Priton East Coast, Tivian.
At a bustling intersection in the eastern district of Tivian, when Adele, Tivian's well-deserved big star, appeared, the scene immediately became chaotic.
The audience, who had originally been watching the ceremonial procession, upon hearing the first person exclaim the name of the city's famous dance star, immediately lost control and the frenzy began to spread.
Screaming and ecstatic, countless crowds surged towards the suddenly appearing star on the street.
The smiling figure was quickly submerged in the surging crowd, and the several Eight-Point guards who had been closely following Adele were immediately obscured by the surging crowd.
Due to the obstruction of the human wall in front of them, they lost sight of Adele for a moment.
"What to do... Should we rush in and find her?" Seeing this scene, one of the Eight-Point guards couldn't help but say with a serious expression, while the guard captain beside him replied earnestly.
"These people have been controlled by desire... Rushing in directly will only make things more chaotic.
We can't fall for her tricks..." The Eight-Point guard captain said seriously, understanding that in the face of the Path of Desire, such a crowded place is very unfavorable.
Rushing in to find someone is definitely the worst strategy, as they will only be led around in circles by the controlled crowd.
Fortunately, this group of them came specifically to carry out the mission against Adele, and they had anticipated such a scene, so they had methods to deal with it.
First, the Eight-Point guard captain took out a glasses-like "Lamp" Path item.
This item had the ability to directly see high-spirituality traces through obstacles.
After putting on this item, the Eight-Point guard captain quickly scanned the crowd with his sight, but found nothing.
Obviously, Adele was wearing some kind of "Shadow" Path item to counter the "Lamp" detection.
The Eight-Point guard captain and his team were not surprised that Adele was wearing a "Shadow" Path item.
Faced with this situation, the Eight-Point guard captain did not waste time confronting Adele with "Lamp" vs. "Shadow", using the method of exhausting the other party's "Shadow" to conduct a strong detection.
Although Adele is not a Beyonder involved in "Shadow", they are also not involved in "Lamp".
The "Lamp" and "Shadow" spirituality of both sides all rely on external forces, and it is not certain who can outlast whom.
Therefore, after seeing that "Lamp" was ineffective, the Eight-Point guard captain immediately retrieved the item, not wasting time using other methods to find Adele.
And the next method was to use their high-altitude perspective.
They had people on the rooftops of the streets on both sides monitoring the area below.
Including the guard captain himself, there were a total of three Chalk vampires among these people.
They all partially transformed into bats, scattering the small bats that had become part of their bodies in the air, monitoring the movements of the crowd below together with the people on the other rooftops!
Although looking down from above, the street was full of scurrying heads and various hats, Adele's hat was very eye-catching due to its large size and many decorations.
It was easy to capture from a high-altitude perspective, and they could know Adele's location in the crowd by looking at that hat.
For example, right now, in the eyes of the guard captain, he could see Adele's hat moving westward in the crowd.
At first glance, it seemed that Adele was trying to sneak out from the west by mingling with the crowd.
Of course... that's just how it seemed at first glance.
The Eight-Point guard captain would not think that Adele wanted to sneak out by taking advantage of the crowd, and would not be foolish enough not to know to conceal or change such an obvious hat.
Now that hat was moving in that direction, but the person under the hat was definitely not Adele, but only a decoy!
To find Adele, the Eight-Point guard captain naturally had other tricks up his sleeve.
He secretly communicated with one of his colleagues observing on the rooftop, asking him to specifically tail that suspicious target wearing a hat, and then began a new action.
While thinking, the Eight-Point guard captain and another Eight-Point Chalk who was also monitoring on the rooftop simultaneously took out a talisman.
Without much thought, they used it directly.
After the talisman burned, they all gained a new ability, a powerful sense of smell.
This was the Scent-Seeking Talisman, which could allow the user to obtain a super-strong sense of smell that surpassed many animals, and could rely on seeking out scents to lock onto the target's location.
Even if they were mixed in with so many people, they could still find the source of the scent that they had memorized.
When they came, these Eight-Point Chalks had already used the Scent-Seeking Talisman to record the scent of Adele when she went out today.
Now that they used the Scent-Seeking Talisman again, they could find Adele's location mixed in the crowd based on the scent in their memory.
Before long, the Eight-Point guard captain smelled Adele's scent, which he had recorded before, in the mixed crowd.
And as expected, as he had predicted before, that scent belonging to Adele was also moving in the crowd, but the direction of movement was not the west where they had seen the hat moving before, but somewhere in the east.
The direction the hat was moving and the direction the scent was moving were inconsistent, they were separated...
So, this proved that the hat was indeed a decoy, and Adele's real body was really moving in the east...?
Although he smelled the correct location of Adele's aura, and it seemed that Adele's real body was heading in that direction, the Eight-Point guard captain still did not take action immediately, because he believed that he could not directly determine that it was Adele's main body based on the scent alone...
According to Eight-Point's intelligence, Adele Briuse had a deep feud with the Placenta Cult... especially the Wolf Blood Society.
Adele had once been hunted down by the Wolf Blood Society.
The werewolves in the Wolf Blood Society each have a natural sense of smell that is stronger than the Scent-Seeking Talisman.
