“Gao Ming! Don’t listen to him! Your joy comes from yourself and not from the Xi God! He can’t take that away from you.” Fu Shu had made his decision to side with Gao Ming. He placed everything on Gao Ming. He was no longer a coward and screamed at Madam Xi.
His skin tore open, and a mute bird flew out of Gao Ming’s organs. That was his happiness.
“The angry tiger is blind, and your happiness is muted. Your fear transformed into snakes that immobilised you. Your past is incredibly sad.” Madam Xi commented on the situation like an outsider.
The wounds expanded. The monsters morphed from emotions that wanted to tear Gao Ming apart. The hollow sound echoed in his chest. Two horned flood dragons snapped Gao Ming’s ribs. One radiated sadness. It was grossly mutated. The other was covered in flesh and scales. It emitted melancholy.
“Flood dragons?” Madam Xi was surprised by this symbolic animal. She thought the tiger was already Gao Ming’s limit.
When she saw melancholy and sadness crawl out of Gao Ming’s heart, Madam Xi shook her veiled head. Her finger slowly lowered. Things were going out of her control. She noticed there was something else after the two flood dragons. The thing was inside Gao Ming’s chest, staring at her!
“Mutated emotions should tear apart your body, but your flesh is still an intact cage, and your body is trying to keep your emotions in place. What is hiding in your chest?” Madam Xi’s voice was gorgeous. It made people want to answer her.
Gao Ming’s state was horrible. He didn’t expect that Madam Xi could kill people in such a horrible method with just a flick of her finger. He also didn’t expect his emotions to contain such violent power. The painting of nirvana above them was like a torn-open ocean. Gao Ming’s body kept shaking. His eyes radiated endless sadness. His pupils were almost grey.
“It’s so painful. Why does every one of you give me pain? Even if you give me joy, it is a fleeting illusion. What have I done wrong? Where did I go wrong?”
Gao Ming didn’t answer Madam Xi or follow her way of thinking. Gao Ming gripped the butcher’s knife. His blood showered the blade. It coagulated and almost wiped out the butcher’s imprint. The tiger’s roars shook the temple. It was so loud that even the residents of Dream Break Town could hear them. “I’ve never asked for much, but I’m still trapped! I always return to the same place after I die! Another cycle will start! I can’t find the exit! I can’t find the path!”The unrivalling nightmare was darker than the night. The dangerous and sticky darkness flowed out of Gao Ming’s chest. The altar doors opened as if trying to answer Gao Ming. The darkness fell on the Xi Temple like rain. The mute bird couldn’t even struggle before it was swallowed by the tides. The snakes around Gao Ming’s legs wiggled about. The angry tiger leapt down from Gao Ming’s shoulders and actively entered the nightmare.
“The emotions have stabilised?!”
Without the aid of joy, Gao Ming’s emotions still didn’t collapse. The beasts couldn’t struggle loose from Gao Ming’s consciousness. The two flood dragons, which represented sadness and melancholy, tried to escape. Gao Ming was creepier than the Yong Gods in town. His white ribs bit on the dragons, like teeth. With Fu Shu and Madam Xi as the witnesses, a figure larger than the Xi Temple silently appeared behind Gao Ming.
The nightmare that had expanded to more than ten metres could barely contain it. The four faces carried different expressions. The eight arms stretched backwards. Two arms grabbed the flood dragons. The legs were encircled by the snakes. There was an angry tiger behind the shoulders. The quivering bird hid in the heart.
Gao Ming’s mutated emotions were captured by the God of Flesh and Blood. The God and the man were united. His emotions appeared on the divine figure. Everything within the ten-metre radius was turning into flesh. Fu Shu, who hid behind Gao Ming, realised that his body was also melting and reconstructing like wax. He quickly screamed, “Save Bai Feng! Gao Ming, you have to save Bai Feng!”
Fu Shu was still giving Gao Ming advice and hoped that Gao Ming could locate the source of joy in his heart and lower the Xi God’s influence on him. Who would have thought that Gao Ming would ignore him fully? To ensure that he wouldn’t lose himself to the Xi God’s power, he chose to release his nightmare. He lost his rationality, and he became entrapped in his nightmare.
“Gao Ming! Gao Ming!”
If Gao Ming had fallen under the influence of Xi God, the situation would have only become more complicated. In contrast, if Gao Ming lost his mind due to Dream Release, lives would be lost. When a crazed murderer lost control, the best solution was to tie them to a chair, not to trigger them further.
The corrupted flesh blew away the joy aura. The paintings of nirvana exposed their true appearances. Dried corpses with plastered smiles were bound together. The painting was actually an immeasurably deep hole with bodies.
“Are you not a God from Dream Break Town?” There was a barely-human silhouette under Madam Xi’s veil. Her voice also aged due to the destroyed paintings. “Are you another Zhang Mingli?”
The destructive power of the rampaging God of Flesh and Blood and crazed Gao Ming was astonishing. The Xi God had control of the joy at Dream Break Town. The God of Flesh and Blood could seriously injure it because he didn’t come from this deep-level nightmare. Gao Ming’s nightmare didn’t follow the rules of Dream Break Town.
The eight arms pierced through the nirvana. The God of Flesh and Blood managed to find Bai Feng who was hidden by Madam Xi among the millions of corpses.
Bai Feng had two distinct expressions. One was a mother who was looking for her lost children, and the other was of the divine who had ascended beyond the vicissitude of life.
“Bai Feng!” Fu Shu screamed from the top of his lungs. He was more anxious than Gao Ming.
“Auspicious time. I wish the Xi God is free from injury in this life.” Madam Xi’s sounded increasingly old. She raised her hand, and the roof of the Xi temple lifted up. Endless bones rushed at Gao Ming. With another stomp of her feet, the wooden floor of the second floor cracked. Red threads flowed out of the wedding invitations on the first floor. They carried the karma and sent it to Gao Ming and the God of Flesh and Blood.
The Xi God used the nightmares drained from the joy aura to incapacitate the God of Flesh and Blood. Madam Xi waved her hand, carried Bai Feng, and left.
Normally, it was the groom who carried the bride, but it was the opposite in Dream Break Town. The crown tipped over. Madam Xi appeared to plan to carry Bai Feng back to Dream Break Town.