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墨書 Inktalez
Facing the words from both the Nightmare and Cui Ming, Mi Xiaonan, suffering from a headache, covered her ears and crouched on the ground. After sitting quietly for a long time, she finally stood up and faced the Nightmare. "I know they are using me. Brother Cui Ming told me that he has manipulated things because this team needs me the most due to my abilities. Yes, they are using me, but in the process of being used, we have become a family. Brother Cui Ming was very honest; he explained to me the tricks they used to deceive me. I remember when Li Qing and I parted after the Assessment Match, he said, 'That bastard Cui Ming has disappeared. I don't know where you're going, but I believe you have your reasons. Take care of yourself, my brother.' I've kept those words in my heart. So, we are a family; you are not..." The last sentence was shouted by Mi Xiaonan.
The Nightmare dissipated into nothingness. A sigh echoed: "I am sealed again... Why won't you believe me? I am your inner self."
Mi Xiaonan replied, "Sometimes my inner self has evil thoughts, but I have never acted on them—not even once. Because I know that is wrong. I am human; I cannot stop evil thoughts from arising in my mind, but I can control what I think."
"Why waste time with him? Let's go home," Cui Ming said as another version of him appeared in the dream along with Li Qing and others.
Cui Ming felt himself being pulled away by a tremendous force; his mind went blank until he regained consciousness back in the magic circle. Looking around at the concerned faces, he let out a breath and wiped the sweat from his brow. He nodded, "I think it's done." After entering Mi Xiaonan's heart, Cui Ming was confident he could go back once more to bring her out.
After saying this, Mi Xiaonan on the other side of the magic circle stood up and walked to Cui Ming, crying like a sorrowful person as she embraced him. Then she hugged Li Qing and finally Ding Ze, weeping as she held onto him.
Wandering approached Ashen and said, "I need this magic circle. Name your price."
"I'm not selling."
"We're helping you rescue your junior brother; you don't plan to thank us?" Wandering questioned. "Doesn't Balance Sect have any morals about gratitude?"
...
Regardless of everything else, it was a happy ending. Mi Xiaonan overcame the Nightmare and sealed it away. What surprised Mi Xiaonan was that she could converse with the Nightmare while dreaming in a state of awareness. The Nightmare had completely detached from her inner self and was unaware of her thoughts; it was like an emotionless soul. The Nightmare answered Mi Xiaonan's questions: when it could not devour an attacker's soul, it would lose all its energy and be unable to sense negative emotions like jealousy anymore, entering a sealed state. Only after Mi Xiaonan's death would the Nightmare slowly regain its strength and be able to sense and seek out negative emotions again to find a new host.
The Nightmare was both fascinating and unremarkable; it was a parasite from the soul. However, the vast knowledge possessed by the Nightmare astonished Mi Xiaonan. Whenever it invaded each practitioner, it would acquire their memories—these memories remained intact in the Nightmare's mind even after thousands of years.
Cui Ming was on the phone with Wandering, saying, "What nightmares? Nonsense! Mi Xiaonan was just drunk and talking in his sleep... Wandering, this isn't going to work. For the sake of future cultivators not being harmed by nightmares? Let's talk about that when we have descendants, alright? ... You know as well as I do that taking something from me that I don't want to give is practically impossible. Give it up... Just be a bit nicer; don't act all high and mighty and start cursing. Who knows, maybe sometimes Mi Xiaonan would be happy to share some secrets of cultivators from thousands of years ago... Haha. You heard wrong; the nightmare has already been sealed. How could it possibly communicate with the living? You're overthinking it... I deny it, so what? Mi Xiaonan is an independent individual and cannot become your research subject. Besides, don’t you think knowing too much isn’t necessarily a good thing? At least we should be grateful that it was Mi Xiaonan who sealed the nightmare, not someone from the Fire Cult."
Mi Xiaonan had many virtues. If Wandering had approached him directly and turned him into a research subject, extracting information from him about his conversations with the nightmare every day, Mi Xiaonan wouldn't have known how to refuse. But with Cui Ming around, who was firm and unyielding, it simply wasn’t going to happen. Cui Ming understood human desires too well; if you gave him some information today, he would demand more tomorrow. Some things shouldn’t have a beginning. As Mi Xiaonan mentioned, eighteen hundred years ago, Otherworldly Creatures invaded the Eternal Sphere. This event was undocumented because it went unnoticed or perhaps only two or three people were aware of it, and they resolved the issue. Why did they invade? What was the scale? How was it resolved? One question would lead to another endlessly. As Cui Ming ultimately said, knowing too much may not be a good thing.
In recent days, Mi Xiaonan had been busy; he had found inspiration and was in seclusion. The nightmare played a significant role in this—being merely a soul without good or bad qualities or personality traits, it answered questions mechanically after being sealed. If your questions were off-point, it wouldn’t respond. This could be considered a strange encounter for Mi Xiaonan; however, unlike Ding Ze's encounters, Mi Xiaonan's experience was about life and death—overcoming nightmares and conquering his inner self.
