Dreamscape Waning
“Soul undulations, bloodline detection, identity testing— pass!” A mechanical voice transmitted from a small sculpture of the Snake Dowager held by the squad leader.
Sensing the detecting undulations sweeping past him, Leylin inwardly sneered. With his soul force and bloodline concealed, and especially with Aegnis inadvertently protecting him as his original information had been entered into the database, the identity test that was most likely to expose him had its leaks completely sealed. Even if they examined him again, it would be to no avail.
“Haven’t you finished the inspection? Shouldn’t you get lost then?” Thomas looked at the bunch of guards who hurried away in confusion, with a satisfied look in his eyes.
“Little Sophia! These guards all belong to the Stewart family. If you encounter them in the holy city, don’t be frightened, just give them my name!” Shortly afterwards, Thomas made this solicitous offer.
Leylin secretly rolled his eyes. He knew that if it wasn’t for Belinda and her sister, Thomas wouldn’t have so hot-bloodedly rushed out to support him.
“Nick, are you alright?” Belinda and her sister went into the little courtyard, and when they saw how narrow the place was and how cramped the apartment was, they wrinkled their brows. “Would you like to come and live with us instead?”
“That’s not necessary!” “That’s not necessary!”
Leylin and Thomas spoke almost at the same time, and seeing the threatening expression in Thomas’ eyes, Leylin inwardly sneered. He switched to a smile and said to Belinda, “This place is very nice! And besides, Young Master Thomas is letting me live here entirely for free, this is very rare in the holy city... To be honest, being able to become a free citizen of the holy city, even if it’s only for 10 years, I can’t ask for anything more than this......”
Leylin intentionally emphasised the last few words, and from Thomas’ point of view, this was Leylin surrendering to him, so he nodded his head with satisfaction.
Belinda, on the other hand, looked at Leylin with astonishment. From her impression of him, Leylin definitely wouldn’t behave like this.
“But... Brother Nick! How can you live here? Sophia’s heart is distressed...” Sophia tugged at Leylin’s sleeve.
“Alright, alright! The both of you, don’t come back and give me trouble!” Leylin didn’t care, pushing Belinda and Sophia out with an impatient expression. He then shut the door in their faces/
“Very good. You’ve done well.” Once the door had been shut, he heard Thomas’ secret message, but at the same time he heard other news.
Immediately after, Thomas’ arrogant and proud voice could be heard just outside. “Don’t bother with that Nick anymore. Look! He actually treated you both like this. Little Sophia, shall I bring you to play at the Holy Mother’s Sculpture?”
As their voices grew more distant, Leylin shook his head with a laugh.
“Sometimes, when you don’t want trouble, trouble comes to find you instead! Did I put on too good a performance when we were on the road?” He currently wished for the entire world to forget him, and let him quietly farm properly.
However, now it looked like—
......
Night had fallen, and the purple halo of the moon had slipped down. Inside the holy city there was none of the clamor of the day, and even the places filled with holy light had all dimmed down.
After a full day of searching the entire city, and with dozens of unlucky people without papers thrown into the moat, dissolving until their bones couldn’t be found, the streets were completely deserted with a desolate atmosphere.
“Activate the bloodline imprint!”
In the small courtyard next to the flowerbed, Leylin looked at his right arm. On his wrist were ten small white snake imprints lying side by side.
These were naturally the bloodline imprints he had made using the Alabaster Devilsnake bloodline.
*Hss—* A rank 5 beast spirit tattoo appeared before his eyes, making Leylin’s control over the bloodline imprint much easier.
“The beast spirit’s power has an effect of resisting suppression, and can maximise the imprint’s effect!” There was a trace of a smile on Leylin’s face, and soon he saw the brand on his hand fading rapidly and disappearing.
[Beep! The host has consumed the Alabaster Devilsnake’s bloodline imprint, initiating connection with Dreamscape!]
The innate skill of the Alabaster Devilsnake was the ability to travel to Dreamscape. Leylin himself had acquired this ability through the bloodline imprint.
However, in his heart, he had some doubts about it. After all, this was something he gained from the Thousand-Eyed Woman on his previous adventure in the Dreamscape. As a result, when his truesoul connected to the monstrous and dazzling world, Leylin did not choose to immediately enter it. Instead, he attempted to draw on some dreamforce.
*Ssss—* The air seemed to shimmer and warp like in a hazy heat, and traces of dark red dreamforce began to fall in without end, sinking into the earth of the flowerbed.
The green Seed of Wisdom seemed to welcome it, and absorbed the dreamforce. It even budded a little green shoot, and seemed to be filled with the breath of life.
