Chapter 319: A Breakthrough Found in the Nightmare
“Are you feeling any better?”
“Why are the usual healing spells not working at all here?”
At this moment, a group of students gathered in the special medical room were anxiously trying various attempts.
This is a residence provided for outsiders by Ninglan New City. As the number of outsiders has been increasing, the Ninglan Fragrant Hotel can no longer accommodate so many people at once. Even though it is not in operation, it is hard to manage, so they had to find another location.
And this medical room is provided as a residence for witches.
Many people are gathered here, most of whom are friends or classmates of Tan Han, as well as ordinary students affected by the sleeping curse. Minian, Su Ningmu, and Heddy James are all former companions who participated in the exchange competition with Tan Han.
They had just experienced a battle, not with anyone else, but with a Dream Demon. This was the first time Tan Han and the others truly fought against a Dream Demon, and prior to that, they had only heard about them once.
After paying such a heavy price, Tan Han learned about the Dream Demons from the City Lord, but it is obvious that she is not satisfied at this moment because the cost of obtaining this information is too great and too late.
“Did you return, Tan Han?”
“Yeah, how is Lan Baihui?” Tan Han nodded as she glanced at Lan Baihui, who was lying on the bed, her eyes filled with concern.
“Not too good… The healing spells don’t seem to have much effect,” Minian said as she stood up and returned several healing spellbooks to Tan Han.
“That’s true… it’s obvious that where we are is not reality. No… that’s not the key… it’s that Dream Demon; it absorbs a person’s soul material, which goes beyond the scope of regular healing spells,” Tan Han shook her head and said.
She recalled what Xiao Han had said to her at that time: the Dream Demon is the culprit behind people’s deaths. Is that what it meant?
But unfortunately, she understood it too late. If only she had contacted the City Lord sooner to gain the relevant information, she wouldn’t have been caught off guard by that Dream Demon. She clearly felt that her meeting with the City Lord had encountered considerable resistance.
She regretted why she hadn’t forcefully obtained the information back then. After all, those City Guards would not be able to stop her, but ignoring the rules to seek out the City Lord likely wouldn’t result in that City Lord cooperating with her to provide that information.
After all, outsiders were already considered a threat to that City Lord. If she acted recklessly, how could he possibly tell them anything?
It’s unfortunate that the Dream Demon came at such an inopportune time.
“So what should we do next? Just let Lan Baihui lie here like this?”
“Right now it can only be like this. Another option is to eliminate all the Nightmares and return to the Witch Academy to see if the teachers have any solutions,” Tan Han said solemnly. Without finding more information, she truly had no way to reverse the current situation.
“But those Nightmares are too difficult to k*ll, right? They have no physical form and can escape and gather emotional power again.”
“Besides, our biggest enemy is not just those Nightmares.”
“I understand; this is our bad luck. By the way, have you found other students from the Academy in the city?” Tan Han nodded and then asked, after all, their purpose for coming here was to do just that.
“I’m sorry, Tan Han. Ninglan New City is too large, and we can’t determine if we’ve found all the areas where the outsiders are settled. However, the number of people we counted doesn’t match the number of those affected by the sleeping curse we previously tallied… there is a significant gap.”
“They should be in the ruins outside the city. Perhaps they haven’t found the location of Ninglan New City. How about we send some people out of the city to search?”
“Yes, the mutated beasts outside the city pose no threat to us.”
“No… we cannot afford to spread our forces any thinner now. Besides, are those mutated beasts the only threat outside? Not necessarily; there are also those Nightmares and the Dream Demon.”
“But those outside…”
“Although it sounds harsh, we can’t force ourselves to do things we cannot accomplish. We need to clarify the order of things. If we can’t even defeat our enemies, how can we find those people?” Tan Han said sternly. After she made this decision, the group fell silent. It’s not that they can’t understand this approach; rather, they realized they seemed to have no choice at this moment.
They themselves should have been people who had nothing to do with the sleeping curse. Most of them gathered here for their own reasons or beliefs, but that doesn’t mean all of them are prepared to face the unknown.
They experienced an unknown attempt, arrived in a world they had never been to before, witnessed a battlefield filled with ruins, went through the confusion of brief separation, and then experienced the joy of reunion.
Ultimately, they ended up in this city built on ruins, and the atmosphere in the city significantly lowered their vigilance towards the unknown.
