After coming back, ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ gazed at the golden lotus in a very cold and ruthless manner. After getting stared at for a while, the Virtuous Golden Lotus was so scared that it curled its lotus leaves up in an attempt to protect itself.

　　The lotus flower had curled its leaves up just like a sensitive plant after sensing the killing intent of the striped dragon.

　　Song Shuhang, who had taken possession of the Virtuous Golden Lotus in the dream, was baffled. Both the golden and black lotus flowers were something ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ personally cultivated, and Shuhang had witnessed the whole process with his very own eyes.

　　As such, why did ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ suddenly change its attitude, starting to give the golden lotus it cultivated with its own hands murderous gazes?

　　The whole situation was very strange.

　　Song Shuhang pondered for a short moment, and then secretly observed the striped dragon in the sky through the sensory organs of the golden lotus, comparing it to the image of ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ he had in his mind.

　　A guess started to form in this heart… after all, ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ had changed too much after coming back.

　　Therefore, it either suffered from schizophrenia or had a split personality… or again, he wasn’t the same ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ that’d left earlier, but a different person.

　　Their build, aura, and shape were absolutely the same, without any difference.

　　But after a careful inspection… Song Shuhang discovered that the patterns on the body of this striped dragon in the sky were reversed if compared to those of ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’.

　　The patterns on the body of ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ were ‘white alternating with black’, while the patterns on the body of the striped dragon hovering above Song Shuhang’s head were ‘black alternating with white’.

　　Although they were both striped, their colors were inverted.

　　As expected, they are two different individuals. Song Shuhang finally understood what was happening. No wonder their attitude was so different while looking at the Virtuous Golden Lotus.

　　In that case, what’s the relationship between ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ and this other striped dragon hovering above my head whose imposing manner isn’t any weaker than the other one’s? Are they twins, or is this one either a descendant or a blood relative? Then again, maybe it’s more similar to a clone? …Beyond that, why is it looking at the golden lotus with such a murderous gaze? Song Shuhang thought to himself.

　　He felt that he had unknowingly discovered a big secret related to the Wielder of the Heavens’ Will.

　　Anyway, it was worth mentioning that the striped dragon in the sky also failed to notice Song Shuhang as the latter was impersonating the ‘golden lotus’ through his dreamland innate skill.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The striped dragon stared at the golden lotus for a very long time, then it coldly snorted, and disappeared.

　　The Virtuous Golden Lotus was now finally out of danger, and thus unfurled its lotus leaves.

　　After the striped dragon disappeared, four gigantic demons slowly approached the vast demonic sea.

　　One was a huge, one-kilometer-long snake with its tail split into nine parts.

　　One was a ball-shaped demon with a size that wasn’t inferior to that of the huge snake. This demon somewhat resembled a sea urchin, and its whole body was covered with needles.

　　The other two resembled ordinary fishes, but they had six pairs of scaly claws on their body.

　　The four colossal demons finally arrived next to the Virtuous Golden Lotus, surrounding it and slowly moving around it. It seemed that someone had ordered them to protect the Virtuous Golden Lotus and not allow the other demons of the Netherworld to bring harm to it.

　　Song Shuhang secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

　　Although he knew that the Virtuous Golden Lotus had managed to survive until the 21st century, he was still very worried for the lotus flower when he saw those four colossal demons slowly approaching it.

　　The concept was similar to people still getting scared even if they knew in advance that they were going to watch a horror movie.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Time passed by, and since there was no sunrise here in the demonic sea, Song Shuhang had no idea how many days had passed altogether.

　　During this period of time, he carefully examined the various changes taking place inside the Virtuous Golden Lotus.

　　The golden lotus kept absorbing nutrients in the demonic sea and growing in size, and at this time, its volume had already increased by more than three times.

　　As long as it kept absorbing nutrients, it would eventually mature and reach the same size as the golden lotus below the ground of the scholarly faction.

　　At long last, it would create the ‘world of the golden lotus’ thanks to its nucleus or ‘key’.

　　However, if the golden lotus had already absorbed enough nutrients in ancient times—creating the world of the golden lotus—why did it still have the shape of a lotus flower in the 21st century when in the hands of the scholarly faction? Song Shuhang was confused.

　　Was it possible that the golden and black lotus flowers failed to fully mature in ancient times? Or did some other change occur?

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Just in this fashion, day after day, Song Shuhang impersonated the golden lotus and kept growing in the demonic sea for a long, long time.

　　During the process, the size of the golden lotus continuously increased, but its nucleus didn’t change much. At this time, the golden lotus was solely accumulating the energy necessary to create the new world.

　　There was nothing to research during the growing process, and Song Shuhang was unable to obtain any important information from it.

　　Song Shuhang couldn’t help but sigh to himself. My body has turned into that of a lotus flower, and I have to stay in this place for around a hundred years… but how much time has passed already?

　　His current situation was even worse than when he’d been dreaming of Lady Onion’s life. After all, he could at least count days based on sunrise and sunset when he’d turned into Lady Onion!

