Chapter 175 Chapter 176 Dream Palace
Dream Palace!
Ji Ma shouted in her heart, immediately feeling a thick “cocoon” around her. As long as she tore it open, she could reach the dream.
This is familiar to me.
Ji Ma tore at the void with force, flapping her wings and diving into the opening she created.
The feeling of going in was much harder than transitioning from the dream to reality. Ji Ma spent nearly three minutes struggling before managing to enter the familiar gray and white dream.
“Escape zero points.”
Ji Ma said breathlessly, “I was thinking about showcasing my skills by hiding in the palace during the battle!”
She looked up and saw a glowing white cloud above her, in the sky of Marin City, with an intimate connection. As long as she focused her thoughts, she could manipulate it.
With a shift in her thoughts, a pulling force tugged her towards the white cloud. She performed a forward roll in mid-air, stretching her wings and quickly flying onto the cloud.
When she stepped on the cloud, it felt soft and elastic. She jumped up and pounced onto the fluffy cloud, which gently cradled her.
“It feels just like the Cloud Kingdom in the cartoon.” Ji Ma lay back, the white light falling on her body, warm but not hot, and without a dazzling sun overhead. Who knows where the light source is? “This suits my heart’s desire, or rather, this entire space suits my heart’s desire.”
With a thought, what she envisioned materialized.
A palace rose behind her, and the irregular clouds beneath her feet smoothed out centered around her. In front were fruit trees, with blankets and pillows under their shade, while small streams flowed through the forest.
Ji Ma walked under the fruit trees, stepping on a pillow that was just the right height, propping it under her belly, allowing her to lift her hips comfortably. She then spread her fingers, and a red fruit fell into her palm. The fruit was soft, and she popped it into her mouth, just enough to block it.
Vines hung from the trees. She tugged at a vine, which was elastic, having a node every meter, making it easy to pull down a segment.
The tree branches were low, with grooves. Ji Ma tried them out, and combined with the vines, it was perfect for tying someone’s limbs and stuffing their mouths with fruit, lifting them up. Not far away was a small stream, very suitable for washing up.
She smiled in satisfaction, snapping her fingers. A white cloud floated over, and Ji Ma jumped on, steering it towards the newly constructed white palace.
After wandering around the palace and feeling good, it was as if she had returned to her former harem.
Even the shallow fountain in the hall was identical; she used to love playing in it with the maids.
Just as Ji Ma was reminiscing about her glorious past, two rows of silvery water columns erupted from the fountain.
She couldn’t help but remember the past. It was as if she saw the maidens in white silk, running around the fountain, their skirts lifted by the water columns, soaking their knee-high socks and dresses, accentuating their youthful or mature bodies. Some shyly squealed, covering the hems of their skirts, while others threw flirtatious glances at her.
Lost in memories, she began to hear phantom sounds, as if the maids were giggling.
As the water columns fell, the phantoms disappeared.
Ji Ma awakened from her memories, feeling a sense of loss. She clapped her hands, trying to restore that beautiful memory.
Eight maidens appeared in the fountain, tall, cute, dark-skinned, fair-skinned, slim, plump, long-legged, and statuesque, exactly as she remembered. However, their eyes were lifeless, like puppets.
Ji Ma approached and touched one maid’s neck; it was as cold as a corpse. She tried to warm up all the maids, making them feel like living people, but their eyes remained lifeless, which was unsettling.
“Indeed, I cannot create intelligent beings… haha, what was I thinking.”
Ji Ma didn’t give up on recreating the beautiful memory. She made the maids’ eyes move, but controlling eight at once exceeded her capacity; she wasn’t a computer and couldn’t multitask. She had to settle for less and made the maidens start to run.
They took steps, the fountain spraying water at just the right moment. But the maidens moved like clumsy puppets, mechanically walking forward, and soon one after another fell down.
Ji Ma focused intently to strengthen her control.
One silver-haired girl with red eyes lay sideways in the fountain, frantically waving her limbs, her face perfectly aligned with Ji Ma’s. She wore a puppet-like smile, seemingly mocking her.
Ji Ma became furious and clapped her hands, causing all the maids to shatter into glowing particles.
She sighed, “It can’t be restored.”
After saying that, she found that every time she recalled that beautiful memory of “fountain-soaked maids,” she couldn’t help but think of the earlier scene that totally ruined the mood.
Even the beautiful memories were gone.
“Why?” She looked around the hospitable and beautiful palace, “Why am I the one being played with?”
Ji Ma couldn’t help but recall the time when she announced her decision to give up her territory, build a harem, and indulge with women for hundreds of years, resulting in countless “demon kin” and subordinates showing shocked or contemptuous expressions, while the other demon lords showed undisguised mocking expressions.
“Why is it that being infatuated with women means lacking ambition? Why is having a harem looked down upon? Why does the demon race have to relish killing and destruction? What’s so wrong with me enjoying women?” She yelled in the palace, “Why do you secretly collaborate with heroes to take me down? Damn! If you really don’t like me, just say it! I’ll hand over the pieces of the Demon King’s crown; whoever wants it can take it!”
