This powder had been given to Anbaixiu by the Lady of the Mists. It allowed one to enter a dream anywhere and anytime, sending their consciousness straight into the Dream Barrier of the Emerald Dream Forest.
It was originally meant to be a "room key" from the Lady of the Mists, intended for him to meet her privately in dreams. She never imagined Anbaixiu would share it with someone else.
Even though he had notified her in advance through the magic mirror, the goddess had still grumbled at him.
This was, after all, the crystallization of her divine power. It had taken considerable effort to condense such a tiny amount, and once used up, it would take ages to replenish.
Still, Leira was naturally gentle-tempered; after a few complaints, she let the matter drop.
Once they confirmed that Domino Lawley had fallen into a deep slumber, the two slipped straight into Anbaixiu's private space. This was the most suitable place to enter the dream, where no one could possibly find them.
A powerful wizard could create their own demiplane, but Mister Misfortune was nonetheless stunned by the sheer enormity of Anbaixiu's private space.
"Where did you get a space like this? The stability is ridiculously high. Wait—what is that, a Time Stop barrier?"
Mister Misfortune marveled repeatedly, gawking like a country bumpkin arriving in the capital.
Laymen would only see something impressive, but only a true wizard could grasp just how absurd this private space really was.
Mister Misfortune was thoroughly envious. The magical space he had created was only a third the size of this one, and he had no way to control the flow of time within it.
"All right, stop making a fuss. I'm a lich; it's only reasonable that I have a few trump cards of my own."
"You call this reasonable? I'm genuinely jealous! Arthas, you have to be the bastard son of the Goddess of Fate!"
"Hey, hey, watch your tongue—that's blasphemy against the gods."
"Then fate made me blaspheme!"
"...You win!"
When it came to topics of fate, Anbaixiu was indeed no match for Mister Misfortune. His senior brother not only wielded a greater mastery over the power of fate, but had also studied it far more deeply and understood it on a profound level.
"Come on, pick a comfortable spot to lie down and let's enter the dream. Time in dreams stretches indefinitely, so don't worry about her afternoon nap being too short."
Anbaixiu picked an operating table for himself, climbed onto it, and placed the dreaming powder into his mouth.
Mister Misfortune glanced around. The only places to lie down were operating tables that reeked of antiseptic. The daily life of this lich was truly a bit too pathetic.
Left with no choice, he picked an operating table, lay down, and placed the suspicious powder into his mouth.
Only then did a thought strike him: could a lich even sleep?
Before he could dwell on it, his eyelids grew heavy. The moment the powder touched his tongue, Mister Misfortune sank into a deep slumber.
Opening his eyes again, Mister Misfortune found himself standing in a magnificent, gilded grand hall. Tieflings dressed in splendid finery were shouting congratulations to him in unison.
"Is... is this the day I became a court wizard?"
Mister Misfortune was astonished. Was this really a dream? It felt utterly real, identical to his memories—and he had even transformed from a decrepit old man back to his youthful self.
Suddenly, a black-haired youth emerged from the crowd and slapped him across the face. The entire world shattered like glass, dissolving into a chaotic void of darkness.
Only then did Mister Misfortune realize that the one who had slapped him was Anbaixiu.
"What was that for?!"
He had wanted to savor that memory a little longer. Why did this bastard have to slap him across the face?
"Stop wasting time. We're here to uncover the devil's scheme."
"You just said we had plenty of time! You did that on purpose, didn't you?!"
"By 'plenty of time,' I meant... forget it, I can't be bothered to make an excuse. I slapped you on purpose. I couldn't stand seeing you look so smug! Why should I have been dirt poor all my life while you enjoyed wealth and glory for centuries?"
Mister Misfortune was so furious he wanted to duel Anbaixiu on the spot. But their surroundings shifted again, transforming into a chamber drenched in fiery red hues. Domino Lawley sat on the edge of the bed, her face frozen in utter shock, looking as though she had just awakened from a nightmare.
Seeing their target appear, the two apprentice brothers ceased their bickering and focused their attention on observing the spy planted by the hell lord.
Mister Misfortune asked curiously, "Where is this? I don't recall her boudoir looking like this."
Anbaixiu asked, "You've been in her boudoir?"
"None of your damn business!"
"Whatever. Let me take a look."
Anbaixiu wandered through the room like an incorporeal ghost, quickly fixing his gaze on the bookshelf.
With just a casual glance, he remarked in surprise, "This is roughly eight hundred years ago. Look at these books. In our era, they're ancient texts, but right now they look brand-new."
Mister Misfortune was also deeply learned. A single glance at the bookshelf confirmed Anbaixiu was telling the truth.
Back then, Mister Misfortune had not even been born yet, while Domino Lawley looked like a young woman in her twenties, possessing a youthful charm that had faded from her mature present-day appearance.
Mister Misfortune stared in a slight daze, but Domino Lawley seemed completely oblivious to their presence. Suddenly, she began rolling on the floor in agony. Sheets of flame erupted from her body, reducing her garments to ash. She screamed in torment; though her flesh remained unburned, the sensation seemed no different from being sliced to pieces alive.
