Chapter 809: The Colors of the Rest of Life

"Fate Usurpers have existed since ancient times, hiding behind the scenes, unseen by the mortal world. After thousands of years of development, judging by the clues left behind in some of the Live Show's optional tasks, one could even deduce that Fate Usurpers have stolen a tenth of Destiny." The old man's voice was heavy. "No one knows how they managed it. In this day and age, perhaps only the Good and Evil Buddha knows."

The idea that Fate Usurpers had stolen a tenth of Destiny seemed like pure fantasy to me, but after thinking it over, I realized that only someone with such terrifying power would have the right to play a game against Heaven's Will and the Live Show.

"I gave the Two-Faced Buddha as much credit as I could, but I still underestimated them." I had been dealing with the Two-Faced Buddha for quite some time now. From Lu Xing and the Zichou brothers at the very beginning, to Chen Jiuge, Mr. Paper, and Elder Chen, I thought I was closing in on their core strength. Yet, the old man's words jolted me awake. What I had seen was merely a fraction of what the Two-Faced Buddha chose to reveal.

This massive organization lurked in the dark like a vicious beast. People with normal lives and careers during the day would shed their glamorous facades at night, exposing the hideous, monstrous bodies beneath.

"Fate Usurpers are a taboo. Neither we nor Heaven's Will can tolerate their existence." The old man didn't elaborate on the Fate Usurpers. Brushing past the topic, he turned back to the Live Show Traitors. "Everyone wants to break free from Destiny and control their own fate, but no one knows where the path lies. They can only stumble forward on their own. That is true for the Fate Usurpers, and equally true for the Traitors and that live show streamer hunting me."

He seemed to know his days were numbered, his voice heavy with death. "The Traitors and the live show streamer hunting me want to use the will of the people as a bridge to link the Deep Dream Layer with reality, using the Dream Realm to fight Heaven's Will in the real world. It is a stunning idea, but they made one fatal mistake. The Live Show doesn't hunt the Traitors because they want to rebel, but because one of them is a puppet of Destiny! Any plan touched by Destiny is doomed to fail, because that is what Destiny is!"

"There's a puppet of Destiny among the Traitors?" My brow twitched. This was an unexpected discovery.

"You were the one who told me that. It seems you really don't remember anything." The old man smiled miserably. "We all failed. We failed completely."

"You don't need to be so pessimistic," I said after a moment's thought. "There's one thing I still haven't figured out. Black Robe and the Traitors plan to use the Dream Realm to fight Heaven's Will in reality, but what does that have to do with you? Why are they hunting you? Are they afraid you'll step in and ruin their plan?"

"They want to take something from me—something only I can control." The old man turned his head away. This clearly involved some secret regarding his main body's will, so he said no more.

I didn't entirely understand the old man's words, but if he didn't want to explain, I wasn't going to force him. I simply weighed the situation in my head. 'The Black-Robed Anchor teamed up with the Live Show Traitors to hunt the Butcher. The reason is definitely not as simple as he claimed earlier. The Butcher's main will has been ambushed by their combined forces, but judging by the spider shadows frantically searching outside, they haven't succeeded yet! The Butcher's main will must be severely injured and on the run right now!'

The old man was only a secondary consciousness of the Butcher. He had inherited a portion of the Butcher's memories, but he wasn't the Butcher himself. I stood up and stretched my fingers. "It's not over yet. Now isn't the time to nail the coffin shut. If I can rescue your main body, Black Robe and the Traitors' plan will naturally fall apart."

"It's no use. Do you see the gaping hole in the sky? The passage between reality and the Dream Realm has opened. Someone must serve as a sacrifice to bear the wrath of Heaven's Will." The old man didn't turn his head, his gaze fixed on the sea of flowers painted on the wall.

"How will we know if we don't try?" I stepped directly in front of the old man, blocking his view. "You are the Butcher's secondary will. You should be able to sense your main body's location. Tell me where he is. This is your last chance."

"You truly have lost all your memories if you can say something so naive. Nothing in the Deep Dream Layer can be trusted. Do you think I would tell you?" The old man silently closed his eyes. The wound on his abdomen looked like a winding, crawling centipede, utterly terrifying.

"Since you've already given up on yourself, there's no reason for me to stay. I promised I'd meet you again in the Deep Dream Layer, so consider that promise fulfilled." I was only saving the Butcher for the points and the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment anyway. Since the old man was a dead end, I would just have to find the main body on my own.

I was ready to leave, but the moment I finished speaking, the old man's tightly shut eyes snapped open in absolute disbelief. "What did you say?!"

The veins on his arms bulged. Clutching the wound across his chest and stomach, he gripped the back of the sofa and slowly pulled himself to his feet. His eyes widened, boring into me as if trying to see straight through me. "Did you just say you promised to meet me in the Deep Dream Layer? You remember that? Impossible. No one can bring memories out of reincarnation. Someone else must have told you, right?"

"Who else would know about certain things besides you and me?" I didn't stop, continuing downstairs.

"Wait!" The old man's injuries were far too severe; even expending all his remaining strength, he could only manage a couple of stumbling steps. "The main body cut off his connection with me, so I don't know where he's hiding either. But our memories are linked. You can try looking in these places."

He reached his hand toward me. The instant I grasped his palm, unfamiliar memories flashed before my eyes. It was a map of several regions within the Deep Dream Layer! It covered an area over a dozen times larger than the one I had gotten from Chen Jiuge!

My gaze burned with intensity. The memory map was marked with numerous bizarre annotations, alongside a few places I recognized: Despair District, the Clock Tower of Time, and No-Lights Road!

With this map in hand, I could easily track down all sorts of resources within the Deep Dream Layer and travel between the different districts without any fear of getting lost.

After transferring these memory fragments to me, the old man's consciousness grew incredibly frail, his body seeming to shrink in on itself. "When you find him, please give him this. It should temporarily stabilize his injuries."

The old man plunged a hand into his own chest and pulled a grain-sized crystal out of his heart.

"What is this?" I asked, accepting the tiny crystal. That was when I realized it looked exactly like the ones I had collected from the old man's and Zhu Li's Shallow Dream Layers.

"Don't be fooled by its size. This is actually the culmination of a person's lifelong emotions. Once someone loses this crystal, the rest of their life will be stripped of all color. It holds the entire driving force keeping a person alive, and even contains a sliver of their longing for destiny." The old man's explanation differed from my earlier assumptions. I had initially thought these crystals were the condensation of humanity, symbols of goodness and light.

I carefully tucked the tiny crystal away. I didn't mention to the old man that I had seven much larger crystals hidden inside my coat.

"If I run into the Butcher, I'll definitely give this to him." I looked at the old man. The aura of death clinging to him was growing heavier by the second. After ripping that tiny crystal from his heart, the final breath keeping him alive was already fading. "Can you tell me why you changed your mind at the very end? Weren't you afraid I might be lying to you?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," the old man said, waving a hand. "Compared to wandering through endless cruelty and despair, it's perhaps better to just pretend to believe in something."

He released my hand. The wound across his stomach could no longer be suppressed, and countless thread-like worms began frantically devouring his flesh and blood. Giving me one last, strained smile, he gazed at the painted sea of rapeseed flowers on the wall and slowly faded away.

His body and soul were obliterated, leaving nothing on the ground but a writhing mass of worms. These bizarre creatures were likely entities unique to the Dream Realm.

"I'll deliver the item, and I'll definitely meet with the Butcher." I held the tiny crystal up to my eye level. As I brushed over it with my will, the small crystal gave off a dazzling, diamond-like glow, thrumming with a unique energy.