Chapter 1 A Phantom

In the ruins of Pells, in the wind that suddenly swept across this scorched earth, a phantom seemingly of a modern-day Shallow Sea resident appeared.

Nina and Morris both saw the phantom—it was clearly not an illusion.

"There's nothing here..." Morris came to the spot where the phantom had just appeared, carefully examined the surroundings, and frowned as he muttered to himself.

The sudden situation made Nina a little nervous, and she subconsciously lowered her voice: "That just now looked kind of like a ghost..."

Morris gave the girl a strange look. "Do you need to be afraid of ghosts?"

"...Oh, right."

Nina muttered belatedly, and just as she finished speaking, something else suddenly appeared in the corner of her eye.

It was another "phantom," appearing in the wind and dust, flashing among the charred ruins formed by the interweaving of huge branches. In that brief moment, Nina felt as if she had clearly seen the other person's face... She even thought the face looked familiar.

It seemed to be the owner of the clothing store in Shallow Sea's XC district, a smiling elven lady—she appeared in the wind with a blank expression, and then dissipated with the wind.

"Over there!" Nina reacted instantly, grabbing Morris and running towards the direction where the second phantom had appeared, and before they could reach that spot, Nina saw something else flashing in the mist in the distance.

"Of course," Talan Aier said with a solemn expression. "In the Land of Heavy Winds, the sleeping sickness hasn't stopped spreading among the elven residents of the various city-states. Within Heavy Winds itself, the erosion of dreams hasn't stopped leaving traces in the real world. If this kind of 'protection' continues like this... I'm afraid something big is going to happen."

Nina opened her mouth, seeming as if she still wanted to say something, but just then, more sand and dust began to rise before her eyes, and a new phantom appeared again before her.

Obviously, being bombarded in the face by the sun in a moment of confusion was a bit too stimulating for a sub-healthy middle-aged man.

"It's Scholar Talan Aier," she said in surprise, looking at Talan Aier's blank face, in the same dazed state as the other phantoms. Although she had already seen other "acquaintances" here, she was still a little surprised to see this elven scholar at this time. "He's here too..."

"It seems that everyone who disappeared during the Dream of Pells will appear here. There's nothing unexpected about that," Talan Aier looked very calm. As he spoke, he walked to the phantom of Talan Aier, frowning slightly as he looked at him. "The key is to figure out what state these elves in the 'dreaming' stage are in. They seem to have established an increasingly stable connection with Morris. It's unlikely they can be easily awakened..."

This was a middle-aged man with dry, messy hair and a beard that seemed to have gone unshaven for days, looking unkempt and exhausted—as an elf, one whose racial characteristics were imprinted with the traits of "vitality, longevity, and elegance," this appearance gave the feeling that his vitality was already on the verge of its limit, as if he were about to die from overwork at any moment.

An amazing shockwave shattered the chaotic clouds in the sky, and the orderly winds swirling around the wreckage of the World Tree also froze for an instant. A terrifying fireball rose like a new star, turning the entire scorched earth as bright as day in a matter of seconds!

Nina also came closer, and she plucked up her courage to poke Scholar Talan Aier's arm with her finger: "I remember that Mr. Aier was trapped in the dream realm once before. I wonder what method he used to successfully awaken and save himself at that time..."

Nina: "..."

Nina turned her head and looked at Talan Aier: "...Are all the people who disappear from Heavy Winds every night here? Are they all inside the 'cacophonous wall'?"

Nina recognized the phantom at a glance.

But the fireball did not directly explode on Morris's wreckage or the "phantoms" wandering within the wreckage area.

But that couldn't explain the situation Vanna encountered—what about that desert, and the giant who called himself "God"?

The next second, a huge fireball rose from above Morris's wreckage.

Talan Aier blew his beard and glared, looking displeased: "Just tell me, did it explode or not!"

His usual hard training paid off. In the nick of time, Nina looked up at the sky—her exclamation turned into a Solar Roar. The erupting stellar matter only created a temporary sun lasting a few seconds above the Dream of Pells. The losses were minimized in the grand coronal impact.

"I'm really starting to get a little scared now..." Nina scratched the corner of her clothes a little nervously. The air around her was slightly distorted, and scorching glows occasionally appeared in the depths of her eyes. "These really are all the elves from Heavy Winds... I even saw that uncle who sells 'elf wraps' at the Crown Street intersection. He puts stinky, rotten offal sauce in his wraps..."

