Zhao Lian was very calm. She thought she would lose control after being devoured by the nightmares.

However, even though the power of the Glavenus filled her entire body after she put on the armor and equipped the sword made from the material of the Glavenus, she was still able to maintain her sanity. She knocked down the Dream Maker, who had worked with her for almost ten years, calmly and elegantly.

​​

He was now lying on the ground with severe injuries and was unable to move at all.

Amid the painful shots of the Dream Maker, Qiu Ren, who was wearing his ghost mask, slowly walked out of the shadow of a tree.

His slow claps resounded in Zhao Lian's ears together with his voice.

"Well done… You're indeed General Zhao."

Qiu Ren's compliments sounded extra unpleasant in Zhao Lian's ears. She directly slashed at him, the culprit behind all this, with the Glavenus Blaze in her hand.

However, just as the scorching sword was about to hit Qiu Ren, the blood that oozed out next to him blocked the attack…

The figure formed by blood, wearing black armor, was the Lord of Nightmare, Lian, who hadn't shown up for a long time. She warned this dream consciousness, who had a similar name as hers, in front of her not to move.

"Rather than killing me, don't you want to see how your Princess is doing?"

Zhao Lian wasn't in the mood to pay attention to this mastermind after hearing Qiu Ren's reminder.

"Your Highness!"

She quickly ran over to Qiu Ling, who was lying on the ground. Qiu Ling was shot a dozen times just now. Even her head was shot several times.

Their cruel actions had infuriated Zhao Lian, causing her to attack the team of Dream Makers who had followed her here. However, she didn't kill them for the sake of their past relationship.

Qiu Ling, lying on the ground, looked miserable. There were bullet holes on her head and face. It was the kind of appearance that couldn't be shown to people without blurring it.

Zhao Lian's heart sank when she saw her princess's miserable state.

However, Qiu Ling suddenly sat straight on the ground. The bullets embedded in her head and face were squeezed out under Zhao Lian's astonished gaze. The wounds on her body also started healing at a visible speed.

"Luckily, one of my characteristics is that I can take a beating. If not, I wouldn't have run for so many years." Qiu Ling scratched her face that was covered with blood.

Even though her combat strength wasn't as strong as that of the dream consciousnesses of the same level, her blood volume and self-healing ability definitely ranked at the top…

"I'm glad you're okay…" While Zhao Lian was saying this in a gratified tone, blood splashed out of the middle of Qiu Ling's eyebrows again.

This time, Qiu Ling was shot by a large-caliber bullet, boring a hole in her forehead… How should it be put…

Nonetheless, this shot completely angered Zhao Lian. She pulled out a flying dagger from her chest and threw it straight at the person who had fired.

"Zhao Lian, wait! You can't kill… them…" Qiu Ling's voice gradually faded off. It was already too late.

The flying dagger Zhao Lian threw out pierced into the chest of the Dream Maker who shot.

"Are you corrupted by nightmares?" That Dream Maker yelled at Zhao Lian as he coughed out blood from his mouth, "Did you betray us? Your creators! People who raised you! Your parents! Answer me!"

However, he didn't get an answer from Zhao Lian, as he had already fallen on the ground and turned into a dead body.

"We're… We're… We're doomed."

Qiu Ling, who seemed to be heartless, had a slight tremor in her voice when she saw that the Dream Maker was dead.

"Your Highness, what are you afraid of?"

Zhao Lian was also a bit uncomfortable with killing the Dream Maker who used to work side-by-side with her, but she couldn't seem to think of any negative impact she could cause after killing him either.

That was until she heard Qiu Ren's slow claps again. "Wonderful."

Qiu Ren didn't show mercy anymore. He ordered her to kill all the remaining Dream Makers directly and banished them out of this Nightmare Dungeon.

All the screams around disappeared in a blink, and only blood and dead bodies were left all over the ground.

"This is a way of escape for them. Even though they'll be injured in reality, it's better than being trapped in the Nightmare Dungeon." Zhao Lian convinced herself with this reason.

In fact, this was also the way of escape that most agents of the Dream Hunting Bureau used when they were in a desperate situation in a nightmare, to commit suicide…

"The key point isn't that they died in the nightmare, but… that you killed them. You were still sane when you did this."

Qiu Ren couldn't hide his smile under the mask. Even the ghost mask revealed a smile, sending a chill down Zhao Lian's spine.

"I just…" Zhao Lian still wanted to justify her aggressive behavior. And yet…

"No just. You can guess with me. Why does your princess, my sister, choose to run for so many years even though she has ways for dream consciousnesses to get rid of the control of the Dream Makers? Do you think it's because she has no ability to spread this method out or because she doesn't want this method to spread?"

Qiu Ren knew that it was meaningless to continue hiding his identity in front of Qiu Ling. He directly took off the ghost mask and showed his real face as he squatted before Zhao Lian.

"Her Highness has always been hunted down by the Dream Hunting Bureau. How would she possibly have the ability to resist?"

Zhao Lian knew the combat strength of her princess very clearly. She might not even be able to beat a chicken in a Dream Dungeon.

