King Henir and His Dream

In his later years, King Henir tried every means to expand his achievements.

He vigorously promoted the ritual arrays of Lan, the Food Priest, even appointing Lan as the High Priest of the Ice Temple. He had the book "From Plankton to Food Paste" printed and distributed to every small town in Yinsai.

He promulgated the Priest Code, issuing a series of decrees to regulate priests and the nine great temples. Simultaneously, he mandated that all newly appointed official priests must serve as resident priests in small towns before promotion, implementing the construction of "Plankton Pools" to solve the Trilobite Men's food problems.

Their advancement to priesthood in major cities or entry into the nine great temples depended on an evaluation of their accomplishments.

He gathered numerous scholars, preparing to revise the law code.

He even considered freeing all slaves like the Star Queen had done, but this was strongly opposed by the major families.

He hastily issued various policies, implementing them with great impatience. The rapid implementation of these policies also dramatically depleted national resources.

Some policies would bring blessings to millions.

Others brought great chaos, even causing rebellions within the borders and resulting in countless deaths.

He believed these actions would tip the scales of his life in his favor, ensuring a smooth passage through God's judgment.

His body grew increasingly weak, and gradually, he could only lie in bed.

On this day.

In the early hours of the morning.

The palace was brightly lit inside and out, the entire God-Servant City under tight security, with patrolling soldiers visible in every corner of the city.

On the bed in the royal chamber, Henir's face showed pain and distortion. He grasped the queen's hand.

"Tell me!" he rasped, his voice tinged with desperation.

"After doing so much, haven't I atoned for the sins I once committed?"

The queen comforted Henir: "I firmly believe you are the greatest king in the world. You have brought hope and light to the Trilobite Men."

"Your achievements are visible to all."

Henir's words tumbled out in a rush of anxiety: "But those accomplishments belong to Stan Tito, to Sandean. What have I really achieved?"

"What have I done for God? Everything I've done has been for myself."

"To become king, to seize the Ruhe beasts, I've done so many things."

"I clung tightly to the power of destruction, even refusing the guidance of God's messenger."

"God will judge me, my sins, my darkness."

"God..."

The queen, seeing Henir's near-deranged state, tearfully embraced him tightly.

She cried out: "My King!"

"You are King Henir!"

His son rushed in from outside, kneeling before the bed: "Father."

A large group of grandchildren and great-grandchildren outside all knelt down as well.

Henir looked at the queen and his son, and after a long sigh, his expression gradually calmed.

"Heh~"

"No matter how unwilling, no matter how afraid, what can be done?"

"There's nothing left but to let go."

"Everything... let it be left to fate!"

He no longer had the courage to say, "I am one who swims against the current."

He could swim against the current in his life's journey, he could refuse to accept the life arranged for him by his father and elder brother.

But uniquely, he could not say no to God in the matter of death.

Henir slowly closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into boundless darkness.

In the darkness.

A light appeared overhead, a narrow, vertical radiance.

The light gradually seeped through, illuminating the dark world.

Henir then realized it was a giant door opening, the light emanating from the world beyond the door crack.

"Hum hum hum!"

The gates of God's realm slowly opened, and under the Dream Moon, a boat glided across the dreamy star sea.

The light falling from behind the gates of God's realm shone upon Henir, gently pulling him upwards, boarding the boat that had come to receive him.

He stepped onto the path entering God's realm, about to face the test of good and evil.

As he passed through the gates of God's realm, the dream of his life floated out from his body, and his form gradually became blurred and transparent.

All memories were continuously extracted from his body, merging into that life dream.

Henir opened his eyes wide, watching his dream. Many memories he had forgotten or that had become unclear also appeared in the images.

His birth, his dark childhood, his youth and middle age swimming against the current.

He watched himself kill his enemies, his relatives, and his allies.

He also saw the changes in all of Yinsai after he became king, thousands upon thousands of people living in prosperity due to peace and the arrival of a new era.

