Chapter 794: The Jealous One

The Middle Dream Layer was generally much more dangerous and distorted than the Shallow Dream Layer. Most crucially, once someone entered the Middle Dream Layer, their will would blur to varying degrees. Unless they found a memory node, not even suicide could free them from the Dream Realm.

The first person Zhu Li killed was his own younger brother. Even as a young boy, the rather precocious child had displayed a madness far beyond that of ordinary people.

He stood in the residential complex for a long time, transitioning from complete madness to absolute acceptance. I had no idea what changes took place in his mind. I only saw his taut face as he walked into the stairwell alone.

"The cornerstone of Zhu Li's Shallow Dream Layer should be this memory of murdering his brother. The entrance to the Middle Dream Layer is probably right where he vanished." I gazed up at the Apartment Building in the dead of night. In a rapidly developing city, who knew how many cold buildings like this existed.

"How pathetic. The mother Zhu Li loved so deeply didn't leave a single trace behind, yet his violent father had a photograph preserved just because he made the newspaper."

Everyone had a past. Zhu Li's current state had everything to do with what he had been through.

I was just about to follow Zhu Li into the Apartment Building to see what would happen next when I suddenly felt a strange stir against my chest.

I glanced down. The Dream Immortal Chant Child Talisman was emitting a deep blue light, completely out of place against the dreary gray backdrop of the Dream Realm.

I took it in my hand and, guided by a sudden intuition, looked up.

A tall, thin man stood on the roof of the Apartment Building, the night wind sending his black robe fluttering loudly around him.

He held another talisman radiating a blue halo and waved down at me.

I hurried into the Apartment Building, but instead of heading to Zhu Li's room, I rushed straight up the stairs to the roof.

The Black-Robed Anchor stood with his back to me. Unlike in reality, the aura of unreality clinging to him felt far stronger here, as if he were an intrinsic part of the Dream Realm itself.

"Don't interfere with anything in the Dream Realm. Let things run their natural course, and we'll find what we're looking for." Black Robe shot me a glance, his tone turning strange. "You've been in the Shallow Dream Layer this entire time?"

I had no idea why he was asking that, but I nodded. "Where else?"

"The Shallow Dream Layer is the most deeply ingrained part of memory. It can't hide any secrets." The Black-Robed Anchor gazed out over the pitch-black city from the highest point of the Apartment Building. "The entrance to the Middle Dream Layer is right inside Zhu Li's apartment. Just push open his bedroom door to enter the Middle Dream Layer."

"How do you know that for sure?"

"It isn't that I'm so sure; it's that you're too slow. I expected us to meet up in the Middle Dream Layer. I waited a long time but never saw you, so I came out specifically to find you." The Black-Robed Anchor uncurled his fingers. Dao marks wove across the Dream Immortal Chant Mother Talisman in his palm, revealing several names. "I found a few memory fragments belonging to other people hidden within Zhu Li's Middle Dream Layer. They must be the hosts for the Butcher's Will."

I hadn't gone straight into the Middle Dream Layer because I wanted to piece together Zhu Li's past. The Black-Robed Anchor clearly lacked that kind of patience. Zhu Li wasn't worth his attention. He had only one enemy in his sights—the Butcher!

The Dream Immortal Chant Mother-Child Talisman created a connection. As the names surfaced on the mother talisman, identical handwriting quickly materialized on the child talisman.

I sank my consciousness into it; each name represented a hazy segment of memory.

"Including Zhu Li, there are seven people in total. You must kill them all in the real world before the Butcher can react. Sever his escape routes and force him to fight me in the Dream Realm." Black Robe had planned this all along. He was most adept at the Dream Realm, and having seized the initiative, the Butcher might not actually be his match in a dream.

Sifting through the memories attached to each name, I quickly pinpointed their identities and addresses. "A serial killing spree. How is what I'm doing any different from what Lu Xing did?"

"Don't let it weigh on you. Every single one of them is a murderer, a demon hiding in the crowd. You have to understand that the Butcher's Will only latches onto those whose hands are stained with blood, whose emotions are abnormal, and whose minds contain flaws." Seeing my hesitation, the Black-Robed Anchor added, "You aren't just killing. You're doing this to save more people."

"I understand what you mean. Don't worry, I won't hold back." I took a step forward, standing at the edge of the Apartment Building. "Can I ask you one last question?"

