Chapter 179 Lu Chan's Nightmare 1

"I am Lu Chan," the young Lu Chan declared.

I had no choice but to ask her to explain in detail, and she did so, recounting the whole story.

Because what she said was so bizarre, I found it hard to believe her at first. But she noticed my doubt and said directly, "Don't you have the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring that Lu Chan gave you outside? Even though I am a spirit, the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring is still useful to me. You can come and grab my heart so I can repeat the truth I just told you."

I didn't know if this "strange object" was luring me into a trap, but hesitating in the face of a problem wasn't in my nature. So I went straight forward, took out the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring and put it on my left hand, while gripping the Heretic Impermanence Sword in my right hand, ready to counterattack at any moment.

The girl hanging high on the cross looked at me calmly.

I climbed onto the metal base of the cross, then raised my left hand and reached towards her slightly protruding breasts.

Then, my left hand pierced through her chest without any obstruction.

I could truly feel her vibrant, beating heart.

It should have been a ghost-like being, yet I could feel the sticky, warm texture of its internal organs, making it feel almost like a living person. And as I held that heartbeat, a familiar feeling welled up inside me again—she would be unable to lie, nor could she remain silent in the face of my questions.

With everything prepared, she took a deep breath and once again recounted the truth of the matter—

Two years ago, Lu Chan was betrayed by Chen Long and captured by the Humanitarian Division's cyborg unit at their secret hideout, where he was subjected to inhumane human experiments. This dark period lasted for eight months, and the endless torture caused Lu Chan to completely change his outlook on life in an abyss of despair.

He used to be a kind demon hunter who fought for mortals, the weak, and society. But he was abused by many mortal scientists. His power was stripped away, his magic was analyzed, and his dignity was trampled on. He was reduced to a guinea pig used by the Humanitarian Department to squeeze out the value of "superhuman warriors who serve mortal leaders".

After disappointment, anger, and despair, he utterly abandoned his past dreams amidst endless humiliation, deciding to regard mortals as bastards destined to be dominated by witchers. He transformed from a worldly pacifist like Zhu Shi into the extraordinary individual he is today.

In the end, he miraculously escaped the Humanitarian Division's stronghold, but a part of his soul remained in the hell that tormented him.

He believes this is a form of growth, much like the unrealistic dreams people have in their childhood, which are destined to be rejected by the outside world and themselves in the face of later setbacks, and are eventually replaced by more realistic and mature ideas.

The young girl Lu Chan is the dream that Lu Chan abandoned in hell.

"...Wait a minute, I still don't understand. Is this some kind of romantic metaphor? Are you talking about 'dreams'?" I asked.

"This isn't a metaphor; it's the literal meaning," the young Lu Chan said calmly. "When someone experiences extreme grief, they feel a pain as if their soul is being torn apart. In fact, this isn't just a figure of speech; extremely intense negative emotions can indeed shatter one's spirit and even cause tangible changes to the body. You've probably heard of people whose hair turns white overnight or who fall seriously ill after experiencing a huge blow. That's also a manifestation of this phenomenon."

"Even ordinary people will have a violent reaction due to changes in their state of mind, let alone us demon hunters who mainly manipulate spiritual and soul power. I am the part of Lu Chan's mind that he abandoned when he was changing himself. I am the embodiment of his desire to 'become a hero', the incarnation of his dream."

“You can understand it this way: after people die, they become ghosts; and during those eight months of torment, the old Lu Chan died and the new Lu Chan was born, and I am the ghost that the old Lu Chan became after his death.”

I gently squeezed her heart, and the black rope heart-locking ring told me that she really wasn't lying.

But I'm not sure if the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring will really work on a spirit like her. Besides, this ring was originally given to me by her original self, Lu Youxun... No, if I'm worried about the ring's effectiveness because of this reason, then it's tantamount to admitting that she is Lu Chan's dream incarnation.

Would such a fairytale-like scenario really happen in reality?

“Okay, assuming what you’re saying is true, I’ll believe you for now… but why are you a woman?” I asked. “If the old Lu Chan had died, shouldn’t the ghost that was born be a male ghost?”

"What follows is just my personal speculation. Perhaps it's because I... because Lu Chan has always looked down on women," she said. "He thought women were naive, short-sighted, and weak. So even though he would act charming in front of women, he actually despised their spirit and abilities from the bottom of his heart."

