464: Chapter 463 Passive Advancement?

"What did Xiao Luowei mean by her last sentence? I've never mentioned going on missions to her!"

As the dream ended, this question still circled in his mind. By the time he woke up, before Chu Xuan's consciousness had fully recovered, a strange laugh already reached his ears.

"Gah gah gah! Human pet, why are you staring at the water? Stop being so narcissistic; your looks can't compare to a ten-thousandth of Lord Peng's."

Chu Xuan snapped awake.

Amidst the rippling water, he found himself staring at his own reflection in the stream.

Although it was still his own face, that faint, indistinct smile at the corner of his mouth made Chu Xuan feel as if he were looking at another person.

The same scene again!

Chu Xuan's heart sank, and then his expression suddenly changed.

Because at that moment, the System page had somehow been opened, and there was a series of System notification messages.

...

—Advancement.

[Original World Advancement requirements: 10,400 spirituality value, reached! 10 rule fragments, reached! World certification, reached!]

[Detected your status as a Purifier. Once your advancement is complete, all attributes can be converted into real attribute.]

[Please confirm, do you wish to advance in your original world?]

...

[Please confirm within 10 minutes. Exceeding the time limit will be considered as default acceptance. Countdown starts!]

[00:09:59]

...

[00:00:01]

...

[The 10-minute time limit has expired. You have defaulted to advancement. It is detected that your consciousness has not yet fully awakened... You may re-confirm after waking up.]

...

The above content was clearly visible on the System page.

Chu Xuan's expression shifted drastically.

He originally had doubts and hadn't truly decided whether to advance now, yet he saw this the moment he woke up.

Chu Xuan instantly understood what was happening.

That foreign consciousness must have controlled him to initiate the advancement while he was waking from the dream!

Having died once in the dream, coupled with the previous 20-minute delay in waking up, the total time elapsed was 21 minutes.

Chu Xuan didn't need to look at his phone to be certain that it must be 8:51 AM now.

The time he was originally supposed to wake up was 8:30 AM.

Fortunately, the System detected that he hadn't fully awakened; otherwise, once the ten-minute countdown ended, it would have been too late!

There really was a problem with the advancement!

Chu Xuan couldn't help but think of Future Tang Zheng's repeated requests for him to advance in the previous dream, and a chill ran down his spine.

"No!"

Chu Xuan suddenly felt something was fishy.

"Since he can control my body to advance, then regardless of whether it succeeds, there would be no need for Future Tang Zheng to ask me to advance over and over again..."

"If Future Tang Zheng truly harbored malicious intent, the best choice would have been to never mention advancement at all, or even strongly oppose it!"

"Because that way, if he could manipulate me into advancing smoothly, everything would naturally go his way and his plot would succeed."

"And if the current result occurred—where I woke up and stopped the advancement—Future Tang Zheng's opposition would have allowed him to continue gaining my trust..."

Chu Xuan's thoughts raced: "So, does Future Tang Zheng really believe that advancing as soon as possible is the best way to solve everything?"

Many thoughts flashed by in just a brief moment, and the System issued another prompt.

[Detected that your consciousness is fully awake. Do you choose to advance now? Please make a choice within three seconds...]

[Three!]

—No!

With a cold expression, Chu Xuan chose to decline immediately.

"Whether I advance or not is for me to decide!"

Chu Xuan's eyes flickered; he planned to discuss this with Future Tang Zheng the next time he entered a dream.

But before that, he could first handle today's Night Watchers offline meeting and the matter regarding Duan Lingxi in Shen City.

"Gah gah! Human pet, don't give me that rotten look of jealousy. You can only look up to Lord Peng's appearance." The Giant Egg rolled over, pushing the greed tank along.

Chu Xuan suddenly felt something and looked up abruptly.

The clear sky was now covered with dark clouds. Although it wasn't like in the dream where the first Lightning Tribulation would strike instantly,

the shroud of dark clouds at this moment was even heavier than it had been in the dream.

Without time for second thoughts, Chu Xuan's figure blurred as he successively stored the Sentry Bastion and the greed tank into his Exclusive Space, then grabbed the Giant Egg and held it above his head.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

"Hey! What are you doing? Put me down..."

The Giant Egg struggled and shook violently, but before it could finish speaking, the first Lightning Tribulation struck down.

[You have taken real damage from the Lightning Tribulation. Your health points -690...]

Chu Xuan's expression was grave. Using the same defensive method, the first Lightning Tribulation actually deducted 690 points, which was even stronger than it had been in the dream.