Chapter 165: The Dream Beast, "Baku"

"All right, I understand. I'll send a special employee to handle it in a bit. You two just stay put for now, and tell Old Bai that his two kids are just putting on a double act."

With that, Wu You hung up the phone.

On the other end of the line, Lu Xian's eyes lit up. A special employee—who could it be?

Within the company, special employees were practically synonymous with mythical beasts.

Even as fellow employees of Myriad Beasts Manor, ordinary human employees rarely had the chance to see special employees. Even Gururu, whom they used to see the most often, hadn't been showing up much lately.

...

Meanwhile, Wu You was pondering how to resolve Bai Yanxi's problem once and for all.

Had it been anyone else, Wu You truly wouldn't have wanted to meddle in such messy business; whether they divorced or not was none of his concern.

However, Bai Yanxi was practically half family and had been with Wu You for a long time, so he would intervene.

Of course, Wu You would never simply hand over money to fill the financial bottomless pit of that couple.

Money could be given, considered as improving the living environment of Bai Yanxi's grandson, nicknamed Little Tiger, but it wouldn't be given in a way that made them comfortable.

Still, they were Bai Yanxi's son and daughter-in-law. Wu You could deal with strangers however he pleased without a second thought, but for these two, he had to show some respect to Bai Yanxi.

Physical punishment was out of the question, and verbal scolding, even if permissible, would carry zero lesson-learning weight.

So what could be done?

Simple. Wu You's method was "dreaming."

In fact, he had thought of creating an alchemical creature capable of entering or controlling dreams quite some time ago.

The appearance of the Ancient Natural Tree had once led Wu You to believe it might encompass dream-related functions.

However, while spiritual connection was indeed powerful and the generated spiritual world was very realistic, that world was merely the world as perceived by the Ancient Natural Tree.

It could only create environments it had seen, such as the area around Qiantang covered by its spiritual awareness, or photos and videos seen on the internet.

In other words, the Ancient Natural Tree lacked imagination; all it did was copy, or at most make a few modifications based on that foundation. It was different from actually creating dreams.

Wu You still had another wild idea waiting to be fulfilled, and the current abilities of the Ancient Natural Tree could only be considered as solving half of that problem.

That simply wouldn't do—the gap had to be filled.

In that case, the creature from the original plan still had to make its appearance.

And it just so happened that it could be used to give Bai Yanxi's younger son and daughter-in-law a few hyper-realistic "sweet dreams."

Moreover, it had to be the kind of dream they would remember vividly, the kind where even if they knew it was a dream, they wouldn't dare to take it lightly.

Putting down his phone, Wu You took out his sketchbook.

He flipped through a dozen pages until he reached a creature with a very strange appearance.

After glancing over the details for a few moments, he closed the sketch pad.

Clasping his hands together, he stretched his arms up over his head and gave a lazy yawn.

His joints and bones emitted a string of cracking pops.

He shouted toward the restroom over yonder.

"Salasor, put down the toilet brush and come here for a second."

Without a second word, the Primeval Demon rushed out of the restroom and stood before Wu You.

"Master, Salasor is at your command at any time!"

"Alright, I'm going to create a new companion. I might need your help in a moment. Don't worry, it's not like last time."

Wu You already regarded Salasor as a large-capacity spiritual battery.

"Understood. I am willing to exhaust myself for the Mas—uh..."

Salasor saw Wu You narrowing his eyes as he looked at it, the cold gleam leaking from the cracks of his eyes not looking particularly friendly, causing it to swallow the rest of its words back into its stomach.

Ignoring it entirely, Wu You opened the system and selected Level 4 Alchemy.

From the material warehouse, he selected an Asian tapir, a black bear, a rhinoceros, a Siberian tiger, and a North American bison.

Essentially, the creature he wanted to create this time only required materials of superior quality; everything else relied heavily on Wu You's spiritual power to supplement.

Therefore, the materials he chose closely resembled the physical characteristics of legendary exotic beasts.

He confirmed the alchemy in the prompt that popped up on the system.

Following that, the mysterious alchemy canvas with a background of flowing black water unfolded once more in Wu You's consciousness.

He couldn't afford to be careless with Level 4 Alchemy, so Wu You immediately immersed his mind entirely into the spiritual depiction of the alchemy.

