"We made a mistake?" the two shouted in unison. "Are you kidding? How could that be? You must just be pulling our leg because you can't find the answer yourself. It certainly couldn't be our fault. We haven't done anything!"

Old Man Qian only laughed harder. "Then do you know why you are in this place?" The three of them looked into Old Man Qian's eyes and seemed to catch a glimmer of something profound hidden deep within, though they couldn't quite grasp what it was. However, wanting to display their prowess, they offered their earlier conjectures. Ma Xiong cleared his throat and replied, "I suspect we are inside Fatty's dream. He must be dreaming and pulled us into it, making everything we encounter just part of his dreamscape. Fatty might possess some unique ability where his dreams manifest as reality, making us merely his victims, pulled into his fantasy? Right, Old Man Qian, why don't you enlighten us as to what is truly going on?"

Now it was Old Man Qian's turn to be surprised. He widened his eyes, staring at the two of them. "Indeed, you are people from the CIA. You can even come up with something like that. I see I haven't misjudged you; my choice back then was correct. However, while what you've said is largely accurate, there are still some inaccuracies. Let me supplement that for you. Actually, you are not in Fatty's dream."

Ge Mei grew even more curious and asked, "Then whose dream are we in? Tell us then! I'm starting to feel more confused, less and less able to follow what you are saying. What do you mean we are in someone else's dream? Am I not in the desert right now? Wait, does this mean we are just characters in someone else's dream, and we'll cease to exist the moment they wake up? This has to be a joke! Is this truly Zhuang Zhou dreaming of being a butterfly?"

Old Man Qian burst into delighted laughter. "This young lady is quite amusing! Can you wait until I've finished speaking before you jump in, boss? What I mean is, you are indeed acting according to someone else's consciousness, but the difference is, you are acting within their completely conscious awareness, not in a dream state. And the one who has been manipulating you all along? That's me. Heh heh."

"What? So everything about us coming here was arranged by you? Why didn't you tell us beforehand?" Ma Xiong sounded annoyed, especially remembering how he had fought tooth and nail just to reach this spot. If it hadn't been for his survival instinct, he might be dead right now. He looked at Old Man Qian, slightly out of breath.

Old Man Qian, however, remained beaming, offering no reply. At that moment, Ge Mei's angry shouts cut in again: "Does that mean you orchestrated the arrival of that Fatty too? What in the world is going on? Why did you summon me here?"

Looking at this unfamiliar old man before her, and reflecting on the intricate, invisible threads connecting her to him, Ge Mei felt overwhelmingly curious. She desperately wanted to know why Old Man Qian had chosen her. Did this mean she truly was different? If so, her long-held conjecture—one she had nurtured from kindergarten all the way through graduate school—must be correct: she was extraordinary, possessing some hidden talent yet to be displayed. She was just waiting for the day she would shine among her peers, and today, an elder had finally arrived to wipe the dust from her soul, preparing her to illuminate.

But the elder paid little mind to Ge Mei's internal fervor, simply stating, "Ge Mei, you accidentally swapped souls with Han Chong. I don't know what connection you two share, nor why the Queen made such an arrangement. Though I find it quite perplexing, I must warn you: be careful. Anyone noticed by the Queen's spell will certainly not find good fortune. You and the others must stand together with one heart, or you will regret it." He glanced quickly at Ge Mei and then swiftly averted his eyes, fearful she might press him for further explanations about what had transpired.

Yet, the very evasion the elder sought to avoid immediately occurred. Before Ge Mei could speak, Ma Xiong had already interjected, "Old Man Qian, what is going on? What did you mean by those words just now? What about the Queen's arrangement, what curse, and why did we swap souls? What does all of this actually mean?"

Old Man Qian frowned. It seemed today he would have to leak a bit of heavenly secret, or else they would remain deeply misunderstanding everything. Hiding things was the most detrimental thing for unifying a team, so he resigned himself to explaining. "Very well, I will start with Ma Xiong's question. Actually, I didn't summon you here for you to fight your way to this location. Everything that has happened is something you created yourselves. That's why I say you brought this trouble upon yourselves."

