Chapter 206 A Dreamlike Bubble

In my perception, the young girl Lu Chan is standing in Dr. Silver Mask's laboratory.

She was still wearing the white straitjacket, standing barefoot on the floor, her body outline faintly transparent, radiating a white glow like fine hairs. The laboratory was unlit, and this subtle light made her appear like a solitary spirit in the dimly lit room.

Ethereal, light, ethereal… she now resembles more of a ghost about to ascend and vanish. This shouldn't be my imagination; the transparency of her body seems to be slowly deepening.

She had previously described herself as disappearing as quickly as sugar dissolved in warm water if she appeared in the real world. It seems she hasn't disappeared as quickly as she described, but it's estimated that she'll be completely annihilated in a little while.

The noise of battle filled the air, but she paid it no heed, silently watching the spot where the Silver Masked Doctor had died. Just as I noticed her, the laboratory wall exploded and shattered, and a figure blasted through the fighting landed at her feet.

The guard, now a grotesque figure, tumbled to the ground and immediately scrambled to his feet. Strangely, he seemed oblivious to the presence of the young girl, Lu Chan, as if she were merely a figment of my imagination. He charged back in the direction he had come from, shouting angrily, seemingly oblivious to everyone around him.

The young girl, Lu Chan, glanced indifferently at the departing strange man, and once again she was alone in the dark, chaotic laboratory.

This is a rare opportunity, and I want to see her first, to see this comrade-in-arms with whom I had a brief working relationship one last time.

"I need to leave for a while," I said to Asaho beside me.

She gave a soft "Mmm" and said, "I'll wait for you here."

"Where are you going?" Lu Youxun asked, puzzled.

I couldn't help but look at him closely for a moment, and then said, "I'm going to see someone."

After saying that, I activated the Flame Teleportation and went to the laboratory.

As I landed, I summoned two fireballs for illumination. While not strictly necessary, I definitely prefer brighter environments. And the young girl, Lu Chan, saw me too.

Suddenly, a figure rushed in through the hole in the wall again. Turning my head, I saw it was the same strange man. It seemed that the magical fluctuations caused by the fireball I summoned had caught his attention when he returned, and he immediately spotted me as an enemy and attacked me.

His arms transformed into bone blades, slashing mercilessly at my throat like scissors. As always, he seemed oblivious to the girl Lu Chan's presence. Moreover, under the accelerated consciousness of his fire elemental form, I could feel the airflow rushing towards me as he charged, and although this airflow clearly reached Lu Chan beside me, not a single hair on her head fluttered.

I ignited the freak guard with my gaze, and he instantly evaporated and vanished.

Then I turned my head and glanced at the feet of the girl, Lu Chan. Sure enough, even under the illumination of the fireball, she did not cast a shadow.

However, there was something else on the ground: the National First-Class Demon Hunter Medal that I had seen before, which was lying at her feet. I think she probably didn't throw it there intentionally. In the independent reality space, she wore the medal normally, but now she was probably unable to contact physical matter, so the medal could only fall to the ground.

"...Can you see me?" she asked in surprise.

I countered, "Shouldn't I be able to see it?"

“You shouldn’t be able to see me. I am an ‘incarnation of dreams’ that doesn’t exist in the real world. Compared to you real beings, I am more like an illusion, or a daydream. Even you wouldn’t be able to see me. At most, only humans with similar mental frequencies to mine can receive my ‘waves’.” She explained first, then looked me over carefully and said with a sigh, “I’m not used to you suddenly turning into an adult.”

“You’ve become a ‘quirky girl,’” I retorted.

“That makes sense.” She nodded nonchalantly, then said thoughtfully, “Hmm… I see. The reason you can see it is probably because we synchronized our minds before.”

"So... how much longer can this 'radio wave' of 'you' continue?" I asked.

She said casually, as if she were talking about someone else, "It'll only take ten minutes at most."

A daydream lasting ten minutes, radio waves lasting ten minutes...

I didn't know what to say for a moment, so I just did something and picked up the silver medal that had fallen to the ground.

Suddenly, I noticed an object lying on the floor not far away. It was right in front of the lab table, where the silver-masked doctor had been standing. I picked it up and saw that it was a round mirror about the size of my palm, but the surface was now broken and covered with burn marks.

