The Witch's Taste

No, I traded fire for power, but the witch traded pain, which is completely different.

"Is this transaction harmful?" he asked cautiously.

"Of course." Rio Hokaze replied, "Do you think that the painful emotions that can make the gods of the abyss look good are just like being pricked by a needle?"

Her voice paused for a moment, as if she was considering her words, and then said:

"Let's put it this way: almost without exception, all the witches recorded in the current intelligence database have serious anti-social tendencies and a strong urge to destroy everything."

"Obviously, before gaining benefits from the gods, they themselves have been tortured to the point of insanity by great pain... such as this case."

Rio Hokaze pushed away the chair and turned the computer screen to Chen Ziang.

Chen Ziang looked intently, and there was a temporarily declassified report on it.

The report mentioned a woman named "Nishikawa Mie", who lives in Sumida Town, more than 200 kilometers away from Jibei City.

One evening three years ago, Xi Chuan Mei Hui's husband and a pair of children were attacked by wild wolves on the way back to the town from outside.

Afterwards, Xichuan Meihui refused the compensation from the town hall, but only demanded that the wolves that roamed around the town and devoured her family be hunted down.

However, according to the "No.13 Ecological Protection Act", the continental gray wolf is a national protected animal, and any organization or individual is prohibited from hunting in any name.

The report ends here, and the encrypted content behind it cannot be deciphered.

However, Chen Ziang noticed that the last paragraph of the decrypted part had a note added by Rio Hokaze next to it:

Mie Nishikawa is suspected to have become a witch, and there is a high probability that she has some connection with the more than 500 cases of mysterious disappearances of citizens that have not been solved so far.

"Is this Xichuan Meihui the culprit who put the statue of 'Lord of the Great Deep Sea' in Ginza Sky?" Chen Ziang asked for confirmation.

"Almost." Rio Hokaze replied, "This is what the divination results show."

"The results of divination can't be counted." Chen Ziang complained, "What if it's wrong?"

"It's just to provide you with directional suggestions for follow-up investigations." Rio Hokaze said indifferently, "I'm applying to unblock Mie Nishikawa's information. When the confidentiality level is lowered, you can directly check it on the intranet."

She pushed Chen Ziang away, returned to the computer and started working, meaning "You can go now".

"Lixu." Before leaving, Chen Ziang suddenly stopped and asked, "Wouldn't the spirit vision of a witch who obtained power through trading with the gods increase rapidly?"

"Of course." Suikaze Lio said without turning around, "How can you ensure that your spiritual vision remains unchanged when you directly draw energy from the gods?"

"Although there is no data support, it is speculated that the spiritual vision of witches is at least more than [-]. It is just that the body is blessed by the gods, and it will not suddenly change out of control, but basically it can be considered to be out of the scope of human beings."

"I see." Chen Ziang secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

Since his spiritual vision is still normal, he should not have been mentally polluted.

He left the Jibei City Public Security Department, took the light rail again, and returned home.

Chen Xiaozhu was still sitting on the rocking chair in the middle of the living room, staring blankly ahead with empty eyes.

Chen Ziang went over to talk to his sister, and then went upstairs to the bedroom.

Bringing his usual mandala magic sword, the spiritual pressure watch left by his parents at home, and taking another sanity lozenge, putting it under his tongue, Chen Ziang lay down slowly on the bed and closed his eyes.

Even though he already knows that there are various risks and hidden dangers in exploring the mysterious world, but now that the scientific world has sentenced his sister to death, he can only seek more powerful abilities from the mysterious side.

"Dream Walk" power, activated.

------

The moment the power was activated, Chen Ziang seemed to have lost his consciousness.

But he woke up soon, and found that he was still lying on the bed in the bedroom, and the window had turned from day to night.

Chen Ziang quickly looked at the spiritual pressure meter on his wrist, and found that the number had jumped to 2.

In this world, the number on the spiritual pressure meter is always 0, and it will only start to rise when it is close to weirdness.

Now, the number on the dial has jumped to 2, and the decimal point remains unchanged, indicating that he has left the surface of the world and dived into the mysterious world.

If the knowledge is correct, I should be in the preconscious layer at this time.

While exchanging the power of "Dream Walk", Chen Ziang also received a corresponding gift, that is, knowledge about how to use the power, most of which are about the dream world.

