Within the Dream World, between the Woodland, countless thick, towering giant trees stretched out in a continuous expanse as far as the eye could see. The lush canopies replaced the sky, shrouding the entire Woodland in a deep gloom. On the branches of the giant trees, countless pure white dream cocoons hung like pendants. Multicolored memory bubbles drifted between the dense woods, and cold, radiant fluorescent flowers and plants swayed gently on the ground.
In a wide clearing, the enormous figure of a dreamlike moth insect lay weakly. Its withered giant wings, missing several pieces, drooped powerlessly on the ground. Its body and bloated abdomen were covered in terrifying gap, and about a third of the numerous tentacles growing on its body were broken off, from which illusory blood flowed.
"Huff… huff…"
Inside the injured Pseudo-Moth, in the head area, Ku Chi, in his dream body form, was panting with lingering fear. His face still held the tension of someone who had narrowly escaped death. After relentless and strenuous struggle, he had finally escaped from Moncarlo, escaping the full-force pursuit of Edward, an experienced Scarlet expert. Regardless of his current state, this was an achievement worth boasting about in his extraordinary life.
'Huff… why, why did that old lunatic Edward suddenly target me? Saying I stole something from him? Don't be ridiculous… if he wanted the black moon amulet himself, there's no way he would have put it up for auction…'
While panting, Ku Chi thought to himself. Besides relief, his heart was filled with confusion. He had never understood why Edward had suddenly targeted him! Didn't they say Moncarlo was an open city? During his time in Moncarlo, he hadn't done anything that would provoke this great pirate's wrath.
'No… there's something fishy about this… that old lunatic really seemed angry, even to the point of losing some reason. He must have lost something important and found me during the search, identifying me as the thief…
'So… there must be a third party involved in this. They used some method to provoke me and Edward, creating conflict between us to achieve their own goals. We were both used…'
Ku Chi quickly pondered in his mind. After finally escaping the battle, he finally had time to carefully consider the strange aspects of tonight's incident. After careful thought, he found that the series of explosions that ultimately helped him escape now seemed so suspicious.
'Those explosions that helped me blow up the water snakes at the end weren't created by me, and certainly not by Edward, who was determined to keep me. They could only be the work of that third party. Since they incited conflict between me and Edward and then helped me escape, their purpose is…'
Thinking of this, Ku Chi's pupils suddenly widened slightly. Once he understood the true target of the mysterious mastermind, a wave of panic rose in his heart, and he immediately decided to leave this place without delay and return to a completely safe location.
Then, Ku Chi began to concentrate his energy, causing the Pseudo-Moth, which was symbiotic with him, to begin absorbing the living dream cocoons stored in its abdomen, intending to drain the nutrients within to quickly repair the Pseudo-Moth's body and then continue to relocate. To cope with such situations, the Pseudo-Moth's body always stored a large number of living dream cocoons.
Under Ku Chi's operation, the large amount of dream energy within the Pseudo-Moth began to have its nutrients taken with the goal of being completely drained. However, when this process had only lasted for a short while, a sudden anomaly occurred.
The Pseudo-Moth's originally bloated abdomen suddenly began to writhe irregularly. After a series of uneven disturbances, the moth's abdomen began to expand rapidly to one side. Ku Chi felt an extreme abnormality in the flow of Spirituality within his body.
"What! This is…"
Just as Ku Chi was astonished by the sudden anomaly in the Pseudo-Moth, the large bulge on the side of the Pseudo-Moth suddenly burst open. A massive amount of illusory blood and dream cocoons sprayed out from within. Subsequently, a giant Dragon head covered in hard scales, with sharp spinal ridges and majestic horns, and sharp teeth and fangs, drilled out from within.
"Roar!!"
Amidst a roar, the giant trees of the Woodland trembled, the hanging dream cocoons swayed slightly, and the floating memory bubbles shattered one after another. The Dragon, bathed in the flowing light of illusory blood, burst out from the Pseudo-Moth's abdomen. Following the Dragon head were spread giant wings, the sharp claws of the wing hands and the sharp Dragon teeth mercilessly cutting and tearing the Pseudo-Moth's fragile abdomen. Their efficiency was even greater than that of the water snakes that had previously attacked the Pseudo-Moth. In an instant, more than half of the Pseudo-Moth's abdomen was completely torn to shreds, and most of the Dragon's body was revealed. The Pseudo-Moth let out a silent wail in extreme pain. This extreme pain was transmitted to Ku Chi, the symbiotic body, causing him to cry out in agony.
"Ahhh!!!
"Dragon! Why!!"
With wide eyes and mouth, Ku Chi let out desperate and confused screams in pain. However, he did not give up the thought of escaping. Enduring the pain, Ku Chi controlled the Pseudo-Moth, which had lost most of its abdomen, to forcefully flap its wings, trying to take flight and escape.
However, as a hunter far more terrifying than Edward's water snakes, the Dragon would not give its prey a chance to escape. The Pseudo-Moth had just flown a short distance when the Dragon's wing claws firmly grasped its wings. Seeing this, Ku Chi controlled the Pseudo-Moth's tentacles to extend and whip towards the Dragon below, but those tentacles had almost no effect on the Dragon's rock-like scales.