"You'll have to ask her." Qiu Ren turned to Qiu Ling. However, Qiu Ling asked a question that she had always wanted to ask since she came to this Nightmare Dungeon after sizing Qiu Ren up with a doubtful look, "Where's… my brother? Did you…"

In Qiu Ling's eyes, Qiu Ren was a Lord of Nightmare occupying her brother's body right now.

"I'm Qiu Ren. To be exact, I'm Qiu Ren from another material world, and I'm also a Dream Maker. Your brother and I live in parallel worlds. We have two different lives."

Qiu Ren tried to explain it in a way that was easier to understand, but Qiu Ling still seemed a bit confused as she listened, looking a little dumb.

"Qiu Ren… I know this name." On the contrary, it seemed that something came to Zhao Lian's mind. She hesitated for a while and said, "I remember that this name should have already been… crossed out on the execution list a few days ago."

"See, those from the Dream Hunting Bureau are the ones who killed your brother. I just occupied his body by coincidence. Can we get back to the question? You don't want to resist the Imperial Court that's going after you, or you dare not to?"

"…If I resist, those of my own kind, the friends I know, will all be purged," Qiu Ling said.

"This is the problem."

Qiu Ren further persuaded Zhao Lian, the ignorant dream consciousness.

"I think the Dream Makers have always been cautious towards you," Qiu Ren said this for the research institute to hear.

"Nonetheless, you happen to have done all the things that Dream Makers are worried about. You accepted the erosion of nightmares voluntarily and still retained self-consciousness after being corrupted. You even killed the Dream Maker who created you. If I were your Dream Maker, after I wake up in reality…"

"Delete and reset me?" This was the most horrifying punishment for a dream consciousness that Zhao Lian could think of.

"Of course not. You've already gotten rid of the control of your Dream Maker. However, your close friends and the other dream consciousnesses extended from the same world you came from are still… controlled by those Dream Makers."

Qiu Ren led the subject to the worst part—the extermination of Zhao Lian's kind. Zhao Lian had never thought of this possibility at all. She was the one who had killed her own Dream Maker.

There was no way her friends and her own kind would be dragged in as well! This was totally unreasonable. At least in Zhao Lian's impression, the Dream Hunting Bureau would never do such… "crazy" things.

But would they really not? The Dream Hunting Bureau and the Imperial Court she knew would fix dream consciousnesses that had completely lost control. They would reset or deal with those that couldn't be fixed.

Qiu Ling also turned her face aside and tried to avoid this question. When Zhao Lian saw the expression on her princess's face, she understood.

"So, what are you planning to do? Are you going to continue hiding in this Nightmare Dungeon with your princess or take a risk to try to save your friends with the power you already have?"

Qiu Ren then opened a portal that connected to the outside world.

Zhao Lian certainly wanted to go back to save her friends and her own kind right now, but she didn't forget her mission to protect the Princess next to her, and…

"Are you really letting me go back just for me to save my friends?"

Zhao Lian felt like it wasn't that simple. She could sense that the power of the Glavenus had already immersed in her body.

Who knew if Qiu Ren had put a virus in this power that would spread nightmare pollution in Zhao Lian's Nightmare Dungeon when she returned?

"I have only one small request. If you and your friends have nowhere else to go, you can come back to live in this world… The power that Glavenus gave you can help you find your way back here."

This was also Qiu Ren's ultimate goal: lure as many Dream Seeds to the Dream Dungeon of the Army from the other world as possible.

"To live in this world that's occupied by the Shadow Beasts?"

Zhao Lian had ridiculed and teased him before. Looking at the baby Glavenus that kept rubbing against her leg and thinking about her current situation, Zhao Lian knew that… Qiu Ren was her only way out at the moment.

"Your Highness, what do you think?"

Zhao Lian still treated Qiu Ling as the backbone. After all, Qiu Ling was one of the mothers she served.

"General Zhao, please… go bring our people, who are persecuted and want to flee, here. During this period, I'll talk to my 'brother' and try my best to transform this Nightmare Dungeon into a place suitable for us to live."

Qiu Ling seemed to be determined to take up her responsibilities as the mother. This was also the result of being backed into a corner by Qiu Ren.

"Got it…"

Zhao Lian had already found a new target, and the development of the situation didn't allow her to hesitate. In the end, she walked into the portal Qiu Ren had opened under Qiu Ling's gaze.

Qiu Ling held the little claw of the baby fire dragon in her arms and waved at Zhao Lian from afar, seeing her off.

When the portal closed and everything around went silent, Qiu Ren and his sister, who wasn't blood-related to him, looked at each other again.

"Do you want to sit down somewhere? Even though I'm not the brother you're familiar with, it's okay for me to act a little bit," Qiu Ren said.

"No…" Qiu Ling used the baby fire dragon to block half of her face as the dragon spouted a small flame at Qiu Ren with a threatening look.

"Then…" While Qiu Ren was thinking about how to get closer to her…

"But… it's not impossible for me to get to know a new brother again."

Qiu Ling's words made Qiu Ren freeze for several seconds. He didn't show any hypocrisy. He walked behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, then whispered, "Let's go. I'll take you to your new home."

When Qiu Ling heard the words "new home," she froze for a while. She made an unperceivable soft "hm" in the end.