Cui Ming shared what he had seen in his dreams with Ding Ze, Li Qing, and the recently returned Beiyue. Everyone felt a bit guilty for not noticing how much Mi Xiaonan had done for them. The details included constantly monitoring the weather, collecting everyone’s clothes for drying, repairing damaged items in their small villa, and replenishing daily necessities.
However, Beiyue disagreed with Cui Ming's description of her as having a cannibalistic gaze. Occasionally emerging from seclusion, Mi Xiaonan firmly denied that Beiyue had such eyes; he believed her gaze was gentle yet resolute, like a bright moon. Li Qing felt that his image in Mi Xiaonan's mind was inaccurate; he should be seen as brave rather than someone who merely asks if there’s food available. Only Ding Ze and Cui Ming were relatively satisfied; Cui Ming certainly wasn’t pleased but preferred to keep his thoughts on Beiyue to himself.
The five discussed whether they should let Mi Xiaonan learn this magic circle so he could wander through others' dreams whenever he wanted. Unfortunately, this proposal was rejected by Ashen; Wandering's threats and temptations failed to obtain the magic circle because Ashen was very devout—the ancient text of the Balance Sect's Sacred Relic could only be read by members of the Balance Sect and could not be shared.
Now that Beiyue had returned, the Assessment Match would naturally begin soon.
...
This year's Assessment Match had only six teams but featured several eye-catching individuals. First was number one: Ding Family Lineage Daughter, Ding Wen. Although Ding Wen was female, she possessed a heroic spirit that could conquer all; if her gender were changed, countless soft girls would surely fall for her.
Next was Mi Xiaomo—elusive and quick-witted—a rather unconventional cultivator.
Then there was Jinjin, the number one criminal from the Western Continent—a beautiful flat-chested girl with a strong desire for destruction. During the first round of assessments, she shot down seven hundred NPC civilians and caused countless property damages while her eyes sparkled with joy and delight.
Lastly was Vlad—a powerful presence nearly impossible to defeat—cultured and gentlemanly with an elegant confidence that exuded an aura reminiscent of an older man whom young girls admired.
Ye Ying, the divine general who can soar through the skies.
Lurus, the first archer of the Liu Family, excels in long-range shooting with unwavering power and precision, making him the dark horse of this Assessment Match.
Teaming up with Mi Xiaomo, Romir and Fanxi’s neighboring tribe leader, Pugni, is tall and robust, wielding a meteor hammer, charging forward fearlessly, a true warrior.
From a branch of the Ding Family, Ding Lan is an exceptionally beautiful woman, yet her strength captivates more attention than her looks.
Although this year's participating teams are the fewest in history, the quality has improved due to the reduced numbers. This is an era where heroes emerge one after another, with the younger generation pushing the older aside. The pass rate for this assessment has reached a historical high; out of thirty participants, eighteen passed, and all those highlighted by Key Point successfully completed the assessment.
During the Assessment Match, Hero City was bustling, with contractors transporting thousands to serve everyone. Due to a lack of operations in Hero City, only Ding Dewen’s television station and Liu Na’s Force Report were approved to enter. There would be three days for rest and pairing before the first Competition Match commenced.
What about these three days? They will host arbitration competitions between the Ding Family Lineage and its branches. This arbitration competition is not open to the public and does not allow filming or interviews. Most observers are from the Ding Family. Beiyue, as a hunter, received an admission ticket.
The arbitration competition consists of three matches. After watching one match, Beiyue went to have a late-night snack with Cui Ming and others. The first thing he said was, “It was a complete domination; aside from Dina and external aid Wei Wei, the rest were no match at all. Vlad single-handedly took down four opponents. Except for Dina, who was intercepted by Vlad while attempting to assassinate one of their team members, the other three surrounded Vlad but were all eliminated by him alone.”
Li Qing nodded in agreement: “That’s right. Although there are schemes in the Competition Match, they are often ineffective against absolute power. In the arbitration competitions, we frequently saw two or three ambushing one opponent; tactically it achieved its goal, but often two or three were still no match for that one person. So today, I’ll boldly introduce the issue of counteracting characteristics.”
“For example, if Lank injures Beiyue, does that mean Beiyue is weak? No, certainly not; it simply means that in a direct confrontation with Lank, he is at a disadvantage. With our five members as examples—using Lank, Fishman, and Big Guy—how should we arrange our strategy?” Li Qing looked at Beiyue: “Beiyue, you are the captain.”
“Still considering me as captain?” Looking around at everyone, Beiyue nodded: “I feel like my role as captain is somewhat nominal, but someone has to take charge. Vlad is very strong; he can stand against any warrior, especially those with enhanced abilities. To deal with Vlad, neither I nor Li Qing can do it alone; however, together we might have a chance. I want to discuss our positioning as a team; this has been on my mind while watching the arbitration competitions.” (To be continued.)
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