Ma Xiong scoffed angrily and replied in a tone laced with bitterness and frustration, "What do you mean we created our own trouble? Do you think we were so bored that we decided to play with fire? You must be joking. Explain to me, then: why did we see those soldiers fighting? Why did we see Lu Zong's physical body? Explain all of this to us, one by one."

The elder maintained his pleasant and composed expression. The three of them—even Lu Zong—felt an urge to deliver a few sharp slaps just to make his face look a little more vibrant, but the elder remained remarkably steady. The three were no longer in the chaotic panic of being leaderless; they quietly waited for Old Man Qian to explain the truth of the matter.

Old Man Qian said, "Have you not noticed that many things here seem vaguely familiar in your memories? You always have the feeling that you have experienced or seen these events before?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Xiong slapped his forehead. "That's right! I wondered why things felt so strange, why the coincidences were so numerous. I’ve seen all this before in my grandfather's notes! Perhaps because I've had so many dreams about these precise scenarios, I just followed the instructions from the dream. But I still don't understand what you mean, Old Man Qian. Tell us exactly what is happening."

Old Man Qian laughed heartily. "This is how it is: ever since you emerged from the Queen's tomb, you gained a unique ability—the ability for dreams to become reality. Every time you encounter a situation, an infinite number of possibilities arise. Naturally, you eventually settle on the one scenario you deem most likely, and this is where the strangeness occurs: what you imagine aligns unexpectedly with the trend of events you witness. In other words, what you think comes to pass; everything you conceive becomes fact."

The three stared at Old Man Qian, utterly stunned and disbelieving. Lu Zong, in particular, wore an expression suggesting utter disdain for Old Man Qian's explanation, and he asked dismissively, "Stop talking nonsense. Whatever we think comes true? You have no idea how many things I've thought about in my head. If it were true, wouldn't we have already gotten out of here instead of being stuck here?"

Old Man Qian stroked his thinning white beard and scolded, "What fools! If the success rate were one hundred percent, I wouldn't be here wasting my breath explaining this to you. This is fundamentally a unique ability, but because you have only just begun interacting with it, you haven't explored its depth, so you remain unaware of this power. Furthermore, this ability is tied to one's innate disposition. Some people have very strong self-control, making their ability very potent; others have weak self-control, making their ability faint. For example, Ma Xiong's is stronger than Lu Zong's, and Lu Zong's is stronger than Ge Mei's. Because of this difference, you simply don't realize you possess this extraordinary talent."

Hearing Old Man Qian explain this, the three were momentarily stunned. They had truly never heard of such bizarre things before. Was this not the legendary 'wishes granted upon thought'? If they practiced this for a few more years, wouldn't they ascend to immortality? However, they quickly looked at Old Man Qian, a person whose identity—even name—they knew nothing about, and wondered just how powerful his own ability was. They asked, "Old Man Qian, how powerful is your ability now? Seeing as you could bring the three of us here so easily, you must have some great capability. Tell us about the power of your ability."

Old Man Qian stroked his beard and said, "Such things cannot be rushed; breakthroughs come only through gradual development. If you seek instant success, you might suffer a backlash from the power, potentially even leading to criminal behavior. I developed this ability slowly over time; it strengthened on its own. I don't practice it often normally because manifesting this ability is quite draining. I can barely afford to eat, so where would I find the energy to train it? Thus, my power is limited to only gathering the four of you together. The rest is up to your own imagination. Everything you have encountered was conjured by your own thoughts and then became fact. By the time I managed to gather you here, I was utterly exhausted and had no energy left to care whether you were hungry or not."

Hearing Old Man Qian’s explanation, they all found it logical. They immediately tried testing their own powers. Sure enough, when Ma Xiong imagined a jar falling to the ground, the jar did indeed fall. But when he tried to imagine the jar transforming into a beautiful woman, the jar remained motionless. He strained with all his might but ultimately accomplished nothing. The elder laughed loudly: "It's useless, Ma Xiong. Even I cannot do that. I've tried countless times without success. You cannot conjure a living person."

Ma Xiong had no choice but to give up. He looked at the other two to see what they were doing. He reasoned that his jar incident must have been imagined by someone, and when the old man lightly waved his sleeve and sent the jar flying away, it must have been the elder manipulating the jar to intercept it.