Adele has been able to survive to this day, even when she was targeted by the Wolf Blood Society, she must have the ability to counter strong sense of smell.
According to the intelligence that Eight-Point had previously purchased from the Wolf Blood Society, Adele is a master at using various perfumes to blend scents.
She never has a fixed scent on her body, and her scent changes every day.
She can instantly change her scent in a short period of time as needed, and even attach the desired scent to other targets.
Relying on this skill, Adele had escaped from the hands of the Wolf Blood Society many times.
Since Adele has such skills... then would she have expected that they would use the Scent-Seeking Talisman to track her down?
After all, in the more common and popular Beyonder field, in addition to using "Lamp" related talismans and items to track down a person, the "Cup" Path's Scent-Seeking Talisman is quite useful, and Adele has no reason not to consider it.
After considering these things, the Eight-Point guard captain still did not allocate too many manpower to intercept the recorded scent source, but only arranged for another Chalk on the rooftop to go and tail it.
As for himself, he still had to use the last method to confirm Adele's location.
In the few previous contacts, the Eight-Point guard captain and his team had left some traces on Adele's body, and he now wanted to confirm the status of this trace.
This trace was left for her when the Eight-Point guard captain and his team first met Adele, and the method was to put it on the written documents that Adele asked them for evidence of transferring her performance venue.
The back of those documents had been pre-coated with a layer of extremely small and sharp spider fluff.
This fluff was so small that it was completely invisible to the naked eye, and as long as the hand came into contact with it, it would directly pierce into the skin, causing the entire palm to be pierced with a layer of it.
Because these fluff thorns were too small and came with a very small amount of anesthetic, they would hardly affect the nerves after being inserted into the skin, so the person who touched it would not even feel anything.
After these fluff thorns pierced into the human body, they would begin to fall off the skin little by little irregularly, floating and suspending in the air and begin to secrete an extremely weak pheromone.
As the parent spider that grew these fluff thorns, it had the ability to sense these pheromones, and it could use this to confirm the route of the person who was pricked by these fluff thorns.
This peculiar tracking spider is the latest achievement that Eight-Point has recently cultivated.
The whole process of using this spider for tracking hardly involves any obvious Beyonder activities, and can minimize the spirituality traces, and it is extremely difficult to be detected by ordinary means.
Whether it is mundane or Beyonder, it is difficult to get rid of the tracking of this method.
Now, the Eight-Point guard captain had quietly taken out a small bottle from his pocket.
After opening the bottle, a very small and colorful spider crawled out and stayed on the back of the Eight-Point guard captain's hand.
This little spider circled twice on the back of the Eight-Point guard captain's hand and then made a small and sharp sound in one direction.
This direction, relative to the crowd on the scene, was north, not the direction the hat target went before, nor the direction the scent target went just now... This result technically explained that both the hat and the scent were decoys specially designed by Adele.
"She really is cautious and meticulous... Big star..."
After whispering for a while, the Eight-Point guard captain stepped forward, leading the people behind him, bypassing the crowd and walking in the direction indicated by the spider on his hand.
His pace was very fast, and when he left the main street and entered a complex alley in the city, the Eight-Point guard captain ran even faster.
Just as Eight Spire Guard Captain was following the spider's guidance, scaling buildings and searching through alleys, rapidly approaching the target, the other two groups he had sent to stake out had also sent back messages via the messenger spiders, indicating they had found their targets.
Based on the images transmitted by the corpse puppets they carried, the Guard Captain could now see the appearances of the two targets up close.
First, there was the target wearing an Adele hat. She was currently walking along a sparsely populated sidewalk. Upon observation, Eight Spire Guard Captain noticed that although this target woman was wearing Adele's hat, her clothing was not what Adele had worn before. Although her face was masked, the exposed eye area had Adele's features, and her makeup was consistent, but her overall figure was somewhat different from Adele's. Although equally tall and shapely, her chest seemed to be larger.
Although this target was very similar to Adele, her gait lacked Adele's rhythmic elegance, and her eyes darted around, seemingly with a hint of nervousness, a demeanor that Adele would never display. This was clearly not Adele…
Then, there was the target possessing Adele's scent. Like the hat-wearing target before, the scent target was wearing clothes completely different from Adele's previous attire, and a scarf covered her face, revealing only her eyes. The style of her eye makeup was completely consistent with Adele's, and there was almost no difference in her figure. At first glance, this seemed to be Adele.
However, the meticulous Eight Spire Guard Captain could still see that the person before him, although more like Adele than the previous hat-wearing target, was still not Adele. The reason was in her pace and demeanor. This Adele's gait was too rough and hurried, hardly elegant, and her eyes were too direct and sharp, unlike Adele's usual indifference and languor.
For today's operation, this team of Eight Spires had been planning for a long time. In order not to be deceived by false targets during the mission, they had put in a lot of effort to understand Adele.
