Anderson's expression was quite conflicted, and after a long while, he said through gritted teeth, "You truly are like a demon who tempts human hearts."
"Which being do you think I should pray to?"
Leyton chuckled and said, "Try all of them. Choose whoever responds to you. It's just a transaction, and whether you believe or not is your own business. No one will care."
Anderson grimaced and said, "And then I'll be discovered not to be sincerely praying, and my bad luck will be super-doubled?"
Before he could finish his sentence, the bright Sun of noon suddenly vanished, the sky abruptly turned darkness, and another night arrived.
The conversation ended there, and both of them returned to their respective rooms, lay on their beds, and quickly fell asleep.
In a daze, Leyton's thoughts gradually became clear. When he fully woke up, he was back in the depths of the temple, standing side by side with Anderson in front of that wooden door.
Leyton gazed at the wooden door in front of him for a moment, then reached out and turned the doorknob. With a creaking sound, the wooden door opened a crack.
The other side of the door was dim and obscure, making it impossible to see clearly. One could only barely discern fragmented specks of light floating in the air, and an extremely mad, extremely distorted aura seeped through the crack.
"What are you doing?" Anderson retreated step by step. Whatever was behind that Door gave him an extremely dangerous feeling, as if even a trace of its aura would plunge him into complete madness and loss of control.
Leyton turned to look at the wary Anderson behind him and said calmly, "I'm going to explore the most dangerous dream here. You can return to the fresco hall first."
"Oh, and here's a prophecy for you: the most fatal dangers are often hidden in the most ordinary life."
"What do you mean?" Anderson asked, surprised.
Leyton chuckled and said, "It means that after you leave this sea area and return to the normal world, the price of your bad luck will erupt in a more complex and subtle way."
As soon as he finished speaking, he stepped into the dream world behind the wooden door. As he entered, the wooden door began to slowly close on its own.
Anderson raised his hand forward and murmured, "I thought you were going to talk about me drinking fake alcohol on the Future and almost turning myself into an idiot…."
"My bad luck will erupt more subtly after leaving this Sea of Ruins? How else can it erupt? Will all the alcohol I drink from now on turn into fake alcohol?"
After muttering for a while, Anderson turned and returned to the hall filled with magnificent frescoes in the outer part of the temple. Without the company of a demigod, exploring this dream would become extremely dangerous. It was better to stay in the already confirmed safe zone.
Behind the wooden door, in the dream left by the Ancient Sun God before his death.
Everything here was chaotic, whether space or time. Pure white light submerged everything.
Within this all-consuming pure white, countless surging malicious intentions flowed, sometimes transforming into a blade of pure death, sometimes into the extremely tranquil claws of a Demonic Wolf, and sometimes into countless fleshy tumors with intertwined limbs.
Standing still for two seconds, Leyton turned to look behind him. The Door he had entered through had disappeared, leaving only a expanse of pure white.
The next moment, the surrounding light and shadows violently shook, as if stimulated by something. This nightmare of a dream showed signs of waking up.
The already extremely chaotic and mad dream began to disintegrate into fragments. Countless light and shadows flowed, jointly constructing a gigantic light and shadow that seemed capable of supporting heaven and earth.
There was no sound around, yet hot blood gushed from Leyton's ears. Even with his eyes tightly closed, the surrounding scenes still transmitted into his mind.
With the emergence of the colossal light and shadow, the extremely distorted and evil auras around them also began to take shape. They included terrifyingly hideous giant dragons, Monsters with slippery tentacles and bird feathers, terrifyingly distorted Demonic Wolf with eight arms, towering flame giants, countless evil Suns wreathed in flames, massive Monsters formed by piled-up flesh and plants, and giant snakes with exaggerated and thick wings spread on their backs.
Monsters with distorted and terrifying postures infected the entire dream like a virus, engaging in a struggle with the colossal light and shadow that seemed to support heaven and earth. The entire dream seemed to be destroyed again and again, and then reshaped again and again.
There seemed to be no concept of time in this dream. Leyton could only passively watch the colossal light and shadow die repeatedly and be devoured by the many Monsters.
With each experience, his spirit weakened a little.
This was completely different from the situation Bernadette described. Was it a chain reaction brought by the True Creator's spiritual imprint? As thoughts floated in his mind, an extreme sense of danger suddenly swept over his entire body.
A giant snake, entirely covered in large, dark greenish-black scales with white feathers growing in the gaps, suddenly crashed down.
Every feather and scale on its body bore strange symbols of different shapes. Pale flames burned in its eye sockets, cold and lifeless. It was as if it was Death itself.
One after another, stars appeared around Leyton, dense and dazzling, yet they quickly dimmed, turning into specks of faint blue dust and vanishing into nothingness.
The moment the giant snake with its exaggerated wings was about to crash down, countless iron-black rays of light erupted like a tide. They surged from the depths of Leyton's Spirit Body, carrying undisguised malice and madness, swiftly engulfing the entire dream.
