The third time Qiuqiu opened his eyes, he looked up at Lin Su.
"Meow! (｡òωó｡)" (I did it!)
Lin Su's face showed a bit more surprise; Qiuqiu's progress in learning Deep Sleep and Dream was not quite what he had expected. He had thought it would take at least ten attempts before Qiuqiu could initially control his dreams, but now it seemed that three were enough.
A smile appeared on his face, "Good, let's continue practicing then!"
"Meow!" (Okay!)
With a glance at the Six-sided Rubik's Cube from his icy blue eyes, Qiuqiu decided to tell Lin Su about the matter of the vertical pupil when no one else was around in the evening.
...
"What? A presence from that day in the Beast Tower appeared in your dreams?" Lin Su's expression suddenly became serious.
After an afternoon's training, Qiuqiu had successfully completed the first step of Deep Sleep and Dream, fully managing to control his own dreams. Although there was still a gap compared to the Indomitable Duck, who had completed the second step, it was already much better than Lin Su's expectations.
So, he had been in a good mood.
But now, hearing what Qiuqiu mentioned, Lin Su's heart became heavy.
The last time they were learning skills in the Beast Tower, Qiuqiu had mentioned feeling as though something was watching it after the Crystal Stone was placed on its forehead.
Since Qiuqiu didn't have a similar experience with the rewards of the second layer of the Beast Tower, Lin Su hadn't taken it to heart, always thinking perhaps it was an illusion stemming from Qiuqiu's first use of the Dream Crystal Stone.
But now that it had appeared again, and it was the same figure as before, Lin Su's mood suddenly shifted.
To think that the last time was in the Divine Martial World's Beast Tower, and this time, it was on Planet Blue!
What kind of power could track someone across the boundaries of two worlds?
It was certainly a force beyond Lin Su's understanding.
Were he and Qiuqiu being watched by a very powerful existence?
Was the secret of their travel discovered?
A heaviness settled inexplicably in Lin Su's heart.
If it was as he suspected, then both he and Qiuqiu were in grave danger.
With this thought, he immediately opened the drawing function of the communication device, looking towards Qiuqiu, "Do you still remember what that thing watching you looked like?"
"Meow~" (I remember~)
"That's good." Lin Su handed over the communication device, "Try to simply draw what you remember."
Based on Qiuqiu's description, the one watching it was obviously not human, so it should be some kind of creature.
Qiuqiu's knowledge of different creatures was quite limited, so perhaps after drawing this creature for himself, he could identify its species.
Let's give it a try.
No matter what, he couldn't just sit idle.
Qiuqiu's little paws touched the screen of the communication device, slowly starting to depict it, and after a minute or two, it raised its head to look at Lin Su.
"Meow!" (Done!)
Lin Su took the communication device from Qiuqiu and inspected it carefully, his expression turning a bit odd.
The drawing was quite simple: just a vertical eye with nothing else around it.
Within the species of creatures, there were many with odd shapes, including those that resembled eyes, but he had never seen anything so simple.
"Just a vertical pupil? Is there nothing else, like tentacles behind the eye, or was it on some kind of object?" Lin Su inquired.
"Meow~" (None of that~)
"Nothing else?" Lin Su's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and then he pointed to a large snowflake pattern that Qiuqiu had purposefully drawn in the pupil area, "Is this also something inside that eye?"
"Meow! Meow!" (Yes! There was a big snowflake inside the eye!)
"This..." Lin Su's frown deepened. Why did it feel like he had never heard of such a creature?
His gaze involuntarily scanned the surroundings and suddenly settled on Qiuqiu's face.
"Qiuqiu, don't move, face me straight on," he said.
"Meow? (｡òωó｡)" (What's the matter?)
Qiuqiu looked puzzled but obediently faced Lin Su directly.
Lin Su slowly brought the vertical pupil drawn by Qiuqiu closer to Qiuqiu's face, eventually aligning the snowflake in the eye with the snowflake pattern on Qiuqiu's forehead.
Through the screen, an image of Frost Flower Dream Shadow with a third eye on its forehead appeared.
"I'll be damned..." Lin Su's expression turned to one of bemusement.
It turned out to be a case of frightening oneself?
After thinking carefully about the two occasions when Qiuqiu felt the presence of the vertical pupil, Lin Su's face showed a touch of realization, "Qiuqiu, the first time you felt it, was the first time you used the Crystal Stone to train your skills in the dream, and the second time, was it during the Deep Sleep and Dream training?"
"Meow!" (Yes, that's right!)
Lin Su turned off the communication device and patted Qiuqiu's head, "Both times are related to contact with the Spirit type, so that's quite normal."
Seeing Qiuqiu's still-confused expression, he smiled, "That vertical pupil is probably the third eye you'll have after you evolve into Frost Flower Dream Shadow in the future. You said it felt very familiar, right? Maybe no one is watching you, but under the stimulation of the dream rules, part of your hidden evolutionary potential has been revealed."
As an Ice and Spirit dual-type creature, Frost Flower Dream Shadow would grow a third eye on its forehead after evolution, and its shape would change drastically; the third eye perfectly matched the vertical pupil drawn by Qiuqiu.