Chapter 618: An Experience Regarding the Boundaries of Dream and Reality
The earth vein, also known as a tributary of the earth vein river.
Just the name alone conveys its high level, but such a thing has a relatively low level of earth vein energy flowing within it, and it can even be seen “everywhere” in a world.
Its only stubbornness seems to be its regionality; non-earth vein creatures and life born from the world cannot control it.
As long as one cuts off the earth vein shackles and becomes an independently existing life form, even the world that birthed them will have no affinity with the earth vein energy.
Moreover, the earth vein itself has no specific form, much like how I can currently see its phantom because the earth vein carries so much, the most important being the three source elements of the world.
That massive condensed crystal adorns the main body of the earth vein, reminding me of my previous visit to the underground area of Ninglan New City, where the “excavated earth vein breach” wasn’t the true body of the earth vein; it was merely an external image shaped by the crystallized materials carried by the earth vein energy.
The “earth vein” at Ninglan New City is a breach, thus it continuously erupts, forming a protective shield to guard Ninglan New City from energy tides.
And here is the gathering place of the earth veins left behind after the earth vein was repaired; they flow and circulate continuously, merging vast amounts of world origin soil, extraordinary crystals, and soul materials.
The eruption of the extraordinary crystals provides a constant energy supply for this action, while the residual force of the eruption has formed such a vast energy crystal in the outside world.
The world origin soil, catalyzed by such pure energy, supports a highly efficient material space, while the less pure material is mixed in the energy crystal in the form of extraordinary material fragments.
They are piled up layer upon layer around the core area of the earth vein gathering place, constantly twisting and overlapping under the cyclical operation of the earth vein.
The mixed soul materials attract dream creatures, creating a complex environment of dream overlap.
This is the general situation I have sorted out in a short time.
While I was deeply invested, the dream creature I had captured directly escaped into the dream.
They are dream creatures, and if they want to flee, it is somewhat difficult to capture them without using the power of a field.
However, right now, I’m not in the mood to deal with this little one; if it tries to disrupt the current soul crystal structure, I will extinguish it immediately. After all, capturing it is somewhat difficult, while killing it is not.
As expected, it headed towards the largest mixed crystal of the three source elements, but just as I was about to reach out to extinguish it, it didn’t consume the soul crystal; instead, it seemed to be excitedly twisting its body there.
“What does that mean?”
Frowning, I controlled my body and approached it in this weightless space.
Previously, I had maintained a certain distance from these crystals for observation and experiments; this is my first time this close.
Once I got near, I suddenly discovered that within such a large mixed crystal, there was actually a massive dream creature!
It was several times larger than the one I previously captured, existing within the crystal… no, that’s not quite right.
It should be within a dream, but it’s stuck in the dream!
I ignored the small dream creature making a commotion beside me and began to check what the situation really was.
It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand at first; as I looked more closely, I discovered… this was the connection point between the expanding realm’s earth vein and the dream earth vein!
One could say this is truly the gathering place of the expanding realm’s earth vein, right?
Even the earth veins in the dreams have gathered here.
They unintentionally used soul crystals as bait, leading dream creatures to come here to “work.”
And this massive dream creature is the driving force connecting the dream earth vein and the earth vein here.
However, this dream creature did not come to work on purpose; it unwisely regarded the earth vein in the dream as a siphon, utilizing the carrying characteristics of the earth vein to connect with the real earth vein to extract soul crystals from the mixed crystal of the three source elements.
This aligns with the progress of the dream merging into the expanding realm, accelerating the improvement of the expanding realm, at the cost of… this dream creature being trapped by the massive vortex created by the earth vein connection.
After all, to connect the earth veins between dreams and reality… it’s surprising that this brainless creature could think of it.
But precisely because of that, it took the plunge and did so.
It contributed significantly to the improvement of the expanding realm, while the price is that it is trapped itself.
“You want to save it, right?” I tilted my head and continued to use mind communication magic to ask; it had been too cautious to get too close because it feared becoming part of the trap, not wanting to be trapped itself.
“…yes…”
“Why?” I asked, could it be that there was a special relationship between dream creatures worth mutual rescue?
“…yes…”
“Alright, that doesn’t make sense.” I sighed and didn’t press further.
