Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 519

Chapter 519: I love you Chapter 519: I love you The intruder's thoughts had vanished, but not because they had been destroyed by her own actions; rather, they had somehow broken free from this “structure” of twisted dreamscape.

Heidi furrowed her brow, perceiving the intelligence continuously transmitted back from the personality clones she had released, while her gaze swept across the “ward” before her.

As the intruder's thoughts faded, the ward rapidly reverted to its original state, the terrifying deformations caused by the pollution slowly receding as if the walls, once like withered flesh, were now restored to the sterile white of a medical facility; the cracked and rotten burnt ground turned back to a normal floor, and outside the ward, the sinister and terrifying atmosphere that had permeated the entire facility was swiftly dissipating.

Yet Heidi's frown did not relax–instead, she became even more vigilant of the peculiar changes at this moment.

Because this was not normal: A dreamscape eroded and twisted into a closed structure, the consciousness of an intruder here would be the attacking side of dreamscape, but also a part affected by the dreamscape. To forcefully detach oneself from the dreamscape would certainly cause a significant disturbance, of course, a strong enough “dreamscape expert” might suppress such a disturbance to a minimal level, but that intruder… was not that strong.

Heidi knew her own capabilities; as an “honors student” who had studied at the Academy of Truth and received detailed guidance from her father since a young age, she always had confidence in the realm of dreamscape. She did not believe that the “intruder” could have escaped this twisted nightmare completely undetected–clearly, they had found some way to hide or taken refuge in a cognitive void.

She hesitated, slowly moving towards the bed in the center of the room.

The strange elf girl still lay peacefully on the bed, her brows furrowed, showing no signs of awakening.

Theoretically, this girl was the core of the dreamscape, her entrapment caused the distorted “medical facility” to appear in her dreams, but normally, she should have awakened by now.

Because the power of the intruder had departed–whether that heretic had hidden or truly escaped, the pollution they left behind had apparently receded, and upon the pollution's retreat, it was logical for the trapped person to immediately awaken in the dreamscape.

Because in most cases, one can do countless bizarre things in their own dreams, yet there's one thing they particularly can't do–continue sleeping within a dream.

Even in a layered dream within a dream, a person's consciousness should be “active” in the final layer of the dreamscape.

Heidi stepped forward to check the elf girl's condition and then hesitated before helping her sit up. She then pushed her forcefully back onto the bed.

It had no effect; her “patient” was still asleep.

“Fall response ineffective…” Heidi murmured thoughtfully, a serious expression on her face as she spoke to herself, “Could it be that this isn't her final layer of dream? An 'intermediate layer' within a dream within a dream? But that's not right… Even in the intermediate layer, the 'fall response' should be able to wake her up…”
She mumbled, then suddenly stopped, as if a thought had just occurred to her, and turned to run out of the ward.

Her hurried footsteps echoed through the medical facility as Heidi ran swiftly along the long and deep corridors. Along the way, she saw the personality clones she had previously released–the “Heidis” holding golden cones were still wandering around various parts of the facility, checking corridors, staircases, and those eerily atmospheric, half-open rooms, looking busy.

Heidi ran through these clones; as she passed each one, they would turn to follow her, quickly re-entering her body, and those scattered elsewhere in the facility received instructions to emerge from nearby junctions, one by one returning to the host.

The medical facility's structure was no longer familiar to her; the dreamscape's misplaced projections had filled the building with a mess of corridors, dead ends, and branching paths. Some staircases were inverted and twisted, absurdly like abstract paintings, connecting those spatially illogical rooms and halls, creating an eerily bizarre sight.

However, to Heidi, who often dealt with dreamscapes, such chaotic space was trivial; she effortlessly identified the correct paths, avoiding those that led to infinite loops of dead ends and ultimately reaching the end of the road–
A door stood silently before her, with the word “Exit” written on it.

Heidi stopped, the last personality clone ran from behind and quickly merged into her body. She took a deep breath and slowly approached the door.

That was the “medical facility's” exit, theoretically, also the “boundary” of the twisted dreamscape.

She placed her hand on the doorknob, slowly calming her heartbeat.

The boundary of a dreamscape was dangerous, representing the dreamer's “limits of cognition.” As a “visitor,” rashly crossing the dreamer's cognition limits meant her consciousness would fall into a vast “undefined” area, a chaotic zone not controlled by the dreamer's own consciousness but dominated by sub-consciousness. Unwelcome intruders could face various hazards there, and even encounter those terrifying beings lurking on the edge of mortal sanity, dwelling in the Spirit Realm.

Heidi hesitated–continuing forward was not in line with medical standards.

