Chapter 156 Prajnaparamita "He taught me to suppress lingering resentment and refrain from petulance..."
Just then, Holder's memories on the chip were read 100%—his last scene before leaving the instance was being ambushed by the "spider" who was reporting on the mission!
The old man hadn't expected this; given his abilities, it shouldn't have been like this.
Xue Chao quickly understood the reason—the "spider" switched its core a second before attacking, a momentary possession, and only by unexpectedly leaving the field early did Holder escape unscathed.
Holder did eventually go to find the traitor, but he was found by the traitor first. The traitor was still on the spider!
Xue Chao immediately focused his attention back on the Guanyin statue in the Pure Land, but it was too late.
The spider, as if waiting for him to react, struck. Its mechanical body instantly disintegrated, and its eight legs were inserted into the interface of the Guanyin statue's ritual implement.
Li Changying's consciousness program invaded the system of the Guanyin statue.
The consciousness of NPCs within the machine is a copy of the consciousness carried by the chip, while the consciousness of players and hosts entering the machine is a clone of their consciousness, still connected to the main consciousness in the Elysium.
Li Changying had been the host longer than Xue Chao, and his ruthless consciousness had given him experience. He seized the moment when Xue Chao's consciousness was weak and banished his entire spirit back to bliss.
The mechanical spirit tower containing Xue Chao's consciousness went on strike, and Xue Chao's consciousness was trapped in the Blissful Consciousness Space, completely disconnected from the Pure Land in reality.
[Host #2 is loading...]
Taking advantage of the situation, Li Changying wanted to take his place!
Bliss, an electronic storm swept towards Xue Chao, trying to engulf him, but he jumped into Prajna's storm vortex first.
He doesn't believe this is a god. Gods are born from people's lack of understanding of the world; this is simply a more powerful Wuliang Temple created with cutting-edge technology.
The idea of Buddhists creating gods is absurd. Buddha is not a god; Buddha is an enlightened being, and all sentient beings are Buddhas who have not yet attained enlightenment. The second phase is the core of the Compassionate Voyage Plan, but the first phase pursued by the defectors from China Shenzhou Corporation actually has a touch of compassion.
Apart from Jiang Ming, Xue Chao has not seen a single rational boss. They seem to have been born at the end of the universe's chaos, representing madness.
The various unease he had previously sensed in this Subhuti might be proof that the other party was degenerating into a boss.
After all, Buddhism teaches that all beings are equal and that there is no god, but the dungeon needs a god. An evil god.
Xue Chao sank into the vortex of code that constituted the Buddha Mother, his senses weakened again, as if he were trapped in a fish tank, separated by glass and water, everything became chaotic.
He felt like a weed, like duckweed, adrift in a boundless sea, until his flesh was ground into dust by the waves, falling into the sea as an ordinary snowfall.
This snow is recording the direction of all the water flow. His consciousness, immersed in it, is like Yotner entering the Giant's Harbor system for the first time, painfully merging with the system and studying the laws that govern its operation.
If the composition of God can be deciphered, then He is no longer God.
Until he could no longer bear it and was about to lose consciousness, he touched the unharmed back of his head and opened a new gap to stab his own soul.
A golden scripture code flowed into his soul interface, gradually turning into a blood-red, ferocious line that emerged like a swimming dragon.
Xue Chao opened his eyes: "Why didn't you wait until I was dead before you came?"
When he opened the interface in the Guanyin statue, he was prepared to be invaded by Wuliang Temple and other programs. He knew that Jiang Ming would not let this opportunity pass, and His virus was hidden in his consciousness.
Regardless of Jiang Ming's intentions, he now desires His power.
The red and white lines around his body did not make a sound, but their excited pulsation demonstrated His presence, and His liveliness in his mind caused him pain.
"I can't get in," Jiang Ming said amidst his wildly pounding heart.
This was a virus program using him to invade the information flow of Bliss. It wasn't Jiang Ming's consciousness, but it exuded Jiang Ming's eerie aura, enveloping him like a desperate, lingering embrace.
Xue Chao: "So?"
When Boss Tang was still a player, he played the Xibei Mountain dungeon. In the background story, the village chief's younger brother had a theatrical troupe.
Did Jiang Ming not participate in Li Changying's defection? Xue Chao was also curious: now that Jiang Ming has appeared, will he kill him or help him?
Jiang Ming: "What are you planning to do?"
"Of course we should kill him," Xue Chao said impatiently. "If you're not going to help, then get lost."
Jiang Ming asked calmly, "Whom do you want to kill?"
He tempted me like a devil: "I used to think Li Changying was interesting, but you are more interesting. We get along well. If you want to kill him, I can do it for you."
"Does your interest mean kissing the person you want to kill?" After saying that, Xue Chao inserted his consciousness into the core of the Buddha Mother. He was too lazy to waste words; he wanted to kill the boss.