When they truly encountered danger and saw their companions unable to awaken lying before them, they completely dispelled any childish mindset they had.
“Hey… right! Xiao Han! Tan Han! Didn’t you say earlier you were going to find Xiao Han? What was the result? Did you find her?”
In the face of this situation, they subconsciously thought of relying on or seeking the leadership of a stronger person.
“I found her, but unfortunately, she did not agree to come with us,” Tan Han sighed and said.
“What? Why? Xiao Han also entered voluntarily, right? Shouldn’t we be stronger if we unite?”
“Yeah, solo fighting or something like that…”
Instantly, the group of girls expressed their confusion and voiced their doubts.
“Alright, although I’m not sure what Xiao Han is thinking, she is different from us. She should also be fighting against those dangers in her own way right now.”
“That… sounds unreliable…”
“I don’t expect you to understand Xiao Han, but I also hope you won’t misunderstand her. Her abilities are beyond your imagination; they exceed your understanding.” At this moment, Tan Han’s gaze swept over the crowd. These are her friends, partners, classmates, and because of that, she felt it necessary to clarify.
“While we were dragging our feet in a meaningless manner, she had already come in a day earlier than us. Before we even discovered Ninglan New City, she had already partnered with the City Guards inside to k*ll a Dream Demon and obtained information in advance for us, ensuring that we wouldn’t be attacked by such an enemy without knowing what it was.”
“Ugh… sorry, I’m not saying that everyone hasn’t worked hard. The fact that you all can disregard your own safety and accompany me is already a tremendous help to me.”
“Initially, I didn’t understand the reason behind Xiao Han’s seemingly antisocial actions until she repeatedly proved her decisions with facts. Only then could I see the significance behind her not fitting in.”
Tan Han’s words silenced everyone again. Perhaps Tan Han was too tactful in her words, but she was nearly confronting them with their ineffectiveness.
“So… is the Witch Academy just going to disregard us like this?”
At this moment, some ordinary students who were innocently drawn into this situation spoke up.
They didn’t care how powerful anyone was, nor did they wish to understand how capable Xiao Han was. They just wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. For them, the Witch Academy was their last hope, and they didn’t want their rescuers to be new students like them.
Even if that new student was among the top few, it still wouldn’t bring them any sense of security.
Hearing this question from a student, the group fell into silence. Although the Academy has been claiming to be doing its best, their presence here was just their own idea, which even implicated Teacher Lina.
However, they still had not seen the extraordinary mentors, which indeed should not be the case…
After much discussion yielded no fruit, everything could only remain as is.
“Alright, in any case, we need to start moving. There’s no result in discussing here. At the very least, if we start moving, we might learn about various intelligence in the city. Even if it’s just ordinary people attacked by the Nightmares, asking about their situation could still yield some unknown information.”
“And I will continue to engage with that City Lord to see if I can obtain any more information. By the way, if there are any more incidents of Nightmare attacks in the city, do not act hastily; first notify the City Guards, and then wait for us to act together. Also, leave a few people to take care of the injured and those with no combat capability.”
In the end, Tan Han, as the backbone of the group of girls, concluded the discussion.
Everything was just as Tan Han said: if they did not take any action, then there would be no harvest or progress.
And at this moment, in the Extraordinary Research Base in the Underground City.
The research project on Nightmares had officially begun, but this time what was different was that there were more scholars working with me on the research.
I also understood the difference between solo research and group research. Previously, it was just a one-sided teaching and inquiry into Rune Literature, but now the focus was on task allocation. I no longer could just consider myself and overlook the contributions of others. Even if they currently didn’t have the capability to research entities like Nightmares, they could still perform the most fundamental tasks.
I had not forgotten my original intention of capturing Nightmares, which was to leverage their abilities to find a way back — at least to find the connection between my current consciousness and my physical body. However, what I wanted to study was too abstract for these people in the base: consciousness, dreams, the physical body, information. There were too many fields of knowledge they had never encountered. Yet, they happily engaged in the tasks I assigned, even if they didn’t know exactly what I was asking them to do, they just needed to rely on their knowledge to do their part.
With a lot of trivial matters taken off my plate, what remained for me were the critical and core questions, which were to utilize Spirit Vision to gain an edge.
