Chapter 270: Enlightenment of Wisdom, Fool Dream and Nightmare
At this moment, I looked at the small and adorable Flower Elf slowly falling into my hands, oh no, it should be Fool Dream. She seemed to be asleep, and the blessing given to her by the flower bud that nurtured her had caused the entire plant to wither at the last moment.
Now I understood why there was so much withered hay piled up here.
There was no one to clean up this place; the growth of the plants appeared wild and messy, yet they had not lost their order and priority.
It was as if everything here existed for the giant stone in the center and the Flower Elves growing around it, with not a single weed competing for nutrients from them.
As I gazed at the Fool Dream in my hands, small and cute, she was entirely different from the departed Fool Dream named Yu Xi.
So… is this not considered Yu Xi’s “reincarnation”?
I didn’t know.
But one thing I was very clear about was that the blessing given by the plant that nurtured her had transformed into a complex combination of runes that fused into this little one’s body.
I clearly recognized that rune; it was another one I didn’t know.
When the Fool Dream in my hands started moving, waving her little hand and letting out her first whimper in this world, I felt the surrounding space tremble.
No… the Dream World was breaking!
The shattering dream world, like glass, peeled away a layer of the world’s filter for us.
When we looked around again, everything here had changed dramatically.
The originally ethereal and transparent giant stone became murky at this moment, the pitch-black force resembling nightmares ran rampant within it, and the originally dreamlike and beautiful scenery was shattered.
Chaotic weeds flourished here, and the Flower Elf plants and flower buds, which appeared vibrant, looked listless, their proud buds drooping down to the ground, as if bowing their heads.
At this moment, the Fool Dream in my hands let out a cry, a sound that seemed filled with sadness.
I pushed aside the dark, twisted weeds and walked towards where we initially entered.
Logically, we should have already exited the Dream World when we walked outside.
Outside, a large group of Fool Dreams had gathered.
Leading them was the Village Head, Yu Hu.
“You all… why have you gathered here?”
“Respected Hero, we brought Yu Xi’s shell to return to the Ancestral Land, to let her return to the embrace of the Ancestral Land.” At this moment, upon seeing the newborn Fool Dream in my hands, Yu Hu changed how she addressed me.
“Ancestral Land?” I asked, confused. Of course, I wouldn’t show that I had known this beforehand.
However, confirming from them that this was the Ancestral Land still relieved me.
This was the Ancestral Land, and the place mentioned earlier where the Meditation Technique spellbook could be reconstructed was here.
Then, what in that place could reconstruct the spellbook? The first thing that came to mind was that huge stone.
“Yes, the Ancestral Land is the most important place for our Fool Dream Clan.”
“Then why didn’t you go inside?” I asked curiously.
“Sorry… for your question, Hero, I can only answer that we cannot actively return to the Ancestral Land, as it would force us to revert to our original forms.”
Yu Hu explained to me but abruptly stopped there, not stating what the original form was. Perhaps it was a form similar to what I had seen earlier, inside that giant stone.
“Hero, please let me have this newly born child. I will have the other Fool Dreams take care of her, and as for other matters, please follow me to my home, where I will explain.”
“Okay.” I didn’t hesitate and did as she said.
Then, the newborn Fool Dream was surrounded by a crowd of Fool Dreams, who were cheering for her birth.
Clearly, they had just lost a friend, but perhaps this was their most simple way of facing life, d*ath, and rebirth.
I accompanied Sister Bai, following Yu Hu into her enormous house.
I hadn’t expected Yu Hu to be so easy to talk to; she was willing to clarify things for us, which usually required earning a certain level of trust.
If everything were so simple, logically, many seniors must have gone through this step already and would have been recorded in strategies and information. However, many of the things we encountered now were rarely mentioned in the information.
Perhaps we hadn’t collected the details thoroughly, but we were more inclined to believe that those seniors were unwilling to disclose them. The Witch Academy was never short of geniuses.
“I’m sorry, even though you have agreed to help us through this difficulty, I still want to express my gratitude. Thank you for bringing a new member to our Fool Village. If you have any questions, I can provide you with the answers I know to address your doubts.”
“Have you encountered anything like this before?” After arriving at the Village Head’s small house, I asked directly without being polite.
“Yes… it has happened, or rather, it happens often. We have become numb to such events.”
“Then is this newborn Fool Dream still the original… Yu Xi?” I continued to ask.
“That depends on how you define it, Hero.”
“Just call me Xiao Han; both ‘Hero’ and ‘Guest’ sound a bit strange.” I replied.
“Alright… Xiao Han, you outsiders seem to have a particularly keen emphasis on d*ath, but for us, it is merely a cycle of life.”
“I understand.” I nodded. “Then I want to ask, when you say you have returned to the Ancestral Land and reverted to your original state, what does that state entail?”
