222: 222. The Cruelest Truth

Just as the outside world was swept into a colossal storm by the fighter jet, it had already accurately flown over the target mountain range and made a forced landing on a relatively flat grassy area in front of the ancient castle.

The Bright Light Society guards inside the ancient castle were terrified by this sudden 'steel behemoth.' They frantically grabbed their weapons and rushed out, trying to stop the uninvited guests.

Lu Feng had neither the time nor the interest to entangle with them.

He stepped off the fighter jet, his gaze directly locking onto the obscure fluctuations emanating from deep within the ancient castle, which were of the same origin as the symbol stele.

He didn't even raise a hand; with just a thought, a vast torrent of mental energy surged out like an invisible tide, instantly covering the entire castle area!

The guards who had rushed out suddenly froze in their tracks, their eyes instantly becoming hollow and lost. Then, like drunks, they softly collapsed to the ground, falling into the deepest slumber.

Whether hidden sentry posts or meticulously arranged traps, all were rendered useless under Lu Feng's indiscriminate dream invasion.

It was truly like entering an uninhabited land!

Lu Feng and his group passed unimpeded through ancient corridors and deep halls, following the cold stone steps that descended, heading straight for the inverted triangular underground palace at the very bottom.

Inside the underground palace, one large and one small 'oracle' stele were clearly visible!

Lu Feng's eyes burned with intensity. He quickly stepped forward; time was pressing, the rift was widening, and the truth was right before him!

He reached out and, without hesitation, simultaneously pressed his hands against the large stele.

An unprecedented brilliant light erupted with a roar!

This time, it was no longer an impact of information flow. Lu Feng saw the gigantic, blurry phantom that had originally spanned the void begin to become clear and concrete at an astonishing speed under the illumination of this magnificent light!

Outlines were sketched, details emerged... It was no longer an unspeakable terrifying shadow, but the outline of a... human figure!

Lu Feng's mind was completely absorbed in this ultimate revelation of truth, utterly oblivious to everything outside.

However, in the outside world, anomalies had already occurred!

Inside the ancient castle's underground palace, on the slightly smaller stele nearby, the engraved symbols seemed to come alive, like living black tadpoles. They detached from the stele's surface, transforming into streams of light, vying to pour into Lu Feng's body!

This was just the beginning!

At the same time, scattered in every corner of the world... hidden in deep-sea trenches, buried beneath polar ice, embedded in the ruins of ancient temples—all remaining symbol fragments, regardless of size or form, at this moment resonated strongly with Lu Feng across time and space!

They either pierced through rock layers, broke through ice caps, or ignored architectural barriers, transforming into streams of light of various colors, yet all containing energy, converging from all directions towards the European Nation, towards this ancient castle, towards Lu Feng!

This spectacular phenomenon, like all rivers returning to the sea, triggered minor physical rule disturbances worldwide.

In some areas, gravity temporarily disappeared, and objects floated in the air.

In some regions, electromagnetic signals were completely chaotic.

There were even extremely subtle anomalies in the flow of time.

Although these phenomena were brief and limited in scope, they were enough to plunge top scientists and observation agencies worldwide into immense confusion and panic.

And Lu Feng, the source of all this, was completely unaware.

His entire consciousness was immersed in the shock of the final puzzle being completed.

When the last fragment merged into his body, all the torrents of information no longer brought an increase in power, but like a key, completely opened the door that had sealed the ultimate truth!

He saw it clearly!

That colossal phantom, capable of annihilating stellar civilizations with a breath, that blurry face... finally appeared clearly before his eyes, amidst the convergence of endless light and information flow!

That face... was his own!!!

“Boom!!!”

It was as if the Big Bang at the creation of the universe exploded in his mind!

All the memory fragments... from his ordinary high school life, to the helplessness when his father was seriously ill, to the hardship of moving bricks at the construction site, to the surprise of gaining abilities, to the strategic planning of establishing the Tingfeng System, to the far-sighted cooperation with the nation, and then to the life-and-death struggle with the Bright Light Society... all of this surged forth like a tide, yet from another, higher-dimensional perspective, it was given a new, despair-inducing interpretation!

The truth was so cruel it was suffocating!

It turned out that this real universe he inhabited, with its vast starry sky, countless living beings, and loves and hates, was not objectively real.

It was merely a dream made by an unspeakable, slumbering, grand entity, the 'Dream Maker'!

And he, Lu Feng, was not some lucky person or chosen one, but merely a wisp of thought that inadvertently escaped from this Dream Maker during its slumber, gaining self-awareness!

Those stable geometric symbols that gave him power and guided his way were, in essence, the concretization of pure information and cosmic laws, the underlying source code that constituted this 'dream universe'!

They recorded the world's structural parameters, physical constants, and even contained fragments of the Dream Maker's memories and emotional residues from before its slumber.

And now, what terrified him most was that when he, as a 'dream character,' fully realized that he was the 'Dream Maker,' the logical foundation of this dream collapsed.

How could a 'dream' that knew it was a dream continue peacefully?

This was like a character in a person's dream suddenly turning to the dreamer and saying, 'I know you're dreaming.'

This would almost certainly cause the dreamer to awaken!

And once the Dream Maker awakened, everything it generated would vanish, cease to exist!

The sudden annihilation of those glorious civilizations that Lu Feng had seen in the symbol fragments before was not an alien invasion or natural disaster; it happened precisely this way!

This was not the first time!

Each time, when a variable evolved within the dream touched upon the truth of the world, realizing the essence of 'I am the Dream Maker,' the Dream Maker would awaken from its slumber, the current dream universe would collapse, and then... a new, different dream would begin again.

Cycle after cycle, endlessly.

He, Lu Feng, was not the savior, but... the trigger of cosmic cycles, time and again! The one who sounded the horn of the epoch's end!

“Thump...”

Lu Feng could no longer support himself. His legs gave out, and he collapsed directly onto the cold floor of the underground palace.

His face was ashen, his pupils dilated with extreme shock and fear, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

His usual composure, calmness, and air of being in control of everything had vanished at this moment, replaced by a deep-seated powerlessness and despair.

“Mr. Lu! What's wrong?!”

Fan Hao, who had been closely following him and was responsible for vigilance, was the first to notice Lu Feng's abnormality. He was greatly alarmed and quickly stepped forward to help him.

In his and all the Candlelight Squad members' hearts, Mr. Lu had long been a god-like existence, omnipotent, unfailingly strategic. They had never seen him reveal such... almost collapsing panic!

A tumultuous wave surged in Fan Hao's heart, and an ominous premonition clutched at his chest.

What kind of terrifying truth could make even Mr. Lu feel fear?!

...