158: Chapter 158 Unable to Leave

A surging sea of fire, accompanied by a blazing heatwave, suddenly swept over.

Chu Xuan felt his cheeks burning and couldn't help but retreat repeatedly, his eyes fixed firmly on the front.

“The thick fog turned into flames... Could it be Zhao Hongchan?”

The surrounding air seemed to be ignited, making crackling sounds, and most of the driveway was engulfed in a sea of fire.

Even the green belt outside the flames quickly withered and burned in the heatwave.

The asphalt road melted, emitting bursts of a scorched stench.

And within this sea of fire, a particularly eye-catching Humanoid Flame emitted a piercing light, clashing with Tang Zheng.

“So hot! It's so hot!”

Tang Zheng cried out in pain while continuously dispersing the Humanoid Flame, but the latter would always reconsolidate in the next instant.

Those flames seemed to possess a life of their own, surging and entangling Tang Zheng, burning his entire body to tatters.

“I can't take it anymore!”

Tang Zheng's figure darted out from the surrounding flames, turning into a streak of light to reach Chu Xuan's side. His body still emitted a scorched smell, and the light all over him was somewhat dim.

“Time's running out, I can't beat this thing, it just won't die. Let's run!” Tang Zheng pulled Chu Xuan, wanting to leave.

“We can't escape!”

Chu Xuan stared at the chasing flame. Suddenly, his heart stirred, and he said in a heavy voice, “The flame's range is shrinking. Keep hitting it!”

While speaking, Chu Xuan had already taken out his phone and turned on the music.

[Chicken, You Are Too Beautiful...]

Tang Zheng instantly became high-spirited, the light around him flourishing as he said excitedly, “I feel like I'm good to go again!”

With an excited shout, Tang Zheng rushed back, colliding head-on with the pursuing flame.

The heatwave swept through, and Chu Xuan's eyebrows and hair were already scorched, but he didn't dare retreat too far. If the background music stopped, Tang Zheng would likely be burned to death on the spot.

Up ahead, as punch after punch smashed down rapidly, every time that Humanoid Flame reconsolidated, the range of the fire in the area would shrink once.

Until half a minute passed, Tang Zheng's surrounding light dimmed again, looking as if it would dissipate at any moment. He looked extremely wretched, his entire body charred black.

The intensity of the fire in the area had also been shrunk to the limit, until finally only that single Humanoid Flame remained, struggling bitterly.

“Did we succeed?” Chu Xuan clenched his fists.

Just when he thought it was about to end, the figure within the flames suddenly threw back its head and let out a wild howl: “You all shall die!!”

The sea of fire surged again, transforming into a giant fireball thirty meters wide, like a sun, rumbling toward them.

“Holy crap... this guy can resurrect with full health?!!”

The light around Tang Zheng completely vanished. He only had time to let out a cry of alarm before being instantly swallowed by the flames.

Not far away, Chu Xuan's breathing was ragged. He immediately teleported away, but he was still too slow and was enveloped by the following giant fireball.

“Damn it! Just who did you provoke?!” The Phantom Demon's angry curse came through, attempting to forcibly possess Chu Xuan's body.

[You have been burned by intense fire.]

[Your health points have been depleted.]

[You have died.]

...

...

“Never trust anyone!”

“...”

Chu Xuan woke up once more, still faintly feeling the burning pain on his skin, but upon touching it, he realized it was just an illusion.

Dead again!

Chu Xuan felt a chill in his heart.

The worst-case scenario had occurred after all!

In today's first dream, when [Future Tang Zheng] said he wouldn't leave Haicheng no matter what, he had already had his suspicions.

He had clearly decided to leave today for the capital, so how could he still be in Haicheng on June 20th?

Looking at it now, his future self didn't *want* to stay, but rather, through various attempts in the dreams, discovered he *couldn't* leave!

Ultimately, on June 20th, that mysterious powerhouse came knocking in reality, and under the pressure of death, he became 'Chu Huan.'

Who exactly was that mysterious powerhouse?

Zhang Qiang? Or Zhao Hongchan? Or perhaps both?

Chu Xuan recalled the scenes from the previous dream.

At first, it was humanoid Smoke, but the suppressive force within it had no effect on Tang Zheng. After being repeatedly dispersed, it instantly turned into flames, its power skyrocketing.

Although Tang Zheng's Fighting God Talent was strong, it mostly applied to physical attacks. Against things without physical forms that could turn into Smoke or fire, the damage was very limited.

It would be fine if he could maintain it long-term, but the time limit for this talent was too short. Even with the bonus from the background music, it only seemed to last an extra half minute, and he was eventually worn down to death.

Chu Xuan's expression fluctuated. He was prepared to try other methods, but in an instant, he discarded that thought.

I can't get ahead of myself like this!

Because he didn't truly have infinite trial and error; everything relied on his spirituality value for support!

He glanced at his spirituality value—

[Current spirituality value: 86]

This dream had deducted 70 points of spirituality value. If he died again, entering the dream next time would require 80 points.

Currently, the spirituality value deducted per death was only accumulating by 10 points.

But once the cost of entering a dream reached 100 points, any further deaths would result in an accumulation of 100 points per death, which would be terrifying.

His future self was likely in such a state—discovering he couldn't leave, making constant attempts in dreams, but ultimately finding no good solution, only wasting spirituality value in vain, which eventually led to disastrous consequences.

Chu Xuan's thoughts churned.

Since [Future Tang Zheng]'s hint suggested that things only went wrong on June 20th, he should still be safe during the interim.

At this moment, the train of thought in Chu Xuan's mind gradually became clear.

First, he could no longer engage in blind trial and error.

Because there were still five days of dream opportunities left. If he died too many times early on and pushed the required spirituality value for entering a dream too high, he might face a situation in the following days where he didn't have enough spirituality value to enter a dream at all.

Second, he had to find a way to farm more spirituality value within the dreams.

spirituality value was the foundation of everything, and there were only 500 points left in the spirit Beads, which wasn't enough for many more deaths.

Finally, he couldn't rely entirely on finding a way to survive through trial and error in dreams. His own strength needed to be improved; the stronger he was, the stronger his ability to obtain spirituality value would naturally become.

With these thoughts, Chu Xuan's eyes flickered. The plans that had already taken shape in his mind—intercepting Chen Yao and intentionally releasing the fox at Yinshan Village—resurfaced.

Resurrection Society!

It's you guys!

As Chu Xuan stood up to take action, the Phantom Demon's voice rang out eerily: “Your spirituality value decreased by 180 points. Is this your dream world...”

Chu Xuan's eyes flashed as he said calmly, “You're wrong. I am currently in the state of having just woken up.”

“Is that so?”

The Phantom Demon didn't seem to believe him: “But your spirituality value didn't increase, and your various attributes didn't improve. You couldn't have wasted a dream preview opportunity for nothing, right? Or perhaps, you obtained more spirit Beads in the dream and stored all your spirituality inside them?”

“Why don't you guess?”

Chu Xuan gave a faint, mocking sneer, then ignored the Phantom Demon. He pulled out his phone, temporarily ignoring the messages from [Future Tang Zheng], and instead dialed a string of numbers.