Chapter 557: A One-Man War (1)

[The eleventh livestream has concluded. Unlocking the new product catalog.]

[Reincarnation Mirror Fragment (100 points), Fragmented Scroll of the Supreme Scripture of the Three Corpses (After a person dies, their soul ascends to heaven, and their spirit enters the earth. Only the three corpses wander, and they are called ghosts. They seek sacrifices during the four seasons and eight festivals. If the sacrifices are impure, they become a disaster, causing all kinds of illnesses and taking human lives. This method can slay the three corpses to achieve the Dao. 30 points).]

[Compendium of Daoist Art Taboos (Magic cannot be used lightly; karma is impermanent, and the laws of heaven run in cycles. 5 points), Spirit-Channeling Deliverance Text (Praying to the Three Pure Ones and the Three Heavenly Venerates; a thousand calls bring a thousand answers, ten thousand calls bring ten thousand spirits, and spirits come even uncalled. 30 points).]

[Ancient disguise technique (Using a virgin boy's urine as the first water, hiding it in the wild dust of winter and summer, and mixing it with the fat of cattle and sheep allows one to mold their face like a hill. Change a thousand faces without altering bone. 6 points), Principles and Applications of Modern Hypnosis (3 points), Misfortune Pocket Watch (You will become a favorite of misfortune. If you are already entangled in bad luck, then this watch will become your best partner. Hypnotic prop. 5 points).]

...

Many new items appeared in this update to the product catalog. Given the special circumstances, I didn't examine them closely, only giving them a rough glance.

'What is this Reincarnation Mirror Fragment to be worth a hundred points?' Long ago, I realized that the Live Show's product catalog didn't unlock items without a reason. The sudden addition of this Reincarnation Mirror Fragment successfully caught my attention. 'There's no explanation at all. A simple mirror fragment actually costs a hundred points. This thing looks like an even bigger scam than the General Compendium of the Dragon-Capturing Art.'

I couldn't possibly come up with a hundred points right now, so I had no intention of redeeming the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment for the time being. 'The other items are quite tempting, though.'

Although the Misfortune Pocket Watch's function was ordinary, its description was incredibly tempting. Only someone entangled in disaster could control it. I had negative one hundred thousand merit and was actively targeted by heaven's will. Was there anyone in this world with worse luck than me? With my current situation, controlling a pocket watch would be an absolute breeze.

I quickly kicked this thought out of my mind. The more I learned about the Live Show, the more mysterious it felt. Trying to guess the deeper meaning behind every one of its actions was basically impossible.

Sighing, I put away my phone. I got up to check the hospital ward, quietly retrieving the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman from Ye Bing's forehead. After making sure I hadn't missed anything, I sat back down on my own bed to wait for Chu Men to wake up.

The early sun slowly climbed over the horizon. Chu Men, lying amidst a pile of medical equipment, finally woke up. He had slept very comfortably. After waking up, he even stretched. "Morning, Streamer."

The Dream Realm was fraught with danger. Being able to escape it smoothly was something worth celebrating in itself—at least for Chu Men.

"Morning," I replied flatly. "Don't go out just yet. Last night, while we were all in the dream, a vicious assault took place right outside the door."

When entering a dream, the physical body was completely defenseless. Chu Men knew exactly what my words meant. The relaxed expression on his face instantly vanished without a trace. "Were they coming for us?"

"It's possible." I continued cultivating the Profound Truth Mental Method, casually instructing Chu Men. "Don't reveal what happened in the Dream Realm to any outsiders. Leave me your contact info in a bit. You must be extremely careful after you leave the hospital. I suspect someone wants to kill you."

"Kill me?" Chu Men took off his helmet and pushed all the messy wires aside. "I know my personality is a bit flawed, but I've never made enemies with anyone. Why would they want to kill me?"

"Sorry. This entire mess started because of me; you just got dragged into it. I'm not sure which faction the assailants belong to, but one thing is certain: they are ruthless and unscrupulous. Their habit is to cut the grass and dig up the roots, leaving absolutely no potential threats alive." I had no intention of deliberately scaring Chu Men; I simply didn't want this enthusiastic livestream viewer to meet with an accident.

"Alright, I'll be careful. I also recorded a massive amount of precious research data during this dive into the dream. Once I leave Jiangcheng, I'll head straight back to the research institute and stay indoors for a while." From my tone, Chu Men understood the severity of the situation. He still had many questions he wanted to ask, but before he could speak, Zhao Bin walked in, accompanied by an old man and a doctor.

