Nightmare

Hiss.

Faced with such a bizarre and unpredictable situation, Ye Chen could not help drawing in a sharp breath. He immediately turned around with his backpack and sprinted toward the Old Church.

Before long, the boy reached the mountainside of another Snow Mountain and arrived before a dilapidated church, ancient and disorderly as if it were a ruin.

Pushing open the rust-covered iron doors and entering the spacious, chilly church hall, Ye Chen looked at the back of the middle-aged man seated in the front row and spoke with slight nervousness.

"Teacher, I've finished the hunt."

The middle-aged man did not turn around. Still facing away from Ye Chen, he merely nodded.

He wore a trench coat and had long, unkempt hair. Yet even the scruffy stubble covering his face could not conceal his handsome features. At the same time, his calm, profound eyes were fixed on an ancient, shattered statue of a woman at the front of the hall, making it impossible for Ye Chen to guess what he was thinking.

This man was the teacher Ye Chen spoke of. Ever since Ye Chen could remember, he had been the one by his side, teaching him all manner of life knowledge, combat techniques, and hunting skills.

Ye Chen only knew that his name was Lyle and that he was his teacher. Beyond that, the man had never revealed any other information about himself.

Likewise, Ye Chen only knew that he was an abandoned infant whom his teacher had taken in and raised. As for the details of his origins, his teacher had kept silent for seventeen years, always brushing him off with, "You'll understand in the future."

Uneasily pressing his lips together, Ye Chen began telling Lyle about the strange sight he had just witnessed.

"Teacher, just now at the cliffside, I discovered that the Abyss had actually risen to the middle of Boundary Mountain! A year ago, it was clearly still only at the foot of the mountain—"

Ye Chen fell silent for a moment before adding.

"And when I looked into the Abyss, I suddenly saw some illusions. I found myself in the deep sea, with countless eyeballs staring at me and countless tentacles trying to drag me down to the seabed. Wh-what was that?"

In contrast to the nervous youth, the middle-aged man remained calm as still water. After hearing Ye Chen's question, he simply gave an indifferent response.

"That only means this world is nearing its end. But being consumed by the Abyss is bound to happen sooner or later. I have a way to deal with it, so you needn't concern yourself."

"As for the illusions you mentioned, there is no need to make a fuss. As your control over Auling Power has become more refined these past few days, your perception has also grown much stronger. It is perfectly normal for you to see illusions within the Abyss that ordinary people cannot perceive."

"Also."

At this point, Lyle's tone shifted.

"If nothing unexpected happens, tonight you will face your first Nightmare. As long as you endure it, you will officially awaken your own Innate Spirit Art."

"Then you can bring your more than ten years of training to a close. I will conduct one final assessment of your strength through three practical trials, and before the Abyss completely consumes this land, I will send you to the human realm beyond the Labyrinth—the Holy Light Pure Land."

"That is where you, as a human, truly ought to live. So it would be best if you eat soon and get to bed early."

After hearing this, Ye Chen did not think any further about it. He nodded and turned to leave.

The Nightmare Lyle spoke of was not the unpleasant dream ordinary humans experienced while asleep, but a summoning process directed at those who possessed Auling Power.

When it came to using Auling Power, Ye Chen was still a complete novice. Only by undergoing the summoning of a Nightmare could he officially step into the world of this strange energy.

Thus, a "Nightmare" could also be regarded as a ritual of breakthrough and awakening for Auling Power.

Ye Chen quickly finished eating and washing up, then returned to his room to prepare for the most important Nightmare of his life.

Lyle remained seated in the center of the church's ruined hall, staring wordlessly at the headless female statue before him. After a long while, he let out a soft sigh.

Lying atop a thick fur blanket, Ye Chen stared blankly at the room's old wooden ceiling for a long time before finally closing his eyes and waiting for the Nightmare to arrive.

From here on, the boy's main objective was clear.

Endure the Nightmare, awaken his ability, complete the trials, and finally leave this Eternal Frost Frozen Land before the Abyss invaded. He would head for the vast new world outside and enjoy a new life with his family.

