Is Falling to Demonic Corruption Really This Great?

Cold.

So cold!

The breath he exhaled turned to white mist as the chill seeped in through his limbs, spreading to every corner of his body and making him feel the biting cold with startling clarity.

When he came back to his senses, he found himself still wearing the blue-and-white hospital gown, but he was no longer in a hospital. He was in a natural cave.

Before him, Sun Huowang, clad in a red Daoist robe, stared at him excitedly and said, "I knew you were different! Who are you? Why can you see the same hallucinations as me? Which side is real?"

"I... I don't know..."

"I can't tell either. I really can't tell!"

Gripping his hair tightly, Sun Huowang kept pulling with all his strength. Strands of hair came out with scalp attached, making even Lu Ziqi take an involuntary step back.

This guy was completely insane!

A moment later, Sun Huowang, his face covered in blood, finally stopped.

Panting heavily, he glared at Lu Ziqi and said, "When they took me out just now, I heard someone tell you to test some medicine. Don't take it! That thing isn't a sedative—I don't know what it is! If you're scared, close your eyes, then snap them open. Got it?"

Lu Ziqi wanted to ask more, but someone suddenly shouted Sun Huowang's name.

Hearing someone call him, Sun Huowang muttered a curse under his breath. Then, his face filled with killing intent, he ran deeper into the cave.

Just as Lu Ziqi was about to follow, he saw a massive fat man, white as a drowned corpse, slowly emerge from the bottomless darkness of the cave.

There was a conspicuous scar across the man's belly. The wound had not been treated, and green pus was still dripping from it.

White fat clung to his body like melting wax. His misaligned facial features were probably generated automatically by the Dreamscape, and the sense of wrongness further emphasized his inhumanity. Lu Ziqi could not sense the slightest trace of humanity from him.

He had seen plenty of horror Dreamscapes before, but he had never experienced this kind of terror—layered and deepening like a thin mist.

While he was frozen in shock, the fat man approached with a pill pinched between his fingers. He held it to Lu Ziqi's lips and smiled. "Junior Brother, it's time to take your medicine."

Focusing his mind, Lu Ziqi realized it was not medicine at all. It was clearly a centipede curled into a ball, still writhing nonstop.

He wanted to counterattack, but his dream-self had no cultivation. He could only watch helplessly as the other man drew closer, his fat hand pushing the centipede toward him.

At that critical moment, he squeezed his eyes shut, then quickly opened them.

The fat man before him had vanished, replaced by a plump nurse who was looking at him with displeasure.

Warmth returned once more. Outside the window, the sunlight was bright and lovely, completely unlike the cave from before.

The fat nurse shoved the pill into Lu Ziqi's hand and said irritably, "Why does taking medicine have to be such a hassle? Hurry up and take it. Sleep after you do, understand?"

The pill was small and white. It neither moved in his hand nor sprouted legs. It looked perfectly normal.

Most of it was starch, with only a small portion being medicine. After swallowing it, he would quickly fall asleep.

But it might also turn into a centipede, lay one hundred and eight thousand eggs in his stomach, seize every inch of his muscles, blood vessels, and lymph nodes, then finally burst out through his body.

Holding the tiny pill in confusion, Lu Ziqi could no longer make sense of the situation.

On one side was the hospital; on the other was the cave.

On one side was the fat nurse; on the other was the fat man.

Which side was real?

He could no longer tell.

"Lu Ziqi! Lu Ziqi!"

Someone was shaking his shoulders hard, pulling him out of the Dreamscape.

Looking to the side in a daze, he saw his deskmate continuously shaking him.

"Morning class has started. What were you playing that had you so absorbed? The homeroom teacher is already here!"

"Oh."

Turning his head, Lu Ziqi saw that the homeroom teacher was already standing at the front, staring coldly at him.

But the usually terrifying homeroom teacher now seemed insignificant. Instead, the fat man from the Dreamscape seemed to still be beside him, and he could even smell that lingering corpse stench.

This was reality. What I had just entered was a Dreamscape.

But the more he thought that, the more confused Lu Ziqi became. The aftereffects of the Dreamscape remained, leaving him unable to distinguish the boundary between reality and dreams. He sank into profound bewilderment.

At Fourth Cultivation High School, Chen Yu, who had just finished class, took out his phone and began checking his Dreamscape data.

Actually, there was no need to check. The effects of his Constitution had already appeared, letting him know that the results were good.

Just moments ago, he had constantly heard a string of notifications ringing by his ear. He had finally been forced to turn them off before it became quiet.

[A cultivator was frightened excessively while playing, gaining 30 points of Negative Emotions.]

[A cultivator was frozen in a Dreamscape, gaining 15 points of Negative Emotions.]

[A cultivator could no longer tell, gaining 99 points of Negative Emotions.]

Opening the Constitution interface visible only to himself, Chen Yu saw that his Constitution had gained an additional Trait. Like a progress bar, it appeared to the right of his Constitution's name.

3970/10000 (Demonic)

3970 should have been the emotion points he had obtained, and it was still slowly increasing.

10000 might have been the limit, or perhaps the amount required for one settlement. As for what would happen once it was full, he would have to find out later.

Demonic indicated that all the emotions he had gained so far were Negative Emotions.

Nodding, Chen Yu began browsing his phone and looking into the situation with The Dreamer.

But the moment he logged into the Dream Maker backend, he received a message:

[Dear beginner Dream Maker, Mr. Morning Light.]

[We noticed that you released a new Dreamscape this morning, A Daoist Oddity's Dreamer. After two hours of testing, we recommended it to a total of one hundred players. Eighty-seven chose to enter, over eighty played for more than fifteen minutes, and seventy-six gave it a rating of complete satisfaction after finishing.]

"So exaggerated? Had the people here never had anything good before, or was everyone just particularly enthusiastic?"

[These Grades are exceptionally outstanding among beginner Dream Makers, and we are greatly surprised. While the free price is one reason for its popularity, your own ability is beyond question. To encourage works by outstanding Dream Makers such as yourself, we will provide targeted promotion for your work.]

[—Tianyuan City Cultivator Management Committee]

After reading the message, Chen Yu once again marveled that he had been born in the right place.

Different cities had different management policies, and Tianyuan City was especially gentle toward newcomers.

The Awakening Fluid had been one example, and now free promotion was another.

Capable people were valued everywhere, but Tianyuan was undoubtedly the most obvious case. They actively nurtured every cultivator, hoping they would mature quickly and then serve Tianyuan.

After thanking the Committee, Chen Yu began browsing the players' comments, reading each one carefully.

[A great Dreamscape. I still don't dare get out of bed.]

[Author, do you have any trick for distinguishing dreams from reality? I can't tell reality from Dreamscapes anymore.]

[Not recommended, especially before going to sleep. Not recommended after waking up either. As long as you don't want to be scared to death, don't play it.]

[First time I've encountered such a terrifying Dreamscape.]

[Incredible, truly incredible. The author's future is incredible.]

As he read through them one by one, Chen Yu noticed that the number of comments began to rise. A large number of players flooded in and left even more comments.

As players poured in, more Negative Emotions flowed into his Constitution. The massive influx kept raising his progress bar, making Chen Yu smile involuntarily.

More than ten minutes later, the progress bar finally filled!

His body trembled slightly. The number behind the progress bar changed from "10000" to "20000," while the emotions he had accumulated completely vanished, transformed into a new value that appeared on the panel: "Mana."

Seeing the ten thousand points of usable Mana, Chen Yu's pupils abruptly dilated.

This Constitution was amazing!

Was falling to demonic corruption really this great?