Nightmare

Wu Pifu's eyes were bloodshot, yet he did not look back as he ran past the corpses of Wang Xiuting and Li An. He even nearly stumbled and fell in his stagger, but fortunately, the Tiger Demon Art had trained his lower body deeply enough that he did not fall at this critical moment and lose his life.

A Level Two nightmare!

It was actually a Level Two nightmare!

Wu Pifu had never imagined that he would encounter a Level Two nightmare. Of the three of them who remained, two had died in an instant, and... there was no longer anywhere outside that could isolate the nightmare!!

Though Wu Pifu was filled with despair, he was not someone who would sit still and await death. Driven by his will to survive, he began sprinting madly toward the corner ahead.

He moved like a tiger, wild as a demon. At this moment, Wu Pifu felt closer to the state of mind behind this martial art than ever before.

This was an isolated warehouse near Lujiazui on Shanghai's Bund, across the river from the French Concession. His destination was the French Concession on the opposite bank!

By then, night had fully fallen. This was not the future twenty-first century. Though Republican-era Shanghai was already a glittering world of luxury and excess, outside the various concessions and prosperous districts, other areas lacked the infrastructure of the future. Thus, when Wu Pifu ran out from beneath the warehouse's dim streetlights, everything ahead was pitch-black.

Yet Wu Pifu did not dare hesitate or stop for even a moment. He charged straight into the darkness, racing forward along the faint reflections of light on the river ahead.

He knew the nightmare was watching him with cruel amusement, treating his escape like a cat playing with a mouse.

This was Baseline Reality 0.9, while this Level Two nightmare came from Baseline Reality 0.8. Therefore, it could exert its full strength here, perhaps even becoming stronger. In their first encounter, this Level Two nightmare had killed Wang Xiuting and Li An. The only reason he had survived was absolutely not because of his strength, but merely because of luck...

This nightmare simply wanted to savor the fear he radiated!

But...

How could a man sit still and await death!?

Even if he died, he had to die charging forward!!

There was still hope ahead, his only hope...

There were three Level One shelters in this Baseline Reality 0.9 dream world: his, Wang Xiuting's, and Li An's.

Li An's shelter had been destroyed the previous year, in 1934. Influenced by the Shanghai Serial Murder Case, Li An had joined the Red Team Operation in hopes of gaining influence, only for it to be sabotaged by Central Bureau agents.

Wang Xiuting's shelter had been that warehouse just now. It had also been destroyed when the Level Two nightmare broke through. Now, only his shelter remained. It was in the French Concession ahead, his sole hope of escape!

After rushing out of the warehouse to the riverbank, Wu Pifu leaped forward. His body took the shape of a tiger as he pounced ahead and plunged into the water with a splash.

He was not skilled in swimming, but the Tiger Demon Art included methods for training in water, as well as tiger-form swimming techniques. Wu Pifu had simply not mastered them yet. Forced into action, he began desperately thrashing forward.

Gradually, he felt an icy chill rising from his back. It was June in Shanghai, when the weather had begun to turn hot. Even in the water, he should not have felt such bone-piercing cold. Therefore, this chill could mean only one thing...

The nightmare had reached his back!

...Give me a little more time. Give me one more chance.

Wu Pifu continued thrashing forward madly. The skin all over his body had turned faintly red, and steam rose from the top of his head. He had pushed the circulation of his blood and vital energy through the Tiger Demon Art to its limit. This state could not last long, but it gave each of his hands the strength of two or three hundred jin. As he swam and thrashed forward with all his might, his speed became astonishing.

But... he still could not shake off the chill behind him.

It was a dream-world nightmare from Baseline Reality 0.8, a terrifying curse-like wraith. Intangible and formless, it possessed speed beyond logical concepts, could teleport, alter and distort physical space and laws, and even manipulate human hearts to create hallucinations. Without a martial art or power capable of restraining it, it could even slaughter an entire army within a minute!

When circulating blood and vital energy to stimulate his potential, the Tiger Demon Art could render him immune to hallucinations, but it could not resist this nightmare's extraction of life force. It did not need to do anything else. It merely had to touch him lightly, and he would immediately sink to the bottom of the river, dead beyond doubt.

But perhaps his prayer had worked, or perhaps the nightmare wanted to toy with him a little longer. Wu Pifu could feel only the chill at his back and suffered no other attacks. He actually managed to force his way across the river and rush into the French Concession ahead.

It was 1935. Though the Japanese had already invaded China, they had not yet attacked Shanghai. The various foreign concessions were somewhat wary of the Japanese, but in their arrogance, they did not believe the Japanese would dare violate the foreign concessions. Thus, aside from ordinary patrols, there were no searchlights, checkpoints, or anything of the sort along the French Concession's borders.