With the help of the Black Dream Hunting Group, this group of Eight Spires found several of Adele's loyal fans in Tivian, the kind who would go to see almost every Adele performance. Then, Black Dream's pseudo-moths extracted information from their dream cocoons during their sleep, extracting a large amount of memories about Adele's performances and appearances at events. The Eight Spire Guard Captain and the others reviewed hundreds, almost thousands, of hours of relevant Adele memories by dreaming, precisely sorting out Adele's demeanor, posture, tone, gait, movements, temperament, and other information from these memories. After memorizing this information, they could extremely accurately distinguish whether an Adele was real or fake.
For example, in their judgment, the first target's figure, demeanor, and gait were all wrong. The second one had a perfect appearance, but her demeanor and gait had major problems. Now, only the third one was left…
After confirming that the third target was the most suspicious, Eight Spire Guard Captain immediately accelerated his pursuit. At this moment, he suddenly noticed from the small spider on his hand that the main target of the pursuit seemed to be accelerating. Just in case, he sent a message in secret to his other two companions, who were mainly staking out other directions, asking them to leave a few people to continue staking out, then change targets and intercept the target he was currently chasing from other directions…
Soon after, Eight Spire Guard Captain's other two companions immediately turned around and went to the location designated by Eight Spire Guard Captain, joining the coordinated pursuit. Before long, one of Eight Spire Guard Captain's companions discovered the target on the roof of a building, circling in the alley, preparing to walk back to the main road. Her image was directly transmitted to Eight Spire Guard Captain's eyes.
That was also a woman. Although the clothes she wore and the hat she wore were still different from Adele's previous ones, the appearance and makeup of the exposed eye and face area were consistent, the figure was consistent, and the gait was also completely consistent. Compared to the previous two targets, this one was the closest to Adele!
Seeing this scene, Eight Spire Guard Captain couldn't help but feel a burst of excitement. Then, he accelerated again towards the predetermined interception position. After flying a distance in bat form, constantly taking shortcuts by leaping over rooftops, Eight Spire Guard Captain finally intercepted her at the intersection leading to the main road, just before Adele was about to walk out of the alley.
"Miss Briuse… Where are you going? We've been looking for you so hard…"
Standing at the entrance of the alley, with his back to the bustling crowd and carriages, Eight Spire Guard Captain, still wearing his guard uniform, said leisurely to the female figure in front of him, whose expression was clearly surprised. Hearing Eight Spire Guard Captain's words, the female figure froze on the spot. After taking a look at the front, she decisively turned around and walked back.
Then, as the woman turned around, she immediately discovered that in the two alleyways at the fork behind her, a man was standing in one, both staring at the woman with indifferent eyes, blocking her retreat. Faced with this situation, the woman tentatively looked up, then saw several gazes silently watching her from the tops of the buildings on both sides.
"Don't think about running… Miss Briuse… In order to safely escort you to the stage that should belong to you, we have made full preparations."
"Unless we use force, don't even think about shaking us off. Of course, if you really want to use violent means, we are happy to accompany you…" Looking at the woman in front of him, who seemed to be still searching for flaws in the surrounding situation, Eight Spire Guard Captain said slowly in a deep voice. They had not only made thorough preparations for tracking Adele, but also for a direct confrontation with Adele, and even more. In case a conflict broke out, their team had a series of countermeasures against Adele, so they were not afraid at all.
Looking at the crowd surrounding her, the masked woman in the middle frowned and looked around, seemingly shaking her head slightly, then took off her scarf, revealing her face. It was indeed Adele's face, no different from what Eight Spire Guard Captain remembered.
"Heh… You guys are really enthusiastic audiences. I've shaken off quite a few reporters before, and thought it wouldn't be a problem to deal with you, but it seems I miscalculated~"
Faced with the Eight Spire Guard Captain in front of her, Adele revealed a trace of helplessness in her expression, and spread her hands, smiling wryly. Seeing the woman's words and expressions, Eight Spire Guard Captain immediately compared them with the impressions in his memory, and found that they were completely consistent without any discrepancies. The woman in front of him was Adele herself. Others could not imitate this extreme attention to detail.
After confirming Adele's identity, Eight Spire Guard Captain secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. Then, he faced forward and spoke earnestly and frankly.
"So… Has Miss Briuse decided where the stage will be afterwards?" Eight Spire Guard Captain said, while Adele shrugged her shoulders and said.
"Just as you wish… A branch venue is fine. Anyway, I'm not short of this one opportunity…" Saying that, Adele, who seemed to have completely given up, walked forward, while Eight Spire Guard Captain followed closely beside Adele, and the others strengthened their surveillance and security of Adele by secretly monitoring her, ensuring that she could not escape their control.
"Adele. Briuse attempted to escape surveillance, but has been successfully brought back under control. There is currently no need to worry about her going to the main venue…"
While following Adele in front, Eight Spire Guard Captain used the miniature human-faced spider he carried with him to report to the Eight Spire higher-ups in the distance, who were in control of the overall situation, saying that they would be responsible for coordinating the actions of the Eight Spires in other regions today.
Although Eight Spire Guard Captain did not know what the plans of his companions in other regions were, he only needed to do his own task and prevent Adele from interfering with the situation there.
As of now, their plan was proceeding quite well, which would undoubtedly provide sufficient guarantee for the smooth progress of their companions' plans.
