In the blink of an eye, the once flowering shrub turned into a withered plant corpse.

"...Did I do something bad?" Luo Shui was also stunned. He just thought that since the flower was not dangerous and was quite pretty, he would definitely be happy to pick it and give it to Ye Nianzhen.

Unexpectedly, the plant just cried itself to death...

"It's okay, there shouldn't be any problem."

Mingyuan has calmed down now, and his tone is very calm, but a seed of doubt remains in his heart.

Back next to Ye Nianzhen, Mingyuan showed her the flower. Ye Nianzhen really liked the flower. Although she was worried that there might be some danger they hadn't noticed, the fragrant, glowing flower did seem harmless.

"Let me hold this flower for now, just in case it's poisonous or something," Mingyuan said, taking the flower back from Ye Nianzhen's hands and returning to his bed.

Mu Guang scoffed at his behavior: "Tch, what are you pretending to be, a guardian knight? If you're so self-sacrificing, why don't you go outside and feed the wild beasts?"

Mingyuan ignored him, only giving him a cold glance before transforming back into his beast form and resting on the animal skin mat.

He remained vigilant that night, but surprisingly, he fell asleep very quickly.

In his dreams, he always felt as if he had entered a different world.

In this world, he is not one of Ye Nianzhen's people, but rather a follower of someone named Su Yue.

Su Yue is a very beautiful woman, but she is mean-spirited, capricious, and disregards human life, as if this is just an insignificant game.

He didn't know why he was so devoted to Su Yue, nor did he know why he seemed so passive and helpless in his dream; this was not him at all.

Besides making him do some trivial chores, Su Yue often belittled him, saying that he was a useless person without any special abilities and that he only had such a high status in the base because of her pity.

He seemed to believe that he was this kind of person, this kind of identity, and he had no complaints about staying by Su Yue's side.

Mingyuan gradually became somewhat dazed. Which world was the real him?

Is this the one from my dream? Or is it the one I'm seeing now?

Or neither?

The dream lasted for a while, and he felt a heavy pressure on his body, making it impossible for him to sleep soundly.

He was briefly conscious for a while, but he soon realized something was wrong; his surroundings had completely changed.

There was no cave, no Ye Nianzhen, and none of the other beastmen companions who, though noisy and annoying, had become somewhat familiar with me after spending some time together.

He even discovered that his own body had changed. It was no longer the taut and strong physique of a beastman in human form, but rather slender, with a pale complexion from not having been properly exposed to the sun for a long time. Beneath the thin skin, in the bluish veins, one could see the throbbing of blood struggling to flow.

His throat was also very dry and hoarse, the kind of dryness that comes from not speaking or drinking water for a long time, and he instinctively felt that something was wrong.

Just then, a faint voice came from outside the room, and he quickly lay back down on the bed, pretending not to wake up.

The owner of the voice came in, glanced at the readings of an instrument next to him whose purpose was unclear, and then leaned closer to examine Mingyuan's condition.

"It's not very stable, there might be some early signs of lucidity, and the content of hallucinogenic components is increasing."

Mingyuan's heart skipped a beat. What did this mean? Hallucination? Was he currently hallucinating? He couldn't understand it.

He tried to open his eyes a little to see the person's appearance and other identifying features, but as they continued their actions, he became drowsy and his body went out of control, and he soon fell asleep again.

While one side of his body was fast asleep, the other side of his body woke up.

He broke out in a cold sweat, unable to tell whether it was a dream or reality.

Mingyuan took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, then looked around. This was the familiar environment he knew.

The cave was dimly lit but cozy, with a pleasantly damp and cool air, though dry overall.

Ye Nianzhen was fast asleep on the bed next to her, while Qin Qiu's beast form curled up at Ye Nianzhen's feet like a guardian beast, its snow-white, patterned belly rising and falling with its breath.

Further away, the annoying ferret Mu Guang was also asleep in the hole in the wall, and it looked rather cute when it was asleep.

Luoshui, red saltpeter, Gu Shibing.

Everyone was resting, not necessarily sound asleep, but relaxed and at ease.

Everything here is so beautiful, it's almost unreal, compared to what I imagined in my dream.

Mingyuan suddenly remembered something and took out the strange, glowing flower from his pocket.

The flower has stopped glowing; although it hasn't withered yet, it's starting to wilt.

Could this flower have presented him with a terrifying illusion? Or is it actually a harmful flower?

He was very unsettled, but still hoped that his deduction was correct.

The next day, when everyone woke up, they asked about the flower. Mingyuan looked unwell, but he still calmly said, "It's probably a flower that gives people nightmares. It's not very harmful, but it's not safe either. I'll deal with it later, don't worry."

Ye Nianzhen shrugged: "Well, what a pity. I quite liked it; it had a kind of sacred feel to it."

If she knew the name of this flower, she would understand even more why she felt it was sacred, because it was the "flower of truth," the only way to connect them with reality.

However, at this juncture, even if they possessed more of these flowers, they still wouldn't be able to truly break through the illusion.

This little incident passed quickly, and Mingyuan temporarily suppressed his doubts.

The cave was nice, but it got boring after a while, so they set off again to find the tribe.

This time they changed direction. The vast white snowfield gradually turned a little green, and then a warm wind blew as they moved forward. They knew that the seasons had changed and that they were probably heading towards the edge of the snowfield.

After walking for a while longer, when the snow on the trees had probably melted, they saw smoke rising from the chimneys of some tribes.

Following the direction of the smoke, they soon found a new tribe.

The people here are very friendly, and what's interesting is that they have a lot of connections with humans. There are also many families where humans and beastmen have married, and the mixed-race children are very healthy and have not been affected by the apocalyptic weather at all.

Moreover, mixed-race children are more likely to awaken superpowers, which undoubtedly increases their chances of survival in this world.

Looking at these blended families, Ye Nianzhen felt warm and full of hope.

The apocalypse will not last forever; it will become the home of a new generation.