Chương 544: Chapter 539: Dream Gates

This wasn't the first time I was introduced to the idea of there being other world walkers. Ke Jun had already mentioned it to me in the past. But this was the first time that I saw a method of world walking that didn't involve the World Tree Sutra. What was even more shocking was how widespread this method was in this world. Dream cultivators like Moon could casually open portals to inner worlds of Civilisation Realm experts. That was no small feat.

The World Tree Sutra let me manifest in other realms while maintaining my connection to my inner world. The question going through my mind was: what could dream walking do that my technique couldn't?

"Teach?" I asked Moon, gesturing toward the portals. The massive panda nodded then closed her eyes. The dream qi surrounding her shifted in a way I hadn't seen before. It lost the quality that let me identify it as pure dream qi and began to take on characteristics that I recognised from my memories of the Mortal Martial World. When Moon opened her eyes again, a visible aura surrounded her form.

I recognised it immediately; it was an ability that I had mastered – Martial Aura – the signature ability of those who had reached the Heartsteel Realm and beyond. My eyes narrowed as I focused on the aura. I wanted to know how she was generating the effect.

From the limited analysis I could do without Azure's help and access to my qi cultivation, I could tell that she was channeling the dream qi in specific patterns through her spiritual channels to effectively mimic the circulation methods martial cultivators used. The end result was a structure that was almost identical even though the energy source was completely different.

That shocked me because internal force could be refined through physical discipline and combat in the Mortal Martial World but here Moon was simply reshaping dream qi to produce the same result. The implications of that made my head spin.

"Learn," Moon said simply, letting the martial aura fade.

"Dream. Return. Use." She made it sound so simple and I guess for dream cultivators, it really was. All they needed to do was travel to an inner world, learn a technique, then they'd be able to use it back in the Dream World. The only difference being that the technique would be powered by dream qi instead of their original energy sources. That made me think about my experience in those three realms.

In the Realm of Living Lyrics, I had cultivated harmonic essence to progress through the Ten Scales system, but it didn't matter what techniques I learned or what progress I made, I wasn't able to take that back with me to the Cultivation World. To get around that, Azure had spent hours analyzing the principles and understanding how harmonic essence functioned so that he could translate everything into a qi-compatible or two sun compatible version that I could use.

That was how he had developed the Lung Resonator, it channeled blue sun energy to replicate the techniques learned in the Realm of Living Lyrics. That was the same process for the other two realms. Everything needed translation, adaptation, and countless hours of experimentation before I could safely use them in the Cultivation World. And now I was finding out that dream qi apparently didn't have that limitation.

If Moon could replicate Martial Aura without ever studying martial cultivation theory, just by visiting that dream world and observing the techniques, then dream qi was far more flexible and powerful than I'd realized. This raised a lot of questions. Was this true for all energy types? Could dream qi imitate higher forms of energy like red sun energy, blue sun energy, or even pure qi itself? If so, that would make dream qi the most powerful energy system I'd encountered.

A cultivator who mastered dream manipulation could theoretically use any technique from any realm. The only thing limiting them would be their skill in shapeshifting their spiritual energy. But that couldn't be right. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. If dream qi was truly that overpowered, the Dream World wouldn't be under the control of a sect like Azure Peak.

It would be the most contested resource in existence, fought over by experts beyond Civilisation Realm. The fact that it existed as a relatively stable tournament ground suggested there were significant limitations I wasn't seeing yet. So, the most like explanation was that dream qi could only mimic lower-form energies like harmonic essence, martial qi, or Xuan Yi. The higher authorities like red sun energy, blue sun energy, and especially pure qi probably couldn't be replicated through dream manipulation.

Even if that was the case, the potential of dream qi was staggering. It could completely change my cultivation if I could master it at a high enough level. I'd no longer need Azure to create a working version of the technique; I could just replicate the real thing myself. The time saved alone would be incredible, and the effect it would have on my combat style would be game changing.

Moon must have realised that I was losing myself to my thoughts because she made a low rumbling sound to bring my attention back to the lesson.

"Danger," she said, concerned that I was getting ahead of myself.

"Spirit. Hurt. Stay." I knew that she was warning me, but I didn't understand exactly what the worry was. Noticing the frown on my face, Moon reached out with her dream qi, and I felt her attempting to communicate a more complex concept directly through spiritual resonance. Images appeared before me. I wasn't too sure if they were real memories or just scenes conjured by Moon to get her point across. At the end of the day, it didn't matter, all that mattered was that it contained an important lesson.

