Mr. Liang's Dream

Xiang Kun sensed Mr. Liang's fear, grief, anger, and even madness in the dream, and then witnessed a brief battle.

It was clear that Mr. Liang wanted to seize Academician Shen's body and subdue the beautiful woman, but he failed and was severely beaten, leaving him on the verge of death.

By ordinary human standards, Mr. Liang must be dead beyond any doubt—his heart had been ripped out and thrown in front of him.

However, since Mr. Liang is still alive now, he must not have been killed or devoured back then.

Judging from the dream images that Xiang Kun perceived, when Mr. Liang opened the laboratory door, the beautiful woman should already be drinking blood.

So this might be why she didn't completely kill Mr. Liang and devour him—she had almost finished devouring Academician Shen and needed to leave as soon as possible to find a safe place to slumber and complete her transformation.

The scene then changes again, and Mr. Liang sneaks into a villa, fights with a beautiful woman, and successfully kills and drinks her blood.

Although the beautiful woman's appearance had changed slightly, she was still easily recognizable as the one who had killed Academician Shen in the laboratory.

During this process, Xiang Kun did not feel a strong bloodlust or urge to drink blood, but rather anger and a touch of desolation.

Xiang Kun carefully sensed this emotion and felt that this sense of desolation was not only directed at the beautiful woman, but also at himself, at the deceased Academician Shen, and even at the world.

The final image that appeared in the dream was a Rabbit Woodcarving.

Xiang Kun opened his eyes, still sitting in the chair without moving, recalling his perception of Mr. Liang's dream.

Xiang Kun did not use Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream" to perceive Mr. Liang's or John's dreams beforehand—the conditions did not allow it either, as he did not place the "Black Circle Graffiti" that had established a connection with Lao Xia under the Guarding Prosperity Building beforehand.

Therefore, what he perceived were basically things that Mr. Liang had been thinking about and had been subconsciously concerned about. These were the perceptual information that naturally emerged after the Rabbit Woodcarving triggered his emotions and created a dream.

These perceived information may not necessarily be actual memories; they may simply be a concrete manifestation of emotions, like the underground buildings and various high platforms in John's previous dream.

However, based on this experience, Xiang Kun believes that most of these memories likely originated from real memories.

If one is unfamiliar with Mr. Liang's information, the characteristics of "Mutated Creature," the secrets behind "Shenxing Technology," and what Academician Shen is doing, seeing these images and feeling these emotions would likely leave one bewildered and unable to piece together a complete picture.

However, for Xiang Kun, who already knew Mr. Liang's identity, had learned about Mr. Liang's general experience and Academician Shen's situation through those secret documents, and had an incomparable understanding of the characteristics of "Mutated Creature," he was able to quickly grasp the key information.

Although Mr. Liang did not call the beautiful woman by name in the dream, judging from the fact that she was able to meet Academician Shen and appear together in the laboratory, she was most likely the "Xiao Xue" or "A Xue" mentioned in the secret documents.

Based on the information recorded in the secret documents, what he heard from Grandpa Zhang Hongpu, and the information Alice helped him find, the approximate timeline should be:

Mr. Liang becomes paralyzed → Mr. Liang mutates → Mr. Liang meets Academician Shen → Mr. Liang meets a beautiful woman named Xiao Xue → Xiao Xue kills Academician Shen and devours him → Mr. Liang survives after being injured but his understanding of mutation and evolution changes, and he begins to try new directions of mutation, abandoning the maintenance of his human form → He finds Xiao Xue's whereabouts, kills her and drinks her blood, and the location happens to be the villa of Zhang Hongpu's friend's child (however, judging from the situation in the dream, Mr. Liang actually saved the son of Zhang Hongpu's old friend) → Mr. Liang's mutation and evolution system tends to be stable and perfect.

The death of Academician Shen must have had a huge impact on Mr. Liang. With this event as a turning point, Mr. Liang's understanding of other "Mutated Creature" or "humanoid Mutated Creature" and his own direction of mutation and evolution were greatly changed.

That's why, in the secret document, in that video that resembled entrusting his son to someone or giving instructions to his successor, there was that line: "Don't easily trust any 'Blood-feeding Creature'."

However, there are still some details that Xiang Kun did not fully understand. It is possible that the sensory information shown in Mr. Liang's dream differed from the actual facts, or that there were some details and secrets that were not shown or recorded in those secret documents.

Xiang Kun walked out of the courtyard and headed towards Chongyun Mountain. He wanted to find Lao Xia to help analyze the situation together.

