A World Worth Protecting

The Dark Dream was extraordinary and bizarre. It was mystic art that pulled one into the dreamscape. It was formed from a Daosource that was in turn formed by exhausting one’s own vitality. Only someone who had reached the Eternal Star realm could perform it!

This mystic art could be used against one’s enemy. However, it was often used by the great and powerful to pass down knowledge and mystic arts and techniques to their descendants and heirs. Time in the dreamscape passed differently than in the real world. It could be manipulated. Knowledge about a mystic art could be seared directly into one’s soul. It could be fused directly with one’s spirit. The challenges that one met during training could be circumvented. This mystic art didn’t allow the transmission of one’s cultivation to another, which would enable them to become instantly powerful. However, most cultivators, having reached a certain stage in their cultivation, required enlightenment towards the Daosource and the principles of Dao rather than greater cultivation.

This Dark Dream Mystic Art could achieve this flawlessly!

It could also bring about other effects. For example, the effects of all serious injuries would be dampened in the dreamscape. There would be sufficient time for one to recover.

However… such an extraordinary mystic art required a great deal of energy to be expended by the person performing it. Few would use this mystic art unless it was their last resort. It was considered a pseudo-forbidden art in the Dark Sect.

Deliberation colored Wang Baole’s eyes after he read the details of this Dark Dream Mystic Art. After a long while, he shut his eyes. When he opened them again, he gazed around silently.

Fifteen minutes passed. Wang Baole took a deep breath and continued to keep his eyes shut in this Ten Thousand Art Pavilion. He began his training of the Soul Guidance technique.

Despite not having reached the Core Formation realm and facing difficulty in mastering Soul Guidance, with his constant practice, he was able to make use of the Soul Guidance to strengthen and grow his Dark Qi. The Dark Fires in Wang Baole’s body gradually multiplied.

Time passed steadily as he continued to train. Three months went by in a blink of an eye.

During this period, Wang Baole focused entirely on multiplying his Dark Fires. They reached as many as seventy-eight. He was only a few steps away from the highest record of eighty-one Dark Fires.

He should have met with some challenges along the way. However, said challenges never occurred to Wang Baole. It was as if he was naturally suited to learning the Dark Art.

This made Wang Baole ponder more deeply. Suspicions began to surface in his mind, and they clouded his thoughts. After a long while, he finally suppressed these thoughts. He was about to continue his training when the jade slip in his storage bracelet vibrated. Wang Baole pulled it out and released a long sigh.

The sigh was colored with complicated emotions, regret, and confusion.

“Junior Brother, I’m leaving the sect for some time to train. There are some things that I have to think about… take care. I’ll return when I’ve thought things through!”

The voice transmission jade only had that single message. The person who had said that was his senior brother, Chen Qing!

Wang Baole had spent most of his time in meditation during his three months of seclusion. However, he still kept himself updated on some things that were going on in the sect. For example… what had happened to his senior brother, Chen Qing!

This extremely talented and gifted senior brother had secretly told him something that day with great happiness and anticipation… He shared that his Dao partner in his next life was going to be the daughter of the Never-Ending Clan’s Emperor!

Chen Qing hadn’t known the identity and family background of the soul he had painted a Corpse Face for prior to the arrival of the Never-Ending Clan’s Emperor. He had only known that this soul was going to be his Dao partner after she was reborn. This was what the Heavenly Dao had willed. This was what the fates had dictated.

He had been extremely happy. When he had painted the Corpse Face, he had secretly made her more beautiful and more pleasing to his eye. He had been filled with anticipation.

However… the shocking harsh reality had come crashing down on him too soon. With the arrival of the Emperor of the Never-Ending Clan and with the unfolding of the incredible and terrifying battle, he had seen with his own eyes, his wife of the next life being pulled out and turned into dust. He had fallen into a dead silence.

Even though his destiny was to be entwined with this soul in their next life, and even though they hadn’t truly made contact and come to know each other, everything had come to an end then—before anything had started. He remained lost. He didn’t truly ache for the woman’s soul, but his faith in his own Dao had been shaken.

He didn’t know who was wrong, whether it was the Emperor of the Never-Ending Clan or the Dark Sect, but he knew one thing—the soul did nothing wrong.