Before plunging into darkness, the red thread of the virus hooked onto a sliver of his consciousness.
Jiang Ming seemed afraid that he would really get angry, so he became more serious: "He hid the core very well. If you go directly into His consciousness, you will be lost before you find the core."
"You don't have a better solution either."
Xue Chao let Jiang Ming in, intending for His virus to erode Prajna's core code, but He couldn't get in.
“But I have a more dangerous way.” Jiang Ming was as excited as he had been in the previous instance when they had conspired to do something bad. “You’ll like it.”
“If you can’t corrupt from the inside, then break it from the outside. The core is hard to find, but you already know the principles of its structure; you just lack a core yourself.” Red and white lines intertwined with Xue Chao’s fingers as Jiang Ming said, “You’ve tried being a player, you’ve tried being an NPC, how about trying what it’s like to be a boss?”
Using a god to kill a god. That was indeed Xue Chao's strategy. And Jiang Ming's virus was perfectly suited to be the operating code for this god.
The menacing red and white lines spread out, and a wildly dancing red and white vortex appeared beside each storm.
The vortex also drew in a bit of consciousness from everyone in the bliss, which gathered, expanded, rose, and exploded outward, revealing a red and white ghostly figure that looked exactly like the Golden Buddha Mother.
The two Buddha goddesses face each other, like looking in a mirror.
[Game Host Rules]
5. The host can also be the boss.
Xue Chao, the core of the Mirror Prajna, opened his eyes and looked directly at the Buddha Mother before him, trying to find a familiar shadow.
Their energy fields influenced each other, devouring each other's details. Viral lines gnawed at the golden Buddha Mother's robes, but she instantly returned to her dignified and majestic appearance.
This is similar to Holder; he has old-fashioned manners, and Xue Chao once mocked his idol image.
But when the Golden Buddha Mother attacked first, the eerie sense of similarity he had come up with disappeared.
Holder prefers to be the manipulator behind the scenes, giving up the first strike to gather intelligence and lure the opponent into his game; that's his style.
This is not Holder. Xue Chao realized this during the battle.
This is a boss, an evil god, a monster in a dungeon. The face of the Buddha Mother opens like a lotus flower, and the faces of all the Buddhas turn on the staggered metal tracks, flowing out of the Buddha Mother's ears, scrambling to crawl towards him.
Xue Chao also opened his mirror image of Prajna's face and rushed out with a thousand hands holding a thousand eyes.
The Buddha Mother possesses the souls of all Subhuti, with Holder at the core. Holder served as the host for a longer period, and the strength of his consciousness should be above that of the Buddha Mother. Now, he has completely fallen and become even more insane.
As his sanity continued to decline, the Thousand Eyes and Thousand Hands seized the rotating Buddhas, which then turned against the Buddha Mother. Xue Chao paused, wondering if this was the virus that was about to erupt... or if his mental strength was superior to that of the monster.
In the Pure Land, the consciousness of all beings is thrown into fear and paralysis by the fighting of the gods, rising and falling in the storm.
In the Pure Land, the machine war has not ended.
The Baoxiangyuan Opera House was destroyed. The people in the opera house and the enemies who came to retaliate had left. A mechanical record was pressed at the bottom of the ruins, spinning slowly without making a sound, like a silent background music for this farce.
Suddenly, a golden Buddha's hand reached down from the nearby rubble and metal, and the eye in its palm spat out a memory chip, which was inserted into a record player. The record player then played Boss Tang's "A Dream in the Garden".
The ruins transformed back into a theater, plum blossoms bloomed, and once again formed a space of consciousness where only the two of them existed.
On the stage, Xue Chao held Boss Tang hostage with a knife from behind.
Boss Tang was still dressed as Du Liniang, and she remained unmoved, as if she were on a pre-programmed schedule. She didn't seem afraid of touching Xue Chao's knife as she moved, muttering opera lines in a delusional way.
"...He taught me to let go of lingering resentment, to refrain from being coquettish, to reform myself, to change my temperament, to stop clinging to the past, to turn back from the sea of suffering, and to realize the cause of my suffering early on..."[1]
She listlessly tossed her sleeves aside: "You found it after all. Get to work."
The performers on stage in the opera house were merely projections of Boss Tang.
In the consciousness space triggered by the lyrics of "The Peony Pavilion", the shadow of the broken-winged butterfly fell into Boss Tang's mechanical head and face. Following the metal tube down, he saw the empty groove in the position of her heart, which was shaped like a disc. Xue Chao then knew that her main consciousness was inside a record.
"The first time we met was to find you," Xue Chao said, turning his sword. "Now I'm looking for your protector."
