Chapter 335 The Words of the Great Impermanence
With a thud, the puck hit the ceiling and remained stuck there.
Such miraculous phenomena are commonplace for demon hunters, but Zhu Shi and Old Master Zhu's expressions were completely different.
They probably anticipated my performance and were likely aware of what the Great Impermanence should look like, yet they still couldn't hide their bewilderment. It wasn't because I, a fire user, could overstep my bounds and manipulate water and gravity, but rather because those phenomena didn't involve any magical fluctuations; everything seemed like a naturally occurring physical phenomenon.
"This is all I can do right now," I said.
"What do you mean by 'only this level'... Does it mean the scale is limited?" Zhu Shi asked blankly.
“No, the scale can be greatly increased. The reason it only condensed into such a small water sphere just now was simply because I didn’t want to cause damage to the surroundings.” I thought for a moment and then said, “What I mean is… I can only command nature to do anything. But this ‘anything’ has limitations.”
"Simply put, if we compare 'nature' to 'society,' and I am the 'monarch' who holds great power, then I can certainly order my 'ministers' to carry out any order I can think of. For example, I can order them to fight against a foreign tribe thousands of miles away, or to fetch me a certain item from there."
"But I cannot make this subject kill ten thousand people within a second of me giving the order, nor can I make him move an entire mountain for me; that is beyond his capabilities."
"The same applies to what just happened. I could even command most of the water in the entire city to converge in one place, forming a lake, or summon a long and massive rainstorm, but that requires nature to prepare. It's not that I can issue a command and the natural phenomenon will appear in the next instant. I was able to do it so quickly just now simply because I limited the scope to this room."
"Furthermore, if it's a phenomenon that goes against the laws of nature, it's very difficult for me to command nature to do it. That would be like ordering an ordinary person to grab their own hair and lift themselves up... But if it's just doing something against the rules on a small scale, then it's still possible, like the 'gravity reversal' just now."
"Besides that, there are some things that I cannot command nature to do... Take the water sphere I just condensed, for example. I cannot command it to undergo room-temperature nuclear fusion, nor can I command its electromagnetic force and strong interaction force to disappear, and so on."
Zhu Shi was taken aback: "No, you actually thought about doing that kind of thing...?"
She paused for a moment, but couldn't help asking, "Why can't you do it?"
"Hmm... this is just my feeling. It's probably because nature can't understand such commands. It's not that the commands are too complex for nature to understand. Rather, it's because atomic theory and the theory of fundamental forces are explanations of the natural world made by humans based on their own understanding. Nature itself may not possess that kind of worldview," I said. "Asking nature to carry out such commands is like asking it to change something that doesn't exist."
"Furthermore, although we haven't tried it yet, it's probably not feasible to ask nature to make overly extreme changes to its climate."
"Why is that?" Zhu Shi asked, puzzled. "I remember reading in some materials before that the Great Impermanence could indeed use his words to raise or lower the temperature of a certain area to a point where humans could hardly survive..."
“That’s just ‘to the point where humans can hardly survive,’” I said. “I can command the environment of my city to remain as hot as the Sahara Desert or as cold as the North and South Poles, but I can’t make it as hot as the surface of Mercury or as cold as the surface of Uranus…”
"I think it might be because that climate was beyond the understanding of the planet's natural world. I clearly remember reading in popular science books that the Earth during the Hadean eon, four billion years ago, should have had a surface temperature of over two hundred degrees Celsius, even if it wasn't as high as Mercury's... Was it because the concept of nature didn't exist back then?"
"Of course, if I were to recklessly expend my power and actively activate my own 'Heaven and Earth Manifestation' technique, things would be a different story. Although I don't know the exact scope of extreme temperature changes I can achieve, or the specific level to which I can raise the temperature, if it's limited to Saltwater City..."
As I was talking, I suddenly became curious about exactly how far I was capable of achieving.
Zhu Shi, however, said with a chill down his spine, "Senior Brother Zhuang...did you give some extremely outrageous examples?"
"Please, please don't try this!" Mr. Zhu said hurriedly.
“I was just giving an example; I don’t actually want to try it,” I said.
Zhu Shi said doubtfully, "But I always felt that your expression just now didn't mean that..."
"In short... this ability seems to be able to do everything, but in reality, it doesn't do anything very deeply." I gave my assessment. "It can't turn fantasies into reality like Silver Moon, nor can it rewind or reset time, nor can it summon different possible versions of myself..."
"It simply allows nature to open many doors for us, essentially making us a super-privileged person in the natural world, even granting the dead the right to walk in the mortal realm—provided the afterlife hasn't closed off. Although I've heard that the Great Impermanence could resurrect the dead long ago, it's no longer possible."
