"Why? I wonder where your stress comes from… Is it because of suppressing the Lords of Nightmare in the country?"

While Qiu Ren made a guess, Tapir next to him didn't have any changes in her expression.

She was a good one among the Lords of Nightmare in the Celestial Empire. She had never hurt any innocent people, apart from the death row prisoners in Fengdu Prison.

Compared to those Lords of Nightmare who killed countless Dream Explorers, Tapir was indeed very kind.

A lot of extremely dangerous Lords of Nightmare were also sealed in the Celestial Empire. The immortals of the Heavenly Court and the other Level S dream consciousnesses were the vanguard to suppress these Lords of Nightmare.

According to Qiu Ren's knowledge of history, there was indeed a brutal war between the Celestial Empire and the Lords of Nightmare.

The situation had become stable in recent years, though. These Level S Nightmare Seeds were all sealed and dealt with in a scientific way. Even though some staff members were still sacrificed, the Nightmare Seeds wouldn't lose control on a large scale.

Under such an environment, the life of the immortals in the Heavenly Court should be relaxing.

"Haven't your master and contractors told you the truth?" Erlang Shen said as he glanced at Tapir, who had been silent.

The "master" should be the Central Research Institute, while the "contractors" were Tapir and Lian.

Tell me the truth?

This time, Qiu Ren looked at Tapir next to him with a confused gaze. Tapir even looked away, as opposed to how she usually behaved.

This was the first time Qiu Ren had seen an act of guilty conscience from this elegant, calm Lord of Nightmare.

"What truth?" Qiu Ren directly asked. Tapir wanted to stop him for a second, but she knew that it would only be a matter of time for Qiu Ren to learn about these things with his current ability.

"The threats brought by the foreign devils… or what people call the nightmares, aren't just here on the day of the arrival. They exist everywhere in this world all the time."

Qiu Ren spent a few seconds trying to digest Erlang Shen's words. Once he figured it out, an anxious and shocked expression immediately appeared on his face.

Qiu Ren felt Tapir's freezing hand on his shoulder, and that chilly sensation directly spread to his neck, making him recover from the shock.

What Erlang Shen meant was that… the Nightmare Seeds Qiu Ren knew about before only arrived somewhere in the world at a certain time.

Like the Advent Film Festival Qiu Ren attended before, it was one of the two ways of getting Dream Seeds and Nightmare Seeds recognized by the world.

Other than that was archaeology, discovering Dream Seeds and Nightmare Seeds buried in different places worldwide.

So, countries all over the world prepared themselves seriously during the "Advent Film Festival" every year. If a Level S Dream Seed arrived, every country would exert themselves to fight for it.

If it was a Level S Nightmare Seed, it might be a disaster for countries in the world, but it was also an opportunity. If they survived the disaster and tamed that Level S Nightmare Seed, the country's power would greatly increase.

It was just that the Nightmare Seed of the Army arriving at the Advent Film Festival in Europe had apparently exceeded the range that the European countries could handle.

This caused the Army to become a global nightmare threat right now.

And now, Erlang Shen told Qiu Ren that those Nightmare Seeds weren't all of them and the real world was eroded by nightmare pollution all the time?

"Not all foreign devils are able to communicate… like the one next to you. Most of them are like the demon that is eating your flesh and blood right now."

While Erlang Shen spoke, he could see that Qiu Ren's erosion by the Shadow Beast was getting worse.

In order to gain the trust of this immortal, Qiu Ren came in front of him and didn't bring Mia here. Hence, Erlang Shen didn't have to keep the secret and hide his aura from the outside world right now.

He poked the middle of Qiu Ren's eyebrows with his hand and turned the pollution eroding Qiu Ren's consciousness into black smoke, guiding some of it out gradually.

"These are the most evil things. There isn't any possibility of communicating with them at all, let alone constructing their worlds for purification. We can only… eliminate them."

It seemed that the foreign devils Erlang Shen had been killing and suppressing were the Shadow Beasts.

Shadow Beasts were creatures that Lords of Nightmare became after they completely lost control. There wasn't any possibility of communication with them, and there was no such thing as a Nightmare Dungeon for them.

According to Erlang Shen's description, if the real world Qiu Ren lived in was a sphere, then nightmare pollution would be existing everywhere on the surface of the sphere.

The immortals of the Heavenly Court, those superheroes, and the Gods from Norse and Greek mythology were on the frontline, resisting the threats from these Shadow Beasts turned from polluted nightmares all the time.

Those that could enter the sphere were Lords of Nightmare, who still had self-consciousness and were able to communicate, or Dream Seeds that were very harmless when they arrived.

"So, you want to take a break for a while?"

Qiu Ren realized that part of the Shadow Beast in his consciousness had been sucked away by Erlang Shen, and his mind felt much clearer.

At this moment, Qiu Ren noticed that the hands of Erlang Shen were full of scars.

He had no idea how many battles he had experienced that were brutal enough to destroy his mind ever since he was created by his Dream Maker.

"What I want… is to be free." Erlang Shen said, "If I really can't go to the mortal world again, I'll be happy to die on the battlefield like this, but immortals like us can't reincarnate again. We must either fight with the foreign devils endlessly or… turn into foreign devils ourselves."

A dream consciousness couldn't die. Even if Erlang Shen was killed by the Darkin Blade in this Nightmare Dungeon, he would be reborn in the Heavenly Court.

Qiu Ren listened to his words… which sounded like he wanted to run away and give up. If a fan of Erlang Shen or Journey to the West heard this, he would definitely yell at him, "How can you be scared? You're an immortal with the ability to conquer nature!"

Erlang Shen, Emperor Huimin, the Lingying King… Their infinite power, boundless magic, and the powerful ability to capture and slay dragons were all bestowed by their Dream Makers.

He fulfilled the expectations from his fans and guarded the border very well, fighting with the foreign devils for decades… After so many years, he, who felt exhausted and couldn't see his future, realized that it was just an extravagant hope for him to take off his armor and return to ordinary life.

Because…

"You're one of the only few Level S Dream Seeds in the Celestial Empire and carry the highest expectations of our citizens. Even though I don't know if this applies to a dream consciousness, protecting our home and our country is the responsibility of each of us."

Erlang Shen remained silent and didn't answer Qiu Ren, but Qiu Ren couldn't say these cold words either while standing in Erlang Shen's shoes.

After all, Qiu Ren had experienced the pain of being eroded by a Shadow Beast. He knew how dangerous these Shadow Beasts were. He had no idea how Erlang Shen had survived all these years.

So…

"If you want to loaf around temporarily, I can help you."

Qiu Ren continued to tell Erlang Shen what he could do as a Dream Maker.

"Tell me. What kind of a life do you want? I can create a tailor-made one for you. I can guarantee you it'll be awesome."