All common sense doesn't hold true in dreams, because dreams are a different dimension of space.
For example, common sense dictates that a person will suffocate in water. But in dreams, a person will not drown because the conscious mind does not need to breathe.
However, you can sometimes make mistakes when you treat counterintuitive knowledge as common sense.
Qingmu is making that mistake now.
He thought he wouldn't drown, so he let the river water, which he perceived as flowing, go over his nose.
However, even in a relaxed state, he choked on some water.
The cold water entered his nasal cavity and lungs, causing him to cough immediately.
He immediately tilted his head back, exposing his mouth and nose above the water, coughed a few times to expel the water from his lungs, and only then did he feel a little better.
Like that mad beggar, Qingmu hung himself from the top of the cage, waiting for the water level to recede.
It seems this is no longer a dream!
But he was certain that when he entered the cave, he had indeed entered a Group Dream Realm. Everyone in the cave was dreaming; they had collectively constructed a dream, and this dream had lasted for a very long time. Through the collaboration of many people, the dream space had become extremely vast, and its rules greatly restricted power.
The question is, when did you exit the dream?
Qingmu carefully recalled everything that happened when Du Juan left, and there seemed to be no suspicious signs that the space had shifted.
The feeling of actually soaking in cold groundwater wasn't pleasant; the muscles in my bent, slung arms started to feel a little sore and numb.
Something stirred the water in the distance and swam over. It was impossible to tell what it was in the darkness; all that could be heard was the rushing sound of water.
Suddenly, Han Laizi's curses came from the cage next to him. "Damn it... damn it... what is that?... ptooey... I can't take it anymore... ptooey... gurgle... help... pfft... help... pfft... help..."
Han Laizi seemed to have been pulled into the water by something, and after bubbling up a few bubbles, he fell silent.
Then, everything fell silent.
After an unknown amount of time in the darkness, the water level slowly receded.
Qingmu rubbed his arm, then ran his hand over every single iron bar of the cage. The cage was welded shut and extremely sturdy; it was impossible for an ordinary person to escape without unlocking the cage door.
Of course, Qingmu was no ordinary person. So he tried to widen the gaps in the iron bars.
But he suddenly realized that he couldn't muster any strength at all. A viscous force enveloped his body, just like when an ordinary person has a nightmare and is being pressed down by something.
Or is it a dream?
This is very strange.
Qingmu took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and carefully recalled the details of entering the cave from beginning to end.
He first felt unwell in the gully of decaying leaves behind the small wooden house, where there was a foul stench. At that moment, his consciousness was already affected. That stench, like the fragrance of Du Juan, influenced his subconscious by stimulating the olfactory center of his brain.
That place should be an extension of this Group Dream, serving as a gateway for outsiders to enter this place.
Next, Qingmu felt a sense of disorientation at the cave entrance. That must have been when he touched the edge of this dream. He realized he was about to enter a very vast dream and thought it was created by Duwa.
After entering the cave, he encountered Du Juan, and later discovered that Han Laizi and others were all in the dream, which confirmed that it was a Group Dream.
Although Du Juan didn't say it explicitly, she acknowledged that this wasn't a dream she and her master shared. This place was activated for her by Situ, meaning that the dream already existed before Du Juan.
It's too early to say for sure whether Situ manufactured it.
Afterwards, Qingmu was locked in a cage, Du Juan left, which was fine. The question is, why did the consciousness choke on water?
If he were just an ordinary person, that would be one thing. Ordinary people, unaware that they are dreaming, believe they will drown. After being drowned in their dream, their subconscious will directly retrieve sensory memories such as chest pain and suffocation from their brain. Usually, at that point, the person will wake up.
However, in the Group Dream Realm, an individual's dream is connected to the dreams of others, and the spaces overlap, making it difficult to collapse. It's like building a house; ordinary dreams are like houses in the countryside, each independent, while Group Dream are like apartments in the city, with dozens or even hundreds of households in one building. Unless the entire building collapses, your house won't collapse alone.
If the dream doesn't collapse, it's difficult for the consciousness to leave the dream space and return to reality.
That's why Qingmu believed he had left the dream world, and the behavior of the Han Laizi, confirmed his thoughts.
But as he tried to open the iron gate of the cage, his body clearly told him that he was still dreaming.
In other words, he is currently in a state that is both a dream and reality.
In his dream, he was trapped in an iron cage beside an underground river whose water level would change, and in the real world, his body was in the same situation.
This is a Real-Scene Dream, where the dream and reality are synchronized; whatever you do in your dream is what you are doing in reality.
For ordinary people, sleepwalking is a kind of Real-Scene Dream.
However, it is already incredible to construct a massive Group Dream, and it sounds even more unbelievable to turn a Group Dream into Real-Scene Dream.
Most people's dreams mimic the real world in terms of spatial rules. Only in this way can they easily retrieve and store many things from their memories. Therefore, most dreams have a gravitational pull, and people in dreams cannot fly.
Breaking these rules is not easy, but it's not impossible either, because the rules of the real world are also changing as we explore and learn.
Sometimes, a person lacking knowledge and scientific understanding is more likely to achieve breakthroughs in their dreams because they are unaware of the law of universal gravitation. Therefore, children are more likely to have strange dreams such as flying and diving.
Constructing a dream that conforms to the rules of the real universe is the easiest thing to do; you just need to follow common sense. Usually, we don't need to do anything deliberately; at the beginning of the dream, the subconscious has already determined the rules of the dream.
However, the "easy" aspect mentioned here is only relative. Even the world's greatest scientists still have a very limited understanding of this world, so how could they possibly construct a world exactly like reality in a dream?
Just as 3D printing technology can achieve near-perfect similarity in shape and material, it cannot replicate something at the molecular level, let alone the quantum level. So don't expect 3D printing to be able to replicate a person anytime soon.
Similarly, it is almost impossible to replicate a dream that is exactly the same as the real world; this would require the dreamer to understand all the rules of the universe and the details of its operation.
Therefore, most Real-Scene Dream rely on coincidences of bodily perception.
Qingmu recalled Mo Yu's sleepwalking state. Those mirrors were set up by Situ, and he had been very puzzled at the time—why would Situ do such a thing?
Now it seems a bit clear— Situ is probably conducting an experiment. He's trying to create a formation—if you can call it that—that allows people to enter Group Real-Scene Dreamscape.