10 hours?!

 Tang Ling frowned and prepared himself nervously.

 He did not have the time to wonder why this dream entry came on such short notice. From the moment the timer started, he only had 10 hours left on the clock to get ready.

 He could not feel relaxed at all because the dream world would adjust to his power levels and dream entry to constantly push him to the line of life or death.

 There were too many things that he had to prepare and his body had yet to recover to its peak.

 Tang Ling was covered in sweat as he was training his body to try and recover to his best form in 10 hours.

 Han Xing went to Boss Huang the moment the timer popped up.

 Entering a dream required resources, so even if it cost Han Xing all his fortune, he ought to get something from the boss.

 On top of that, Boss Huang himself was also a Dream Seed.

 …

 The sudden appearance of a dream entry made many of the young geniuses feel like a bundle of nerves.

 On the contrary, Tang Long might have been awake for almost 15 hours, but he was rather quiet and calm compared to the others.

 He and Tang Ling had woken up almost the same time, but with the best care he could get, he recovered a little quicker than the latter.

 However, after he contacted the council, he sat down in the chair in silence. It had been four hours since then. He did not eat or drink. He did not even speak or move a muscle.

 He thought of the decision that he made when he had sent Higan away. Now, it somehow looked like the biggest joke that had backfired on him. His decision had been to propose to Higan once everything was over and be with her forever.

 However, reality slapped him in the face when he found out that Higan had accepted the harshest punishment from the council and then left.

 Tang Long was smart. He knew why Higan would have made such a decision and what the meaning behind her actions was. He also understood why she had stayed by his side for more than ten days before leaving.

 Higan had never changed a bit. She was still self-centered as ever.

 She was trying to compensate him using her own way. Only then could she stand by Tang Ling’s side without any shackles on her.

 In fact, she might have thought this over, including who she was to Tang Ling, how she wanted to stand by Tang Ling’s side, and so on, but she did as her heart desired.

 Everything was so…Higan. She was just being…her.

 Tang Long had all those thoughts running in his mind, but he did not bother to even react. He fished a cigarette from the pack on the table that he had told his servants to buy. Then, he lit it up.

 He never had such a bad habit, harming his body with external substances, but he had to admit that this little cigarette that the old civilization invented was quite interesting. While it might harm the body and could never save one’s soul, it was able to slightly numb one’s feelings at the most terrible times.

 Similar to his feelings for Higan, he was still feeling pained for her because she had to go through the Wood Punishment Room.

 Tang Long had once seen a traitor of the Stardust Council go through the punishment.

 The dreadfully beautiful white flowers blossomed on the traitor’s body, causing him to scream in pain as blood trickled from the cuts. That traitor ultimately did not survive the punishment and fell with the white flowers covering his body.

 However, Higan had made it. What was she thinking while she endured the agonizing process?

 Did she think about Tang Long at all?

 Faint blue smoke rose from Tang Long’s cigarette at his fingers. Although he had been out cold for many days and his heartbroken state made him utterly exhausted, he was still able to maintain his prince-like elegance.

 If anyone had been in the room and saw him in his current state, one would have felt like he would shatter like glass at any moment.

 His thoughts were simple. When put into words, they sounded cold and calm without even the slightest emotions shown.

 Only Tang Long himself knew how unbearable the heart-ripping pain was. He had to face the cruelest outcome. Despite suffering from the pain, he was still worried about Higan.

 The glorious sunset cast its light in the room, making the atmosphere a little dreamy. With the cigarette in his mouth, Tang Long’s eyes were half-squinted as he faced the ceiling.

 Then, the door was opened with a soft squeak.

 Tang Long’s anger was ignited. He did not want anyone to disturb him at such a delicate moment.

 “Get out,” Tang Long said coldly without even looking at the door.

 However, the person who opened the door did not seem to comply and remained at the door quietly.

 Tang Long frowned slightly when he turned around. At the very next moment, his cigarette fell on the ground and burned a hole on the expensive linen carpet on the ground before it fizzled off.

 Tang Long did not even blink as he was awe-struck.

 His furrowed brows eased up and his eyes were filled with deep affection. He had been thinking about why Higan would feel for Tang Ling so deeply.

 However, at that very moment, when he saw the person at the door, the question in his heart vanished.

 Why did he feel so deeply for Higan? Was it because of the two years spent together with her in that world?

 No, from the moment he landed his eyes on her, it felt like it had been ten thousand years.

 The person who appeared at Tang Long’s door was Higan, the Higan that he first met.

 Compared to the Higan with unrivaled beauty who could topple an entire city over with her smile, this Higan looked a little younger. Her face might not be fully matured, but there were already signs of her astonishing beauty.

 This younger Higan was the one that Tang Long held in the deepest part of his heart, the Higan that he first fell in love with, his Higan, the flame that could burn souls, warm his body and ignite him.

 Higan stood there quietly, appearing exactly like how she did before.

 Tang Long stood up from the chair with the utmost caution before he walked to her slowly.

