Chapter 816: The Fish and the Sky

Chen Mo's performance at Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital had successfully fooled me. Beneath his youthful, naive exterior beat a cold, monstrous heart.

Six blade-like legs supported his massive body. Chen Mo's lower half had merged with the spider shadow, and the expression on his face no longer looked human at all.

The excitement gleaming in his eyes was exactly like a spider watching a moth struggle in its web—the gaze of a predator looking at its prey.

"Since we're both live show streamers, aren't you being a little too confident?" The path to the roof wasn't completely sealed yet, and I didn't want to tangle with Chen Mo any longer. My fingers formed incantation seals, and the Nether Runes on my palm emitted a faint glow. "Yin-Yang Has an Order! I command the Green Plague Ghost of the East, essence of rotting wood; the Red Plague Ghost of the South, essence of blazing fire; the Blood Plague Ghost of the West, essence of vile metal; the Black Plague Ghost of the North, essence of the murky pool; the Yellow Plague Ghost of the Center, essence of the imperial earth!"

Since I had already been discovered, there was no need to hold back. For the first time, I used the Yin-Yang Ghost Art in the Deep Dream Layer.

There was no malevolent yin energy in the Deep Dream Layer, but it was saturated with negative emotions that had settled here over countless years. When the Five Directions Plague Ghosts appeared, they triggered all these feelings hidden deep within the city, causing my ghost art to undergo a mutation that even I couldn't comprehend.

The Eighteen Yin Apertures in my body opened wide, and my Yin energy drained rapidly. Not long after, five roars—some muffled, some sorrowful, some furious—echoed in all directions. Even Xiao A and the Man in the Colorful Robe, who were fighting on the periphery, stopped and looked toward my location.

Using malevolent yin energy as a skeleton, countless clusters of colored light surged out of the buildings across the Deep Dream Layer to spontaneously fill them out. Soon, five heaven-spanning phantom giants materialized out of thin air.

They were too massive. The transformation of the Five Directions Plague Ghosts had exceeded my control. With no malevolent yin energy in the Dream Realm, I couldn't draw on any external replenishment. Relying solely on my own accumulated Yin energy wouldn't last me long at all.

Watching the Plague Ghosts continuously expand and solidify, I felt both pleasantly surprised and a bit of a headache coming on.

'The memories deposited in the Deep Dream Layer are all deliberately forgotten or sealed away by their owners, filled with malice and ominous intent. With the Five Plague Ghosts merging with so many of them, no one can say what they will ultimately become. After all, no Ghost Cultivator has ever entered the Deep Dream Layer before.'

Their previously illusory bodies completely solidified, casting five colossal, heaven-supporting shadows across the city.

"Five Directions Plague Ghosts, heed my command! Use Yin to cross the Yang, hunt their souls and claim their lives!"

The Nether Runes on my palm seemed to link to another world. A pitch-black bolt of lightning suddenly streaked across the hole in the sky above. Then, the earth violently quaked, and the Five Directions Plague Ghosts charged toward the central altar all at once.

"Stop him!" Black Robe roared, the chains in his hands rattling violently.

The sudden upheaval in the center of the block also drew the attention of the Man in the Colorful Robe. He drove the Nightmare beneath his feet to rush over as reinforcements, but Xiao A stopped him. Countless thoughts covered the night sky like dark clouds, frantically assaulting this section of the city.

"Your opponent is me."

Her clear, cold voice was like an icicle in the dead of winter, turning the Man in the Colorful Robe's face ashen. "I've been holding back because I didn't want to completely fall out with you, A. But you're courting death!"

His robe completely turned a dead, ashen gray as he chanted incantations. The Nightmare beneath his feet let out a low snarl, as if sensing something terrifying was about to happen.

Slowly, a thin black line appeared on the horizon. In just a few seconds, that single black line transformed into a massive black curtain. Viewed from the high-rise buildings, it looked like a black ocean pouring down!

"They're all nightmares!" I gazed out from the center of the building. All sorts of nightmares were surging forward like stampeding horses, bringing with them an ocean of boundless evil.

I didn't think Xiao A could withstand such a terrifying assault. Driving the Five Directions Plague Ghosts to clear the way, I forced my way toward the roof.

"It's useless. Your appearance was just an accident, and my existence is meant to set things back on track." After Chen Mo spoke, the spider shadows clinging to the building's exterior began spewing grayish-white silk. There were simply too many spiders; it didn't take long for them to weave a massive web that completely enveloped the entire building.

Whenever the Plague Ghosts attacked the building, a creamy white light would flash across the spiderweb. This kind of light was incredibly rare—I had only ever seen a similar glow on the Fate Manipulator Token.

'Fate?' The word immediately surfaced in my mind as my expression slowly darkened. "You really are Destiny's puppet!"

Chen Mo hadn't expected me to call out his identity at a time like this. His fangs peeked out from the corners of his mouth in a wicked smile. Taking advantage of the Plague Ghosts being blocked by the web, he pushed off with all eight legs simultaneously, launching himself toward my position like a cannonball.

The malevolent yin energy in my body drained rapidly as the Plague Ghosts frantically hammered the building. But how could a massive web woven from fate be torn apart so easily?

As I watched the hideous monster draw closer and closer, I suddenly began to understand why Chen Mo had appeared in the form of a spider.

In the Dream Realm, spiders governed malice. They symbolized people with ill intentions glaring covetously at you; it was a deeply ominous omen in itself.

Thinking back to reality, I had encountered spider-like monsters during my live broadcasts before, and not just once or twice. There was the mutated attendant on the Death Train, for example, and the flayed white fiend in the water tank at Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital.

This was actually an obscure manifestation of heaven's will. Destiny was like an invisible, massive web binding everyone within it, and the "spiders" were the guards carrying out Destiny's will. The more you tried to break free from the web, the more you would vibrate the silk, ultimately drawing the spiders to devour all those who resisted.

The situation across the entire Dream Realm battlefield was complicated and critical. On the outermost perimeter was the tide of nightmares the Man in the Colorful Robe had swept across the city. In the middle were Xiao A and the thoughts shrouding the sky. The two were locked in a fierce battle, the brutality of which was about to escalate.

Slightly further in were the Five Directions Plague Ghosts I had summoned, now fused with the negative emotions of the Deep Dream Layer, attempting to break through the web of fate's blockade.

At the very center, the Butcher had already been subdued by the Black-Robed Anchor, who was making the final preparations to split the sky.

It was a race against time. The true battlefield lay between these two extremes. Destiny's puppet, Chen Mo, was absolutely determined to kill me, and my life or death would directly dictate our success or failure.

"You can't defeat Destiny. Everything is under Destiny's control. Even if you leap out of the water, you will inevitably fall back in, because in Destiny's eyes, you are just a fish swimming against the current." Chen Mo's face twisted hideously. His mouth split open, and his shrill voice echoed in my ears, audible only to me.

"You're right, I can't beat Destiny. I'm just a fish, how could I ever defeat the entire sky?" I paused, looking at Chen Mo without a trace of emotion. "But I'm trying my hardest to leap out of the water, and every single time, I get a little closer to the sky! If once isn't enough, then ten times! If ten times isn't enough, then a hundred times, ten thousand times! And if that still isn't enough, will 2.6 billion times be enough?!"

Ripping open my shirt, I plunged my hand into my own chest as nine fox tails quietly manifested. "Even if 2.6 billion times isn't enough, I will try a 2.6 billion and first time. Because I'm the kind of person who just doesn't believe in fate!"