Chapter 289 Silver Moon's Identity 1

The "Silver Moon" that appeared before me pronounced my name.

However, her tone didn't seem entirely certain. While it's true I'm currently in my twelve or thirteen-year-old form, since Silver Moon had fought me before, her tone should have been more certain. I suspect this "Silver Moon" isn't the Silver Moon I know.

Based on this, I still consciously used aggressive wording: "Silver Moon, you're showing up in front of me so blatantly, aren't you afraid I'll just kill you?"

“You’ve already figured it out, haven’t you? I’m not the Silver Moon you know.” She smiled. “Besides, I know you won’t attack me directly.”

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

“You’re not the type to use your power to attack others at will. You only attack when someone shows hostility towards you or actively becomes your enemy. And as long as I don’t take a hostile stance first, even if I look exactly like that Silver Moon, you’ll still prefer dialogue to fighting.” She demonstrated her understanding of my psychology.

She's not entirely right. There have been times in the past when I've proactively attacked targets who weren't hostile towards me, such as immortal monsters. Because I've never set any hard and fast rules for myself, sometimes I just go with the flow and use my power to attack others.

If we consider her described style as a "behavioral tendency" rather than a "code of conduct," then it's not far off. When she appeared, she created an atmosphere that said, "Now is not the time to fight," so I followed her. In a sense, I'm actually quite good at reading the room.

Although she said she wasn't the Silver Moon I knew, I wasn't naive enough to believe everything she said. Perhaps it was all just an act. Even though my intuition told me she wasn't the Silver Moon herself, considering the Silver Moon could use illusionary powers to influence my mind, this intuition might very well be a product of manipulation. It's best to maintain a basic level of vigilance.

Besides, even if she isn't Silver Moon, the elders of Ancient Moon Village have told me about the various licentious and immoral acts committed by the former Goddess of Ancient Moon. We can't simply assume she's a harmless and kind person just because she's currently putting on a friendly facade.

I decided to start the conversation based on the premise that "the other party is not Silver Moon herself." In addition, in order to distinguish her from the real Silver Moon, I will refer to this "Silver Moon" as "Ancient Moon God".

"What exactly are you?" I asked. "Since you are not Silver Moon, this should be our first meeting, but you not only know my name, but also my style."

“I have a potential connection with the real Silver Moon. I can access her memories to a certain extent,” Gu Yueshen explained in a clear voice. “Originally, I could access all of them clearly, but I don’t know what she did or what other accident happened. Now I can only access a fragmented part of her memories.”

"Among these, because she was deeply impressed by you, and your contact with you was relatively recent, I have a lot of information about her."

Is it like the relationship between the young girl Lu Chan and Lu Youxun? The past Lu Chan also synchronized with Lu Youxun's memories through a latent connection, knowing me before we even met. Perhaps there's a similar relationship between this Ancient Moon God and that Silver Moon.

"So, you are the embodiment of Silver Moon's dream?"

As I asked the question, I felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Was I about to become a temporary ally of this Ancient Moon God, just like I had worked with the young girl Lu Chan, to overcome the difficulties that lay ahead? And in the end, would I have to repeat the same mental attack on my enemy, just like last time?

Once is enough; I don't want to repeat the experience of parting with the young girl Lu Chan. However, one thing is undeniable: cooperating with the incarnation of Silver Moon will undoubtedly bring many benefits. The other party certainly knows many of Silver Moon's secrets and might even be able to help me find out what Silver Moon is planning to do at Moonshadow Mountain.

Thinking positively, I bear both the prophecy of the Lord of the Divine Seal and the strange fortune of Ma Zao. Perhaps the appearance of the Ancient Moon God is a clue provided by some unseen force. As long as I obediently accept the arrangement, I can smoothly find the location of the Silver Moon God.

"The embodiment of dreams..."

Gu Yue Shen uttered the word, then shook his head and said, "I am not the incarnation of the Silver Moon. Although we may be beings of similar nature, anyone who knows how I was born will understand that the truth is not so."

"However, I am indeed connected to Silvermoon's dream. Although if she were to evaluate me, she would probably say that I am a failed product of her journey to realize her dream."