In my memory, there was no such thing in Dr. Silver Mask's laboratory. And judging from its location, this thing seems to be a relic of Dr. Silver Mask. Just as Chenlong dropped his National First-Class Demon Hunter Medal after being burned to death, Dr. Silver Mask dropped this broken mirror after being burned to death. I can even intuitively tell that the burn marks on it were definitely caused by my flames.

"What is this?" I asked the girl, Lu Chan.

She shook her head at first, then suddenly paused and looked behind me.

I sensed someone behind me and immediately turned around. What I saw was utter disbelief. Even the young girl, Lu Chan, looked utterly astonished. Before us stood a person who had only recently died.

The newcomer had short white hair, wore gray clothes, and had a strong and wiry physique—it was Chenlong.

How could this be? Chenlong is dead, undoubtedly dead. My flames even contain a huge amount of "slag" corresponding to him; there's no mistake. The person before me can only be someone else disguised as Chenlong—

Immediately afterwards, I noticed something unusual about the other person and quickly realized the most likely truth.

First of all, Chenlong did not actually come back to life;

Secondly, the person in front of me is not someone else disguised as Chenlong.

In my vision, this dragon, like the girl Lu Chan, had a body outline that appeared in a semi-transparent form like a ghost, and emitted a white light as fine as hair.

He is also an "embodiment of dreams".

"I can't...die..." he murmured as if possessed, "I must save...protect..."

“You can’t do it, Chenlong.” The girl Lu Chan seemed to have come to a realization. “In your previous life, you certainly surpassed the limits of a demon hunter and broke through to the Great Completion level, but you are ultimately not the Great Impermanence. You cannot create an ‘avatar’ like a god. This dream avatar you created will soon disappear just like me.”

I quickly processed the facts before me.

Upon closer examination, the other party's appearance isn't entirely unreasonable. Even Lu Chan's abandoned dreams could become dream incarnations, so Chen Long, as a user of the Divine Seal Fragment who can view independent reality as a dream, could naturally also form a dream incarnation.

It's likely that Chenlong sensed his impending death during the previous battle and summoned his dream avatar, probably inspired by the young girl Lu Chan. However, unlike the Lu Chan of the past, this dream avatar's appearance wasn't to abandon his dream, but rather to ensure its continuation.

However, this avatar appeared too late. The independent reality space had been destroyed; this was the real world. This avatar, like the young girl Lu Chan, was forced to face its imminent disappearance.

Since they've already left the stage, they shouldn't return; it wouldn't look good. However, I genuinely admire their dedication. Even so, they chose to return to this world to pursue their dreams, and even if it's a messy and unsightly performance, there's a certain beauty in it.

As for Chenlong himself, there is probably no such thing as beauty or ugliness in this; there is only pure persistence.

The real Chenlong is indeed, without a doubt, dead. The "Chenlong" before us is not a living being, but merely a fleeting "phenomenon," like a dream or a bubble, destined to vanish in an instant.

To distinguish it from the Chenlong of his previous life, let's call it "Dream Chenlong" for now.

As if deaf to Lu Chan's words, Dream Dragon fixed his gaze on me, his eyes flashing with murderous intent. My previously somewhat chaotic will quickly became clear.

"I'm going to stop you," he said very clearly.

“How are you going to stop me? Besides, you’re about to disappear, aren’t you?” I said.

“It has nothing to do with that,” he said. “Even if we can’t continue to exist for much longer, I will make sure the researchers here are safely evacuated.”

Actually, I didn't intend to do anything more to the researchers here, but it's a fact that I've burned those people to death repeatedly before, so I guess even if I told him the truth now, he wouldn't listen.

I don't know why I can see the Dream Dragon as normally as I see the young girl Lu Chan. Perhaps it's because my flame contains the other's "slag (soul)"? Or is it because of the fragments of the Divine Seal?

I wouldn't presume to conclude that Dream Dragon can't interfere with the real world. Although the Divine Seal Fragment is no longer with him, since he is the "Dream Avatar" summoned with the power of the Divine Seal Fragment, he might actually be able to manifest some dangerous miracles.

However, I no longer intend to fight this "Chenlong" personally.

(End of this chapter)