…
Pritdong Suburbs, a certain place, Nations Square.
On the vast and huge square, in front of the glittering and luxurious Crystal Palace, the temporary main venue of the Wan Guo Expo opening ceremony was currently bustling with noise and excitement.
Among the tens of thousands of spectators, a middle-aged man wearing worker's overalls and a T-shirt, with a brown bowler hat, dressed as a cleaner, was holding a broom, standing in a corner of the entrance stairs of the auditorium, listening to the message from the superiors from the small human-faced spider in his ear. After confirming some things, he couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
"Adele. Briuse has been successfully intercepted. Waiting for the start of the opening, the plan proceeds as usual…"
Such news, just now through various secret means, spread to every corner of the vast scene in front of them, among the people lurking there. After eliminating the unstable factor of Adele, their plan could proceed on schedule.
After the "cleaner" breathed a sigh of relief, he turned his gaze to the venue in front. At this moment, countless spectators, after waiting for a long time, cheered even more because of the sudden sound of music on the scene. The Eight Spire cleaner knew that this was the signal that the opening ceremony of the entire Expo had officially begun, and the signal they were waiting for was expected to be shortly after the opening.
When the sky suddenly became gloomy and rainy, it would be the time for them to officially take action.
As the massive orchestra began to play, majestic music filled the main venue, gradually quieting the clamor as countless spectators turned their attention to the stage, eagerly awaiting the opening ceremony.
Amidst the music, a series of booming sounds echoed from outside—the sound of cannons firing in salute. After the cannon fire, the music's rhythm shifted slightly, and two well-ordered teams of mounted knights entered from either side of the venue. The immaculately uniformed Prydian riders, astride their steeds, formed ranks and began to circle the stage with solemn and heroic expressions, performing an eye-pleasing equestrian display. The entire atmosphere resembled a jousting tournament held by a king in the Middle Ages, only on a much grander scale.
Just as the riders' performance earned applause from the audience, a group of men in long robes walked onto the stage. They lined up and, in unison, opened their mouths, chanting the solemn and majestic Prydian national anthem in rich voices. During the Prydian national anthem, which praised the royal family, the riders on the field began to change formations. Before a large south-facing gate of the main venue, they neatly arrayed themselves on either side, and at the command of the leading captain, the riders, with solemn expressions, drew their sabers and held them to their chests in respectful salute.
After the riders' formation was set, the heavy gate slowly opened, and a ceremonial procession emerged from within.
This procession was also composed of riders, but all the knights were clad in armor and helmets of the late Middle Ages, holding lances and banners, silent and solemn. At the head of this team of knights were two parallel male figures.
One rode a black horse, wearing a crown, draped in ornate armor and a cloak, with sharp eyes, one hand holding a sword and the other holding the reins. This was none other than the current King of the Prydian Kingdom, Charles IV.
The other figure rode a white horse, wearing a white papal tiara, draped in a magnificent robe, with a stern face and piercing eyes, one hand holding the reins and the other holding a scepter. This was none other than the current Prydian Archbishop, Samuel, who currently serves as the Archbishop of the Sacred Hymn Cathedral.
The King and the Archbishop, in this world, were symbols of the highest power in a major country, representing the authority of the church and the secular government. They usually attended extremely important occasions together, just as they were now, and their status was generally equal.
After the King and the Archbishop appeared, the audience erupted in the loudest and most enthusiastic cheer to date. Amid the tidal wave of cheers, Charles IV and Samuel waved to the surrounding crowd while leading the procession through the venue between the audience stands, heading towards the VIP seats.
There, the two great figures dismounted, and after a round of mutual greetings, they walked together up the steps specially reserved for them. The Prydian dignitaries and foreign representatives in the VIP seats stood up at this moment, removing their hats and bowing to them. Finally, amidst respectful gazes, the two arrived at the main platform of the VIP seats. Charles IV sat in the main seat, while Samuel sat in the secondary seat next to him.
After the two main figures were seated, the soldiers and riders on the field all shouted in unison.
"God Save The King!"
"God Save The King!"
Following the soldiers, all the spectators in the venue, regardless of their status, also began to shout, and the entire venue thundered with sound. Here, 'God' referred to the Radiant Three Saints represented by the Archbishop, and 'King' referred to Prydia itself. The divine right of kings was still the keynote of politics in most countries in this world.
"God Save Prydia!"
Facing the scene of acclamation before him, Charles IV, sitting in the main seat, extended his hand forward, responding with a loud voice, and after that, the atmosphere in the venue became even more enthusiastic.
In this enthusiastic atmosphere, the opening ceremony of the Prydian World Expo officially began. There was no host on the scene; everything unfolded naturally. After the King and the Archbishop were formally seated, one performance after another began to take the stage.
First, there was an equestrian performance brought by the numerous army riders who were still on the field. The riders' superb horsemanship brought round after round of thrilling stunts, garnering countless exclamations. A choir then took the stage as the riders exited, singing a powerful choral piece praising Prydian history. These gentlemen in neat suits gradually left the stage amidst applause. Next, to the accompaniment of a cheerful tune, a group of dancers in brightly colored dance dresses and masks, with agile and lively movements, took the stage.
