Wu Pifu had a dream.
A very lonely, very desolate, and very terrifying dream.
It was in an endless void, without front or back, left or right, up or down, and without the passage of time, only boundless emptiness.
He floated within it, lost and shouting, hoarse, going mad... but nothing changed; the void remained the void...
Wu Pifu surged up from the remnants of the fire pit, his eyes no longer showing pupils, only the same pitch black.
This blackness was not color, but lightless emptiness; it was precisely because even light could not reflect that it appeared black.
The slight tranquility gained from the Tiger Demon Technique had remained steadfast, as if something within was about to surge forth...
But at that moment, a crisp shattering sound came from afar, accompanied by what seemed like the wails and moans of countless lives—pain, despair, death—various emotions echoed within that sound.
With the explosive sound, Wu Pifu's body shook violently, the void in his eyes began to dissipate.
He stumbled, every part of him ached, yet inexplicably, strength surged within him, a force that came from nowhere was born within his body.
(Could it be that after mastering the Tiger Demon Technique, his body has begun to instinctively evolve?)
Wu Pifu did not know the reason.
Although he maintained clarity amidst the chaotic thoughts of the Tiger Demon Technique, he had only just begun to master it, and his overall thinking remained chaotic and irritable.
At this moment, he was in the fire pit, instinctively struggling to jump out, and then he saw the Yaksha.
The Yaksha was holding its head and wailing, its black-red muscles shrinking, large amounts of darkness transforming into loose sludge that dripped to the ground.
Its height fell from two meters three to two meters, and then, under Wu Pifu's witness, it gradually dropped to about one meter nine.
However, this drop stopped; it remained a large man whose height and width exceeded Wu Pifu.
The strange phenomenon dissipated!
Wu Pifu immediately understood what had happened: the anchor of this Level Two Nightmare had been damaged or destroyed.
Once a Level Two Nightmare leaves its original dream world, if it leaps to a higher baseline reality, its strength will not increase or decrease; some require an anchor, while others do not.
However, if a Level Two Nightmare falls to a lower baseline reality, its strange concentration will be diluted due to the increased strange concentration of the dream world itself.
Therefore, it needs to find an anchor within the dream world, whether it be a living being, a non-living object, or even a concept in rare cases.
Once the anchor is injured, the Nightmare's strength will significantly decrease; if the anchor is destroyed, the Nightmare will also dissipate and perish.
This Yaksha before him was actually not the anchor of the Level Two Nightmare!?
Yes, yes, it had indeed mentioned something akin to a master in its previous words...
At that moment, Wu Pifu felt no joy; during the stage of mastering the Tiger Demon Technique, he began to possess a kind of intuition similar to extraordinary power.
Although it was far inferior to the premonition of the cicada before the autumn wind stirred, it had already surpassed the realm of ordinary people.
Tears suddenly rolled down his eyes.
He inexplicably knew that he would never see that little mute again.
"Give it to me!"
Wu Pifu did not even know what he was saying; he simply strode toward the Yaksha... even though the Yaksha was still stronger than him, even though his remaining hand was already fractured, even though he was heavily injured and on the brink of death, at this moment, he moved like a tiger, with the intent of a demon, and as he moved, there was a faint sound of a demon tiger roaring.
The Yaksha opened its mouth to roar, but its feet slowly began to retreat.
"Give me your life...!!"
When they were five meters apart, Wu Pifu suddenly leaped forward, executing the Mad Tiger Pouncing Gorge from the Tiger Demon Technique.
The last time he used it was to escape this Level Two Nightmare; this time, however, it was aimed at this Nightmare's derivative.
The Yaksha hurriedly raised its hands to defend, but at this moment, although Wu Pifu looked like he was dying, his strength had inexplicably increased by about thirty percent.
With a collision, he directly knocked aside the Yaksha's arms.
In an instant, Wu Pifu's broken hand bone pierced into the Yaksha's throat, and then the two collided together, the bone shard deeply embedded in the Yaksha's windpipe.
The Yaksha struggled madly, its immense strength broke Wu Pifu's arm bone, leaving a piece of bone lodged in its throat, yet Wu Pifu's expression did not change at all.
He simply retracted his arm, disregarding the half-broken hand, and directly used the broken, sharp wrist bone to continue stabbing toward the Yaksha's face.
Once, twice, three times...
At first, the Yaksha was still struggling wildly, using its hands and feet, but Wu Pifu pressed down hard on its chest, his arms continuously stabbing down, even as his palm fell off, he did not care.
Then the Yaksha's body began to convulse, losing all movement, all sound.
Large amounts of blackness turned into sludge, flowing all over the ground, yet there was no longer any vitality.
