Chapter 004: Profound Darkness

A brand-new world appeared before everyone’s eyes. As those little dragons moved, it seemed as though a rift had been torn open in space itself.
What caught sight first was still an extremely deep blackness. But this time, without that overwhelming pressure, Du Fan finally managed to see that within that profound darkness, there were countless bright spots, just like stars filling the sky.
This sight was utterly unexpected, and for a moment, no one could react.
After a while, Chenchen suddenly sighed slightly and said, “If we’re going in, let’s hurry. My space-penetrating magic won’t last long. We need to act quickly.”
Du Fan nodded. He took a few steps forward, ready to go in first, but unexpectedly, Tasia stepped ahead of him and entered without hesitation.
This action briefly distracted Du Fan, but he quickly regained his composure and rushed in as well, followed by Ferre, who was holding Nicholas, and then Chenchen…
Once all their figures disappeared into the air, those faint dragons also slowly vanished, and everything returned to calm. Aldas on the ground seemed to let out a faint groan, but Du Fan couldn’t see any of this.
…
A weak beam of sunlight filtered through the countless trees, creating numerous patches of light. A gentle breeze blew, and the trees above made a rustling sound. There was a faint scent of grass in the air, and even the distant chirping of birds could be heard.
They found themselves in a small clearing within a vast forest.
Du Fan was stunned. He had clearly seen profound darkness before—so why had it suddenly changed like this?
This place looked like a small forest no matter how you looked at it; it was by no means some so-called divine palace. Had he gone through all this trouble just to have a picnic here?
Du Fan felt frustrated, though his expression couldn’t help but show confusion.
Tasia and Ferre also looked puzzled. Apparently, they couldn’t believe they had ended up in such a place.
Finally, Du Fan couldn’t hold back any longer and rushed over to Isella. He grabbed her dragon horn and said in a low voice, “Little Dragon, tell me—could this be the place where you slept for a thousand years?”

Isela felt frustrated, but she didn’t dare to react excessively. She could only look at Du Fan pitifully—it was quite remarkable that a dragon of his stature would behave in such a way. Seeing her expression, Du Fan knew this useless dragon couldn’t remember anything. Angered, he couldn’t help but slam Isela to the ground. His angry strike carried some combat energy. Even if Isela was useless, that energy wouldn’t hurt her, but seeing that even her terrifying and great master deferred to Du Fan, her intelligence told her that she must not offend this man under any circumstances. Immediately, she let out a scream and added more force as she crashed into the ground. “Crack!” With a loud noise, Isela was stunned and felt extremely depressed. If only she had known flattering Du Fan would be so difficult—she wouldn’t have gone through such trouble. Unexpectedly, Du Fan suddenly showed an understanding expression. Staring at Isela’s fallen form, his expression changed unpredictably before he finally burst into laughter. Confused, Isela thought her flattery had worked—she was very satisfied with her decision and even gave herself the title “Flatterer Dragon.” But then she realized this title wasn’t as nice as “Dragon of Good Omens” from before, leaving her utterly frustrated. “What’s wrong?” Chenchen asked Du Fan curiously. “Did you discover something?” Du Fan smiled and said, “I didn’t discover anything. But have you noticed? When I threw Isela down, the clever Isela added more force to please me. Although my combat energy isn’t strong, it shouldn’t have left this grassland untouched after the impact.” “What does that mean?” “It means we’re in the right place. There must be some secret here, we just haven’t found it yet.” Chenchen nodded slightly and glanced around but said nothing more. Feray and Tasia naturally didn’t dare to waste words either. After thinking for a while, Du Fan crouched down and touched the grass for a while. Soon after, he stood up slowly, his face showing an expression of confirmation.

Du Fan walked over to a large tree at the edge of the grassland and gently stroked it for a while. But suddenly, without much effort, his entire arm disappeared into the tree trunk. After a moment, he pulled his arm back, and the tree trunk returned to its original state as well.

A flash of insight struck Du Fan. Vaguely, it seemed he had grasped some key point. He closed his eyes and pondered for a while before opening them again to observe his surroundings. When his gaze returned to Isella, he finally let out a soft sigh, having understood everything.

“So that’s how it is… So that’s how it is…” Du Fan nodded slightly. “I think I understand why we’re here.”

Chenchen glanced at Du Fan in confusion. With her abilities, she had already scanned the area with her mental power earlier but found nothing unusual. Could Du Fan’s mental power be purer than hers?

Ferei and Tasia also looked at Du Fan with confusion, clearly wanting to know what he had figured out.

Du Fan smiled gently and said, “This place… If I’m not mistaken… everything we see right now is mostly fake.”

“Fake?” Everyone was stunned and couldn’t believe it at first.

“That’s right, it’s fake…” Du Fan nodded firmly. “This scorching sun, this gentle breeze, this blue sky, this grassland, this forest… everything here is fake. It doesn’t actually exist. At this moment, we must be existing in that profound darkness we saw before, in a way we ourselves can’t understand…”

“But if everything here is fake, then why can we see these things?” Ferei, who didn’t know much about magic, asked immediately.

Du Fan wasn’t bothered. He just smiled again and said, “As for why we can see these things, I guess it has something to do with this great Isella, right?”

As he spoke, Du Fan glanced at Isella.

Although Isella’s strength was several times that of Du Fan, that glance made Du Fan shiver. However, Du Fan didn’t intend to target her. Instead, he paused briefly before continuing, “But it’s not hard to understand all this. First, we need to know… why can we see everything in the world?”

Ferei thought for a moment and said, “Of course, it’s because we have eyes to see these things…”

Du Fan waved his hand, thought for a moment before explaining, “It’s not like that… What we see isn’t necessarily real. Much of what we can see is what our eyes perceive, but what if our eyes are deceived? Would what we see then still be true? Similarly, if our sense of hearing, touch… all of them are deceived… then would what we see, hear, or smell still be real?”
Fei Lei was stunned and couldn’t understand Du Fan’s meaning for a while.
Du Fan was also frustrated. Although he wanted to describe all this in the simplest terms, he didn’t know how to explain it best. However, he understood that perhaps their nervous systems had been disturbed, causing them all to see the same vision. In plain terms, they were all hypnotized, but the person using hypnosis was too skilled, affecting so many of them at once. But explaining things like nerves and hypnosis to people in this world? It would be miraculous if they could even understand.
Du Fan thought for another moment before saying, “Or put it this way: it’s as if we’ve all entered some kind of hallucinatory magic circle, so what we see naturally isn’t real.”
This explanation was understandable to everyone.
Chen Chen nodded and said, “In that case, it’s as if we’ve been under some kind of hallucination, forced to believe in all of this… But Du Fan, don’t forget… aside from your temple knight subordinate, the others here have strong mental strength. How could they fall for a hallucination?”
Du Fan smiled and said, “Of course, they won’t fall for it. But even if our mental strength were extraordinary, I doubt we could resist Dragon Speech magic. It’s said that the green dragons are known as the Dragons of Dreams, rulers of the Emerald Dream. And our dear Lady Isella is here too. So, what do you all think… could it be that Lady Isella is behind this?”