth Star, for example.

But while Earth Star’s Mind Realm could be perceived, it was nothing compared to this one.

The Mind Realm in this world was exceptionally powerful and stable.

The existence of the Dream Eye even allowed people to physically enter the Mind Realm.

Such a thing would be utterly impossible on Earth Star.

Even Hu Qi’s original body on Earth Star could only enter the Mind Realm spiritually; bringing his physical body was impossible.

This wasn’t because his original body was weak, but because of the differences between the worlds. Earth Star’s Mind Realm was simply too fragile.

Now, as he delved deeper, the scenery before him changed ceaselessly.

The once-translucent buildings and monsters grew more and more solid.

It was as if Hu Qi were drawing closer to the world these things actually inhabited.

After another dozen seconds or so, Hu Qi took a step forward.

He felt as if he had passed through a membrane of flowing water.

At the same time, he felt solid ground beneath his feet.

The mist dissipated like a veil of gauze.

The surrounding landscape, once shrouded in fog, gradually came into focus.

Looking around, he found himself at the mouth of an alley in a city. The damp ground reeked of decay.

The walls were crawling with unknown vines that pulsed with a faint, crimson light, resembling living human veins.

The bluestone path beneath his feet, like a twisted ancient serpent, wound its way crookedly into the unknown.

It was a modern city, yet it exuded an air of the absurd and the grotesque at every turn.

The buildings lining the street were bizarre. Some resembled giant dolls, their hollow eyes staring blankly ahead.

Others were shaped like robots, their metal shells emitting a cold sheen in the dim light.

Sparks of electricity occasionally arced from their joints.

Still other houses defied gravity, hovering in mid-air.

And high in the sky above...

...a city, like an inverted mirror image, hung phantom-like from the firmament.

Everything within it was presented in a state of disarray.

The spires of skyscrapers pointed downward, rooted in the empty sky.

Vehicles, like suspended beetles, drove crazily against the flow of traffic on the upside-down streets.

Strange, twisted figures drifted and wandered among them, floating head-down and feet-up.

’So this is what they call a deeper layer of dreaming?’

Hu Qi’s eyes narrowed.