Chapter 569

Chapter 416: Stirring Awake

With the Puppet Mark, Dorothy successfully manipulated her physical body, which was originally in a deep sleep, within the lucid dream. Now, Dorothy can see the real-world scenes even in her dreams!

And because Dorothy is still essentially asleep and hasn’t woken up, the activities in reality are only controlled by a living puppet. Therefore, under this state, Dorothy is completely immune to hypnosis. No matter how many strong hypnotic waves come, the Dorothy in reality will continue to act, as she is already asleep and in the dream world, making any further attempts at hypnosis useless.

Relying on the combination of lucid dreaming and living puppet manipulation, Dorothy directly resisted hypnosis.

“Huh… It feels like I’m operating some giant robot from a cockpit…”

In the Dream Space, Dorothy’s spirit form couldn’t help but comment while looking at the screen that reflected the outside world. Then, she glanced around the study and snapped her fingers. The surroundings began to blur and change according to her will, eventually transforming into a highly sci-fi cockpit. She was sitting in the cockpit seat, almost ready to shout “Dorothy, activate!”

“Now, the task is to figure out what exactly happened…”

Muttering to herself, Dorothy slowly stood up from her chair.

…

At the Navaha port, the Church fleet’s numerous ships remained anchored here.

The powerful hypnotic wave from the underground city didn’t take long to spread here. The sailors on guard duty fell unconscious one after another under its influence, sinking into deep sleep. Even the most steadfast prayer in the ship’s cabin couldn’t resist this overwhelming drowsiness and collapsed onto the ground.

This included Jorde, who was working in his cabin. When drowsiness overcame him, he directly fell asleep on the desk. Other White Chalk Extraordinary Beings in the fleet also succumbed to the strong drowsiness and collapsed at their posts.

If the White Chalk Extraordinary Beings were affected, then it goes without saying for the lesser Extraordinary Beings and ordinary people. In an instant, the entire fleet plunged into a deathly silence.

On the cruiser serving as the flagship of the fleet, in a separate cabin, an elderly man in his fifties wearing a monk’s robe, with a thin build, bald head, and bare feet, was peacefully sleeping cross-legged on the floor. In front of him was an open Sacred Text, and before the Sacred Text was a small Holy Father altar.

From the scene, it appeared that the old monk had fallen asleep during his prayer due to the hypnotic wave, and judging by his peaceful appearance, he seemed unlikely to wake up until tomorrow.

Just as the old monk was getting deeper into sleep, something unusual occurred behind him. A semi-transparent whip emitting a faint golden glow materialized out of nowhere and automatically whipped towards the old monk. Although the whip did not cause any physical effects or leave any marks, it still woke the old monk with a painful cry.

Woken by the whipping, the old monk’s eyes widened in pain. He immediately looked around and saw the transparent phantom whip gradually fading away.

“I actually fell asleep during my prayer… Holy Father, please forgive my negligence.”

Seeing the phantom whip disappear, the old monk turned to the Holy Father altar in front of him and prayed. Soon after, he felt another strong urge to sleep. Just as he was about to fall back into deep slumber, the old monk abruptly closed the Sacred Text in front of him and spoke sternly.

“Commandments, do not sleep.”

As he uttered these strict words, a golden glow appeared around the edges of the old monk’s eyes, and the strong drowsiness that had been plaguing his consciousness vanished instantly. The old monk returned to a state of full alertness.

“I never expected such strong ‘Shadow’ power here…”

Sighing, the old monk stood up, tied the Sacred Text to his waist with a chain, opened the cabin door, and walked out quickly, following the corridor toward the captain’s cabin.

Ignoring the sailors who were already unconscious along the way, the old monk reached the captain’s cabin. Inside, he saw Captain Jorde sleeping soundly on the desk. Then, he stretched out his hand in mid-air, and a semi-transparent golden whip formed in his hand.

“Sleeping on duty… Even Captain, you need to be disciplined.”

Muttering to himself, the old monk mercilessly swung the whip toward Jorde. The phantom whip struck Jorde, waking him from his deep sleep with a painful cry and causing him to fall to the ground.

“Ahh! Huh… huh… What just happened? Brother Wei, why are you here? I was just… mmph…”

Holding his head, Jorde looked at the old monk in confusion. Just then, new drowsiness surged in his mind again, and Jorde seemed on the verge of falling asleep once more.

“Jorde Schneider, I command you to follow the commandments and not to sleep.”

Seeing Jorde’s state, the old monk said sternly. Hearing the old monk’s words, the drowsiness in Jorde’s mind immediately subsided. Taking advantage of this moment, Jorde quickly responded.

“Yes, I will abide by your commandments…”

With those words, Jorde felt a strange effect and suddenly found himself wide awake. He took a deep breath and stood up.

“Huh… huh… This is… hypnosis, and it’s one I can’t resist. We’ve been attacked by such powerful ‘Shadow’ forces!”

Jorde gasped for air, having roughly understood the situation. Seeing Jorde fully awake, the old monk nodded and spoke.

“Yes, Captain Jorde, we have been attacked by ‘Shadow’ power. Everyone has been hypnotized. After being woken by the disciplinary whip, I immediately came to find you. We are now in danger.”

“Thank you for your help. This city conceals powers we didn’t anticipate. Brother Wei, please wake Santos and the others. We need to establish defenses now!”

Jorde said sternly to the old monk. Just as the old monk was about to say more, a loud noise suddenly echoed from the distant city.

Hearing the sound, the old monk and Jorde exchanged glances, then immediately left the captain’s cabin and went to the deck. Standing on the ship’s deck, they looked toward the direction of the noise and saw a shocking sight.

In the distant city, behind the dark silhouettes of the buildings, a massive object was slowly rising. Upon closer inspection, it was a twisted, phantom giant moth.

On its triangular, semi-transparent wings, there were dazzling patterns everywhere. On its ten-meter-long, plump abdomen, there were countless white cocoon-like protrusions, resembling countless white bumps. Where insect legs should have been on its front abdomen, there were countless phantom wriggling tentacles. Instead of the usual mouthparts of insects, its head had countless eyes.

Bizarre, distorted, and even disgusting… the monster from the dream had emerged from its cocoon and was now soaring in the night sky over Navaha.