Chapter 213 This is how it should be viewed
Of course, there would be no fire in the frigid Arctic ocean, nor in any other ocean in the world. Although there are theories about underwater volcanoes, I haven't sunk that deep yet.
The firelight was as elusive and fleeting as a phantom. I couldn't tell if I had truly seen the firelight or if it was merely a hallucination in my mind—most likely the latter. And within this illusion, this "illusion" felt more real than anything else. I was certain that it was the flame I had ignited in the real world, the flame produced by lighting the silver moon.
This also means that my approach to breaking the deadlock was correct.
My line of thinking is actually somewhat unstable. If Silver Moon's illusion is a "disposable skill," it means my spirit cannot continuously ignite Silver Moon. The only basis for this line of thinking is that I believe my spirit has the effect of automatically burning away illusionary power.
Since even Silver Moon herself couldn't escape being ignited by my spirit, the illusionary power she unleashed was even less likely to be spared. Without risking being continuously ignited by me, she couldn't possibly trap me in the illusion for long.
I stretched out my hand towards the firelight with all my might. Just like when I saw the firelight, I couldn't tell if I had actually stretched out my hand; I could only imagine it in my mind, while simultaneously imagining my entire body flying towards the firelight. This effort wasn't in vain; I did see the firelight grow larger and larger in my field of vision, until it finally filled my entire field of vision.
The feeling of being immersed in icy seawater dissipated, replaced by a warm and dry sensation. In the light, my body seemed to rise. Gradually, a sense of familiarity arose. My consciousness moved towards a metaphysical level.
I vaguely "saw," or rather, "imagined," the scenes I had experienced before—in streets strewn with corpses and seas of blood, Zhu Shi silently stared at my mangled body, holding the Yama Sword; on the frigid Arctic glaciers, Ma Zao stood blankly on the edge of a broken ice shelf, looking down in the direction I had fallen; in a forest ravaged by a nuclear explosion, Yin Yue stretched out her palm towards the surrounding sea of fire, while her body was engulfed in flames…
The final scene is clearly a scene from the real world, but from my current perspective, the real world is not much different from the illusion, just as the illusion is also a kind of reality, or the so-called reality is also an illusion.
Besides those mentioned above, there are many other hazy, dreamlike visions I haven't yet experienced, visions that seem to be pulling me in. Some look familiar, others are completely foreign. One vision, in particular, places me facing off against a gloomy, unfamiliar young man wielding a terrifying axe. I feel that if I'm drawn there and killed, the situation will truly be irreversible. I even suspect that the previous two visions were just appetizers, and that this is where Silver Moon's true killing intent lies. I must avoid falling into that place at all costs.
I vaguely realized the essence of Silver Moon's power to "turn illusions into reality".
A red apple appears red to humans, but to cats and dogs, who cannot distinguish red, it may appear black or gray. However, in the absence of any visual observer, the apple is neither red, nor black, nor gray. This apple doesn't even possess any color; it merely reflects electromagnetic waves within a certain frequency range.
The concept of "color" exists only in the observer's consciousness. Even light itself cannot be verified without observation, and it is said that it even exhibits different properties depending on the method of observation. From the perspective of the essential world, perhaps all phenomena that can be perceived are merely illusions. Buddhism refers to the material world as the "realm of form," and all things that can be seen and touched, arising from causes and conditions, are called "form" or "conditioned phenomena." The essence, laws, and the great way of all things are called "unconditioned phenomena."
"All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows..."
The mantra that Asaho had once recited surfaced in my memory. It was a passage from a Buddhist classic. I recited the second half in my mind: "—Like dew and like lightning, thus should you contemplate them."
As this passage took shape in consciousness, the other illusions gradually faded away, leaving only the "real world".
Were those illusions merely hallucinations? I didn't dwell on that, because the real world I originally inhabited was the object I should return to, the object of "seeing things as they are." A true Buddhist might say that even the "real world" is a form that should be abandoned, and that one should focus on the level of "non-action," but I don't really care about that kind of thing.
Ultimately, whether the intangible essence determines tangible matter, or the opposite, isn't the most important philosophical question to me. Let so-called idealists and materialists debate that. I only need to find what's useful for my adventure and for this battle.
I've finally come to realize that, in terms of absolute power, while Silver Moon is stronger than Dragon and Divine Spear, the difference isn't necessarily overwhelming. Of course, this might be related to her current poor condition, but the reason she displayed such a deadly and bizarre threat in our battle is because of her different understanding of strange powers.
While Chenlong's "Teleportation Armor" possesses an extremely overpowered mechanic, it still aligns with human thought processes, allowing its flaws to be identified and exploited. Similarly, Shenqiang's "Guaranteed Hit, Guaranteed Kill," though also an overpowered skill, still adheres to human thought processes in practice. From a normal perspective, both are undeniably powerful, but in terms of their extraordinary abilities, they lack a crucial element of heterogeneity.
As a monster, demon, or an oddity, Silver Moon's use of supernatural abilities reveals a nature from a different dimension than the two "human beings at the Great Perfection level."
Although Mr. Zhu described her power as "turning illusions into reality," it's likely that her understanding was entirely different. She probably never possessed the power to "turn illusions into reality." From the beginning, all she could do was "manipulate illusions." Perhaps in her own worldview, "reality" itself was an illusion, which allowed her to use the power of illusion to arbitrarily modify everything.
Furthermore, just as viewing a prism from different angles reveals different colors of light, and different experimental methods allow us to observe different properties of light, her "illusion" may simply be a distortion of my "angle" of observation of the world.
Through the flames burning on her body, and through this metaphysical perception, I seemed to have also come into contact with her soul.
