“You must be respectful to the banner, without any rudeness. After we go out, first apologize politely for what you did before, absolutely no perfunctory attitude… In short, no matter when, you must treat the Ten Thousand Soul Banner—”
Elder You continued to ramble on, completely unaware that Lin Huanhuan, upon seeing that black pointy part, suddenly had an epiphany.
‘So that’s how it is.’
Elder You saw her absent-minded expression and frowned. “What are you doing? How dare you be so rude to a senior? Careful, or I’ll—”
Before he finished speaking, Lin Huanhuan picked up a brick from the side and knocked him down.
“Ouch! You dare attack me? I’ll teach you a good lesson!”
The illusory disguise shattered instantly. The Ten Thousand Soul Banner revealed its true form. The flag curled slightly at the top, and a crisp yet annoyed loli voice rang out.
“It’s a female.”
Lin Huanhuan was slightly surprised. “Huh, your artifact spirit is actually a female.”
“But who told you to put on such a fake act? I saw through it immediately. It’s good enough that I didn’t give you a severe beating.”
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner erupted in fury, its flag body bending and jumping several times.
“You’re the female! You’re the female! I’m a woman!”
Lin Huanhuan rolled her eyes indifferently.
‘What a childish way to curse. It doesn’t sound threatening at all. Feels like if I hit it once, it would cry for a long time.’
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner cursed for a while, but seeing that Lin Huanhuan didn’t retort at all, it proudly jumped once, then felt a bit puzzled.
“I acted so convincingly. Why could you still see through me? My previous master was exactly like this.”
Lin Huanhuan was skeptical.
“Are you sure? A powerhouse of that level would actually be like this?”
Hearing this, the Ten Thousand Soul Banner became less confident.
“…Well, probably… yes?”
Lin Huanhuan didn’t want to dwell on this topic. She asked with some confusion, “By the way, weren’t you heavily damaged? How could you reconstitute your artifact spirit? And what you said just now—is it true?”
“This place is just a Dream Void. Only in this special space between reality and illusion could I wake up early. I’m just a small artifact spirit. But before my master attempted to break through to the Nascent Soul realm, he was always sighing, saying that the great Dao he wanted to prove was too special and he probably wouldn’t succeed.”
“As for whether it’s true, how would I know?”
“I don’t remember the details. I only have part of my past memories. I only recalled this just now upon seeing this Dream Void.”
“I see.”
Lin Huanhuan nodded, then asked, “What is the Dream Void? I’ve never heard of it.”
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner said, “The so-called Dream Void is a special space you enter after being hit by Dream Dao techniques. There are several levels above this, but I don’t remember them.”
“Generally speaking, if you are a Dream Dao cultivator, you can control everything within the Dream Void, perform reality-illusion transformations, and even ambush and kill a cultivator of a higher realm than yourself.”
“But you are not a Dream Dao cultivator, and you don’t understand Dream Dao much. So now, you can use the dream bubbles in this Dream Void to perform reality-illusion transformations and raise your realm.”
“You are really lucky this time. That guy not only—”
“For example, I woke up early by consuming a few dream bubbles, recovering in the dream, which then affected reality and completed my recovery.”
“A hundred thousand years ago, in the era when my master was active, there were still many Dream Dao cultivators. But now they have long since disappeared from the world. They must have been targeted. Hmph, just like the current Soul Dao!”
Lin Huanhuan was secretly alarmed.
‘Reality-illusion transformation? Dreaming something and it becomes real? That feels so shady. If that’s the case, no wonder it was targeted.’
She looked up and saw that only two of the beautiful, dreamlike bubbles remained. Her expression turned displeased.
“So you consumed most of my opportunities, didn’t you?”
Visibly, the Ten Thousand Soul Banner’s flag body stiffened.
“Th-this… I did it unconsciously, and you wouldn’t have known how to use them at the time. If I hadn’t taught you, you would have missed this opportunity. In any case, it’s not my fault.”
Lin Huanhuan snorted lightly, knowing she couldn’t do anything to the banner for now, and said, “Fine. Then how do I use these dream bubbles?”
“Very simple. Just choose to touch a dream bubble, then imagine in your mind the technique or cultivation you want to improve, and imagine how great it would be if all that became reality. That’s it.”
“But I should warn you: to break through to late Foundation Establishment, you would need at least seven or eight dream bubbles. These two are definitely not enough.”
“So I advise you to use these two dream bubbles to improve combat experience or techniques.”
Lin Huanhuan nodded. Then her expression changed as she thought of a very critical question.
“Wait, how long have I been in here? Has a long time passed outside? What about You Yuelan?”
“Huh? You care about that woman?”
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner’s tone became irritating.
“Want to know? Beg me. Beg me and I’ll tell you.”
Lin Huanhuan looked at it with a dark expression and shook her fist.
“Beg you? How about I beg you with my fist? You’ve tasted it before, haven’t you? Don’t think just because your artifact spirit is awake, I won’t beat you. I’ll still beat you!”
“Y-you you… Don’t come near me. I’m not afraid of you.”
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner panicked and quickly said, “I’m not saying this because I’m afraid of you. I just want to say it.”
“Only a little time has passed, so don’t worry.”
“Also, improvement is very fast. Basically instantaneous.”
“In short, waking up stronger is better than going out stark naked, right? The one you have to face is a late Foundation Establishment powerhouse. I saw it: that guy hasn’t been using his full strength the whole time, like he’s holding something back.”
“In a dream, eons may pass, but outside the dream, it might be only an instant.”
Lin Huanhuan nodded.
“That’s true.”
Then, without hesitation, she flashed over to the two dream bubbles simultaneously and touched them with both hands.
Next, she felt as if she had another dream.
In that dream, she completely perfected the Wind Dao spell she had developed earlier.
Before, although she had created that unique Wind Dao spell of her own, it was still in the rudimentary stage, requiring too much preparation time, which really troubled her.
But in this dream, not only was the preparation time greatly reduced, but the spell’s power also became stronger.
With a pat sound.
The dream within a dream ended.
Lin Huanhuan clenched her hands, somewhat in disbelief.
“The spell I perfected in the dream actually synchronized with reality. That’s terrifying.”
“Hmph.”
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner snorted coldly, looking at her like a country bumpkin.
“By the way, how do I get out now? I can’t stay in this Dream Void forever.”
“You can now. When you realize you are dreaming, you can control everything in your dream. And when you want to wake up—”