Huang Tian's divine intent avatar slowly dissolved into nothingness, and surging, pure spiritual qi flowed back into his body along his voice lines.
Sitting cross-legged in Room 301, he unhurriedly refined the spiritual qi he had just absorbed.
Even though he had already stepped into the Golden Core realm, his gains this time were immense. After all, he had practically wiped out the Holy Light Society in one fell swoop.
From the ordinary Rank 1 and Rank 2 dream expellers at the bottom to Jiang Yuanzhong and Yu Fengzhong—the two Rank 3 dream expellers—at the top, the dream relics they had fused with were all seized by Huang Tian. Such a harvest was in no way inferior to purging three consecutive E-rank nightmares!
Once he refined it all, it would suffice to push him into the mid Golden Core stage, leaving him just a step away from the late stage!
If he could devour several more E-rank nightmares, or even a fierce-rank nightmare, returning to the Soul realm would naturally follow!
"Once I reach the Soul realm, I will be able to act with even greater ease. Even if nightmares with threats greater than fierce-rank appear, I will be able to deal with them. What's more, countless nightmares still exist in this world. As long as I keep devouring them, I will continue to advance!"
A slight smile touched the corner of his lips. "Soul! Dharma Idol! Great Ascension! And Immortal!"
Ever since he first listened to Mo Qiu's lecture in the Thick Earth Sect, he had learned the realms of Profound Dao cultivation from him: six realms beneath immortality.
Qi Refinement, Dao Foundation, Golden Core, Soul, Dharma Idol, Great Ascension—and above them was the unfathomable True Immortal!
"After the Soul realm comes condensing a Dharma Idol. For me, here in this nightmare world with abundant resources, that won't be difficult."
The so-called Dharma Idol was essentially a further evolution of the Soul. Once a cultivator stepped into this realm, the Soul within manifested externally, capable of conjuring a vast Dharma Idol to confront foes while allowing the practitioner to perceive the laws of heaven and earth far more easily.
"As for the Great Ascension realm, there's no need to overthink it. I'll return to the Soul realm first, then advance to the Dharma Idol realm..."
With that thought, he closed his eyes and focused his mind on refining the immense spiritual qi.
Yet while he was engrossed in cultivation, the outside world erupted into a complete uproar over his miraculous manifestation!
In an ordinary city, hundreds of thousands of common people were busy with their daily lives—working, playing video games, shopping, basking in the sun... Everything was as routine as any other day.
Suddenly, a voice rang out clearly beside everyone's ears.
"Nightmare fiends blight the world, tormenting living beings—the Heavenly Dao is clear and manifest, Taiyi endures forever!"
Shock appeared on countless faces simultaneously. People looked around in bewilderment, trying to see who had spoken right next to their ears. Yet there was nothing to be seen. That voice had simply resounded beside them out of nowhere.
Immediately afterward, they caught the eyes of the people around them and saw the same reaction mirrored in their gazes.
"Did you hear that too?"
"You heard it as well?!"
More and more people stepped out of their homes and into the streets, exchanging glances with acquaintances and strangers alike, only to cry out in astonishment, "You heard it too?!"
Once the shock subsided, many pulled out their phones and searched video platforms for keywords like "God's voice," "Zhonghuang Taiyi," and "nightmare fiends."
A single search revealed videos filmed and uploaded by residents of that small town.
The footage fully captured the entire event: Huang Tian's divine intent avatar crushing the members of the Holy Light Society, standing high in the heavens, and sending his voice echoing for hundreds of miles.
"Holy crap! Why isn't there an AI watermark on this video? Don't tell me this is real?!"
"It's definitely real! I heard the immortal's transmission myself! Not just me, but our entire residential complex heard it clearly! I even suspect everyone in the whole city heard it! Now, the moment you walk down the street, everyone is talking about immortals and gods!"
"To think bizarre phenomena and immortals really exist in this world... I feel like my worldview from the past thirty-plus years is on the verge of collapsing..."
"Weird. Why hasn't this video been banned yet? That doesn't make sense."
"Banning it would be useless. My friends and I are hundreds of miles apart, and every single one of us heard the immortal's voice. By my estimate, at least tens of millions of people heard the divine voice! What good would banning a video do in a situation like this?"
"Does anyone know what the immortal actually meant? What on earth are nightmare fiends? Why have I never heard of them before?"
"Yeah! Can some well-informed big shot explain? Everything feels so confusing. Is this world really hiding that much from us?"
"..."
The descent of an immortal slaying evil and delivering a divine decree naturally shook everyone to the core, but the words spoken left countless people bewildered and astonished. After all, the vast majority of people went their entire lives without encountering a single nightmare incident; their days were spent in routine, mundane predictability.
