Several minutes later, at the town center.
Even just arriving here, Wen Xishu felt a pervasive chill throughout his journey.
It felt like being at the center of vengeful spirits, entangled by countless resentful souls, yet unable to detect their presence.
The numbers in his vision stopped at 19.
The music by his ear had changed to a new track, like Black Friday.
Occasionally, he could hear some repressed low growls.
If it weren’t for Nico’s distinctive voice, Wen Xishu would have thought the growls came from inside the art gallery.
This art gallery was abrupt, out of place with the overall town.
Constructed entirely of light gray stone, with clean and slick lines, the massive geometric glass curtain wall reflected the gray-black sky.
Pushing open the large bronze-textured doors of the art gallery, a mix of cold air and marble chill engulfed him.
Under the spacious dome, the dim walls were illuminated by spotlights, with thousands of paintings distributed throughout the vast space.
And at the center of the gallery was a person whose face was covered with various paint spots, dressed in a warm yellow suit.
He wore a hat and held a paintbrush in his hand, motionless.
His eyes were closed.
At this moment, Wen Xishu received guidance.
[Hidden Task for Stage Three—Awaken the Artist. Different outcomes will be triggered based on the awakening process.]
As soon as Wen Xishu stepped in, he immediately felt something amiss.
19...18...17...16...15...
The numbers in his vision began to decrease rapidly.
The environment in the gallery hadn’t changed at all, but in Wen Xishu’s ear, Nico’s voice had become sinister and eerie.
Meanwhile, the thousands of paintings... started to move.
"Are you dissatisfied... with your current... dream? No worries, I’ve got many more here for you to choose from..."
The painter’s voice sounded like a murmur, intermittent.
And with the painter’s voice fading.
[Please focus your gaze on one painting.]
The painter’s figure vanished.
The thousands of paintings began to move continuously, like bats flying around Wen Xishu.
The number had already dropped to 4.
The contents of countless scrolls started to distort, as if unless Wen Xishu made a choice, they would burst out.
Wen Xishu immediately made a choice, following the guidance, his gaze fell on one painting.
It was a mouth.
The original artwork was of very seductive red lips, with the painter using the lips to convey themes like desire.
But as the number in the vision fell to four, and continued to decrease...
The mouth began to grow bigger, with the red lips developing many cracks, and the cracks being like rows of eyes.
It transformed into something alive.
It opened wide, where orderly teeth once were, now entirely cold, gleaming metal blades.
The mouth kept growing larger.
As if it had already grown beyond the gallery itself.
Wen Xishu instinctively wanted to run, but it was too late.
"Should’ve picked another painting."
He couldn’t escape, sharp spikes descending from above.
No matter how powerful Wen Xishu’s ultimate kick was, it was difficult to kick away the enormous mouth that could rival an island.
That’s how dreams work, no matter how absurd, anything is possible.
Wen Xishu’s ultimate kick increased in proficiency, but still, he was swallowed by the gigantic mutated lips.
The many cracks on the lips formed eyes, squinting as if mocking.
The number had dropped to 1 at this moment.
This indicated that the level of distortion here was virtually devoid of any logic.
There is no norm here, and every creature here can be magnified by imagination to an undefeatable level.
The sharp teeth, like spikes, penetrated Wen Xishu’s heart.
Then, a huge, corrosive liquid-filled tongue began to lick Wen Xishu.
More and more teeth pierced through Wen Xishu.
Wen Xishu realized...
It was chewing.
He was like a piece of meat, being continuously chewed.
But soon, Wen Xishu realized something even more absurd.
"Wait a minute, how come I’m not dead..."
In the brutal environment of number 1, Wen Xishu surprisingly hadn’t died.
His head was pierced, his stomach was pierced, his body was torn apart, even his skull was penetrated by sharp teeth, his upper body and lower body separated, connected only by a section of intestine.
Yet, in this state, he could still think.
Even that mouth seemed to notice something amiss.
It started chewing forcefully, with such intensity that Wen Xishu felt like he was thrown into some sort of blender.
He even saw cracks forming on the terrifying teeth inside the gigantic mouth.
But even with such powerful force, Wen Xishu remarkably didn’t die.
It was irrational.
Wen Xishu felt the sexy red lips transforming into an abyssal mouth was irrational.
Even this abyssal mouth felt it was irrational that Wen Xishu, who had trespassed into the dream, couldn’t be killed.
After a while, the mouth seemed to have tired.
Numerous strange, black tendon-like things emerged on the lips.
This indicated the mouth was fatigued.
But Wen Xishu just wouldn’t die.
Wen Xishu’s body quickly began to slowly... like the great statue from earlier, start self-healing.
The chewed flesh sprouted tiny tentacles. The pulled-apart intestines also began to show vitality, continuously contracting, causing Wen Xishu’s upper and lower body to rapidly come together.
Wen Xishu himself was surprised:
How did I become such a sanity-draining entity?
But he somewhat understood why he couldn’t be killed.
He possessed a certain power, a passive ability, which upon encountering enemies from certain dream attacks, granted him random rule immunity.