In the darkness of night, Wu Pifu charged toward the location of his shelter.

Perhaps it was only an illusion, but the chill on his back grew even stronger...

No... it was not an illusion. This thing could directly invade human thoughts and cause hallucinations, so it could certainly sense his thoughts as well. The closer he came to his destination, the more likely it was to kill him.

Given the nightmare's terrifying and vile nature as he understood it, the most likely moment for this Level Two nightmare to kill him would be... the instant before he was saved!?

Wu Pifu immediately began emptying his mind.

This was a proven and effective method for dealing with a nightmare's ability to sense thoughts.

But there was great terror between life and death. He was only human—how could he possibly empty his mind completely?

Wu Pifu could only desperately recall every detail of the Tiger Demon Art. Form like a tiger, spirit like a demon...

Though the Tiger Demon Art resembled Xingyi Quan, and its practice revolved around tiger form, when cultivating one's spirit and thoughts, it did not imitate real tigers. Instead, it imitated madness!

The mind was chaotic and frenzied. True meaning lay within frenzied movement. Guard the field of the heart and illuminate one's true nature.

This was a martial art entirely different from conventional Chinese martial arts.

Other Chinese martial arts required a tranquil mind. What they called observing one's true nature was emptiness. But the Tiger Demon Art did the opposite. Not only did it demand a heart full of madness while practicing, the more chaotic and frenzied thoughts one had, the better. Once one reached the point of becoming calm amid the madness of the Tiger Demon Art, preserving an indestructible sliver of mental tranquility amid chaos and stray thoughts, then the Tiger Demon Art could be considered truly mastered.

Naturally, Wu Pifu had not reached that realm. Strictly speaking, he had only just begun. On the Main Brain interface, his Tiger Demon Art indeed showed only beginner-level proficiency.

At this moment, Wu Pifu could only use stray thoughts in place of an empty mind, filling his head with all kinds of memories and questions.

Father, Mother... what were you feeling when you said your final goodbyes to me?

It's already 2877, and there still aren't even same-sex partners? Backward. Pathetic!

I'm hungry. Ever since I started practicing Chinese martial arts, I can eat so much.

Can I... survive?

I can survive!

His destination was just ahead. Wu Pifu looked at the inhabited street and the tailor shop at the edge of the French Concession. He gathered all his strength and charged forward madly.

He had stimulated his life force for over ten minutes since circulating the Tiger Demon Art. At this point, he looked utterly terrifying. Blood seeped from his mouth, ears, nose, and eyes. His skin was scarlet and burning hot, beads of blood oozing from its surface. The pedestrians nearby were so frightened that they retreated again and again, clearing an open path for him instead.

Fifty meters, forty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters...

At the last ten meters, Wu Pifu roared and leaped forward. It was the Frenzied Tiger Pouncing into the Ravine stance from the Tiger Demon Art. His entire body soared through the air, his speed multiplying severalfold. Just as he was about to rush into the tailor shop through its red door, an enormous force suddenly locked his left arm in place. He stood only one step from the red door, yet could not enter it.

Space!

Wu Pifu immediately understood what had happened. This nightmare had altered the rules of space, locking his left arm within space itself and plunging him into his final desperate situation when he was only one step away from escape.

That bone-piercing cold suddenly intensified. Voices like moans, wails, and anguished sobs flooded into his mind. Even though he was still circulating the Tiger Demon Art, his vision had gradually begun to distort. This was a sign that hallucinations were about to come.

His life would be decided in the span of a breath!

"Aaaahhh!!"

Wu Pifu suddenly let out a furious roar, his voice like a tiger's howl, like a mad demon's cry. Blue veins bulged across his skin, his muscles swelled high, and parts of his skin even split open. Then, in the next instant, Wu Pifu actually tore off his own left arm by force. He leaped forward and crashed through the red wooden door. With a sharp crack, the red wooden door shattered into pieces, while Wu Pifu vanished completely.

In the span of an instant, Wu Pifu appeared in a futuristic, high-tech hibernation chamber. He did not rise, merely raised his intact right arm and shouted, "Main Brain, activate random dream-world traversal! Confirm!"

"Confirmation... confirmed. Traversal activated."

At that moment, a pale white arm appeared out of thin air beside the hibernation chamber. The arm reached for Wu Pifu's head.

At the same time, Wu Pifu's vision went black. In the next instant, he fell into mud beneath a drizzling sky. A building stood more than ten meters ahead. He could not make out what it was, but he still gathered every last bit of strength and staggered forward. Then he used all his remaining strength to ram his head into its peeling wooden door, producing a thud.

In the final moment before losing consciousness, Wu Pifu opened the Main Brain's personal information interface in his mind and looked at the dream world where he was.

Baseline Reality 0.7.

At last, Wu Pifu fainted, slightly reassured.

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