Chapter 570

Chapter 417: Reality and Illusion

On the northern shore of Conquer Sea, Navaha.

In the night of Navaha, after the powerful intangible force swept through the entire city, almost everyone in the city fell into a deep sleep. In this vast silence, grotesque and illusory distorted monsters floated in the night sky, becoming nightmares for all witnesses.

Under the ritual of the Black Dream Hunter Group, the false moth in the dream had already descended into reality. The giant false moth, over ten meters long, flew and hovered above the city with its chaotic triangular wings flapping. Its white cocoon slowly wriggled, and its slender tentacles gently swayed. Countless eyes on its head looked in different directions, illuminating the city with its glowing fluorescence, and the space around it was slightly distorted, showing images of trees and grass from within the distortion.

The newly emerged pseudo-moth relaxed its body, seemingly emitting a silent call. Those decay-sleep patients who had previously worshiped in the psychiatric hospital, those hollowed-out shells, stood up one by one upon hearing this silent call. They began to move together, climbing through windows to reach outside, groaning like zombies as they walked toward the dark city at night. Within the city, the original followers of the moth also instantly worsened their condition of decay-sleep when the pseudo-moth emerged, immediately progressing to the final stage of the disease, becoming puppets controlled by the pseudo-moth. They also moaned and crawled out of their homes, wandering on the streets.

For a moment, apart from those who had fallen into a deep sleep, only these walking dead-like decay-sleep patients wandered around. They made strange noises as they moved through the streets and alleys, seemingly celebrating the emergence of the pseudo-moth.

In the dark underground, the scene of the Black Dream Hunter Group’s ritual, within the spacious darkness, the once floating giant cocoon was now nowhere to be seen. The decay-sleep patients who had been worshiping were dispersing in all directions, hurrying to the ground to pay homage to the newly emerged pseudo-moth. Now, the ritual site was left with only the Black Dream members wearing long robes, forming a circle.

“Lepidoptera… has successfully emerged. After more than ten years, our lepidoptera has finally emerged…”

Gomez looked up at the darkness above and muttered in a dazed manner. Beside him, Garcia also responded.

“Yes… but unfortunately, it’s not yet the time for it to emerge. Its development is not fully mature, and its state is incomplete. I can sense its current emotions; it is very crazy, very frightened, and very hungry…”

Gazing at the darkness above, Garcia murmured, though their efforts over the past decade had finally borne fruit, this result was not perfect. Her heart was filled with complex emotions, a mix of joy and complexity.

“The current mental state of the moth is very unstable. It must consume a large amount of food to compensate for the damage caused by premature emergence. We must also help stabilize its mental state to guide it.”

“Everyone! Our ritual is not over yet. Lepidoptera needs our guidance. We must be with the lepidoptera, guiding it to feast on all the dreams, then guiding it away!”

Garcia spread her arms and shouted loudly to the surrounding companions. Due to the accelerated emergence of the pseudo-moth, its mental state was also very unstable, so they needed to stabilize and guide it to act normally.

Upon hearing Garcia’s call, the members of the Black Dream Hunter Group sat down on the ground, lowered their heads, and fell into a deep sleep. Seeing this, Garcia and Gomez did the same. For a moment, all the Black Dream members who formed a circle fell into a deep sleep.

In their dreams, the Black Dream members connected with the pseudo-moth hovering above the city, taking Garcia as the center. Their dream cocoons had long been integrated with the pseudo-moth. Normally, they could obtain extraordinary abilities from the pseudo-moth, and during critical moments when the pseudo-moth itself faced issues, they could use this connection to assist it, such as helping the currently underdeveloped pseudo-moth.

After the Black Dream members entered their dreams, the giant moth hovering above the city began another round of movements. Its head, lacking a mouth, seemed to emit a new roar. Then, the frequency of the many tentacles below its abdomen started to increase.

The semi-transparent tentacles waved and extended downward toward the buildings. These intangible tentacles pierced through windows and walls, directly attacking bedrooms. Citizens sleeping soundly were entangled by the tentacles suddenly emerging from their homes. Immediately, they cried out in pain in their dreams, exhibiting symptoms similar to those of decay-sleep patients.

In the forest of the dream realm, the huge body of the pseudo-moth still existed here and was even more real. People in reality who were touched by its tentacles would have their dream cocoons forcibly transported to the pseudo-moth’s side and then captured, merging into the dense mass of cocoons in its abdomen, becoming nourishment for it. Those in reality whose dream cocoons were taken would gradually become decay-sleep patients.

The pseudo-moth that had already emerged did not need moth worship to obtain dream cocoons. As long as its illusory tentacles in reality touched humans, they could forcibly take dream cocoons. At this moment, the pseudo-moth was using this method to hunt.

The bizarre moth from the dream hung above the real city, constantly extending countless semi-transparent tentacles to capture innocent sleepers. This seaside small city of tens of thousands had already become an open cafeteria for it. Hungry, it needed to replenish the hunger brought about by premature emergence here. Before the hunger was temporarily alleviated, the members of the Black Dream Hunter Group could not completely control the pseudo-moth to fly away from this place of chaos.

“What exactly is that monster?”

At the port of Navaha, on the deck of the cruiser, Commander Jorde of the Glimmer fleet was astonished as he gazed at the distant scene. Even after experiencing countless storms at sea, he had never seen such a scene before.

“I’m not sure what exactly it is… but I can guess. It should be a creature from the dream realm that can influence reality. I’ve heard that some cultists who revere ‘Shadow’ can manipulate such creatures. There must be some secret hidden beneath this city that we haven’t noticed…”

Behind Jorde, Elder Priest Vell held the Glorious Holy Scripture and said softly. Standing beside Vell were two other figures, one of whom was Jorde’s deputy, Santos, and the other was an officer in captain’s attire, apparently the captain of another cruiser.

They were both recently awakened from sleep by Elder Priest Vell using commandments. At this moment, they were also looking at the bizarre and illusory creature in the distance with astonishment.

“May the Holy Mother be with us. This city actually hides such evil creatures. What are they doing with those tentacles reaching deep into the city?”

“This kind of thing gives me a very ominous feeling. Gentlemen, should we go investigate?”

Santos and the other captain looked at the pseudo-moth in the distance with serious expressions. Just then, the pseudo-moth, which was continuously hunting, seemed to sense something even more delicious, immediately turning its direction, flapping its wings, and flying straight towards the port. Seeing this situation, the four awake individuals on the ship immediately began to alert.