Although he also has his own set of analytical methods and a cognitive model of Mr. Liang built based on all the information, judging from past experience, Lao Xia, who has double master's degrees in psychiatry and psychology, can always find gaps and make some very constructive ideas on what he considers to be a fairly complete cognitive model.

Perhaps Lao Xia's own emotional perception difficulties are actually her advantage in analyzing other people's psychological cognition, because she doesn't have preconceived notions or let her own emotions interfere with her judgment.

It's a little past four in the afternoon. Today is the summer solstice, and the weather is already a bit hot.

However, Xia Libing and Little Apple were completely unaffected by the heatwave within "Little Radish's" territory, as the dense forest provided them with very comfortable shade.

Since the day before yesterday, Xia Libing has often brought Little Apple to play with "Little Radish" during the day. This is because Little Apple has a very special feeling for "Little Radish". Even before she actually came into contact with or "saw" Little Radish, she had already established some very special connections with him through Gold Glitter.

Of course, Alice, the intermediary "translator," also played a part in this, as she was able to easily strengthen this connection.

Xiang Kun believes this is directly related to Little Apple's way of perceiving and understanding. She is naturally better able to understand "Little Radish's" perceptual system, and her affinity for nature and other creatures is also her instinct and talent.

Therefore, Xiang Kun agreed to let Little Apple interact with "Little Radish" so that she could learn about "Little Radish's" special nature.

Actually, with Gold Glitter, Egg Pie, and Alice protecting her, Little Apple could easily go into the mountains by herself and come to "Little Radish's " place to play. But just to be on the safe side, Xia Libing always came along to ensure that someone was with Little Apple.

At this moment, Little Apple was sitting on a branch at the top of the big tree that looked like a chair. Vines were intertwined, forming armrests and footrests, making it quite comfortable to sit on.

Previously, when Little Apple wanted to climb the tree, Xia Libing firmly refused to let her because it was dangerous.

But Alice stepped forward to vouch for Little Apple's safety, and also made a guarantee on behalf of "Little Radish," and after applying to Xiang Kun, permission was finally granted.

As it turns out, with the double guarantee of "Little Radish" and Alice, Little Apple was indeed as stable as a mountain.

Little Apple sat quietly and leisurely on its "throne" at the top of the tree with its eyes slightly closed, seemingly asleep. Egg Pie was dozing on a branch next to it, while the loyal guide bird, Gold Glitter, soared high in the sky, more like a hawk patrolling its territory than a canary.

Xia Libing knew that Little Apple wasn't sleeping; she was actually perceiving the entire space through "Little Radish," "Gold Glitter," and Alice.

A few days ago, when the "Ultimate Predator" gave Xiang Kun a "warning," causing the deaths of a large number of birds and even creating a small dead zone in Chongyun Mountain, Little Apple also learned about it through Gold Glitter.

Many of those birds were Gold Glitter's little brothers and good friends, as well as birds that Little Apple knew and had heard their voices. The unnatural deaths of so many birds made her and Gold Glitter very sad. They hadn't been able to eat much for the past few days, and Xiang Kun had to cook different kinds of delicious food for them, which slowly helped improve their appetite.

She had asked Xiang Kun why the birds had suddenly died, and after some consideration, Xiang Kun told her a small part of the truth:

This was done by an evil entity outside of the world of normal understanding.

Little Apple wasn't too surprised by this, as it aligned with her expectations. Long ago, she had already developed her own cognitive framework regarding Xiang Kun, Gold Glitter, Alice, and Sister Bing, in contrast to the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster. During her time in Chongyun Village, the world that Xiang Kun gradually revealed to her further refined her cognitive framework.

Not far from the tree, Xia Libing held a notebook, occasionally glancing up at the somewhat peculiar shape of the "Little Radish" tree branches, then drawing it in her notebook.

She didn't draw the sketch exactly according to the shape of the "Little Radish," but only depicted its obvious purposeful changes to adapt to certain functions.

Xia Libing cannot directly understand the sensory information of "Little Radish". Even with Alice's "translation", it is still difficult to understand because the overall cognitive systems are too different.

However, she believes that to understand the consciousness of "Little Radish," one does not necessarily need to have a deep connection with it like Little Apple. By observing the external manifestations of "Little Radish's" branches and the way it controls the morphological presentation of various "subplants," one can discover a great deal of information.

"Little Radish" has now been deeply influenced by Alice, Little Apple, and even Gold Glitter and Egg Pie, and has developed many human or animalistic traits. Its consciousness and even the personality it has formed can be understood through its "limbs".