“It is the most original form of ourselves.” Yu Hu said seriously.
“Alright…”
It seemed I hadn’t really asked about this outcome, but Yu Hu definitely knew a lot of things; she just wouldn’t say them unless I asked. Just like before, she hadn’t mentioned the connection between the Meditation Technique and the Ancestral Land; if she didn’t mention it, she wouldn’t explain.
I didn’t believe that no seniors had obtained this information before; perhaps she was indeed following this script and had reached that point, reconstructing the spellbook to gather information. In that case, Yu Hu shouldn’t be unaware. Did it mean she was a newly appointed Village Head, ignorant of past events?
Yet she gave me the feeling of being very “old,” already bearing the demeanor of a senior, despite being incongruous with her appearance.
“Do you know how nightmares originate?”
“They were born along with us, like maggots in flesh, and they are also the end of our fate.”
“Born together? Are you of the same source?” I continued to ask.
“Yes.”
As Yu Hu’s confirmation “yes” resonated in my mind, I began to roughly piece together the situation.
They were of the same source, which reasonably suggested that the original state was a combination of Fool Dream and Nightmare?
In other words, the previously encountered insane Yu Xi, that appearance was their true form.
Adding to this was Yu Xi’s somewhat indistinguishable words earlier about wanting to k*ll her, eager to merge into that giant stone to strip the nightmare away, using the Flower Elf’s shell to be born.
I noticed they referred to Yu Xi’s original “body” as a “shell,” which seemed to imply this point itself.
It was precisely because the Flower Elf did not nurture life but merely waited for the body of Fool Dream that their process of birth could be so rapid.
In the end… it was that blessing…
And the secret of that giant stone, did Yu Hu know that it could reconstruct the spellbook?
Or should I ask this way: has Yu Hu experienced such a cycle as well? And how did she become the Village Head?
I asked her these questions one by one, but the answers were somewhat unexpected.
Yu Hu had experienced reincarnation, and not just once; the key point was that she remembered all this.
As for how she became the Village Head, she said she had always been the Village Head.
Just as I wanted to continue asking to learn some deeper information, Yu Hu’s sudden outburst startled both me and Bai Yu.
“Outsider, are you asking too many questions?!”
“You all… you… me…” At that moment, a dark mist like a nightmare briefly emerged from Yu Hu’s body, but it was quickly suppressed again.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry! I… I apologize…” Yu Hu appeared flustered, as if she had just regained her composure, continuously apologizing to us.
“It’s okay, but have you been infected by nightmares?” I frowned and asked seriously.
“No… it’s not an infection.”
“Not an infection? But your situation just now was very obvious, right? Are you hiding something from us?”
“Nightmare… sigh… actually telling you is not a problem… Nightmares are our cognition, carrying our memories… I… Yu Hu, inheritor of the position of the Village Head, cannot be as naive as them…”
The short and even somewhat nonsensical words suddenly revealed another truth, a truth that caused my brows to furrow even deeper. It was very similar to my speculation, but now it seemed more troublesome…
“Will that situation just now occur frequently?”
After Yu Hu’s explanation, I suddenly became interested in her. If Fool Dream was an incomplete existence, an utterly pure and naive life that existed devoid of Nightmare, then why was that?
“No… it won’t happen often. Perhaps your previous questions were too… sharp… When I said I would answer your doubts, I had already prepared for such a mutation, but please don’t tell this fact to the village’s children.”
Yu Hu spoke this sentence with a pleading expression. Although she was indeed a senior, her thought process remained so pure, willingly handing over the initiative to a stranger she had known for only a few days; was that not a form of naivety?
“I certainly promise you.”
“Thank you, I am extremely grateful.” Upon receiving my promise, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
“It’s okay, but your behavior is ultimately a time bomb. Aren’t you afraid of being exposed someday?” I asked curiously.
“In order to maintain this, I need to continuously enter the Ancestral Land for self-reincarnation. Each time I lose control, it’s a warning, reminding me to reincarnate. Because of this, I often lose composure in front of the children, displaying conditions like earlier, which is why many children are somewhat afraid of me.”
“Is that so…” I nodded. So, the Fool Dreams in the village were not just showing simple respect; there was also fear, which was why Yu Hu lived alone in a solitary house surrounded by lakes.
Moreover, her tone was very indifferent, and her emotions seemed extremely cold. Perhaps she was constantly suppressing the supposed outbursts of Nightmares. Even so, I still had a question.
“Wait, since you intend to reincarnate, how do you avoid being completely separated from the Nightmare?”
“This… goes back to the blessing I received after my first birth.”
“Blessing? That rune?”
“I’m not clear on what rune, but every Fool Dream receives a different blessing after birth, and mine is the most special one, so I can only be the Village Head.”
