Chapter 68: The Childhood Sweetheart Awakens

The moment he killed that monster, the entire dream world shattered into pieces.

Before he could even check on You Xue’s condition, his vision abruptly plunged into darkness.

It felt like surfacing from a deep, dark body of water.

His scattered consciousness slowly gathered, but the instant Su Li opened his eyes, he was stunned.

Because when he looked around, he suddenly realized that where he was now was not the dormitory.

Moreover, three people were in the room, staring at him with eager expressions.

Perhaps because he had just experienced all those bizarre events in the dream, Su Li’s head was still foggy.

Finally, he instinctively raised his hand and gave a slight wave.

“Hello?”

“Brother Su! You’re awake!”

Su Li didn’t speak.

He first tried to think about his situation.

They said he was awake, which meant he really had been in a dream just now.

And now, Cheng Yehai, Anbian Du, and a strange purple-haired woman were surrounding him in the middle.

The room was bright and clean, filled with various instruments—it looked a lot like a laboratory.

Ignoring his dizzy head, Su Li propped himself up from inside a container that resembled a large glass bottle—smooth, curved glass all around.

He blinked and asked,

“Where am I? What’s going on now?”

No one answered immediately.

Only Anbian Du and the purple-haired woman turned their heads and whispered to each other.

“He seems pretty normal.”

Anbian Du squinted, carefully examining Su Li’s expression.

“Maybe he just appears normal on the surface.”

Xi Lin’s tone carried a hint of caution.

“Um… I’m normal.”

Su Li interrupted them.

Anbian Du pulled the corner of his mouth into a smile.

“Whether you have a problem or not—that’s not for you to decide.”

Xi Lin exchanged a glance with Anbian Du, then nodded.

“My name is Xi Lin. I have a supernatural ability called [Dream Guide of Huai’an], which happens to be able to detect whether a person’s consciousness is normal.”

Before Su Li could even voice his refusal, he saw the purple-haired woman take action.

As she spoke, Xi Lin raised her right hand and spread her fingers.

Then, deep purple light like leaves radiated from her palm and slowly merged into Su Li’s forehead.

Su Li didn’t feel any pain.

Instead, the drowsiness caused by his cold gradually dissipated.

His vision became much clearer, his breathing smoother, and even the weak-limbed feeling he’d had upon waking was mostly relieved.

Finally, Xi Lin slowly opened her eyes, her stern expression relaxing a little.

“He’s fine.”

Only then did Cheng Yehai, who had been holding back his excitement for a long time, hurry over.

“I told you Brother Su would be fine! He must have just stayed up late and ended up sleeping during the day. Look, he’s perfectly fine now!”

Cheng Yehai reached out and pulled Su Li upright, allowing Su Li to finally see the many people who, like him, were inside glass containers nearby.

But Su Li was still completely confused about the current situation.

“What exactly happened?”

“The teachers said a strange illness is spreading in the Academy.

People who catch it fall into a deep sleep and can’t be woken up.

But when they do wake up on their own, they show severe loss of control: extreme aggression, loss of cognitive ability, and even some bizarre signs of mutation.”

Upon hearing this, Su Li was silent for a moment, connecting the strange dream in his mind with the bizarre illness in reality.

“No…”

Then he spoke slowly.

“I might have actually experienced something unusual.”

Hearing this, Anbian Du couldn’t help but look serious and asked grimly,

“Student Su Li… what exactly happened?”

Su Li lifted his head.

“During that long sleep, I had an incredibly realistic dream.”

“A dream? What kind of dream?”

Xi Lin asked doubtfully.

“The five senses and physical sensations in the dream were no different from reality.

The only difference was that I completely lost my supernatural ability.

And then, in the dream, I saw a monster that looked like a demon beast.”

Anbian Du rubbed his chin and pressed further.

“What kind of demon beast?”

Su Li lowered his gaze, thinking for a moment.

“A dog-like one, about a storey high, covered in bone spikes.”

In the end, he didn’t tell the whole truth.

He only described the first half of the dream, deliberately omitting everything about You Xue.

Su Li still couldn’t tell whether the You Xue in the dream was real or fake.

But he hoped it was fake, because in the dream, she had gotten hurt again—for him.

The wounds on her body were already gushing blood, yet she still showed a smile like she’d won a game, as if she felt no pain at all.

When he saw that scene, his heart seemed to sink for a moment.

Before he could ask if it hurt, before he could ask why she still had to act tough, his consciousness suddenly woke from the dream.

“Hell Bone Hound.”

Anbian Du snapped his fingers, then looked at Su Li.

“That kind of demon beast is a third-tier individual out in the wild. So, how did you deal with it in the dream?”

“When I saw that demon beast, all I thought about was running. At that time, of course I couldn’t outrun it. But at the last critical moment, I suddenly managed to use a little bit of my supernatural ability, enough to escape. Finally, I ran onto a train… and then I woke up.”

Xi Lin stroked her chin.

“In a dream, whether the threat to the dreamer is a demon beast or something else, it’s essentially a manifestation of mental devouring. The demon beast you saw might just be a projection of your deep-seated fear in the dream.”

Su Li nodded but didn’t respond.

If his fear was the demon beast that destroyed the village, then what was that flesh-and-blood monster he had dealt with together with You Xue?

And what was that strange, bustling city?

Su Li remembered You Xue telling him that, ever since she could remember, she had always lived in the village.

The villagers said her relatives were kind and warm-hearted people, but for some reason, in this world, good people never lived long.

Her parents had died one after another when she was very young—reportedly from some incurable illness.

The villagers handled the funeral arrangements and left her alone in that empty little mud hut.

Everyone has a heart.

Seeing that You Xue was just a pitiful little child, and since her parents had been popular in the village, the neighbors took turns looking after her.

But when she grew a little older, she stopped going door to door waiting for meals.

Every household’s food reserves were meager; one extra mouth meant one less mouthful.

So she learned to make fire, cook porridge, and open a small vegetable patch behind the yard, planting some easy-to-grow greens and beans.

And it was at that time that she found him—homeless, wandering in the wilderness.

Both orphans, they naturally ended up depending on each other and living together.

Thus, they walked together through many long years.

Just then, Xi Lin’s voice interrupted Su Li’s thoughts.

“So it seems that nightmares aren’t unsolvable—it’s just that the process of breaking free is extremely difficult.”

Xi Lin tapped her fingertips lightly on the table, sorting out her thoughts.

“But indeed, relying on students to defeat a nightmare on their own is unreliable.

The best method is to eliminate the root of the nightmare…”

Suddenly, she lifted her gaze to Su Li, her eyes earnest and sincere.

“So we need your help.”