Chapter 183 — The Eternal Sleeper's Technology

"The letter left by Viscount Victor mentions that this is a 'computing node' built by the Eternal Sleepers," Gao Yang said, gesturing at the victims linked together by nerve cords. "They seem to be trying to create a 'true dream' that can replace the real world, and to use the power of the dream to achieve something—and that requires terrifying computational capacity. You can think of it simply as brainpower. No single archmage's brain could accomplish such a feat, so they came up with this mad idea: link brains together to create a 'human-brain array computer.' Do you know what that means?"

"That they'll go kill more people?"

"That's only the surface. The deeper significance is this: it means these cultists are not only mad, they also command a technology of madness!" Gao Yang said gravely. "Even while shunned by mainstream society and living in seclusion, they have kept developing—even developing new technology far beyond the current level of magic. Understand this: cultists who are merely mad in their thinking are not frightening. What is frightening is that these cultists also possess research capability—and that their research capability is not even weak!"

As he spoke, he rose to his feet and surveyed the entire underground hall.

"The most terrible thing of all is that if this mad technology they have created were applied in the right place, it would make the pace of their technological progress even more terrifying..."

After collecting a few rune rubbings and specimen fragments, Gao Yang and Philip left the place.

With the dream's power withdrawn, the castle's main hall was one of the least changed areas. Apart from the outer walls, pillars, and ceiling suddenly revealing the signs of aging accumulated over thirty years, it could still be called brightly lit and clean. The living servants who dwelt in the castle had done their cleaning in earnest day after day, and the nature of the dream-reality intersection ensured that the results of their cleaning were not confined to the dream alone.

In fact, with the end of the dream's effects, the faint, elusive, eerie atmosphere that had always haunted the place vanished along with it; the castle's main hall was now considerably warmer and more peaceful than before.

Yet that warm, peaceful atmosphere could not set at ease the people gathered in the hall.

Fear hung over every heart—even that of the chief knight who had loyally guarded this place for thirty years.

When the dream ended, the people in the castle started awake as from a trance. Their blocked consciousness and memories all began to function again, and in the instant they regained the ability to think freely, everything they had experienced here over the past thirty years turned into a bizarre nightmare: sleepwalking through a steadily decaying ancient fortress, tending to the phantom of a woman decades dead, a ghostly mistress wandering the ruins of the North Tower. All of it was chilling to the bone.

And for the older servants, knights, advisors, and stewards, matters were even more horrifying: they clearly remembered when the bones of the old master and the young master had been secretly brought back to the castle, and clearly remembered how the mistress, thirty years ago, had in her madness used magic to seize control of every mind. Every day since then, every change that had taken place in the castle, now surged back upon them.

And the domain stewards who had been summoned back, those who lived near the castle, were likewise in the grip of fear—for anyone who had frequently come and gone from Xuanque Castle had been touched by the dream. Only, compared with the servants and knights who had never left the fortress in thirty years, their fear was somewhat lighter.

But no matter what was said, once a person realized what they had lived through, no one could remain calm and composed.

Amber stood on the raised platform at the far end of the main hall, frantic with worry, scratching at her ears and cheeks.

That was where the lord alone was permitted to stand in ordinary times, yet now no one raised any objection to the "little girl" upon it, for everyone knew she was the Duke's guard, standing there as the Duke's spokesperson in this emergency; so far from questioning her, they turned upon her gaze after gaze of expectation.

But this only made Amber wish she could find some chance to scurry straight back into the shadows—being a personage of importance was not nearly as pleasant as she had imagined it before!

"Don't panic, all of you, don't... don't be nervous! The Duke has gone to purify the last nest—he'll be here in a moment, so don't panic, he's coming right now!"

Amber stood on the platform, vainly trying to soothe the crowd, and just when she felt that one more second of delay would put her beyond controlling the scene, Gao Yang finally appeared together with Philip Qing.