The gate had manifested in the nightmare as East Lake. Within its frozen waters lay the despair accumulated by generations. Those dark thoughts had become fish swimming through the darkness, at once delicious flesh and man-eating monsters.
This was the passage closest to the deep nightmare, a forbidden zone where the living most easily lost their way, and the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree's favorite place.
One "fish" after another was impaled by its branches and leaves. The Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree ravenously plundered every negative emotion. The unease of the human world whetted its appetite, and greed was no longer enough to describe its horror.
In an extraordinarily short time, the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree grew rapidly, breaking past the size limit imposed on the lake's fish. Its branches and leaves stretched upward, about to emerge from the water, while its roots grew downward and connected with the Blood Gate at the bottom.
Every calamity the nightmare's owner had suffered originated from the Blood Gate. The gate at the bottom of the lake was the core of the entire nightmare. The enormous face pursuing Gao Ming had twisted, its rotting features staring fixedly at the Giant Tree parasitizing the gate as the shadow of his childhood instantly swept over his soul.
The nightmare's owner and the Blood Gate had originally formed a single whole. With him there, forcing the Blood Gate open was impossible. But his primary consciousness had now awakened, and his desire to kill Qian Jin had drawn him away from the Blood Gate through hatred!
The gate beneath East Lake had become ownerless, just as it had been years ago when the Dream Owner's maternal grandfather first encountered it.
Pitch-black lake water battered the Giant Tree. The Dream Owner decisively abandoned Gao Ming and swam toward the depths of East