Chapter 223: You Can Call Me... Pride

Lin Canyang stared at the man before him for a long time. He opened his mouth, but having gone so long without speaking, no sound emerged on his first attempt.

He paused, feeling the unfamiliar vibration of his vocal cords as he tried to force out a few muffled syllables. Ultimately, he gave up.

He slowly lowered his head and closed his eyes, looking as though he had fallen asleep.

Su Mu chuckled softly. He knew Lin Canyang had completely lost his will to fight.

Perhaps Lin Canyang had once thought of revenge, but after suffering an endless, agonizing imprisonment, all he wanted now was to die.

It was a perfectly normal reaction. When living brought nothing but pain, a person naturally thought of ending it all.

But Su Mu hadn't come here to give Lin Canyang the release of death. He lacked the will to live? Simple. Su Mu would just rebuild it for him.

A man could endure the darkness so long as he had never seen the light. Since Lin Canyang had forgotten what the light looked like, Su Mu would help him find it again.

Su Mu's figure slowly faded away, slipping into Lin Canyang's dream like a ghost.

A thick gray haze obscured the sky, and the earth was utterly barren. Cracks spread across the streets like spiderwebs, with weeds pushing through the fissures.

Abandoned, rust-covered cars lay scattered in disarray. The towering skyscrapers of the past had been drained of all color, their windows shattered and walls mottled with decay. The wind swept through the empty stairwells, letting out an eerie howl like the wailing of the city.

Aside from the wind, the place was completely silent. There were no humans, no birds or beasts. Even the host of the dream, Lin Canyang, was nowhere to be found.

It was Su Mu's first time seeing a dream without its host, and it piqued his interest. Based on his understanding of dreams, he guessed that Lin Canyang's consciousness was teetering on the edge of self-destruction.

Because Lin Canyang couldn't commit suicide, his extreme, long-suppressed desire for death had eventually begun to feed back into his mind. His consciousness had grown so fragile that it was actively destroying itself.

It was the same principle as going mad. When faced with unbearable trauma, a person's mind would erase its own rationality, turning them into a lunatic just to escape reality.

Snap!

Su Mu snapped his fingers, and the dream instantly shifted.

The ruined city transformed into a sun-drenched beach.

The bright sunlight draped over the beautiful beach like a soft golden veil, sparkling against the backdrop of the azure sea and sky. Bathed in the light, the fine sand glinted like countless tiny gems.

Waves gently lapped against the shore, letting out a soothing sound as they churned into crests of white seafoam.

A warm sea breeze brushed against Lin Canyang. He stood there like a stone statue, staring blankly at the breathtaking scenery before him while the laughter of children running across the beach echoed in his ears.

Beautiful women in bikinis lounged lazily on beach chairs, their faces beneath their sunglasses glowing with relaxation and joy.

"This... what is..." Lin Canyang raised his hands in disbelief. His once emaciated arms were full of flesh once more, looking perfectly healthy and strong.

He reached down and grabbed a handful of sand. He could feel its fine, damp texture, mixed with the warmth of the sun.

A line of clear tears streamed down his face. No one could understand how he felt in this moment, just as no one could possibly know what it was like for a man locked in a lightless dungeon for decades to suddenly stand on a bright, open beach.

"Sir, your food and drinks." A waiter brought a tray loaded with food over to Lin Canyang.

Lin Canyang numbly accepted the meal. Staring at these once unattainable delicacies now right in front of him, he couldn't shake the feeling that none of this was real.

"Am I dreaming? Then why does it feel so real?" He picked up a chicken drumstick and took a tentative bite. The flavor of the tender, juicy meat instantly exploded across his taste buds.

His eyes shot wide open. Like a madman, he began grabbing the food in front of him and stuffing it frantically into his mouth. Having not chewed solid food in so long, it wasn't long before he choked.

Just then, a pleasant chuckle rang out beside him. A moment later, a pale, delicate hand holding a cold drink appeared before his eyes.

Lin Canyang looked up, somewhat dazzled. It was a young woman in a bikini with a radiant smile on her face. Droplets of water still trailed down her pale skin, making her look like a mermaid fresh from the sea.

"Here, honey, have a drink so you don't choke." The woman's melodic giggle carried the doting tone unique to lovers.

Lin Canyang took the iced drink and downed it in one gulp. A refreshing rush of pleasure surged through his entire body. Then, he froze for a moment. "What did you just call me?"

"I called you my husband. What's wrong? Did you take a nap and forget your own wife?" The woman rolled her eyes at him before lying back on the beach chair beside him, lazily stretching her graceful figure.

"Hurry up and come help me put on some sunscreen, or I'm going to get a tan." The woman tossed a bottle of sunscreen over to him. Lin Canyang numbly caught it, looking even more stupefied.

Was this a dream?

Was this the dream? Or had those decades of imprisonment been the dream?

"Hurry up," the woman playfully complained, giving Lin Canyang a light kick with her pale foot.

Lin Canyang's heart flared with heat. This familiar yet foreign feeling seemed entirely surreal, but as he rubbed the sunscreen in, the sensation of the woman's smooth skin against his hands felt undeniably real.

"Hey, where are your hands going? You're terrible!"

Lin Canyang couldn't hold back any longer. All of his repressed emotions and primal physical instincts erupted. He lunged at her, and then... lunged at nothing but thin air.

He face-planted hard into the sand, getting a mouthful of grit.

When he looked back up, everyone on the beach had completely vanished. There was nothing left but the lonely churning of the ocean waves.

"What?!" he cried out in horror, his eyes snapping wide open.

The cold, dark cell filled his vision. He subconsciously tried to move, only for a needle-like pain to pierce through his joints. The Mithril Chains binding him rattled loudly in the dark.

The pain instantly dragged him back to reality. The sudden whiplash of plunging straight from Heaven back down to Hell was enough to completely break him.

"Awake?" an indifferent voice echoed beside his ear.

Lin Canyang threw his head up, glaring murderously at the man in the Silver-White Mask. "Who the hell are you? What just happened?!"

His voice was terribly hoarse, sounding like two sheets of sandpaper scraping together.

"You can call me... Pride. And everything you just experienced was your future."

"My future? What the hell are you talking about? That was just a dream, wasn't it?"

Su Mu nodded. "You can think of it as a dream, but how is it not also your future? As a Gold powerhouse, you could effortlessly have beaches and beautiful women. All of that is completely within your reach to enjoy however you please—provided you can actually get out of here."