Chapter 154: Blinding Darkness

Guo Junjie displayed an unnatural urgency, his tone revealing a fierce yearning.

Through the thick black fog, I couldn't make out his face. I only sensed him moving faster and faster, appearing right in front of me in the blink of an eye.

The fog that had drained Zichou's vitality drifted close enough to brush my eyes. This monster, wreathed in resentment, stood barely a dozen centimeters away.

"Let me see your memories. Lower your guard; open your mind." Guo Junjie's voice echoed from all directions as the black fog surrounded everyone present. This wasn't a negotiation; it was coercion.

I tightened my grip on the thunder talisman, watching the ghostly faces flashing faintly within the black fog. "If you want to team up with me to deal with the Two-Faced Buddha, that's fine. But I won't let anyone rummage through my memories."

"You'd better think this through." Guo Junjie's voice turned grim. "Just by giving up one unpleasant memory, you can earn my friendship. I can help you control the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman, taking you freely through other people's dreams. Everyone in this world will be transparent to us. We can know everything we want to know, grasp the ugliest secrets in people's hearts. Are you truly not tempted?"

"Tempted? How could I not be? But rather than seeing through others, I prefer to protect myself."

"Think about it carefully. This is a win-win deal!" Guo Junjie's voice gradually rose. The fog closed in uncontrollably, trapping me, Huang Xue, and Sakurako inside.

"Gao Jian, I always thought you were smart. That's why I went to such lengths to show you everything I've been through. You've seen my past. You should know we share a common enemy. We are friends!" Guo Junjie's voice echoed from the fog. The black mist thickened and shrouded everything, as if I had been banished to an eternal night.

"You don't have much time left. I haven't killed you because you gave me a choice, but please don't test my patience. Open your spirit platform immediately and let me see your memories!"

Guo Junjie grew agitated. The black fog seemed to morph into Medusa's hair, writhing like venomous snakes flicking their tongues right in front of my face.

"Gao Jian..."

Someone grabbed my arm. Huang Xue stood beside me, pressing against my back. The fog coiled around her long hair, turning those flowing black locks as white as silk in the blink of an eye.

"Sorry for dragging you into this." Looking at Huang Xue beside me, a hint of resolve flashed in my eyes. "Guo Junjie, there's a truth you probably don't understand, so I'll tell you today."

"Some things can be traded, but others cannot. My memories are the foundation of my life. Whether they bring pain or sorrow, it's only because of this unique past that I am who I am."

My hand, hidden in my pocket, had already formed the thunder seal. I pulled out the cracked Heavenly Capital Thunder Talisman.

As soon as the talisman was revealed, even before I chanted the incantation, the faint sound of wind and thunder echoed within the Dream Realm.

I took a deep look at the heavy black fog. "Guo Junjie, it didn't have to be this way between us. Don't push this any further."

"You waited until now to pull out that thunder talisman. You really kept your composure, but did you think I'd be afraid?" Guo Junjie's true body was completely invisible within the black fog. "From the moment you entered the Nightmare, I've watched your every move. I know all about your so-called trump cards. This is my world. You can't threaten me. You can only do as I say!"

"Is that so?" Gripping the thunder talisman, I illuminated the dark night. The fog dared not approach within three feet. This was the divine might of the Five Thunders Orthodox Magic.

"Guo Junjie, it's time to end this. Five years of torment has hurt both you and them. Perhaps..."

"Enough!" The fog churned, opening like the massive maw of a flood dragon, as Guo Junjie rudely cut me off. "You have no right to say that! You don't know how much pain I'm in! Even after showing me so much, you still haven't felt my despair! I knew it—no one would understand! None of you ever will!"

After his roar came an eerie silence. Then, both crying and dry laughter echoed from the fog simultaneously. "Fine, then I'll just have to do it myself. I'll make you sink into the Dream Realm forever until you break! I'll smash open the locks on your memories, occupy your mind, and use your body to welcome my rebirth!"

The fog surged wildly, forming a sky-overturning dragon head that aimed straight at me.

"It still came to this in the end." I stared directly at the ferocious dragon head within the black fog, my eyes calm. "Guo Junjie, I've actually been giving you choices this whole time. I thought you only became like this because you lacked options, so I wanted to help you. But now, it seems I was wrong."

