Dreamlands

Lu Li then followed the others to the wall in the corridor to look at the mentor introductions. Lu Li also found his mentor's name on the introduction: Alice.

It was a portrait, or perhaps an animated one. In the portrait, a girl in a white princess dress was holding a rabbit wearing a vest. As if noticing Lu Li's gaze, she opened a white lady's fan, covered her mouth, and said with an interrogative tone, "Are you the student I'm to be assigned to this time?"

A strange feeling arose in Lu Li's heart; it was the feeling of entering Dream of Delusion. In an instant, the world before Lu Li's eyes became completely different. Building A, which had been full of people, suddenly became empty.

And the originally snow-white walls began to peel away, turning into pieces of ashes, revealing walls covered with red stains underneath, and the bright midday light turned dim at this moment.

The oil lamps that had been extinguished on both sides lit up, but instead of a warm orange glow, they emitted a withered yellow light. Instead of bringing warmth, they made people feel uneasy, and a sense of loneliness and fear spread from the outside in.

Compared to the dim yellow light, the area outside the light was shrouded in eternal darkness, as if something unknown was being conceived within. Lu Li turned around and looked into the darkness at the other end of the corridor.

Something was wriggling inside. Lu Li squinted, and just as that thing rushed out of the darkness, more than a dozen tentacles carrying an aura of fear surged out from behind Lu Li, almost completely obscuring the entire corridor.

The thing that had rushed out of the darkness seemed startled and immediately shrank back. Everything around returned to normal; the bright midday light warmed everything, and the subtle sounds around indicated that everything had returned to normal.

Nothing seemed amiss. Lu Li looked again at the movable portrait. Alice, holding the frightened rabbit in her arms, giggled and said, "What an interesting student! Come down to the last floor of Building B in the teaching area. The specific entry method is as follows."

A series of words appeared on the portrait, indicating the way to enter Building B. After speaking, the portrait stopped moving, and the words disappeared. Lu Li then noticed that the rabbit wearing a vest was staring at Lu Li with a pair of red eyes, as if it were accusing him of something.

Lu Li nodded and turned to walk towards Building B. Building B seemed to be independent. Although it was called a building, it was actually just one room containing countless floors. The floors were not connected. To enter different floors, one had to go through that room, which was like a transfer station.

Upon arriving at Building B, Lu Li went inside and saw dozens of different hemp ropes hanging from the roof. Each rope had a different number on it, but when Lu Li tried to count them carefully, he found that he couldn't make out the exact number of ropes.

When Lu Li wanted to find the 999th floor, he casually grabbed a rope, which was the number of the 999th floor. However, when Lu Li wanted to find a higher floor, although a rope appeared, he found that he couldn't grab it no matter how hard he Lu Li.

After testing the waters for a while and finding it interesting, Lu Li silently counted down to the last level. A rope landed in front of Lu Li, which he grabbed and pulled downwards. The rope then snapped back upwards, and Lu Li, who was holding the rope, was also thrown out.

The surrounding scenery flashed by rapidly, turning into meaningless dots and lines of light. Lu Li swung back and forth a couple of times while gripping the rope, before finally stopping. Only then did he realize that he had arrived at a large hall with four pillars. Apart from the inner circle surrounded by the four pillars, the rest of the place was endless darkness.

In the center of the hall, there were rows of shelves, and on the shelves stood bright candles, which seemed to stand there forever. Each candle was like a living being, making Lu Li feel as if he were in a Marine Species of light. However, this light was not as harmful as sunlight. Instead, it had a warm and comforting feeling.

Suddenly, a candle that seemed to burn forever burst into bright light, its wax melting instantly and vaporizing completely. Behind Lu Li, a somewhat hoarse voice came. "That was a member who joined thirteen years ago. During an experiment, he was struck by an extremely severe curse and finally couldn't hold on any longer. He died just a second ago."

"These candles represent the dreams of all Theseus's people." The voice came from Miss Alice in the previous photograph. She was holding her vest -Vest Rabbit and looking at the central candle holder. "There are 3,842 candles here. Which one is yours?"

Following Alice's directions, Lu Li saw a candle not far away. The candle had black patterns on it, and the flame was not bright; in fact, it appeared quite dim.

"The Dreamlands of this world has been closed and sealed off. Most of our lineage's witchcraft is related to dreams, and to successfully cultivate these dream-based witchcraft techniques, the assistance of dreams is essential," Alice said. "Before, because of the Dreamlands, there were quite a few dream wizards. But since the Dreamlands was closed, basically only a few large magic societies still have the tradition of dream-based witchcraft."

"By cultivating through the dreams of your companions, you can condense your own Dreamlands, like this." Alice snapped her fingers, and the surrounding scenery changed rapidly once again. Lu Li once again felt the sensation of entering Dreamlands.

The next moment, the scenery before Lu Li changed, and he appeared in a huge garden. Everything around him grew larger, and a tender leaf was even bigger than Lu Li's body.

Alice appeared before Lu Li atop the head of a gigantic monster that seemed to blot out the sky. The monster was the rabbit wearing a vest and standing upright. Its bright red eyes stared at Lu Li with a mocking gaze, as if it were about to crush Lu Li to death with its enormous feet at any moment.

"This is the dream world I created, my own Dreamlands." Alice's voice seemed to come from the horizon. "Because the Dreamlands itself has been shut down, there are very, very few people left who can actually create their own dream world."

"The dreams of our own members in the Theseus Magic Society are only enough to sustain my own Dreamlands. Originally, the next master of the Dreamlands was to be passed down before I died."

"But you are different. You carry the seed of another Dreamlands. You need far fewer resources to condense your own Dreamlands, but I can still squeeze some out," Alice said hopefully. "I hope you succeed."

The next moment, the surrounding environment changed once again...

Sorry for the delay, I had some writer's block.