What is a witch?
Time has no meaning in the Witch Forest, and Mi had no idea how long El and Joe had been back. Sometimes they would accompany Mi on walks through the Witch Forest, sometimes the two of them would transform into a cluster of colorful clouds, and sometimes they would chase and play in the forest like children. They didn't disturb Mi, letting her wander alone, lost in her own thoughts, until one day Mi sat on a rock in the middle of the forest, the place where El had first led her.
"Have you thought it through?" Just as Mi sat down, El appeared, followed by Joe in pink.
“I want to know what a witch is?” Mi looked at El, wanting to know how El would explain witches, and even more so, how El would treat her.
“I’ll try to explain it in terms you can understand. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just tell me.” El sat down opposite Mi. “Witches are consciousness, and each witch is a segment of consciousness. Do you understand brainwaves? Witches are like that. In the human world, brainwaves depend on the human body. The day you leave the human body, this segment of brainwave is captured by the Witch Forest and returns to the Witch Forest. In the Witch Forest, the witch’s body is reshaped, and you can exist independently as consciousness. Witches are brainwaves detached from the body, yet they are also consciousnesses with enormous energy capable of existing independently.”
"Is witchcraft a form of energy? Brainwaves? Consciousness?" Mi tried to repeat El's words, "Witchcraft is not human, but it can provide energy to the human brain."
“Yes.” El nodded approvingly.
There is a witch in every person's mind. Mi tried hard to understand every word El said, without questioning: "Then aren't there as many witches as there are people?"
“Actually, witches aren’t as numerous as you think. Brainwaves that can detach from the body usually dissipate quickly. Only very strong, unique, and energetic brainwaves can be detected by the Witch Forest,” El explained. “Not everyone has a witch in their brain.”
"The world of witches also has a law of the jungle," Mi found it unbelievable. Powerful energy was captured back, and those witches who were not powerful enough simply disappeared into different worlds.
“That’s not how it works.” El shook his head. “It takes a lot of energy to come to the Witch Forest from your world. Witches who don’t have enough energy will dissipate on their way back.”
"Then how do you travel between worlds?" Mi continued, "Does having the witch's body mean you don't need to travel by spaceship?"
“The Witch Forest will provide you with protection; you can find everything you need there,” El said with a smile. “We don’t need any transportation. Witches are consciousness, beings different from humans.”
"Are witches derived from human brains?" Consciousness is consciousness, how can consciousness be seen and touched? Mi looked suspiciously at the sky above the forest. Don't you guys pick and choose your subjects when you conduct experiments? My brain is too stupid, I can't understand the guide's words at all. Is it that the teachers you put in are not good enough, or that I, the student, am not qualified enough?
“Witches are a very, very ancient thing—” El paused to think for a moment, then continued, “Just think of it as a kind of life. Witches are a very ancient kind of life, originating from chaos.”
"Where is Chaos?" Mi looked up and around. Was this place going to be renamed again? The word Chaos sounded so familiar.
“I don’t know,” El shook his head. “Chaos is full of ancient life, and once you leave Chaos, you can never go back.”
"Is there more than one type of life form within Chaos?"
“Yes,” El nodded, “I’ve always suspected that the long-lived species also originated from Chaos.”
"Do long-lived species truly possess eternal life, coexisting with heaven and earth like immortals?" El had mentioned long-lived species more than once; what was she searching for? Mi couldn't help but ask, "Do long-lived species really exist?"
“Yes, witches can also be considered a long-lived species.” Knowing that Mi was constantly making doubts and deductions, she smiled and said, “There are long-lived species in the Flower Kingdom, and their history books record it.”
"The Land of Flowers is Chaos?" Mi was speechless. She couldn't help but mentally give him the middle finger. Just how many maps did they have to open up? All she wanted was to safely return to Earth, back to her own body.
“No, once Chaos leaves, it can’t go back,” El explained. “I just want to see how long-lived beings live.”
"What do longevity plants look like?" Mi couldn't help but imagine the appearance of those otherworldly immortals. What do people with eternal life eat? Mi was quite curious.
“The Long-lived Race looks just like humans. They live among people, and unless they tell you themselves, you won’t know who they are,” El sighed. “I’ve always wondered what kind of person can be recognized by the Long-lived Race and have them reveal their identity.”
"Huh?" Mi stared at El, thinking to herself, "Is El really not lying? Oh no, she's lying to me. Where does anyone have eternal life and live among people without being discovered? Everyone gets old."
“Let’s get back to the witches,” El said reluctantly, ending the topic of long-lived species and continuing to talk about witches: “Witches leave chaos and travel through different worlds, searching for common wavelengths and then resonating with them.”
"What does this mean?" Mi tried hard to control her frustration. She could hear every word El said, but she had no idea what El was trying to say.