Mentioning Li Changying, a slight tremor appeared in Boss Tang's indifferent eyes.
“He’s well hidden, I can’t find him, but he’d betray the company for you and wouldn’t disregard your life.” He said in the same indifferent tone.
Boss Tang knew he represented the company. She remained silent for a while, offering no resistance. She seemed to be quietly waiting for an ending that would only be a little further away: "He doesn't know that the main consciousness I severed is hidden in this record. It has already been drawn away by the other side's consciousness. You want to kill him, but you won't be able to wait for me here."
She didn't want to drag him down; she had already dragged him down once.
Suddenly, the space vibrated slightly, as if someone outside couldn't get in and was frantically banging on the door.
"It seems he doesn't think so." Xue Chao said calmly. "I didn't intend to kill him either. He's a company employee, so the company will handle him. As for you, you're just an oversight outside the procedures, so we'll get rid of you."
Boss Tang forcibly ignored the "banging on the door": "But you still want something else from me... I can give it to you, but you have to protect him."
"I can't do it."
"You're not going to lie to me?"
"Any deception that doesn't bring profit is boring." Xue Chao straightened his knife, ready to strike.
Because of those words, Boss Tang realized something. When Xue Chao's knife came at her, her body became transparent and turned into code.
It wasn't scripture, but code composed of 0s and 1s, which precisely proves that she was an outsider hidden in the copy by Li Changying.
She scattered at the tip of the knife, shocking Xue Chao's consciousness. Xue Chao immediately looked inward to check himself, only to find that a piece of code was hidden separately within his consciousness, which was now composed of code.
The answer was the line from the play she murmured: turn the angle, look through his heart, and the arrangement of the lines forms the pattern of a purse.
His consciousness cautiously probed inside, looking out from the pocket, and the pattern changed to... a key. Xue Chao was stunned.
So when he held a knife to her neck, she used a line from a play to give him the key to the final victory... She did indeed recognize him.
The code flew to the second floor of the theater, and Xue Chao followed and climbed upstairs. Boss Tang had already changed from Du Liniang to Yu Ji, with the Mandarin Duck Swords crossed around her neck.
"...Since I followed the King in his eastern and western campaigns, I have endured wind and frost and toil year after year. I hate only the tyrannical Qin Dynasty for bringing such devastation to the people, causing them only suffering and misery..."[2]
The power striking the space of consciousness became even more frenzied. As soon as Boss Tang's sword moved, it was instantly pressed down by Xue Chao.
The hidden space of consciousness suddenly cracked open, the spider legs parted the gap, and eight red spider eyes looked in different places, searching for her figure, but to no avail.
So all eight eyes locked onto one spot, glaring menacingly at the only person on the stage, a man holding a pair of swords... Yu Ji's swords.
Xue Chao was also looking at him—so that's how it is. Holder hadn't noticed immediately because Li Changying had not only instantly replaced the spider's body, but also its consciousness. He had swallowed the spider's consciousness.
They had no prior connection, but their positions destined them to be enemies, so without any words, they attacked each other simultaneously the moment their eyes met.
The battle in the space of consciousness is actually a contest of mental strength. Logically speaking, Li Changying's ability and experience should be superior to Xue Chao's, but he gradually found himself at a disadvantage.
Li Changying immediately corrected his attitude. There was indeed some reason why this newcomer could quickly gain the favor of that old dog Holder and the company.
Xue Chao was pondering a question he had asked Holder: Can the confrontation between consciousnesses only rely on their own strength?
Holder countered, “Consciousness is your mind. Does your mind have weaknesses?” He replied, “Learn to exploit weaknesses.”
To break the opponent's spirit.
Li Changying thought so too. The spider web entangled Xue Chao, and the spider legs strangled him. He asked, "The key is a lie because there is no door at all. Pu Fengchun died in vain. Do you think being an executioner for the company makes your life more valuable than that of cattle and sheep?"
The struggle within the spiderweb intensified, then subsided. Li Changying sneered; the smarter a person is, the less they can stand being played, especially for a narcissist like Xue Chao who has some conscience but little.
How much genuine sadness did he feel for that woman's death? It was more like he felt out of control, realized he'd been tricked, and was furious with shame and embarrassment!
Spider legs, sharp as needles, pierce the web, delivering the final blow to a heart already riddled with holes.
But Xue Chao countered Li Changying's attack: "She begged me to let you go in the end, even though she knew you were doomed, just as you understood she had no other choice, and you couldn't save each other."
He stated a fact without any intention of mockery or attack like Li Changying, and it was precisely because of this that his statement was as cruel as fate itself.
Xue Chao didn't use his sword. Instead, he broke off the spider's sharp legs and attached the S-level item "Electronic Domain Chip" he bought from the store to counter-stab.
