In the dim dense woods, countless low, huge oak trees twisted and coiled, weaving thick branches that groped outward. The phosphorescent light emitted by the exotic mushrooms slightly gives this seemingly isolated place a brightness that barely supports vision. The boy in his gray pajamas stood barefoot in a small gap in the woods.

"Again...... This weird dream?"

His naturally strange yin and yang eyes keep him from being too panicked by the dark and complex environment. However, the reason that fell into sleep due to falling asleep prevented him from recalling the cause and effect of the whole process in the first place, and this brought a sense of disobedience and fear of the unknown.

I don't know how long it has been—time has no meaning in this strange dream with no reference object, and the boy is suddenly shocked by his abnormal mental state, and reason quickly takes over.

"No, this mood is not something I want to maintain before I go to sleep. I am Yun Chengyu, an explorer of this unknown world. ”

This is what I had expected for a long time - I thought that the results of the summer vacation were reflected, my heart gradually calmed down, and the spiritual platform recovered from chaos to clarity.

According to the senior's notes, it was a forest that had been enchanted. It is said that there are small, secretive and sneaky sapient beings called Zug, who live in these passages made of tangled and twisted trees. These domestic cat-sized objects are covered in brownish-black fur, and the number of terrifying eyeballs is usually around 6 to 9, glowing a miserable green glow in the dark.

Rumor has it that there are always some unexplained strange things and missing people in the places where Zug haunts, but the senior who left the note specifically noted that they could not be too far from the dream world. However, for me in the dream world, the message implied by this passage made me shudder a little.

"Which way should I go?"

Knowing that standing still didn't bring any of the information I wanted, I cautiously navigated the complex passages of giant tree trunks in the dim phosphorescent light, making a lapping sound in a way I had memorized beforehand, pausing every now and then to listen for a possible response. Zug's language uses tapping to convey meaning, and although they also have vocal organs in their throats, the strange sound is not something that humans can imitate, but fortunately it is more of an aid.

The grotesque mushrooms that grow in the woodlands provide me with a guide to an unknown destination. In some sparsely wooded areas, this exotic fungus grows exceptionally luxuriantly. In the darkness, the fluorescent light formed an intermittent river, which eventually converged into a vast gray-green lake, faintly ominous and sinister.

At this moment, my scattered consciousness was keenly aware that many eyes were watching me. This is Zug. After seeing their eerie miserable green eyes, it took me a moment to discern their tiny, smooth brown outlines. The Zugs swarmed out of hidden burrows and beehive-like tree trunks, crowding the area until the entire glimmer-lit area was filled with their active presence.

Some of the wilder zuggs came up to me, rubbing my trouser legs, and even one seemed to be quite bold enough to jump from a branch onto my shoulder and bite my ear gently. My body tensed up like a bow for a moment because of Master Fu Hong's training, and I almost instinctively performed my boxing, but these active members were soon restrained by the older-looking Zug.

I must admit that despite the success of my cultivation and the growth of my soul during this time, it was still very difficult for me to communicate with the Zugs. Although I have a very clear memory of the translation between Zug, which is purely "colloquial", and Chinese, the difficulty of practical application is to notice the action and rhythm of the beating in time and quickly grasp the meaning, so as not to lose the sentence due to the lack of important information.

"Council of the Sages", is the word, mentioned in the notes, the leading organization in the Zug. A very old Zug patiently said twice. I've noticed that the older Zugs seem to be friendly to me as an outsider. I think this may have something to do with that Yun family ancestor.

After jerkily asking them in Zug, I got an affirmative answer: the Taoist named Xuan Yang, presumably written as "Xuanyang", is quite a legendary figure even among the Dream Travelers, adventurers who wander through their dreams. The elderly Zuge hesitated as he said this, and then told me that despite the insistence of the Xuanyang Daoists on their refusal to call themselves gods, in the eyes of the inhabitants of the dream world, their rank was equivalent to that of the dream gods.

The Council of Sages provided me with a scoop of fermented sap - the sap of the Zugs was extracted from a different kind of tree, and it is said that a certain moon being in the past threw a seed into the dream world, which later grew into the tree they used to brew the sap, which is detailed in the notes left by the Xuanyang Daoists, including how to refine the spirit to better absorb the essence of it. After I ceremoniously drank the sap, a very strange conversation began.

The first thing I asked them about was why they came to this dream world. Based on the available information, I can be pretty sure that the world we live in today is real, although the form and basis of its existence are not yet clear. The most questionable, then, is undoubtedly why I came here as a creature in a waking world.

"Why did you come here in a dream? There is no doubt that although you are far less powerful than your ancestors, you are indeed a natural dreamer. As far as I know, it's not uncommon for a dream traveler talent to be passed down from a family like this......"

Two members of the Council of the Sages graciously answered my questions. These little things know a lot about the secrets of the dream world, and they know a little bit about the waking world—according to the note, because there are two places in the woodland that border the human world. However, the Xuanyang Daoist specially warned future generations that they should never go to the Yin God of the condensed mind in the dream to snoop, and even those who have not cultivated to the perfection of the Yang God have the possibility of losing their souls and re-entering reincarnation.

