Chapter 310 Becoming the Great Impermanence

All bodies and souls were destroyed, and I thought I was going to die, but for some reason, I did not die.

No, actually I understand now why I didn't die...

Because my spirit has merged into the natural heat. This merging doesn't mean treating the natural heat as a house and having my spirit reside in it. The reality is more profound: my spirit has become one with the natural heat. To put it more completely, now, I am the heat itself.

This ability didn't just appear suddenly; from the beginning, I've had the ability to merge my spirit with natural heat to perceive my surroundings. Because of this property, I've considered the circumstances under which I could be killed. One possibility I came up with was that unless I didn't place "fireflies," thermal markers, or other power derivatives elsewhere, and the enemy created an absolute zero environment centered on me over a vast area, I would absolutely not die.

Later, this idea gradually faded from my mind. Regardless of the fact that it was just a wild guess that I had never put into practice, I also found it hard to believe that, given that my soul had been completely killed, I could make a comeback simply by relying on the magical heat I spread outwards or by completely merging my spirit into the natural heat.

Ying Lingyun—or rather, the creator of the monster—once told me in battle that no matter how skilled I am at transforming my spirit into flames and heat, I cannot convert my soul 100% into power, because I always need to divide myself into the "subject who manipulates power" and the "power being manipulated." If I were to become entirely the latter, my consciousness would lose its core structure and dissipate into the world as a pure natural phenomenon.

—Unless I am a true “manifestation,” a true god or immortal.

So... if I didn't die after all that, then was I really "manifesting"? But there is clearly a lot of evidence to prove that I wasn't "manifesting," which is why I previously thought I couldn't continue to maintain consciousness and survive when my soul was completely destroyed.

The idea that consciousness can be maintained even after the soul is destroyed sounds truly contradictory. Soul, consciousness, mind, spirit... these terms should clearly be equated.

Moreover, now on Mount Moonshade, the flames and heat I summoned with my superpowers have all extinguished. Not only have my body and soul vanished, but everything that could symbolize me has disappeared without a trace. Under these circumstances, I truly find it difficult to understand how I can still perceive things.

Or rather, what exactly is "I"?

This seems more akin to a philosophical question. In the traditional scientific worldview, the self was considered an "emergent" result of electrochemical reactions in the brain. This "emergence" refers to the properties that simple individuals, when assembled into a complex collective system, exhibit, are not possessed by the simple individuals themselves. For example, the surface tension of water is a property that water molecules do not possess. However, applying this to the formation of the self always feels forced and contrived.

Some argue that humans are essentially biological machines, and that the so-called "self" is merely a complex illusion. I cannot accept that view. Because even if it is just an illusion, there must first be an "self" capable of generating that illusion.

I think, therefore I am; the self is self-evident. Precisely because of this, the self seems to become something difficult to prove. At most, humans can only believe in the fact that they possess a self. Furthermore, even among billions of humans, proving whether a second person truly possesses a self, or is merely a biological machine that seems to possess a self, is impossible.

If we cannot find "me" using a scientific worldview, can we find it using a Witcher's worldview? For example, is "me" located within the soul?

I used to believe that too, but as the soul gradually became something visible, tangible, or even observable and subject to intervention, it began to resemble an alternative form of matter and energy in my mind.

In the worldviews of ancient religions and mythologies, the soul was also considered the body after death, and it was even believed that the soul should have a definite structure like the body, possessing elements such as three souls and seven spirits. If so, where exactly is the self located in this body? Or is the self also formed through some complex energy reaction of this body? If the self cannot be verified in the physical body, but can be verified in another "material" body, it is simply unconvincing.

I recalled the knowledge that Zhu Shi had explained to me before. It is said that in the ultimate realm that demon hunters dream of, there is a realm called "True Spirit". The requirement to reach this realm is to verify and come into contact with the existence of "me".

Beyond these ultimate realms, such as "dreams" and "manifestations," it seems that they are also related to this "true spirit" to some extent.

The "reincarnation" achieved by the two polarities of the mountain is likely related to the "true spirit"—or rather, to the "verification of the self."

As I pondered these matters, I looked at the Black Tortoise of the Navy once again.

I can't discern my exact location right now. I say I'm looking, but without a body and soul, I can neither see nor hear anything. I can only form scenes in my consciousness, like imagined images, in the void of darkness. Because it's imagination, I can simultaneously sketch his face and back in my mind. This isn't a third-person perspective, but rather a God's-eye view.

At the same time, perhaps it was because I lost my entire body and soul, and because the Water Master Xuanwu brought me closer to death than ever before, that I once thought I was really dead... Now, I feel as if I have been freed from all shackles.

Even all of its power has been completely unleashed.

The naval commander, Xuanwu, stood on the barren land littered with rubble, surveying his surroundings. Half a mountain had been shattered by his ultimate attack; had the angle been correct, he might have leveled the entire mountain. Even the legendary Tsar Bomba couldn't have accomplished something similar.

Even the mist that shrouded Moon Hidden Mountain was mostly torn apart by Xuanming's attack just now, and now when you look up at the sky, you can even see the silver moon hanging high in the night sky.

He raised his right hand, and another "golden pill" appeared in his palm. However, compared to the previous one, the oppressive feeling of this "golden pill" was far less. As this "golden pill" appeared, a massive amount of black water emerged from all directions, which was the dark and mysterious magical power formed after the previous "golden pill" shattered.

Countless streams of dark and mysterious magical power surged into this "golden core," giving it the same oppressive aura as the previous "golden core."

(End of this chapter)