Die, Replay, Repeat

An explosion of energy, like the birth of the universe itself, erupted, sending shockwaves rippling outward.

Everything in their path was engulfed by the massive surge of power, including Fang Xiu and Xiao Chuxia.

When Xiao Chuxia finally gathered her senses, she stood there, completely stunned.

“This… this is Shangjing?” she whispered in disbelief, her eyes wide as she took in the surroundings.

They were now standing in the middle of a bustling city center, skyscrapers towering above them, cars zipping past, and the familiar hum of city life filling the air.

Behind her, Fang Xiu’s voice, calm and steady, broke through her confusion.

“This is a perfect replica of the real world,” he said, observing the scenery with a focused gaze.

“A dream world that looks exactly like reality?” Xiao Chuxia repeated, still reeling from the sudden shift. “Xiu, what are you planning to do?”

Fang Xiu didn’t answer her right away. His sharp eyes scanned their surroundings, taking in every detail.

“It’s not enough,” he muttered, more to himself than to her. “The dream’s coverage is still too small, and the headquarters is too isolated—too few people nearby.”

With a deliberate thought, he began burning all the fear-based emotions he had been collecting.

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The raw energy surged through him as he used it to forcefully expand the Nightmare dreamscape, pushing its boundaries far beyond their natural limits.

The hyper-realistic dream grew exponentially, spreading outward like a wave, consuming everything in its path.

Buildings, streets, and lives all became part of the dream.

Moments later, the expansion reached its peak, covering an area about one-tenth the size of Shangjing, effectively enveloping over a million people within the dreamscape.

This came at a cost. Fang Xiu knew that Nightmare would be weakened after this, and it would need time to recover from the strain.

But for him, that didn’t matter. As long as this served his immediate purpose, it was worth it.

The real world remained unaware of what was happening.

The headquarters’ remote location kept the battle’s chaos hidden from the eyes of the city’s residents. Had they been fighting in the heart of Shangjing, no one within miles would have been able to sleep tonight.

“Xiu, what are you planning? You still haven’t answered me,” Xiao Chuxia pressed, her curiosity now tinged with a growing sense of unease.

Fang Xiu turned toward her, his gaze cold and intense. His eyes bore into hers, sending a chill down her spine as if he were seeing right through her.

Xiao Chuxia’s face instantly flushed red as memories from her earlier dream surfaced. The embarrassment was almost unbearable, and she found it impossible to meet his eyes.

“I have two questions for you,” Fang Xiu said, his voice sharp and direct, snapping her out of her awkward thoughts. “First: does the lie energy you absorb have to come from lies you tell yourself?”

Xiao Chuxia blinked, momentarily confused, and then she shook her head. “No, I can attach my Spiritual Energy to someone else who tells lies. As long as they lie, I can absorb the lie energy.”

“So,” Fang Xiu continued, his mind clearly racing, “if you attach your Spiritual Energy to me, and I deceive others, you’ll still be able to collect the energy?”

Xiao Chuxia nodded again, though now with a bit of nervousness creeping in. “Yes, that’s right. Xiu… you’re not going to start lying just to help me, are you?”

Fang Xiu ignored the question, moving on to his second point. “Second question: how much lie energy would it take to help me break through to the fourth tier?”

Xiao Chuxia’s eyes widened in shock. “The fourth tier?!” she gasped. “You just barely reached the third tier, and now you want to aim for the fourth?”

She shook her head frantically. “Xiu, I’d love to help, but no amount of lie energy can make that happen right now. My Spiritual Energy isn’t strong enough to handle it. If I had that much power, I’d be at the fourth tier myself already.”

Fang Xiu fell silent for a moment, deep in thought. “So it’s not the lie energy that’s the issue, but rather the limitations of your Spiritual Energy?”

Xiao Chuxia nodded again, her expression serious. “Exactly. Helping you break through to the third tier was one thing, but advancing to the fourth tier is an entirely different challenge. The power of lies alone isn’t enough for that. The last time I helped you, you were already at the peak of the second tier. You were just a hair’s breadth away from breaking through to the third.”