"At the same time, he also genuinely despised his past self—despised me, thinking I was naive, foolish, and feminine. This image was synchronized with his inner image of womanhood, causing me to transform into a female form. Not even into a woman, but into a girl."

"This works?" I asked, taken aback. "Is this kind of division among you Witchers quite common?"

"...No, quite the opposite, this was something that should never have happened," she said. "Just because you let go of a dream, that dream becomes a facet of your being, an embodiment of self-discipline... This phenomenon, even if it happens, will only happen in the age of myth, or in those great beings who are like gods. At the very least, it should happen to those who possess divinity."

Does "a person endowed with divinity" refer to someone like Zhu Shi?

As I pondered, I asked, "So, who are you?"

“I only know what kind of being I am, but I don’t know why I came to be. Although I have tried to explore the truth, as you can see, I am bound to mechanical restraint devices and now I am imprisoned in this dark and sunless special cell. I am simply powerless to do anything about it,” she said. “However, judging from the cold treatment that Dr. Silver Mask and Chenlong have given me, they probably know the specific cause of my existence. If they regarded me as a ‘strange thing of unknown origin,’ they would not have simply left me aside.”

Upon hearing this, I examined the restraints on her more closely.

The cross and shackles binding her now are no different from those that bound me and the other witchers before. This shows that regardless of whether she is, as she claims, "the incarnation of Lu Chan's dream," neither Dr. Silver Mask nor Chenlong has used the methods appropriate for dealing with "unknown danger" against her. Even if I don't believe her words, I should trust Dr. Silver Mask and Chenlong's vigilance.

"Does Lu Youxun know of your existence?" I asked.

“He is unaware of my existence, but he probably knows it unconsciously,” the young girl Lu Chan said casually. “In his heart, I am a taboo subject, both a part of his unbearable past and closely connected to the hell in his heart. I am the embodiment of his past dreams, but he mostly sees me as the embodiment of his nightmares.”

"Whenever he uses this place as a target for divination in the outside world, I can synchronize with his memories in fragments, but he cannot do anything similar. At most, he can only vaguely see the scene of this place through me under extremely coincidental circumstances."

"He simply thought it was because of his innate advantage in divination, even though he would have realized that it wasn't that simple if he had thought about it a little more deeply... and all of this was because he rejected me from the bottom of his heart."

"So that's why Lu Youxun could hallucinate here." I nodded tentatively. "The other demon hunters all believe you are the real Lu Chan, even though you don't look like the Lu Chan outside at all... How do you explain that?"

“I think this must be due to the nature of this alternate dimension,” she said. “Although it conflicts with the research activities carried out by the Humanitarian Department, this might be a dream-type alternate dimension. When it was restarted, since the ‘data’ of Lu Chan, who had already escaped, could not be retrieved here, I, Lu Chan’s avatar, could only be used as a substitute. And so I took over Lu Chan’s identity here.”

"I suppose the reason I was able to form is because this is a dream. The 'dream incarnation' that should not be able to appear is able to take shape in a 'dream'—that makes sense, doesn't it?"

"As for why you were also given an identity in the dream, I have no idea. Perhaps it is related to some attributes of this dream."

“No, this is not a dream, but a real space that Ying Lingyun has manipulated,” I said.

"What?" She was stunned.

I explained in detail, and she said incredulously, "How could this be... how could this be? Even the Great Impermanence couldn't cut out 'reality' itself! Besides, if this is the real reality, how can my existence be explained?"

Things that defy common sense are mostly related to fragments of the Divine Seal. Since this independent reality space was created by Ying Lingyun using the power of fragments of the Divine Seal, then perhaps the girl Lu Chan was also summoned by Ying Lingyun, or by Dr. Silver Mask, using the power of fragments of the Divine Seal.

While this explanation is certainly easy, it raises an unavoidable question: why would Ying Lingyun or Dr. Silver Mask use the power of the Divine Seal fragments to summon the girl Lu Chan? And if they were going to summon her, there must have been some purpose behind it, so why did they choose to ignore it?

Although the girl Lu Chan is not the original body from the outside world, I do not intend to explain the existence of the Divine Seal Fragments to her.

She could only temporarily put aside her obsessive thoughts and pleaded with me, "Could you please untie my restraints and take me out of this cell?"

"What are you planning to do?" I asked.

“Although Lu Chan and I have many differences in our thinking, we agree on this secret outpost of the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau. I want to help you destroy this place.” She offered a deal. “Have you found your friend Zhu Chang’an yet? If not, I can find a way to help you find him.”

(End of this chapter)