C126 — Turning the Tide

Mu Sichen carefully placed the “Sacrifice 1” cube into the system’s inventory, then took out his crossaxe—now transformed into a small drill.

The crossaxe could now change size. In its current form, it was only about ten centimeters long, no bigger than a small hammer, looking almost delicate and cute in Mu Sichen’s hand.

He then took out a cube labeled “Selfishness 3” and looked toward the Path of Metamorphosis.

After Ji Xian’an disappeared, the layout of the path had changed. The positions of the black squares had shifted, though their number remained the same.

Mu Sichen still had the Self Sticker attached to him. As his level increased, the power of the Self Sticker had grown stronger and stronger—now reaching the level of a pseudo-god.

He stared at the “Selfishness 3” cube, focused his mind, and used the power of his pseudo-godhood to light up a miniature self-totem on it.

This action was similar to how he once used the domain power of Hope Town to light up the self-totems of its residents. It was as if Mu Sichen imagined himself as a “Pillar” centered on “Self,” treating each small cube as a resident within his domain—distributing his self-totem power into every cube.

This only cost him 10 points of energy, after all, the cube was tiny.

Looking at the miniature glowing self-totem on it, Mu Sichen smiled faintly, then tossed the “Selfishness 3” cube.

As expected, it yielded 3 steps.

On the newly refreshed path, the first black square was exactly three steps ahead.

Clearly—Mu Sichen was aiming for it.

The system made no suggestions and offered no warnings. Perhaps it usually gave guidance or assigned tasks, but once Mu Sichen made a decision, it never opposed him—only silently complied.

Even if what he was doing now looked like walking straight into death.

Mu Sichen stepped onto the first black square. The “Selfishness 3” cube, marked with the tiny self-totem, sank into the Path of Metamorphosis, vanishing without a trace—like a drop of water dissolving into the ocean.

Just like Ji Xian’an, he encountered a question on the black square:

[On the road, the traveler meets a “lazy” cow basking in the sun. It refuses to work. What should the traveler do?
A. Use your good qualities to inspire the cow and help it overcome its laziness.
B. Whip the cow harshly to force it to work.]

Before choosing, Mu Sichen spoke:

“The first thing Ji Xian’an told me wasn’t that black squares contain traps that make you lose soul cubes—it was that before the white cubes fall into the Pure White Sea, they are still connected to her consciousness. Only when they fully merge with the sea does she lose that connection. Before that, she could even feel the warmth of returning to a mother’s embrace when they entered the sea.”

“Do you know what that means?”

It was unclear whether he was speaking to the system, to the Dream-Building Dependent, or simply to himself.

Hearing him speak—and being bound by the “courtesy” within him, a positive trait—the Dream-Building Dependent responded, “What does it mean?”

Mu Sichen smiled.

“It means that before those white cubes roll into the sea… they are still under my control.”

With that, he chose A.

Fifty white cubes left his body, rolling swiftly toward the ocean.

Mu Sichen, following the same method he used with “Selfish 3,” imagined himself as a “pillar” and the white blocks leaving his body as villagers leaving their territory.

“Self.” he whispered.

On all fifty white blocks, a self-totem lit up. They bounced and hopped into the ocean. Just like drops in the sea, no trace remained.

The Dependent blinked. He didn’t understand what Mu Sichen intended, but he couldn’t feel curiosity. That was because he lacked “doubt.” Doubt was the driving force of “the pursuit of knowledge”; without doubt, there was no pursuit.

Mu Sichen watched the white blocks vanish into the sea, then took out a “Tyranny 6.” Still costing 10 energy points to activate, he lit the small block, threw it away, and gained six steps. As expected, after moving six steps, Mu Sichen landed exactly on a black tile again.

“The second thing Ji Xian’an told me is that the negative emotions on a black tile depend on what emotional block the traveler used last. I used ‘Selfish 3,’ so on this black tile, I’ll encounter problems caused by ‘Selfish.’”