　　It would be nice to have a forward button, Song Shuhang thought to himself.

　　Of course, it was just a vain hope. After living Lady Onion’s life back then, he’d discovered that the dreamland did not have something as convenient as a forward button… not only that, the option to turn the whole thing off was likewise missing, and Song Shuhang couldn’t decide when to put an end to the dream.

　　Just as Song Shuhang was fantasizing, he noticed that the four huge demons next to him started to move at a faster pace.

　　At first, the four demons protecting the golden lotus were moving very slowly, lazily circling around the lotus flower. But now, it felt as if they had gone mad, and were moving very quickly.

　　No, that wasn’t it. The speed of the demons hadn’t changed… it was the speed of the flow of time that had increased!

　　At this time, even the body of the Virtuous Golden Lotus was growing at speed visible to the naked eye.

　　Time had accelerated!

　　The dreamland actually had the fast-forward feature!

　　At this moment, Shuhang’s face was full of tears.

　　Although he had no idea since when the dreamland had become so cooperative, it was great that he could use the fast-forward feature at this moment!

　　A hundred years were really too much, and he had no time to spare.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　“Whizz, whizz, whizz~” Time flew by after the scene in the dreamland sped up.

　　During this period of time, ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ never came to visit the golden lotus. On the contrary, it was that striped dragon with inverted patterns that would come over once in a while.

　　During each visit, it would coldly stare at the Virtuous Golden Lotus and even release a not-too-friendly aura, making the golden lotus shiver and instinctively curl its lotus leaves up. Only then would that striped dragon with black patterns alternating with white ones get satisfied and leave.

　　Was that guy a sadist?

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The fast-forward feature was still at work, and the time in the dreamland was quickly flying by.

　　In the end, the Virtuous Golden Lotus managed to absorb enough nutrients, and its lotus leaves closed again, shrinking into the calyx. This time around, the golden lotus didn’t produce any of those lotus seeds that granted an extraordinary skill to whomever ate them as it did in the 21st century.

　　The lotus flower is about to mature. Next is precisely the process where the new world is getting created! Song Shuhang mustered his strength and carefully examined all the changes taking place in the golden lotus flower.

　　The dreamland was very cooperative this time, and even switched off the fast-forward feature, allowing Song Shuhang to carefully sense each change happening inside the golden lotus.

　　In the sky.

　　Along with the Virtuous Golden Lotus maturing, ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ also made its appearance. However, it didn’t come to look for the golden lotus with its main body, but used something akin to a 3D projection instead, appearing above the demonic sea.

　　At the same time, that other striped dragon with inverted patterns also arrived above the golden lotus after tearing space apart.

　　To distinguish between ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ and this other striped dragon, Song Shuhang quietly renamed the latter to ‘Striped Dragon Two’.

　　‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ looked at Striped Dragon Two with a smile, and said, “Haha, you are finally willing to come out and see me, eh? Right, I must thank you for taking care of this golden lotus during the past hundred years.”

　　“Hmph.” Striped Dragon Two coldly snorted, and didn’t reply.

　　“Actually, I thought you would tear it to pieces,” ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ said in a soft voice. “After all, I’ve told you everything about my plan, not concealing any information from you. Therefore, you also know that you might disappear if my plan were to succeed.”

　　“Hmph.” Striped Dragon Two continued snorting.

　　“Enough with this snorting! Sigh, when did you become like this? Can’t you have a proper conversation with me?” ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ was getting a headache.

　　“Hmph.” Striped Dragon Two snorted again.

　　“Forget it. Anyway, since you didn’t destroy the golden lotus within these hundred years, I’ll consider it you tacitly agreeing to my plan. By the way, now that the golden lotus has matured, it’s too late to destroy it even if you change your mind,” ‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ said with a smile.

　　“Hmph.” Striped Dragon Two snorted.

　　Song Shuhang, who had taken possession of the body of the golden lotus, was speechless.

　　Just as the duo was discussing, the golden lotus thoroughly matured, and its calyx bloomed again. In the meantime, its nucleus was also activated, and the 81 runes engraved on it started to quickly absorb the energy the golden lotus had stored within these 100 years.

　　A tiny ‘world’ took shape inside the body of the golden lotus, and Song Shuhang experienced this change first-hand.

　　At this time, he was the golden lotus, and the golden lotus was him.

　　When the golden lotus created the small world, Song Shuhang felt as if he was doing it personally.

　　Song Shuhang had a sudden realization. So this is how a small world is created, huh?

　　But right at that time…

　　‘Wielder of the Will Striped Dragon’ said again to Striped Dragon Two, “I’ll give you one final opportunity. Since the world of the golden lotus has yet to fully take shape, you still have the opportunity to rethink your choice. If my plan succeeds, it’s possible that I’ll be able to ‘free’ myself. On the other hand, if I ‘free’ myself, you—whose life is interlinked with mine—will very likely disappear without a trace.”