However, wanting to save this guy… that’s a bit troublesome; all the methods I can think of would require clearing away all the world three source elements, and then the earth vein would flow smoothly, allowing it to be naturally “untrapped.”
But I currently have no reason to clear it; I still have much I want to know and experiment with.
Unless… there’s an equivalent exchange.
The three source elements of the world are not particularly rare in the expanding realm, but given the current special situation, they are relatively rare.
I removed the mind communication spell from the small dream creature, and it made a strange expression, as if it was wondering what I was doing.
I then linked the mind communication spell to the large dream creature.
I hope its understanding matches its size.
“Hey, are you doing okay now?” I tried to ask.
“Not very well…”
The other party seemed to answer instinctively, but after just one sentence, I understood it could barely communicate!
“Are you communicating with me?”
“Yes, it’s amazing, right? Haven’t you communicated with anyone else?” I continued to inquire.
“No, you cannot understand my language…”
“Now you can, I used some means. Do you need me to save you?”
“Help me… save me…” Hearing my words, this dream creature excitedly spoke to me.
“That’s very straightforward. Were you too greedy which led to this?” I continued to ask to confirm my earlier guess.
“No, no…”
“Telling lies is bad; otherwise, I won’t save you.” I frowned and asked.
“Lie? What? I want to play, play in reality… not greedy for soul material…”
“Play in reality?!” Hearing this answer, I was also quite surprised; so they want to play in reality, even putting soul material behind?
“Yes.”
“Can you appear in reality directly? Or can you only come out to play when invading reality through dreams?”
“???!”
At that moment, the other person responded with pure confusion, seemingly unable to comprehend what I was saying.
But I had a guess, they do not have a material basis in reality, so they can only play in the places where dreams overlap.
“Then do you know how to come out from the dream to play in reality?” I continued to ask.
“Save me…”
“Answer my question, and if I’m satisfied, I can let you go.” I continued.
“Okay… eat soul material…”
“Eat soul material? If you eat this, can you come into reality to play?”
“Yes… no… I don’t know…”
“Could you clarify?” I continued to ask.
However, after understanding this answer, I was also pondering.
Eating soul material can make dreams and reality overlap… it doesn’t seem to have any direct relation.
From the shared records in the Great Knowledge Tree, currently, the dream overlap areas around Ninglan New City have all been attracted by discovered soul crystals, leading to the occurrence of dream creatures.
So soul material is one factor, but not the only reason; this large dream creature gave both a yes and a no answer, indicating that it’s not accurate.
What else could it be? The innate abilities of dream creatures?
It seems I can only attribute it to that guess.
“I… can do it… eat soul material… come out to play…”
“So this is your dream creatures’ innate ability, right?”
“Yes…”
“Just as I thought…” I sighed, innate ability, how can one learn such abilities… clearly I have the strength to crush them all, yet I cannot do what they can.
This feeling is really frustrating…
It seems that wanting to find a breakthrough from the dream creatures regarding the intervention between dreams and reality is somewhat difficult, mainly due to communication issues.
After sighing, I turned my gaze back to this dream creature.
“No… I’m a little witch… I won’t, I can learn!”
Taking a deep breath, I immediately encouraged myself!
Back then, I researched nightmares, studied dream demons, and learned the ultimate dream demon spells from them; these were past achievements of mine. How have I regressed?
Clearly, I now have better conditions and a wealth of knowledge than before!
At this moment, I again established a firm goal.
A peak I once crossed, yet now, I need to stay humble and grounded; the past achievements are worth nothing to my present self.
“I can try to let you out, but you must cooperate with my research for some time!” I stated.
Now, no matter what research related to the three source elements, material spaces, earth vein, etc., those have become secondary to me; my energy is limited, and there will naturally be necessary trade-offs; once my goal is set, everything must yield to it.
“Okay… good, cooperate… play!”
“It’s cooperating on research, not just playing together.”
“Research? What is that?”
“It just means you listen to me; do you agree?”
“I agree…”
At that moment, this dream creature was thus tricked into submission by me; whether this is deceiving me was no longer relevant since I have the ability to trap it. This is a unilateral decision; asking it is just a formality. After all, if it cooperates, I can have much less trouble.