In the cheerful music, the figures who walked onto the stage from various directions danced happily. Their movements were uniform and rhythmic, constantly leaping and twirling on the stage.
At the beginning of this dance, all the performers were equal, each being a part of the large dance, using individual movements to construct an overall harmony. However, from some unknown point, as the dance progressed, the movements of one of the dancers began to become different.
This ordinary dancer, who originally seemed no different from the others, imperceptibly began to move at a faster pace, with greater amplitude and higher difficulty than the other dancers. Sometimes, she even made movements completely different from the others, appearing in positions that seemed not to belong to her, but without disrupting the overall situation and harmony of the dance. In fact, because of her uniqueness, the changes in the dance became more diverse, and the agility of the dance was enhanced.
Gradually, the other dancers in the dance also began to change their movements, cooperating with that special dancer, surrounding her, and accompanying her, seemingly making themselves her backup dancers. Before long, that special dancer completely changed the keynote and pattern of the entire dance, turning a more collective group dance into a dance centered on her, with the others as backup dancers, a dance full of protagonist meaning.
With that special dancer as the center, the formation of the entire dance was constantly changing. Looking down from a high place, it seemed like watching a flower constantly blooming and closing, and that special dancer was like the pistil set off by countless petals. Countless spectators at the scene were incredibly pleased by this unexpected, natural, and elegant transformation, and they couldn't help but applaud and cheer.
This transformation, under the guidance of that special dancer, seemed extremely smooth and natural, without causing anyone at the scene to detect a trace of strangeness. Everyone believed that the choreography of this dance was just like this, transforming from a collective group dance without a protagonist into a dance with a protagonist.
The original protagonist was hidden in the collective, without even special costumes to distinguish her, relying solely on her own skills and aura to gradually differentiate herself from her teammates, and then transform herself into the center. This was undoubtedly a great test of the main dancer's skills, because without the distinction of clothing, it was difficult to catch the audience's attention, but she did it. The ordinary commoner audience at the scene simply applauded and cheered because they thought it was beautiful, while more discerning dance enthusiasts were surprised and curious, wondering who that main dancer was, to actually have such skill.
"Strange… Was this dance like this during the rehearsal?"
Standing in a corner of an entrance to the audience, an Eight Points member disguised as a cleaner, watching the dance on the stage, couldn't help but frown slightly and whispered. He was one of the few Eight Points members on the scene who had paid attention to the rehearsal of the program, but the appearance of this dance during the rehearsal was completely different from now… It seemed to be just a collective group dance.
'There's a problem… I have to notify the higher-ups. But, this dance is really beautiful, let me finish watching it first…' The Eight Points cleaner thought in his heart. Although he noticed the strangeness, he felt that this dance was really too interesting, and it would be a pity not to finish watching it, so he would watch it first.
'That dancer in the middle… I wonder what it would be like to hear her scream in pain…'
Looking at the gorgeous main dancer in the center of the stage, the Eight Points cleaner thought obsessively in his heart. However, such obsession was not unique to him in this vast audience.
Just as this Eight Points cleaner was looking obsessed, certain invisible things had already flashed past him without him realizing it.
On the wide stage, the vibrant dance continued. In the VIP seats, the Prydian Archbishop, sitting not far from the King, seemed to notice something, and his expression slightly solidified. He wanted to do something, but after thinking about it, he gave up and continued watching the performance.
In the audience, where passion and undercurrents intertwined, in the shadows of a certain deserted corner, the air twisted slightly, and then the light was reconstructed in a trance. A petite figure appeared in this reconstruction. On closer inspection, it was actually the little fox, Salia, panting heavily.
"Huff… Huff… Finally… I've gone through it all…"
Sitting on the ground, Salia held a silver amulet with a sun containing a moon engraved on it, panting and whispering. Then she turned her eyes to the stage in the distance where the program was being performed and took a deep breath.
'Now… is not the time to rest… I have to quickly give the coordinates to Grandpa's side…' Thinking this, Salia silently closed her eyes and began to silently pray to the mysterious deity who could communicate and consult for her.
On the other side of the audience seats, Dorothy, who had been focused on the program in front of her, suddenly frowned, as if she had sensed something, and opened her mouth slightly.
"Finally… it's beginning…"
After that, Dorothy silently closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep amidst the noise around her.
…
Dream Realm, somewhere in the Woodland.
Among the endless giant trees, on the beautiful and psychedelic grassland, beneath the canopy as deep as the sky, a group of figures was waiting beneath a giant tree.
Unlike the dream realm creatures and dream realm mimics that generally exist in the Woodland in the form of various beasts, the people here all maintained human appearances, maintaining their human forms in the dream realm.
There were about forty people here, generally wearing close-fitting and delicate clothes and trousers, with black fitted leather armor on the outside, hoods on their heads, masks covering their faces, and many places on their bodies were marked with staggered spikes.
These people were the ambush troops arranged by Eight Spikes in the Dream Realm. The Black Dream Hunting Group directly transformed all of their entities into Dream Illusions, entering the Dream Realm in their original forms rather than as mimics, and were now waiting for the gate to the real world to open, and then they would launch a surprise attack on the real world together.
