Dream Eater felt that exchanging even one more word with Wei Yuan was completely pointless, but Wei Yuan truly had no desire for revenge right now; all he wanted was to return to reality as quickly as possible.
In reality, the domain was currently under attack by the blood curse, and Qingming was only barely holding out thanks to his continuous supply of karmic luck. Without the support of the domain's power, the several defensive arrays would not last long at all.
Furthermore, Wei Yuan had learned from Dream Eater's words that when a blood shaman reached full completion in cultivation, they would advance to become a Nether Shaman, forming a small world of their own within the Nether Cold Realm. The Nether Cold Realm was a unique world bridging the Native Realm and the void of the Outer Domains. There were no physical bodies here—only Primordial Spirits could move about. Once a Nether Shaman formed their own world in the Nether Cold Realm, they could borrow its power in reality, causing a qualitative leap in their magic power.
At this point, Wei Yuan understood: a Nether Shaman was equivalent to a Scenery Command True Monarch of the human race. Take revenge on a True Monarch? Wei Yuan was not so overly ambitious.
Learning that Wei Yuan was worried about his domain, Dream Eater found it rather difficult to comprehend and said, "You're worried about those things that don't even have Primordial Spirits? Those people are just trash and vermin. They're utterly useless and only burden the world. The more of them die, the better. Why on earth would you want to protect them?"
This line of thinking provoked an instinctive revulsion in Wei Yuan, but he kept his tone as calm as possible and said, "Every great cultivator started out as a mortal. No one is born with Dao power. By your logic, wouldn't everyone deserve to die?"
Dream Eater replied, "Aren't there already people among your human race who are born with Dao power? You didn't know?"
Now it was Wei Yuan's turn to freeze. He truly had no idea.
"Since you don't know, I won't get into it. Ask around yourself after you go back. Now let me briefly tell you about the Nether Cold Realm, and then you'll understand why I asked if you wanted revenge."
According to Dream Eater, the world where the human race, the Shamans, the Liao barbarians, and other races lived was called the Native Realm. Beyond the Native Realm lay the Outer Domains, and where the Outer Domains intertwined with the Native Realm, all manner of bizarre worlds would form. In the eyes of ordinary humans, these worlds were exceedingly eerie and fraught with extreme danger, and the Nether Cold Realm was one of them.
Countless terrifying monsters roamed the Nether Cold Realm. Among them were creatures spawned by the erosion of the Outer Domains, as well as beings that had naturally arisen from the Native Realm. Dream Eater was a great demon born right within the Nether Cold Realm.
Although the Nether Shamans had established their own worlds within the Nether Cold Realm, at most they could bestow a bit more blessing upon their favored followers or grant them a few special divine abilities and spells within their own domains. Beyond that, the influence they could exert on the Nether Cold Realm was negligible. In Dream Eater's words, they were like tenants in the Nether Cold Realm, merely renting a small patch of land, and when they died, that land would be returned to the Nether Cold Realm.
To a demon born of the Nether Cold Realm like Dream Eater, when the Nether Shamans died, their worlds returned to the realm, and the magic power they had expended in building those worlds was absorbed by the Nether Cold Realm accordingly. Thus, Dream Eater could tolerate the Nether Shamans' existence, but found the favored followers of the Shaman race who ventured out from the Nether Shamans' realms thoroughly detestable.
According to Dream Eater, these favored followers scurried about everywhere, scouring for the unique and precious resources of the Nether Cold Realm. Lairs and descendants of demons like Dream Eater were their favorites.
Therefore, Dream Eater had joined forces with several powerful demons, using the unique authority belonging to beings of the Nether Cold Realm and the realm's own peculiarities to lay traps across the domains of every Nether Shaman.
Any living being newly entering the Nether Cold Realm would fall into such a trial. As for whether they could make it out alive, that depended on their personal strength and what sort of trial they encountered. If one managed to break through and escape, they would be marked with the imprint of the great demon who had laid the trap. From then on, their movements in the Nether Cold Realm would generally be free from interference by the great demons, unless they did something truly intolerable to them.
Each great demon's setup was different, and the difficulty of breaking through varied. Which trial one fell into upon entering the Nether Cold Realm was entirely up to luck. Dream Eater's trials, however, were almost always lethal, and Dream Eater was formidable in its own right, so the Nether Shamans were extremely wary—even fearful—of it.
Precisely because of these deadly traps, and because the Nether Cold Realm was inherently perilous, the Nether Shamans had developed a spell capable of casting a target's Primordial Spirit directly into the Nether Cold Realm. If the target was not one of the Nether Shamans' own people, then even if they survived the opening trial, they would find it nearly impossible to stay alive within the realm.
However, sending a Primordial Spirit into the Nether Cold Realm came at immense cost; the Nether Shamans would generally not resort to such means unless facing a critically important enemy.
