Chapter 56: Reviving the “Fire Nightmare”

Gradually, in the darkness of the seabed, Yang Zicang and the other saw a faint red glow— the magma of an underwater volcano ahead was spewing from its crater.
{A volcano? Wow, so beautiful. What exactly is your experiment for?}
[I want to give life back to the dead Nightmares.]
{What?!}
Morri, distorted by the pressure of the seawater, felt like this guy was insane.
{We barely managed to kill those things, and you want to revive them? You’re not some movie villain, are you?}
[Enough chatter. Help me inject the Temporal Prime into them, now let’s go.]
The seawater roared. Countless dull-colored spiritual artifacts and weapons, glowing with radiance, shot like a school of fish toward the towering metal pillar at the center of the magma.
On it was a stone emitting a faint red glow, like red amber. The spirit weapon gates gathered closely around it, and the weapons quickly softened, as if the essence of life was being drained from them by something formless inside.
[The lingering thoughts of the spirit weapons are devouring my time sequence heir.]
This is the crystallization of the Flame Nightmare; dying embers reigniting is the nature of fire!
Time ticked by, and Mori, overwhelmed deep within the magma, finally had a moment to catch his breath.
{What the hell are you trying to do?}
Yang Zicang hesitated for a moment, then said:
[Do you still remember those two cicadas in my palm?]
{What?}
[They waited obediently in my hand for a long time. Perhaps it was due to my spiritual strength, but I could feel that they saw me—having prolonged their lives with mine—as… family.]
Family!
In that instant, a lightning bolt of understanding struck Mori’s mind.
{You, you’re trying to tame an Evil Nightmare?}
[Not only am I reviving the Nightmare; what I will revive is a Nightmare loyal to me!]
{You’re a terrifying person.}
……
Day after day passed, and Yang Zicang sat cross-legged, floating above that lava area.
On this day, he suddenly felt a faint gaze upon him.
His eyes snapped open.
There seemed to be a pair of small, pure eyes staring at him without any attempt to hide.
[The lingering thoughts of the spirit weapons have given birth to a blank consciousness. It wants to eat something.]
Yang Zicang sensed a hint of vitality from within that crystal.
That so-called resurrection from the ashes—truly, as an evil nightmare born of flame, he thought excitedly, after the fire nightmare had devoured enough kindred and life force, it was really beginning its third resurrection!
But this third resurrection was so difficult; how many years had passed already?
Wanting to eat something… Yang Zicang thought about the desire born within his own consciousness.
Having dealt with the nightmare for millennia, he naturally knew that the first and second creatures it devoured determined its level of intelligence.
Now that it was newly reborn, technically it would be best to devour a human, but even in his dreams, Yang Zicang felt he couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing.
He approached the now-pale crystal stone. Inside the semi-translucent egg-like rock, a white, wolf-headed fire centipede lay curled up.
[It has absolute trust in me.]
[It asks me if it can devour the excess “same kind.”]
Excess? The instant Yang Zicang looked into the crystal, the white, semi-transparent monster suddenly burst out of the stone egg.
The seawater didn’t stir at all, but Yang Zicang felt as if a typhoon were sweeping through his spiritual world.
It was a pure spiritual entity!
Boom!
The monster abruptly grew to the height of a three-story building, its massive gaping maw arching down to swallow Yang Zicang whole.
In the distance, Morris, cultivating under the high pressure of seawater, sensed some disturbance.
The moment he turned his head, he saw an ethereal monster opening its maw to swallow the man standing on the magma.
{Mental energy… No, it’s a legendary psychokinetic body?!}
Mori felt a sense of panic.
{Run, what are you doing! Psychokinetic power can hurt you!}
YangZicang ignored Mori’s call. Just now, he indeed wanted to flee, but a moment before making the move, he forcibly controlled his instinctive reaction.
The other party absolutely trusted him.
The wolf-like maw wrapped around and embedded his head entirely.
Mori stared in shock. That guy, that four-sided guy, was caught so easily…
Gulp.
The monster’s throat rumbled. Its head suddenly rose, its mouth holding a twisted, insubstantial phantom.
This phantom came from YangZicang’s head.
The centipede fiercely pulled at it, but the phantom seemed glued to the inside of his skull by powerful adhesive. At this moment, YangZicang was in excruciating pain, as if his spirit was being forcibly dragged out.
Yet YangZicang could also sense that a certain thing, faintly present within his head, was the true target of this resurrected nightmare.