"What is it?"

"What does Zhu Li's Middle Dream Layer look like?"

The Black-Robed Anchor hadn't expected me to suddenly ask this. He paused for a moment before replying, "Devoid of color. Dark, damp, and saturated with violence and torture. It's like an inescapable bloody labyrinth."

I didn't press the matter. Keeping my eyes on the Black-Robed Anchor, I took a step off the roof of the Apartment Building.

The Dream Realm dissolved. I snapped back to reality. Zhu Li, covered in talismans, lay right beside me, while the Black-Robed Anchor sat motionless across from me like a stone statue.

"Snapping back from the Shallow Dream Layer really is convenient." I stretched my hands and tucked the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman away. "I'll probably have to dive into the Middle Dream Layer to fulfill the Faceless Woman's request, but there's no rush. I need to take care of these bastards first."

I pulled out the Dream Immortal Chant Child Talisman. Several names hovered clearly on the glowing blue Talisman Paper. Each name was a condensed sliver of memory, detailing their living environments and physical appearances. I had no idea how the Black-Robed Anchor had extracted all of this; when it came to the Dream Dao, I was merely a beginner.

I stashed the Faceless Woman's Black Umbrella behind the door, got up, and left the Apartment Building.

"Jinghai is in total chaos with the citywide lockdown, but with the Uncorrupted Bone and the Fox Immortal Desiccated Corpse drawing the police's attention outside, it makes things a lot easier for me." Sensing the memory fragments within the Dream Immortal Chant Child Talisman and factoring in the distance, I quickly locked onto my first prey—Wang Yifan.

The Black-Robed Anchor hadn't given me any extra details. Sifting through the memories, I only knew she was a student currently enrolled at Jinghai University.

Slipping into the cover of night, I set out. About half an hour later, I arrived at the downtown Jinghai University Old Campus.

It was already three in the morning, and the campus was dead silent. I summoned my Fate Ghost and let its dark hair shroud me completely, melting into the shadows. This way, it didn't matter even if the security cameras caught me.

Grabbing the security bars, I scaled the wall up to the third floor of the Women's Apartment. Assorted clothes hung drying on the balcony. Despite the late hour, someone inside was surprisingly still awake.

The faint glow of a phone screen illuminated the room. I stood silently on the balcony. These sheltered students living in their ivory tower had absolutely zero situational awareness. Not a single one realized how close danger lurked.

"I'm short on time. Forgive the intrusion." I formed a hand seal, and a tidal wave of Yin energy flooded the dormitory, pinning every girl firmly to her bed. "It looks like this school is about to gain another supernatural legend."

The Fate Ghost's black hair eased the wooden door open. I slipped inside without touching a single thing. As I passed one particular bed, the Dream Immortal Chant Child Talisman began to pulse with a faint blue light.

"This must be her."

Her glasses rested right next to her pillow. The sleeping girl clutched her quilt with both hands, looking as completely harmless as a little white rabbit.

She was petite, quiet, and cute, with an expression of pure innocence in her sleep.

Black Robe had told me that every single person harboring the Butcher's Will was a murderer with at least one life on their hands. But no matter how I looked at the girl in front of me, I just couldn't associate her with the word "murderer."

Sweeping my Judging Eye over the textbooks on her desk, I noticed she was a freshman. She wasn't very old.

"Should I just do it?" The Yin energy was already suppressing everyone in the room. I could kill her with a single thought. "I should double-check first."

I pulled out the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman and pressed it to the girl's forehead. Leaving the Fate Ghost to stand guard outside, I dove into her Dream Realm alone.

A few minutes later, I opened my eyes again and summoned the Desire Ghost, letting it devour the girl's soul bite by bite.

I felt no sympathy as I watched her body gradually lose its warmth. This frail, delicate girl was the culprit behind the university cafeteria poisoning that had recently shocked all of Jinghai.

Her reason for the mass poisoning was horrifyingly simple—she'd had a petty argument with her roommate. The only person she had actually wanted to kill was her roommate.

If that were her only crime, perhaps I might have hesitated. But as the Dream Realm played out, I witnessed her very first indirect murder.

When she was much younger, driven by jealousy of her best friend, she had tricked the girl into an abandoned basement on her way home. There, she and a group of thugs had completely destroyed that young girl's life.