Chapter 290 Silver Moon's Identity 2

Taking "possible clones" as an example, there may only be one way to ensure that the clone can survive if the original is killed by the Great Impermanence: that is, to deliberately create a clone that is very different from oneself in terms of thought.

The Silver Mask Doctor used this characteristic to break free from Ying Lingyun's consciousness network. It's quite possible that when I destroyed all of Ying Lingyun's "possible clones" along the consciousness network, I didn't even reach the Silver Mask Doctor's side.

However, this kind of clone clearly doesn't meet Silvermoon's needs. What she wants is another individual whose thoughts are completely identical to hers—or at least very similar—as a continuation of herself. Creating a clone like Dr. Silvermask would be putting the cart before the horse.

“I think you may have misunderstood. Silvermoon never placed her hopes on the path of clones from the beginning, and I am not her clone.” Ancient Moon God said very seriously, “I am an elf born from the faith of the Ancient Moon villagers, or you could say a god.”

"Can gods be born from faith?" I asked.

This concept is not new. In many folk legends and stories from ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, there are many stories that people's prayers or desires give birth to spirits or demons. In modern fictional stories, in order to explain the existence of gods, some stories argue that gods did not come first and then faith, but rather faith came first and then gods, giving rise to the explanation that gods arose from collective faith.

But fantasy is fantasy, and I still need to reconfirm whether this explanation holds true in reality.

"Not all faiths give rise to deities. Sometimes, even religions with large numbers of followers may not produce deities. Sometimes, even the prayers of just a few people are enough to create a sacred spirit," Gu Yue God patiently explained. "The appearance of a deity is always an unrepeatable miracle. The villagers of Gu Yue are not so special; they do not possess the conditions for the creation of a deity... Of course, even if you asked me what those conditions are, I couldn't answer. At least, the villagers of Gu Yue do not possess the aura that calls for miracles."

"However, Silver Moon possesses the extraordinary ability to turn fantasy into reality. With her help, miracles that were originally impossible to replicate can be easily manifested in her hands."

I felt once again just how incomprehensible is the power to turn fantasy into reality.

It's astonishing that even the creation of a god could be accomplished. Even if this "god" is certainly far less powerful than the Great Impermanence, who is hailed as a god on earth, it still sounds outrageous enough.

"In order for the villagers of Guyue to generate a deity similar to herself, she repeatedly performed her 'miracles' in front of them in the early stages. Later, in order for the power of faith and longing to generate me instead of being concentrated entirely on herself, she disappeared from everyone's sight from a certain day onwards." Guyue God continued, "Suddenly losing the protection of the deity, the villagers returned to their difficult days. In their fear, they prayed with all their might, and finally, I was successfully born."

"However, my birth did not satisfy Silvermoon. She discovered that although my power attributes were similar to hers, my thoughts were completely different. The components that make up my existence contain too many sincere hopes of the villagers of Ancient Moon, making me a kind deity with no malice towards humanity."

"Silver Moon can accept my weakness, but she cannot accept that my thoughts are different from hers. That means I am not another version of her and cannot become her continuation."

"Fortunately, perhaps she felt that even if I was a failed experiment, I still had value as a case study, so she didn't destroy me on the spot, but sealed me on Mount Moonshadow. After that, she left without saying goodbye and never returned. Judging from the mysterious connection between us, she seems to have died nearly twenty years ago."

"And just recently, although we don't know how, she was resurrected in some unknown way..."

Resurrection? After hearing what she said earlier, I began to doubt this claim and said, "You claim to be a benevolent deity with no ill intentions towards humanity... but those villagers don't see you that way, do they?"

"This is because Silver Moon altered history, and the mist outside is a manifestation of her power," she replied calmly. "In the original history, Guyue Village was never renamed Hujia Village. After Silver Moon left and I was sealed away, all the villagers withdrew from the mountains."

"In the altered history, I became a licentious and wicked god, and the one who sealed me changed from Silver Moon to a fictional deity. Those villagers were actually people who died long ago, but were brought back to life by Silver Moon's power to alter history."