Her wings suddenly elongated and expanded behind her, flapping as she soared into the sky. Ji Ma conjured a massive sword engulfed in black flames and swung it fiercely at the fountain.
In an instant, stones flew everywhere as she yelled, “I’ll chop your hands, sever your head, and stomp on your spine!”
Imagined other demon lords, already heavily injured, still mocked her.
“I’ll bite your throat out!”
She contorted her face, stretching her neck, and bit into the air, imagining herself tearing the opponent’s throat.
After venting her frustrations, Ji Ma collapsed against the wall, dropped the giant sword, covered her face with her hands, and cried for a while.
When she got up, she tiredly mumbled to herself, “There are still many tests to be done.”
The damaged palace began to repair itself, but she no longer wanted to look at the familiar palace again. She nonchalantly changed it to her high school’s laboratory and rode the somersault cloud to the chemistry lab. From her interdimensional space bag, she took out the alchemical materials she had prepared in advance.
She conducted three experiments. In the first, using her simplified alchemical equipment, she successfully handled the alchemical materials.
In the second, using the alchemical equipment she materialized, it was successful again.
In the third, trying to conjure alchemical materials, she couldn’t produce the magic potion because the randomly generated alchemical materials didn’t even contain magic power.
Ji Ma also attempted to conjure a television; the screen only ever displayed a few seconds of news about flooding in the south. It was the only television image she could remember. She conjured a computer, and it was the same—just an empty shell.
Ji Ma felt inexplicably depressed; she checked her magic power and found she still had seventy percent left.
After closing her eyes and meditating for a moment to sense where her magic was draining, she realized a considerable amount was used to maintain the entrance and exit between the dream and reality. The entrance and exit couldn’t be closed, meaning she couldn’t recover her magic power in the Dream Palace.
She used her conjured pen and paper to calculate her remaining magic power, subtracting the necessary magic to maintain the dream and dividing it by the rate of magic consumption, reaching a conclusion.
In her full state, she could only stay in the Dream Palace for eight hours.
“It’s just a big storage room and a mobile alchemy lab.” Ji Ma threw the pen on the ground, casually using an eraser to wipe her name off the duty list on the blackboard, “I can’t even drag people into the Dream Palace; I have to invite them. What a waste.”
Ji Ma exited the lab, spreading her hands over the concrete floor, cracking it open to reveal stairs leading down; that was the entrance. She stepped on the steps and walked down, the stairs gradually becoming transparent until they disappeared.
Ji Ma stepped into thin air and fell, spreading her wings and finding herself back in the gray and white dream.
“Guess I’ll go back.”
She said that, but a minute later, Ji Ma found herself in George’s dream.
George dreamed of Jenna’s house in the chapel, sitting at the dining table, where “Nine Dragons Sailing” —nine eels with toothy mouths faced him, swaying and singing a terrifying song.
George’s face, usually stone-faced, actually showed a conflicted expression.
Ji Ma was initially in a bad mood, but couldn’t help but smile.
The resilient and devout paladin was actually startled by her dark culinary dish.
This indicates that she was still pretty formidable.
“Hey! George, it’s me.” Ji Ma clapped her hands, “Living Ji Ma, I’ve entered your dream, not the protagonist of your fantasy spring dream.”
George reached out and flipped the “Nine Dragons Sailing” dish upside down on the table, sighed, “I’m having a nightmare.”
Ji Ma shouted back, “That’s unfair! Saintess Jenna fed you eight years of dark cuisine, and you only remember my one delicious dark dish.”
One of the eels flat under the dish stubbornly raised its head, singing a song like an old witch’s curse.
George slammed his fist down on the eel’s head, saying, “Unforgettable for life.”
“Hahaha.” Ji Ma laughed, sitting across from George, casting a sideways glance at Jenna’s boudoir, the door slightly ajar. She tilted her head and gave George a look, her tail raising, pointing at the boudoir, “Hmm~? Remember the day of the double kill?”
George became serious.
Ji Ma chuckled, “Just kidding, I’m not hungry.”
“Oh.”
“Not even a bit disappointed?” Ji Ma seized the opportunity to probe, “Did you find some woman in the wild to satisfy your needs?”
“No.”
“Oh~ Are there any beauties around?”
“There are a few.” George shot back, “How did you know I was in the wild?”
In George’s focused blue eyes, Ji Ma involuntarily felt nervous, as if he had discovered something.
Ji Ma shrugged, pretending to be relaxed and said, “Just guessing… met a wild woman in the wilderness, maybe.”
George pondered for a moment and asked, “Do you count as a lover checking whether the other is being unfaithful?”
“Not at all!”
“Wasn’t that considered a reasonable jealousy just now?”
“Don’t just scatter your thoughts randomly.”
__________
sf will update by 5:30 PM at the latest.