Facing the Pseudo-Moth's counterattack, the Dragon immediately took further action. With a forceful pull, the Dragon, holding the Pseudo-Moth's wings, pulled its entire large body back to the ground. Then, it continued to exert force, tearing and pulling off the Pseudo-Moth's wings. The Pseudo-Moth, in silent wailing, controlled its illusory tentacles to counterattack the Dragon. The Dragon, after grasping and biting these tentacles, ripped them off one by one.
Facing the already injured Pseudo-Moth, the Dragon showed no mercy or politeness, mercilessly tearing and dismembering it with both claws and teeth. In the intense pain of its body being torn apart, and in the irresistible mental impact, Ku Chi gradually lost consciousness. His spirit and soul were being mercilessly crushed by the Dragon along with the Pseudo-Moth.
After a brutal slaughter like butchery, the fragmented body pieces of the Pseudo-Moth scattered on the ground began to gradually dissipate, including Ku Chi in his dream body form. After both Ku Chi and the Pseudo-Moth turned into nothingness, besides the standing Dragon, what remained on the scene was a ground covered in tiny purple and silver light points, mixed with a few blue bubbles.
Besides the light points and bubbles, there were also two illusory objects suspended in mid-air: one was a hollow carved spherical object, and the other was a damaged black jade. In addition to these, a pile of scattered dream cocoons were slowly disappearing. Looking at this scene before her, Dorothy's will within the Dragon's form slightly relaxed.
'Huff… finally resolved… indeed, once I use this Dragon mimicry, everything becomes much easier to handle. As expected, for me, Black Dream is the easiest evil cult society to deal with.
'As long as I can enter the Dream World coordinates where the Pseudo-Moth is located, I can defeat even a Scarlet-tier Black Dream high-level member head-on. This is like defeating the enemy in their own area of expertise…'
Looking at the scene before her, Dorothy pondered in her heart. After hearing from Little Fox that she needed to face a Scarlet-tier Black Dream this time, she had already set her basic strategy in her mind. That was to find him, figure out a way to force out his Pseudo-Moth symbiotic body, and then let the Pseudo-Moth capture her own dream cocoon. By doing this, she could reach the Dream World coordinates where the Pseudo-Moth was located and use the Dragon mimicry to kill the Pseudo-Moth, just like she did before in Navaja.
The difficulty of this strategy lay in how to find and force out Ku Chi's symbiotic Pseudo-Moth in Moncarlo. Fortunately, thanks to Edward and the Sea Abyss Church, this difficulty was successfully overcome. Edward used every means to find Ku Chi and force out his ultimate move. After that, Dorothy only needed to pay attention to how to get Ku Chi to capture her.
To achieve this, Dorothy used the puppet marks Vanya had previously left on the Moncarlo city guards. She had them attack the Pseudo-Moth preparing to escape at the port using spiritual bullets Dorothy had previously acquired from the Moncarlo black market. This gave Ku Chi the illusion that Edward's subordinates were not fully hypnotized and were still attacking him, prompting him to eliminate the city guards and seize the dream cocoons. Afterward, Dorothy herself disguised as a city guard and charged forward, allowing Ku Chi to conveniently seize her dream cocoon as well. Then, Dorothy's dream cocoon could follow the Pseudo-Moth into the Dream World space.
For added security, Dorothy also entrusted her unconscious body to Naifnis, who was now capable of possessing others' souls, for protection and manipulation, in case of any unexpected situations.
Now that the Pseudo-Moth and Ku Chi were gone, Dorothy's goal was successfully achieved. It was time to clean up the battlefield.
Looking at the remnants of the battlefield before her, Dorothy first focused her attention on the two floating illusory items. After concentrating and pulling them, they flew towards Dorothy's Dragon mimicry, landing on her wing claws, where she examined them up close.
'This... this is my main target, the phantom scale incense cage... And this thing... If I remember correctly, it should be the black moon amulet auctioned in the latter half of the auction. It seems this was Ku Chi's main objective in coming to Moncarlo. Since this item was on him, he must have retrieved it with his tentacles while escaping.'
'Besides these two things, there was nothing else on him. No storage property, no talismans, and definitely no other extraordinary items. It doesn't feel like a Scarlet's possessions. This should be because of the dream materialization. Little Fox said that although the phantom scale incense cage has the ability to materialize physical matter into dreams, for extraordinary items other than """Shadow""", dream materialization not only consumes a lot of extra Spirituality, but the state after dream materialization is also very fragile. Not only can it not be used normally, but it will also be damaged by even a slightly larger impact and cannot be maintained for long. Because the Dream World is not the inner world of their Spirituality, all attempts to transmit people or things through the inner world have such problems.'
'That guy materialized himself into a dream body and tangled with Edward and his water snakes for so long, and then he was beaten up by me. Other Spirituality-materialized items and """Shadow""" items that weren't strong enough should have been shattered, leaving only these two things. Although it's a bit of a pity, fortunately, the main goal was still achieved, and I even got a good item as a bonus.'