Among them were several Chalks, and the most ordinary members were at least Black Earths. Among them, there was an elder who looked to be in his fifties, with neat hair and a calm face, wearing a well-tailored suit and trousers, with his gloved hands behind his back, standing in the middle of a group of people dressed in assassin-like outfits, which was quite conspicuous.
"Your Excellency Veliz, is that side ready yet?" Beside the elder, a figure boldly stepped forward to inquire, but the man called Veliz didn't even glance at him, and replied indifferently.
"It'll be a while, wait patiently for me… When the time comes, the door will naturally appear…"
"Yes…"
Veliz, one of the high-level priests of Eight Spikes, the Spider Poison Priest, said this to the people around him, and the other party respectfully nodded and hurriedly retreated, continuing to wait silently according to the order.
Among this group of people, Veliz was obviously the one with the highest status. As one of the few Scarlet Red Priests in the Eight Spikes Nest, he was the core and absolute leader of this assault team. Like him, other priests were also in other parts of this vast Dream Realm, leading their own teams, preparing to attack the real world from other soon-to-be-opened doors, from different positions and angles.
Even without relying on the clock, even in this Dream Realm where day and night are indistinguishable, Veliz was still able to accurately grasp the time. He could feel that the moment expected in the plan was about to arrive. After they broke into the real world, they would immediately materialize automatically and fight the enemy.
Veliz was silently waiting with his subordinates, and not long after, there was a commotion in the woodland near them.
"Door! Look! It's a portal!"
"Is it coming? Everyone, get ready!"
In the mid-air near the crowd, the space of the Dream Realm suddenly twisted slightly, and then in the twisting, a hole filled with brilliant light inside quickly opened and formed. Seeing this scene, the Eight Spikes and others, who had been waiting for a long time, couldn't help but feel excited, and they all cast their eyes on the opening hole and began to discuss it, but Veliz frowned when he saw the formation of the hole.
'This portal seems to appear earlier than the scheduled time… Also, didn't the people from Black Dream say that the dream cocoon would appear first, and then the dream cocoon would turn into a portal? Why did this portal appear directly… Also, why is this door expanding so much?'
Looking at the strange phenomenon of the Dream Realm portal appearing in front of him, a series of confusions flashed through Veliz's mind, and a strong sense of unease arose spontaneously. Then, when he saw that his subordinates were trying to approach the abnormally expanding portal, he immediately reminded them.
"Wait a minute, there's something wrong with this door…"
"Roar!!!!"
Before Veliz could finish speaking, a huge and deafening roar came from the Dream Realm portal that had expanded to an outrageous extent. This roar, accompanied by a surging wave of air, swept out from the door, causing many Eight Spikes assault team members to lose their footing and fall to the ground.
Just as everyone was stunned in place by the frightening and soul-stirring roar, a pair of huge winged claws stretched out from the portal, grabbing the edge of the already huge portal and violently expanding it to both sides. As the Dream Realm space cracked, the portal suddenly became a large circle, and then a terrifying figure rushed out of it, arriving in the woodland space where Veliz was. Veliz's eyes widened immediately when he saw it.
Solid scales arranged like giant rocks, strong and powerful muscular limbs, sharp and thick claws, a spine arranged with sharp edges like a mountain of swords, wings as wide and huge as the sky, a long tail, and a majestic and terrifying dragon's head under twisted and thick horns, coupled with a huge body of more than seventy meters in length. Such a scene made the horrified Spider Poison Priest Veliz blurt out a name that he had only heard in legends before.
"Dream Dragon! The Dragon Lord of the Dream Realm!! Why would it appear here!"
Horror and confusion plagued Veliz at the same time at this moment. He didn't understand why the legendary Dream Realm legend would suddenly come here, but at this moment he didn't have time to make any other reactions. The magnificent legendary existence like a mountain was rushing towards him, and he was as small and powerless as an ant in front of it.
Faced with such a situation, Veliz, as the Spiked Duke, instinctively wanted to immediately turn into blood mist to avoid it, and then go behind the giant dragon after that, and materialize a blood spear to attack, but after using his ability, he found that he had not changed at all, and there was no sign of turning into blood mist at all. At this time, he suddenly realized that he was now deep in the Dream Realm as a Dream Illusion, and the abilities of the real world could not be used freely!
So, facing the Dream Dragon, which had already rushed in front of him and opened its huge mouth, Veliz could only panic and flee in despair. However, how could his speed compare to that of the giant dragon? In the next second, as the giant dragon's mouth closed, his body was ruthlessly crushed and became something that the giant dragon stuffed between its teeth.
After devouring Veliz, the giant dragon turned around and glanced at the other Eight Spikes ants. At this moment, some of them were fleeing in panic, while a small number of others were desperately using the small daggers on their bodies to launch a counterattack, but they couldn't even leave a scratch on the giant dragon's scales. The giant dragon glanced at them contemptuously, and with a turn of its tail, it swept almost all of the Eight Spikes assault team members within a large area into powder in one breath.