"What is Silver Moon's dream?" I asked curiously.

"Her dream is her most basic desire as a living being, which is survival, or rather, the continuation of her self," she said. "I am the being that came into being in her pursuit of the art of self-continuation. In the past, she realized that even she, who could fulfill most of the desires of intelligent life, would one day die."

"She won't die from exhaustion of her lifespan—although she's only at the Great Completion stage, she can use her special abilities to live as long as heaven and earth, much like the Great Impermanence. However, she can still be killed. Even with an endless lifespan, if she's killed by a powerful demon hunter, it's all for naught."

"So...in order to be resurrected even if she is killed in the future, she left a foreshadowing of her resurrection in the human world?" I tried to speculate. "Once she dies, the foreshadowing will automatically activate, bringing her back to life...just like how she used her own child to be resurrected now?"

Gu Yueshen mumbled indistinctly, "...Maybe."

“What do you mean by ‘maybe’?” I asked. “Isn’t she afraid of death and wants to prolong her life? Since she’s certain she will die, then the only way to prolong her life is to research resurrection techniques, right?”

"Let me explain slowly," said Gu Yueshen. "First of all... as far as I know, she didn't leave any clues for her resurrection during her lifetime."

"This statement is completely contrary to the facts I have encountered."

Although this statement doesn't align with reality, it resonates with certain information I've encountered in the past. After Yin Yue was killed by Ying Lingyun, the Luo Shan faction conducted extensive investigations to ensure she wouldn't be resurrected, ultimately concluding that "Yin Yue left no clues about her resurrection"—isn't that conclusion wrong?

But if she wasn't resurrected after death, how did she originally intend to continue her life?

The ancient moon statue seemed to sense my confusion and continued, "Among you humans, there must be a saying that some people die, but their thoughts remain in this world, so they are considered to live on in another form; or, although it is regrettable that they did not leave behind their thoughts, they left behind descendants, and can be regarded as the existence of their ancestors continuing in some form. I wonder what you think of this saying?"

"When a person dies, they are dead. The idea that as long as one's thoughts remain, one is still living in a different way, or that as long as one has descendants, one is still continuing the lineage, is nothing but self-comfort born from the inability to escape death." I offered my opinion.

"This is probably the view of most humans as well. Although this saying comes from you humans, you humans are also the least likely to believe it," the Ancient Moon God sighed. "However, Silver Moon doesn't think that way. Perhaps it's because she's not human, so her perspective on things is different from most humans—she genuinely believes this saying. She doesn't see it as a self-comforting excuse about not being able to escape death, but as a truth to be practiced."

Buddhism says that the Buddha has three bodies: the Dharma body, the reward body, and the manifestation body. Even if a person dies in the human world, his life's thoughts can be passed down from generation to generation in civilization, so his reward body can still be considered to remain in the human world.

"Silver Moon believes that even if her physical body perishes, as long as her thoughts remain, it is as if she still exists. However, unlike ordinary people who can only continue their physical form through language and writing, she, as a great demon who can turn fantasy into reality, naturally has a more efficient means—that is, to directly create another version of herself."

"Is this how you came to be?" I asked.

Silvermoon isn't human, so even if her values ​​are somewhat unconventional, I can easily accept it. Then, I noticed another problem: "But wouldn't this approach have a fatal flaw?"

The first problem to solve in order to allow a clone to live on in place of oneself is how to ensure that the clone does not perish along with the original body after the original body dies.

Lu Chan's "possibility clones" don't have this problem. However, when facing someone of my level, he still has to face the risk that all of his "possibility clones" will be burned away by me along the connections between individuals.

That's how I destroyed Ying Lingyun's consciousness network.

The former Silver Moon was known as invincible below the Great Impermanence, so when she predicted her own death, she most likely considered the Great Impermanence as her hypothetical enemy. Although she ultimately died at the hands of Ying Lingyun, whom she had raised, it's unlikely that she would have left behind a clone as a means of self-perpetuation, based on her original prediction.

If I can do it, then there's no way that the Great Impermanence can't.

(End of this chapter)