A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 412 Dreams and Reality

Inside the cold laboratory, Jiang Shuzhou watched the scene on the other side through the glass.

One by one, the orcs lay down on specially made beds and drifted off to sleep.

Under the influence of Jiang Shuzhou's magic, they were trapped in a middle-level dream.

Theoretically, there is no danger, but that will always remain just theory.

"Bang!"

With a loud bang, an orc's head exploded like a blooming flower.

Jiang Shuzhou carefully observed the dreams of these beastmen using the instruments he had created.

It was a massive war, seemingly a glorious past.

As time went by, more and more orc brains exploded, but Jiang Shuzhou had no intention of stopping the experiment.

Their deaths were worthwhile.

With the death of the orcs, Jiang Shuzhou could sense a mysterious and profound power quietly emerging.

That is the power of dreams, illusory and ethereal, seemingly impossible to capture.

Then the power of dreams began to spread, like an invasion of reality.

"Activate protection."

At Jiang Shuzhou's command, countless magic arrays lit up, working in conjunction with Jiang Shuzhou's own power of law to block the power of the dream, preventing it from crossing the isolation zone even slightly.

Immediately afterwards, the power of dreams filled the entire quarantine zone. Gradually, the interior of the quarantine zone began to become illusory, and then Jiang Shuzhou saw war.

Ding ding ding.

Countless arrows rained down, and the orcs' battle cries rang out as cavalry closed in, attempting to breach the defenses.

"Where is this place?"

An orc general looked puzzled. He seemed to recognize the place, but he shouldn't have been here before.

"This is reality, and you are already dead."

Jiang Shuzhou said.

"You're talking nonsense! I'm perfectly fine! Besides, everyone knows this is reality!"

The orc general said.

"Really? There weren't any green-blooded orcs during the War of the Gods. Look at the color of your own blood!"

As he watched the green blood drip slowly from the orc general's body, Jiang Shuzhou said.

Unfortunately, the orcs didn't believe it.

But it doesn't matter, Jiang Shuzhou doesn't need him to believe it.

"Drop the jade in your hand, and you can leave."

Jiang Shuzhou gave the order.

"What the hell?"

The orc tried to resist, but was then manipulated by an unknown force, which threw down a piece of jade and then left.

After he left, the quarantine zone began to change slowly, and the erosion intensified.

However, Jiang Shuzhou used the laws of order to stabilize the situation and prevent the dream from continuing to invade.

Soon, the power of the dream dissipated.

Then, all the orcs vanished, as if they had never existed.

And on the ground, there remained that piece of jade.

The safety of the middle-level dream realm is, in the sense of a legendary mage, or rather, entirely Freud's personal feeling.

As a legendary mage who studies dreams, she was naturally not afraid.

The more Jiang Shuzhou understood dreams, the more unfathomable they seemed. At the same time, he grew to admire Freud, who dared to delve into the depths of his own dreams.

Excessive curiosity and a strong desire for research are the causes of death for many monks.

All the information about Freud that remains in the world today consists of these two books.

As for other information, there is none.

It didn't seem like a person at all; it appeared suddenly and then disappeared just as suddenly.

If the book hadn't been told from a female perspective, Jiang Shuzhou wouldn't even have known whether Freud was male or female.

It is speculated that this may be the price she paid, entering the lower realms of dreams, where Freud may have died completely, and even his information may have been erased.

Freud's book contains numerous fallacies and some seemingly plausible inferences.

Overall, however, it is still trustworthy.

After undergoing numerous checks, Jiang Shuzhou confirmed that the power of the dream had completely vanished before opening the door to the isolation zone and picking up the jade.

This jade contains a lot of dream power, which theoretically can be used to improve one's mastery of the laws of dreams, making it a pretty good item.

After numerous experiments, Jiang Shuzhou discovered that things from dreams could be brought into reality without the need for dream essence. All that was needed was for the dream to invade reality, and then through some manipulation, one could obtain items containing the power of dreams.

Of course, this requires the dreamer to enter the realm between the intermediate and deep dream states, which is a peculiar area.

If one enters a dream a little deeper, one will fall into a deeper dream and will no longer be protected by one's own dream.

If it's even shallower, it will be completely ineffective and won't bring out anything.

Unlike Freud's reckless research, which involved personally venturing into the dream world, Jiang Shuzhou valued his life more and had no desire to get entangled with those unknown beings in the deepest layers of dreams.

Meanwhile, after some research, Jiang Shuzhou has invented a useful tool: a dream scale that can detect the stage of a dream.

The dream scale works on the same principle as a thermometer, using the reaction of its internal dream-detecting agent to determine the depth of a dream.

Jiang Shuzhou further subdivided the dream into ten scales, with each level divided into two scales, which can be considered as yet another refinement.

Few monks study these things; most other monks focus on reproducing things in dreams, usually studying the middle levels of dreams.

Apart from Freud, no sorcerer dared to touch the depths of dreams.

Obtaining the essence of dreams depends entirely on luck, since sometimes things from deep dreams will surface, reach the middle level, or even appear directly in reality.

In theory, everything in the dream world is made up of the power of dreams, a power that can create everything.

The more Jiang Shuzhou understood, the more he felt that his path to enlightenment must lie in the dream. At this moment, he wished he could directly enter the dream, then directly master the power of the dream and become an existence far surpassing the legendary.

Unfortunately, that's impossible. Given Jiang Shuzhou's current understanding of dreams, going in directly would be suicide, with no chance of survival.

The true way of research is to raise questions and then solve them.

Jiang Shuzhou is defining the specific direction of his research.

First, the experimental supplies were insufficient. Tens of thousands of orcs were originally brought in from other places, but only a few thousand were reimbursed for each experiment. Although the results were achieved, some supplies were still not enough.

As for the humans? Jiang Shuzhou also consumed a considerable amount.

But Jiang Shuzhou couldn't recklessly waste his own strength. After all, they were all his own people, and at worst, they could be sent to work as laborers.

These are just small experiments. Next, Jiang Shuzhou needs to conduct experiments on at least tens of thousands of people, and the costs will be even greater.

And there are so many people there?

Of course, it's the orcs from the North.

Jiang Shuzhou had recruited hundreds of thousands of orcs when he was short of manpower before, and now that he has the opportunity, he is not greedy and will first raise 100 million to use for expenses.