Chen Zhou had no patience to test the paths one by one.
Over a thousand bone ghost servants simultaneously opened the soul fire within their eye sockets.
Having been enhanced by the Bone Forge, all the skeletons had now reached the fourth-stage level.
This dream interlayer, caught between reality and illusion, seemed somewhat overwhelmed under the impact of the massive amounts of death qi. The hundred diverging paths twisted slightly.
Standing at the center of the crossroads, Chen Zhou gave a command.
"Go."
A single, indifferent word.
The legion of a thousand skeletons instantly dispersed, each choosing a different path to venture into.
A mere few hundred paths?
In the face of absolute numbers, they were nothing more than a smooth road.
Hong Ling's perception enhancement also played its part at this moment.
Chen Zhou's consciousness felt as though it had been split into a thousand parts, each connected to a skeleton.
Before his eyes, nearly a thousand real-time images instantly popped up, arranged neatly like small television screens.
Twisted forests, inverted cities, endless bookshelves...
All sorts of strange dream scenes flashed through his sea of consciousness like a revolving lantern.
But Chen Zhou simply watched in silence.
A thousand perspectives, a thousand routes—the entire structure of the labyrinth was rapidly constructed within his divine sense.
The efficiency was extremely high.
This feeling of being in control of everything and having all possibilities in sight was indeed pleasant.
Every path had obstacles; numerous white cocoons stood by the roadsides, and grids covered the ground, intercepting anyone who ventured deep into the dream.
But a skeleton would simply meet them with a claw, and death qi would erupt.
The white cocoon, along with the space behind it, would be crushed to pieces by the skeleton.
Among the thousand routes, only one path had the strongest resistance and the greatest number of white cocoons. This path alone led to the deeper layers.
"Found it."
Chen Zhou locked onto the coordinates of the path and, with a flash of his body, jumped toward the dream light-point where the skeleton was located.
When he reappeared, he had already bypassed the complex labyrinth.
As the path went deeper, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly, and the environment became increasingly eerie.
This was the deep dream.
The path beneath his feet was no longer a path; it looked as if it were stitched together from human skin. Unmelodious whispers drifted around, and some creatures wrapped in grids squirmed in the shadows.
However, these meant nothing to Chen Zhou.
He didn't even need to lift a finger.
He simply walked.
His released ghost domain automatically formed an absolute forbidden zone.
The human-skin road disintegrated into fly ash the moment it touched the death qi.
The whispers turned into screams of terror and then fell silent.
The monsters in the shadows didn't even get a chance to approach him before they dissolved on their own.
Any obstacle before him was as flimsy as paper.
Soon, Chen Zhou crossed the human-skin road, and the view ahead opened up.
It was a wide-open space that looked more like a crude shelter than a dream.
A bonfire was lit in mid-air, but the flames were cold, devoid of any warmth.
Beneath the bonfire, a man dressed in the official attire of Lantao City stood by the fire, holding a lantern.
The dreamlight within the lantern flickered, casting down spots of magnificent light debris.
Around him were gathered over a hundred people with numb expressions.
Men and women, young and old.
They surrounded the bonfire, quietly forming a circle as if in a pilgrimage.
But there was no expression on anyone's face; their eyes were hollow as if their souls had long been extracted.
Chen Zhou's gaze fell upon the man holding the lantern.
The moment Chen Zhou stepped into this space, the man's face began to undergo a violent distortion.
He was attempting to present a certain image in Chen Zhou's eyes.
The face was blurred at first, then began to shift into faces that Chen Zhou was extremely familiar with.
One moment it became the half-insect, half-human Jian Huaishuang; the next, it transformed into Shitou in women's clothing; occasionally, it even became a pink pig's face wearing a misty mask.
The face-shifting man seemed to have long been aware of Chen Zhou's arrival. He slowly turned around.
The halo from the lantern in his hand stabilized, and his voice was gentle. "You must be the martial uncle from the Bone Temple, right? I didn't expect you would still find this place."
Chen Zhou did not deny it and asked, "Are you the city lord of Lantao City?"
The face-shifting man smiled. "Martial Uncle, you've misunderstood.
"I am not the city lord of Lantao City. That identity was merely a skin I wore in reality."
He bowed slightly and added, "I am the Bedfellow under the Bodhisattva. I have come specifically to welcome you."
Chen Zhou raised an eyebrow. "Does your Sukhavati really let a small fry like you guard the gate?"
"Martial Uncle may understand it that way."
The Bedfellow didn't seem to care about the insulting mockery. His voice remained steady. "I know the structure of all the Bodhisattva's dreams. I am the weaver and guardian of this Dream of Final Rest."
"I have already learned through the Blackwater Guard that you have also built a city to protect one side. Sukhavati has no intention of being enemies with the Bone Temple."
He raised his hand and pointed at the numb crowd around them.
"Martial Uncle, look at them."
"In the real world, they either suffered from demon disasters, encountered famines, or were eroded by great fiends, enduring endless pain."
"But here," the Bedfellow said with a hint of piety, "they have found eternal peace and joy."
"This pure land is the only possibility for saving this world that is on the brink of collapse."
"You call this peace and joy?" Chen Zhou glanced at those walking dead. "Extracting the soul and leaving only an empty shell—is this the way of your Sukhavati?"
"The real world is the source of pain," the Bedfellow stubbornly retorted. "Only the dreams woven by Sukhavati are the ultimate pure land.
"Your Arhat's body is already at great completion, making you immune to all techniques. My meager skill in dreams is like showing off before a master in your presence.
"However, this is currently the most critical moment for Lord Jieyin.
"I cannot allow you to disturb the Bodhisattva.
"The real world is a boundless sea of suffering where all living beings sink. Only by escaping into the eternal dream we weave can one find liberation and supreme bliss.
"This is the way to save the world! Even if I am like a mantis trying to stop a carriage, I will not hesitate to die ten thousand deaths!"
"Then you should also ascend to supreme bliss early." Chen Zhou had no interest in listening to a monster who had gone astray deliver a final manifesto.
He didn't even bother to do it himself.
With a single command, a thousand pale skeletons suddenly lunged out of Chen Zhou's ghost domain.
These fourth-stage killing machines, with soul fire burning fiercely in their eye sockets, rushed toward the Bedfellow.
"You!"
In the Buddhist tradition, one usually shows respect for the master by respecting the servant.
But the Bedfellow hadn't expected Chen Zhou to strike without a word of warning, without even a single polite exchange.
A trace of panic appeared on his constantly changing face.
The Bedfellow had originally thought that since this was the deep dream, it was the home ground of Sukhavati.
Even against a martial uncle of the Bone Temple with a completed Arhat's body, he could have held him back for a while if he gave it his all.
Who would have thought he had still underestimated the opponent?
Even the creations summoned with a wave of a hand could contain such pure death qi.
What was the background of this martial uncle from the Bone Temple?
The Bedfellow didn't dare to be arrogant any longer and hurriedly held the lantern high.
The light from the lantern was no longer gentle; instead, it became piercingly brilliant.
Under the illumination, the numb people around them all dissolved with a series of pops, turning into clusters of milky-white grids that surged into the lantern like rivers flowing into the sea.
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