Dream Realm?

The Qi-Suppressing Stone was not particularly hard, roughly comparable to jade. With a little grinding, it could be turned into fine powder.

After Hawkins swallowed the Qi-Suppressing Stone powder with water, the three curses within his body were drawn together by it, intertwining at the location of his heart.

In an instant, his consciousness shifted from his brain to his heart and, guided by the curses, traveled toward the unknown Dream Realm.

The busy marines aboard the ship collapsed one after another. The captain's quarters fell silent. Mark held the remaining Qi-Suppressing Stone in his hand, his gaze somewhat hesitant as he looked at the unconscious Hawkins.

If he wanted to kill Hawkins, now was the best opportunity.

The human heart was the most complicated and mottled thing.

One moment, people could be chatting and laughing together; the next, they could turn around and stab each other in the back. There was nothing strange about that.

Mark knew very well that once Hawkins successfully became a Curse Caster, he would have no chance whatsoever of killing him. After all, Hawkins was already this powerful. Once he became a Curse Caster, he would inevitably become even stronger.

The question was... did Hawkins really trust him that much?

If Hawkins had never trusted him from beginning to end, was he truly as defenseless as Mark imagined right now?

Just as Hawkins had said, invisible yet deadly danger was what people feared most. Mark sat motionless in his chair, his hand clenching and loosening over and over again.

"I lost."

"I admit defeat."

"Captain, you win. If you survive, you will be my captain."

In the end, Mark slumped bonelessly into the chair. Looking at the unconscious Hawkins, he revealed a bitter smile.

He did not dare make a move. In truth, the moment he hesitated, he had already lost completely. And he knew that if he did not dare act this time, he would probably never have another chance, because next time would be the same.

What was the Dream Realm like?

A thousand Curse Casters who had reached the Dream Realm would give a thousand different answers.

It was chaotic and disorderly, yet it seemed to operate according to some unknown rule.

Hawkins appeared in the Dream Realm abruptly. His consciousness was like a sponge, while the energy everywhere in the Dream Realm was like seawater. Thus, the instant his consciousness appeared in the Dream Realm, boundless energy surged madly into it, filling his originally indescribable consciousness and giving it a complete form.

Several dozen light-years away from Hawkins, an old man was gathering Qi-Suppressing Stones.

The old man wore a gray robe and a hat covered in tiny skulls. Holding an iron hammer, he lightly struck the chaos. Gradually, a Qi-Suppressing Stone emerged from nothing, falling away from "chaos."

Before he could rejoice, he suddenly let out a soft sound of surprise and looked in Hawkins's direction.

Distance in the Dream Realm was actually exaggerated and unreal. Several dozen light-years was an extremely distant span in a normal universe, but in the Dream Realm, one only needed a thought to arrive.

The old man pondered for a moment before ultimately deciding to investigate.

In an instant, he appeared not far from Hawkins. Yet the moment he opened his eyes, he let out a shrill scream, fell to his knees, and began swelling and pulsing all over before finally exploding with a boom.

In the Dream Realm, Curse Casters could easily see through the essence of matter, and likewise see through one another's strengths and weaknesses.

Hawkins's consciousness contained an extremely vast amount of information. If an ordinary person wanted to decipher this information, it would take several billion years. To master it would take at least several tens of billions of years.

The old man had directly witnessed Hawkins, so his consciousness was instantly blown apart.

However, Hawkins himself had no idea that merely existing had inflicted enormous harm upon a powerful Curse Caster. His consciousness was currently accepting the information from the Dream Realm.

[What... do you... want?]

Hawkins fell into thought. This was the Dream Realm's question to him.

The Dream Realm had no consciousness. The question came from "rules," but in truth, it came from the deepest part of Hawkins's heart.

"To make up for my regrets!"

"Family, home, adventure, games..."

As Hawkins interrogated himself, one word after another gradually surfaced.

The longer a person lived, the more regrets they would inevitably have. Hawkins had many, many regrets. Time could heal pain, but it could not fill regrets.

There was one thing Mark had not mentioned. This was a small trap he had laid for Hawkins.

When ordinary people first entered the Dream Realm, the trial was not limited to the initial Mental Shock.

In fact, the Mental Shock was completely useless against Hawkins. He had not felt any Mental Shock at all upon entering the Dream Realm. This was mainly because his consciousness itself was immensely vast. That little Mental Shock falling into his consciousness was like a drop of water merging into the sea, utterly inconspicuous.

The real trial was yet to come.

After the Mental Shock, newcomers would undergo a questioning of the soul. The more one sought, the more dangerous the trials they would face next.

Only by passing the trial and fusing the three Cursed Relics they possessed into one could they be considered to have truly entered the ranks of Curse Casters.