After almost clearing the people at the scene, the giant dragon didn't stay too long, but roared at the sky, and then a new Dream Realm portal began to form and expand in front of the giant dragon. After expanding to a certain extent, the giant dragon continued to rush in again, arriving in a new area of the Dream Realm Woodland.
Here, there was also a batch of Dream Illusionized assault team members waiting for orders. Among them, there was also a woman in the appearance of a noblewoman leading the team. She was the Spider Web Priest among the high-level priests of the Eight Spikes Nest. Now, she, like the Spider Poison Priest Veliz just now, encountered the Dream Dragon in an unexpected situation.
The Spider Web Priest and her subordinates also showed panic and weak resistance, but these resistances were so insignificant in front of the giant dragon. The giant dragon only met them once and crushed almost everyone mercilessly. The Spider Web Priest was also swallowed by the giant dragon without mercy in the process of fleeing, and she and the team she led were almost completely wiped out in an instant.
After that, a new portal appeared in front of the giant dragon, and the giant dragon immediately entered it, rushing to a new hunting ground without stopping.
This giant dragon was Dorothy's Dream Realm mimic incarnation. At this moment, she was taking advantage of the fact that the Eight Spikes and Black Dream people were preparing for a surprise attack in the Dream Realm to carry out a ruthless hunt against them.
And what puzzled the high-level Eight Spikes people who were hunted down the most, besides why the giant dragon would suddenly come, was probably how the giant dragon knew their location in the Dream Realm.
The answer to this lies in the surviving grandfather and grandson of Butterfly Dream Village. It was the Cat Grandpa who used his ability to open the Dream Realm portal to help Dorothy's giant dragon mimic transfer quickly in the Dream Realm. He seemed to have the ability to open portals connecting all locations in the Dream Realm except for the Mystery Domain.
And the Dream Realm coordinates needed to open these portals were provided by Shaliya.
The principle of the Eight Spikes and Black Dream's Dream Realm surprise attack is to prepare several surprise attack teams, let them become Dream Illusions of entities, and then wait beside a person's dream cocoon. Then, when the time comes, Black Dream will let that person turn into a "door" linking the Dream Realm and the real world, allowing the waiting surprise attack team to rush out.
Just now, in the current world, the little fox Shaliya used an extraordinary tool that Dorothy gave her to successfully perform existence weakening and optical stealth. Using the "shadow" movement technique, she rapidly approached all the lurking "Doors" that Eight-Spire and Black Dream had pre-arranged at the World Expo venue. As a nightmare, the little fox already had the ability to perceive the coordinates of a person's dream cocoon in the dream world through contact. Her black cat grandfather could open dream world portals leading to these coordinates for Dorothy through these coordinates.
So now the question arises again: how did the little fox know the locations of those "Doors" lurking in the venue, hidden among tens of thousands of spectators?
The answer is Adele. It was Adele who found these "Doors" one by one. Right now, on the stage of the main venue in the current world, the exceptionally graceful dancer who is turning the collective group dance into her own solo performance is Adele. With Dorothy's help, Adele successfully bypassed Eight-Spire's layers of blockade and had quietly arrived at the scene of the main venue, even disguising her identity to perform on stage!
After Adele contacted Dorothy and informed her that she was being monitored by Eight-Spire, Dorothy thought of a way to help her escape. Dorothy had considered from the beginning that the people of Eight-Spire might use various means to prevent Adele from escaping in order to monitor her, so Dorothy also prepared various methods to enable Adele to successfully slip away.
First, in order to help Adele, Dorothy asked Nyfnis to go and help, and at the same time, she urgently contacted her old brother, Gregor, and asked him to rush over as well. After Gregor and Nyfnis were in position at the designated location, Dorothy had Adele activate her Desire Attraction ability, creating chaos in the streets and gaining a brief moment to fish in troubled waters.
Among that chaotic crowd at the time were Nyfnis, who was already made up and specially disguised, and Gregor, who not only put on makeup for himself but also wore women's clothing bought from the roadside, completely transforming himself into Adele's image. Nyfnis, Adele, and Gregor had a brief encounter in that chaotic crowd, manipulated by Adele to briefly converge the crowd.
During that brief encounter, Nyfnis took Adele's hat, put it on, and left in one direction, attracting the attention of some of Eight-Spire's people. Gregor, on the other hand, took away those fluff thorns left on Adele by Eight-Spire, diverting Eight-Spire's main attention. Adele herself, after changing her jacket in the crowd, only took away her own scent.
Dorothy discovered those fluff thorns with the help of Vania. After Adele asked Dorothy for help, she directly sent the memory of her contact with Eight-Spire and others to Dorothy through the information channel. After careful observation, Dorothy discovered that Adele had indirect contact with the Eight-Spire guard captain through a document, so Dorothy directly suspected that this contact might be problematic.
Dorothy granted Adele spiritual vision and had her examine her palm. Although she didn't find any existence similar to a beacon seal, Dorothy was still uneasy. So she contacted Vania, who was thousands of miles away, and used the information channel to transmit Adele's sensory information about her body to Vania, allowing Vania to sense if there were any abnormalities.