So I expressed my gratitude to the Zugs, who responded in a friendly way, and once again gave me a scoop of elixir fermented from the sap of the moon tree for me to take with me. As for how I should begin my exploration as a dream traveler, the elder Zug suggested that I make my way through the phosphorescent fungus-infested woods to the small towns of Hatig, Neer, and Usa, on the other side, at the foot of Mount Lerien.

It took me a lot of time to hike through the dense forest, and I thought that if it hadn't been for the summer practice that had allowed me to improve my body, perhaps the eerie vegetation – especially the vegetation that seemed to have an inexplicable suppression of the art of retreat – would have cost me another thirty percent more effort. Luckily, I didn't encounter any of the dangerous creatures mentioned in my notes, and my body was able to hold on to the journey in one go. As for why the body in the dream is synchronized with the reality, I don't understand.

When I reached the edge of the woodland, the morning glow was shining in the sky. The water of the River Skye rushes down the hillside, and smoke from the chimneys of farmhouses rises slowly from the fertile plains on both sides of the river. I looked ahead, and I saw the hedges, the ploughed fields, and the thatched roofs that were common in the countryside.

Unlike the dark and ominous forest, the scenery unexpectedly evoked a sense of serenity and serenity, and then I realized that these things, which could also be seen in the waking world, inadvertently changed my perception of the dream world slightly.

I gently closed my eyes and soaked up the scent of the various plants in the forest. When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by the ceiling in my bedroom. According to the usual experience, the next time I entered the dream world is estimated to be half a month away.

I remember that after waking up at that time, I subconsciously lifted the quilt and looked at my waist, and the bag of Haoyue elixir given by the Zugs did not come to reality with my awakening. I should have put them in my personal space, and I must admit that [DATA EXPUNGED] from outside the territory is indeed mysterious, immeasurable, and even the work that is made at hand can have a "timeless" quality.

I had expected the next dream to be on the 27th or later, someday after the end of the Daba Star Festival, but it came quietly on the night of the 24th. I was exhausted in the cold weapon final on the day – Charle, who had fought for the second time, and another strong fighter, put a lot of pressure on me. So, with the joy of winning, I soon fell into a deep sleep—as I said, I practiced my dragon sleeping skills well—and unexpectedly returned to this sleeping world.

To the southeast of the enchanted woods, near the winding canyon cut by the River Skye, there was a steep hill of rocks. The canyons and slopes were too deep and steep for any crop to grow, and only the simple and kind farmers of the fertile plains with the rivers at the foot of the mountains were allowed to graze their livestock seasonally.

A boy in a white shirt wakes up at the edge of the woodland. Bright sunlight shines through the shady crevices and gently shines on the moist dilapidated stone steps. The green leaves of the oak trees are crystal clear in the sunlight, as if they have been soaked by last night's rain, and the verdant vitality is swaying in the wind.

Driven by some inexplicable, inexplicable motive, the boy opened his legs and strolled freely along the banks of the River Skye. The distance is estimated to be more than ten kilometres, and the scenery along the way is beautiful: log huts are scattered on the mountainside, and the stone-paved path winds and turns, occasionally deviating from the steep and difficult riverbank, leading him into a fir forest, or through a small valley that is not too treacherous.

As the boy walked down, the trees thinned and the road became more open and smooth. Cozy farmhouses are lined with fields. He stopped at the mouth of a well in front of a house and begged his master for a glass of water in English—did a certain mental structure become active, and did this mean that the dream world and the waking world were connected?

At the edge of another busy farmhouse, the boy tried to ask one of the farmers about the gods—because the word "gods" popped into his mind, but the man he didn't know looked at him with a strange look, shook his head, and his long iron-gray hair that hung down to his shoulders swayed with it.

Then the man gestured something to his wife on his chest—it should have been some inconsequential ritual, but why did the movement of their fingers, when seen in their eyes, bring an inexplicable sense of disgust? The boy felt a little sick, as if he were about to be stained with filthy filth, but he could not understand the source of this phenomenon.

"Old seal, that's the old seal ......"

In a trance, a voice sounded in my head, and I couldn't tell if it was me or someone else, but it was enough. My rational mind was aroused, my sense of self was restored, and I thanked the couple right away. They showed the way to Neil and Uzzah, and they and I said goodbye.

As I went, I wondered why I had lost consciousness at the beginning of these two dreams in September, and by noon I was walking down a wide main road in the city of Neil, and still had not come up with a satisfactory explanation for the problem.

Standing in the scorching sun, I thought carefully about what to do next. First of all, I don't have the currency of this world, and I need to exchange some of the possessions in my personal space, and secondly, the mystical knowledge I want to know may not be obtained by pretending to be old in a tavern, as in some fantasy novels, but only by a few "professionals".

Finally, and most importantly, I was determined to find that beautiful lonely city. In the book left behind by my ancestor Xuanyang Taoist, the name "Randolph Carter" is emphatically mentioned, as well as the city derived from his dreams. According to records, on October 7, 1928, the fifty-four-year-old Carter disappeared from the world's sight, and after that, the Xuanyang Taoist people stored the books I had obtained in the cave, and never returned, and no further news was returned.