Overall, "Little Radish" seems like a kind, honest, and hardworking person. He looks up to and reveres Xiang Kun, is close to and dependent on Alice, fawns over and is curious about Little Apple, and treats Gold Glitter and Egg Pie like an older brother or sister.

Just as Lao Xia was conducting psychological analysis and building a personality model for "Little Radish," a bald man appeared behind her, poking his head out from behind her shoulder and looking at the drawing in the notebook.

Lao Xia stopped, without turning around, and said directly, "You sensed Mr. Liang's dream?" Alice had informed Lao Xia on the mountain in real time about what happened below the Guarding Prosperity Building, after obtaining Xiang Kun's permission, and had also provided explanations intermittently, such as:

"The boss has entered Hyper-Sensory State with his eyes closed!" "The boss has opened his eyes and exited the Hyper-Sensory State!" "The boss has closed his eyes again and started sensing the wood carving!" "I guess the boss is starting to read Mr. Liang's dream!" "The boss is still dreaming; he's been dreaming for a long time!" "The boss has opened his eyes, and his brow furrows; things don't seem so simple!" "The boss has gone out to the mountains!" "Lao Xia, Lao Xia, the boss must be coming to find you!"

Therefore, Lao Xia was not surprised at all by Xiang Kun's arrival, especially since the bald shadow reflected in front of him had already given a "preview" before he even spoke.

Xiang Kun glanced at Lao Xia's notebook and asked curiously, "Why is your drawing so bad? Could it be that you were influenced by Alice's style?"

"It's not realistic," Lao Xia said.

Xiang Kun immediately understood. "This is... Little Radish's analysis?"

Lao Xia nodded.

Xiang Kun laughed. This was only possible because of Lao Xia. Others probably wouldn't do psychological analysis on a tree, no matter what, even if it wasn't an ordinary tree.

Xiang Kun first glanced at the Little Apple sitting quietly on its "throne" on the tree, then called Lao Xia over and sat down side by side on a large rock nearby.

Xiang Kun told Lao Xia about his perception of Mr. Liang's dream and some information he had analyzed about it.

"When I perceive his dream, I can see these sensory information, as if I have reviewed and recalled all the important events before and after his mutation. This can only mean one thing: he often thinks about these things in his daily life, and these things have been affecting him and making him feel uneasy. Including seeing the Rabbit Woodcarving at the end, it also shows that he can realize that my wood carving is different from others and cares about it very much." Xiang Kun said his judgment.

Xia Libing listened attentively, occasionally scribbling and marking keywords in her notebook.

"You want to cooperate with him?" Xia Libing asked.

Xiang Kun nodded. "It's clear that the main problem for both of us is dealing with the 'Ultimate Predator,' pushing the limits of the 'Mutated Creature,' and trying to find the secrets of Mutated Creature contained within them, and using them to benefit all of humanity. The question now is, what kind of cooperation can we use to make him trust me?"

After a slight pause, Xiang Kun continued, "Of course, there's also the opportunity for cooperation... I have a plan to deal with the 'Ultimate Predator,' though it's still very immature, just a rough idea based on the information we have so far. It requires the assistance of a 'Mutated Creature' that has undergone multiple deep-stage transformations. Currently, Mr. Liang seems to be the best partner for cooperation."

If we compare the "Ultimate Predator" to a "Trojan horse" that has infected most of the world's creatures, Xiang Kun currently only has the ability to manually remove the Trojan horse. He has to remove it piece by piece in a "Hyper-Sensory State".

Moreover, even after the removal, he must remain vigilant at all times, otherwise the creature that has had the "Trojan" removed may still become infected again.

Therefore, Xiang Kun envisioned several solutions. One was to directly "disconnect" the internet globally, preventing the mastermind from doing anything through the Trojan horse—after all, before being activated, these Trojan horses would not have any effect on living organisms;

Second, find the connection between the mastermind and the entity where the Trojan is located, such as a specific port, and then block this connection "port" for all living things worldwide;

Third, the method for removing Trojans should be developed into a "script" that can run automatically and undetected on all biological entities worldwide, eliminating all Trojans at once;

Fourth, when the mastermind manipulates a Trojan horse on a biological unit, we can trace it back and directly find its lair to eliminate it.

Of course, the situation of the "Ultimate Predator" is much more complex than this metaphor. The "Trojan horse" and the "mastermind" are essentially one and the same, and it can do much more.

If Xiang Kun were to attempt this rashly and fail, he himself might be unharmed, but he could endanger other creatures or people.