Wu Pifu had a dream.
A very lonely, very solitary, very terrifying dream.
That was in the boundless void; there was no front, back, left, right, up, or down, nor the passage of time, only boundless emptiness. He drifted within it, bewildered, shouting, hoarse, going mad... but nothing changed; the void remained the void...
Wu Pifu surged up from the remnants of the bonfire. In his eyes, there were no pupils, only the same profound darkness, but this darkness was not blackness; it was lightless void. It appeared black precisely because even light could not reflect within it.
The bit of calm spiritual light gained from the Tiger Demon Skill reaching the Hall of Mastery remained unshaken. Within his inner contemplation, it was as if something was about to surge back out...
But just then, a crisp shattering sound came from afar, accompanied by what seemed like the tragic wails and moans of thousands of lives. Pain, despair, Death – all sorts of emotions echoed within this sound.
As this sound exploded, Wu Pifu's body violently shook, and the void in his eyes began to dissipate. He stumbled, his entire body aching, but inexplicably, he gained strength; a mysterious power was born within his body.
(Could it be that after the Tiger Demon Skill reached the Hall of Mastery, his physical body instinctively began to evolve?)
Wu Pifu didn't know the reason. Although he now had a thought that remained awake, maintaining clarity amidst the distractions of the Tiger Demon Skill's operation, he had, after all, only just entered the Hall of Mastery. His overall thinking was still chaotic and irritable. At this moment, being in the bonfire, he instinctively struggled to jump out, and then he saw the Yaksha.
The Yaksha was holding its head and wailing miserably. Its black and red intertwined muscles were atrophying, and large amounts of darkness turned into loose mud dripping onto the ground. Its body fell from 2.3 meters to 2 meters, and then, under Wu Pifu's direct observation, it gradually fell to about 1.9 meters. However, this decline stopped; it was still a large man whose height and width both exceeded Wu Pifu's.
The Bizarre dissipated!
Wu Pifu immediately knew what had happened: the anchoring object of this Level Two Nightmare had been damaged or destroyed.
Once a Level Two Nightmare leaves its original Dream World, if it ascends to a World with a higher baseline reality, it's fine; its strength won't increase or decrease. Some require anchoring objects, while others do not.
However, if a Level Two Nightmare falls to a lower baseline reality, its Bizarre concentration will be diluted due to the increased Bizarre concentration of the Dream World itself. Therefore, it needs to find an anchoring object within the Dream World it is in, be it life, non-life, or in extremely rare cases, even a concept. Once its anchoring object is injured, the Nightmare's strength will significantly decrease. If the anchoring object is destroyed, the Nightmare will also dissipate and perish.
This Yaksha before him is actually not the anchoring object of the Level Two Nightmare?!
Right, right, its previous fragmented words indeed mentioned something like a master...
What appeared in Wu Pifu's heart at this moment was surprisingly not joy. In the stage where the Tiger Demon Skill reached the Hall of Mastery, he began to possess a certain intuition similar to extraordinary power. Although it was far from the 'cicada sensing the autumn wind before it blows,' it also surpassed the realm of Mortals.
Tears suddenly rolled down from his eyes.
He inexplicably knew that he would never see that Little Mute again.
"Give it to me!"
Wu Pifu himself didn't know what he was saying. He just strode towards the Yaksha... even though the Yaksha was still stronger than him, even though his remaining single hand was already fractured, even though he was severely injured all over, almost on his last breath. But at this moment, he moved like a tiger, his will like a demon, and as he walked, there was a faint sound of a demonic tiger roaring.
The Yaksha opened its mouth wide and roared, but its feet were slowly retreating backward.
"Give me... your life!!"
When the two sides were five meters apart, Wu Pifu suddenly leaped forward. This was the 'Mad Tiger Leaping into the Ravine' technique from the Tiger Demon Skill. The last time he used it was to escape this Level Two Nightmare; this time, he was pouncing towards this Nightmare's derivative.
The Yaksha frantically raised its hands to try and block, but although Wu Pifu looked like he was dying at this moment, his strength had increased by about thirty percent due to that inexplicable reason. With a single impact, he directly swept aside the Yaksha's hands and arms. In an instant, Wu Pifu's broken hand bone spike pierced into the Yaksha's throat, and then the two collided. The bone fragments and spikes were deeply embedded in the Yaksha's windpipe.
The Yaksha struggled madly, its immense strength snapping Wu Pifu's broken arm bone clean off. A piece of bone remained in its windpipe, but Wu Pifu's expression didn't even flicker. He merely withdrew his arm, disregarding the hand that was already half-broken off, and directly used the severed, jagged wrist bone to continue stabbing towards the Yaksha's face.
Once, twice, thrice...
At first, the Yaksha was still struggling madly, using both hands and feet, but Wu Pifu pressed down firmly on its chest, his arm stabbing down continuously, not caring that his hand had broken off and fallen. Then the Yaksha's body began to convulse, becoming still and silent. Large amounts of blackness turned into mud and flowed all over the ground, completely devoid of any life.