"Hmm, the human brain communicates information through special waves. Let me think, on Earth we should call them 'brainwaves' or 'biowaves,' a specific frequency that transmits information from the brain."
“You make it sound so real,” Mi couldn’t help but say. “I do seem to recall seeing this somewhere before: the human brain is divided into different areas with different functions, and what the eyes see is transmitted to the brain via nerves. Are you referring to nerves when you say ‘waves’?”
“Oh no, nerves are something that humans possess naturally; you can’t take them out.” Al shook his head. “I’m talking about the movement within the nerves. Nerve transmission relies on movement at a certain frequency.”
“I understand. It’s like a person running on a track, with a fixed speed.” Mi nodded. “The frequency bands you mentioned are like wireless transmitters; different channels receive different messages.”
"You're so smart!" El clapped her hands and said with a smile, "Different witches have different frequencies, but the human brain has some frequencies that are the same as the witch's. If you find the same frequency band, the witch can live inside the human brain."
"Ah—you mean parasitism?" Mi pondered El's words carefully. She was a wave that found a connected wave, moved in, and became a human. What about the original human?
“Parasitism? I think witches and humans have a symbiotic relationship,” El looked at Mi gently. “The characteristics of witches are perception and insight. They understand the world around them through observation and perceive the essence of things through perception, but they do not interfere in the human world.”
"You've already moved into someone's brain, and you still say you won't interfere in the human world?"
“Mi, the characteristic of a shaman is perception and insight,” El said gently. “What a person sees and what they want to do is not something a shaman can decide. A shaman is like an observer, building bridges between different areas of the brain, but the final decision still rests with the human.”
“The brain directs a person’s actions,” M. said.
“That’s the result of brain thinking,” Al said after a moment’s thought. “Just like you said, a person running on a track has a fixed speed, but speed doesn’t determine where the finish line is. Wireless transmitters have different frequency bands, and frequency bands only transmit information.”
"Is the witch a passageway inside the brain?" This was the only conclusion Mi could draw.
“Yes, the shaman is the conduit.” El nodded approvingly again. “We are both conduits and observers and recorders.”
Mi thought it sounded more like a recorder of human experiments, with humans as the subjects of the witch's experiments; if El really was a witch, then whose subjects were the witches? Mi felt it was a world where big fish observe little fish, and little fish observe shrimp. She asked El, "Are there many witches? Are there many of these passages?"
“I don’t know how many witches coexist with humans,” El continued. “When a person grows old, the witch will leave. If the witch is powerful enough at this time, she will be captured by the Witch Forest and return to the Witch Forest.”
“Back to the Witch Forest, what are the witches here?” Mi looked at the dim forest. Was this the witch-catching facility?
“I would call these returning witches reborn witches. We reshape our witch bodies here, and then we can walk independently in the world,” El said after thinking for a moment. “The original witches are in Chaos, and the reborn witches are in the Witch Forest.”
"Then what about people? Are people just a vessel for different stages of the shamanic practice?"
“You’re not entirely wrong in your thinking.” After a moment’s thought, El said, “There are many powerful witches, but not every powerful witch becomes an independent witch. I mean, not all witches return to the Witch Forest, reshape their witch bodies, and become independent witches who walk the world.”
"Why?"
"Those powerful sorcerers who use extreme methods to intervene in the human world will ultimately not break away from humanity itself. The result of intervening too much is that they cannot break away or dare not break away."
"Is the witch very powerful?" Mi couldn't understand how a path could be so powerful.
"Of course, how could a witch not be powerful enough to travel through so many worlds to reach the Witch Forest?"
"The Witch Forest? Is this world only inhabited by witches?" Mi asked doubtfully. The Grand Elder was clearly a man, and the black-haired youth also had an Adam's apple; they both appeared to be men, even though they hadn't found their guiding stones and hadn't become true witches.
"No, witches are actually genderless. I only say that because I was a woman when I was alive, and my guiding witch is also female, so I just call her that out of habit. This place was originally called the 'Forest of Witches,' and not all the consciousness that came here came from women."
"Were you a woman when you were a human? The person you were parasitizing was a woman, wasn't it?" Mi shook her head. She hadn't memorized this El's teachings properly; she was switching between witch and human roles.
Al smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, I once lived inside a woman's head and observed her entire life. Sometimes I felt like I was her. You still think of yourself as a person now, but once you experience enough of the world, your perspective will change."
“I just want to be myself again,” Mi muttered. Did experiencing different worlds really make her a different person? She didn't want to be a parasite in someone else's mind. Mi changed the subject: “Are there male witches here too?”
“Yes,” Al smiled at Joe, who stepped forward somewhat awkwardly and said, “I am a man, oh no, I mean I was a man when I was still human.”
“You—” Mi stared blankly at the shy and beautiful Qiao in front of her, “I need to calm down.”
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