I continued to gather some other situations with Yu Hu, but I didn’t dare to be as sharp as before. Instead, I probed around to ask other questions.
From what I learned, I began to understand why Yu Hu only answered our questions. Even if she knew some truths, she absolutely would not speak unless I asked.
She needed to be responsible for herself and the Fool Village. Although many Fool Dreams were afraid of her, her role in the village was significant; she had already become an irreplaceable part of Fool Village.
At the same time, I also understood why she hadn’t mentioned the relationship between the Ancestral Land and the Meditation Technique earlier. Those contents involved deep truths she did not want to touch on. With so many outsiders, if she repeated herself endlessly, she would probably have to reincarnate every few days. That’s why she created a small booklet to provide us with information; her explanations were all contents recorded in that booklet.
I also began to grasp the previous messages left in the spellbook; gaining Fool Dream’s trust likely referred to that.
It might not be trust, perhaps knowing too much and wanting to ask too many questions made Yu Hu inadvertently expose herself. If I promised to keep her secret, that felt like gaining trust—this method of obtaining trust was quite absurd.
However, at this moment, Yu Hu indeed invited me and Sister Bai to accompany her in the reincarnation; for the naive Fool Dreams, this action did seem to establish trust.
Meanwhile, she needed to reincarnate while keeping the cognition and memories given to her by Nightmare, eliminating the Nightmare’s encroachment on her pure Fool Dreams side, and taking on a new body to carry her existence.
A more critical step was… she needed our help, requiring the participation of the Meditation Technique so that she could preserve a part of her Nightmare through the blessing.
Moreover, due to the recent lack of outsiders’ arrivals, Yu Hu had been unable to get help for her “reincarnation” at any time.
That’s why Yu Miao had immediately brought the first outsider to her upon her instruction.
So, completing this so-called wisdom enlightenment task still needed a bit of luck.
But at this moment, there was no rush. Even though we had just gone through a perilous battle, it was still not dawn. Yu Hu gave us time to return and sleep a bit longer, and she needed to announce to the other Fool Dreams that she needed to reincarnate again.
Of course, we also inquired about the situation of Nightmares attacking Fool Dreams again, fearing such an occurrence would happen once more.
But Yu Hu assured us not to worry about that, and at the same time, we learned a shocking truth.
Fool Dreams were originally supposed to stay here to continue living, day in and day out, without the appearance of outside cognition and new concepts, thus not altering the “purity” of Fool Dreams.
Outsiders would bring in new things, with different temptations and cognitions. When Fool Dreams reached their limits of cognition, they would attract the Nightmares’ attacks, an unavoidable occurrence.
This explained why Nightmares appeared with the arrival of outsiders.
The existence of Fool Dreams was originally a result of external forces separating them. As time passed, they would innately and spontaneously revert to their most primal selves.
In the early days, a large number of seniors entered the Fool Village Secret Realm, bringing an influx of unexpected and novel cognitions; it was also when the Nightmares were most rampant.
Thus, I speculated that the decline of the Fool Village Secret Realm was likely a result intentionally guided by seniors who had realized this truth, aiming to reduce such tragedies from occurring, letting more capable individuals come here to see if they could change this status quo. Now that fewer people came, it was instead Yu Hu, the Village Head, who encountered problems.
This truly was…
For a moment, I didn’t know how to evaluate such behavior.
I could sense their desire to become independent and cognitive beings, but they were originally chaotic, non-cognitive monsters mixed with Nightmares. Perhaps the Nightmare was the price they had to pay after becoming Fool Dreams…
And now, in front of me was Village Head Yu Hu—was she still a Fool Dream?
If the truth were revealed, then Yu Hu might become an outlier in the Fool Village…
The more pure and naive a being is does not mean that they are purely good; it’s like facing d*ath one moment and the next, celebrating a new life that can completely break the previous silence.
Yu Hu wanted us to keep this secret, which also indicated she understood this point; perhaps not just understood, but… had experienced it?
I couldn’t imagine such things happening, and Yu Hu hadn’t explained these matters to me, nor did I want to ask or provoke her.
That would be far too low in emotional intelligence, truly unnecessary.
“Well then, see you later.”
After saying goodbye to Sister Bai and Yu Hu, everything seemed to have gone too smoothly.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Han? You look like you have something on your mind.”
“Nothing, just feeling like everything has gone a bit too smoothly.”
“Isn’t smooth good? Events with twists and turns…” Bai Yu was about to say something when a force stopped her.
“I know! Sister Bai, don’t say anymore.” I naturally understood that Bai Yu wanted to talk about script-related matters, and I didn’t know how that confidentiality contract was determined; after all, such things hadn’t happened before.
“However, I can’t sleep now. Let’s be cautious and take a stroll around Fool Village, shall we? The environment here is really beautiful, and the atmosphere is great. Don’t you think so, Sister Bai?”