“You guessed right—but so what?” the Dream Dependent replied politely.

Sure enough, the choice triggered by the tile was related to “Selfish.”

[On the path, the traveler encounters a ‘Selfish’ elephant blocking the road, unwilling to move. How should the traveler persuade it to let the way pass? A. Use the traveler’s good qualities to influence it, neutralizing its ‘Selfishness’; B. Punch it away.]

This time, Mu Sichen chose B.

[While punching the elephant away, the elephant lashes out in anger, leaving the ‘Selfishness’ with the traveler.]

Then, fifty-two small black blocks flew out from the tile, filling the gaps in Mu Sichen’s body.

Mu Sichen said, “I know that black blocks not originally mine will fill my body, letting me be influenced by others’ emotions. These feelings are not under my control, so I can’t govern them.

“But it’s fine. I just happen to have the ‘Undermine’ skill.”

The crossaxe seemed to understand Mu Sichen’s intention and flew into the air.

The Dream Dependent said, “After entering the Gate of Twilight, fighting is forbidden. You cannot attack others.”

“I’m not fighting, nor attacking ‘others,’” Mu Sichen said. “I just want to strike myself. Since these ‘Selfishness’ blocks from others can affect me, doesn’t that prove they temporarily belong to me? What I do with what’s mine is none of your concern. When Ji Xian’an struck the invisible barrier before the Path of Transformation, wasn’t that a form of self-harm? If she can self-harm, so can I.”

This was the third lesson Ji Xian’an had taught Mu Sichen.

Then, the crossaxe patiently struck each “Selfish” block, one by one, fifty-two times, turning all the external ‘Selfishness’ into Mu Sichen’s own.

This was the “Dig Emotion” ability within the “Undermine” skill. When Mu Sichen had used it before to extract emotions from Big Eye’s followers, it cost 100 points each time.

Now, these ‘Selfish’ blocks were not full, single units of ‘Selfishness.’ Each person’s emotional energy had been split into many portions.

Therefore, the crossaxe’s “Undermine” skill consumed even less energy: just 10 points per strike. Hitting all fifty-two small blocks cost only 520 points.

However, the crossaxe seemed a bit angry.

The crossaxe had only been alive for a short month, yet it had struck Qin Zu’s Guardian Sword, hammered Big Eye’s followers, beaten Shen Jiyue’s clones, and even drilled through “Dreamcatcher,” a star-grade hidden item.

Even when Mu Sichen only had 100 energy points, its minimum consumption was still 33 points.

This powerful crossaxe had never done this kind of repetitive small hammering work before. Now, each strike only consumed 10 points. For reference, the last time it attacked “Dreamcatcher,” it had consumed 500,000 energy points in a single hit. Using such a heavy artillery on killing mosquitoes was clearly overkill.

The crossaxe was frustrated, but it endured.

After striking all the blocks, all of the “Selfishness” now belonged to Mu Sichen. At the same time, he also obtained 52 tiny Self stickers—pitifully small.

He placed these 52 stickers on the 52 “Selfish” blocks, and a tiny self-totem lit up on each.

Mu Sichen said, “I deliberately chose the ‘Selfish’ emotion because its positive meaning is ‘self’ and ‘self-love.’ It’s the first spark I choose. I want the first emotion to spread to be the one most fitting for ‘self.’”

Next, he threw a “Rebellious 5” block. This time it wasn’t black; he landed on a white tile.

A line of text popped up on the tile:

[Congratulations, traveler, you have received the ‘Dreamweaver’s Blessing.’ You have one chance to rid yourself of ‘Selfishness’ that doesn’t belong to you. Do you wish to pray to the ‘Dreamweaver’ to restore purity? A. Yes, B. No.]

Just as Mu Sichen expected, having received black blocks that didn’t belong to him, stepping on a white tile guaranteed encountering this “Blessing.”

This was the fourth thing Ji Xian’an had taught him.

