Floating Light and Bubbles 10

Humans pride themselves on their rich and varied emotions. We constantly celebrate family, friendship, and love... We consider ourselves the masters of all creation, confident that our emotions surpass those of all other creatures. While this is difficult to fully demonstrate, I do believe that human emotions are unparalleled in their complexity.

Humans, therefore, are the most paradoxical of creatures. The happiness we experience is fleeting, and after enjoying it, we often feel it's insignificant. Most of the time, we exist in a flat, even negative state. Pain drives us to yearn for pleasure, but that pleasure is fleeting. Negative emotions are almost part of human destiny.

Spellcasters know that negative emotions are a power, a power that only they can harness. Unfortunately, emotions belong to everyone. No one can permanently avoid negative emotions. Uncontrolled forces can lead to disaster, known as curse spirits.

The saying "the mind creates everything" may explain the strange and bizarre nature of cursed spirits. Ordinary people are unable to convert negative emotions into cursed energy, so these negative emotions dissipate. When negative emotions accumulate to a certain limit, the quantitative change leads to a qualitative change, transforming them into a negative energy called cursed energy. A high concentration of cursed energy has the power to "transform falsehood into reality." For example, if I spread a rumor about a monster with three heads, four arms, and six legs that catches children, and if most residents know about it and become afraid of it, it will actually be born. Most cursed spirits follow this process. Of course, the first person to spread the rumor is not someone as intentional as me. Ghost stories stem from people's fear of the unknown and their attempts to understand it.

In general, cursed spirits are born from human imagination. More precisely, they are the product of the interweaving of human emotions and cognition. They are both a derivative of emotions and a reflection of cognition.

Japan boasts eight million gods and countless imps. Yokai culture is deeply ingrained, and many well-known cursed spirits survive to this day. As long as they're not completely forgotten, they have the potential to be reborn, a resurgence, a resurgence.

However, in recent years, the growth rate of "hypothetical" and "specific" cursed spirits has declined, and newly emerging cursed spirits defy traditional categories. Perhaps it can be said that cursed spirits are actually a response to social problems. As society changes, the forms of cursed spirits are also changing. Anxiety about aging, environmental pollution, the financial crisis, and other issues are generating more and more cursed spirits.

The opposite group to the cursed spirits are the sorcerers.

One of the key points of becoming a sorcerer is to use the power generated by negative emotions to fight against cursed spirits.

Another key element of becoming a sorcerer is the ability to "see" the spirits of the spell. It's widely believed in the sorcery community that this ability to see the spirits of the spells depends on an as-yet-unidentified brain region. In my humble opinion, since biological dissection hasn't revealed the cause, perhaps a more mysterious mechanism is at work.

The world we inhabit consists of three layers. To use philosophical terminology, the first is purely material, the world as seen by ordinary people, devoid of mystery. The second, a world that combines both matter and consciousness, is the world as seen by sorcerers, rife with mystery. The third is fully conscious, accessible only to those who unfold their realms. As for what this third layer is like, I imagine it to be as profound and unfathomable as the ocean, encompassing the thoughts and ideas of humanity over the centuries.

The three-layered theory of the world is, after all, just speculation. Sorcerers who reach the third layer are rare, and most only get a fleeting glimpse, believing it to be an illusion. I hypothesize that there's a fluid connection between the first and second layers, and that sorcerers are those "chosen" to peer into the inner world. Those who can see cursed spirits must have obtained some kind of "access permit." In other words, the sorcerer's brain is marked, making it impossible to observe scientifically. Why the brain? The human brain is the seat of consciousness. "Access permits" can be innate, acquired, permanent, or temporary, and any combination is possible. The standard for granting access is ultimately based on the word "emotion."

Between the second and third layers lies a thin membrane, invisible and intangible, yet truly existing, separating us from the unknown ocean. I suspect the sorcerer's so-called "innate magic" is closely related to it.

Exploring the sorcerer's birth rituals reveals a deep connection to human society. "Unlimited" is a mystical application of the mathematical concept of "infinity," while "projection spells" are linked to the booming popularity of anime. The birth rituals are engraved upon the soul. Where do they originate? There must be a matching mechanism. Who is performing this matching? It is something more macroscopic, more abstract. The realm is the embodiment of the sorcerer's inner landscape.

The third level is the sum total of what all human beings trust in their hearts.

Whether it's a cursed spirit or a sorcerer, looking back at the millennia of sorcery, we can draw an interesting conclusion: the power of sorcerers and cursed spirits is roughly equal, as if an unknown entity were observing and maintaining this chaotic world. Even someone as powerful as Sukuna was eventually sealed away. With Sukuna's sealing, the flourishing Heian period of sorcery came to an end, ushering in a millennium-long period of silence in the art of sorcery.

However, if you visit a community of sorcerers, you'll notice that the power between sorcerers and cursed spirits isn't quite balanced. Don't forget the cursers, and don't forget the sorcerers who have grown undiscovered. Besides, who can say there's an imbalance? Some sorcerers are more powerful than all the other sorcerers combined, and there's no cursed spirit they can't exorcise.

Ultimately, it's just an uneven distribution of power. The unknown being only wants one final outcome.

After talking about sorcerers and cursed spirits, we should talk about the world of spells.

Only the Japanese government has set up a special department to deal with curse disasters. All Japanese sorcerers have a common question: why are there so many cursed spirits in Japan than in other countries?

The answer lies in the Tianyuan barrier.

The Tianyuan barrier is a protective barrier for the world of sorcery, and Master Tianyuan is vital to it. Without it, sorcery would have vanished into the tide of history. Reason banishes ignorance; this is the only path for the development of civilization. But when ignorance brings prosperity and wealth, why embrace truth?

The membrane minimizes the influence of the third layer of consciousness on the first layer of matter. In other countries and regions, this membrane is incredibly thick, but in Japan, it's as thin as a cicada's wing, allowing it to exert its influence at all times. Tianyuan acts as both an observer and a regulator, controlling the flow of mana through the Tianyuan barrier to prevent it from being dissipated by the membrane.

Cursed spirits are born from cursed power, and the sorcerer uses cursed power to exorcise the cursed spirits. Cursed power is the lifeline, nothing more.

Perhaps for today's Japanese, yokai culture is a form of "life," but a culture that exists alongside a nation shouldn't harm its people. Compared to wars started by ordinary people, cursed disasters seem a bit of an exaggeration. The number of people who die at the hands of cursed spirits each year in Japan is even less than the number of suicides. However, human life is immeasurable.

The high-level members of the curse sect have always believed that they used a barrier to imprison the god named "Curse" so that he would not escape and leave them. They begged the god to shine forever and grant them glory.

A god that has existed for thousands of years cannot be killed, and one can only coexist with it.