Dream Ripper

On the outskirts of the city, the abandoned "Xin Hu" Sanatorium.

The moonlight was swallowed by thick, leaden clouds, and the entire European-style building, covered in withered vines, sprawled like a giant beast crouching in the darkness.

A chilling wind swirled, passing through shattered windows and emitting a whimpering, eerie sound.

The air was heavy with the smell of strong disinfectant and mold, and a faint, cloyingly sweet scent of dream dust that made one nauseous.

Fang Gang stood outside the rusted wrought-iron gate.

The heavy Bronze Battle Halberd on his shoulder was silent. His spiritual perception, like invisible radar waves, scanned the entire building clearly.

Countless weak, chaotic, fear-filled mental fluctuations, like moths trapped in a spider's web, struggled and wailed silently in the depths of the sanatorium.

And at the very center of these fluctuations, a cold, viscous, B+ grade spiritual source point filled with intense malice, like a venomous spider coiled in the center of the web, greedily absorbed the nutrients of fear.

The Nightmare Weaver!

"Found you," Fang Gang's eyes were icy as he stepped into the courtyard. The rotten branches and fallen leaves underfoot shattered silently.

He didn't use the main entrance.

Agility Burst! He turned into a blurry golden-red afterimage, instantly appearing before a shattered stained-glass window on the third floor of the sanatorium, phasing through it like a phantom!

Inside the window, it wasn't the dilapidated corridor of the sanatorium.

But a bizarre, constantly twisting and writhing pure black space!

It was as if he had stepped into a giant, viscous drop of ink! There was no concept of up, down, left, or right, only pure, suffocating darkness and cold!

Countless fine threads, shimmering with faint blue phosphorescence, intertwined and crisscrossed in the darkness as if alive, forming an incomparably vast spiritual spiderweb that covered the entire space!

On the web, attached were "cocoons," semi-transparent and like soap bubbles!

Within each "cocoon," a huddled human figure was encased, their features twisted in agony!

Their eyes were tightly shut, their bodies twitching slightly, their faces etched with extreme fear, their silent screams seemingly able to pierce the soul! These were the victims dragged into the deep nightmare!

Fear! Despair! Pain! These negative emotions, like tangible nutrients, flowed ceaselessly along the blue threads towards the center of the web!

There, a massive, deformed monster floated!

Its entirety resembled a spider magnified countless times, composed of viscous shadow!

Eight limbs, condensed from pure mental energy and flowing with blue light, elegantly and lethally plucked the invisible web.

However, its torso was not the abdomen of a spider, but a distorted, swollen mass of flesh that constantly shifted with blurred, pained faces!

In the center of the fleshly mass, a gap split open. Inside, there were no eyes, only a constantly rotating vortex composed of countless fragments of nightmares!

This was the true form of the Nightmare Weaver! A B+ grade spiritual monster!

Fang Gang's intrusion was like a stone dropped into still water.

The vast spiritual spiderweb trembled violently! All the blue threads instantly tightened!

In the center of the web, the nightmare vortex abruptly stopped spinning, its "gaze" precisely locking onto the intruder—his bald head, still emitting a sheen in the pure darkness! Like a lighthouse in the dark!

"Sss... ssss..." A sharp, grating mental noise, like fingernails scratching glass, exploded directly in Fang Gang's sea of consciousness! It carried intense rejection and warning!

"Get... out... of... my... hunting grounds!"

The Nightmare Weaver's will was filled with the rage of a disturbed predator, "Otherwise... become... new... food for fear!"

The response to it was a sudden burst of clear, brilliant glazed light in Fang Gang's sea of consciousness!

The complete Mirror Still Water Heart Sutra was activated at full power! His heart was like glazed porcelain, reflecting all illusions!

That sharp mental noise struck the glazed heart-mirror, and like hitting a smooth ice surface, it was instantly refracted and dissipated, unable to create even a ripple!

Fang Gang's gaze pierced the darkness, penetrating the disguise of mental illusion, precisely "seeing" the souls trapped and struggling painfully on the web! He saw their fear and life force being forcibly extracted!

"Using fear as a web?"

Fang Gang's voice was cold, like the tolling of a judgment bell, echoing clearly in this dark mental space, "Imprisoning the souls of the innocent?"

He took a step forward abruptly!

As this step was taken, the viscous darkness underfoot let out a "sizzling" dissolving sound as if encountering its nemesis, receding instantly!

The golden-red Nine Yang Qi and Blood around his body ignited like a suppressed furnace! Utmost Yang! Dominating! Dispelling all evil!

"Then the web and the spider..." Fang Gang raised his right palm, golden-red light furiously gathering and compressing in his palm!

A condensed to the extreme, sun-like golden-red palm print instantly took shape!

At the edges of the palm print, glazed clear light flowed, reflecting the illusory figures of the imprisoned souls!

"Will burn together!"

"Great Sun! Demon Burn!"