“Although I don’t really want to pray to the butterfly, I have to return these ‘Selfishness’ blocks that aren’t mine,” Mu Sichen said. “I choose A.”

With his choice, the 52 “Selfish” blocks, each with a tiny self-totem, rolled away and sank into the Path of Transformation. Simultaneously, another 52 white blocks rolled toward the Pure White Sea. Unsurprisingly, Mu Sichen lit a self-totem on each of these white blocks as well.

The Dream Dependent tilted his head slightly, watching Mu Sichen. He didn’t understand what Mu Sichen was doing.

Mu Sichen wasn’t trying to preserve as many of his own emotions as possible. He didn’t avoid black tiles; instead, he deliberately walked on them, continuously acquiring other people’s emotions and discarding them.

The Dream Dependent couldn’t feel curiosity. He didn’t understand, but he wasn’t confused, so he wasn’t troubled—he simply watched quietly.

Mu Sichen then took out a “Selfish 4,” lit the self-totem as usual, threw it, and gained 4 steps. He moved four steps and landed on a black tile, which guaranteed a random event.

He said, “Last time I specifically chose a ‘Rebellious’ block, so the next unexpected event will also be related to ‘Rebellious.’”

[On the road, the traveler encounters a ‘Rebellious’ gray wolf that is destroying the path. How should the traveler stop it? A. Use your good qualities to influence the gray wolf; B. Kill the gray wolf.]

 

“I actually support destroying the road, but rules say I must make a choice. So I’ll choose B,” Mu Sichen said.

106 “Rebellious” blocks flew onto Mu Sichen, making his expression look a bit cool, a bit cocky, and even slightly dramatic in a teenage-chuunibyou way.

The crossaxe floated silently, drifting past Mu Sichen’s eyes like a laborer, dutifully striking again and again.

If it could speak, it would surely point at Mu Sichen’s nose and yell, “You actually made me do this kind of work?!”

But it couldn’t speak, so it just kept hammering.

After 106 strikes, all the “Rebellious” blocks now belonged to Mu Sichen, and he also obtained 106 tiny Self stickers.

Mu Sichen said, “‘Rebellious’ is another carefully chosen emotion, because it’s most likely to spark rebellion.”

As usual, he placed self-stickers on each of these blocks, then threw a “Selfish 10,” gained five steps, and moved forward five steps.

This time he landed on a white tile, triggering a 100% “Dreamweaver’s Blessing.”

[Congratulations, traveler, you have received the ‘Dreamweaver’s Blessing.’ You have one chance to rid yourself of ‘Rebelliousness’ that doesn’t belong to you. Do you wish to pray to the ‘Dreamweaver’ to restore purity? A. Yes, B. No.]

Mu Sichen chose A again, releasing all the “Rebellious” blocks with self-totems from his body, while also dropping 106 white blocks with self-totems.

At this point, Mu Sichen lost over 200 emotion blocks, leaving his body partially incomplete, making movement a bit difficult.

He turned to the crossaxe and said, “When I first realized you had self-awareness, I was a little worried you might one day strike me. But now, I’m very glad you have self-awareness—it allows you to act independently, without my control.”

“Soon, my consciousness will shrink further. I won’t be able to control the other negative emotions filling my body. At that time, I’ll have to rely on you—just like before—to strike each external negative emotion and place self-stickers on them.”

The crossaxe could hardly believe it. Next time, it would have to hammer over 200 times—and still help Mu Sichen stick stickers?

It was a noble weapon. One day, it was destined to tear apart this dream space, smash the “Sprout,” and crush the moon.

Yet now, the Great and Noble Crossaxe of “Shattered Moon, Torn Dreams, and Sprout-Smothering” was being asked to do manual labor for Mu Sichen?

Furious, it spun wildly in the air to express its displeasure.

“Please help me,” Mu Sichen said, pressing his incomplete hands together sincerely, looking at the crossaxe.

His attitude wasn’t bad.

