In the pitch-black darkness, Xiao Cheng kept his eyes tightly shut.

He felt that he should have already invaded Qi Xia’s dream.

A strange breeze brushed against his skin, its touch warm and heated.

Although he couldn’t smell anything within the dream, Xiao Cheng still felt as if his nostrils were being filled with a burning, spicy gas.

This sensation was extremely peculiar, as if what he was breathing wasn’t air at all, but rather some kind of bizarre gas.

At this moment, every single cell in his body was sending him danger signals, and his subconscious was telling him that he should flee right now, that he absolutely must not open his eyes.

It was as if he hadn’t invaded someone’s dream at all, but rather stood in the Avici Hell filled with rakshasas.

Even though he hadn’t seen anything yet, deep within his brain, instinctive reactions kept flooding in. Before he had even opened his eyes, he felt all the hair on his body standing on end, and waves of cold running down his back.

Xiao Cheng had invaded dreams a few times before, but he had never encountered a similar situation. It was as if this person’s dream didn’t have an “extremely strong mental defense,” but rather seemed to have gone completely mad.

“Brother Qi… you helped me once… now I’ll help you in return… you wouldn’t harm me, would you?”

Xiao Cheng slowly opened his eyes, directly facing Qi Xia’s dream. But just this one glance nearly scared his soul out of his body.

He had seen the dreams of about seven or eight people. Whether they were ordinary dreams or nightmares, none struck at the soul like the scene before his eyes.

Was this really a dream?

The first thing that entered Xiao Cheng’s vision were large patches of blood-red color. This was an extremely vast space, roughly resembling a corner of some medium-sized city. But upon closer inspection, whether it was the road beneath his feet or the buildings within his field of vision, without exception, they were all constructed from pulsating dark red flesh and blood.

This flesh and blood was intensely red, rhythmically beating with faint pulses. Above the flesh and blood hung a layer of red blood mist. Calling it “Avici Hell” wasn’t quite accurate either—this felt more like he had been swallowed into the belly of some enormous beast.

Looking around, there were vague human figures standing on the street ahead.

But these “people” didn’t look like people at all.

Their faces were like smooth planes, with all their facial features completely disappeared. They now stood there blankly, their facial muscles constantly writhing, as if making expressions or perhaps opening their mouths to speak.

All the blood in Xiao Cheng’s body turned ice-cold in this moment.

He discovered that none of those faceless people were moving, merely standing in place like scarecrows. Only then did he relax slightly, constantly telling himself in his heart, “This is just a dream, that’s all.”

Then, somewhat dazed, he lifted his head to look at the sky, only to discover that the sky here was also a massive piece of flesh and blood, with numerous pulses faintly beating on it. It was as if this place really was inside something’s body, and this blood-red sky was the stomach wall of that gigantic monster.

Fortunately, one couldn’t smell anything in dreams; otherwise, Xiao Cheng could already anticipate that this place would be filled with a stench unbearable to humans.

He swallowed hard, moving his gaze somewhat numbly, scanning the blood-red “sky” from left to right. After a few seconds, however, he froze in place once again.

On this piece of flesh and blood as vast as the sky, a moving gigantic eyeball was looking around in all directions. The moment Xiao Cheng saw it, it instantly turned its gaze and locked eyes with Xiao Cheng’s terrified stare.

Just one glance, and Xiao Cheng felt as if his soul had been torn from his body. All the hair on his back stood up completely, rubbing against his clothes.

Why would such an enormous eyeball exist in this world?

The pupil of that massive eyeball kept trembling slightly, as if examining him from top to bottom.

This eyeball grew on this sky made of flesh and blood… could this flesh and blood really be a living creature?

If it was a living creature, then what exactly was it…?

“It shouldn’t be able to see me either…” Xiao Cheng muttered to himself, as if cheering himself on, or perhaps trying to comfort himself. “After all, I’m just an outsider… my abilities are meager, it can’t see me…”

Despite saying this, the eyeball continued staring straight at him. Xiao Cheng could only shift his own gaze away, trying not to be affected by it.

They say, “What you think by day, you dream by night.” What was Qi Xia contemplating every day to have such a bizarre nightmare?

Just as he stood there in a daze, the sound of gurgling water reached his ears. He turned his head and followed the sound, seeing a “small river” rolling and flowing through the center of the city.

That small river was some distance away from him. As if to facilitate pedestrians crossing, an artificial small arched bridge was built over it.

Xiao Cheng blinked and slowly walked toward the “small river.”

He stood on the arched bridge. After mentally preparing himself, he looked down to see viscous blood colliding with itself, tumbling, splashing countless blood droplets before flowing toward more distant places.

Looking more carefully, there were actually pitch-black large fish in the small river. They leaped up with the tumbling waves, nearly jumping right into Xiao Cheng’s face.

Only then did Xiao Cheng realize that these fish, like the people standing on the street, completely lacked facial features.

They had neither mouths nor eyes. Their bare bodies were like shuttles that flashed before Xiao Cheng before falling back into the small river, splashing waves of blood.

It seemed that their leaping up wasn’t to greet the person standing on the shore at all, but rather due to lack of oxygen.

They struggled in the blood river. They wanted to live, but they couldn’t breathe. They didn’t even have gills—how could they survive in water?

No… even if they had gills, this wasn’t water either, but a dark red, viscous blood river.

Where was this a “nightmare”?

This was a true hell.

Xiao Cheng couldn’t stop trembling all over. Before long, he collapsed to his knees, clutching the railing of the arched bridge and dry-heaving repeatedly.

He had met Qi Xia and had simple conversations with him. The other party seemed mentally normal enough, so how could his inner world be like hell?

Did he see this kind of world every time he closed his eyes…?

Although Xiao Cheng hadn’t entered many dreams, he always felt that only antisocial lunatics could match this kind of terrifying psychological world.

“What the hell…” After dry-heaving for a long while, Xiao Cheng reached up to wipe his mouth. His entire body was still trembling uncontrollably.

Although he knew this was a dream, everything in the dream was too real.

He knelt on the ground and reached out to touch the arched bridge beneath him, only to discover that this arched bridge really seemed to be made of flesh and blood. Not only did it emit a bright red color, but it even had slight elasticity.

Gently placing his palm on it, he could feel the heartbeat of this city.

Xiao Cheng asked himself that if he had this kind of nightmare, he would rather choose never to sleep, or else it wouldn’t be long before he went mad.

“No good… I can’t handle this ‘dream’…”

Whether from the degree of eeriness or the area of the scene, this “nightmare” had already far exceeded the range that Xiao Cheng could interfere with. Most people’s dreams occurred within a single room or a fixed small area, but here Xiao Cheng had seen an entire blood-red city.

In this city, forget finding Qi Xia’s damaged state of mind—even finding Qi Xia himself would be extremely difficult.

Xiao Cheng slowly closed his eyes, then took a deep breath, preparing to cut off his “dream invasion” right then and there. If he continued to stay here, only death awaited him.

A few seconds later, Xiao Cheng slightly opened his eyes.

But what greeted him wasn’t the “Land of the End”—it was still this red hell.