Chapter Eighty-Nine: Dream
In the pitch-black tunnel of spacetime, that familiar sensation of the world spinning head over heels came rushing back once more.
“So this is truly a nostalgic feeling...”
Clenching his teeth, Yue Longze endured the dizziness brought on by the crossing of time and space, but within this naturally formed wormhole, the vertigo was far more intense than when Sailo had once carried him through the rifts himself.
...
It was a desert, the sky hanging low and sullen, as though foretelling some ominous calamity.
Still in his transformed state, Yue Longze walked through the barren wastes. Beneath his feet lay fine, slippery grit, and in the distance stretched a boundless frontier.
“Where... is this?”
He could not make sense of how he had been carried to such a strange place.
Should he not have returned to the oasis on that planet where he had fought his final battle against the Third Generation of the Giri-Elodians in the Land of Light?
This seemed like a desolate world, exhaling desolation at every turn, utterly devoid of life.
There was nothing here but the grit beneath his feet and the fierce, biting wind.
Yue Longze did not panic. So long as he was not on that special planet called Earth, there would be no three-minute limit.
As long as his stamina and energy held, he could remain transformed indefinitely.
Sailo had once told him as much.
Thus Yue Longze remained confident. A mere desert planet was nothing that could trouble him now.
Yet he did not know how long he had walked before the milky-white eyes were blurred by the ceaseless sand and wind, and even the timer on his chest had begun to glow faintly red. Behind him trailed a line of footprints with no visible beginning.
At last, Yue Longze could endure no more and collapsed.
“Where on earth is this... How could I die in such an absurd place?”
Lying helplessly upon the sandy wasteland, he murmured weakly. This planet was terrifying; whether flying or walking, there seemed to be no end at all, and no matter what he did, he could not leave this desert.
By now, the timer on his chest had begun to beep and chirp, sounding strangely out of place amid the howling wind.
Yue Longze lay powerless on the wasteland and allowed the frenzied sandstorm to slowly bury him.
He was too exhausted, as though he had walked for a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years... a whole lifetime.
...
“Great, we’re about to find the last one!”
Through the haze, Yue Longze seemed to hear a familiar, excited voice ring beside his ear, but his mind no longer had the strength to wonder who it belonged to.
“Hm? This is... Long!”
“You are...”
Yue Longze opened his weary eyes and looked at the figure before him.
“Sailo... so... great.”
Seeing the familiar Sailo before him, hope finally rose in Yue Longze’s despairing heart.
A current infused with the light of hope slowly poured into his energy timer, and he felt strength gradually return to his body.
His form was recovering bit by bit.
...
“Where exactly is this! Sailo!”
Having recovered somewhat, Yue Longze stood up and asked in confusion.
“This place is... the Land of Light!”
“What!”
Yue Longze was stunned, a faint change passing through his milky-white eyes.
“After you went missing all those years ago, the Land of Light was destroyed not long after, and a curse was laid upon it!”
Sailo explained at once. Yue Longze could see the deep weariness in Sailo’s eyes; there was not the slightest trace of his former arrogance.
The once irrepressible Sailo seemed as though he would never return.
“I sensed an abnormal energy reaction here before and thought it might be the last Dragon Ball of the Four Stars! I never expected it to be you, missing for all these years!”
Sailo seemed unwilling to linger on the subject and deftly changed the topic.
“What did you say? Dragon Ball of the Four Stars? The Dragon Balls?”
Yue Longze suddenly felt his brain was not functioning properly. In the world of the Ultras, how could there be the seven Dragon Balls from the Dragon Ball world?
“Didn’t expect you to know about the Dragon Balls too. Legends say that if one gathers all seven mysterious Dragon Balls, any wish can be granted!”
At this, a barely perceptible glimmer of hope flashed in Sailo’s eyes. “I must gather all seven Dragon Balls and bring the Land of Light back to life!”
As he spoke, ignoring Yue Longze, who stood nearly petrified on the spot, Sailo’s hand flashed with light, and six golden Dragon Balls actually appeared in his grasp!
“This...”
Yue Longze was already utterly dazed. This far exceeded anything he could have imagined.
Suddenly, the Dragon Ball in Sailo’s hand cracked open, and torrents of water gushed forth from within, battering Yue Longze’s face again and again.
“Stop spraying! Stop spraying! Sailo, hurry and take this strange Dragon Ball away!”
Yue Longze flailed both hands to ward off the violently surging water, howling all the while.
...
The sky was blue, the grass lush and green, and a clear stream flowed gently by. Birds sang, horses ran.
As far as the eye could see was a sweep of verdure, cool and refreshing to behold.
Yue Longze, still in his transformed state, lay upon the emerald grass, limbs flailing nonstop, shouting over and over, “Stop spraying! Stop spraying! Sailo, hurry and take this strange Dragon Ball away!”
The energy timer on his chest shone with a strong, full blue radiance, yet his milky-white eyes were dim and lifeless.
Yue Longze was clearly dreaming! He was still talking in his sleep!
Still “struggling” there, his limbs swung more and more wildly.
His consciousness slowly stirred, awakening bit by bit, and his dull eyes suddenly brightened.
Only then did Yue Longze see a robust stallion standing broadside above him on powerful limbs, repeatedly... urinating all over his face!
“Damn it!”
Now fully awake, Yue Longze rolled away and sprang to his feet at once, narrowly escaping the stallion’s uncanny rain-making skill.
The animals here were proportioned to his giant transformed body, just like the bodily proportions between humans and animals on Earth.
This place was like a gigantic Earth.
A little annoyed, Yue Longze wiped the disgusting horse urine from his face, shook his head hard, and quickly walked to the nearby stream to wash his face.
It was his first time washing his face while transformed, and the whole thing felt oddly peculiar.
“This place is...”
Standing up, Yue Longze looked around and felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity. Then it struck him: this was precisely the oasis on that desert planet where he and the Third Generation of the Giri-Elodians had fought their final battle in the Land of Light!
“So before... it was just a dream?”
Yue Longze gave a wry smile. It seemed that during this time-space crossing, he had once again fainted and lost consciousness.
Then he stared blankly at the animals nearby. Oh no—just now that horse had not been cute at all.
After standing silently in place for a long while, Yue Longze finally confirmed that it had truly been nothing more than a dream.
A terrifying and bizarre dream.
However, the space here was extremely unstable, and with no heart to appreciate the scenery, Yue Longze, now fully collected, only wanted to leave this troublesome place as quickly as possible, lest he be swept once more into another space-time chaos.