Chapter 240: A Beacon in the Darkness
Although putting Akanis on standby in her dream palace was akin to tossing a mouse into a refrigerator, Jima had no choice.
She rolled her dark, bright eyes and said, “Alright, I’m heading out now. You stay here and behave.”
“Oh, oh, oh.” Akanis, lying sideways on the table, impatiently replied, “I get it.”
“When you’re bored, you can sleep. There are plenty of rooms in my palace,” Jima said. “There are also some toys.”
“What toys?”
Jima, like a magician, pulled out a wooden box labeled “Dungeons & Dragons,” opened the lid to reveal a pile of wooden pieces, along with a map and three books, saying, “It’s a role-playing game.”
“Boring.”
“Anyway, you can play with anything else, just don’t go to the locked areas.”
“Oh, oh, oh.”
“Especially to Room 404 on the underground third floor.” Jima said with a serious expression, “You absolutely must not open that door.”
“What’s inside?”
“I won’t tell you; it’s very personal.” Jima continued, “If you ignore my warning, I will curse you, and we won’t be friends anymore.”
Akanis waved her hand impatiently, “Fine, fine, an eighty-year-old lady isn’t as long-winded as you.”
“And I might not sell you the spring either.”
“You’re not loyal.” Akanis sat up suddenly. “Do you know what the spring represents?”
“With that reaction, you were just fooling me earlier; you didn’t really agree, did you?”
“Come on, don’t you believe what I said?”
“Forget it.”
Jima pretended to be helpless, spread her wings, and flew directly away from the “Dream Palace” towards the dream.
As soon as Jima vanished, Akanis shouted several times: “Jima! Jima! Are you there?”
No one responded, so she ran toward Jima’s Dream Palace and yelled, “If you don’t reply, I’m going to Room 404!”
Of course, no one responded.
“Haha, then you must agree.”
She pushed open the palace doors, and a giant piece of paper fell in front of her, with the words: “Do NOT go to Room 404!”
Akanis rubbed her hands together, “We’re all friends—what secrets can’t be shared? Since you’ve tacitly allowed it, you should at least say something.”
Akanis waited for a few seconds in place for a response, but when none came, she excitedly began searching Jima’s Dream Palace.
Meanwhile, Jima had arrived in a dreamscape of black and white.
She flew high above, a copper incense burner emitting fragrant smoke at her waist, able to dispel the black smoke around her.
The vast land lay beneath her; she flew very high and noticed the horizon had a slight curvature.
Looking down, she spotted signs of the gray mist spreading below. However, compared to the expansive land, the gray mist was tiny, like a cluster of mold the size of a fingertip on a wooden table.
“You can’t pollute the entire dream, can you?”
That was good news. Coupled with Jima’s progress in researching the gray mist, its limitations on her were no longer as critical as before.
Jima continued flying; the city of Quinass moved further away from her. A mountain range slowly receded beneath her, and she directed her gaze at the dense areas of gray mist below, naturally knowing those were the regions thick with beastman armies.
Earlier, she had already sown “dream seeds” in a few clueless beastmen as a launchpad for her “dream jumps.”
However, the black smoke emitted by the “dream seeds” was obscured by the gray mist, so she had to get closer to find the “dream seeds.”
Thus, Jima flew toward her designated location for nearly four hours; although most of the time was spent gliding in the air, it was still quite exhausting.
She landed on a twisted, ugly tree that resembled a hand of someone buried alive, desperately reaching out for a breath of air.
The “dead hand tree” shook slightly; the incense at Jima’s waist disturbed it, and it did not attack her.
“So tired.”
After wringing out a towel, Jima wiped off the sweat on her forehead before vigorously rubbing under her chest.
In the distance, a plume of black smoke generated by a dream seed was slowly rising into the sky.
Jima quietly sat down, rested for fifteen minutes, then pulled out her map and located her position.
The map had a red cross drawn on it, marking her intended destination, which was guessed to be close to the Demon King’s extraordinary material. Because once the extraordinary material of the Demon King was divined, it would alert the Mother of All Beasts.
Her latissimus dorsi ached, sweat pouring down.
“Should I rest for a day and gather more supplies tomorrow?”
Jima immediately dismissed the tempting thought.
Speed is of the essence in warfare; each passing night lessens the opportunity.
In her thoughts, Jima discovered through the map that she was quite close to the red cross. She quickly dove into the dream of another using the “dream seed,” twisting his dream, leading him into a sleepwalk while she herself exited from his dream into the real world.
When a succubus transitions from dreams to the real world, she becomes dizzy, making her vulnerable.
As the dizziness left her forehead, she looked up to see a blood moon hanging above. A gust of night wind blew by, rustling the grass below, producing a soft rustling sound like blades clashing. The serrated grass brushed against Jima’s calves wrapped in black silk. Nearby, a horned beast stood dazed, mumbling in its dream.
Jima activated her invisibility and glanced sideways at the horned beast; it continued its dream wanderings and turned away.
She walked forward, stepping on the grass. The grass was much harder than before, feeling like she was stepping on soft blades. Glancing down, she quickly drew a conclusion.
This area had significant corrosion. Everything, dead or alive, would be affected. In places severely corroded in the mortal realm, stones might bite, and mountains that had stood still for thousands of years could suddenly move in a day.
Any mortals wandering into this place could be contaminated, causing their bodies to mutate and develop claw-like limbs.
However, as a demon, Jima was not only unaffected but even gained benefits.
Another gust of magical night wind blew toward her, making all her pores open in bliss, slightly enhancing her magical power.
The twisted trees around her, with thorny and crooked branches, evoked a sense of familiarity, like coming home.
However, Jima was not particularly happy.
The corrosion was spreading so quickly; the beastmen must have performed several blasphemous rituals; the speed was truly alarming.
Jima flapped her wings and flew against the wind, eventually landing in a remote mountain hollow.
A weasel poked its head out from a thorny bush, and upon seeing Jima, it bared its triangular teeth and opened a single red eye on its forehead.
Jima killed it.
Finding a clear area, she began setting up her ritual array.
After half an hour and battling two snakes as well as a small stone that suddenly jumped up to bite her toe, Jima finally completed her ritual array.
She tossed the three-eyed weasel into the array, began the ritual, and personally sliced it open to interpret the shapes of its insides… After a while, she stood up and gazed eastward, “So close, only a hundred kilometers away.”
“Arrived so quickly?” The Mother of All Beasts, nursing, suddenly lifted her head and looked east, “So close to me.”
In the Mother of All Beasts’ eyes, a light seemed to illuminate the darkness, and that light was only fifty kilometers away from her.