My hands formed the thunder seal, pinning the Heavenly Capital Thunder Talisman between my fingers. Lightning flashed, casting a surreal sheen over the Dream Realm.

"You're helping me? No, you never were!" Guo Junjie's voice roared from the dragon head forged of black fog, hysterical and unreasonable. The trauma of his past had twisted him into a monster; he could no longer listen to reason.

I sighed and said no more, silently chanting the incantation: "By the command of thunder, swift as sparks of fire, mighty gods of the eight directions, let nature be my guide."

"It's useless! I am immortal and indestructible within the dream; you can never kill me!" Ghostly faces surfaced on the black dragon head. This fog was tainted with the aura of an evil deity, capable of affecting a person's Fate Pattern—which is why ordinary talismans have no effect on it.

I ignored Guo Junjie's clamor and continued chanting. "Spiritual treasure talisman's decree, proclaim to the nine heavens! Ganluo Dana, piercing the supreme profound! Slay demons, bind evil, and execute thousands of ghosts!"

The talisman communed with ghosts and gods, commanding the thunder. Golden light burst forth as thunderclaps continuously boomed throughout the Dream Realm.

"It's useless, you can't kill me! Once you use up that Talisman Paper, I'll drag you all into the Deep Dream Layer and make you serve me for all eternity!"

Guo Junjie's voice rang in my ears. Staring intently at the fog, right before the incantation finished, I asked him one last question: "Guo Junjie, you said the person you hate most is your own mother. Then can you tell me... who is the person you love most in this life?"

He never expected me to ask such a question at a time like this. This soul, entangled by resentment and guilty of boundless slaughter, suddenly fell silent. Even the drifting fog ground to a halt.

He seemed to be thinking, but after a long while, he still couldn't give an answer.

"No one?"

A trace of pity flickered in my eyes. That inadvertent flash of sympathy drove Guo Junjie completely insane. "I'll tell you the answer to that after you're dead! Die!"

The massive black dragon head cascaded down like a plummeting waterfall, seeking to swallow me whole.

"Gao Jian!" Huang Xue gripped my arm desperately and closed her eyes in resignation. Everything seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

"Karma and retribution, right and wrong... I have already done my best for your commission." Calmly facing the ferocious black dragon head, my eyes flashed like lightning, radiating a sharp light. Forming a hand seal, I turned to the girl who looked exactly like Sakurako and chanted the final line of the incantation.

"Let the foul and evil dissipate; let the Dao energy endure forever!"

The Talisman Paper descended, slapping dead center onto the girl's forehead!

Suppressed by the thunder talisman, the little girl was engulfed in flashing lightning and booming thunder. Her body, constructed of Yin energy and resentment, ultimately couldn't withstand the extreme yang and unyielding power of the thunder, and it began to disintegrate.

The black dragon roared toward me, stopping just behind my back before shattering a mere dozen centimeters above my head!

It was as if a black rain had started falling within the Nightmare. Mixed into the pattering rain were countless wronged souls and endless wails of grievance.

"When did you find out?" Suppressed by the thunder talisman, the girl—half her body already dissipated—stared at me blankly. Her features began to shift. After a burst of distortion, she transformed into a delicate, gaunt, and somewhat shy male high school student.

"The first time I saw you. I realized something was wrong back in the Shallow Dream Layer." Standing in the black rain, I tried to light a cigarette, but I just couldn't get a spark.

"I looked at that girl's memories and transformed according to the version of herself she remembered. How did you see through it?"

"The self in her memories is different from the her I see in my eyes. Right, where is Sakurako now?"

"I already sent her out of the Dream Realm. That girl was incredibly stubborn. She entered the Dream Realm over a dozen times to help you, but got kicked out every single time." The male high school student in front of me was none other than Guo Junjie. Struck in his true body by an Upper Vehicle thunder talisman, even an evil deity wouldn't survive.

"That must have been hard on her." The cheap five-yuan pack of cigarettes finally lit. Watching Guo Junjie's body continuously fade away, I pulled out the photograph he had always treasured from my pocket.