In his life dream, color and darkness were fiercely resisting each other.

As if his first half of life and the latter half were contending.

In anxious anticipation.

Finally, the colored light gradually overcame the darkness.

A joyful expression appeared on Henir's face, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

"Ah!"

"So, it was a beautiful dream after all!"

At this moment, a call suddenly came from behind him.

"Henir!" the voice called out. "You've finally come."

The words from that nightmare he once had echoed in his ears again, a simple sentence that evoked panic and fear from the heart.

He turned his head sharply to look at the ferryman, suddenly feeling this silhouette was so familiar.

The ferryman still bowed his head, supporting his boat, his movements like a repeating puppet.

He hadn't spoken at all, just single-mindedly doing his job.

But Henir recognized this figure.

This form, and that familiar tone.

His face changed dramatically, his pupils contracting violently.

"You are?"

"No!"

"You are Weishi Hosen."

The shadow before him overlapped with the tall figure from his memories of his youth.

"It's you!"

"How can it be you?"

"You didn't die?"

His elder brother, or rather, his lord.

The nightmare he had once killed with his own hands had returned.

He retreated in fear in his heart, even falling directly onto the deck.

In the intense shock and terror, his dream instantly erupted with darkness overwhelming the color.

The gloom in his life dream quickly devoured everything, all those terrifying memories flooding back.

In the palace.

Everyone watched as Henir's body suddenly arched, his empty eyes flailing wildly at the air, emitting a shrill scream.

"Star Luo Queen, it wasn't I who killed you."

"Father, King of Sele, Lord Weishi..."

"Ah!"

"No!"

King Henir let out a final cry before his death, and then breathed no more.

The King of Yinsai, the founder of the Henir dynasty, finally met his end in a way he had not anticipated.

"Father."

Henir's son knelt by the bed, his mouth agape, unable to close.

Witnessing this scene firsthand, he felt for the first time how terrifying death could be.

His father, so powerful, King Henir who had defeated the four royal bloodline families to become the King of Yinsai, standing at the pinnacle of Yinsai.

Yet when the final judgment came, he was so helpless and small—

On the dreamy star sea.

The ferryman cradled Henir's dream, a black orb.

He brought the dream to the boat lamp on the Divine Boat, intending to ignite it.

Beautiful dreams roam freely in the sea of dreams, becoming stars shining in the sky.

Nightmares would become lamps, placed in the darkest corners of the dream world, becoming dim, faint fireflies.

"Hiss hiss!"

The two nightmares overlapped and collided, sparking like an explosion.

The boat lamp instantly erupted in intense flames, as if this lamp could not accept its power to illuminate Henir's dream.

Weishi Hosen was Henir's nightmare, and wasn't Henir equally Weishi Hosen's nightmare?

The collision of the two dreams sent ripples of darkness across the star sea, each wave a memory of fear and regret.

Even the dream egg sealing the nightmare began to destabilize at this moment.

Golden light flowed from afar, and Hila, God's messenger, appeared on the Divine Boat.

The dream spirit slowly walked towards the boat lamp, caressing the dream egg.

"Let it be!" she said softly, her voice a soothing whisper.

"Both your stories have ended, let everything stop here."

These words were not spoken to the ferryman, but to the nightmare sealed within the spirit egg.

Under these words, the fiercely burning boat lamp gradually calmed, leaving only a faint, dim light.

And the black life nightmare touching the ferryman's hand shattered at this moment.

It transformed into a dim glow, gradually scattering on both sides of the Divine Boat.

Henir's nightmare and painful memories drifted away with the wind.

The shattered dream light illuminated the ferryman's face.

The ferryman, who had always been faceless with only a shadow, suddenly revealed his appearance,

Seven parts resembling Weishi Hosen, and three parts like a young Henir.

Perhaps for other reasons.

Or maybe.

Because they were brothers.