Tang Wulin panted heavily as he thought back to the ordeal that he'd just suffered. In the instant that Na'er's Silver Dragon Spear had punctured through his chest, he'd been struck by unimaginable shock and pain.

Thankfully, his mental fortitude and his trust in Na'er had helped him overcome that nightmare. Even so, Na'er's sobbing voice was still echoing through his mind, and his heart was throbbing with pain. The fact of the matter was he'd hurt Na'er very deeply.

So was he still in a dream or had he regained consciousness? He wasn't sure. The nightmare just now had been too realistic, and it had been completely indistinguishable from real life.

Right at this moment, Old Demon Nightmare slowly appeared before him.

"Were you surprised?" Old Demon Nightmare appraised him with a hint of mockery on his face.

Tang Wulin's expression darkened at the sight of him. He no longer had any respect toward this demonic old man.

"Where are my friends?" It would definitely be better for everyone to be together, rather than separated.

Old Demon Nightmare said, "Don't worry, you'll see them soon enough. However, you have to do something for me, and if you fail, the consequences will be very severe."

Tang Wulin raised an eyebrow, and asked, "What do I have to do?"

Old Demon Nightmare replied, "It's going to be something very difficult, of course. How about this? I'll show you the consequences first."

He waved his right hand as he spoke, and an image gradually took shape in mid-air.

"I have to admit that you possess immense spiritual power and exemplary mental fortitude. You are the fastest one to have awakened from my nightmare in at least the past 200 years. That's very good, but it has also made me very displeased. Seeing as a dream isn't enough to break you, let's play a game in reality. I call this 'Trial of Hearts'."

The image was split up into three sections, each of which depicted a cave that contained two people.

Within the first cave was Xu Lizhi and Xu Xiaoyan, the second cave housed Ye Xinglan and Xie Xie, and the third cave was where Yue Zhengyu and Yuanen Yehui were situated.

Each of the caves appeared to be only around a dozen or so square meters in area, and hanging in the air above near the ceiling of each cave was a pink ball of light that seemed to be filled with mist.

"All of your friends are currently fine, but of course, all of that could change at any moment," Old Demon Nightmare said with an extremely unsettling smile on his face.

Tang Wulin glowered at him with a cold expression. "What do you want?"

Old Demon Nightmare replied, "You see that pink mist in their caves? From their memories, we've deduced that they're three couples, so we split them apart and put them into separate caves. That pink mist is the most potent aphrodisiac in this world. After inhaling the mist, all sentient living beings will be completely compelled to do one thing."

Old Demon NIghtmare snapped his fingers with a smile, and finished, "Mate!"

Tang Wulin's eyes widened as a surge of fury welled up in his heart. "I'll kill you!"

He abruptly rushed forward and threw an almighty fist toward Old Demon Nightmare's face.

However, Old Demon Nightmare's body was like an illusionary entity, and Tang Wulin's fist simply passed through him. In the next instant, he appeared behind Tang Wulin, and said, "Don't be rash, kid; do you want me to release the mist right away?"

Old Demon Nightmare waved a hand through the air, and the three balls of pink mist instantly began to swirl.

"No!" Tang Wulin clenched his fists tightly, and he was so enraged that his fingernails were digging through the skin on the heels of palms.

At the same time, an overwhelming sense of horror welled up in his heart. He was naturally aware of what would happen if that mist were to be released; the consequences would be catastrophic.

If these three mismatched pairs were to mate under the influence of that mist, that would be a fate even worse than death to them.

"You must be wondering why we're going so far just for some military training, right?" Old Demon Nightmare asked.

Tang Wulin offered no response, but he was glowering at Nightmare with bloodshot eyes while breathing heavily from rage. He had already realized that this military training wasn't as simple as it sounded.

Old Demon Nightmare sighed, "Truth be told, everything is a lot more complex than you can even imagine. What I have to tell you first is that I'm already 1,764 years old."

Tang Wulin faltered upon hearing this. This man was already over 1,700 years old? What kind of concept was that? Put it this way, even the most powerful Titled Douluos, Limit Douluos, would struggle to live to 300 years of age.

Old Demon Nightmare continued, "Do you think I wanted to become this old? I didn't, but I had no choice. It's very difficult for me to die, and to be more accurate, I'm not a human; I'm a vengeful spirit on this demonic island. This island didn't exist in the past, and only after the demons had arrived did the islands appear. Back then, there weren't as many sea soul beasts in this region of the sea, either."

"The demons are the purple chunks of ore that you saw earlier. The chunk on the demonic island is the largest one, and we call them demonic fragments, as well fragments of destruction. Each island in this cluster of islands has one such fragment. At the time, when these fragments fell into the ocean, I just so happened to be fishing with a few of my friends. We were only ordinary people fishing for our livelihood. That terrifying energy tore our boat apart along with our bodies. After what seemed like an eternity had passed, I suddenly discovered that I was alive again. From that moment forth, I became Nightmare, a being that was neither human nor ghost. We belong to this island, and we could never leave it, so we lived here in loneliness and solitude.

"No one on the outside can come onto the island and still survive, unless they make it into this valley. However, this is our territory, and it's impossible for outsiders to come into this place. That is, until one of your seniors from Shrek Academy came to this place. He was very powerful, so much so that we were no match for him. After a long battle, he was still severely wounded by the power of the fragment of destruction. Prior to his departure, he told us that he'd benefited greatly from his battle against us, and that he hoped that his juniors would be able to come to us for training. We were so lonely here, so we agreed to his request. You've all come here for training, but to us, you're just our toys. "

Tang Wulin's heart gradually sank as he listened to Old Demon Nightmare's words. Everything was even more terrifying than he'd imagined.

He bit down on the tip of his tongue to try and calm himself down, and asked, "What do I have to do for you to release my friends?"

Old Demon Nightmare chuckled, "Well, this is military training, so of course I want you to follow my orders. I've already cast a nightmare curse on your body, so don't even think about escaping from me; I can kill you on a whim at any moment. I know that you may not be afraid of death, but if you die, you know what'll happen to your friends. After they mate with each other, I'll be sure to spare their lives and send them back to Shrek Academy along with the footage of what happened here. Ohhh, just thinking about it is getting me so excited! What do you think Shrek Academy will think of that? Wouldn't it be very interesting to see their reaction?"

The horror in Tang Wulin's heart was exacerbated even further. "I'll do anything you say; just don't release that mist. Otherwise, even if you kill me, I'll come back to haunt you as a ghost!"