As she spoke, Dorothy focused her attention on the floating black moon amulet. Ku Chi had secretly come to Moncarlo precisely for it, and ultimately lost his life here. She wondered what Ku Chi intended to do with this item? What was the significance of this thing to Black Dream?
'Anyway, this is an item that could be auctioned for ten thousand pounds. It won't be a loss if it belongs to me.'
Thinking this, Dorothy then moved her mind and integrated the phantom scale incense cage and the black moon amulet, which were still in their dream forms in her claws, into her mimicry body. These two items were useless to Dorothy in their dream forms. Only after handing them over to Little Fox afterward and having her Butterfly faction restore them to physical objects could Dorothy use them.
After collecting the two extraordinary items, Dorothy shifted her attention to the scattered purple and silver light spots on the ground before her. Her eyes lit up, and her mood suddenly became joyful.
'Haha... Dream World Spirituality, I won't miss you this time...'
Looking at these light spots, Dorothy thought happily. It wasn't the first time she had encountered these things, but she didn't know what they were before, so she completely ignored them. However, after the Navaja incident, Dorothy learned through the memory balls of Black Dream members that these were actually Spirituality! At that time, having just ignored the light spots from a Pseudo-Moth, she felt like she had missed out on a hundred million!
Fortunately, thanks to the Navaja incident, Dorothy had also successfully mastered the Dream Hunting Method capable of absorbing Spirituality in dreams since then. Now, she wouldn't miss these.
Concentrating, Dorothy began to perform the Dream Hunting Method in her Dragon mimicry. As Dorothy's will spread, the silver Spirituality light spots scattered on the ground floated up one after another, converging towards Dorothy and quickly integrating into Dorothy's Dragon mimicry body, while the purple light spots slowly dissipated as their color grew dimmer.
The silver light spots that burst from the Pseudo-Moth were very numerous, so much so that they covered the entire Woodland clearing and more. Dorothy staying in one place wasn't even enough to absorb all of them; she needed to fly around a bit and change positions, circling everywhere like a vacuum cleaner to finish absorbing the light spots. Finally, after absorbing for a while, Dorothy finished absorbing all the light spots on the scene. After absorbing them all, she couldn't help but pat her sturdy belly and let out a symbolic burp.
"Burp~ Thank you for the meal..."
All the """Shadow""" Spirituality that burst from the Crimson Tier Pseudo-Moth was absorbed by Dorothy, meaning that Dorothy's stored """Shadow""" experienced an unprecedented surge. Dorothy's original single-digit """Shadow""" storage instantly increased to the point of overflowing. The 50-point """Shadow""" Spirituality limit was instantly filled, becoming level with her 50-point """enlightenment""" reserve. If Dorothy didn't count the """enlightenment""" Spirituality from the blue bar portion, then she now had the same amount of """enlightenment""" and """Shadow""". If Dorothy's """Shadow""" storage limit hadn't been filled, she could have increased it even further.
Receiving such a large amount of Spirituality in one go was the first time Dorothy had encountered such a situation since stepping into the extraordinary, making her excited for a moment.
'Goodness... This """Shadow""" is completely full! This is what you call the value of a Scarlet Tier extraordinary creature! With this much """Shadow""", I'm not afraid of anyone trying to divine me. I can effectively hide for a while even in front of a Light of Archbishop level...'
Looking at the vast amount of """Shadow""" she had absorbed, Dorothy thought excitedly in her heart. Immediately, she also noticed the disappearing purple light spots.
'Those purple light spots... they should be """enlightenment""" Spirituality... After all, the nature of the Dream World is """Shadow""" and """enlightenment""". I don't know why, but the currently circulating Dream Hunting Method cannot absorb """enlightenment""" Spirituality... Has the Dream Hunting Method that can absorb """enlightenment""" been lost? Or is it due to some other reason?'
Looking at the disappearing purple light spots, Dorothy thought for a moment, but didn't dwell on it. After all, for her, """enlightenment""" was never lacking.
Afterward, Dorothy also recovered two blue memory balls and looked at the dream cocoons that had been freed from the Pseudo-Moth's body scattered around. This large pile of dream cocoons was currently dispersed everywhere and gradually disappearing. Dorothy knew that they were returning to their rightful places within the Dream World. These people who had been imprisoned and drained of nutrients by the Pseudo-Moth would gradually return to normal from now on. Of course, more people whose dream cocoons had been completely drained would be completely incapacitated, just like what Dorothy had seen in the Navaja mental hospital.
Among these dream cocoons, Dorothy also saw her own. It was returning relatively quickly, having almost disappeared to the point of being completely invisible by now. The reason Dorothy's dream cocoon returned so quickly was that it had only just been captured by the Pseudo-Moth and was very healthy as it hadn't undergone repeated draining by the Pseudo-Moth. Those dream cocoons that had been drained almost dry by the Pseudo-Moth were returning very slowly and with difficulty.
'They've gone back, I should go too...'
Thinking this, Dorothy then, after her own dream cocoon had completely disappeared, initiated the ritual for the mimicry body to return to the dream cocoon.