Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1110
"Therefore, this is a piece of 'tinder' that has a low chance of success and may die out. Nobody will know its fate in the boundless universe, but let's just hope that life can find a way out for itself!"
"It surely will." Li Yao could not help but remark, "S—Miss Wei and her companions will certainly find a new out for humanity in the distant future on the other side of the sea of stars!"
"Alright." Professor Mo Xuan smiled gently. For a moment, the sharpness and aggressiveness in him that felt like a saber were entirely gone. He seemed to become the firm and generous professor of a hundred years ago again. "You must be thirsty after such a long talk. Do you want to have a cup of wine in Carefree Town? We have the most delicious wine of the Forest Ocean Sector. It took us quite a long time to create the flavor. It is identical to the wine in the real world."
Li Yao pondered for a moment. He would not mind going to the town to further discuss with his professor or even reveal his identity under the right circumstances.
However, since Long Yangjun was still around, he might as well consult the heir of the Nuwa Clan first.
"No, I'm afraid I can't," Li Yao said. "There's some business in our delegation that I must attend to since we must jump to the Heaven's Origin Sector this afternoon. We'll further discuss this with you after we return from the Heaven's Origin Sector. Right, I'll definitely ask you the way to enter the Divinity Transformation Stage 'without much trouble'!"
"Hahahaha. It's a deal!" Professor Mo Xuan laughed sunnily. He did not insist that Li Yao must stay but simply waved his hands at Li Yao and Ling Xiaole. "I'll have to greet the guests who have come to attend the ceremony. You must excuse me. See you next time!"
Li Yao was pushed out by a gentle force and sat up from the scarlet nerval interaction liquids.
Wei Qingqing and Long Yangjun were still waiting nearby. Ling Xiaole sat up from the virtual cabin next to him, too.
The two of them looked at each other in confusion and shock.
"Miss Wei…" Li Yao felt different when he looked at Wei Qingqing. "I didn't know that the 'Tinder Plan' had such deep significance!"
Wei Qingqing immediately understood. She frankly acknowledged, "As an illusionist, I prefer to create spectacular and colorful worlds. But in reality, all some people in the Imperium, the Covenant Alliance, and the federation want is to destroy the world.
"I do not like such reality. So, I might as well run to millions of years in the future and find a new world without destruction, oppression, and slavery. If I can't find one, I will create one myself. Would it be marvelous?"
Li Yao felt that his throat was choked by two nuts. Taking a long breath, he sincerely said, "Safe journey!"
Wei Qingqing smiled. "Thank you."
"…See you!"
"Haha. It will be difficult for you to see me again. But who knows? Life is so wonderful that any amazing thing can happen. See you!" Wei Qingqing waved at Li Yao, exactly in the same posture when she said goodbye on the anonymous train station deep inside the Grand Desolate Plateau.
When Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Ling Xiaole returned through the 'time channel' again in the silver shuttle, the vulnerable and yet resolute shadow was still flashing before Li Yao's eyes and glittering like an orchid flower.
"I must thank you for such an amazing trip," Ling Xiaole said from the cockpit. "The journey to the Spiriters' Realm was truly incredible!"
"Captain," Long Yangjun said, "what does the Spiriters' Realm look like? What did Professor Mo Xuan say to you? I should've joined you on the trip in the beginning."
"You will have your chance to do so, Vice-Captain Long." Li Yao was more or less relieved now. He picked some of his experiences just now and his professor's theories and explained them to Long Yangjun, complimenting them in great amazement.
Then, he began talking about the things that he would rather Ling Xiaole did not know.
Through the private talking technique, Li Yao said in a low voice, "Long Yangjun, I need your advice—"
Long Yangjun looked at the time channel outside. Because it was a return journey, the whole world seemed to be retrograding from modern times to prehistoric era.
"What's up, captain?" she replied in private talk.
"Do you think…" Li Yao said.
He suddenly shuddered, as if a cold wind was blowing at him, and felt that something was wrong.
The mental devil was shrieking in his head. "Wait. Don't ask her. She is not Long Yangjun!"
Li Yao realized what had happened, too.
When Ling Xiaole was present, it was not a problem that Long Yangjun addressed him as 'captain'. But when they were alone or talking in private, she always called him 'Li Yao' or 'Monster Li' mockingly!
Something was wrong!
It was not Long Yangjun's style in private conversations. She was not Long Yangjun!
However—
It was impossible. Long Yangjun would definitely not leave his virtual cabin.
She was an expert at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, supported by a Colossus and countless secrets from the age of Nuwa. Who could have replaced her with a counterfeit?
Li Yao thought quickly and soon realized what was going on.
The woman sitting next to him was indeed not Long Yangjun. It was not even a real person.
This place was not the real world, either.
They were still in the virtual world!
Chapter 1717: The Way to Break the Illusion |
The silver shuttle continued rushing forward without a sound in the reversed 'time channel', so quiet that it almost felt abnormal.
The continent projected by the 3D light beams nearby gradually sank into oceans. The animals on the continent retrograded into fish, and fish returned to nautili and trilobites. In the end, it was a desolate, lifeless primitive ocean again.