At first, no one stepped forward to answer the netizens' burning questions. But as time passed and people realized the authorities had no intention of censoring the discussion, someone in the know finally broke the silence with an exposé.
[Don't Ask Who I Am: Today is the most shocking day for humanity, as well as the day most filled with hope and terror!
Saying this will likely confuse many people who don't know what I'm talking about. So, let me start from the very beginning.
Over a century ago, our world was peaceful. There were no gods, immortals, or bizarre horrors, nor was there any supernatural power. But one day, nightmares suddenly descended!
Nightmares are what we refer to as anomalies, urban legends, and nightmare fiends. Their origin is unknown, and they cannot be truly killed. Almost without exception, anyone who encounters a nightmare dies.
Fortunately, it is only 'almost.' To fight the nightmares, our predecessors risked losing their sanity and being devoured to voluntarily fuse with dream relics and battle the nightmares, becoming the very first dream expellers.
Thus began a war spanning nearly a hundred years.
To this day, the power of nightmares grows stronger and their frequency higher. Dream expellers can hardly resist the nightmares' invasion of our world anymore. Perhaps in the next second, perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps ten years from now, a world-ending nightmare will descend, and humanity will face its apocalypse!
To be frank, I have always held a pessimistic view regarding the future of mankind. Because I myself am an ordinary dream expeller. And precisely because of that, my fear of nightmares runs extraordinarily deep. Whenever I think of the future, a profound sense of powerlessness wells up inside me.
Yet when all seemed lost, today, we witnessed a miracle!
A magnificent existence from infinitely high above has cast a compassionate gaze down upon us. Because of this, we may now have a chance to survive...]
This post instantly caused a sensation across the entire internet. Only then did countless citizens learn that nightmares and dream expellers truly existed in this world, that nightmares had no solution, and that doomsday was approaching!
Fortunately, a "god" had descended into the world.
In a remote village in Pingfeng City, inside a three-story house, Sun Qiang was buried in a pile of yellowed old books, chanting under his breath as he flipped through the pages.
Bang!
The door was abruptly pushed open, and a middle-aged man barged in with a look of utter shock.
Startled, Sun Qiang looked up. "Dad, why are you—"
Before he could finish, Father Sun blurted out anxiously, "Did you say you ran into a ghost before, prayed to a god, and that god answered you and killed the ghost?!"
Sun Qiang blinked, bewildered. "Didn't you and Mom refuse to believe me?"
"Never mind whether we believed you or not! Just tell me first—is it true?!"
"Of course it's true! Why would I lie to you? Didn't you see that I quit my job and came back to our hometown just to dig through ancient books, trying to find out which god that was?"
Father Sun slapped his thigh in excitement. "Stop looking! Stop looking!"
Sun Qiang shook his head vigorously. "No, I have to find out. Otherwise, if we run into a nightmare incident in the future, wouldn't we be doomed? Don't worry, Dad. I saved up some money working over the years. I won't need to mooch off you two for at least two or three years."
Father Sun rapped his son on the head with his knuckles and thrust his phone over. "I'm not telling you to give up. I'm telling you to watch this video!"
Puzzled, Sun Qiang took the phone. Scanning the screen, his expression shifted drastically. He quickly finished watching the video, then leaped to his feet in shock.
"Zhonghuang Taiyi! The Great God Taiyi?!!"
Eyes wide, he paced back and forth across the room in agitation. Slapping his forehead, he cried out, "That's it! Among the deities I prayed to that night was the Great God Taiyi! Yellow Sky and Thick Earth!"
He suddenly recalled the words spoken by the deity in the video: *"I heard mournful prayers from the Zhonghuang Yuanji Heaven and took pity, descending in true form."* Grabbing Father Sun's arm, he said with intense excitement, "Dad, when the immortal mentioned 'mournful prayers,' could He have meant my prayer that night?! The descent of the immortal actually originated from my devout prayer! Did I indirectly save the entire world?!"
Father Sun also felt that life was stranger than fiction. A few days ago, when he saw his son quit his job and return home babbling about nightmares and deities, he had thought his son had lost his mind and had been terrified half to death...
Who would have guessed that nightmares and immortals truly existed in this world?
Sun Qiang laughed out loud several times, pulled his phone from his pocket, drafted a long message, and posted it to his Moments as well as various forums and platforms.
The text naturally recounted how he had encountered a nightmare, prayed sincerely, and been saved by the Great God Taiyi.
After posting it, he pressed his palms together and murmured, "Thank You, Great God Zhonghuang Taiyi, for saving my life..."
Seeing this, Father Sun followed suit, praying in gratitude while also asking the Great God Taiyi to bless his family with safety, health, and prosperity.
Before long, nearly half a day had passed.
A black car with an unfamiliar license plate pulled up outside the Sun residence. Three young people in gray uniform clothing knocked on the door and found a completely bewildered Sun Qiang.