Ye Chen had originally thought his nervous thoughts might keep him awake all night. Yet to his surprise, the instant his eyelids shut, a strange wave of drowsiness stormed through his mind and seized his consciousness with overwhelming force.

Cold, damp, and foul-smelling.

In his haze, those three sensations gradually crept into Ye Chen's mind, causing his tightly shut brows to furrow.

So cold, so damp, so foul-smelling.

As his eyelids unconsciously opened a slit, a vivid scarlet color entered his vision. Ye Chen's mind jolted awake, and he instantly emerged from his stupor.

"Ugh!?"

Ye Chen let out a shocked murmur. He first noticed that he was seated in a strange chair, then widened his eyes to look at his feet and discovered that they were submerged in an eerie scarlet liquid.

Judging by the pungent smell entering his nose, this liquid should have been blood.

Ye Chen swallowed, his wavering gaze sweeping over the surroundings. At that moment, he was sitting in a vast Blood Pool, while a hazy fog shrouded its edges.

The Blood Pool was shallow, only just covering Ye Chen's heels. Even when he instinctively lifted a foot, not a single ripple spread across its surface. It was bizarre beyond measure.

A Blood Pool shrouded in thick fog, a Blood Pool incapable of producing even a ripple.

Ye Chen marveled inwardly. When he raised his head and looked around again, he noticed faint shadows drifting around the Blood Pool.

When he looked closely, he realized they were fragments of various weapons. There were broken halberds, warped maces, melted straight swords, and burning hunting rifles.

The remnants of every kind of weapon Ye Chen knew seemed to be present in this Blood Pool, all floating upon its surface.

What could this scene mean?

Ye Chen slowly stood up. He first glanced at the wooden chair behind him but found nothing unusual, then walked toward the nearest drifting broken blade and instinctively reached out to touch it.

However, just before he could complete the motion, a sudden sound struck his eardrums.

Splash. Splash. Splash.

The tremendous noise erupted without warning, then surged toward Ye Chen from every direction through the fog surrounding the Blood Pool.

In that instant, ripples and waves suddenly appeared on the previously placid surface of the Blood Pool. A powerful feeling of discomfort surged within Ye Chen's chest, while his mind felt as though sharp nails were relentlessly drilling into it. The pain forced him to cover his ears, desperately trying to escape the assault of the strange sound waves.

What was that sound?

What was making it?

What would happen to him next?

Like any ordinary dreamer, Ye Chen no longer remembered that he had just fallen asleep, nor did he know that he existed within an illusory dream. At that moment, his mind received only warnings from his survival instinct, and he began frantically pondering questions vital to his survival.

The youth clutched his ears tightly and squeezed his eyes shut. Before long, sweat was pouring down his face like rain.

When he had first heard the thunderous sound, he had thought it was something like heaven and earth collapsing.

Yet as Ye Chen repeatedly endured and analyzed it through the pain, he suddenly realized that the deafening sound rose and fell according to a certain pattern, sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes sharp, sometimes deep—

It sounded just like someone humming a song.

No, I have no clue. A weapon—I need to get a weapon in my hand first. Anything will do. Just grab something first!

Struggling to withstand the strange sound waves, Ye Chen forcibly steadied himself and reached out to tightly grasp the rust-covered broken blade before him.

But in the very next moment, Ye Chen realized that he had grabbed nothing. The Blood Pool his palm should have been reaching toward had suddenly vanished, replaced by the familiar, crude wooden ceiling.

"Haah! Haah! Haah!"

Drenched in sweat, Ye Chen panted nervously several times and turned to look around. He discovered that he had returned to the room where he had lived for seventeen years. Everything he had just witnessed had merely been a dream—the Nightmare he had long been waiting for.

"Haa..."

Still shaken, Ye Chen took a deep breath. Looking at the sunlight spilling across his bedding, he instinctively turned his gaze toward the window.

At the end of the snowy plain outside, a newborn sun was slowly rising.

The night had passed, and dawn had arrived. It meant that Ye Chen's Nightmare had temporarily ended.

Temporarily.