Thus, under normal circumstances, when Curse Caster Lineages trained their descendants, they would purify their hearts, eliminating as many messy desires as possible and retaining only the purest, simplest desire.

Though this suppressive education could make it easier for the next generation to pass the trial in the early stages, it could also cause them to erupt with desires that were even harder to restrain once their restraints were removed.

For example, Mark's decision to become a pirate and his desire to try slaughtering a village on Pliskin Island were influenced by this.

Simply put, many Curse Casters were actually mentally ill. This stemmed from the Mental Shock of the Dream Realm and the suppression of desires within their Lineages.

After he answered, the chaos of the Dream Realm churned. Countless strange scenes could vaguely be seen flickering in and out within the chaos. Pairs of eyes looked over, then let out shrill wails.

However, at that moment, a Sea Chart, a Black Knife, and a false eye emerged from Hawkins's body. The three Cursed Relics turned into liquid and mixed together, then after a moment transformed into a black Sea Chart and returned to Hawkins's body.

A pillar of light descended, and Hawkins appeared atop the boundless Black Sea.

[Survive... wish granted!]

Hawkins opened his eyes, his consciousness receiving the message conveyed by the Dream Realm's rules.

"So as long as I survive, my wish can be granted?"

Hawkins looked around. He was standing atop a black ocean with no end in sight. Though it was clearly the sea, he did not sink while standing on it.

This environment somewhat resembled the legendary Black Sea.

After observing the environment, Hawkins shifted his attention to himself. His body was not a real body, but a kind of energy body. His consciousness easily confirmed this.

In other words, none of his main body's various abilities had come with him, and he had to face the dangers within the Black Sea?

No.

This was not the Black Sea!

Hawkins looked at the black liquid beneath his feet and made a new judgment.

Though it looked very similar, the Black Sea merely had black seawater. It was not nearly this viscous.

From the image of the silver coin entering the water, Hawkins could determine the density and buoyancy of the water.

That was precisely why he concluded that this was not the Black Sea.

"Survive?"

"If I am to survive an enemy's attack, where is the enemy?"

"If it is not surviving an enemy's attack, then where does the danger come from?"

Hawkins swept his gaze around, his heart filled with questions. He had too little information right now. He had to move.

The major premise of waiting still to counter movement was having a certain foundation of intelligence. Right now, he was completely in the dark and could only take the initiative to gather information.

Just as he raised a foot to walk forward, a black hand reached out from the seawater and grabbed at the foot he had not lifted.

The timing of the black hand's attack was exquisitely calculated.

It came at the exact moment when Hawkins's old force had just run out and his new force had not yet arisen.

Hawkins glanced at the black hand. Just as it was about to touch his ankle, his center of gravity sank, then his speed abruptly increased as his raised foot fiercely stomped down at the black hand.

His movements were like a video suddenly fast-forwarding, completing every change in an instant. His foot landed directly on the black hand, forcing it to swiftly sink back into the seawater.

The sneak attack had failed.

The next moment, not far in front of Hawkins, a bare-chested man gradually rose from the Black Sea.

The man's face was pale, his mouth sewn shut with black thread. Most terrifying of all was his abdomen, where a swollen ghostly face grew. That face gazed greedily at Hawkins.

"Are you my enemy?" Hawkins asked, looking at the man.

The man did not answer. He merely stared darkly at Hawkins, while the ghostly face on his abdomen continuously made "smack, smack" sounds. Black liquid constantly flowed from both corners of its mouth.

"Trying to stall for time?"

Hawkins acted decisively. Since the enemy had appeared, he would directly knock him down and kill him!

He closed the distance in several steps, moving as if dancing. The man tried to dodge, only to crash straight into his fist. Before the force of the punch could send him flying, Hawkins's shoulder rammed into his side, sending him rolling across the seawater.

The man's body was soft, and as cold as a block of ice.

Although he had suffered Hawkins's consecutive blows, he did not sink beneath the surface after falling onto the sea. Instead, after rolling a few times, he quickly got back up. The ghostly face on his abdomen let out a roar, and he charged swiftly at Hawkins.

In truth, Hawkins did not know how to fight before the age of five hundred. Though he had experienced "fights," they were, plainly speaking, just wild flailing.

When he was five hundred, World War III erupted. Only after enduring countless hardships amid the chaos of those troubled times did he gradually learn how to fight and how to kill.

Later, he experienced wars too numerous to count.

There were wars between humans, and wars between humans and other races. Naturally, his combat experience grew ever richer.

So Hawkins was not a genius. He was only powerful because he had lived a long time and experienced many battles.

The moment the man charged forward, it was as though he were deliberately accommodating Hawkins. His cheek was struck squarely by Hawkins's sweeping kick, and the sound of bones shattering was incomparably clear.

That kick immediately sent the man crashing down. Before he could get back up, Hawkins stomped down and snapped his neck.