A drop of cold sweat slowly leaked out of Li Yao's forehead. For a moment, countless thoughts rolled over in his mind.
He was not worried about how to recognize or break the illusionary world. He was simply confused by one thing. If it was Professor Mo Xuan who constructed the 'second illusionary', what was his goal?
The virtual world—or in the terminology of the Cultivators, the Grand Illusionary Land—could easily be seen through even if it was theoretically a perfect simulation of reality.
It was because the virtual world could not simulate the things that it did not know, even if its real-time computational and rendering abilities were powerful enough to depict everything and everyone as vividly as real life.
Everything in the Grand Illusionary Land had been set in advance. Even the real-time computations and rendering that seemed random had to abide by certain laws. They could only be conducted by retrieving 'materials' from an information database.
Even the best cook could not make food without ingredients. If there were no materials, it would be impossible to simulate anything.
The simplest example would be the woman sitting next to Li Yao who looked like Long Yangjun. It was quite easy to simulate the appearance of such a person. As long as someone shot her with a crystal camera in secret the moment Long Yangjun entered the Tinder Base and scanned her from multiple perspectives, they would naturally get the 'materials of her appearance' without any trouble.
Based on the public relationship between her and Li Yao, and perhaps the conversation that the two of them had in reality, it was also possible for them to grasp Long Yangjun's speaking habits and the way she addressed Li Yao.
However, it was impossible for the people who created the Grand Illusionary Land to learn Long Yangjun's hidden identity. They could not have learned that Long Yangjun called Li Yao 'Monster Li' in private, either!
Those were secrets that could not be deduced even if the computational abilities of all the crystal processors in the federation were made use of.
In fact, distinguishing the illusion was not so complicated. There was an even easier solution. The appearance, or rather, the 'skin', in which Li Yao showed in the Grand Illusionary Land, was his appearance when he entered the Tinder Base. But it was only the surface, too. It was impossible for them to scan how many Cosmos Rings he had on his body or know what exactly was stored in the Cosmos Rings. If so, how could they simulate the Cosmos Rings?
Therefore, if he was not certain, all he needed to do was to pick up one of his Cosmos Rings and retrieve a random item as a test.
Li Yao had brought a lot of rare materials back from the Ancient Sages Sector, which did not exist in the entire federation. So, it was even less likely that the 'database' of the Grand Illusionary Land had those entries.
Or rather, he did not even need to activate his Cosmos Ring. He only needed to summon his spiritual energy and trigger a flame with it. It was absolutely impossible for the creator of the Grand Illusionary Land to learn the color, shape, and changes of the fire of spiritual energy that he raised with his special secret arts.
In short, the Grand Illusionary Land of the so-called perfect simulation of reality was only immaculate at first glance. It could only run perfectly within the boundary of the rules of the game. Once the boundary was crossed, there would be nothing it could do, and the 'players' would immediately notice the flaws and loopholes that were hidden by the delicate appearance.
Unless…
Unless the creator and controller of the Grand Illusionary Land were powerful enough to invade the brains of the 'players' and read all the information to generate a real-time database. Then, all the computations and deductions would be finished before the neurons in the brain realized what was going on.
It meant that as long as Li Yao thought of a certain specific concept in his head, it would immediately be captured by the Grand Illusionary Land, which would then run a series of complicated computations quickly to make sure that the results exactly matched what he had in mind.
Or maybe, the Grand Illusionary Land could perform very brilliant mental attacks toward the brains of the 'players' so that the 'players' would enter a certain mysterious hypnotization state as if they were dreaming.
When people were dreaming, the world in the dream that they perceived was also broken, bizarre, and in violation of common sense and natural laws.
In the dream, they could fly, dead people could reappear, animals could talk, different places could be joined to each other perfectly… any unbelievable thing could happen.
If they were awake, they would inevitably feel that such a world was hilarious and ridiculous and that it could not have been faker.
However, for the people who were trapped in nightmares, few could realize that they were in a dream.
But was it easy to achieve the two purposes at the same time?
Li Yao sneered at the bottom of his heart.
Both invading the brain to read memories and mind and paralyzing certain parts in the brain for hypnotization would consume a lot of computational abilities.
Besides, he was not an ordinary person at all but a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator with a strong soul, a determined mind, and a profound brain. He was not even a random Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator but one of the best of them!
Li Yao did not want to brag about himself. In terms of absolute combat ability, it was true that he was not the best in the federation. He had ranked between third and fifth a hundred years ago, and after a hundred years of sleep, without a crystal suit and a Colossus, it might be barely possible for him to defeat Ding Lingdang.
However, when it came to 'brain warfare' or 'mental Cultivation', he was probably the most magnificent existence in the entire federation that surpassed the Divinity Transformation Stage!
For as long as he could remember, he had always been haunted by an uncanny dream. The uncanny dream about 'Earth' that he was born with was definitely not a regular dream but some sort of 'Grand Illusionary Land'. It polished his brain without him knowing it and prepared him for the crazy and harsh training later.
