Chapter 429 Paradise

The Peach Blossom Spring?

If I remember correctly, this seems to be an article written by the ancient Chinese writer Tao Yuanming, expressing the author's dissatisfaction with real life and his pursuit of a dreamlike vision. However, the entire text is only a little over three hundred words, not enough to form a book.

Considering that it was the book that Xiao Qiao saw in the ghost story incident, it's very likely that it's just using the name of "Peach Blossom Spring" with completely different content. Besides, I'm sure I'm not overthinking it; the four characters "Peach Blossom Spring" remind me of Peach Blossom Village, one of the three great calamities of Luoshan.

In fact, the mysterious man I guessed came from Peach Blossom Spring.

Here I should first talk about the information I found about Taoyuan Township at the Luoshan headquarters during this period. After all, Taoyuan Township is likely to become a force I will have to face in the near future, and the Township Chief even tried to attack me at the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau's main base. Since I have the time and energy, I definitely need to investigate carefully.

Taoyuan Township, as its name suggests, is an organization that collectively pursues the ideal of a "Shangri-La".

This organization shares a similarity with Buddhism: both believe that the real world is full of troubles and suffering. People are adrift in a sea of ​​desires and suffering, and only on the other shore can they find salvation.

The other shore pursued by Buddhism is a spiritual realm that can only be reached by recognizing that material desires are nothing but illusions; the other shore pursued by Peach Blossom Spring is to go to a deeper level of illusion, that is, the world of dreams.

In other words, they want to realize all their desires in a dream world they have woven themselves. Money, power, beauty, fame, health... anything can be obtained in a dream, even immortality.

In order to promote their beliefs and expand their organizational influence, the believers of Peach Blossom Village would have their intended targets experience the dream world first.

The targets of the enticement and recruitment were not only ordinary people, but also a large number of demon hunters.

The followers of Peach Blossom Village sometimes tell a story, play a piece of music, or give a book to the target to read. During this process, the target is hypnotized by illusion and invited into a dream world that resembles a paradise.

In that dream, one might be able to correct past regrets, achieve a wish that one could never fulfill in their lifetime, encounter a lover who died in the past, or meet someone they could never meet in the real world, and enjoy a carefree happiness that cannot be experienced in reality.

The self in dreams may even possess wisdom, courage, dignity, and other admirable qualities that the self in reality lacks, such as kindness, tolerance, and selflessness—qualities that the self desires but cannot uphold.

The more pessimistic and negative people are about real life, the more easily they are captured by beautiful dreams. Therefore, after leaving the dream world, they are willing to do anything to return to the sweet dream. Because in their eyes, that world is the real reality, while reality is an unbearable hell.

At first glance, it might seem hard to empathize, but if you put yourself in someone else's shoes, what if one day I suddenly "woke up" and discovered that everything I've experienced since meeting Asahi was a lie, that there were no exciting and magical adventures in the world, and that I had neither superpowers, nor met Asahi, nor had the courage to explore the strange and embrace adventure, nor could I even remember the resolve to calmly face death and despair, and was just an ordinary person who was utterly boring inside and out—how would I think then?

To be honest, I can't quite picture myself like that right now, but it certainly wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

After verifying that the mysterious man's background was Peach Blossom Village, in order to reconfirm my knowledge, I told Zhu Shi all the information I knew about Peach Blossom Village.

She nodded and said, "The 'Shangri-La' of Taoyuan Township is said to be under construction at this stage, or it can be said to be a pie in the sky that the Taoyuan Township Master has painted for all believers."

"In order to truly complete this 'Shangri-La' and be able to join it after the plan succeeds, all the believers are extremely fanatical and will do anything to fulfill the orders of their superiors."

“However, there’s something I don’t understand…” I said, “If they were just ordinary people, that would be one thing, but why would so many demon hunters believe in the existence of ‘Shangri-La’ and join this organization?”

The dream world created by mere illusion has its limitations.

The believers of Peach Blossom Spring seek to spend a long and fulfilling life in a dream world, and they have extremely high standards for this dream world. Whether it is the material things they encounter in the dream world or the spirit and power they possess within it, they must strive to make it as close to reality as possible, or at least avoid situations where they can see through it.

