Hiss.
Faced with such an eerie and unpredictable situation, Yechen couldn't help but inhale sharply, immediately turning around with his backpack and fleeing towards the old church.
Soon, the young man reached the foothills of another snowy mountain, arriving at a dilapidated and chaotic church that looked like ruins.
Creak.
Yechen pushed open the rusty iron gate, pushed aside the decaying wooden door, and entered the spacious yet chilly church hall. He looked towards the back of the hall where a middle-aged man was seated, then placed the wolf skins aside, speaking with a hint of nervousness, "Teacher, I have completed the hunt."
The middle-aged man did not turn around, continuing to face away from Yechen, merely nodding slightly in response.
He was dressed in a trench coat, with a messy mane of long hair. Even though his face was covered in stubble, it couldn't hide his handsome features, and his calm yet profound eyes stared at the broken statue in front of him, leaving Yechen completely clueless about what he was thinking.
This man was the teacher Yechen referred to, who had been nurturing Yechen with various life skills, combat techniques, and hunting skills since Yechen could remember.
Yechen only knew him as Lyle, referred to as his teacher. Apart from that, the man had never disclosed any other information about himself.
At the same time, Yechen only knew himself as an abandoned infant taken in and raised by his teacher. As for more specific details about his background, his teacher had always remained tight-lipped for the past seventeen years, always brushing it off with "You'll understand in the future."
Yechen nervously bit his lip, then proceeded to recount the bizarre sight he had just witnessed to Lyle.
"Teacher, just now at the cliff's edge, I found that the abyss has already flooded to the foothills of the bordering mountains! It was only at the foot of the mountain a year ago."
Yechen paused for a moment, then added.
"And at that moment, when I locked eyes with the abyss, I suddenly saw some hallucinations, finding myself in the depths of the ocean, with countless eyes staring at me, and countless tentacles trying to drag me down to the seabed. What on earth is going on?"
Compared to the nervous youth, the middle-aged man's face remained as calm as water. Upon hearing Yechen's question, he gave a simple response.
"This can only indicate that the end of the world is near. However, being eroded by the abyss is a matter of sooner or later. I have a way to deal with it, so you don't need to worry."
"As for the hallucinations you mentioned, there's no need to be alarmed. With your increasingly refined control over the Aura Power these days, and your enhanced sensitivity, being able to see hallucinations from the abyss that ordinary people cannot perceive is a perfectly normal phenomenon."
"Furthermore,"
At this point, Lyle's tone changed.
"If nothing goes wrong, tonight you will encounter your first 'Nightmare.' As long as you get through it, you will officially awaken your innate Aura spell."
"In this way, you can conclude your ten-year cultivation. I will conduct a final assessment of your strength through three practical trials, and then, before the abyss completely engulfs this land, I will send you to the human kingdom beyond the maze—the Holy Land of Light."
"There, is where you, as a human, should truly live. So, you better have your meal now and rest early."
After listening, Yechen didn't think much more, nodded, and left.
The "Nightmare" mentioned by Lyle is not the discomfort and occasional dreams encountered during ordinary human sleep, but a summons for those who possess the Aura Power.
In terms of using Aura Power, Yechen is still a novice, and only by experiencing the summons of the Nightmare can he officially step into the world of this strange power.
Therefore, the "Nightmare" can also be seen as a way to break through and awaken Aura Power.
Yechen simply finished his meal and washed up, then returned to his room to prepare for the most important nightmare of his life.
Lyle still sat in the center of the dilapidated church hall, looking at the headless statue in front of him, not saying a word. After a long time, he sighed softly.
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Yechen lay on the thick fur blanket, staring at the old wooden roof of the room for a long time before closing his eyes, waiting for the arrival of the nightmare.
From here on, the main goal of the young man was clear.
"This can only indicate that the end of the world is near. However, being eroded by the abyss is a matter of sooner or later. I have a way to deal with it, so you don't need to worry."
"As for the hallucinations you mentioned, there's no need to be alarmed. With your increasingly refined control over the Aura Power these days, and your enhanced sensitivity, being able to see hallucinations from the abyss that ordinary people cannot perceive is a perfectly normal phenomenon."
"Furthermore,"
At this point, Lyle's tone changed.
"If nothing goes wrong, tonight you will encounter your first 'Nightmare.' As long as you get through it, you will officially awaken your innate Aura spell."
"In this way, you can conclude your ten-year cultivation. I will conduct a final assessment of your strength through three practical trials, and then, before the abyss completely engulfs this land, I will send you to the human kingdom beyond the maze—the Holy Land of Light."
"There, is where you, as a human, should truly live. So, you better have your meal now and rest early."
After listening, Yechen didn't think much more, nodded, and left.