After she writhed on the floor for ten whole seconds, the flames gradually subsided.
"Hellfire?"
Anbaixiu recognized this kind of flame. It inflicted catastrophic damage to the soul; a dozen more seconds of exposure would reduce anyone to an idiot.
Drenched in sweat, Domino Lawley dragged herself up from the floor, fell to her knees, and began weeping profusely in confession.
"I am a traitor... Great Angel, please forgive my baseness! Please pardon my sins..."
Anbaixiu and Mister Misfortune watched in utter astonishment. That "Angel" undoubtedly referred to the fallen angel Zariel, ruler of the First Layer of Hell. The Hellriders had betrayed her in the past and were relentlessly hunted by her ever since. That history was widely known, but could Zariel directly punish a treacherous Hellrider using hellfire?
They had never heard of such a thing.
Anbaixiu felt his horizons broadening. So the Hellriders had it this rough. No wonder that Hellrider from before had begged Anbaixiu to shred his soul, preferring death over descending into Hell.
Yet Mister Misfortune sensed something odd. "What's going on with this dream? Why was mine a pleasant dream, while Domino Lawley is trapped in a nightmare?"
Anbaixiu chuckled with self-satisfaction. "This is a projection of a certain deity's divine realm. If she wants someone to have a nightmare, they'll have a nightmare. What we need to excavate is her deepest memories to uncover the devils' entire plot, so of course we have to start from the very beginning."
"A projection of a divine realm? You made that up, didn't you?" Mister Misfortune did not believe a word.
"Believe it or don't. You can leave if you don't want to watch. Then again... she isn't wearing any clothes. Are you sure you don't want to look a bit longer?"
"You truly are an absolute bastard through and through."
"Thanks for the compliment."
...
Bickering aside, the beauty... no, the truth still had to be uncovered.
Anbaixiu was a lich, and Mister Misfortune was an old man with one foot in the grave. Neither of them actually harbored any indecent thoughts; they simply hadn't seen each other in so long that bickering had become second nature.
After her tearful confession, Domino Lawley leaned helplessly against the edge of the bed.
She had endured this punishment countless times. Although she repented every single time, it never seemed to make any difference.
The fallen angel's wrath showed no sign of abating; she intended to torment these traitors until they perished.
Domino Lawley had contemplated suicide more than once. But the moment she died, her soul would immediately plunge into Hell. How would that be any different from staying alive?
Just as Domino Lawley was wondering when these days of misery would ever end, a burst of hellfire flared before her eyes.
An angel of exquisite beauty, bearing wings of roaring flame, materialized before Domino Lawley. With a voice laced with mockery, she sneered, "What? Can't even endure this much? The agony I suffered in Hell is a hundred million times worse than yours."
"Zariel?!"
Terrified, Domino Lawley curled inward, desperately scrambling backward. Even as she shoved the massive bed until it groaned and slid across the floor, she could barely widen the gap between them. She had no choice but to squeeze her eyes shut in terror.
This was Anbaixiu's first time laying eyes on this renowned hell lord. She embodied both holiness and evil simultaneously, and the intertwining of these two disparate auras left one feeling slightly dizzy just gazing upon her.
Zariel's eyes, originally fixed on Domino Lawley, suddenly snapped toward the spot where Anbaixiu and Mister Misfortune stood.
Anbaixiu locked eyes with the fallen angel. The stunningly beautiful angel's face was covered in fractures, looking like exquisite porcelain that had been shattered and painstakingly pieced back together.
Just looking at that face made it easy to imagine the sheer agony she had endured in Hell. Rumor had it she had been tortured for countless years before finally breaking and becoming a fallen angel.
The cruelty of devils surpassed mortal imagination; for Zariel to have endured so long was a testament to her formidable will.
Mister Misfortune asked, "Why can she see us?"
Wasn't this dream crafted from Domino Lawley's memories? The two of them shouldn't have been present at the time, so how could Zariel be staring right at them?
Anbaixiu reassured him, "It's normal. Even if this is Domino Lawley's memory, it's a simulated deity, which carries a degree of divinity. It's only natural that she can perceive us. But that's all it is. A fabricated deity is still just a fabrication in the end."
No sooner had he spoken than Zariel seemed to fall under the sway of some unseen force. She turned her head back toward Domino Lawley, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just transpired.
Mister Misfortune asked in astonishment, "How do you know so much about deities? That definitely wasn't in any book, was it?"
Anbaixiu replied offhandedly, "I've met a lot of deities, that's all."
Mister Misfortune: "..."
This damn lich. Sooner or later, he would make him pay back every bit of humiliation he had suffered today, until that skeleton wept tears of regret!
Zariel seemed to relish Domino Lawley's terror immensely. She tortured her for a full hour before dragging the battered, bloodied woman up to her face.
"Filthy traitor, do you wish to be free of all this? I can give you a chance..."
Zariel's voice grew fainter and fainter, until it faded away completely.
Just as Anbaixiu and Mister Misfortune leaned in to listen more closely, Zariel's head snapped around once more, her gaze locking onto them.
A savage grin spread across her lips, and she said to them, "Little bugs, caught you."
Chapter 314