Setting aside how Cheng Shi was tearing his hair out in That Dream My Nightmare's labyrinth — Shadow Cheng Shi was having quite the fantastical adventure.
He'd fallen into a space he'd never seen — one that would have been unimaginable even before seeing it.
It was like a cavern — a bizarre space carpeted with crystals!
Enormous crystalline formations protruded from every corner of the cave — so long, so short, so brilliant, so dim. Even the ceiling and the ground were crystal, though in darker shades that, at a glance, could pass for rough black stone.
The place was self-luminous. Every cluster of crystals refracted shimring light. But what glimred across their surfaces wasn't rely physical radiance — it was also the faintest breath of [mory].
Upon closer inspection, every crystal face — bright or dark — showed fleeting dream-like visions, like a revolving lantern. But they weren't the mories of any single individual.
Cheng Shi was thunderstruck. He stood rooted, scanning everything around him. Before long, he realized that compared to [mory]'s Collection Hall, this place was the true "hall" of mories!
Because every inch of ground here erupted with mory. The cavern was like a misprinted history book, recording a jumbled past that stretched from the Land of Hope to the real world.
Only these fragnts were chaotic, trivial, and dull. According to the elite [mory] followers, this sort of thing wasn't worth rembering at all.
Within minutes, Cheng Shi had witnessed 12 fistfights, 37 affairs, 44 betrayals... and far more countless mundane monts of ordinary life — so so bland that they left zero impression even after viewing.
Exactly like the knowledge a teacher scrawled on a blackboard at school — seen and imdiately forgotten.
He couldn't help but reflect: this was true history. What the world rembered as epic heroic history was rely spray kicked up by the vast sea of mory — visible only because the droplets had left the surface.
Yet what people always overlooked was that spray was the most insignificant part of the ocean. It was the intertwined lives of countless ordinary people that ford the so-called past of the world, gathering into this sea called mory.
Cheng Shi sank into the "world's past" and couldn't pull free. Before long, a violent wave of dizziness slamd him to his knees, retching.
His consciousness blurred. His cognition wavered. His emotions detached. When his mory beca contaminated with too much foreign clutter and trivia, he began to grow confused.
No — "confused" wasn't quite right. "Stupefied" was closer. He froze. The retching motion locked in place. His entire being beca dull and sluggish.
His human reason was slowly dissolving. His emotional core as a living being was evaporating thread by thread. His body began to change — crystallizing. Even though this Cheng Shi was only a shadow, crystalline veins crept across the pitch-black skin.
The real Cheng Shi suffered the sa fate.
He collapsed at the labyrinth's starting point, his face covered in crystal scales. The crystallization was rapid — in an instant, his eyes, nose, and ears simultaneously turned to crystal.
But just as the crystals were about to consu his mouth, those lips sohow resisted the invasion and moved on their own, unleashing a soul-piercing roar:
"Who are you?!"
The sudden shout shattered the silence of both spaces — like a thunderclap exploding inside Cheng Shi's consciousness, jolting him out of his dazed stupor.
His body seized. Terror flooded through him. Mustering every last shred of strength, he crushed the smoke capsule in his sleeve, rging with the mist to wrench free of the crystallized state.
On the other side, once the real body was liberated, Shadow Cheng Shi clenched both fists and flexed every muscle, shattering the crystalline shell covering him entirely — reclaiming himself.
"Phew—"
The smoke hadn't yet dispersed, but Cheng Shi erged from the mist and collapsed on the ground, spent.
Shaken by his survival after disaster, he looked up at the labyrinth walls and said, still trembling:
"I am Cheng Shi...
I am... Cheng Shi!
Thank you, Brother Mouth.
If not for you, I'd have fallen straight into [mory]'s trap."
The Fool's Lips didn't acknowledge the sincere gratitude. Instead, they sneered sarcastically:
"Weren't you enjoying all that gossip? Why'd you stop watching?"
"..."
'Not anymore. Definitely not anymore.'
Cheng Shi's expression froze. He laughed dryly: "Nothing worth watching. Gets old after a while..."
"Oh, now you realize you watched too much? Where was your caution earlier?
And don't think I was saving you. I was saving myself."
Tch.
'A sharp tongue with a tofu heart, through and through.'
Cheng Shi knew exactly whom Brother Mouth had really been saving. But caught "in the wrong" and just rescued to boot, he wasn't in a position to argue.
So he smiled apologetically and seized the chance to ask:
"Brother Mouth, you're finally talking to ! So — where is that place?"
"What — been hanging around [Folly] followers so long you've gone stupid yourself?
You saw it with your own eyes and still can't figure it out?
Everyone says [mory] always plucks the finest pearls from the Sea of mory and stores them in His Collection Hall.
But have you ever wondered — where do the mories that [mory] didn't select as collection pieces end up?"
"!!!"
Of course Cheng Shi had wondered — he'd even thought of it the instant he entered that space. He'd only asked Brother Mouth for confirmation. And now the theory was verified!
This was the dumping ground for "rejected" mories.
In other words — this was the world's mory Junkyard!
That's why the mories here were so vast, dull, and ordinary — utterly lacking interest. They were the pasts that mortals — no, even gods — deed unremarkable.
But unremarkable didn't an harmless. There were simply too many crystals in this cavern, too many accumulated mories. When the sheer volu exceeded the capacity of an individual consciousness, any "remberer" who stumbled in would be drowned by the deluge — becoming just another heap of "junk" in this mory cavern.
Cheng Shi had already tasted that terror. So now, he did his absolute best to avoid looking at the visions flickering across the crystals. Unfortunately, every surface in this space was crystallized mory. Left with no choice, he pushed deeper through the limited open paths, hoping to distract himself with navigation.
He asked as he walked: "Brother Mouth, where does this lead?"
The Fool's Lips fell silent.
Undeterred, he tried again: "Brother Mouth, did the Fun God throw
in here specifically so I'd find this place?"
The Fool's Lips still wouldn't speak.
Cheng Shi had finally found a "conversation partner" and wasn't about to let it go quiet again. Eyes rolling, he tried another question:
"Brother Mouth — you say even [mory] scorns the mories here. Doesn't that an these are the rejects left over from what He curates for that Existence?
So if I stand here and repeatedly chant that Being's honored na — drawing down His gaze — wouldn't that be like offering [mory]'s rejects to Him?
If that happens, whether or not the blasphemy brings down His wrath, wouldn't [mory] lose any chance of ever approaching Him again?
And maybe we'd even recruit a new mber for the Fear Faction!
Though... this plan might be a bit costly in terms of people. Brother Mouth, do you think the Fun God could keep
alive?
You'd definitely give it your all, right? After all — saving
is saving yourself."
Before he even finished, the Fool's Lips hijacked Cheng Shi's speech, gnashing their teeth:
"You nace — have so decency!"
"?"
Cheng Shi's steps faltered. He suddenly realized that not only had Brother Mouth gained a "dad" — Li Jingming seed to have acquired one too.
...
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