The dream world is divided into four layers: the conscious layer (part of the present), the preconscious layer, the subconscious layer, and the collective subconscious layer.

The conscious layer and the pre-conscious layer can be considered as their own safe house, which will not encounter weird attacks.

Starting from the subconscious level is equivalent to entering the yard from home. Although it still belongs to "private territory", there is the possibility of being invaded by weirdness.

As for the collective subconscious layer, it is equivalent to leaving the yard and walking to the street outside. It is hard to say what you will encounter.

Chen Ziang got up from the bed, took the mandala magic sword in his hand, and went to the window vigilantly.

Outside is a small courtyard in the dark, empty.The Tonegawa Road behind the fence is also quiet, only the dim street lights emitting faint light.

In the preconscious world, everything reflects what the owner thinks in his heart.

For example, I was lying on the bed before, ready to enter the dream world-my consciousness associates "bed" with "night", so the window of this world is night.

Chen Ziang pushed open the door and saw that the light in the living room was on.

The younger sister, Chen Xiaozhu, was sitting on the rocking chair in the middle of the living room, with her eyes closed, as if she was sleeping.

Of course he knew that this was not the real sister, but just the "sister" image in his consciousness.

But Chen Ziang still couldn't help walking over, carefully looking at his sister's beautiful sleeping face.

Xiaozhu's appearance is very delicate and lovely. In Chen Zi'ang's opinion, her appearance is not inferior to that of Yuegong Suzuna.

However, Tsukimiya Suzuna can live freely in the sunny world. She can travel, fall in love, get married and have children, and enjoy all the good things in her life.

But Xiaozhu can only stay in this dark and small house, enduring the darkness and pain, day after day, year after year...

This is not her fate.

"This is not the fate you deserve, Xiaozhu." Chen Ziang stared at his younger sister's face and said seriously, "I will find a way to heal you."

"I'll get you back."

After speaking, Chen Ziang let out a long breath, and sat down on the sofa beside Xiao Zhu.

Close your eyes, and activate the "dream walking" power again.

Enter the third layer - the subconscious layer.

Chapter 9 Shadow Cloak

If the "conscious layer" is compared to a photo, and the "preconscious layer" is compared to a realistic oil painting, then the "subconscious layer" is an abstract oil painting.

Realistic oil paintings can still depict and imitate reality, while many elements in abstract oil paintings make it difficult to distinguish the real body.

Chen Ziang woke up from the sofa, only to see that the living room had changed greatly.

The original dilapidated wallpaper has been renewed, the dining table has been replaced with heavy mahogany, the sofa has become side-by-side armchairs, bamboo mats have been placed where carpets are placed, and a large number of portraits of people are hung on the walls, almost all of which are not People you know.

The younger sister, Chen Xiaozhu, was sitting in one of the armchairs. She was wearing a complicated and delicate princess dress, holding a folding fan in her hand, fanning the wind gracefully like a court lady.

Like the upper dream, although this Chen Xiaozhu is not blind, it is just a phantom.

As for why she is wearing a princess dress... I can only say that anything can appear in the subconscious, there is no need to get to the bottom of it.

Chen Ziang wandered around the living room for a while, and found that everything here was changing randomly, abruptly, and constantly.

The mahogany dining table suddenly turned into a bar with tablecloths, the armchairs were replaced by soft beds with curtains, and the mats on the ground were transformed into grassy fields, which seemed to grow directly from the cracks in the floor.

Chen Xiaozhu had already disappeared from the chair, transformed into Yue Gong Suzuna, kneeling on the grass and crying helplessly, the tears flowed down from between the fingers of her hands covering her cheeks.

Looking at the spiritual pressure meter on the wrist again, the environmental pressure has reached 30 at this time.

In a world with environmental pressure of 30, the possible weirdness is very dangerous, and it is not comparable to those low-level weirdness with an activity depth of 0-10.

If you stay at this depth for a long time, even if you are not killed by the weirdness, your spiritual vision will gradually approach 30, which will lead to a sharp increase in the risk of encountering these weirdnesses even if you return to reality in time.

However, the subconscious level, although grotesque, is still his own spiritual realm.

But to find those dangerous and unknown mysterious knowledge, one must go down to the bottom "collective subconscious layer".

According to the relevant knowledge of "Dream Walk", in the vast collective subconscious layer, there is an ancient city named "Enrank", where a large number of nightmares live.