Wu Pifu still did not stop his actions; at this moment, his mind was filled only with rage, killing intent, and sorrow...
He did not know how long had passed, and only the remnants of broken corpses remained on the ground, not a trace of humanity left to be seen.
Wu Pifu finally raised his head to look at the main hall.
On the platform in front of the main hall, there were still three or four living people, some nuns and some guests.
They had all been skinned, yet for the moment, they had not died.
They were still wailing and moaning, in pain and wanting to roll on the ground, but the gravelly ground prevented them from doing so.
At this moment, they all looked at Wu Pifu in terror and silence, not daring to make any movements or sounds, the recent slaughter all witnessed by their eyes.
They had witnessed a human and a Yaksha fighting each other, and in the end, it was this human who had brutally killed the Yaksha.
But... was he really human?
Wu Pifu did not care about them; he simply walked step by step toward the great hall.
Then he saw the collapsed and shattered Buddha statue, and he saw the little mute who had been crushed to death beneath it.
The Buddha statue had fallen and shattered on the ground, just in time to crush the little mute beneath it, and the little mute still held a table leg in her hand, a leg from the wooden table that had housed the Buddha statue...
Everything became clear.
Wu Pifu looked sorrowfully at everything before him.
His life had been saved by the little mute... twice!!
Why?
Was it merely because of their encounter in life?
Was it merely because of a few short conversations?
Or was it because he had promised to take her away?
Wu Pifu did not know; there were no tears left in his eyes.
He simply bent down, using his arm without a hand to lift the little mute, resting her against his chest, and then slowly embraced her.
So light, so thin, so small...
Then Wu Pifu looked at the shattered Buddha statue, from which sludge still flowed, still possessing vitality.
What he did was simple: he kicked hard at the remaining large fragments of the statue, shattering them into pieces.
The sludge emitted a terrifying wail, and the skinned individuals outside the hall covered their ears in pain and howled, then they all fainted.
However, as Wu Pifu shattered the last remnant, all the sludge began to spread and dissipate, leaving only a black sphere about the size of a soccer ball at the center, resembling both sludge and plastic.
"Event achieved, Mud Buddha Yaksha."
"In the year 1124, the sixth year of the Northern Song Dynasty's Xuanhe, a shocking incident occurred outside Jing'an Temple in Niujia Village, Kaifeng City. Thirty-two nuns and thirteen tourists suffered calamity, with only four surviving, yet all four were subjected to skinning torture and died within days to several tens of days."
"According to their accounts, that night, a red light shot into the sky, and a Buddha statue spewed out sludge, which entered the body of a wandering hero, who thus became the Buddha's guardian Yaksha, killing and skinning all the people in the temple."
"There was a strange individual, a one-armed solitary man, who bravely stormed the temple to fight the Yaksha, ultimately killing the Yaksha on the spot, then destroying the Buddha statue, and carrying away the corpse of an unnamed nun, disappearing without a trace."
"As he left, a green bird landed on his shoulder; this bird might have been extraordinary, and it vanished along with the strange individual."
Wu Pifu sensed the information emitted by the main brain in his mind.
A sanctuary had been established.
As far as Wu Pifu knew, there were three ways to establish a sanctuary.
First, exchange with equivalent items from the world, such as when he previously bought a tailoring shop in the baseline reality of 0.9 in the Republic of China for twenty silver dollars, establishing a Level One sanctuary.
The more expensive and renowned the building, the higher the level of the sanctuary created upon purchase.
Second, increase the influence within the dream world, such as how many slaves, farmers, soldiers, employees, partners one has, and then form a force.
For example, if Wu Pifu became the leader of Liang Shanbo, the so-called Gathering Hall could be anchored by the main brain as a sanctuary, with the stronger the force, the higher the level of the established sanctuary.
Third, achieve a certain historical event, meaning that the dream world will record it in history.
The greater the influence, the stronger the recorded dynasty, the higher the level of the established sanctuary.
In essence, it is about gaining influence within the dream world.
Purchasing buildings is itself gaining influence; earning money is the same, regardless of how that money is obtained—whether stolen, robbed, or earned through hard work—this is all about gaining influence.
As for forces or historical events, it is the same.
Essentially, this is a process where the main brain uses these maintainers to operate within the dream world, gaining influence and then infiltrating the information code of the dream world... if these dream worlds are indeed just programs.
The information in Wu Pifu's mind continued, and he simply used his arm to lift the black sphere to his armpit, also holding the little mute in the same manner.
As described in the event, when he walked toward the temple exit, the green bird flew down to his shoulder, continuously chirping.
As if crying out for something...
That kind, thin, small little mute, who could only make "ah" sounds, could no longer respond to it.
(End of Chapter)