A dream cultivator entering one of these worlds as a pure spirit, without any physical vessel or dream cultivation backing them up. The spirit searching, learning techniques, growing confident. Then an encounter with something hostile, a denizen of that realm who didn't appreciate visitors. Battle, defeat, and spiritual wounds that tore through the cultivator's essence like claws through silk. The cultivator waking back in their body, physically unharmed but spiritually crippled.

The damage to their spirit persisting even after leaving the dream world, requiring months or years of careful recovery before they could cultivate properly again.

"Prepare," Moon added.

"Long. Careful." I nodded slowly, understanding now. Dream walking wasn't the same as the World Tree Sutra's approach to world walking. The former required cultivators to spend months, maybe even years, to prepare for each expedition. They had to make sure their spiritual foundations were as stable as possible before risking the journey. And even when they did finally enter, they didn't have access to their dream cultivation techniques nor could they immediately possess vessels.

This left them vulnerable in the beginning of every trip. Learning that made me more grateful for the World Tree Sutra. At least when I world walked, I kept full access to my inner world and all my techniques. And more importantly, I could immediately possess a vessel in the target realm, interact normally, and defend myself if needed. Though considering that dream walking was a common method in this world, it made sense why it wasn't as comprehensive as the World Tree Sutra.

If everyone could casually travel between realms with full access to their powers, the entire cultivation landscape would be completely different. The other inner worlds would be conquered by dream cultivators so there had to be meaningful restrictions to maintain any kind of balance, that was the way of the Heavens. As for the danger Moon was warning me about, I actually didn't need to worry. At least not right now. The main reason being that I was only present in the Dream World as a wisp of spiritual essence.

If anything happened to the fragment, it wouldn't affect my actual soul or physical body back in the arena at Azure Peak Sect. The worst case scenario that I could think of was losing the tournament. That was nothing compared to permanent spiritual damage no matter what arrogant young masters might believe. The other reason I didn't need to worry was because Elder Wan had explicitly stated that Wu Kangming and I couldn't be killed in this realm except by each other.

I had experienced this for myself already so I knew it was true. The Dream World's natural defenses would protect us from environmental hazards, native entities, and presumably dangers associated with dream walking as well. Which meant this was actually the perfect opportunity to visit those three realms again and collect their techniques without the usual risks.

"Gate?" I asked Moon, gesturing at the portals.

"Enter?" Moon shook her massive head.

"Make. Self." She closed the three Dream Gates with a casual wave then she tapped her chest with one enormous paw, right over where her spiritual core would be located.

"Inside," she explained.

"Gate. Dream. Walk." I understood what she was saying. Gates created by dream cultivators couldn't be used by others. Every dream cultivator to form a Dream Gate within themselves first, then enter those personal portals through a dream walking technique. The gates weren't physical structures that anyone could walk through. That made sense from a cultivation theory perspective. If anyone could use any Dream Gate, there would be no way to control access to dangerous or valuable dream worlds.

By requiring each cultivator to form their own internal gates, the system ensured a basic level of mastery before allowing travel.

"Teach?" I asked again.

"Make gate?"

"Palace," Moon said, holding up one digit.

"First." She raised a second digit.

"Live." Then a third.

"Gate." Ah, so there were two prerequisites that I needed to meet before I could create a Dream Gate. The first thing I needed to be able to do was create permanent dream palaces and cities. Moon didn't explain why but I guess it made sense. If I was able to create permanent structures, then the Dream Gate that forms within myself would also be permanent whether it was open or closed. The second requirement was for my constructs to gain semi-sentience.

This meant that they had to continue existing and functioning even when I wasn't directly observing them, developing a kind of independent awareness. Only after mastering those two foundations could I successfully create a Dream Gate and begin dream walking between worlds.

"Do you have more worlds?" I asked, curious. Moon shook her head. That was unfortunate. If she had access to more inner worlds then it would have answered the questions that were running through my mind. Was it a coincidence that all three worlds that she had access to were inner worlds that I knew the Azure Peak Sect possessed as treasures? Did dream cultivators naturally form gates to inner worlds that existed in their physical vicinity, which in this case would be the sect's inner world collection?

Or was there some other selection mechanism at work? I shook my head to clear my thoughts. This wasn't the time to think. Right now, I needed to focus on training and opening my own Dream Gate.