As for how I will save it, that will take time.
First, I need to understand how it was trapped.
It was trapped by the earth vein within the dream, because when connecting with reality, an extremely strong overlap between dream and reality was created, causing real information to be projected into the dream.
So to save it, I need to untangle two layers of what trapped it: one is the huge mixed crystal projected into the dream, and the other is the vortex formed by earth vein energy within the complex earth vein structure.
It is a dream creature, carried and locked by the earth vein energy leading to reality, yet it itself is a dream creature that cannot reach reality, which is why it got stuck in the vortex.
If it were someone else wanting to save it, there would indeed only be one option—to clear away all the mixed crystals. But I won’t need to.
I have the Dream Rewriting Spell book, which allows me to easily rewrite the crystals projected into the dream and help it escape the prison trapping it; then I will lock down the vortex of the earth vein.
This is also simple, but merely doing so is not enough… I seem to be able to accomplish more with this.
I cut off the earth vein shackles; I am, after all, an “insulator” of the earth vein. Whether it’s the earth vein shackles of reality or dreams, I have cut them all before.
So I want to attempt something a bit daring: to experience the earth vein vortex through my consciousness body within the dream.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; the earth vein connects dreams and reality, bridging two worlds like parallel lines.
Only through experience can one truly savor that feeling; humans cannot imagine scenes they have never seen, nor can they reminisce about feelings they haven’t felt.
From the moment I decided to save this dream creature, I was already planning the progress of the experiment. Saving it is merely an incidental action; I have been pursuing the goal I have set from beginning to end.
Exploring the unknown, experimenting with dream spells.
This reminds me of when I researched resurrection spells and the nature of life by pursuing d*ath; perhaps what I am doing now is even crazier than back then.
Although this attempt does not necessarily involve life-threatening danger, the degree of its madness is nonetheless not diminished.
The hint given by the dream creature is that soul material is the cornerstone of their innate ability to invade reality through dreams, so I want to test the relationship between souls and dreams.
The connection between the two has already been established, and the soul is the sublimation of soul material.
It’s as if all the guessed elements have come together; all that is needed is a test and experience to find out what answer I am expecting.
And now… if I feel it’s still not enough… perhaps I should add one last layer of security.
No, rather than security, it should be… a witness!
I even feel there’s no need, but sharing what I’m doing seems nice too.
The live broadcast platform built upon the Great Knowledge Tree.
Isn’t it said that witches like to tempt fate?
I think… there are bound to be many witches in the Witch Academy who do not wish for me to encounter any accidents.
Is this recklessness?
Perhaps it is…
But exploring the unknown always requires some sacrifices.
Moreover, I am not without backups; Heart Realm Field, Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, the essence of souls, and even Resurrection Spells, etc.
I am merely going to experience; I’m not seeking d*ath.
Even if everything fails, at most, I will suffer severe damage to my consciousness and be affected in my soul, but it’s not irrecoverable.
Even in the worst-case scenario, at least I would understand what was wrong; that too is an answer, albeit a costly one.
But I bet it won’t end up that way.
My luck has always been good.
And this time, the goal of the experiment is to experience the boundaries of dreams and reality!
The scene of the experiment will be the earth vein connecting dreams and reality.
And what am I ultimately after?
Mastery over the ability of dreams and reality to overlap.
From the firsthand experience of the boundary between dreams and reality to the research of the essence of dream creatures, these are the two major directions I am preparing for the realization of this ability.
This can also be considered a technique derived from my Heart Realm Field.
While exploring and developing this technique, I can also gain a deeper understanding of the nature of earth veins, souls, and dream consciousness.
Thus, this is an experiment with immense appeal; I must admit, I cannot resist such temptation.
After making up my mind, I directly opened the live broadcast platform.
The live broadcast not only allows other witch sisters to understand what I am doing, but it also serves as a record of information.
With the great knowledge sharing technique, the live streaming platform I built upon the Great Knowledge Tree has gradually improved. However, this isn’t just my improvement; rather, it was accomplished by those witch sisters who suggested building the live streaming platform.
At this moment, the witch on the Great Knowledge Seed connected to the live broadcast platform suddenly received a notification that the broadcast had started.
