Chapter 033: Nightmare Grudge-Mother! This Can Trigger a New Skill Too?

If a major crisis were to arise, well... cowardice is simply not an option. When the soldiers come, you block them; when the water rises, you build a dam!

He only had one life, and he was determined it would not be the one to end.

So, even if a terrifying spectral entity were truly born and came to snatch him away, he would exhaust every possible means to blow it to pieces.

With this thought in mind, Xu Ran composed himself and followed his mother to the teaching activity center.

Inside the venue, the sounds of weeping were everywhere.

The six-year-old super-geniuses were like startled rabbits, huddled in their mothers' arms, burying their heads deep, their shoulders shaking violently. The little ones were wailing so hard their voices had gone hoarse; some were even gasping for air, yet they couldn't stop the crying.

Watching their heartbreaking, pitiful state, Xu Ran felt a pang of sympathy.

These little ones had soft skin, chubby cheeks, and round hands and short legs that looked like sections of plump lotus roots—truly cute and endearing.

To grind progress for the [Juvenile Supreme] title, Xu Ran had played with them for a whole month.

Although he had only gained progress once, a genuine bond had formed.

He hadn't expected them to encounter such a nightmare now, crying to the point of oxygen deprivation.

"Sigh..."

Xu Ran wanted to comfort them, but for a moment, he didn't know what to do.

"Even if I utilized [Terror Whisper] at full power, I wouldn't achieve this effect. I fear it would take a third-sequence ability like [Fear Domain] to do this."

"A monster that can cause a city-wide nightmare... this is no small fry!"

Xu Ran scanned the room.

The principal, Li Qinghong, the other two mentors, and the guards were all among the children, trying to soothe them.

They were rushing around, but their efforts were yielding little result.

Seeing his mother and Xu Ran, Tiger Mom and Yuheng Mom walked over. "It seems Xiao Ran didn't have that terrifying nightmare either."

Lin Qian looked relieved. "Yes, Xiao Ran didn't have any nightmares."

"Out of all the children in the kindergarten, only these three were lucky. Many of my friends' children had the exact same nightmare."

Yuheng Mom added, "My friends' children had this nightmare just now, too. Sigh... what on earth is going on?"

Xu Ran remained silent.

In truth, he was a bit confused himself.

He knew that children all over Jing City had experienced a nightmare, but he didn't know what kind of nightmare it was. The descriptions from his mother and the other mothers were imprecise and lacked substance.

Xu Ran asked, "Did some kind of monster appear in the children's dreams?"

Tiger Mom nodded. "...Yes."

Xu Ran pressed, "What kind of monster exactly?"

Yuheng Mom replied, "How should I put it? It's hard to describe. Feng Yan is currently drawing the monster from the nightmare. You can go take a look. He usually likes to draw, and the result is very intuitive. But it makes people uncomfortable just looking at it."

Xu Ran was curious. "I see. I'll go take a look."

His mother grabbed him. "Don't go, son; don't let it scare you."

Xu Ran smiled. "It won't, Mom. If I see what kind of monster it is, I'll be prepared. If I dream of it next time, I won't be frightened."

His mother replied, "...That makes so much sense, I can't even argue with it."

"I'll go with you. I want to see, too."

His mother gripped Xu Ran's hand tightly. She was terrified of ghosts and spirits, but at this moment, she summoned all her courage. If her son were to be frightened, she would have to stay calm and soothe him.

With that thought, the two arrived behind Feng Yan.

Feng Yan, six years old, possessed a shield-type talent and stood at 1.2 meters—twenty centimeters shorter than the five-year-old Xu Ran and ten centimeters shorter than Tiger Girl.

At this moment, Feng Yan’s face was deathly pale, and his forehead was slick with sweat. It was clear the nightmare had broken him into a cold sweat.

However, to provide clues to the principal, he sat on the ground, gritting his teeth, trembling as he traced the drawing with meticulous, earnest focus.

His mother looked on with pity. "What a strong child..."

Xu Ran was also surprised by Feng Yan's willpower. "A real man. He took two punches from me before without a peep. Now, after having a nightmare, while the other brats are all wailing, he can still suppress his inner fear and bury himself in drawing the image of the nightmare to provide clues to the principal..."

Xu Ran nodded in admiration, his gaze falling on Feng Yan's watercolor painting.

It was a sea cucumber-like monster with a bloated body, resembling a bizarre, inflated balloon. Embedded in the head of the sea cucumber was the face of a cyan-skinned woman. Her eyes were wide, and her expression was full of deep resentment.

If it were just that, it wouldn't be enough to terrify all the children in the city.

The most horrifying part was that from the body of the sea cucumber-human monster, tens of thousands of violet-rose-colored umbilical cords were spreading out. They twisted and writhed like snakes and worms, and at the end of each cord, a corpse of an infant was clamped.

The infants had turned into zombies; their skin was indigo, their teeth sharp, their eyes blood-red, their tongues lolling out—they looked fierce and deranged.

The gaze of those cursed infants seemed to pierce through the paper, staring at Xu Ran as if they were about to leap out and devour him.