Wu Pifu still did not stop his actions. At this moment, his mind was filled only with fury, killing intent, and sorrow...
He didn't know how much time had passed. The ground was covered only in fragmented corpses, not even a hint of a human form could be seen. Only then did Wu Pifu raise his head and look towards the main hall.
On the platform in front of the main hall, there were still three or four living people, some nuns and some benefactors. They had all been skinned, but for the moment, they were not dead. Originally, they had been wailing and groaning miserably, wanting to roll around on the ground in pain, but the sandy ground prevented them from doing so.
At this moment, they were all watching Wu Pifu in terrified silence. They dared not make any movement or sound. The recent struggle had been entirely witnessed by them.
They had personally witnessed a Human and a Yaksha fighting each other. In the end, it was surprisingly this Human who had massacred the Yaksha. But... was he really a Human?
Wu Pifu didn't care about them; he just walked step by step into the great hall.
Then he saw the collapsed and shattered Buddha statue, and also saw the Little Mute who had been crushed to Death under the Buddha statue.
The Buddha statue had toppled and shattered on the ground, coincidentally crushing the Little Mute below. And in the Little Mute's hand, she was still clutching a table leg, a leg from the wooden table used to worship the Buddha statue...
Everything became clear.
Wu Pifu looked at everything before him with sorrow.
His life had been saved by the Little Mute... twice!!
Why?
Just because they met?
Just because of a few brief sentences of conversation?
Or was it because he had promised to take her away?
Wu Pifu didn't know. There were no longer tears in his eyes. He simply lowered his body, used the arm that had lost its hand to support the Little Mute, leaned her against his chest, and then slowly picked her up.
Very light, very thin, very small...
Then Wu Pifu looked at the shattered Buddha statue. Mud was still gushing out from within the Buddha statue, still possessing life activity. What he did was very simple: he kicked forcefully at the remaining large fragments of the Buddha statue, kicking them to pieces. The mud emitted terrifying wails, and the few skinned people outside the hall covered their ears and wailed in pain, then they all fainted.
But as Wu Pifu kicked apart the last remnants, all the mud began to spread out and dissipate. Only at the very center did a black spherical object appear, about the size of a soccer ball, looking like both mud and plastic.
"Event achieved: Ni Fo Ye Cha."
"In 1124 AD, the sixth year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty, outside Kaifeng City in Bianliang, a shocking murder case occurred at Jing'an Temple in Niujia Village. Thirty-two nuns of the temple, as well as thirteen visitors, all met with disaster. Only four survived, but these four were subjected to skinning torture and all died within a few days to several dozen days."
"According to their accounts, that night, a red light soared into the sky. A Buddha statue spat out mud, which entered the body of a rogue knight. The rogue knight thus became a Buddhist guardian Yaksha, killing and skinning everyone in the temple."
"There was an anomaly, single-armed and alone, who bravely stormed the temple and fought with the Yaksha, ultimately killing the Yaksha on the spot. Afterwards, he completely destroyed the Buddha statue, then picked up the corpse of an unnamed nun and fled into the distance, his whereabouts unknown."
"As he left, a small emerald green bird landed on his shoulder. This bird might have possessed some divine quality and also disappeared with the anomaly."
Wu Pifu perceived the information sent by the Mainframe in his mind.
This was establishing a Sanctuary.
As far as Wu Pifu knew, there were three ways to establish a Sanctuary.
First, by exchanging with equivalent exchange items in the current World. For example, in the previous baseline reality of 0.9, Republican era Shanghai, he used twenty silver dollars to buy a tailoring and hat shop, establishing a Level One Sanctuary. The more expensive and well-known the building, the higher the level of the Sanctuary it transforms into after purchase.
Second, by increasing influence in the current Dream World. For example, by having a certain number of slaves, farmers, soldiers, employees, partners, etc., and then forming a power. This can also establish a Sanctuary. For instance, if Wu Pifu became the leader of Liangshan, then the so-called Juyi Hall could be anchored by the Mainframe as a Sanctuary. The stronger the power, the higher the level of the established Sanctuary.
Third, by achieving a certain historical event, meaning the Dream World will record it in its history. The greater the influence and the more powerful the Dynasty that records it, the higher the level of the established Sanctuary.
In fact, viewed holistically, it is the acquisition of influence within the Dream World.
Buying a building is itself gaining influence. Making money is the same, regardless of how the money is obtained – stolen, robbed, earned through hard work – this is all about gaining influence. As for power, or historical events, it is also the same.
Essentially, this is actually a process where the Mainframe, through these maintenance personnel, operates within the Dream World, acquires influence, and then infiltrates the information code of the Dream World... if these Dream Worlds are indeed just programs.
The information in Wu Pifu's mind continued, and he simply used his arm to clamp the black spherical object under his armpit, and also clamped the Little Mute in the same way.
Just as described in the event, as he walked towards the outside of the temple, that small emerald green bird flew down onto his shoulder, constantly making Qiū Qiū calls.
As if weeping about something...
That kind, thin, small Little Mute, who could only make 'ah ah' sounds, could no longer respond to it.