Its body adopted that of a bear—broad, heavy, and immensely powerful. Its nose took on the shape unique to a tapir, resembling an elephant's trunk but shorter. Its eyes combined the sharpness of a tiger, the gentleness of an ox, and the apathy of a rhinoceros, while the rings of wrinkles around the corners of its eyes resembled hypnotic growth rings.

Its four limbs possessed restrained muscles, with tiger claws faintly visible between its paws. A bovine tail extended from behind, and a massive, crescent-shaped single horn protruded from its forehead.

Its entire body was shrouded in fine, soft, yet hazy and illusory grey fur.

These were merely external traits; they were far from enough.

What Wu You wanted to create was a surreal creature capable of eating dreams, creating dreams, controlling dreams, and delivering dreams.

As the depiction and imagination deepened, his spiritual power was consumed at an increasingly drastic rate.

The degree of spiritual fantasy Wu You infused grew progressively greater, and his spiritual power was actively poured into the alchemy canvas like a tidal wave.

Just as he began to feel a sensation of dizziness in his head, Salasor's external spiritual reinforcement connected in time.

Without pausing, Wu You continued to increase the injection of spiritual power.

He only stopped when he felt everything was complete.

As the final depiction finished, a special creature that looked solid at first glance but hazy upon closer inspection appeared on the alchemy canvas.

At a glance, it had the body of a bear, the nose of a tapir, the eyes of a rhino, the tail of an ox, and the legs of a tiger. Yet upon closer inspection, it looked like nothing at all, its entire body wrapped in a smoky state as if it might dissolve at any moment.

It sat upon the alchemy canvas, seeming both hidden and illusory while exuding a yearning for materialization.

System Evaluation: Physical layout rationality 79%, alchemy success rate increased by 7.9%.

Current success rate: 50% + 10% (Willpower Resonance) + 7.9%.

Proceed with alchemy?

The more times alchemical creatures were created, the better Wu You could grasp the underlying patterns.

A sort of intuitive prophecy grew sharper and clearer; although it didn't appear every single time, whenever it did surface, it was basically infallible.

And for alchemical creatures created by pouring in his full strength, Wu You had maintained an undefeated myth thus far.

Confirm alchemy.

Following the issuance of Wu You's command, the five animals in the material warehouse transformed into five streaks of light that plunged into the alchemy canvas.

As the streaks of light approached the depicted creature, they shattered into smoke almost simultaneously, enshrouding the entire alchemy canvas in an intertwined fashion.

It was so thorough that even Wu You, the creator, could not clearly see the birth process.

This was the first time no sound whatsoever was transmitted during the materialization of an alchemical creature.

Yet Wu You had no fear of failure.

Sure enough, a few dozen seconds later, the smoke on the alchemy canvas dissipated.

The creature upon it shook its fur all over, scattering wisps of illusory smoky radiance.

System Prompt: Alchemy successful, please name it.

Name choices: Dream Tapir, Di Yan.

Alchemical Creature: Dream Tapir, Name: Di Yan.

Talents: Illusory Physical Great Strength, Dream Materialization, Dream Control.

Abilities: Dream Eating, Dream Creation, Dream Control, Illusory Physical Beast Skills.

Basic Rating: Bronze Senior (Critical Threshold).

System Description: This is an exotic beast that shuttles between reality and fantasy.

It was done!

A smile appeared unconsciously on Wu You's face.

Though Salasor, standing to the side, did not understand the alchemical process, seeing the relaxed expression on his master's face told him that he had gained a new companion.

"I hope the new companion has some sense of humor," Salasor muttered in his inner monologue.

Looking at the system information, one could basically understand the capabilities of the Dream Tapir.

After all, it was created according to his own imagination.

In the early days of alchemy, due to unfamiliarity, even when focusing heavily on external appearances during creature creation, its abilities often required slow exploration after materialization.

By now, Wu You was already able to steer the general direction of a creature's abilities.

As a critical threshold creature, once summoned, it would inevitably face the process of transcending mortality.

However, as a Dream Tapir, Wu You had already intuitively perceived what conditions were required for its advancement.

Then, all that remained was to wait for the deep stillness of tonight.

Speaking of dreams, the vast population base and rich spiritual life of the real Earth meant that the variety and quantity of dreams generated here would undoubtedly far surpass those of the Eastern Realm.