The "Nightmare" mentioned by Lyle is not the discomfort and occasional dreams encountered during ordinary human sleep, but a summons for those who possess the Aura Power.
In terms of using Aura Power, Yechen is still a novice, and only by experiencing the summons of the Nightmare can he officially step into the world of this strange power.
Therefore, the "Nightmare" can also be seen as a way to break through and awaken Aura Power.
Yechen simply finished his meal and washed up, then returned to his room to prepare for the most important nightmare of his life.
Lyle still sat in the center of the dilapidated church hall, looking at the headless statue in front of him, not saying a word. After a long time, he sighed softly.
Yechen lay on the thick fur blanket, staring at the old wooden roof of the room for a long time before closing his eyes, waiting for the arrival of the nightmare.
From here on, the main goal of the young man was clear.
To endure the Nightmare, awaken his abilities, complete the trials, and ultimately leave this frozen wasteland before the abyss invades, heading to the vast new world outside, and enjoy a brand new life with his family.
Yechen originally thought that his nervous thoughts might keep him awake all night, but to his surprise, as soon as he closed his eyelids, a strange sense of fatigue aggressively swept through his mind, occupying his consciousness with an extremely forceful attitude.
Cold, damp, foul-smelling.
In a haze, two sensations gradually crept into Yechen's mind, causing his brows, which were originally closed, to furrow involuntarily.
So cold, so damp, so foul-smelling.
As his eyelids unconsciously opened a slit, a bright red color entered his field of vision, instantly jolting Yechen awake from his drowsiness.
"Ugh!?"
Yechen exclaimed in shock, the first to realize that he was sitting on a peculiar chair. Then, he widened his eyes and looked down at his feet, only to find them submerged in a strange red liquid.
Judging by the stimulating smell wafting into his nose, the liquid seemed to be blood.
Yechen swallowed hard and, with a shaky gaze, surveyed the surroundings. At this moment, he was sitting in a spacious pool of blood, shrouded in a hazy mist around its edges.
The pool was shallow, barely reaching Yechen's ankles. Even when he subconsciously lifted his foot, the surface remained undisturbed, which was exceedingly eerie.
A blood pool veiled by thick fog, yet not a ripple stirred its surface.
Reflecting on this in his mind, Yechen raised his head again and noticed some shadows drifting faintly around the pool.
Upon closer inspection, he realized they were fragments of various types of weapons – broken halberds, twisted maces, melted straight swords, burning rifles – all floating on the surface.
All types of weapon wreckage that Yechen could recognize seemed to be present in this blood pool.
What could this scene signify?
Yechen slowly stood up, first glancing at the wooden chair behind him and finding nothing unusual. Then, he approached the nearest drifting rotten knife and reached out to touch it instinctively.
However, just before he could complete the action, a sudden and unexpected sound assaulted his eardrums.
Splash, splash, splash.
The sudden roar erupted without warning, and then the mist surrounding the perimeter of the blood pool surged towards Yechen from all directions.
In that instant, ripples and waves abruptly appeared on the previously calm surface of the blood pool, accompanied by a strong sense of discomfort flooding Yechen's mind. It felt as if sharp nails were continuously piercing into his consciousness, causing him to instinctively cover his ears in an attempt to ward off the assault of the strange sound waves.
What was that sound?
What was emitting it?
And what would happen next?
Like any ordinary dreamer, Yechen, in his current state, didn't remember falling asleep or realize he was in a fantastical dream. At this moment, his brain only received warnings from primal instincts, frantically pondering critical questions about survival.
Clutching his ears tightly and furrowing his brows, Yechen's face was soon drenched in sweat after a few moments.
Initially, upon hearing the roar, he had thought it was akin to the earth shaking and the sky collapsing.
However, amidst his agony, Yechen astonishingly discerned that the roar seemed to follow a specific pattern, rising and falling in an orderly manner, sometimes sharp, sometimes deep—almost as if someone were humming a tune.
No, he needed a weapon, any weapon, to at least have something in his hand. He had to grab hold of something first!
Enduring the assault of the bizarre sound waves, Yechen forcibly steadied his mind and reached out to grab the rusty, broken knife in front of him.
But in the next moment, he found himself grabbing at thin air, as the blood pool that should have been right in front of him suddenly disappeared, replaced by a very familiar and rudimentary wooden ceiling.
Panting heavily, Yechen looked around anxiously, only to realize he was back in his room, where he had lived for seventeen years. Everything he had just witnessed was nothing more than a dream, the nightmare he had long anticipated.
Exhaling deeply, Yechen glanced at the sunlight streaming onto his bedding, subconsciously looking towards the window of his room. At the end of the snowy plain outside, a newborn sun was slowly rising.
With the passing of the night and the arrival of dawn, Yechen's nightmare had temporarily come to an end.
Temporarily...