BOOM—!!!

The golden-red palm print shot out! It grew in the wind, instantly transforming into a radiant sun the size of a millstone, burning with purifying flames!

The glazed clear light flowing at the edges of the Great Sun was like a sharpened divine sword. Wherever it passed, those incredibly tough blue spiritual silk threads, capable of trapping souls, let out a shrill "chichi" sound as if encountering the scorching sun's ice and snow, instantly melting and purifying!

"No!!!" The Nightmare Weaver let out a shriek of utter terror! It felt a fatal threat!

The pure Yang True Fire and Glazed Heart Light contained within that golden-red great sun were the absolute nemesis of this kind of pure spiritual monster!

It madly thrashed its spider web! Innumerable azure threads twisted towards the golden-red great sun like venomous snakes!

At the same time, the massive nightmare vortex on its torso violently reversed!

A more viscous, filthy torrent of nightmares, carrying countless screams and distorted images, like a breached Styx, fiercely slammed into the great sun!

However!

The Glazed Heart Light flashed! The moment the azure spider silk touched the clear radiance, it instantly shattered and dissipated, as if purified!

When the filthy nightmare torrent collided with the great sun's true fire, it was like oil on snow, emitting a deafening "sizzle"!

Countless distorted nightmare fragments were instantly incinerated! The filthy Styx was forcefully evaporated and purified!

The resplendent great sun, its momentum undiminished! With a resolute will to burn away all evil and purify all filth, it fiercely imprinted itself onto the twisted, tumorous torso of the Nightmare Weaver, which was covered in faces contorted in pain!

"Boom—!!!"

An indescribable explosion erupted in the mental space!

Golden-red and azure light frantically clashed and annihilated!

"Ah—!!!"

The Nightmare Weaver let out a heart-wrenching scream that reached the very core of its soul!

Its torso, composed of pure spiritual energy, was like a wax figure thrown into a steel furnace. Under the dual scorching of the golden-red true fire and the Glazed Heart Light, it madly twisted, melted, and disintegrated!

The pained faces on its torso let out their final wails in the flames before dissolving into smoke!

The massive nightmare vortex was forcefully burned through and shattered! Eight azure limbs flailed and convulsed wildly, eventually breaking apart inch by inch and turning to dust!

The pure darkness was thoroughly dispelled! The golden-red light illuminated the entire dilapidated third-floor corridor of the sanatorium!

Plop!

A pool of viscous, foul-smelling black gel, like rotten mud, fell onto the dust-covered floor. It still writhed slightly, emitting its last vestiges of resentment. This was the Nightmare Weaver's remaining core filth.

As the Nightmare Weaver died and its web collapsed, the soul "cocoons" attached to the spiritual web, like escaping bubbles, slowly floated up. The pained expressions on the translucent human faces gradually relaxed and dissipated, eventually turning into points of soft white light that vanished into the air like returning fireflies—returning to their respective bodies.

[Ding! Eliminated B+ grade Nightmare Weaver (Core)! Gained Evolution Points +80!]

[Available Evolution Points: 80!]

Fang Gang withdrew his hand, the golden-red flames on his palm slowly extinguishing.

He glanced down at the writhing black filth on the ground and stepped on it!

"Pfft!"

The filth was instantly incinerated by his Nine Yang Qi and Blood, turning into a wisp of smoke.

At the end of the corridor, behind a closed door, a very faint spiritual fluctuation could be heard, carrying a sense of lingering shock and a hint of… dazed relief after surviving.

Fang Gang walked over and pushed open the door.

Inside was a room filled with old medical equipment. On a dilapidated bed in the corner, a gaunt old man in a washed-out patient gown was curled up.

His eyes were tightly closed, his body still trembled slightly, but his breathing was steady.

Beside his pillow lay an old radio with a cracked screen.

Old Smoker.

Fang Gang's gaze fell on the old radio. The source of that faint spiritual fluctuation just now was this seemingly ordinary radio.

It seemed this was the secret behind Old Smoker's ability to accurately transmit information.

He did not disturb the old man's slumber and turned to leave.

As he reached the sanatorium entrance, his phone vibrated. A message arrived from an encrypted number:

"Thanks, bald kid. The old man owes you one. The Nightmares are… making a move. The 'Fear Broadcast' was just the beginning; they seem to be looking for something… a 'Vessel' that can truly awaken the 'Source'… Be careful with your bald head, it's too conspicuous. The data is in the usual place. — Old Smoker."

Vessel? Source?

Fang Gang's eyes narrowed slightly. The Nightmare Holy Cult's objective was indeed not just to spread fear.

The Faceless Cult Master's cold data scan, the abnormal throbbing on his left arm… all pointed to something deeper.

He looked up at the still gloomy night sky over the city.

"Looking for something?" Fang Gang shouldered his battle halberd and strode into the darkness. "Then let's see if you find it faster, or if my fists… smash faster!"