Seeing Tianlong silent, Qinglong spoke softly again: “Tianlong… you really don’t seem well right now… Are you sure you don’t want to rest?”
Hearing this, the confusion on Tianlong’s face gradually twisted into anger:
“You’re messing with me… What the hell is this place…?”
Clenching his fists, Tianlong stepped toward Qinglong with fury burning in his eyes. Though he faintly guessed the answer, he refused to believe it.
“This is our ‘Paradise’… and the ‘Train’ that carries hope…” Qinglong replied. “Tianlong… you’re exhausted.”
Staggering forward, Tianlong reached out to grab Qinglong’s collar, but Qinglong took a step back, effortlessly evading him.
“You won’t even let me touch you…” Tianlong gritted his teeth. “You have no real connection to this world… No one can see you, and you can’t affect anything here… When your hand rested on my shoulder, it felt as light as paper… You’re afraid of making contact with things in this world… You—”
Tianlong looked as if he wanted to lunge forward and kill Qinglong on the spot, but his strength was nearly spent.
“You really are exhausted…” Qinglong replied impassively. “Isn’t it time to rest?”
“Tian… Tianshe…” Tianlong turned his head, trembling, and called out to someone beside him. “Seize him… He’s fake… Tianshe…”
But there was no Tianshe in the room.
Tianzhu stood nearby, cradling his own severed head in his hands. The head in his grasp let out a bitter laugh: “Tianlong… I’ve tried… I can’t kill Qinglong…”
“Tianzhu… You—”
“Why must you two drag me into your fight?” The head in Tianzhu’s arms wailed. “I just want to live… I just want to escape… Why won’t you give me a chance?”
“No… Tianzhu… You’re dead…” Tianlong muttered numbly. “You died…”
“I am dead. But who killed me? Was it you… ‘Paradise’… or Qinglong?”
“He’s not Qinglong…” Tianlong took another step forward, his breath suddenly hitching in his throat. “And this isn’t ‘Paradise’… This is…”
Though his mind was a haze, his ‘conviction’ faltering and his breathing ragged, Tianlong still managed to voice his realization:
“…My… dream…?”
“You truly are remarkable.” Qinglong nodded. “To recognize that this is a dream while still inside it… That alone puts you above most. It seems you won’t go to sleep quietly.”
“If I sleep now… That’s exactly what you want…”
Tianlong clutched his chest, feeling as though his breath would stop at any moment. Even if this was a dream… what was happening in ‘reality’?
“Tianlong…” Qinglong smiled faintly, patting his own chest as he asked softly, “Even as we ascend to become ‘gods’… do we still instinctively crave breath?”
Tianlong pressed a hand to his chest and growled, “How did you take another’s form in my dream…?”
Qinglong sighed. “Tianlong… When you first ‘awoke’… what were the three sentences you remembered most clearly?”
The question made Tianlong freeze. He searched his memories.
When he had first ‘awoken,’ aside from the meaningless words of the rebels, the only three phrases that stuck were—
“I am Qinglong.”
The same sentence, repeated three times, etching itself into his mind.
After those words, the blurred figure before him had gradually taken Qinglong’s form.
“Thus, I am Qinglong.” Qinglong pointed to the wound on his forehead. “I am the Qinglong who fought to the last moment in the ‘Locomotive,’ bearing these scars. Isn’t that right?”
“You manipulated my subconscious…?” Tianlong felt as if he had been played from the start. “At the ‘Locomotive,’ under the tree, before the throne—the only one who could fight the ‘rebels’ was Qinglong… You twisted my perception…”
“Isn’t this your favorite tactic?” Qinglong raised an eyebrow. “Meddling in others’ dreams… No matter how illogical the dream becomes, the dreamer accepts it as normal. But your ‘conviction’ is too strong—your rationality is slipping, and now even the dream itself is collapsing.”
Summoning the last of his strength, Tianlong took another step forward: “Take off that mask… Let me see your face…”
“You want to see my face?” Qinglong retreated slowly toward the door.
As he stepped back, the entire scene began to crumble.
“Tianlong.” Qinglong let out a soft laugh. “Come find me. I’ll grant you defeat.”
“Where… do I find you…?”
“The usual place.” Qinglong said. “Isn’t it the same for everyone in the ‘Land of Finality’? If you think of someone… you’ll meet them. Right?”
With that, he stepped out of the room, standing briefly in the hallway before his figure twisted and vanished.
Faintly, Tianlong heard a voice from beyond the door: “I can’t leave. You go.”
Before he could react, cracks spiderwebbed across the room, and Tianzhu dissolved into a pool of blood before his eyes, vanishing into the void.
Tianlong instinctively activated ‘Levitation,’ hovering in place as the floor beneath him and the walls around him collapsed.
This was the first time he had ever witnessed the space around him disintegrating. A primal fear—the terror of losing control—settled in his chest.
Where was he now?
How could he escape?
Seconds later, the only thing left in his vision was a lone door suspended in the darkness.
The scene inside the door was also collapsing rapidly, revealing strange, shifting colors.
Disbelieving, Tianlong stepped forward, weightless, until he stood before the door.
For the first time, he felt the chill of the unknown. What awaited him beyond?
Where was the ‘usual place’?
His body ached faintly, and his breathing grew even more labored.
After a moment of hesitation, he stepped through—and found himself in a familiar room.
Familiar furniture. Familiar decor.
Outside the window, the same grotesque world of flesh.
This… was Bai Yang’s home in reality?
Countless questions bombarded Tianlong’s mind, turning his already chaotic thoughts into a whirlwind.
Since when had the room in the ‘Locomotive’ been connected to this place?
“Don’t just stand there. Sit.”
A voice spoke abruptly behind him, making him flinch.
Dazed, he turned to see a woman in white stepping through the door, carrying two grocery bags as if she had just returned from shopping.
“Xia told me a guest would visit today. Is it you?”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and shut the door, sealing off Tianlong’s only escape.
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