His mother turned her head away in fright, not daring to look.

Xu Ran was similarly awestruck. "Classmate Feng Yan, you've drawn this a bit too realistically."

Feng Yan took a deep breath, rubbed his pale face, and his eyes were filled with determination. "I am the only one here who experienced the nightmare and can still keep my head. I must draw every detail so the principal and the others can get more information!"

"This monster must want to harm more children. I must do everything in my power to stop it! To kill it! Even if my strength is small!"

Feng Yan trembled, his will exceptionally firm.

Xu Ran felt a sense of respect and leaned back. "So, this monster is hanging tens of thousands of zombie infants on its body, is that right?"

Feng Yan nodded. "Yes."

"In the nightmare, they blocked out the sky, dense and countless. A dark, oppressive mass, all wearing strange smiles, projecting horrific and eerie gazes! They stared at me fixedly, letting out shrill, sharp, weird laughter, as if they wanted to rip my soul out!"

"Oh, right, there was also a soul-stirring voice crying out shrilly—'My child, where are you? My child, where are you?'"

By the end, Feng Yan seemed to have been possessed by the memory, completely immersed in it, shaking violently while cold sweat poured down his face.

Xu Ran patted Feng Yan on the shoulder. "What's wrong? Wake up!"

Feng Yan snapped out of it, his back cold as if he had been stuffed with a block of ice. "Mm... this monster seems to have planted a mental anchor in us. If you think about it, you sink deeper into it!"

"But I can't stop thinking about it! It's too terrifying!"

"Ah? It's that strange?"

Xu Ran was startled and gently pressed his hand onto Feng Yan's shoulder.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind. The next second, he began to gather his mental energy, speaking softly to soothe Feng Yan, attempting to verify the flash of insight.

[You are attempting to soothe Feng Yan. You have triggered a new skill—Fear Dispelling (Advanced Sequence: Fear Dispelling—The Ignorant and Fearless—The Fear Eater—Unknown...)]

It worked!

He had indeed triggered a magical skill, and the properties were of as high a quality as the Feigned Death Trick.

[Fear Dispelling]: Given time, you can dispel fear from yourself and others, ignoring the source of the fear.

[The Ignorant and Fearless]: When you use this ability, you can temporarily turn yourself and the target into people without feelings of fear.

[The Fear Eater]: When you use this ability, you can turn yourself and the target into "Fear Eaters," capable of consuming the surrounding fear and its source to increase your strength.

After reading the magical skills of the three sequences, Xu Ran smiled in surprise.

When humans deal with the pollution of a "Resentment God," the biggest disadvantage is the inexplicable growth of fear. Often, they have to retreat halfway through.

Sometimes, the pollution worsens while they are working, leading to mental breakdown and death.

Xu Ran’s grandparents and his father had all sacrificed themselves directly or indirectly because of such pollution.

And now, he had a magical skill that was the natural counter to "Resentment God" pollution?

"Well, this magical skill is definitely going to have very extensive uses."

Xu Ran nodded with satisfaction. Having triggered the magical skill, the next steps would be much easier.

He just had to grind it! Simple, brutal, fast, and efficient!

And so, he "cast" Fear Dispelling, soothing Feng Yan over and over again.

At first, Feng Yan found Xu Ran a bit annoying—like chanting, rambling on—making his scalp tingle.

But after twenty times of soothing, Feng Yan was surprised to find that he had calmed down completely. The fear in his mind was being plucked away bit by bit... his control over his body slowly returned; he was no longer trembling or fearful, and the cold sweat stopped pouring out for no reason.

Feng Yan: "???!!!"

"Huh? I'm actually not afraid anymore? I'm actually not afraid! This... is this the effect of your soothing?"

Feng Yan turned his head abruptly, eyes wide, looking at Xu Ran with inquiry and doubt.

Not only could Xiao Ran teach him movement techniques, but he could also soothe the fear planted in his heart by a terrifying monster?

Was his innate talent really this omnipotent?

Feng Yan looked astonished. "Little Brother Xiao Ran, is it thanks to you? You... you..."

Xu Ran smiled faintly, offering no further explanation. "Are there any other details to mention about the source of the nightmare?"

Feng Yan thought deeply. "I don't think so... The nightmare was actually very short. That monster forced its way into my dream in a strange posture and rapidly zoomed in right before my eyes. The giant, cyan woman's face was extremely creepy, and tens of thousands of weird infants lunged at my face with strange laughter, and then I woke up."

"I think the other children must have had the same dream..."

"The strangest thing about this nightmare is that even after I wake up, I keep thinking about it, over and over, and keep getting startled."

Xu Ran narrowed his eyes. "Alright, I understand."

He had a slight guess—

The umbilical cords of the Nightmare Resentment Mother were linked to tens of thousands of weird infants; these infants were most likely the corpses of the children who had gone missing in the three "Guhuo Bird" incidents.

Every time a Guhuo Bird incident occurred, no bodies were found afterward, which meant the Guhuo Bird possessed some kind of sacrificial instinct, capable of offering children to the side of the Nightmare Resentment Mother.

