He didn't know how much time had passed, but Zhang Xing Yu finally woke up.
“It feels like I had a very long dream... what was it, I can't remember...” Zhang Xing Yu mumbled.
“You're finally awake, human.” A voice came, startling Zhang Xing Yu.
“Who’s there?” Zhang Xing Yu looked around and found himself in a very small space, all four sides were blocked by curtains, only a square space of about 2x2 meters.
“Don't bother looking, I'm inside your body.” The voice came again, seemingly directly from his mind.
Zhang Xing Yu felt a sense of familiarity with this voice... He thought for a while and realized, “Nightmare Lord?”
“Correct, and also your master!” The Nightmare Lord's voice still had an inexplicable sense of pressure.
“Huh?”
……………………………………
After a long time, through conversation with the Nightmare Lord, Zhang Xing Yu finally understood the basic situation.
“In other words, you were weak when you were consuming me, you encountered something like a spacetime distortion, and when you were fighting the spacetime distortion, you were severely injured again. You had no choice but to rely on my soul to survive. We became a 'symbiotic entity'. Then, you wanted to regain your strength by consuming the dream power of other humans in the Nightmare World, but you didn't have the strength to open it yourself. So, you need me to open it?” Zhang Xing Yu asked.
“That's about it.”
“…………” Zhang Xing Yu was silent for a moment, then said, “In this situation, shouldn't you be calling me master?”
“Ah——foolish human, who are you talking to? It's the Nightmare Lord, the great Nightmare Lord. Watch your words! I am your master!” The Nightmare Lord said angrily.
“But, from what happened just now, it seems you can't do anything without me.”
“You would have been dead without me, foolish human. Thank the Nightmare Lord's mercy!”
“If I die, you die too.”
“Do you want to die?” The Nightmare Lord threatened.
“Do you want to die?” Zhang Xing Yu threatened back.
“Painful torment——” The Nightmare Lord screamed angrily.
“Ah ah ah——————It hurts so much————!”
Suddenly, Zhang Xing Yu felt a sharp pain from his brain... no, from the depths of his soul, and couldn't help but scream.
“Roar roar roar——————It hurts——————” The Nightmare Lord also screamed in pain.
……………………………………
“Stop stop stop————Let's stop this self-inflicted pain!”
“Agreed, this is pointless!”
Having suffered the same pain, Zhang Xing Yu and the Nightmare Lord reached a temporary ceasefire agreement. Zhang Xing Yu addressed him as “Nightmare Lord”, while the Nightmare Lord called Zhang Xing Yu “Kid”.
Well, this Nightmare Lord seems to have a high sense of self-esteem. To prevent pointless suffering, let's call him that for now. After all, they have more important things to do.
Neither of them were in good shape. The Nightmare Lord's physical body disappeared, and his soul almost dissipated. Although he had attached himself to Zhang Xing Yu's soul, his power was greatly diminished.
Right now, Zhang Xing Yu was in the real world as a spirit, and the worse part was that this world was depleted of spiritual energy. It was almost impossible to sustain this spirit body. Once it dissipated, they would only be left with their souls and both would soon die!
The easiest method was to quickly create a Nightmare Realm, and pull in "food", humans or other intelligent beings, into the Nightmare World (non-intelligent beings, like plants and animals, could also be used, but they provided very little food). The Nightmare Lord could feed on the various emotional changes of living beings, strengthening his power.
However, because the Nightmare Lord was attached to Zhang Xing Yu's soul, he could not use his Nightmare power right now.
“Because of my existence, you can quickly understand and use Nightmare power. The fastest way is to directly drag humans into the Nightmare power and torture them to death. The food made from endless pain is very delicious, a refined delicacy.” The Nightmare Lord said with nostalgia, as though he often did this.
“That's terrifying. By the way... are there any side effects for the humans dragged into the Nightmare Realm?” Zhang Xing Yu asked.
“Side effects?” The Nightmare Lord was stunned for a moment, then thought for a second, “Well... if they die too many times in the Nightmare Realm, their real selves will also die.”
“??”
“The Nightmare Realm is a very special space, like the border between the real world and the spirit world. It has very unique properties. If someone dies in the Nightmare Realm, depending on their death, their soul will be damaged to a certain degree. The more painful the death, the greater the damage, eventually causing irreparable damage to the soul... However, in this case, the quality of the 【food】we obtain will also be better.”
“Um... didn't you say you could obtain food from emotional changes, it doesn't necessarily have to be pain..." Zhang Xing Yu said nervously.
“Foolish, it's just the death of a few ants. Besides, this method is the fastest!”
“I’m back——”
At that moment, a clear female voice came from a distance.
“Who is that?” Zhang Xing Yu asked.
“Food number one.”
“Ah?”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………