"Little Huangquan's injuries need to be treated immediately."
"The corrosive water will keep eating away at Little Huangquan's body. If she isn't treated, I'm afraid she won't last long."
Yu Xian lightly touched Little Huangquan's wound, only for a needle-like prick of pain to shoot through his finger. Glancing down at his reddened fingertip, he spoke to the others.
"We can look for a water source first and use water to dilute the corrosive water's potency," Nora suggested.
Niman looked around, hurried over to a nearby plant, plucked some, and sniffed it. After testing several plants in succession, she quickly picked some leaves with a relatively fresh scent and crushed them between her hands until the sap flowed out. She gave it a taste herself first, and once she was sure it was safe, stepped over to Little Huangquan and applied the mashed leaves to her wound.
"This should make Little Huangquan a bit more comfortable. Let's go!" Niman said to Yu Xian.
Yu Xian nodded and lifted Little Huangquan onto his back. Niman followed behind, holding the leaves in place over Little Huangquan's wound.
In fact, Yu Xian had observed the surrounding terrain as they fell. Closing his eyes, he recalled the layout, then took the lead toward the nearest river.
"I wonder what's happened to our true bodies," Shui Yuetian said worriedly from behind Niman.
Walking in front, Yu Xian comforted her instead. "Our true bodies are protected by the King of the Abyss Battle Armor, so I'm not overly worried about that. The most important thing right now is figuring out how to escape this illusion realm."
"True. This illusion realm can completely sever our connection to our true bodies—it's remarkably advanced," Niman agreed.
Ordinary illusions and illusion arts, once seen through, still allowed one to use a spiritual connection with their true body to manifest various abilities and break free.
Yet in this illusion realm, even though they already knew it was an illusion, they remained utterly powerless.
At the very least, Niman was certain that this illusion realm was vastly superior to the dream-assassination technique of the Nightmare Clan. With dream-assassination, after all, once the dreamer saw through the deception, they could seize total control of their own dream and even turn the tables on the Nightmare caster.
"It might not be an illusion realm at all," Zhang Buyao said suddenly, walking beside Little Nora and holding her hand.
Everyone froze in surprise. Nora looked at Zhang Buyao and asked, "Yaoyao, do you know something?"
"I'm not completely sure, but my dad once told me that beings like the Extreme Dragon create worlds that are completely real when they dream in their slumber. Maybe we're currently inside one of Uncle Feng's memories. If his memories merged with certain spaces after he died, they would form a special memory world that continuously loops through cycles, centered on a specific period of his recollections," Zhang Buyao conjectured with a hint of uncertainty.
Outside, she had already guessed that Feng Laixian was probably dead in this future.
However, she had seen her father resurrect deceased friends countless times, watching these uncles die and return to life over and over, so she couldn't really bring herself to feel sad.
"Then why have all our powers vanished?" Yu Xian asked immediately after hearing Zhang Buyao's explanation.
Zhang Buyao sighed. "Because this world was born from the rules of Uncle Feng's memory, so any power beyond what his memory can comprehend is nullified. A lot of worlds actually have similar rules. For instance, in certain magic-ban worlds, even a God of Magic would lose the ability to cast spells upon entering."
"If we really are trapped in a space like that, is there a way to escape?" Niman asked.
Zhang Buyao sighed again. "There is, but it's hard. We have to find this world's Uncle Feng, and without revealing that this world is just his memory, guide him toward a completely different ending—preferably one totally opposite to his original memory. The problem is, I don't know anything about Uncle Feng's youth."
"Sister Yaoyao, why would a completely different ending let us escape this world?" Little Nora asked curiously.
Zhang Buyao brushed aside a branch about to graze her head and explained, "Because that ending would clash with Uncle Feng's memories. The greater the conflict, the less stable this world becomes. Once a passage like a rift appears, we'll be able to escape."
"But we don't know the ending at all," Nora sighed.
As they walked, Niman pondered aloud, "Since we don't know the ending, could we... kill him? If this really is Feng Laixian's memory of his youth, then he definitely survived until the very end. As long as we kill him, wouldn't that be the exact opposite of the true ending?"
"Great idea!"
"Why didn't I think of that? Niman, you're brilliant!"
Zhang Buyao's eyes went wide as she looked at Niman in admiration. Then she clapped happily. "It's decided! We'll work together to kill Uncle Feng!"
Everyone stared at Zhang Buyao, completely speechless.
Why did it feel like Zhang Buyao didn't hesitate in the slightest when talking about killing Feng Laixian, and instead seemed eager to give it a try?
Ten minutes later, the group arrived at the edge of a small stream. After confirming there were no strange creatures around, Yu Xian walked up to the water and set Little Huangquan down, while Niman immediately mixed stream water with herbal sap to treat Little Huangquan's injuries.
Of course, this was only preliminary treatment. Once they reached an inhabited area, Little Huangquan would need more comprehensive care.
"Where do you think the people who were sucked in first went?" Nora asked the group, keeping a wary eye on the muddy flats in the distance.
Yu Xian hoisted Little Huangquan onto his back again and said flatly, "No idea. They might be dead, or they might have fallen into this world just like us."
"Normally, having so many people enter this world should cause a massive butterfly effect," Nora said. "Theoretically, Feng Laixian's ending ought to turn out very different from the original one."
That was indeed what she was getting at. If only their group had entered, doing nothing might not significantly change the outcome. But if Margaret, the Guarantee Queen, Spence, and the others had also landed in this world, a tremendous butterfly effect was inevitable—after all, hardly any of those Star-rank powerhouses were normal humans.
"Be that as it may, this world is constructed from Uncle Feng's memories," Zhang Buyao explained. "Every alteration agitates the world. The greater the deviation, the greater the world's hostility toward outsiders like us. That's why I think killing Uncle Feng is the fastest way to break through."
Fair enough.
It seemed she was completely set on killing Feng Laixian.
In truth, however, everyone present had already tacitly agreed on their next course of action.
If Zhang Buyao's judgment wasn't wrong, killing Feng Laixian was indeed the optimal solution. The moment Feng Laixian died, the entire world would collapse, granting them a chance to escape. In any case, this world was merely a memory, like an old movie on repeat; killing any character inside it carried no guilt whatsoever.
Chapter 329