The crossaxe, still angry, lightly tapped Mu Sichen on the head—not using any skills, just a simple strike to vent its frustration. It didn’t strike hard—after all, Mu Sichen was fragile enough to break with a single hit, and the crossaxe wasn’t meant to shatter him; it was meant to hammer him.

After finishing its task of “Hammering Sichen,” it quietly removed that title and returned to its proper name: the “Shattered Moon, Torn Dreams, Sprout-Smothering Crossaxe.”

Not even Mu Sichen knew—only the system did—that the crossaxe had briefly taken “Hammering Sichen” as its target and swiftly completed it.

With the crossaxe’s permission, Mu Sichen took paper and pen from his inventory, wrote a line, tore off the paper, and handed it to the crossaxe.

“Write this in the air for me when the time comes,” Mu Sichen said, not caring whether the crossaxe could read.

Even if it couldn’t read, it could still replicate the writing.

But the crossaxe was a cultured weapon—it gave itself names! Of course it could read.

So the crossaxe stabbed through the paper, letting it hang from its body—thus agreeing to Mu Sichen’s request.

Mu Sichen continued forward, keeping the small blocks with self-totems that he had acquired, taking in other negative emotion blocks, placing self-totems on them, and then releasing them.

The crossaxe followed dutifully behind, hammering again and again.

Each small block measured roughly 0.8 cm on each side, while an adult’s average volume is about 0.05–0.06 m³. This meant Mu Sichen had around 1,000 small blocks in his body.

At this rate of spreading, he would soon lose all the blocks after only a few tiles. He mainly chose the “Selfish” and “Rebellious” blocks, letting the crossaxe light up each one.

By the end, only a single white block remained on Mu Sichen; the rest of the roughly 1,000 blocks were “Rebellious” or black blocks he hadn’t used yet.

The crossaxe was too exhausted to get angry anymore—it just wanted to finish the job Mu Sichen had entrusted to it. After all, Mu Sichen had made it do all this work; there should be some form of fair exchange.

At this point, it was uncertain whether Mu Sichen still had any awareness left. Once the crossaxe finished, the pile of black blocks moved forward one step. In the “Blessing” options, as usual, Mu Sichen chose to release the “Rebellious” blocks.

As the “Rebellious” blocks disappeared, the single white block rolled into the Pure White Sea. Even the black blocks Mu Sichen kept carried self-totems.

As Mu Sichen’s white block vanished, the black blocks lost their complete self and disappeared from the Path of Transformation.

The Dependent, who had watched the whole process, looked at the empty Path of Transformation and picked up a book titled Beautiful Dreams, slowly flipping through it page by page while seated.

No matter what these two fallen ones had done—or tried to do—it no longer mattered. They disappeared, like everyone before them.

That fallen one named Mu Sichen may have acted differently, but so what? It was all a futile struggle.

The Dependent decided to forget the person called Mu Sichen.

 

As he flipped the pages, he suddenly noticed his fingers twitching uncontrollably—a phenomenon that had never happened before.

He lifted his hand and examined it carefully. After careful inspection, he realized that it wasn’t his hand that was out of control—it was the small blocks on his hand.

The blocks seemed alive, jumping again and again. Soon, he noticed that nearly half of the white blocks on his body were also moving.

No one was purely white; everyone had both positive and negative emotions. If a person’s entire body were made of white blocks, it would mean that at least half of them weren’t originally theirs—they had been exchanged for black blocks.

 

This was the case for the Dependent.

To guard the Gate of Dawn, he had to become a purely white and immaculate guardian. So, under the blessing of the great “Dreamweaver,” he had washed away the “impurities” from his body in the Pure White Sea, gaining a pure white form.

The black blocks that had been his were replaced by other people’s white blocks.

Now, those white blocks from others were no longer under the Dependent’s control.

Not only that, his own blocks began to bounce along, inspired by the movement of the jumping blocks.

