“What’s going on…?”

Fine beads of sweat seeped out from his forehead, and then he closed his eyes once again.

He completely abandoned all his “conviction,” telling himself over and over in his heart that this was just a dream, that everything was fake, that he had merely had a nightmare, and that as long as he opened his eyes, he could return to the real world.

But no matter how many times he opened his eyes, what lay before him was still this blood-red city.

Every building in this city was pulsating, the eyeball in the sky kept staring at him, and even though the situation had become this bizarre… it remained real.

Yes, all of this was too real, so real that he simply couldn’t sever his conviction.

“Damn it…” Xiao Cheng stood up trembling, looking around in confusion. “This is just a dream… let me out…”

He tried his best to shake his conviction, but his brain was completely beyond his control. If there was one thing in this world that made one feel most helpless, it was clearly knowing that one was in a “nightmare,” yet having no way to wake up from it.

Xiao Cheng stood there in a daze with flickering eyes for a while, when a thought quietly surfaced in his mind—at this moment, it wasn’t that there was completely no way out; there was still one final path to take.

Perhaps… only by helping Qi Xia rebuild his mental defense would there be the slightest chance of escaping unscathed…

Xiao Cheng could only constantly comfort himself in his heart. Maybe this city wasn’t originally like this; perhaps it had only become dilapidated because it had suffered external destruction.

If he could just find the “source,” perhaps everything could still be saved.

But in such a vast city… where should he look for Qi Xia?

What kind of memories was he experiencing in this dream?

Xiao Cheng slowly raised his head and suddenly realized that while things were extremely difficult, they were also somewhat easier than he had imagined.

Because not far ahead, there was a residential building with a faint light flickering in one of the rooms.

Looking around, the other windows of this residential building were pitch-black, with not a trace of light to be seen, and even the light coming from that room was so faint it was almost imperceptible.

It seemed there were human figures moving inside.

All the people here appeared unable to move, so it stood to reason that whoever was moving must be Qi Xia himself.

Xiao Cheng steadied his nerves and slowly walked toward that residential building.

Meanwhile, the people on both sides of the road continued standing motionless. Their faces pointed in various directions, and no matter how Xiao Cheng moved, there were always a few people’s faces turned toward him.

Although those people all had no eyes, Xiao Cheng could distinctly feel countless gazes falling upon him.

The pupil in the sky above also watched Xiao Cheng’s steps. He felt as if every step he took was like a performance.

All the “people” in this world were the audience of this performance. They remained motionless, focused intently on watching his steps.

This feeling made Xiao Cheng feel ice-cold all over, as if the moment he did something wrong, he would immediately be pounced upon and killed by a group of people.

Under the “watch” of countless people, Xiao Cheng walked forward trembling. Although it was only a short distance of just over a hundred meters, he felt as if he had exhausted all his strength.

Stepping on this slightly elastic, constantly pulsating ground, Xiao Cheng’s legs never obeyed him. After finally arriving at the front of the residential building, he quickly reached out to support himself on the doorframe of the unit entrance, wanting to rest briefly. But the instant he made contact, he withdrew his hand as if electrocuted.

It was just too bizarre—this flesh and blood truly had temperature.

The moment Xiao Cheng’s cold hand touched the wall, he felt a wave of warmth, causing his forced composure to suffer another massive shock.

Was it the building that was alive… or was it the city?

He slowly stepped back, raising his head to look at the unit door before him. This unit door was completely cast from deep red flesh and blood, like the gaping maw of some monster, quietly waiting here for prey to walk in of its own accord.

If Xiao Cheng had any other choice, he absolutely would not walk through this door. But the master of this terrifying dream was inside the door—he was the source for solving all problems.

Xiao Cheng took a deep breath and walked straight in. The temperature of the surrounding air suddenly rose by several degrees, yet Xiao Cheng’s cold sweat still soaked his back.

He remembered that the faint light came from a room on the fourth floor of this building facing north, so relying on memory, he walked up the stairs.

The stairs gave an even stranger tactile sensation. After just a few steps, Xiao Cheng felt his scalp tingling.

Although the stairs were also cast from flesh and blood, in order to give the stairs their shape, there seemed to be bones inside them. Each step down felt like stepping on a rib with raw meat attached, constantly making “squelch squelch” sounds that prevented any thought at all.

Xiao Cheng forcibly suppressed his nausea and inner fear, finally standing at the door of the fourth-floor room.

Just looking at the security door before him, countless questions arose in Xiao Cheng’s heart.

Unlike the large patches of warm, sticky flesh and blood all around, this was a common iron security door, with even rust stains accumulated over many years still visible on it.

This iron door seemed to have grown in the flesh and blood.

Could it be that this place… was different from other places?

Xiao Cheng steadied himself and reached out his trembling hand to knock on the iron door. But he had forgotten that this was inside someone else’s dream—the iron door he knocked on didn’t produce a single sound.

Just as he himself had said, he wasn’t the master of this dream, and it was very difficult to affect anything in the dream.

Now he couldn’t even accomplish the simplest task of knocking on the door.

“Hey!” Xiao Cheng could only change his approach, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Is anyone there?!”

The master of this dream, Qi Xia, was the absolute ruler of this entire area. But according to past experience, the master of a dream often couldn’t hear him or see him. Perhaps his control over “dream invasion” wasn’t yet up to par, or perhaps his “conviction” wasn’t strong enough yet—wanting to affect them was extremely difficult.

Just as Xiao Cheng was hesitating, a strange sound of footsteps came from behind him. His entire body broke out in cold sweat as he hurriedly turned to look.

He saw a young girl dressed entirely in white carrying plastic bags, stepping on the flesh and blood beneath her feet as she walked up step by step. She was quite different from all the pedestrians on the street—not only did she have delicate and refined facial features, but her expression also looked somewhat weary.

Although Xiao Cheng was full of doubt, he was sensible enough to move aside.

As expected, the girl didn’t glance at him at all. She came straight to the fourth-floor doorway, took out keys from her handbag, and then opened the door.

“Xia, I’m back,” the girl said.

She didn’t close the door, carrying several plastic bags as she walked straight inside.

Seeing the security door about to close, Xiao Cheng quickly reached out to pull it, but suddenly remembered that at this moment he was in someone else’s dream and couldn’t even complete the subconscious action of opening the door. This closing security door was like it weighed a thousand pounds—he couldn’t move it an inch.

So he quickly dodged to the side, slipping inside the door just as the security door was about to close completely.