 The space behind Higan started to distort and transform into an irregular vortex. Tang Long could recognize the vortex even if he was dead. It was the entrance to that devilish world.

 “It’s fine.” Tang Long was very close to Higan. He squatted down, reached out to her and tried to hold her sleeve like how he had done before.

 This time, however, he failed to do so. Higan took a step back when he tried to hold her and she went into that devilish world.

 As she was sucked into the vortex, she turned around to him and revealed a strange smile that reeked of dark aura.

 Tang Long’s lost and sorrowful eyes suddenly had a sense of clarity. He stood up. The strange scene only reminded him of something—the dream.

 At this kind of timing, he was given another chance to enter the dream.

 A strange smile appeared on Tang Long’s face. He then stepped into the vortex without a second thought.

 It was not for strength or for anything else. It was just because he could go back to that devilish world in the dream and be with her.

 Was Tang Ling capable of destroying his dream? No!

 Tang Long’s smile widened as he felt at ease. He knew that in the entire world, the Stardust Council had the most complete set of information about the dream world.

 Before anyone officially went into the dream world, there would be a test similar to an entrance test for rookies, and the test dream would originate from one’s demons.

 Was it dangerous? It was not as dangerous as the real dream world.

 Was it safe? No, it was potentially the most dangerous because if one could not face the demons of one’s heart or failed to deliver a satisfying answer to the dream world, one would be forever trapped in the dream with the demons of the heart.

 Tang Long was willing to face his demons.

 …

 With 10 hours of preparation time, every second must be spent wisely.

 Tang Ling was almost done with all the preparation that he could possibly do.

 The Black Sea coins that he had earned earlier in the arena were all spent to buy some resources from Boss Huang.

 The dream world was not a game and Tang Ling could not be stingy with spending.

 10 minutes were left on the timer.

 Tang Ling was performing his final check. Everything he had prepared was stuffed into his own backpack.

 Ding Ling and Ding Dong were rolling around Tang Ling’s room, watching him tidy up.

 Monty did not appear. As a matter of fact, Monty had not shown up even once during Tang Ling’s coma. After Tang Ling gave the silver egg to Boss Huang, he had never seen Monty again.

 Boss Huang said that Monty was hibernating.

 Winter was almost halfway through, so why would the octopus hibernate now? Besides, did octopi hibernate?

 Tang Ling did not press on the topic. Since Boss Huang did not want to talk, no one could make him.

 Tang Ling had kept everything in his backpack and was ready to go out. He turned around to the two little balls, finding it funny when they stared at him without blinking.

 “Little Tang Tang, will you wake up after this dream?” Ding Ling asked worriedly.

 “Yeah, Little Tang Tang, will you die halfway while you’re dreaming?” Ding Dong sounded like she was about to cry.

 “Every time the boss dreams, he leaves us with some final messages…” Ding Ling pouted, the tears in her eyes starting to glisten.

 “He told us that if he dies, we must find the women on the list that he gave us and make them admit whether they bore his child.” Ding Dong clutched onto Tang Ling’s clothes, evidently scared and sad at the same time.

 What the hell? Tang Ling was rendered speechless. It was another one of Boss Huang’s lousy interests to scare the kids.

 “Don’t take it so seriously. If his last message involves a lot of women, he’ll surely come back alive. He’s just trying to frighten you guys. You can prank him and teach him a lesson when he’s asleep like draw on his face or something…” Tang Ling was a man with a conscience. He always treated the two little balls well as though he was their kind older brother.

 “Really?” Ding Ling and Ding Dong stared at Tang Ling with gleaming eyes.

 “Of course! Did you guys come to me just because you don’t want to listen to the boss’s final message?” Tang Ling asked as he found it funny.

 “No way! We are worried about you.” Ding Ling feigned sincerity.

 “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.” Ding Dong nodded like an obedient puppy.

 “Why don’t you go to Han Xing then?”

 “He’s stupid and dull and his room is filled with pictures of women. We don’t want to go there.”

 “We like you more, Little Tang Tang. Plus, we’ve known you longer than Han Xing.”

“Is that so?” Tang Ling curled his lips into a warm smile as he rubbed the two little ladies’ heads softly.

 Then, he looked up.

 Hanging in the night sky, the Purple Moon shed its purple moonbeam into a certain corner of the room.

 Han Xing was standing in front of Tang Ling’s room. He wanted to cry but could not shed a tear. He had dropped by Tang Ling’s room because he hoped that he could enter the same dream world as Tang Ling, but of course, he was not confident that he could do so. Nevertheless, he just wanted to test it out.

 However, after he heard Ding Ling and Ding Dong diss him, he was depressed.

 Am I that bad?

 Boss Huang’s pitiful cry also came from upstairs, “My dear little Ding Ling, Ding Dong, did you guys forget about your boss’s final message?”

 In the strange atmosphere, Tang Ling saw a door appear quietly in the corner under the light of the purple moonbeam.