The bright light began to become even brighter.
"Is that... is it heading our way?"
"Everyone! Run!"
Panic spread throughout the villagers.
"Never fear - Yu Sai is here!" Yu Sai yelled out, intending to stop it with his powers.
However, while the bright light got closer, it didn't strike them.
"Is that... a gu worm?" Yu Sai muttered.
"It almost looks like a heart," Li Mei added beside him.
The gu worm in question enlarged until it was larger than the sun in the sky, before it opened its mouth.
But it didn't eat any of the people on the ground; no, it seemed to eat reality itself. The world around Yu Sai fractured into millions of tiny pieces which entered the gu worm's mouth.
"Ah!" Yu Sai yelled out as he woke up, covered in a sweat.
He looked around - it was still the middle of the night.
Li Mei was sleeping next to him. No - correction - she had been sleeping next to him but woke up because he was yelling out.
"What happened?" she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Uh, um..." Yu Sai trailed off. "I was having this dream you see..."
Yu Sai explained the dream he had before it had been interrupted.
"So you dreamed that you were somehow rewarded for doing nothing?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
"Uh, yeah," Yu Sai said, blushing slightly. "But this time, something um... happened near the end... I can't explain it..." Yu Sai did not remember the last part of the dream - he had forgotten about that pink light and the strange gu worm. All he remembered was that something bad had happened and then he woke up. "It's like it turned into a nightmare or something... the last thing I remembered was that I had reached Rank 7 and had Sky Blue primeval essence..."
"Is Rank 7 essence really a Sky Blue color?" Li Mei asked. Both of them were only Rank One, and it wasn't like anyone within Gu Yue Village knew about Immortals or what kind of essence they had. Both of them had heard that Rank 5 essence was Purple Crystal colored, but neither were really sure about that. That was the limit to their knowledge.
"I dunno..." Yu Sai said, sighing. "I guess it might be some other color like black? The other colors green, red, silver, gold, and purple are used up so it has to be one of the other colors, right? But yeah, it was a pretty cool dream, I became clan head and all... and I got gu worms which could improve our aptitudes!"
"Did you also find a gu worm that might make me prettier?" Li Mei asked.
Yu Sai paused. "I don't need to find a gu worm like that. You're already the prettiest girl in all of Gu Yue Village as is." Even in his wildest power fantasy, he did nothing to touch up Li Mei's appearance or even take another girl into his 'harem.'
To Yu Sai, Li Mei as she was right now; was all that he wanted.
To Yu Sai, Li Mei was already perfect.
To Yu Sai, it was folly to try and 'improve' anything about her.
Li Mei yawned. She might've found such talk to be endearing, but right now, she only wanted to rest. They had a long day of work ahead for both of them. "Sure thing. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Yu Sai said, trying to fall asleep once more. He would soon forget all about that weird dream. Not that he didn't have it again, it just wouldn't end in the same manner as this time.
An ethereal shadow left their house, invisible to mortal eyes as it travelled all around new Gu Yue Village.
People who were having bright and cheerful dreams suddenly woke up in the middle of the night - yelling out as they were cut off abruptly.
A girl dreaming of picking flowers in a meadow.
A man dreaming of finding a bag filled with primeval stones.
A woman delighted to find herself pregnant within her dreams.
All of them suddenly woke up in a cold sweat much like Yu Sai had. None of them could recall the final part of their dreams.
All of their happy dreams were consumed by this shadow as it wove around the houses of Gu Yue Village, able to move through the walls and rooves as if they were intangible.
Finally, once this shadow was done, it returned to a man who was floating above the sky of Gu Yue Village.
This man had jet-black hair as dark as the night sky itself, with his left eye sparkling like the stars above.
His right eye was missing - several gu worms were currently hiding the true contents of what was going on within it from the outside world as an illusion covered it. The man was unbothered by the loss of his right eye, it was a small price to pay.
This man was none other than Gu Yue Fang Yuan - the person whom Gu Yue Yu Sai fantasized about beating to a pulp in his dreams.
"Hmm... not quite full," Fang Yuan muttered as Dreams of Love and Happiness Gu returned to him.
It took the form of a pink heart and could emit a bright pinkish-purple radiance. Like many Dream Path gu worms, it was ethereal, able to pass by solid objects with ease. It also did not leak an Immortal Aura like many Immortal Gu did - at least, not one that could be detected conventionally. So there was no harm in letting it feed on the dreams of the Gu Yue Villagers.
Thanks to absorbing parts of the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will, he now understood how most of his Immortal Gu worked.
Unfortunately, his Vital Gu, the Spring Autumn Cicada, was sealed inside his aperture. It could survive for quite some time before he found a solution in regards to dealing with Heaven's Will which had managed to infiltrate it, but it was blocked off from him for now. That meant that he could not use it - not without exposing himself to Heaven's Will's mercy.
As for Dreams of Love and Happiness Gu - its effect was simple. When activated, it could change the contents of a dream realm into a dream filled with bliss and happiness.
It could make a dream realm that was otherwise quite difficult to get through quite easy.
It was an incredibly effect - worthy of being the ability of a first-class Dream Path Immortal gu worm! As a matter of fact, this could be said to be Fang Yuan's most useful gu worm second only to the Spring Autumn Cicada!
In this current world where the dream path was just being explored, having access to a gu worm like this gave Fang Yuan a massive edge when it came to developing and understanding the Dream Path. He could be leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else by now!
Fang Yuan had attacked the Hu Immortal Blessed Land in his previous life in order to get his hands on Dream Wings Gu. That was currently in the hands of Feng Jin Huang as it was during his previous life, who had managed to obtain them in her dreams. He had been unable to during his past life, but with this gu worm in his hands could be said to be more valuable than Dream Wings Gu!
Of course, the requirement to obtain this gu worm was also high. He had been forced to trick Bai Ning Bing into marrying him - though now with his Immortal Ascension, Poison Vow Gu's dao marks had been washed off of him. That meant that the two of them were 'divorced' - not that he had ever felt any attachment to that woman in the first place.
Fang Yuan frowned.
Why had that been a requirement anyway?
Fang Yuan could only conclude that it wanted to see him try and reform Bai Ning Bing in some way. He snorted - that was nearly as futile as trying to reform him; then again, it wasn't like Paradise Earth hadn't tried. So it was likely a branching off from that desire.
But no matter. He had this gu worm now, and the remnants of what had created the Goody Two-Shoes System were currently in his right orbit. He would not be losing it to anyone - the system or anyone else for that matter.
With that said, this ability had a number of drawbacks as well.