Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 1258: Chapter 1256: The Skills of Extraction

“Not simple at all!”

Fu Qian sighed deeply, the darkness becoming more distinct.

Ever since stepping into this world, all the information he encountered was remarkably consistent—the situation appeared crystal clear—

The countless people sheltered by The Sect were pulled into a shared dreamscape through a painting amidst an unprecedented wave of Nightmares. They experienced seemingly eternal years within it before finally waking up.

Unlike other Nightmares, this cold dreamscape did not continue tormenting them and completely dissipated when the last individual awoke.

The victims began their respective idyllic new lives, unwilling to ever bring up that chapter of their past.

This was an entirely different narrative from the one he’d previously heard—a story of world collapse, of fleeing to the World Within the Painting to escape catastrophe.

And it was a story that rendered his rescue mission hopeless—the World Within the Painting was nothing but a Nightmare, one that had already ended long ago.

Yet now, the existence of this pocket watch added a discordant note to the tale.

As a solemn acquisition of The Sect, it undoubtedly bore some connection to the World Within the Painting. The likelihood of misjudgment was very slim.

If its essence were merely a mundane object from the real world, it was hard to imagine how it could fall into the Nightmare just like Reysen and the others.

A damaged pocket watch enters the Nightmare, realizes it is, in fact, a lady… spends eons transcending realization, returns with profound enlightenment to revert to its original form, leaving only a few cryptic lines as testimony to this legendary journey?

A bit too much like The Stone Record, isn’t it?

In contrast, the world descending into irreparable chaos, with the Baroness fleeing to the World Within the Painting for refuge; amidst unwarranted calamity, her soul attaches itself to the pocket watch as her will dissipates, and after spending seven years within, the World Within the Painting suddenly loses its Magic Power, bringing her along with others to a new locale.

Not only do the others have plausible and rational Nightmare memories, but she does too—except hers manifests in the form of text due to her peculiar state.

Now that makes far more sense.

Reginald and the others couldn’t grasp this because their limited thinking precluded them from ever seeing the pocket watch as a person.

…

In summary, the existence of the pocket watch and the text inside it caused the credibility of this Star-Ritual World to plummet.

The condition of Reysen and his wife could easily be interpreted as slipping from reality into a Nightmare.

And to make the Nightmare convincing, it granted everyone realistic and reasonable experiences with absolute precision.

Unfortunately, the Baroness’s semi-alive state added a touch of excessive deliberation to the process—a pocket watch was awakened too.

And this minor disharmony, after his persistent efforts, was finally delivered directly before him.

But then, the question arises: how does one return to “reality”?

The exaggerated Star Law effects and the Pontiff’s complete disappearance both demonstrated that the force supporting this Nightmare was anything but ordinary.

That painting had entirely lost its Transcendent properties as well.

Should he directly initiate Shattering Void?

Considering that the dreamscape itself couldn’t exceed a minute, the law’s degree of control over this “Nightmare” seemed extraordinarily high, perhaps not inferior to the Prism of Radiant Transformation’s control over Night Holy City. The probability of brute-forcing through seemed almost negligible.

Like the Baroness’s pocket watch, meticulously explore the loopholes within this world and seek the opportunity from within?

That’s the righteous path, but too slow. He was here for a rescue mission, not a funeral lament.

Disrupt the Nightmare’s order and force it, under pressure, to reveal more vulnerabilities?

That sounds like an idea.

Currently, it seemed that for this city, the Celestial Sphere Sect was the ultimate enforcer of order.

Without them, everything would likely be a totally different scenario…

His thoughts sharpened swiftly, and the pocket watch was neatly restored as Fu Qian closed it, allowing it to spin idly in his palm.

Of course, this didn’t mean he was about to rush out and eliminate those two individuals, then obliterate the Celestial Sphere Sect on the way.

Squeezing value was an art form; simply killing and feeding it directly into the juicer would be the laziest approach possible.

If guided properly, this group’s potential to disrupt order could far surpass just eliminating them outright.

Besides, whether it was reality or not, Fu Qian still rather admired The Sect’s way of executing their plans.

If possible, he wouldn’t mind steering them towards genuinely expelling the Nightmare and liberating the people.

Naturally, everything was premised on maximizing efficiency.

Take now, for instance.

Pocket watch secured, Fu Qian stood up, foregoing rest as he walked to the door and reached out to open it.

…

“Anke… not asleep yet?”

Mrs. Harper, with her silver-white hair, barely had time to adjust her posture of leaning to listen, blurting a sentence out reflexively.

“Not tired. Is there something you needed from me?”

Fu Qian smiled as he scrutinized his landlady, seeming completely unaware of her eavesdropping.

Caught in the act, Mrs. Harper, shrewd as always, visibly faltered for a moment, her expression shifting rapidly as she quickly tried to formulate an excuse.

“While sorting through the mail tonight, I came across one addressed to you…”

Not disappointing expectations, Mrs. Harper spoke again within five seconds.

“I was planning to give it to you tomorrow, but since I woke up just now, I remembered your recent experience and thought it might be something important, so I wanted to check if you were still awake.”

Her pace of speech visibly steadied as she seemed to have fully composed her narrative.

“If you still have the energy to look at it, the letter is downstairs.”

A letter? Interesting.

Though her claim of delivering the letter and also mentioning it was downstairs struck some inconsistency, Mrs. Harper’s quick thinking was still commendable.

Most importantly, she brought him an unexpected piece of information.

Not at all wasted, that sigh he uttered just moments ago.

Indeed, as he’d remarked earlier, squeezing value was an art form.

That earlier self-directed comment was nothing more than bait for the curious Mrs. Harper, who had already noticed he’d returned, to be driven by curiosity and approach him for questions.

Now the value was extracted—the letter, which would have reached him originally tomorrow morning, was brought to him at least six hours early.

“Thank you so much.”

Fu Qian smiled warmly in gratitude, genuinely following her downstairs.

…

“Only your name was there; not sure how it ended up in the mailbox.”

Mrs. Harper was now completely composed and even subtly observing Fu Qian’s reaction.

Of course, she didn’t catch anything unusual.

Fu Qian took the thin envelope, still smiling as he thanked her.

Though Mrs. Harper’s curiosity and perhaps mild suspicion of him were evident, her integrity remained intact—the red wax seal on the envelope showed no signs of tampering.

Though that didn’t mean the sender had been too meticulous. In fact, there wasn’t even an embossed stamp; the wax was simply smudged over.

The letter’s sender seemed intent on concealing their identity, or perhaps—

After thanking Mrs. Harper again, Fu Qian returned to his room, opened the envelope, and pulled out a thin sheet of paper.

[WARNING: DISCLOSURE INCIDENT]

[Today’s work has been updated. You may choose whether to enter the containment scenario and complete the re-containment.]

[Abandoning the task will incur no penalty. Each entry will cost 1 SAN Point.]