Was the Dark Sect in the wrong? The Dark Sect simply served the Heavenly Dao. The Heavenly Dao was the culminated form of the laws of the universe. It was the origin of Dao for all Dark Sect cultivators.

In his lost state and in his need for answers, he decided to leave for a while. He decided he needed to think this through carefully. He needed to find an answer. After becoming a silent and solitary shade of his past self, he then decided to leave.

Wang Baole had mixed feelings regarding this matter as well, but he was powerless to solve it or his doubts. He had thought about what he would do if this had happened to him instead.

Wang Baole set the question aside. As he continued to muse quietly on the matter, his training went ahead without pause. Another month passed, and the Dark Fires inside his body multiplied to eighty-one Dark Fires!

When his Dark Fires reached as many as eighty-one, his entire body shuddered. He could feel the eighty-one Dark Fires layering atop one another, burning brightly inside his body. With each intense eruption, they began to shrink and compress themselves. They compressed further and further, gradually forming a Core!

During the entire process, waves of spirit energy that surpassed the Foundation Establishment realm erupted from this ever-compressing Core made of Dark Fire. It felt as if millions of rivers were surging through the meridians throughout Wang Baole’s entire body. They flooded all major and minor meridians in a blink of an eye. Power permeated his entire body and surged outward into the physical world.

At that moment, as Wang Baole sat cross-legged, invisible hurricanes seemed to appear around him. They roared and spiraled around him. The power was insignificant to the truly powerful. After all, this was only a breakthrough from the Foundation Establishment realm to the Core Formation realm. However, this was Wang Baole’s first time experiencing this. His entire body shuddered, and he felt his cultivation erupting and increasing without pause!

Thunderous booms erupted inside his body. The hurricanes around him turned into an ocean of fire as icy flames spread outward. There was no end to its increasing power, and it continued to rise.

The meridians inside his body shuddered, his flesh and blood shook, his cultivation churned, and the Dark Fires inside his body compressed further and further inward. Under the compression, his Core became more and more distinct. It was going to take physical form any time now!

It was then that Ming Kunzi appeared soundlessly before Wang Baole inside the Ten Thousand Art Pavilion. His eyes were soft as he gazed at Wang Baole with kindness. His form wasn’t clear, appearing to be slightly indistinct. It looked like his finger and his hand that Wang Baole had seen previously. At present, the gradual disintegration had spread to Ming Kunzi’s entire body.

Even so, he still lifted his hand and pointed at Wang Baole’s forehead!

As soon as the finger landed, Wang Baole shuddered violently. Thunder-like crashes rumbled inside his body. The formation of his Core inside his body sped up suddenly, and within a blink of an eye, it transformed and became… a Dark Core!

As soon as the Dark Core was formed, a power that belonged to the Core Formation realm erupted from Wang Baole’s body and filled the air. Wang Baole opened his eyes.

His breathing was quick and uneven, and there was a lost look in his eyes. Memories of the Federation—what he had thought was merely a dream—surfaced in his mind again. They grew increasingly distinct. He remembered in his dream that he had been pursued by three extraterrestrial cultivators. He had entered the Dark Artifact and entered a cave in the underground city. He had sat on a lone black boat…

He remembered before he had fallen into a deep sleep that an old, familiar voice had sounded beside his ear. It had said two words…

“Dark Dream…”

Wang Baole was silent. After a long moment, he lifted his head and stared at his master Ming Kunzi, who had appeared before him.

“Master… I…” Wang Baole murmured to himself. Before he could finish speaking, he noticed his master’s form fading away. It faded away more quickly as he spoke.

Wang Baole shuddered. He had only been dazed at the sight. Now, however, an answer was gradually forming inside his heart. Perhaps… everything happening around him now was also a dream.

It was an indescribable feeling. It felt as if he was hovering between sleep and wakefulness. It was as if he knew that he was dreaming. The Dark Dream Mystic Art surfaced in his mind then. After running through his thoughts and confirming his guesses, he finally arrived at an answer.

There were still too many questions and doubts in his mind. He was silent for a while. Then, Wang Baole got to his feet and cupped his fists towards Ming Kunzi. He bowed deeply!

“Senior…” Wang Baole froze as he said the word. He fell silent. Then, after taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth and called out again. He used a different form of address this time.

“Master!”