There was no way around it; Spirit Vision was my tool for understanding the extraordinary, and currently, it was the only means for me to touch the cutting edge of the extraordinary realm. How could I not use it?
Time flew by quickly, especially when concentrating on certain tasks. Although during this period, several scholars questioned what exactly we had been researching for so long, since even though they were involved in studying Nightmares, they ultimately realized they had been working for so long without knowing what they were busy with, it felt really bad as if they were isolated from the outside.
However, such voices were quickly silenced. The exploration of the unknown is indisputable; it is equally sacred to scholars who pursue extraordinary truth.
Real scholars are good at asking questions and adept at finding the known from the unknown. They glimpsed some truths from the research I provided, but since they understood that those were not areas they could currently delve into, they didn’t ask any foolish questions. They quietly contributed to this truth and accumulated their own understanding.
As the days went by, I began to gradually get used to the skills of cooperating with others, and efficiency kept increasing.
Until… at this moment.
“It seems… we succeeded.”
I slowly opened my eyes to see a mass of dense runes.
The Rune Ceremony is the means to drive the extraordinary; it is the foundation for practicing extraordinary theories.
“Really? We succeeded?”
The most esteemed scholars nearby also asked excitedly.
“Yes, record these original rune ceremonies; we have found a breakthrough. Next, let’s build on this as a basis for further development,” I nodded affirmatively.
“Scholar Xiao Han, could you explain a bit about what we have successfully achieved?” At this moment, those responsible for the basic data collection and error testing spoke up.
Although they didn’t know exactly what stage the experiment had reached, they were considered scholars who participated throughout the process. Seeing the success naturally made them happy. This sense of achievement, though a bit unclear, could certainly become a highlight in their resumes!
After all, even scholars have different levels, and their pursuits also differ.
“By leveraging Nightmares, we are realizing the exchange of information between the dream world and reality. This means that as long as the technology matures, we can forcibly awaken the consciousness of those dragged into the dream realm by Nightmares or force the Nightmares to appear, among other actions.” I briefly explained, then stopped as there was no need to elaborate further.
Right now, everything had just gained a hint of progress; that was the breakthrough I mentioned, which is why I said we need to wait until the application technology matures to accomplish it.
Everything at this moment still only exists in a one-way information exchange from the dream world to the reality that I can manage. If consciousness is to return to the body, there are still many difficulties to overcome.
However, many things are sufficient for me as the scholars became busy again.
I also started to plan. As my Memory Shelf Spellbook unfolded, it recorded a lot of things, including the discussions about the spell ceremonies related to her spellbook with Sister Bai.
In this special world, the power of spells multiplies, and the gap between spellbooks and spells is infinitely close.
This means that even if I do not possess a specific spell’s spellbook, as long as I understand the combination of that spell’s ceremony and rune ceremony, I can conjure it with my bare hands, just as simple as conjuring a fireball without any tools.
At this moment, in the medical room of the Witch Academy outside.
Within the medical room, the care of students caught in the sleeping curse has rotated through many shifts. Although the sleeping curse seems intimidating, the nurses part-time here can make good money, eagerly awaiting the arrival of students.
“What luck! We even have Xiao Han among the students assigned to us!”
In the medical room, a pair of senior sisters responsible for attending to the sleeping students began chatting idly after checking everything was normal.
“Ugh… so boring! How long do we have to stay here? I’m sick of the smell of this disinfectant.”
“Put on your mask! You wouldn’t want to catch the sleeping curse, would you?”
“Absolutely no way! Let this d*mn curse take me as well; I want to sleep and not wake up.”
“Wait… are you really thinking that way? If you’re bored, I can play with you…” This senior sister’s tone shifted from before, leaning closer and putting one hand on her companion’s shoulder.
“Hey? Isn’t this inappropriate?”
“Isn’t it thrilling? After all, it’s just the two of us awake here!”
“That’s true… Speaking of which, I haven’t… Wait! Hold on!”
“What? What happened?” The senior sister was startled by her friend’s reaction and quickly looked in the direction she pointed.
“That… that person! Her hand! She just lifted it!”
“Don’t scare me like that! Who? Xiao Han? But… she hasn’t woken up yet! Don’t be so creepy!”
“But! But she really lifted her hand and then put it back!”
“Are you seeing things? Whatever, you really killed my vibe.”
