Hearing the last sentence, Roland couldn't help but shudder.
Why would there be a War of Divine Will in the Dream World?
He glanced at Garcia, whose expression remained unchanged. He didn't know if she already knew about it or simply didn't care.
Roland had no choice but to suppress the doubts in his heart and follow the crowd towards the end of the square, guided by the lights.
Only when he reached the end did he realize that the towering stone wall was embedded with many honeycomb-like passages. Whether entering from the ground or transferring between passages, it was necessary to take elevators suspended on guide rails. When the square was brightly lit, he didn't notice it, but now that the field of vision was dim, the dozens of elevators moving up and down looked like floating fireflies, making him feel like he was in a future city.
However, this design looked beautiful but was extremely inconvenient to use. It would be fine if it were built in the city center as a landmark, but why bury it underground? In the event of a fire, power outage, or other emergency, there would be no way to escape.
Of course, building the headquarters underground was against common sense in itself. If it was just to prevent others from invading or for confidentiality, it was simply unconvincing.
Unless the Martial Artists Association had so much money that they didn't know what to do with it, there must be another reason.
After entering Channel 24, Roland discovered that the ground beneath his feet was also a conveyor elevator. As long as he stood still, he could automatically move forward.
Such a feat was simply astonishing.
Garcia seemed to see his confusion and shrugged, "This used to be a mine. The elevator passages in the wall are just using those abandoned mine tunnels – of course, some of them were newly excavated. It depends on the speed of erosion."
"The erosion is happening in the mine?"
"Not exactly, but you can think of it that way for now."
"So the Association built its headquarters underground to prevent the erosion from spreading out?"
Garcia revealed a strange expression, "No, nothing can stop the erosion from expanding. The headquarters isn't guarding against erosion, but against those ill-intentioned Awakeners."
Seeing that Roland still wanted to ask something, she shook her head gently, "You'll understand when you see it."
The channel quickly led the group to another hall, whose layout was somewhat like a tiered conference room, with the floor descending layer by layer to form a podium at the bottom. The security measures here were obviously much stricter. Martial artists wearing the same uniform could be seen everywhere, standing expressionlessly on both sides of the hall, coldly staring at the newcomers, with no sign of welcome.
What happened to martial artists being straightforward, enthusiastic, and uninhibited? Roland grumbled inwardly. Treating newly entered Awakeners like this, no wonder others don't want to join.
After everyone was seated, the chief disciple, Lan, took to the stage again.
She didn't say much. She directly lifted a curtain on the stage, revealing a large glass box below.
Roland couldn't help but frown.
He saw a dark red "crystal" placed in the box, suspended in the center as if it had no weight. This reminded him of the Magic Core of Taqila. But the power of nature in the Dream World didn't have the ever-changing effects like magic, and this crystal had almost no substance. It looked a bit like a crude sample made with 3D projection, but looking at Lan's serious expression, it didn't seem like a joke.
"This is..."
"Erosion," Garcia said in a deep voice, "Or a loophole."
"What?" Roland was stunned.
"What's on the stage is only a small part of it," she sighed lightly, "Our world is becoming riddled with holes. This is the essence of erosion."
"I think some of you have already guessed it, or felt it –" Lan scanned the audience and said, word by word, "A malevolent power has entered our world. It causes Fallen Evils to emerge endlessly, seriously threatening the safety of Awakeners. But I want to say that this view is wrong. There has never been any malevolent power. It is just... an overlay from another world."
The audience was in an uproar.
"What do you mean? Can you explain it more clearly?"
"What does another world refer to?"
"When did the Martial Artists Association become an academy of sciences?"
"Then what are the Fallen Evils, aliens?"
Unlike the real newcomers, those martial artists who had already awakened the power of nature didn't care about the identity of the chief disciple and shouted loudly.
"Silence," Lan said unmoved, "Wait until you see the next presentation before saying anything."
With her words, the glass box slowly rose, exposing the "crystal". Then, three hanging rods were lowered from the top of the podium, each rod topped with a camera; at the same time, the wall behind Lan also lit up – it turned out to be a huge screen, with three different angles of footage, each from one of the three cameras.
Roland soon noticed a phenomenon that made his scalp tingle.
No matter which direction the camera shot from, the irregular crystal always presented the same appearance.
How was this possible?
Shouldn't it be a perfect sphere to do that?
Things with edges and corners represent discontinuous changes. The visual presentation must be different on each side, but he couldn't find a trace of rotation in the three shots, as if it wasn't an object, but just a red spot on the screen.
His brain had subconsciously judged it as a virtual image, and the crystal itself didn't exist.
But Lan's next move surprised Roland.
The chief disciple took an iron rod handed over by an assistant and inserted it directly into the red crystal. The rod didn't penetrate the illusion as he had expected, but disappeared directly in front of everyone. Through the screen, it could be seen that the three cameras faithfully restored the original appearance of the iron rod. The traces of grinding on the surface were clearly visible, and the angle was completely correct, but the red spot still remained the same, as if three iron rods from different angles... pierced into the same place.
When Lan pulled it back, a section of the rod in her hand was missing.
The hall suddenly fell silent.
In the face of such an anomaly, everyone fell silent, as if an invisible hand had covered their mouths.
After a long while, someone stood up and said, "Can I take a look at it on stage?"
"Please do," Lan nodded.
The man walked to the podium, stared at the red crystal for a long time, suddenly gave a low shout, and reached out to grab it – his skin glowed with a light silver light, clearly using the power of nature. Martial artists who could do this were not to be underestimated. Roland had heard Garcia say that driving the power of nature outwards, in a sense, was close to being a Fallen Evil, and ordinary weapons couldn't hurt them. To practice this skill, you either had to be exceptionally talented or have experienced years of life-and-death struggles, which were far stronger than ordinary martial artists.
This was probably their capital to look down on everyone.
Lan stood with her hands behind her back, with no intention of stopping him.
Then there was a shrill scream. The man didn't grab anything at all. His palm passed through the crystal without any obstacle, but the part that came into contact with it disappeared without a trace like the iron rod – he raised his hand, and only half of his bloody palm remained at the wrist!
Everyone gasped in unison.
Roland finally understood what Garcia meant when she said that – you definitely don't want to touch it, because any contact will only turn into nothingness.
After the injured person was taken away by a martial artist for treatment, several more people stood up, hoping to take a look at the stage, and Lan responded one by one. However, this group was much more careful when observing. In the end, the chief disciple simply arranged for everyone to take turns going forward to experience this incredible scene up close.
Roland was no exception.
When it was his turn to take the stage, he pretended to be nonchalant as he circled the crystal twice, but a huge wave surged in his heart.
The surging wave-like red light inside it was surprisingly familiar!
In the Realm of Gods, he had also seen similar scenes.
And in that realm, the red light hanging above represented the Red Moon...