“I was able to help you push past that bottleneck, but it wasn’t because of the lie energy alone. Your own Spiritual Energy had already accumulated enough for the breakthrough,” she explained.

“So, when you helped me reach the third tier, you weren’t increasing my Spiritual Energy with the lie energy,” Fang Xiu said, piecing it together. “You were simply helping me overcome the final barrier, but the strength for the advance came from my own accumulation.”

Xiao Chuxia nodded, continuing her explanation. "Exactly. Breaking through and growing in strength are two completely different things. It’s like height—if you’re 1.7 meters and want to appear 1.8 meters tall, you can just wear high heels. But if you’re 1 meter tall and want to reach 1.8 meters, you’ll have to grow naturally. You’ve pulled all these people into the dream world, but if it’s to break through to the fourth tier, it’s impossible. Even if you dragged the entire population of Shangjing into the dream, my Spiritual Energy wouldn’t be enough.”

Fang Xiu listened closely, realizing his initial plan had fallen through. His hopes of using Xiao Chuxia’s ability to boost himself to the fourth tier were dashed.

Fang Xiu knew his strength was already extraordinary for a third-tier psychic; with his Specter God projections, he could match or even surpass some fourth-tier psychics.

However, he had been aiming higher, reasoning that if he could achieve the fourth tier, even a weak Domain would allow him to summon far stronger Specter God projections. That would be more than enough to crush Joker.

But now, with his plan rendered impossible, he had to switch gears.

“What about helping a peak fourth-tier psychic break through to the fifth tier?” Fang Xiu asked, thinking ahead.

Xiao Chuxia’s face grew conflicted. “Breaking through from the fourth to the fifth tier is still just a bottleneck issue, but… while breaking from the second to third tier is like smashing through a windowpane, breaking from the fourth to the fifth is more like shattering bulletproof glass.”

Fang Xiu’s eyes narrowed. “So, can it be done? Would the lie energy from a million people be enough?”

Xiao Chuxia hesitated, but she nodded slightly. “If it’s just to break the bottleneck, my Spiritual Energy might handle it. The lie energy from a million people would be close. But remember, we’re in a dream world. Here, the gathering rate is ten to one. To get the equivalent of a million people’s lie energy, we’d need at least ten million people in the dream. That’s nearly impossible.”

Fang Xiu considered this carefully. “Bringing ten million people into the dream world is definitely unrealistic,” he agreed. “But you mentioned that stronger minds generate more lie energy. The headquarters has elite soldiers and several psychics. The lie energy from them should be much more potent than from ordinary people.”

“True, but not enough,” Xiao Chuxia replied. “The people who’ve fallen asleep so far are mostly soldiers or low-tier psychics. The higher-tier psychics—third tier and above—are still awake. At most, we’ve gathered the equivalent of a million people’s worth of lie energy. We’re still short by nine million.”

Fang Xiu’s brow furrowed. 'Is this approach another dead end? Are we really out of options? Now I can only die repeatedly and hoping for some miraculous breakthrough?'

Just as he began to resign himself to that grim solution, Xiao Chuxia’s face brightened with excitement. "Wait! I think there’s a way to reduce the number of people we need!"

Fang Xiu’s eyes locked onto hers, intrigued. “What do you mean?”

“Targeted lies!” she declared, her voice full of enthusiasm.

Fang Xiu tilted his head, unfamiliar with the term. “Precise lies?”

Xiao Chuxia nodded eagerly. “Yes! If we can’t increase the quantity of lie energy, we can boost its quality. The more specific and intense the lie, the stronger the energy we can harvest from it. You want to help a fourth-tier psychic break through to the fifth, right? Then we craft a specific, powerful lie around that idea. If we can convince people to believe deeply that you have the ability to help a fourth-tier psychic reach the fifth tier, the lie energy generated will be much more potent. That way, we won’t need as many people!”