"Has Ye Bing's condition improved?" the man asked the moment he walked through the door. His voice carried a trace of the years—steady and calm, like a boundless ocean.

"Elder Chen?" I sat up in my bed, using my Judging Eye to scan the old man, refusing to miss a single detail on his person.

His clothes were clean but speckled with dust, meaning he hadn't just changed into them. He didn't have a single drop of blood on him either. He probably wasn't the assailant.

"There is some improvement, but she still needs time to fully wake up." When it came to placating patients' families, Chu Men was just as highly skilled as most psychologists. I didn't speak, letting him handle the conversation with Elder Chen.

After all, in the eyes of outsiders, I was merely an assistant. The actual attending physician was still Chu Men.

"Elder Chen, rest assured. With my teacher taking action, success is practically guaranteed." Doctor Yan didn't forget to offer a few words of flattery even at a time like this. I couldn't find any flaws in his attire either, and given his personality, it was impossible for him to pull off something as technically demanding as murder.

A few minutes later, at Elder Chen's strong insistence, two doctors from the hospital performed a basic physical examination on Ye Bing.

The results yielded an unexpected discovery: Ye Bing's physical condition had genuinely improved. Her internal organs, which had been steadily failing, were now radiating new vitality and repairing themselves.

Naturally, the credit for this medical miracle went straight to Chu Men.

He blinked at me without exposing the truth, listening to the surrounding praise with a deadpan expression.

I hadn't expected this outcome either. After thinking it over carefully, I realized why Ye Bing's organs had been failing and why she was on the verge of death. Her core consciousness had fallen into the Deep Dream Layer, leaving her Shallow Dream Layer and Middle Dream Layer as the nightmare's private territory. The nightmare's wanton destruction was what had caused her physical deterioration.

I had killed the nightmare in the Deep Dream Layer. Although I failed to rescue Ye Bing, she seemed to have escaped the Deep Dream Layer in the end anyway. With both of those factors in play, her body had finally begun to recover.

The ward was filled with praise and flattery. Out of everyone present, I was probably the only one who knew that the situation actually wasn't very optimistic.

Ye Bing's core consciousness had most likely fallen into Chen Jiuge's hands. To truly wake her up, I might have to deal with Chen Jiuge down the line.

At that thought, a sentence suddenly flashed through my mind. In the Deep Dream Layer, Xiao A had told me that Chen Jiuge was one of the Two-Faced Buddha's people. Ye Bing falling into Chen Jiuge's hands was no different from her falling into the Two-Faced Buddha's hands.

Furthermore, the Traitors seemed to be cooperating with the Two-Faced Buddha in some way. I narrowed my eyes, my thoughts drifting toward an even more terrifying possibility.

What exactly was the nature of their cooperation?

The Traitors had been plotting this livestream for a long time. They wanted me to enter Ye Bing's Dream Realm so they could trap me in the Deep Dream Layer step by step, forcing me to yield and cooperate with them.

It looked like a conflict between the Traitors and me, but in reality, this livestream involved a third party—the Two-Faced Buddha!

One of the Live Show's optional tasks explicitly required me to discern the Two-Faced Buddha's arrangements within the Dream Realm. That meant the Two-Faced Buddha was also involved in this livestream. But how exactly had he participated?

My narrowed eyes slowly widened as I looked at Elder Chen. At the very beginning, I had no intention of entering Ye Bing's Dream Realm to save her. It was only because Elder Chen constantly urged me, using the Merit Buddhist Prayer Bead Bracelet as bait, that my resolve to enter the Dream Realm was solidified.

Thinking about it carefully, Elder Chen seemed entirely too eager for me to enter the dream. He had been extremely persistent. This couldn't possibly be the attitude of an orphanage director toward an orphan!

In the Hunchbacked Boy's Dream Realm, I had also seen Elder Chen's appearance. He was the Faceless Man.

The mysterious and unapproachable Faceless Man, standing high above everything like a god. How could a person like that lower himself to beg an outsider like me to help an orphan who had left his orphanage over a decade ago?!

This was a conspiracy!

He deliberately acted like he cared about Ye Bing, but his actual goal was to make me enter the dream!

The more I thought about it, the more terrifying it became.

I concealed the sharp glint in my eyes and quietly lowered my head, refusing to let anyone notice my emotional fluctuations.