"Thinking about it carefully, this ability seems rather useless..."
As I continued evaluating, I started to think about the situations in which I would absolutely need to use this ability. At least in terms of combat, it seemed unnecessary, as the enemies I would face in the future wouldn't be able to gain an advantage with this ability; and as for support outside of combat, it seemed that I already had ready-made solutions at hand for most situations.
Zhu Shi retorted, "No, no, no, your standards are too high, Senior Brother Zhuang. Are you too used to dealing with those outrageous superpowers? Your ability is already incredibly impressive!"
I'll stop thinking about it for now. Maybe I'll encounter a situation in the future where I need this ability to overcome it.
For example, the reason I was able to make the Winter Chariot, which is equivalent to death, move outside the realm of the Silver Moon and the Heavenly Phenomenon with just a single sentence was because I unconsciously exercised this "natural privilege".
The Diviner Master resurrected Dongche with a single sentence, using the same ability. At that time, Dongche was merely "equivalent to death," and his death had not yet truly arrived, so it was effortless for the Great Impermanence to spare him.
"That's how it is. This 'natural privilege' can also be used to intervene in the consciousness of animals, since animals are also part of the natural ecosystem. So it can also be used to intervene in human consciousness. However, this kind of intervention is more focused on the 'instinct' part, which is very crude and monotonous, and cannot be used to solve Chang'an's consciousness problem," I said.
"Ultimately, Chang'an and Yinyue are actually the same consciousness, but to separate them and treat them as two different consciousnesses, and then try to save one of them... that's the biggest difficulty. There might not even be a clear dividing line between the two," Old Master Zhu pointed out the problem.
Zhu Shi suddenly said decisively, "No... there must be a dividing line between the two."
"Why am I so sure?" I focused my attention.
"I was very confused after hearing Zhuang Cheng's words. Since my brother was originally the Silver Moon, why did my father... Ying Lingyun have to remove the seal on his demonic bloodline before using him as a living sacrifice to resurrect the real Silver Moon?" Zhu Shi asked. "Wouldn't this extra step actually increase the risk of my brother escaping?"
"—Is it self-awareness?" I realized immediately.
Chang'an and Yinyue share the same soul, or even the same consciousness; the biggest difference lies in their self-awareness.
The sacrificial offering to resurrect the true Silver Moon must be "another Silver Moon." If Ying Lingyun can only offer Chang'an as a sacrificial offering if Chang'an believes he is the Silver Moon, this in itself is enough to prove that Chang'an and the Silver Moon are two different beings.
My flames seem to have revealed this truth as well. In Silver Moon's spiritual world, there were several instances where Silver Moon couldn't suppress Chang'an's ego; this was because my flames had previously greatly weakened Silver Moon's aspect. In other words, my flames possess the ability to distinguish between Chang'an and Silver Moon.
However, Chang'an's personality cannot be separated from Yin Yue's personality. If the latter is the primary personality, then the former is the secondary personality.
My ideal approach is to first weaken Silver Moon to its weakest state, so that Chang'an can turn the tables and become the dominant personality.
Unfortunately, even the weakest Silver Moon cannot be suppressed by Chang'an's mere personality. The one that appeared in Silver Moon's mental world before was already at its weakest. If it weakens any further, Silver Moon will die, and Chang'an will be swept into the darkness of death as well.
After I shared my thoughts, Mr. Zhu nodded in agreement: "The density of will is different between Chang'an and Yinyue."
"More importantly, unlike Chang'an, who longed for his father and the recognition of the outside world, Yinyue was very self-centered... or rather, she had a very strong sense of 'ego'."
With unwavering will, even a faint consciousness can resist mental magic. I've witnessed this in the independent reality space before, and the girl Lu Chan explained it to me as well. Therefore, no matter how much Yin Yue's consciousness is weakened, as long as the density of her will remains unchanged, it's something Chang'an can't match. I'm not unfamiliar with this concept.
But what does "attachment to self" mean?
No, it's not that I don't know the meaning of the word "ego-attachment." In Buddhism, this word means attachment to the self.
Although Buddhism is a representative of subjective idealism, believing that all material things and phenomena in the world are not objectively existing things, but rather arise from the mind of "I"; on the other hand, Buddhist scriptures also assert that even "I" do not exist.
Therefore, if ordinary people want to attain enlightenment and become Buddhas, they must recognize that "all phenomena are without self," which means "the non-existence of self."
Only by recognizing the impermanence of all things and the non-self of all phenomena can sentient beings in the realm of suffering attain the state of Nirvana and peace.
Suddenly, I remembered what Silver Moon had said.
"Even our ego may be a falsehood..."
Her fearful expression flashed through my mind.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com