The soul is inherently a metaphysical concept and shouldn't actually have a size. It's just that perhaps I hold the belief that "the souls of the powerful should be enormous," and powerful souls are perceived as immense in my mind. The fact that a soul at the Great Completion stage is transformed into more "slag" is likely related to this belief.
Silver Moon's soul was certainly enormous in my perception, but for some reason, I felt that this soul had an indescribable abnormality... It wasn't because she wasn't human, or because her state was wrong, etc... I couldn't come up with a conclusion that matched my intuition for the time being.
Meanwhile, although I touched Silver Moon's soul, I didn't touch Chang'an's soul. Was it because she devoured Chang'an's soul, or because my flames subconsciously avoided Chang'an, thus preventing me from touching her? Or perhaps her soul and Chang'an's soul had become so mixed that I couldn't distinguish them clearly? I could only suppress my uneasy suspicions for the time being, and wait until the battle was over to discuss everything.
After choosing the scenario of "Thus should I view it," my consciousness was drawn into the only remaining reality. When I came to, I was back in the forest engulfed in flames, and my fire elemental body automatically wove together as I returned.
The flames that had been relentlessly destroying Silver Moon's body and soul were also extinguished at the same time. She neither breathed a sigh of relief nor seemed alarmed, but simply looked over with an expression of expectation.
I thought the illusion I just saw was her ultimate move, but now it seems she has another trump card up her sleeve.
"You've already calibrated yourself so quickly...?"
She didn't lower her hand, but slightly adjusted its orientation to face me, and then said, "You really are an extraordinary genius. However, I'm all ready on my side as well."
"This is the final blow. Sink into the abyss, Zhuang Cheng."
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly unleashed a terrifying surge of magical power ten times greater than before.
She had somehow anticipated my return, and while I was trapped in the illusion, she had been relentlessly gathering her strength. And now, her strength was fully charged.
A light as bright as a full moon suddenly appeared in her palm, transforming into a cannonball that hurtled towards me!
I instinctively raised my arm, unleashing a fiery barrage from my palm, just like her. Needless to say, compared to her, who was prepared, my movements were a beat slower. But even if I had raised my hand first, I would probably have been the first to be hit. Because her moonlight barrage, seemingly originating from physical space, actually seemed to possess a spiritual quality, acting directly on me. By the time I realized this attack existed, I had already been struck.
In an instant, my body was blown to pieces. Not only that, my soul was also annihilated. This attack was more than ten times more powerful than the divine gun that had pierced my soul in the past. It was like shooting an unarmed human body with an anti-materiel sniper rifle. The torso that was hit was not just punched with a hole, but was shattered into pieces by a bullet with super kinetic energy.
If my soul were described as a tangible entity with a shape, then now, about half of that thing has been destroyed.
The consequences of such damage to the human body are unimaginable, and the soul is no exception.
Incredibly, I can still think now.
This wasn't entirely unexpected. My soul, like my body, can be elementalized. Since I don't die from my body being shattered, I won't die from my soul being shattered either. Besides, I often disassemble my soul into flames, and I haven't seen anything happen to me as a result.
But the soul and the body are ultimately different things; being destroyed by magic and being deliberately dismantled are two different things. Moreover, my soul is not only shattered now, the part of my soul that was hit has been directly destroyed and lost. Although I am confident that I will not die immediately, at the very least, I should be able to maintain the function of keeping my consciousness running.
Special abilities, skills, tactics... Silver Moon is an enemy who far surpasses me in many aspects. To be honest, even if I were truly defeated by her, I would have to admit defeat wholeheartedly. Rather, the fact that I haven't been defeated yet leaves me speechless at my own power.
However, I wasn't entirely unprepared. I had pre-programmed instructions for the inferno I created, so that even if I was severely injured and unable to consciously manipulate the flames, the inferno would automatically heal my soul to full health. The outcome was roughly as expected.
Furthermore, not only did I survive, but the subsequent fireballs launched from the moonlight cannons were also uninterrupted, their power so ferocious they resembled a dragon devouring everything. To be honest, the power of that attack even startled myself.
This attack, delivered without any prior preparation, was even more powerful than the "miniature star" he had previously compressed and condensed. While it was indeed an all-out effort, this level of intensity far exceeded his expectations. However, perhaps this was to be expected.
Within the "illusion" summoned by Silver Moon, I experienced both a near-death experience and a near-death experience. Although I couldn't feel my superpowers at the time, their intensity undoubtedly increased rapidly during the process. And Silver Moon's attack, which made me wonder if it would really kill me, actually brought me to a new world.
Ancient people associated death with sleep; in Greek mythology, Thanatos, the god of death, and Hypnos, the god of sleep, were even twin brothers. However, having experienced death and near-death experiences, I did not feel drowsy or lethargic. On the contrary, I am now more awake than ever before.
I even have this feeling that the past me was always asleep, using my power as if sleepwalking, while the present me has finally woken up. Silver Moon's description of my increased power as "awakening" is truly a fitting description.
I have finally awakened.
Whether it was because of my safety or the terrifying power of my attack, Silver Moon showed a look of astonishment.
The fiery dragon engulfed it with lightning speed, paused for a moment, then roared forward, creating a mushroom cloud resembling a small nuclear explosion, before continuing its thunderous advance, blasting over thirty kilometers away in a single second, the roar unending. No explosions occurred along the way; any material that came into contact with the flames instantly vaporized.
There's no need to worry about this attack hitting town buildings and causing casualties after leaving the forest. Due to the curvature of the Earth, the fiery dragon roared and flew into the sky from several kilometers away, before thinning and disappearing like a tap being turned off.
The mushroom cloud enveloped me as well, plunging me into darkness. The raging heat was so intense that I could hardly perceive it for a moment.
The magical fluctuations belonging to the Silver Moon abruptly decreased amidst the overwhelming dust, and finally extinguished completely.
(End of this chapter)
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