In this light, the Nightmare Resentment Mother was a high-level spectral entity. It could project nightmares into the dreams of all the children in the city; there was a seventy percent chance it was a mental-type ability—with tens of thousands of heads, its mental power must be incredibly strong.

Xu Ran took a deep breath, his brows furrowed, his mind racing.

But the increasingly intense weeping in his ears made it impossible for him to find peace.

A few of the little ones had already fainted from crying.

Xu Ran thought, "No time to guess. I'll take the time to soothe the little ones! And grind some progress while I'm at it."

However, just as he was about to start one by one, Auntie Lu swept into the venue and landed in front of the principal.

"Brother Cheng, I am very sorry. Light-based spells cannot dispel the fear in the children's hearts. You need a mental-type practitioner who has mastered high-level soothing skills."

The principal said, "Then I will immediately go to the city to requisition one!"

Auntie Lu sighed. "Don't waste your effort. There are only ten mental-type practitioners in Jing City who have mastered high-level soothing skills, and they were all exhausted after just twenty minutes. They won't be able to make it here anytime soon."

"Every child under seven in the city is terrified and inconsolable, crying non-stop. Think about it: there are three hundred thousand children under seven in Jing City. Each practitioner would have to be responsible for thirty thousand! How could they possibly handle it?"

The principal's brows furrowed. "They're all exhausted? Sigh... what should I do about the children in my kindergarten? Several have already cried to the point of oxygen deprivation. What if... sigh!"

Although he was full of worry, the principal had no solution for the moment.

He couldn't just drag exhausted practitioners up to keep working, could he? That would be too cruel.

The principal was harried and distraught.

"By the way, Sister Lu, does the city's investigation team have any leads on the source of the nightmare?"

Auntie Lu shook her head. "Not yet. The children can't speak, so there's no way to investigate. The investigation team doesn't even know what the content of the nightmare is..."

The principal raised an eyebrow. "As for that, we have a genius child who is drawing the scenes of the nightmare. You can take a photo back; it can serve as a clue for the investigation team."

Auntie Lu was surprised. "The child who had the nightmare is drawing the source of the nightmare?"

"Yes."

"As expected of a super-genius!"

The principal looked proud. "That child, Feng Yan, is truly remarkable."

"However... what's more special is that there are three children in our kindergarten who were immune to this nightmare."

Auntie Lu was shocked. "Ah? Immune to the nightmare?"

The principal smiled faintly. "Yes, three children didn't have the nightmare. Look..."

He pointed to the exceptionally handsome Xu Ran, the white-haired and white-browed Zhu Yuheng, and the lively Jiang Liuli.

Auntie Lu raised an eyebrow. "Indeed, they weren't frightened by the nightmare... What is the reason for this? Children all over Jing City suffered from the nightmare; why are these three okay? I remember they are only five or six years old, right?"

The principal replied, "Zhu Yuheng is just over six, and Xu Ran and Jiang Liuli are five and a half."

Auntie Lu asked, "...This... this... what is the reason?"

The principal shook his head. "I have absolutely no idea. Forget it... let me take you to see the nightmare source Feng Yan drew!"

"Okay."

After walking a dozen steps, the principal and Auntie Lu reached Feng Yan.

"Hiss—is this the kind of eerie monster that broke into the dreams of all the children in the city?"

Auntie Lu's pupils shrank, and she felt a chill run down her spine. "Classmate Feng Yan, you've drawn this a bit too realistically!"

"This... this monster is also too disgusting! It makes people feel mentally uncomfortable just looking at it."

Auntie Lu looked indignant. "It has so many infant corpses on it? So the children who went missing in the three Guhuo Bird incidents and couldn't be found were all refined into infant zombies by it? This is tens of thousands of infants! Damn it! Damn it!"

The principal sighed. "Sigh... this thing, the Guhuo Bird, even if you wipe it out once, it can appear a second time. If the source isn't destroyed, I fear it will only get worse."

Auntie Lu agreed deeply. "What's even more terrifying is that the 'city-wide nightmare' only appeared in the dreams of children in Jing City, which means the source of the nightmare is hidden right here."

The principal said, "I know... The source of the nightmare is hidden in Jing City. A super-powered mental expert from the capital is already on their way and will arrive in a day."

"But right now, my children are still trapped in fear... If they keep crying like this, they will have a major accident! Crying to the point of oxygen deprivation will cause brain damage!"

The principal was heartbroken; he wished he could find the source of the nightmare immediately and kick it to bits!

Feng Yan: "..." He hesitated, wanting to speak, then turned to look at Xu Ran, as if asking if he could say something.

Xu Ran was about to respond.

Auntie Lu and the principal suddenly looked at Feng Yan in unison, both looking shocked. "Eh? What's going on with you? You just finished drawing the source of the nightmare; you should be even more terrified."

"But you're acting like nothing happened, as if all the fear in you has been dispelled?"

The principal looked as if he had grasped a life-saving straw. "What's going on? Is there some special method? Does it have any effect on the other children?"