Finally, Nina and Niu YuZhi stopped in an open space.

The elven scholar, who just a moment ago was only a dazed phantom, had now become a vivid "mental entity." He stood in the flying sand and dust, although his whole body was a bit disheveled from the "solar shock" just now, he was obviously completely "awake."

The old scholar was now staring blankly at Nina, whose afterglow hadn't faded away, his eyes full of lingering fear.

Talan Aier slowly turned his head, turning his gaze to her.

Aside from that question, Nina immediately thought of another, even more critical problem.

Nina was emitting a golden light all over her body, and she hadn't completely cooled down yet. After hearing Teacher Niu YuZhi's words, she scratched her face embarrassedly. Before she could speak, Talan Aier's frightened voice came from the side: "Is that how you use 'a surprise and an explosion'?"

Within the Pells wreckage area, the small-scale sand and dust raised by the shockwave in the sky had not yet settled. A dusty figure crawled out of a pile of ashes—Niu YuZhi vigorously patted the dust off his body, shook white dregs from his hair, and then vigorously dug in his ears before raising his head and glaring at Nina: "The captain has told you many times, don't be so startling!"

But even with such a brief impact, the Dream of Pells instantly reacted. The forests near the cacophonous wall howled and grew wildly, the ground trembled almost to the point of boiling under the sun's rays, and the mountains in the distance rumbled as if Morris would awaken under the light of this alien sun if it lasted just one second longer—but as the fireball in the sky dissipated, the Dream of Pells still subsided on the verge of collapse.

Nina listened in stunned silence, but she immediately understood what her teacher was saying, and her intuition told her that this was probably the truth.

However, the phantom quietly dissipated, just like the other phantoms that constantly appeared and disappeared around them.

"This is Morris's 'protection,'" Talan Aier seemed to have figured out something. "She is trying to 'collect' the minds of all the elves inside the cacophonous wall. She firmly believes that this can protect us when the end of the world arrives."

Nina thought she had seen wrong and looked up again.

You had just spoken when you looked at the phantom that was not close by, since she still remembered that as long as she described "elf wraps" in this way, this uncle would immediately and solemnly correct it, saying that it was actually "seven thousand years of pure flavor sauce", the expression looked very scary.

Speaking of which, the old scholar paused, and after a brief thought, he continued, "Under normal circumstances, every elf who enters the Dream of Pells should be directly teleported to this place, becoming a phantom here. But you are exceptions. The captain's power allows you to stay awake in the dream. That's why 'Shirley' would appear in front of you - Morris thinks you are elves 'lost outside'."

Talan Aier had not spoken since just now, only frowning as he looked around, with a pensive expression on his face. After a moment, he suddenly broke the silence: "Morris is 'protecting' us."

"Then the minds of these elves are trapped in Morris's wreckage every night... Won't there be a problem if this goes on for a long time?!"

Talan Aier's phantom suddenly blinked.

All around them were phantoms, phantoms of elves, even mixed with some shadows whose outlines were so blurred that they could not be identified by race. Far and near, they intertwined between reality and illusion, appearing and disappearing from time to time. Disorderly winds swirled up sand and dust, passing through these hollow specters, passing through Morris's massive tree crown wreckage. Under the chaotic and dim sky, countless phantoms gathered in the ruins of this legendary "World Tree," like a strange and terrifying... ghost gathering.

Phantoms, phantoms of elves, began to appear constantly between the wind and the dust. As Nina and Niu YuZhi continued to move deeper into these ruins, the phantoms appeared more and more frequently. At first, they only occasionally flashed from the edge of their vision, but later on, they could casually look in any direction and see one or two hazy, ghost-like phantoms appearing and disappearing in the air from time to time.

Nina unknowingly widened her eyes. She and Talan Aier walked on this scorched earth covered in ashes and slag, walking between the massive wreckage of Morris. Around them, "Shallow Sea residents" in modern clothes constantly appeared and disappeared like unstable ghosts. These phantoms had dazed looks, floating blankly in the dust, without any reaction to Nina and Talan Aier's approach, carrying a kind of... chilling atmosphere.