The dark red dreamforce was like a fog, and lingered on around the small bud. It was continuously absorbed by the bud, and appeared to have become a nutrient source.
At this moment, it sounded as if a bowstring had snapped in the void. An oppressive voice sounded, and the dreamforce rapidly faded, disappearing in a flash.
“What’s going on? I used the bloodline imprint to pull dreamforce in, and it’s just this little... It’s not equal to the previous times I’ve used it... Don’t tell me...” Leylin’s expression immediately turned gloomy.
[Beep! Dreamforce has rapidly decreased, determined to be at the nadir.]
“What bad luck! To think that it also had this uncertain and deceptive characteristic...” Leylin could only laugh bitterly.
Although dreamforce at its peak phase could be compared to the power of laws, it was full of uncertainty. Now it had declined, dropping from the zenith to the nadir. Currently, it was perhaps far weaker than bloodline force.
“I can feel it! The entire Dreamscape seems to have sunk into stillness, and all dreamforce has vanished!” Leylin had a solemn expression. He could feel a lot of things through the Alabaster Devilsnake beast spirit and bloodline.
Not only had dreamforce fallen into its weak phase, even the Dreamscape itself had sunk into silence, meaning that if he wanted to draw out dreamforce, he needed to waste even more power than before. And its effects would be greatly reduced as well!
‘As expected, choosing not to rely on dreamforce was the correct decision; this random and uncertain behaviour is basically used to cheat people...’ Leylin shook his head, and at the same time he suddenly understood, ‘No wonder the Snake Dowager’s performance today was so poor! She seemed evenly matched with the divided truesoul clone of a rank 8, it was because dreamforce had fallen into its trough phase and reduced her strength... ’
The weakness of dreamforce was both a blessing and a curse for Leylin. The best advantage was that the Snake Dowager clearly could not use dreamforce without restraint, which was the same as cutting off an arm.
‘If it’s like this, the advantages of Dreamscape entering its silent phase outweigh the disadvantages for me!’ Leylin stroked his chin, ‘Besides, I have my reserves of chaos power and so many bloodline imprints. I can afford to use them up a little, I can still complete the plan.’
From Leylin’s point of view, if one bloodline imprint from before could draw over 10 units of dreamforce, then now it was only enough to draw over 1 unit. For those who primarily used dreamforce, this terrifying reduction was a complete nightmare!
Once dreamforce grew weak, perhaps even existences on the level of the God of Evil could only withdraw into Dreamscape or even take the initiative to lie dormant and reduce their consumption until dreamforce was restored.
However, Leylin staked it all on his abundant bloodline imprints; even if he wasted a few, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t make up for it.
In any case, he had reaped many bloodlines from Belinda’s family and it was enough to support his consumption, and it wasn’t as if the Alabaster Devilsnake bloodline was limited to that family.
“When you think of trouble, trouble will arrive!” Leylin’s brows pressed together, and he sighed helplessly. With a wave of his right hand, a whirlwind of energy particles appeared and swept across the flower garden.
Although he had already prepared for this, the energy aura from earlier could leak out some things, and Leylin naturally would not leave such a huge leak without caring.
After a moment, a dreamlike figure came out from the moonlight.
“Nick!” She looked at Leylin with a complicated expression on her face.
She had long golden-white hair which shone with vibrant lustre under the moonlight, scarlet eyes which were as beautiful as rubies. She seemed like the very personification of beauty, and she had a strange attractive force about her.
“You’ve come!” Leylin greeted her without even turning his head.
“I already left a message for you earlier, you know this!”
Belinda went directly to Leylin and looked at him with her beautiful eyes that were devoid of restraint, “I know that the outsiders from earlier could have given you trouble so I’ve come secretly, the other’s don’t know. Did Thomas, that disgusting fellow, pressure you?”
It had to be said that Belinda was a very intelligent girl, she was after all a senior Sacrificer for the Trial’s Eye who even mercilessly exacted vengeance on her own family. How could she not be scheming? Leylin’s transformation was far too obvious, anyone could see the difference.
“Even if he did, so what?” Leylin spread out his hands helplessly: “In the holy city, do we have any other choice?”
“I’ll kill him!” Belinda let out a murderous aura, and it wasn’t faked.
“And after that? After becoming a wanted criminal of the holy city, and really flee to the other end of the world? How childish!” Leylin coldly refuted her.
“So what?” Belinda bit her lip, and her eyes seemed to sparkle a little: “Even if I don’t kill him, we can just move out and become mercenaries and do missions, we will still be able to live in the holy city...”