Now, Vania, as a Scarlet Completion stage extraordinary on the Path of the Holy Mother, is extremely sensitive to any changes in the human body. Adele's sensory information about her body didn't show any problems on Adele's side, but it was different on Vania's side.
As a Scarlet Completion stage "Physician", Vania very accurately sensed that there was an extremely subtle abnormality in the sensory information of Adele's right palm, an extremely subtle… trace of being anesthetized.
After analysis, Vania believed that Adele's hand seemed to have been pierced by some tiny fine thorns with anesthetic ingredients. Because the nerves were anesthetized, she could hardly feel any pain, but being anesthetized also had a feeling. Adele couldn't detect this feeling, but Vania could, and Dorothy could let Vania know Adele's sensory information.
Therefore, Dorothy discovered the existence of the fluff thorns.
After that, things were easy to solve. Adele, while suppressing the smell of blood with perfume, directly scraped off a piece of skin from her right palm with a small knife she carried with her, removing the fluff thorns from her body. Then, she used the power of the "Cup" to quickly heal it. This little injury was insignificant to Adele.
After Adele handed the skin, which had suppressed the smell of blood, to Gregor to carry, he used the fluff thorns to lure Eight-Spire's men.
When things progressed to this point, there was still one last step missing, and that was how to make the Adele played by Gregor look more like Adele, so as to perfectly deceive Eight-Spire's people and make them believe that this was Adele herself.
Dorothy's answer was to let Adele herself control this fake Adele transformed by Gregor.
Dorothy asked Nyfnis to come over, not just to have her play a bait, but also to use her ability.
During the brief contact in that chaos, Dorothy had Nyfnis use her Path of Embodiment ability to push out the souls of both Gregor and Adele, and then swap them into each other's bodies. Let Gregor control Adele's body to leave, and let Adele control the body that Gregor transformed into, taking her skin and attracting Eight-Spire's main force.
The Shadowface's ability to disguise can be maintained for a long time even when he loses consciousness or sleeps, so naturally it also works when the soul leaves the body. The "Adele" who contacted the Eight-Spire guard captain was transformed from Gregor's body, but the soul inside was Adele's own soul. Adele's appearance plus Adele's soul, Eight-Spire naturally couldn't detect any abnormality.
After the main personnel who were tailing by Eight-Spire left, Nyfnis quickly got rid of the pursuit of the lackeys. With Dorothy's magnetic levitation help, she quickly merged with Gregor, who was controlling Adele's body and also got rid of the lackeys, near the main venue. Here, Nyfnis held a soul-summoning ceremony to summon Adele's soul back from the branch venue, allowing Adele to return to her body, sneak into the performance at the main venue, and use her ability to find the location of the "Doors" and other Eight-Spire lurkers within the entire venue.
According to Black Cat Grandpa, people who are hypnotized into "Doors" usually have more sleepiness than ordinary people, so Adele only needs to check among the people at the scene for those with abnormal sleep desires. At the same time, she can also find Eight-Spire's lurkers by checking the desire for sadism.
On the other side of the branch venue, Dorothy had Nyfnis arrange for her old butler to also perform a soul-summoning ceremony there, so that he could summon Gregor's soul from this side to the branch venue and return to his body. The two ceremonies were carried out simultaneously, and the souls of the two almost instantly switched back synchronously, completing this golden cicada shedding its shell.
In fact, Dorothy could also achieve this kind of soul-swapping effect to some extent through the information channel, but in order to prevent Eight-Spire from having a backup plan to check the authenticity of the soul to confirm whether the Adele they were tracking was real, Dorothy arranged for a real soul swap for the sake of insurance. But the result was that Dorothy thought too much, and Eight-Spire's methods had not reached that level.
In short, in this drama, Eight-Spire thought more and had more methods, but Dorothy thought even more and had even more methods, so she completely suppressed Eight-Spire.
After Adele herself entered the main venue performance program, the hidden stakes arranged by Eight-Spire and Black Dream at the scene were completely exposed. After finding the "Doors" and the coordinates of the "Doors", Dorothy could fall asleep and decisively transform into a giant dragon, hunting the Eight-Spire commando teams one by one who were still waiting behind the doors.
In a short period of time, Dorothy has now eaten two Eight-Spire Scarlet Completion stages. Now she is rushing towards the last one, the third Eight-Spire commando team, through the portal.
When Dorothy in giant dragon form appeared in the final hunting ground, the Eight-Spire commando team in front of her also let out the same panic as before. Dorothy did not show any politeness. After trampling many Eight-Spire members who had become phantasmal bodies to death, she roared towards the last Eight-Spire high-level member, a middle-aged man with a slightly obese image, the Spider-Eye Priest.
Just as the Spider-Eye Priest was about to be swallowed in horror, a faint white sharp light flashed in front of the giant dragon Dorothy's eyes. For the first time, the giant dragon Dorothy felt a crisis in the dream world and dodged. After that sharp light cut a huge crack in the ground, Dorothy looked towards the place where the beam was emitted, and then saw a humanoid figure floating in mid-air, covered in fluff, with dazzling moth wings on its back.
"Dragon…"
At this moment, Gu Mian was staring at the terrifying Dream Dragon in front of him with an unprecedentedly angry expression.