Later, Ou Yezi possessed him. In the Flying Star Sector, the star child tried to invade and control his brain through the star brain. When he left the Flying Star Sector, the Blood Stripe Virus also intended to occupy his body while he was breaking the void. After three perilous, breathtaking battles in the brain, his brain and his soul were further cleansed and hardened. There was even a mental devil, a weird 'second soul' residing inside his brain now.
His experience was unique and uncopyable in the federation. Therefore, if somebody performed a mental attack on him, they would be fighting a battle that he was best at. It was exactly what he wanted!
But naturally, if his professor was truly up to something, the threat must not be underestimated, either.
As a star spirit, Professor Mo Xuan's soul had been through mutations of a certain degree, too, in a weird and enigmatic way. Also, in the battle against the star child, Professor Mo Xuan also absorbed tremendous soul strength and computational ability from the star child. Perhaps he had gained even more than Li Yao did from the battle.
After that, Professor Mo Xuan managed the Glorious Sunlight Magical Equipment Center and supervised the repair work of the hundred super crystal processors from the Star Ocean Imperium in the Star Prier's House on Spider Den. With his secret techniques as the star spirit, he had accumulated even more immense computational abilities.
Li Yao had once had a match with his professor, half for fun and half for real. His conclusion was that Professor Mo Xuan's mental abilities and soul were truly immeasurable!
And that was a hundred years ago.
In the past hundred years, Professor Mo Xuan had not been idling by. He was a 'human-shaped crystal processor'. The production, assembly, and debugging of all the super crystal processors in the federation were supervised by him or done with his personal help. He must have reached a higher level!
Since he was now living as a piece of liquid metal, it would be difficult to gauge his Cultivation by the regular levels such as the Nascent Soul Stage or the Divinity Transformation Stage. However, the intelligence that Li Yao had gathered from various sources suggested that in terms of computational ability, Professor Mo Xuan far exceeded the regular Divinity Transformation Stage!
His professor's computational ability was definitely the highest in the entire federation.
Why else would he be qualified to be the presidents of the Refiners' Association and the Association of the Spectral Cultivators?
Generally speaking, 'computational ability' did not equal 'combat ability'.
However, in the Grand Illusionary Land…
To this moment, Li Yao still did not believe that Professor Mo Xuan was capable of invading his brain, reading his memory pieces, and paralyzing his central nerves without him feeling anything wrong.
Also, it was not difficult for a 'big player' on Li Yao's level to crack such a Grand Illusionary Land.
As long as he continued burning his soul and breaking his limits, releasing infinite telepathic thoughts and techniques that surpassed the speed of real-time computation and rendering of the Grand Illusionary Land, the information streams that constituted the Grand Illusionary Land would be cast into a certain 'overflow state', which would lead to the collapse of the Grand Illusionary Land and even the super crystal processors and controllers behind it.
The star child had crashed in exactly such a way.
Ou Yezi was the same. With the last remains of his computational ability and mental ability, Ou Yezi had constructed a vivid illusionary world, trying to slowly corrupt Li Yao's soul in the illusions.
But he had never expected Li Yao's soul to be so strong. As it turned out, although Li Yao did not fight back at all, Ou Yezi simply crashed because he could not bear the enormous workload of computation and rendering.
Mental attacks were a double-edged sword in the first place. If the defender's mind was weaker, the defender would be hit, but if the defender's mind was too tough, the attacker might suffer from their own attack.
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao stared at the blue sky, white clouds, and vast prairie that seemed quiet and peaceful on the horizon. He seemed to notice the green figures and runes pouring down like a waterfall behind the sky and the clouds.
If it was really Professor Mo Xuan, why was he doing this?
On the surface, he was an honorable guest from Firefly, who had come on behalf of the Speaker of the rightful government of the Star Ocean Republic. So many federal soldiers and Secret Sword Agents were around, closely monitoring everything. Was it necessary for Professor Mo Xuan to attack him with so many eyewitnesses?
Besides, although he was Speaker Cui Lingfeng's representative, Firefly was just a bunch of refugees. In the war between the Black Wind Fleet and the federation to come, his identity on the surface would be a supporting role.
If his professor truly had any schemes, would he risk it just because of such an insignificant person?
The shuttle would soon return to the space port. The Grand Illusionary Land could not be too huge, and the characters being commuted in real time could not be too many. Not every member of Team Red Lotus could be simulated.
Therefore, whatever the purpose of the 'game' was, it would be revealed soon!
Li Yao's pupils constricted after he had that thought.
Perhaps because he had been deep in thought for too long and stopped talking to 'Long Yangjun', the Long Yangjun before him turned rigid.
In the meantime, Li Yao sensed that an overwhelming, destructive killing intent had locked onto him!
Chapter 1718: Silver World |
Li Yao's brain was vibrating crazily. The whole world turned clear and sharp in one moment. He sensed that at least six pieces of aggressive magical equipment at the same level of the main guns of a starship had not only locked onto him but also already fired!
Six supersonic cannonballs, mixed with electric arcs and flames of spiritual energy, burst out of the super crystal cannons and rushed close as quickly as a lightning with dozens of damage effects. The space hundreds of square meters around him was completely blocked. It was a hundred times more dangerous than the assault in Fish Dragon City!