"However, because the soul inherently possesses the property of transcending time and space, it is impossible to truly resurrect the dead simply by relying on the power to alter history. Those villagers who seem to be alive are merely phantoms of themselves believing they have a mind. And their mission is to monitor me."

"Why are you being monitored?" I asked.

"Because I occupied part of Silvermoon's authority," she said frankly. "Although I don't know how she was resurrected, she obviously can't regain her power immediately after being resurrected."

"She may have foreseen this before she died and left a backup of her power somewhere. In this way, as long as she summons her backup power immediately after being resurrected, she can quickly return to her prime."

"However, this method seems to have a flaw due to my presence. A portion of the power she summoned automatically entered my body, which was located in Mount Moonshade, preventing her from recovering to her full strength. Soon, she was severely injured by you and then fled to Mount Moonshade."

"She must have realized that the reason she couldn't recover her power was because of me, so she wanted to kill me and take away her share of the power. However, because she is in extremely poor condition right now, she can't kill me for the time being, so she can only strengthen the seal against me and wait for her injuries to heal before dealing with me again. I used to be able to break the old seal in a short time with my newfound power, but now I can only be trapped in the mist again and can't get out."

As she spoke, she touched the stone necklace around her neck.

It seems that the seal itself is this stone collar.

Silver Moon was seriously injured... Although she managed to escape from me last time, she was not unscathed.

"Trapped in the fog—not trapped in the ancestral hall?" I asked.

“I can leave this shrine anytime I want, but as long as I can’t escape the mist, it’s the same no matter where I go. Those phantom villagers outside are just doing their duty, and I don’t want to cause them any trouble.” Gu Yue sighed deeply.

Even the phantom villagers are worried that she might be too saintly.

Despite having such thoughts in my mind, I haven't completely believed that she is the so-called "benevolent deity".

So far, she has only given her side of the story regarding her origins and character. No matter how docile she appears, I can't possibly believe her immediately.

I went straight to the point and asked, "So, where is Silvermoon now? I'm going to go and kill her right now."

“Silver Moon is deep within the mist. However, you absolutely cannot find her now,” said the Ancient Moon God. “'Trapping me' is only a secondary function of this mist. Its truly important function is to protect her until she recovers from her severe injuries.”

"The deeper you go into the mist, the more you lose your way, and eventually you'll be unable to go any further, like encountering a spatial rift. I do have the ability to break it, because my power is the same as Silver Moon's. But right now I'm sealed by Silver Moon, and if I want to go deeper into the mist, I must first break Silver Moon's seal on me."

"Break the seal..." I looked at the stone collar around her neck.

She quickly covered her neck and said, "Um... if you destroy this collar, I'll die too, please don't do that."

"There is a very simple way to break the seal: just take me outside the mist. The purpose of this seal is to trap me in the mist. Once I am outside the mist, the seal will lose its meaning and then collapse."

"You should be able to leave the mist, right? Although I'm inside the shrine, I can vaguely sense the changes in the outside world. I saw you leave the mist with that girl's help. Please help me, and ask that girl to take me away too."

"It seems you really want to leave the fog..."

I realized that, regardless of her true feelings, "leaving the fog" must have been a very important step for her.

The more she wanted to leave the fog, the more I had to carefully consider the consequences of taking her out of the fog.

And if the reason those villagers didn't seem human to me is because they were illusions created after the Silver Moon altered history, then what about Wintercart?

It's impossible that even Winter Chariot is a dead person from history, a phantom created by Silver Moon's alteration of history, right? If that were the case, why would the Diviner Master value Winter Chariot so much?

Winter Chariot's admiration and trust in me, as well as his disregard for life and death, deeply moved me. If given the chance, I would still want to save him from death. So I also tried to ask the Moon God about Winter Chariot.

She seemed somewhat puzzled, apparently unaware of Dongche's identity. Seeing this, I explained Dongche's background and his status as a disciple of Dawuchang to her. After listening, she showed a thoughtful expression.

“So that’s how it is… that young man was actually the personal disciple of the Divination Master…” She seemed to understand somewhat. “No wonder the Divination Master suddenly appeared nearby.”

(End of this chapter)