It's practically impossible to do that. Generally speaking, even if you use illusion magic to make someone spend a lifetime in a dream, it would only create the feeling of "spending a lifetime as if it were a lifetime."

Take ordinary dreams as an example. Many people have probably experienced spending months or even years in their dreams. However, with a little observation, it becomes clear that what sustains these months or years of "experience" is nothing more than a handful of dream scenes, at most a dozen or so. It's like reading a short story of a few thousand words at most. Even if it describes the protagonist's life from childhood to old age, you can't say that the reader truly experienced a lifetime alongside the protagonist.

To truly live a lifetime in a dreamlike illusion, the illusion must contain "information equivalent to a human lifespan." Considering that the believers in Peach Blossom Spring also desire immortality within the dream world, granting a believer's wish would require injecting at least the information equivalent to a person living for thousands or tens of thousands of years.

Some might question what happens to a person's physical body in the real world if they spend thousands or tens of thousands of years in a dream. The Peach Blossom Spring promises its believers that even if the "paradise" they are building lasts for nearly eternity, even if the believers live there until they no longer want to live, it will only be a fleeting moment to the outside world.

Therefore, once "Shangri-La" was successfully established, it was too late for Luo Shan to launch an attack. Even though "Shangri-La" was only established for a moment, the goals of all believers were achieved.

In other words, this is equivalent to saying that "Shangri-La" can generate information equivalent to the entire population of Shangri-La living for at least several thousand or tens of thousands of years, or even hundreds of thousands or millions of years, in an instant.

If the person exhibiting the "Shangri-La" is Silver Moon, hailed as having an "understanding of illusion comparable to the historically renowned master of illusion," and if the number of targets is limited to one or two, then achieving this might be possible. Even if it's difficult to accomplish in a rush, some preparation should suffice.

As far as I know, the Taoyuan Township organization had only a few thousand members before the Fantian Incident, but its numbers began to surge afterward, with new members joining year after year. By the first half of last year, Luo Shan estimated that the number of members in Taoyuan Township had likely reached over 100,000, with its tentacles reaching all over the country, and even casting a shadow over the government and high-ranking officials in Luo Shan.

Setting such a large population as a "Shangri-La" is impossible, even if it were replaced with a version of Silvermoon from the Great Impermanence faction. Even cutting the population by two zeros wouldn't make it possible.

"This is related to why Taoyuan Township has developed so many believers... Didn't you find this information when you were researching?" Zhu Shi asked curiously.

"It's too difficult to find information about Luoshan," I said.

The Luoshan headquarters is not modern enough in terms of document management, with most documents only existing in paper form. Although there is an electronic archive, the content seems incomplete, and the interface is user-unfriendly, reminiscent of some difficult-to-use government websites.

"You didn't use that electronic archive, did you? There's actually a Demon Hunter forum in Luoshan. You can get a lot of information you want just by posting a phishing thread there. Don't worry, your junior sister here knows a lot about this. I'll teach you the right way to fish online later!" Zhu Shi patted his chest with a mysterious and confident expression.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to recall what Zhu Shi, the image of a well-bred young lady, was like.

Zhu Shi added, "And you can also have Lu Chan help you organize that intelligence. Senior Brother Zhuang, you're still not used to ordering people around. There are many things you don't actually need to do yourself."

“I’ve got it. So, what’s the answer to that question?” I asked.

“The answer is the amount of material,” Zhu Shi said. “The consciousness and memories of those who enter ‘Shangri-La’ can provide information material for ‘Shangri-La’. The more people who enter, the greater the amount of material for this ultimate illusion, ‘Shangri-La’.”

"Humans cannot imagine things they have never seen before, so even if a person dreams, they are just ruminating on the information they have in their memories; but if the thoughts of millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of people are gathered together, dreams can continuously provide individuals with fresh information."

"Countless combinations of information can create almost infinite possibilities. According to the analysis of some people in Luoshan, if each dreamer is considered a neural node, then the super dream network that is finally formed may even transform into a conscious universe that can think and imagine on its own, possessing its own life..."

As Zhu Shi explained this, I suddenly felt that the concept sounded somewhat familiar.

She paused for a moment, then said, "In a sense, this can also be seen as the creation of another real universe."

(End of this chapter)