The Dependent immediately recognized this phenomenon. The “Dreamweaver” had once told them it was called “contamination.”

Divine-level monsters could spread contamination.

Take Yao Wangping, for example. He was Qin Zu’s dependent, yet even he could be contaminated by Big Eye. Similarly, Mu Sichen belonged to himself but could be contaminated by Shen Jiyue.

In the same way, when Mu Sichen purified the residents of Hope Town, it was essentially a form of contamination—using the power of “Self” to override the influence of Big Eye on the townspeople.

When a person was contaminated by a divine-level monster, their instinct was to resist it, to reject this foreign power. To fully contaminate someone with 100 resistance, a divine-level monster might need 200 energy points: 100 to overcome the person’s resistance, and 100 to fill the remaining void.

But “Self” was different from other forms of contamination. It wasn’t resisted by human instinct. On the contrary, it gained instinctive support, because humans inherently craved “Self.”

This was why Mu Sichen, despite his power being far weaker than Big Eye or the Butterfly, could purify the entire town using nothing more than the strength of the “Pillar.” It was fulfilling a long-suppressed desire of the townspeople who had been “contaminated” for so long.

Mu Sichen was never truly fighting alone. From the moment he chose the power of “Self,” he was backed by everyone still longing for independence, everyone yearning to control their own “Self,” including these small, formless blocks that had lost their human shape.

Mu Sichen knew his power was extremely weak. It couldn’t oppose the rules of the Gate of Dawn. But he realized he could, like other divine-level monsters, release “contamination.”

From his observations, Mu Sichen noticed that white blocks could be absorbed by the “Pillar,” but black blocks were rejected—they were not accepted.

This meant that for all the people trapped within the Gate of Dawn, their black parts were preserved, still “alive” and intact.

Yes—Mu Sichen chose the word “alive” deliberately. Because if they were dead, then what of Ji Xian’an? Even a tiny remnant of emotion could preserve the “Self”—this was the last lesson Ji Xian’an had taught Mu Sichen. And it gave him a glimmer of hope.

He made a bold decision. He would place self-totems on as many black blocks as possible. He wanted to ignite the “Self” within the blocks, hoping to transmit it from the black blocks to the white ones.

This wasn’t difficult, because behind every positive emotion existed a negative one—they depended on each other.

Mu Sichen couldn’t contaminate every negative emotion, so he chose the “Selfish” and “Rebellious” blocks. Only by satisfying oneself could one feel happiness; only with a rebellious spirit could one dare to defy the Gate of Dawn.

He threw the black blocks into the Path of Transformation—one, two, a hundred, two hundred, even over a thousand. These small black blocks didn’t all come from the same person—they belonged to many, many people.

Together, they released the contamination of “Self.” Instinctively, the body tried to aggregate them, transmitting this intense “Self” to other black blocks, and then onward to the white blocks that originally belonged to the same person.

Contamination spread. Emotion craved “Self.”

Even the white blocks that originally belonged to the dependent trembled, because even he longed for emotional completeness.

The Dependent turned and looked toward the vast white sea.

The pulsating motion spread, and countless white blocks leapt and tumbled across the ocean, stirring the once-calm surface into waves—each wave higher than the last.

The crossaxe hovered in the air, dutifully writing Mu Sichen’s message across the white sky. Its movements were so fast that they became streaks of light, too swift for the bare eye to track. All one could see were metallic glimmers leaving trails in the white expanse, forming the strokes of the message.

These strokes appeared simultaneously to the eye, as if the crossaxe were literally writing in midair.

The Dependent n saw a line of massive characters shimmering with metallic light floating above:

“Mu Sichen has asked this great crossaxe to convey a message to you all: ‘A single spark can start a prairie fire!’”

At the same time, countless black blocks leapt from the black tiles on the Path of Transformation.

As if responding to these black blocks, waves tens of meters high surged across the Pure White Sea.

Above this vast sea, Mu Sichen had stirred up a raging storm!

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