Every piece of code in the consciousness space "casts its gaze" at Li Changying, who is instantly locked in place and half-kneels down—this electronic realm has been taken over by Xue Chao.
Li Changying gritted his teeth: "Kill me if you want."
Xue Chao said coldly, "I will ask the company to transfer you to Eternal Prison."
Li Changying's gaze darkened.
Xue Chao asked Holder how the company planned to deal with Li Changying, and Holder's attitude underwent a subtle change.
Initially, the plan was "to capture him alive," but later it became more casual. The old man even pretended to care about him, fearing he was no match for the traitor, and told him to seize the opportunity to kill him.
He asked, "If we capture him alive, will we interrogate him?"
"No need, his guilt has already been proven."
"Then what's the point of keeping him alive? Let him suffer a fate worse than death."
"Pretty much, probably sent to the Eternal Prison, they're short-staffed there."
"Eternal Prison?"
"You think there's only been one traitor? I've heard it's pretty terrifying there; if you don't die, you'll go crazy."
Li Changying stared intently at Xue Chao, his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth... He didn't intend to give the company and its lackeys the chance to abuse him; since she was already dead, he would just go after her.
His intrusion tore a hole in the space, and an electronic storm arose. Yu Ji's cloak fluttered down onto him, covering him.
Before he self-destructed with the prop, Xue Chao pulled out the sharp spider legs. The embedded "electronic domain" chip rubbed against his consciousness code, and he heard a call. It was her calling his name, like an illusion.
His mind was in turmoil, but before his body could react, Xue Chao pressed him into the ground. The man's lazy voice was mocking: "Trying to launch a sneak attack again? Behave yourself."
What does Xue Chao mean? She's not dead?
Li Changying's chaotic mind started working again. Xue Chao used the copy's properties to input her consciousness into the S-level item in the form of code. She is now similar to "artificial intelligence".
However, items from the game shop cannot be taken out of the dungeon. Items can be obtained from the dungeon storyline, such as Xue Chao's Broken Winged Butterfly, or purchased from the guild shop and wandering merchants.
...By the way, the items in this dungeon shop are the players' special abilities and their own items! So, it's an exception that you can bring them out!
She didn't die; she was killed by Xue Chao!
What does Xue Chao want? The key to final victory? But it's not in his hands… He wants his past connections and intelligence? But Holder has already given them to him…
Eternal Prison... Li Changying had a flash of inspiration: Xue Chao wanted him to go undercover?
Xue Chao's consciousness had returned to the Mirror Prajna. This battle was absurd. When a god has an opponent who is also a god, his ability to command the wind and rain over mortals becomes like primitive people fighting each other when they are of equal strength.
Before he became the Mirror Prajna, he said his last words to Ming: "He is the boss."
Jiang Ming reminded him not to mistake the Buddha Mother for Hold. What was He repeatedly seeking to prove, and what was He tired of? Could He do it himself?
Xue Chao's consciousness became increasingly muddled, filled with violence and madness, and he was also influenced by the power of the "boss".
But he did not resist; he complied and directed all his brutality toward the enemy.
His power grew stronger and stronger, and the virus code that was causing the demons to spread were aiding and abetting evil. His emotions snowballed and turned into power, crushing the artificial god before him.
As the thousand hands and a thousand eyes pierced through the opponent's core, the belts of all Buddhas also exploded in the Mirror Prajna—this savage monster implanted its code little by little into the Mirror Prajna in every battle.
But he was doing the same thing. The core of Prajna spun open, and the thousand hands and eyes covered with virus code crawled like petals to all parts of the Blissful Consciousness Space, tearing them apart with great force.
Just before Xue Chao was about to lose consciousness, Zhu Wen's consciousness in the Mirror of Prajna gently touched him, reminding him not to forget their deal.
The S-rank item "Electronic Domain" is an item that Zhu Wen inherited from Yan Bocheng. It can incorporate any code and is an electronic space that is controlled solely by the user.
Not only was there a deal with Zhu Wen, but he also had to argue with the Infinite Company about how to deal with Li Changying... He forced himself to stay focused.
Mount Xibei was ravaged by a blizzard, indicating that the mountain god was mentally unstable. Jili barely managed to support Jiangming's body, and the space around him was wildly distorted by his terrifying aura.
Xiao Shen frowned: "Aren't you coming back yet? Everyone's already gone to negotiate with the company! Are you lovesick?"
The evil god was forced to return to his position, and once the wind and snow subsided, more than a dozen snow-capped mountains were sheared off.
Jili had already fled back to the cave, where he saw Him transform into a pale, cold mist that melted into the mountains. The dragon's shadow rampaged through the mist, occasionally flashing with red light, which were His eyes filled with tyranny.
The intervals between bouts of madness were becoming shorter, and Gilly sighed softly... How much longer could He hold on?
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