The amethyst pendant hanging at her chest was no longer warm; this essentially cheap glass “knock-off” was now ice-cold.

Feeling the coolness of the pendant, Heidi made up her mind.

The miraculous pendant had never failed her thus far; she decided to trust its response.

“This would cost me at least fifteen points in a professional course…”
The psychiatrist muttered to herself before forcefully pushing open the door.

The anticipated vast darkness and chaotic shadows did not materialize, nor did she see any harrowing Abyssal ravines or monsters from the Spirit Realm.

Heidi stood on the edge of the Dreamscape, gaping at the scene before her.

A lush… forest, appeared in her field of vision.

Everywhere she looked, there were towering ancient trees she had never seen before, with their massive canopies overlapping and interlocking high in the sky, blotting out the sun. The ground was covered with countless flowers and shrubs, and in between them were many irregularly sized thickets and vigorously growing vines. The calls of unknown birds echoed from time to time among the giant trees, sounding both novel and… unfamiliar.

Sunlight dappled through the dense woods, revealing a vibrancy that Heidi, who had lived in a City-State her entire life, had never seen before.

She couldn't even begin to understand it all.

She simply couldn't imagine why there were so many huge trees growing together, why the precious land was overrun with strange plants without a human in sight, why she could not hear the sound of waves, and why she could only smell the scent of plants and soil.

She fell into confusion, a dual confusion of senses and cognition. Even as a scholarship recipient who had pursued her master's and doctoral studies at the Academy of Truth, she found herself so bewildered for a moment that she nearly forgot where she was and what she was there to do.

But thankfully, the professional qualities she had honed over the years, combined with her sturdy mind control techniques, allowed her to regain her composure after a few seconds of stupor. She took a deep breath and forced herself to return to a state capable of calm thought.

Then, she turned to look in the direction she had come from.

The “medical facility” was right behind her, surrounded by a vast expanse of huge trees and countless intersecting vines, with its walls covered in unknown plants. The man-made structure was jarringly out of place in the forest.

But from this incongruous sight, Heidi quickly made some judgments–
“The range of the Dreamscape should indeed be confined to the inside of this medical facility, and this strange place outside the gate is not a structure that should exist in the Dreamscape… some kind of mutated 'edge of consciousness'?

“There's no sign of anything related to the Plunder City-State, just all these unfamiliar plants… Is this a scene from deep within the Elves' subconscious? But even Elf City-States like Light Breeze Harbor or Moco don't have vegetation of this scale…

“Or… is this the real 'final layer of the Dreamscape'? If so, it's too vast, and so much detail… her brain should've burned out from processing it all…”
Heidi muttered to herself in confusion and then fumbled around her, pulling out a brightly colored ball of yarn.

She held onto the end of the yarn and forcefully threw the ball far away.

The colorful ball of yarn rolled on the ground, dancing and unraveling among the damp stones, soil, and vines.

Heidi stared intently at every moment of the yarn ball's roll, confirming whether the strands that fell to the ground appeared blurry or abnormal.

If there were any, it would prove that this “detail-rich” place had hidden “cognitive voids”. She had to carefully avoid those voids to prevent from falling into a nightmare.

The ball of yarn rolled smoothly to a far distance without any anomalies occurring.

Heidi let out a slight sigh of relief and, following the rough path of the rolling yarn ball, finally took her first step towards this strange, plant-filled place.

She had temporarily put away her revolver and was holding only the “Golden Spike” for protection in her left hand.

In this unclear “borderland”, it was best not to use anything too noisy–it wasn't just the lush vegetation that looked pleasing to the eye; something might be lurking in the stillness of the surrounding environment.

She had to be wary of awakening those “presences” slumbering at the edge of human consciousness.

As she proceeded cautiously, a question gradually began to form in Heidi's mind:
Did the Heretic also escape the Dreamscape by similar means? Not by “waking up” but by directly running to this eerie place outside of the Dreamscape?

Could there be traps ahead?

Heidi's mind raced with various thoughts, but suddenly, something stirred in her heart.

The next second, she looked up sharply towards a direction her Intuition pointed her to.

Between several unfamiliar trees, on a small clearing in the forest, stood a figure with its back towards her.

It was a stranger wearing a light-colored coat in the style of the south, with messy blonde hair and a slightly stooped back. Even though they were facing away, the sharp, long ears peeking out from the edges of their hair quickly caught Heidi's attention.

An Elf?

(Recommendation time: the book title is “Abnormal Priest Chronicles”, classified as light novel, authored by Yelu Wei Zhi, who is also one of my readers. It's said the original title of the book was “Masked Priest Gatlin Bodhisattva”… you can imagine the style. Anyway, give it a try.)

Chapter end

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