Bang!
The centipede nightmare’s spiritual body violently shook its head, ripping out the “thing” that was deeply embedded in YangZicang’s skull, and tossed it hard! The seawater boomed with a dull roar.
A massive subway station rapidly unfurled, appearing as if a scene had shifted and materialized in this place.
“A psychic subway station?”
……
Throughout the station, countless apparitions of Yang Zicang roamed around.
Some were merely floating heads, others only limbs, and yet others were instances of him as a child, or dressed in various outfits, carrying schoolbags or basketballs.
But among these figures, there was also another presence—a shadow of a different man!
[My mind is on the verge of collapse.]
As if he had just died once, Yang Zicang clutched his head in agony.
{Are you okay?}
Mouri appeared beside Yang Zicang, watching him and this area anxiously.
Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock. On a public metal bench in the distance, there was a figure in a silver-white uniform.
[I…I’m fine…]
Yang Zicang’s chaotic will began to recover slightly.
{You scared me to death. I just saw your head grow so faint… this monster…}
The centipede did not attack again. Instead, it nibbled at this vast psychic subway station endlessly, like a cow gnawing on leaves, mouthful by mouthful.
[It doesn’t aim to hurt me.]
With his left hand clutching his head, Yang Zicang stretched out his right hand to stop Mouri, who was about to amplify the timeline. He struggled to lift his head. His own apparitions filled the entire subway station—these were all memories of his past self.
Then, his gaze fell on the figure of the man in the silver uniform in the distance.
That man did not seem to be living, merely a phantom.
{It’s that man! When did you piss off that subway driver guy? Are you from the same city as him?}
[I’ve never seen this man. What, do you know him?]
{Heh, Mr. Yang. Very few people from your city can enter Hubtown hub, and that man is one of the few who can. But he didn’t come through normal channels.}
Mori cautiously took a few steps toward that spot and tossed a piece of seaweed at him. The seaweed hit the man and nearly embedded itself right into him.
[Not through normal channels, so how then?]
{Stowaway! He used his Nightmare ability. This man’s power allows him to traverse dreams and manifest in reality.}
Yang Zicang’s pupils suddenly contracted.
It’s Ma Chao! He also got it at the subway station… no, it was his companion Fiend that was born in the subway station.
The two walked to the side of the phantom. Ma Chao’s figure stood motionless like a wax statue. Yang Zicang reached out and touched him; his palm felt like it had plunged into an intense energy body, able to stir inside it but meeting great resistance, unable to grasp anything.
{Many people in our Harbor Town have talked about him. Never expected he was from the same city as you, and that he actually marked you. Mr. Yang, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, you might have been killed in your sleep without ever knowing it.}
This guy really is an expert, because his opponent was absolutely formidable. Mori thought to himself, his expression complicated as he looked at the Nightmarish Fiend beside him that had returned from death.
{Also, I have to congratulate you on acquiring a telepathic nightmare. I hope you can find a way to bring it into reality.}
Yang Zicang said solemnly:
[Let’s pause the nightmare matter for now. What else do you know about Ma Chao? What does real-death manifestation mean? Does it refer to appearing beside those people when they are asleep?]
{So his name is Ma Chao. Well, it is said that anyone marked by this Mr. Red Model can, when they fall asleep at midnight, summon his psychic train through a dream platform and truly manifest right next to the target.}
Mo Li said with great envy:
{He is a rare owner of psychic abilities. And now, so are you.}
Yang Zicang’s expression turned grim. The ability to appear beside someone who has fallen asleep before they wake…
Even just hearing the description, he could tell why a rift existed between them.
Yang Zicang speculated about why he hadn’t been attacked yet. Perhaps, in the two nights of sleep he had in reality, he had entered the You-Wei World. Otherwise, Ma Chao might have already appeared beside him and finished him off.
The centipede-like monster beside him had a stomach like a bottomless pit. It swallowed forward along the edge, its curved pincer-like teeth near its mouth constantly tearing off pieces of psychic energy and stuffing them inside, until it reached Ma Chao, who was sitting on the stool.
The wolf-headed centipede glanced at Yang Zicang, as if asking whether he still wanted to spar. Otherwise, it was ready to eat.
Yang Zicang took two steps back and moved out of the way.
The centipede thrust its massive head forward and swallowed Ma Chao’s apparition whole. Suddenly, it froze in place.
Bang!
The monster’s head exploded.