To be honest, Shen Bai was long past being surprised by this sort of thing.

They were all enemies. As far as Shen Bai was concerned, it was perfectly normal for either side to use any means necessary to kill the other.

The surrounding Jia Division members were all collapsed on the ground, blood trickling from the corners of their mouths. Clearly, the damage they had sustained in the Dream Realm had translated into real-world injuries.

Liu Wufeng was checking on the surrounding members’ injuries when he heard a strange sound. He looked up and saw Shen Bai, holding Amber, rising from his cross-legged position.

"Are you all right?" Liu Wufeng immediately dropped what he was doing, took a few steps forward, and asked.

A short while ago, Liu Wufeng had sensed something was wrong and had hurried to check on the Jia Division members’ condition.

But before he could even take a few steps, the group of Jia Division members collapsed in unison, severely injured and unconscious.

Anxious, Liu Wufeng had hastily checked their injuries one by one.

He breathed a small sigh of relief after seeing that none of the injuries were life-threatening.

Then he saw Shen Bai, still in the same position, and hesitated, debating whether to pull him out of his dream.

This whole endeavor had been Liu Wufeng’s idea, an attempt to see if Shen Bai could give him a pleasant surprise.

Now, he was beginning to regret it.

Shen Bai wasn’t just his special recruit; his potential was immense. He didn’t want Shen Bai to die in the Nightmare’s dream.

So, after his hesitation, Liu Wufeng had finished checking the members on the ground and was about to pull Shen Bai out of the Dream Realm.

To his surprise, however, Shen Bai woke up on his own before he could make a move.

Shen Bai stroked his chin. "A dream within a dream. Pretty absurd. It seems our enemies wanted to use a Nightmare to take my life."

Shen Bai calmly recounted everything that had happened in the Dream Realm.

The more Liu Wufeng listened, the deeper his frown became.

When Shen Bai finally finished his account, Liu Wufeng mulled it over for a moment and said, "It seems Landlord Long must be put under surveillance."

This was the only way; otherwise, the situation could escalate.

Shen Bai nodded. "Actually, thinking it over, I see what they’re up to. Their plan was probably to control Landlord Long through the Dream Realm and then use her to kill me."

At first, the clues were extremely faint, shrouded in a fog of uncertainty.

But after today’s incident, Shen Bai pieced all the information together and arrived at this conclusion.

First, a Nightmare’s function is to influence a person’s mind through the Dream Realm.

Second, during the whole process, Shen Bai realized they were controlling Observatory personnel in the dream and making them attack him.

Taking that a step further, it was entirely possible for them to substitute Long Yan for this group of Jia Division members.

And so, Shen Bai synthesized all these points to reach his conclusion.

Liu Wufeng was in charge of the entire Observatory, so he naturally understood the implications.

"You need to be extremely careful for the time being. Since things have gone this far, we must bring Landlord Long back and keep her under strict watch. We can’t let her go until we’ve found clues about these people and eliminated them."

For now, this was the most ideal solution.

After all, Long Yan was the only lead they had right now.

Shen Bai nodded in agreement with Liu Wufeng’s plan.

Long Yan was a key connection. Now that this connection had been found, the plans of the Wild Taoist Sect and the Wild Buddha Sect would likely be put on hold. After all, they were almost certainly planning on using her to assassinate him.

Once the hand they meant to use to kill him was restrained, the rest of their plan would naturally be moot.

And this time, with members of the Wild Taoist Sect having infiltrated Fenglin State to kill him, they would surely look for other methods now that their primary one was gone.

No matter how well someone hides, the more they act, the more traces they leave behind.

Once enough of those traces accumulated, the enemy would be completely exposed.

Then, Shen Bai could follow those threads of clues and finally find the mastermind’s lair.

"Elder Mu." Liu Wufeng turned his head toward the resource room and spoke softly. "I need you to go in person for this. Don’t harm Long Yan. She is currently under the influence of the Nightmare."

Elder Mu stepped out of the resource room and into the courtyard, a longsword in hand.

The corner of Elder Mu’s mouth twitched as he looked at the unconscious members on the ground. "You punk. Have you already reached the point where you can take on an entire group alone?"

A single person in the Five Organ Realm taking on a group from the Meridian Realm.

This was a completely different situation from when Shen Bai fought the Sect Leader.

Against this many Meridian Realm members, the Sect Leader probably wouldn’t have lasted a single breath, yet Shen Bai had defeated them all.

Elder Mu even began to think, ’Give this kid a little more time, and he might be able to take me down too.’

Shen Bai spread his hands helplessly. "What could I do? They all attacked me. If I didn’t fight back, I’d be a goner. I could only bring myself to retaliate."

"It was really difficult, though. It actually used up half of my Qi."

A dark expression crossed Elder Mu’s face. For a moment, he considered hitting Shen Bai with his sword before going to find Long Yan.

After all, the utter nonsense the kid had just spouted was infuriating to listen to.

’Overcoming Adversity and Attacking Upward against a whole group of cultivators, and at the Meridian Realm—a major watershed in one’s training—no less! And he dares to claim it only used half his Qi? That’s just absurd.’

Liu Wufeng cleared his throat, interrupting Elder Mu’s thoughts.

"Elder Mu, bringing Long Yan here is the priority."

Elder Mu nodded. Saying nothing more, he raised his longsword and prepared to depart.

Just then, however, the sound of frantic footsteps suddenly echoed.

An Observatory member ran into the courtyard from outside, covered in bloody wounds.

Upon seeing Liu Wufeng and the others, he immediately shouted.

"Lord Liu, it’s terrible! Landlord Long suddenly lost control and attacked us! She has already left her residence and fled north!"