"Hello, Mr. Sun Qiang. Please don't be nervous; we have no ill intentions."
The lean young man leading them produced an identification badge from his coat and said politely, "We are from the Pingfeng City branch of the Dream Expeller Association. We apologize for the intrusion today, but we would like to invite you to visit our branch."
Sun Qiang exchanged a glance with his father before hesitating. "Did... did you see the long post I wrote?"
The lean young man smiled. "I know nothing about a long post. I am simply carrying out an order from my superiors."
Father Sun took a light breath. "If my son goes with you, you won't... cough, you won't do anything to him—"
"Please rest assured, sir. At most, we will ask a few questions. Nothing will happen to him. Moreover, to show our gratitude for Mr. Sun Qiang's cooperation, we will provide you with a substantial consultation fee as compensation."
Hearing about the consultation fee, both father and son felt their minds ease. It was not that they were swayed by money, but rather that since the other party promised compensation, they likely harbored no malicious intent. Sun Qiang slowly nodded. "I'll go with you."
From the looks of things, he didn't have much choice anyway. It was better to comply and keep things pleasant for everyone.
The lean young man nodded. "This way, please!"
Sun Qiang followed the three of them into the car. The vehicle drove smoothly all the way into a relatively secluded part of the city, stopping in front of an inconspicuous building.
Stepping out of the car, Sun Qiang looked up at the ordinary-looking structure, took a deep breath, and walked inside. Guided by the lean young man, he arrived in a quiet reception room.
After sitting in the reception room for a short while, a middle-aged man pushed the door open and entered. He was in his forties, but his hair was completely gray. With a square jaw, his face looked stern and unyielding when silent.
However, upon facing Sun Qiang, he forced a warm smile. "I am Li Ding, humbly serving as vice president of the Dream Expeller Association."
Sun Qiang was startled. Ever since his encounter with the nightmare, he had gathered information about dream expellers everywhere. While he still did not fully understand the ranks and hierarchy among dream expellers, he knew that a vice president of the Dream Expeller Association was an extraordinary figure!
He scrambled to his feet, extending both hands. "Hello, hello..."
"Please sit, don't be restrained. We're just having a chat," Li Ding said, shaking his hand.
"Alright, alright."
The two sat opposite each other. Li Ding engaged in a few pleasantries first, and only after easing into a conversational atmosphere did he steer the topic toward the descent of the deity.
"Could you describe in detail what happened when you encountered that nightmare incident before?" Li Ding asked.
Sun Qiang recalled slowly, "It was about four or five days ago. That evening, I had just gotten off work and walked into the elevator when suddenly..."
The entire conversation lasted about an hour. Once it concluded, Sun Qiang was not detained; instead, he left with a handsome consultation fee. Meanwhile, Li Ding sat down to converse with Guan Fu, the head of the Pingfeng City branch and a Rank 2 dream expeller.
"Four or five days ago... That young man named Huang Tian in Qingyang City emerged out of nowhere just in the past few days. Could it be that this Huang Tian really is the mortal manifestation of God Taiyi?" Li Ding mused.
Guan Fu spoke up, "I believe it's quite likely. That hundred-meter-tall deity looked identical to Huang Tian. Moreover, their names are similar—Huang Tian and Zhonghuang Taiyi. Furthermore, if Huang Tian isn't the mortal incarnation of God Taiyi, how could an ordinary person soar in strength within a matter of days to rival a Rank 3 dream expeller?"
"You make a great deal of sense, and the president and the others share the same thought." Li Ding nodded slowly. "In fact, there is another speculation within the association: that this God Taiyi is a nightmare above fierce-rank, possessing human consciousness and thought... However, that theory is far too absurd, so we discarded it."
In reality, it was not that they had discarded it, but that they simply refused to believe such a possibility. Once this god was proven to be a higher-order nightmare, humanity would have no reason left to struggle...
Guan Fu fell silent for a moment before asking in a raspy voice, "Then... are we going to make contact with Him?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't we? Regardless of who this being truly is—whether an immortal, an evil demon, or an extraterrestrial visitor—and whatever His goal may be, I believe we must express our goodwill as much as possible."
Li Ding let out a faint sigh. "After all, He is likely humanity's final savior..."
With that, he rose to his feet and said softly, "Let's go. To Qingyang!"
"Right!"
Guan Fu followed closely behind him. The two exited the branch and boarded a helicopter that had long been prepared. The aircraft took off, chugging toward Qingyang City.
Sitting inside the cabin, both men wore somber expressions, apprehension plain in their eyes.
For they knew that whether humanity's future meant continuation or extinction, rising to greater brilliance or sinking into utter ruin, might very well depend on whether their journey succeeded...
Chapter 173