Chapter 435: Sacrificing a God

"You stopped him?"

Xiao Yuan shook her head. "Why would I stop him? I really wanted him to succeed. Xuan Tian's power will run out sooner or later, and the world will be destroyed when that happens. A new member of the Nightmare Race has to inherit this Dream World.

"Of course, if he chose the second method, I definitely would have stopped him."

"Then why did he fail?"

"Because he couldn't become a nightmare. When he first arrived at the Land of Origin, his soul was no longer human; it belonged to another Saint Grade race. Naturally, he couldn't become a member of the Nightmare Race. A human soul might be weak, but it's highly malleable and can evolve to the Saint Grade. However, it's impossible to convert one Saint Grade race into another.

"The Nightmare Race has no physical body. They are pure spiritual entities, so it doesn't matter what the physical body turns into, but the soul is a different story."

Su Mu frowned slightly. The Mad King was already a Saint Grade expert when he came to the Land of Origin back then? No, that wasn't right. The experts of that era were restricted by the world and were completely unable to connect to the Saint Law.

To become a Saint Grade expert, one not only needed to transform their soul into a Saint Grade race but also needed to connect to the Saint Law.

He guessed that the Mad King must have used Supreme Heaven to push his strength to the world's peak. Other than being unable to connect to the Saint Law, he was essentially no different from the Saint Grade.

Increasing one's strength should have been a good thing, but the Mad King likely never expected that raising his power too quickly would ultimately prevent his transformation into a member of the Nightmare Race, causing him to miss out on the Creator's Authority.

"Couldn't he use Supreme Heaven to change back into a human?"

"Of course he could. Isn't that exactly how he changed back?"

Su Mu froze. So after changing back, he became me? Does that even count as changing? That's completely just reincarnating and restarting with a fresh account.

It turned out that after the Mad King left, he sacrificed himself just to turn his soul back into a human.

"Evolution is easy; regression is hard. A baby weighing seven jin and six liang, measuring 50 centimeters, can easily grow into an adult, but it's incredibly difficult for an adult to revert into a baby of that size. The best way for an adult to become a baby again is to be reincarnated. The soul works the same way, if not harder.

"In your words, it's true that the Mad King deleted his account and started over."

Su Mu: "..."

Xiao Yuan continued, "He fused the Land of Origin into his own dream, then deleted his account and started over, becoming the current you. Essentially, you are the Mad King; the two of you are the same person."

"The Land of Origin could be fused into a dream that easily?"

"The Land of Origin can exist anywhere in the Dream World. So, it wasn't difficult for him to make a wish to place the Land of Origin into his own dream.

"Your infinite spiritual power is also Xuan Tian's residual power within the Land of Origin. Every time you enter a dream, you inherit a little bit of Xuan Tian's strength. This was all arranged by your past self so you could become a nightmare more smoothly.

"Right now, however, you are still missing the most crucial step to transforming your soul into a nightmare."

"Missing what?"

"The soul blood of a nightmare. Just like how you acquired the Giant Demon Essence Blood to advance to the Gold King, you still need to obtain the soul blood of a nightmare if you want to become one."

Su Mu nodded. This wasn't a difficult task for him. After all, he already had experience with it. Although he had never seen the Nightmare Race, he had Supreme Heaven with him. It should be easy enough to find.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Yuan then said, "There is only one member of the Nightmare Race in this world, and that is Xuan Tian, the God of Nightmares. But Xuan Tian is already dead."

Su Mu frowned slightly. Just as he was about to speak, Xiao Yuan added, "Even if you make a wish with Supreme Heaven, it'll be extremely difficult to obtain the soul blood of a nightmare, because that is divine blood!

"There is a very clear boundary between mortals and gods, like two different dimensions. If you want to use mortal items to exchange for divine blood, I'm afraid sacrificing the entire Dream World wouldn't be enough. Equivalent exchange does not exist between the two.

"It's just like how a billionaire in a novel can't use fake money to buy a piece of bread from the hands of the novel's Readers.

"Furthermore, I'm talking about true divine blood, not those Demigods in the Abyss."

Su Mu naturally understood what Xiao Yuan meant. Back when he and the true Primal Pope were trapped in the Abyss, they had relied on mortal items to shake the Shadow Divine Power.

