“Yani!” Isabella thought about the woman who could shatter space. Even though she was beautiful, it was hard to imagine her as a homewrecker.
Zu An was perplexed as well. He hadn't thought Yani would be into such things.
Firework shook her head. “She approached my father as Diodora.”
Both Zu An and Isabella thought about the seductive female elder who'd appeared at the hotel. Ah, that fits the impression better.
“Hold on.” Isabella thought of a problem. “You said it was someone we have become familiar with recently. Only Yani accompanied us on this voyage.”
“That’s because Diodora and Yani are the same person,” Firework replied with a sigh.
Isabella was stunned. She couldn’t see those two completely different women as the same person. “How is that possible? They appeared in the same place simultaneously, and Yani came out to the ocean with us while Diodora remained in the hotel to host the other guests. If they are the same person, how can she pull that off?”
“That’s her special ability, Life Creation. She's capable of conjuring countless clones. In fact, everyone you've seen in Dreamland, except for the outsiders, is a puppet she conjured.”
The thought that all the staff members she'd met were just clones made shivers run down Isabella’s spine. “I can’t believe no one has been able to see through her tricks. Isn’t her ability too powerful?”
The guests visiting Dreamland were experts from different civilizations. One couldn’t hope to deceive them all with just ordinary clones. Yet not a single person had seen through her act.
Zu An asked, "Isn't Life Creation an ability rivaling that of the universal deities?”
Destruction was far easier than creation. The creation of life would normally be an ability in the domain of universal deities.
Firework shook her head. “The lives created by universal deities are sentient beings who are capable of growth, perhaps to the extent of becoming universal deities themselves in the future. In contrast, the lives created by Yani are superficial. They aren’t true living beings. Their souls and wills are merely extensions of her own.”
Zu An had met many people in Dreamland thus far, but it had never occurred to him that they were all clones. To play so many characters at once... Isn’t she afraid of developing dissociative personality disorder?
“If she's already replaced everyone in Dreamland, how did you escape from her?” Zu An stared at Firework intently.
“I wasn’t in Dreamland for the last thousand years. My father had sent me away, perhaps because he was worried that I’d get in the way of him and the demoness,” Firework said with a sigh. “It happened that a Beauty worshiper thought I conformed to the dao of beauty and had been inviting me to study with her. My father took this chance to send me to the Deity of Beauty’s academy. That move unexpectedly saved my life.”
“How did you know about what happened in Dreamland?” Isabella asked.
“None of the participants who attended the Dream Gathering a thousand years ago left. We've had participants who relished in the event and were unwilling to leave, but never had all the participants been unwilling to leave before,” Firework said. She continued with a melancholic look, “Several people in the academy asked me about it, but I was confused too. It occurred to me that it had been a long time since my father contacted me, so I tried contacting him through a projection artifact. He acted the same as before, but I knew it wasn’t him.”
Zu An nodded. No matter how good someone’s disguise was, they couldn’t hope to fool their closest kin. He had tried impersonating others, but he had always struggled to fool those who were close with the impersonated.
“Perhaps noticing my skepticism, she sent assassins into the Deity of Beauty’s academy to kill me. Fortunately, perhaps we were too far from Dreamland, or she was afraid of the experts in the academy, so the assassins weren’t too strong. I managed to escape alive. However, I didn’t dare to harbor hope since. I left the Deity of Beauty’s academy to investigate what happened to my homeland.” Firework looked fearful. “I never expected her to wield such a strong ability. I barely escaped with my life many times...”
Zu An could imagine how dangerous the situation had been.
“I've tried verifying it many times over the years, but my final conclusion is that everyone in Dreamland is a puppet.” Firework had always been all smiles, but she couldn’t bring herself to smile at this moment.
“What do you intend to do? Aren’t you leaping straight into danger now?” Zu An asked.
“I planned to use the Dream Gathering to scout my father’s whereabouts. The staff members she conjured might be her clones, but not all of them are linked to her central consciousness. With my aura concealment artifacts, as long as I'm not spotted by the more important figures in Dreamland, she shouldn’t notice me,” Firework explained. “But I don’t have the power to exact vengeance alone, so I was intending to borrow the strength of the experts from the Myriad Worlds. But I didn’t expect the Dream Gathering to be held so soon. There was no time to convince the other guests of the truth, so I could only pretend to be captured by a sea monster to lure you all here, lest you be harmed by the Dream Gathering."
Zu An frowned. “What if I hadn’t taken the risk to save you?”
“You’d have died in vain if you were that heartless.” Firework scoffed. She hopped over and grabbed Zu An’s arm. “I knew I didn’t judge you wrongly. You're a true friend. The same goes for big sister Tingxue, too. She might appear cold on the surface, but she still willingly came all the way here to save me.”
Isabella felt stifled, especially when she saw Firework grabbing Zu An’s arm. It feels as if I've been toyed with.
“Unfortunately, Tingxue went missing. I don’t know how she’s faring now.” Zu An was worried.
“That woman was intimidated by big sister Tingxue’s strength, so I had to separate big sister Tingxue from the rest of the group. Don’t worry. Considering her strength, big sister Tingxue has to be safe. It’s only a matter of time before she breaks free,” Firework consoled him.
Zu An was relieved to hear that Tingxue was safe. “So, what will happen at the Dream Gathering? Why will all the attendees die?”
Firework sighed. “We, the Dream Clan, have the unique ability of dreamweaving. We can weave beautiful dreams that our guests relish. Many people refuse to wake up from them of their own volition. Since that demoness took control of Dreamland, she's been exploiting this opportunity to devour our guests’ souls, causing our guests to die amid their dreams.”