Stepping onto the stairway to heaven and treading on auspicious clouds, "Zhang Mingli" painted the sun, moon, and stars onto his body as he gazed at the Heavenly Gate within arm's reach.
Dreamfold Town held thirteen transformation methods. Each offered a chance to become an unspeakable upon reaching its final stage, but the town's resources were nowhere near enough to support everyone in taking that last step.
Compared with the other transformation methods, the shrine construction method had severe drawbacks: it offered no mobility and little ability to fight. As a result, every spirit shrine would be occupied by other ghost gods and lose its own will.
"Deep underground, where no daylight ever reached, I ate the scraps you dropped from other nightmares, gathered the remains you had ruined, and used the filth you wouldn't even look at to build this place, little by little."
Glazed golden tiles reflected rosy radiance. No one could imagine how terrifying and filthy the Immortal Palace, so magnificent in their eyes, truly was.
"All my preparations were for this moment."
Each transformation method had its own traits and governed one of Dreamfold Town's rules. But since a nine-story spirit shrine had never appeared in the town before, no one knew what rule the shrine construction method would command at its ultimate stage.
Using the power of all the shrine's believers as a link, Zhang Mingli made the Immortal Palace real. With it, he trapped more than half of Dreamfold Town's ghost gods, then used them as sacrificial offerings in an attempt to push open the Open the Heavenly Gate.
For the people living in this deep nightmare, opening their eyes meant facing endless darkness, surrounded by all manner of cruel, uncanny horrors. Leaving this place and escaping this nightmare was their truest, most heartfelt