The trial Dream Eater tailored for the human race was the Ghost Bride; other races each had their own dedicated setups.
The Ghost Bride was designed specifically to exploit human weaknesses. Backed by Dream Eater's formidable power, it could manifest the person the victim most longed for and adored deep in their heart, turning them into the bride. Once the victim lifted the bridal veil, it was equivalent to fulfilling their wish and forging a soul contract with Dream Eater, at which point Dream Eater would swallow their Primordial Spirit whole.
For the Ghost Bride to be so bizarre and terrifying naturally came at a price: one had to contend with the bride's karma.
Yet, for reasons unknown, Wei Yuan turned out to be an anomaly. His brides were different in every single loop, and their karma grew more horrifying each time, to the point where Dream Eater could no longer stomach it. Moreover, Wei Yuan's Primordial Spirit and Dao Foundation were exceedingly peculiar. In fact, the very first time Wei Yuan lifted the veil, he had already been swallowed whole by the dream puppet posing as the bride. But digesting him proved exceptionally difficult; before long, the dream puppet's chest and belly split wide open, and Wei Yuan tumbled back out.
Afterward, every time Wei Yuan lifted the veil, Dream Eater would lose a dream puppet. If this continued, she wouldn't have enough puppets left, yet only a tiny fraction of Wei Yuan's Primordial Spirit had been consumed—the losses vastly outweighed the gains. Dream Eater had no choice but to show herself and negotiate with Wei Yuan.
Having finished explaining the Nether Cold Realm, Dream Eater said, "Your mission is to kill the Nether Shamans' favored followers. Some of the great demons are too old, keeping the same traps unchanged for thousands of years, while others simply collude with the Nether Shamans. Because of this, more and more flies are gathering in the Nether Cold Realm, and they need to be cleaned up. Don't worry—here, the Nether Shamans can't do anything to you. They're like the earth itself; even if you killed one of their sons right in his domain, he could only watch. The only ones you have to deal with are the favored followers.
"I'll give you my imprint so the other great demons won't touch you. If you go swat flies for me, there will naturally be benefits for you. But if you encounter monsters eroded by the Outer Domains, remember to run immediately."
Wei Yuan immediately caught the key point: "What benefits?"
Dream Eater extended a hand, and a dark pearl appeared at her fingertips. The moment it appeared, an intense yearning surged within Wei Yuan, making him want to swallow it in a single gulp. It was an instinctive craving, like a desert traveler catching sight of a clear spring.
"This is the residual essence left behind after the death of powerful monsters from the Outer Domains. For you humans, it offers a chance to advance your Dao Foundation."
There was actually a treasure like this?!
Wei Yuan did not doubt it; his body's physical reaction already proved that Dream Eater was telling the truth. Wei Yuan examined his own Dao Foundation and felt that Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains might not have a use for it, but to others, it was a peerless treasure. Even someone as extraordinarily talented as Zhang Sheng might still have a chance to take his Dao Foundation a step further.
"What do I need to do?"
"All living beings can only enter this place with their Primordial Spirits, and can only use the Dao Foundation abilities contained within them. Everyone's abilities are quite singular, so no matter how powerful a Shaman follower is, they'll be very easy to kill here."
"Fine, I agree." Wei Yuan figured that if everyone could only use their Dao Foundation's native abilities, then his own repertoire seemed quite vast.
"I'll send you back first and place an imprint of the Nether Cold Realm within your Primordial Spirit. Next time you activate the mark, your Primordial Spirit can come over. From then on, you'll be able to travel back and forth on your own. Oh, right, shuttling between the realms consumes karmic luck."
A wisp of azure qi appeared in Wei Yuan's hand. He asked, "Will this do?"
Surprise flickered in Dream Eater's eyes, and she nodded. "It will."
"Then send me back."
Dream Eater placed her hand on Wei Yuan's chest and suddenly asked, "When you said earlier that I was bragging, did you mean it?"
Wei Yuan thought for a moment and shook his head. "I was only trying to annoy you."
Dream Eater's brows relaxed, and she smiled. "Now that's more like it!"
With a gentle shove of her hand, Wei Yuan's consciousness plunged into darkness. Staring at the spot where Wei Yuan had vanished, she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
In truth, during that final loop, Wei Yuan had prepared plenty of candidates for the bride. Immortal Monarch Tinghai had merely been the first; lined up behind her were the immortal laurel branch, the shadow in the moon, and if all else failed, a special toad—not Wei Yuan's own toad, but the one Bao Yun had possessed back then, an utterly ostentatious creature with an immortal seated atop its head and gods and devils dancing wildly across the moon. It was just that the moment the Immortal Monarch appeared, she resolved everything at once, leaving Wei Yuan with no opportunity to show off his remaining cards.
Chapter 188