Chapter 44: Memory Fragments

Chapter 44: Fragments of Memory

Li Wei stood in snow up to his calves, staring grimly at the snow bear nightmare not far away.

The shattered arm of the snow bear nightmare slowly regenerated.

His mind stirred—a colossal fire serpent burst forth, lunging to devour the beast.

But the serpent passed straight through it like a mirage, unable to inflict even a scratch.

As expected—dream-born power could not harm a nightmare.

With a roar, the snow bear nightmare charged toward Li Wei, sending blizzards of snow swirling into the air with each thunderous step.

Before him, a small fireball rapidly swelled in size.

Whoosh!

It shot forward, blazing toward the creature.

The snow bear leapt, attempting to dodge—but landed right beside Li Wei.

Li Wei clenched his will and detonated the fireball instantly.

Boom!

The explosion, tripled in force, tore the airborne beast apart.

Only half its body remained as it crashed onto the ground.

Gray mist surged from the wound, and the nightmare’s form began to knit itself back together.

Li Wei’s expression darkened—the nightmare was drawing strength from the dream itself to heal.

If he couldn’t kill it outright, he would eventually be worn down and destroyed here.

If only he could cast fireballs in rapid succession, slaying the beast would be no challenge.

But that was impossible.

There had to be at least three seconds between each spell.

Three seconds—more than enough time for the nightmare to recover most of its wounds.

Ow-woarh!

Even before its body fully reformed, the snow bear launched itself at Li Wei again.

Its rear half spewed gray mist as it flew through the air like a phantom.

Li Wei steeled his heart.

“I have no choice but to use *that* technique!”

He turned and fled.

The nightmare swiftly closed the distance, its massive shadow plummeting from above.

Li Wei whirled around—his palm cradling a fireball swelling violently in size.

Self-Detonation Fireball!

Pouring every ounce of magic into it without restraint, the spell reached an astonishing fivefold intensity.

The cost? The spell spiraled out of control—

A thousand wounds dealt to the enemy meant a thousand suffered by himself.

Boom!

In the snowy night, a blazing inferno erupted, swallowing the last two figures amidst the storm.

Puff!

Li Wei was hurled backward, his invisible armor shattered, his body slamming face-first into the freezing snow.

At that moment, he felt the icy despair that Gu Ze had known on that fateful night.

Shivering, Li Wei struggled to rise and gazed toward where the snow bear had fallen.

A gray orb floated midair, struggling to gather the scattered mist around it.

Without hesitation, Li Wei raised his head and fired a small fireball.

Whoosh! Boom!

The orb exploded into nothingness.

The writhing mists across the ground finally fell still, dissolving gradually into the fabric of the dream.

“What is that?”

Where the orb had vanished, a single shimmering fragment now lay glowing on the ground.

He cast a fireball at it—this time, the flame passed straight through, vanishing into the distance.

Seeing no danger, he stepped forward cautiously.

The moment he drew near, the fragment shot into his body.

Li Wei froze.

It was Master Gu Ze’s memory shard.

A fragment from the Night of Nightmares.

In the vision—he saw Gu Ze’s parents devoured by the snow bear.

Himself clutching his little sister beneath the rubble of a collapsed house.

He didn’t know how long he lay unconscious.

When he awoke, he had already been rescued—his sister gone without a trace.

Young Gu Ze begged the traveling merchant who saved him to return, to search for her.

Unable to resist his pleas, the man brought him back to the ruins.

All hope lost, the boy’s heart held only vengeance.

He would kill that snow bear.

He would avenge his parents—and his sister.

Later, the merchant delivered Gu Ze to Mapleleaf City.

Gu Ze tested positive for ice-elemental affinity and became an apprentice mage at the Tower.

Twelve years passed in the blink of an eye.

That night became a recurring nightmare, clinging to Gu Ze’s soul like frost on stone.

And from that nightmare—the nightmare itself was born.

A dream meant to fade with time instead cycled endlessly under the nightmare’s control.

Li Wei’s arrival had disrupted the dream’s destined conclusion.

Deprived of its nourishment, the nightmare took the form of the snow bear and attacked.

Having absorbed the memory fragment, Li Wei now understood everything.

This nightmare—was the true source of it all.

By sheer accident, Li Wei had resolved the torment that had plagued Gu Ze for over a decade.

With the nightmare dead, the ice-and-snow dreamscape trembled, beginning to collapse.

Cracks spread along the edges of the dream. Gray mist seeped in. Darkness consumed all.

Li Wei rushed back to the room.

Gu Ze’s nightmare had shattered. The dream was unraveling.

Beyond the door, darkness churned.

Li Wei closed the door and sat down at the desk.

He sifted through the fragments in his mind.

Among them were not only Guo Ze’s nightmares, but also memories of his cultivation.

The nightmare spirit had tried to trap Guo Ze within endless terror, feeding on the dark energy born from fear.

Thus, it sealed away and devoured all of Guo Ze’s memories after that fateful night.

Even after the spirit perished, though most of the stolen memories were lost, the most stubborn traces remained.

After reviewing everything, Li Wei smiled faintly.

“Just as I thought—the completeness of a spell model within a dream depends on how deeply the dreamer has mastered it.”

He located Guo Ze’s memory of practicing Frost Arrow Technique and extracted the complete spell structure.

Soon, a new line of text shimmered into existence within the gray mist before him.

[Frost Arrow Technique (Zero-tier Beginner)] 0/1000

Li Wei absorbed Guo Ze’s training experience.

Before the dream ended, he advanced the technique to proficiency.

[Frost Arrow Technique (Zero-tier Proficient)] 123/2000

He raised his hand and cast the spell—before his palm hovered a crystalline arrow of ice.

Staring at it, he shook his head slightly, disappointment flickering in his eyes.

Its power was far weaker than the version Master Guo Ze had once demonstrated.

When Guo Ze cast it, the ice arrow stretched a full meter long, indistinguishable from a real arrow.

But Li Wei’s was no thicker than a chopstick.

This weakness stemmed from his low affinity for ice.

Elemental affinity affected not only cultivation speed, but also spell potency.

With insufficient ice affinity, too little elemental force gathered during casting, drastically weakening the spell.

The remedy lay in magical materials.

By channeling the ice element stored within enchanted substances, one could bypass affinity limitations entirely.

Casting Frost Arrow with an ice crystal in hand would unleash its full destructive potential.

Having finished analyzing the technique, Li Wei withdrew from the dream world.

He opened his eyes—4:30 a.m.

Outside, the moon hung high among sparse stars. Lying in bed, sleep eluded him.

Though he now possessed the Frost Arrow Technique, its diminished power left him unsatisfied.

“That’s right… perhaps I should ask Master Rohta? He studied so many different schools of magic—he must have faced this problem too?”

At the thought, he suppressed his rising excitement, closed his eyes, and tried to rest.

But the moment he did, memories of Rohta and Guo Ze surged into his mind like floodwaters.

For an instant, he could no longer tell which thoughts belonged to whom.

Coming back to himself, Li Wei opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.

He lifted his palm, studying the lines etched across it, deep in thought.

Now he understood the price of using the Great Dream Soaring Art.

The more memories he gained, the greater the risk of drowning in their chaos—losing himself, forgetting who he truly was.

“What should I do?”

(End of Chapter)