But looking at it now, the reason they were able to shake it was that the Shadow God was only a Demigod.

Xiao Yuan had also just mentioned that the gods on the surface—that is, the gods in Heaven—had sealed the corrupted creatures, humans, and Demigods underground to prevent the Nightmare from spreading.

Su Mu had previously sensed that the strength of the gods of Hell couldn't compare to the gods of Heaven. Now, it appeared that was exactly the case; one side consisted of true gods, while the other side consisted of Demigods.

"Then how am I supposed to get the soul blood of a nightmare?"

Xiao Yuan's sweet voice uttered four chilling words: "By sacrificing a god."

"Sacrificing a god? It seems that's the only way. Only a god can be exchanged for divine blood."

"Sacrificing a true god is unrealistic, but you can sacrifice a Demigod. Demigods exist on the boundary between mortals and gods. It's just like how virtual currency in a game can sometimes be exchanged for real-world money, which can then buy bread."

Su Mu raised an eyebrow. "Are your analogies always this fascinating?"

Xiao Yuan smiled sweetly. "Although I've never left the Land of Origin, I am perfectly clear on how the entire human world operates."

Su Mu nodded. "Right, just like a netizen who knows everything about the world without ever stepping out the door."

"Thank you for the compliment. Your analogy is also quite fascinating."

Su Mu didn't continue this mutual flattery. Instead, he asked the most critical question. "With my current strength, I still can't deal with an Abyss Demigod. Can you help?"

"No," Xiao Yuan answered sweetly.

What an unexpectedly blunt refusal.

How was he supposed to deal with a Demigod?

Su Mu felt the challenge. Although his current strength was enough to deal with the Saint Grade, a god presiding over another dimension—even if they were only a Demigod—was not someone he could handle.

The most critical issue was that he could no longer increase his strength. To step into the Saint Grade, he would need to transform his soul into a Giant Demon, but once he became a Giant Demon, he would have no choice but to follow the Mad King's example and delete his account to start over.

His spiritual power growth was also rapidly approaching the maximum limit that a human soul could contain.

This meant he had to rely entirely on his current strength to take on an Abyss Demigod.

At this moment, Xiao Yuan added, "The role I can play only exists within this Dream World, so I can't go to the Abyss to help you fight a Demigod."

"Oh?" Su Mu narrowed his eyes. "And what if I make the Demigod descend into the Dream World?"

"Then I would be able to play a role. However, I don't possess any direct power of my own. My only ability is manipulating this Dream World—things like creating objects from the void, altering the terrain, resurrecting the dead...

"Actually, you can do these things too."

As Xiao Yuan spoke, their surroundings shifted back into the Computer room.

The pixel figure on the Computer screen displayed a line of text: "If you want to create something, you can just make a new folder yourself. If you want to change the terrain, go find the terrain in the world folder and modify it.

"Resurrecting the dead is the easiest. Just drag the person you want to revive directly out of the recycle bin."

"I get it. You should just change back into human form; it makes communicating much easier."

Instantly, the Computer room vanished, replaced by a luxurious living room. Xiao Yuan sat on the sofa, brewing tea.

Su Mu walked over and glanced around. "Where is the Creator's Authority?"

Xiao Yuan smiled and handed over a teacup emitting white steam. "This is it."

Su Mu couldn't help but chuckle. Using the Creator's Authority to drink tea? What had Xiao Yuan been learning from humans all these years?

He accepted the teacup and took a light sip. A rich aroma of tea filled the air.

"Then can you just toss the Demigod directly into the recycle bin once they enter?"

Xiao Yuan shook her head vigorously. "Of course not. I can't control a Demigod that enters the world. Although I just said I am omnipotent, that is strictly limited to this Dream World.

"Moreover, abilities like creating objects from the void and resurrecting the dead also consume the inherent power of the Dream World itself.

"Take resurrecting the dead, for example. If I were to restore all the folders in the recycle bin, the Computer program would crash. It would completely freeze, because the Dream World simply cannot accommodate that many people."

"What about creating a divine weapon capable of slaying a Demigod?"

Xiao Yuan shook her head once again. "If I mobilized the power of the entire world, I could manifest such a divine weapon, but then the world would be finished. I have to reserve a portion of power to maintain the world's operation."

Su Mu understood. In short, she couldn't do this, and she couldn't do that either.