The formerly pure white dream turned pitch Black. The hideous and terrifying Monsters seemed to have fallen into a deep quagmire, unable to break free for a while.
This was a small spiritual imprint Leyton had the True Creator leave on him after communicating with him from a distance during this period. It was both to facilitate the exploration of this dream and to help him open the passage to the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
"...I died." A somewhat hoarse and low voice echoed directly in Leyton's mind.
Following his spiritual intuition, he opened his eyes and looked behind him. A pale-skinned male stood there, somewhat bewildered, with unconcealed fear and relief in his eyes.
There was no light around, yet his figure was very clear.
He wore a black clerical robe, a silver cross hung on his chest, his hair was not long, predominantly dark, but the roots showed a light yellow, golden hue. His eyes were a pure gold, his skin was pale, and his features were deep, bearing a strong resemblance to Northern Continent people.
Leyton briefly glanced at the other party and asked with some surprise, "You're awake?"
"Awake? No, I'm just dreaming." The voice of the male in the clerical robe was extremely calm. After a slight pause, he continued, "The incomplete spiritual imprint from me that you carry has allowed me to briefly regain a bit of myself, but this cannot last too long. Soon, I will fall into an eternal nightmare again."
As he spoke, a faint ray of light emerged from the darkness, which he held in his hand and offered to Leyton, saying, "I hope that in the Future, I will be dominated by humanity, not divinity."
Before Leyton could reply, the surrounding darkness began to recede. Fragments of light reappeared, engulfing everything and Purifying everything.
Cracks appeared on the skin of the figure in the black clerical robe. Countless scorching white lights surged from within him. His figure rapidly enlarged and rose, once again transforming into the colossal light and shadow that seemed to support heaven and earth.
The faint ray of light he had given Leyton floated and landed in Leyton's hand.
The next moment, his figure vanished from this dream.
Leyton only felt his consciousness blur for a moment. When he regained his senses, he was already on a pitch-Black reef. Less than 10 nautical miles from this reef, there was a towering mountain.
It was a mountain covered by countless magnificent, grand, and exaggerated palaces, Towers, and city walls. On the back of the mountain was a solidified sunset, casting the colors of dusk onto the mountain where the city was located.
Further beyond the mountain, in a place invisible to the naked eye, a gaze filled with madness and immense oppressive power was cast over.
Just by being watched, Leyton felt himself being passively pulled out of the collective dream.
Fortunately, this situation did not last too long. Dazzling Sunlight illuminated the surroundings with a brilliant white, and Leyton once again emerged from the dream.
Getting out of bed, he walked to the window and looked out at the deeper parts of this sea area, vaguely grasping where the passage to the Forsaken Land of the Gods would open.
He glanced back at the room, confirmed there was nothing to pack, then withdrew his gaze. His body instantly became transparent, transforming into a statue made of countless starlight. This statue instantly shattered, turning into surging specks of urging starlight.
These starlights scattered, drilling into the cracks of the ship's hull, surging towards the deeper parts of this sea area.
Inside the captain's cabin, Cattleya stood by the window, gazing blankly at the sea surface, which was illuminated by the noon Sun as if it were a golden flame.
She suddenly felt something and turned her head to look at the direction of Leyton's room, then quickly withdrew her gaze.
In the depths of this sea area, on a small island made of countless gray-white marble, where no life existed.
Fragments of starlight surged from the Spirit World and reassembled internally, revealing Leyton's figure.
As soon as his figure solidified, a faint ray of light separated from him and merged into the sea in front of him.
Under the noon Sun, the sea, which seemed to have golden flames dancing on it, solidified for a moment. Then, the seawater began to sink along a straight line.
Deeper and deeper, wider and wider, until it formed a straight chasm. The rushing sound of water was noisy and rhythmic.
The seawater on both sides fell like waterfalls, until it disappeared into the bottomless obscurity.
Leyton calmly walked to the edge of the cliff, peered into the bottomless trench, then spread his arms, looked up at the golden sky, and leaped down as if embracing the Sun.
The descent was accompanied by a strong sense of weightlessness, unconsciously quickening one's heartbeat until dizziness caused by oxygen deprivation set in.
When the dizziness passed and his mind cleared again, Leyton found himself standing on a cliff edge. Behind him, the sound of surging waves constantly echoed. By the light of the lightning that occasionally flashed across the sky, he could barely make out his surroundings.
"This lightning frequency, according to Little Sun and the others, should be considered night."
He murmured softly, then reached into the shadow beneath him and pulled out a fist-sized crystal ball.
As spiritual energy was infused, the crystal ball, which had been covered in a layer of mist, quickly became transparent and dazzling. Pure, pale blue starlight emanated from the crystal ball, and its soft glow quickly dispelled the surrounding Darkness.
Having solved the problem of light, Leyton began to examine his surroundings. An occasional flash of silver-white lightning allowed him to clearly see the objects around him:
Exaggeratedly huge palaces, Towers, and city walls stood in a staggered arrangement on the mountain, appearing magnificent and ancient, and clearly displaying an exotic aesthetic.