Nightmare is a rare and mysterious race that is willing to communicate with humans, so Chen Ziang plans to go to the ancient city of Enrank to seek a cure for his sister's disease from Nightmare.

He closed his eyes again and activated the power of dream walking.

------

Chen Ziang struggled to wake up and found himself lying on the grass by the river.

He grabbed the mandala sword beside him, and then quickly stood up, looking around vigilantly.

The river next to it seems to be the Tonegawa River, but there are no dams around it, only clear water flowing through it.

There are large grasslands on both sides, dotted with star-like blue flowers, and they are constantly swaying with the wind... No, they are not swaying with the wind, but these flowers themselves can move.

Chen Ziang raised his head and found that the sky was based on a gradient of violet, with solid streams of light like clouds, and countless stars twinkling in light and dark.

...it's a weird and dreamy world.

"Hello." A voice suddenly sounded from the side.

Chen Zi'ang quickly turned back his sword to block and turn around, but the visitor didn't seem to have any intention of attacking, and was just standing 20 meters away.

The other party was wearing a dark black, gorgeous and complicated robe, with a slender neck protruding from the neckline, and an expressionless face...to be exact, a smooth face without facial features, and a curved face A pair of horns with spiral patterns.

From the shoulder blades on its back (if the monster had one), protruded a pair of huge bony wings, folding gracefully like a fan.Under the cuffs are the same shriveled hands, holding a staff of unknown material but with extremely complicated outlines.

Chen Ziang noticed keenly that the opponent's hand holding the staff had six bony fingers.

"Don't be nervous, human." Although the other party didn't have a mouth, his voice sounded directly in Chen Zi'ang's mind as if telepathically.

It was a soft and charming voice like a young woman:

"I'm the High Priest from Enrank Temple, you can call me 'Neko'."

The other party's generous self-introduction is obviously well versed in the etiquette of human society.

Chen Ziang didn't want to tell her his real name, because the real name also has a special meaning in the mysterious world, so he coldly said a fabricated pseudonym:

"Ask."

"Mr. Asker." Nicole said with a smile, "If it's convenient for you, I would like to invite you to visit Enrank City."

Chen Ziang was silent for a long time, and asked:

"Is this common? I mean, humans come to this world and are invited by you as guests?"

"Yes, and no." Nicole said leisurely, "Human beings are not frequent visitors in this world, but they are not extremely rare."

"As for inviting you as a guest, this is what the Lord of the Great Deep Sea means."

"The meaning of the gods?" Chen Ziang thought in astonishment.

"Don't worry." Nicole laughed again, "The sublime lord of the deep sea has no malice towards you. Isn't it the best proof that you can gain the power to come to this world?"

That's not necessarily the case, in the concept of gods, the boundary between goodwill and malice is extremely blurred... Chen Ziang thought slightly, and asked again for confirmation:

"Can you make it more clear? The so-called guest, what exactly do you mean?"

"It seems that Mr. Asker is still quite wary." Nicole smiled nonchalantly, "Well, we can talk while walking."

She waved the staff lightly, and a path of light rushed out from the top of the staff, flying towards a certain direction in the distance.

"Please?" Nicole said.

Chen Ziang sighed secretly, thinking that there was no reason to back down here.

The two walked side by side along the direction guided by the light path. Chen Ziang was contemplating a problem when he heard Nicole say:

"Although the Lord of the Great Deep Sea didn't explain it, our family can actually guess the general reason...Mr. Asker, do you know the 'War of the Three Realms'?"

"War in the Three Realms?" Chen Ziang asked in astonishment.

"The so-called three realms are 'shadow', 'mist' and 'flesh'." Nico explained patiently, "They correspond to the three supreme gods in the abyss."

"Probably long, long ago, these three gods clashed, so the Three Realms also began to fight each other endlessly."

"We, the Nightmare Clan, belong to the shadow camp and serve the supreme chaos. Since the Lord of the Deep Sea has shown kindness to you, presumably it is because you possess certain qualities that can bring victory to our shadow camp..."

"Trait?" Chen Ziang asked warily.

He wanted to press on, but the severe headache that followed interrupted his thoughts.

Due to learning too much knowledge, Chen Ziang's spiritual vision began to rise sharply, and his sanity as a human being was also faltering—in his vision, chaos, shadows, and wriggling dark things, along with Nicole's The voice fell, as if tentacles stretched out from the abyss, densely entangled around him.