The old con man came out of the Sword Soul Gate covered in dust and dirt. He had just drunk two sips of water in the camp outside the Trial Gate when he saw a young man walking towards him.
"This is a restricted area. This trial gate is not open to the public. No entry for outsiders." Seeing the young man walking straight to the fence and seeming to be intending to climb over it, the old man shouted.
"I'm not going in. I'm here to find you." The young man had a smile on his face as he spoke, and he looked very sunny.
"Looking for me? What do you want from me?" Lao Qian frowned slightly. He had been guarding the Trial Gate for three years, and this was the first time that someone other than his family came to see him.
"I heard that you are very good at swordsmanship. I would like to ask you some questions about swordsmanship." The young man said seriously.
Hearing this, the old man was immediately displeased and said, "Who told you that? I'm afraid you're mistaken."
Anyone who knows about his relationship with the old immortal knows that his swordsmanship is very poor, and some even privately gave him the nickname of the weakest trial-taker of the same level. How could it be said that his swordsmanship is very strong? Lao Qian felt that the young man was mocking him.
"Your last name is Qian, right?" the young man asked, looking Qian up and down.
"That's right." The con man nodded.
"That's right, I'm here to ask you about the art of illusory swordsmanship." The young man said seriously.
"Ask me... about... the art of illusory swordsmanship..." The old man stared at the young man in a daze, wondering if this guy was mentally ill. It was the first time he heard of someone specializing in this kind of thing.
"Yes." The young man nodded affirmatively.
"Who are you? Are you here to cause trouble?" The old con man felt more and more that this guy was here to mock him.
"Are you not the con man who knows the illusory sword technique?" The young man looked suspicious.
Seeing his appearance, Lao Qian didn't seem to be here to mock him, so he couldn't help but be a little confused: "I am Lao Qian, do you really want to learn the illusion sword technique?"
"It's not learning, it's research." said the young man.
"So, you also know the art of illusion?" The con man couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for this guy. He thought he was the only one with bad luck, as he got an illusion sword that couldn't hurt anyone as a symbiotic bond. It turned out that there were others as unlucky as him.
"A little." The young man nodded.
"As expected." The old man sighed, walked over to open the fence door, and said sympathetically: "Come in, although I don't have much to teach you, but as a senior, I still have some experience that you can refer to."
The young man was not polite. After he walked in, he sat down on the stool and asked with a smile, "I wonder what level your illusory swordsmanship has reached?"
When the old man heard the young man's question, he became more and more convinced that he was indeed like himself, unfortunately contracted an illusory symbiotic contract. Because he had no actual combat power, he could only study illusory things such as realm.
"You want to hear it, so I'll tell you about it. Based on what I've learned, I think the art of illusion should be divided into three realms." It was rare for someone to discuss this kind of thing with him, and Lao Qian spoke incessantly as if he had found a confidant: "The first realm is true illusion. You have to make the illusion real, to the point where it's indistinguishable from the real, so that people can't see the flaws. Only in this way can you turn the fake into the real. Although it has no actual destructive power, it can scare people away and achieve the point of defeating the enemy without fighting. This realm is very difficult, but it's just the foundation of the art of illusion."
"It's really not easy to make a fake look real. Is this just the basics?" The young man nodded and continued, "What about the second level?"
"The second level is much more powerful. It's called False Illusion." said the old con man.
"Illusion itself is fake, so what does this fake illusion mean?" the young man asked curiously.
The old con man said with some pride: "Brother, you don't know this. I also studied it for a long time before I understood this realm of illusion."
"To put it simply, it's because others know that everything about you is fake, so if you have something real at this time, they will also regard your real thing as an illusion. For example, everyone knows that our symbiotic contract is an illusion and has no way to hurt people, but if you can find a parasitic contract that is very similar to the symbiotic contract, others will think it is an illusion, and then it will be of great benefit."
"When true is false, false is true; when false is true, true is false. If you can use these two realms well, there will be endless changes. All the mental schemes in the world are like this." The con man spoke with saliva flying, looking quite excited.
"You said that the art of illusion has three realms. The two realms of false and true, and true and false seem to cover everything. Then what is the third realm?" The young man looked curious.
The old man enjoyed this feeling very much. He patted the young man on the shoulder and said, "In the first two realms, anyone with a little wisdom can understand something. If they can truly understand it, they will become great in the future. But the third realm is not that simple. Most people can't even think about it, let alone understand it. Only those who are greatly enlightened can suddenly realize this realm."
"What kind of realm is that?" The young man looked at the con man expectantly.
The old swindler chuckled and said, "This third realm is called Shenghuan. If one can comprehend this realm, even if one cannot say that one is invincible, at least one will have reached the pinnacle of illusion."
"What is illusion?" The young man became even more curious.
"To understand what is illusion, you must first understand what is real and what is false," said the con man.
"Do we need to figure out whether it's true or not?" The young man didn't quite understand what the con man said.
The old con man chuckled and said, "Of course you need to understand that what you think is true may not necessarily be true, and what you think is false may not necessarily be false."
"Like what?" the young man asked.
"For example, do you think you are a man or a woman?" the con man asked the young man seriously.
"Of course I am a man, is there any doubt about that?" the young man replied.
"Then is there a possibility that you don't know that the real you is actually a woman?" the con man said seriously.
"That's impossible. Anyone can tell that I'm a man," said the young man.
"Anyone can see that you are a man, but what if those people are lying to you? In fact, you are a woman, but they told you that you are a man, so you think you are a man, but in fact you are a woman." The con man's words made the young man a little confused.
"Even if they don't tell me, I can tell that I'm a man. Physiological characteristics won't lie, right?" said the young man.
"Why not? What is the basis for you to judge that you are a man based on your physical characteristics? Isn't it the knowledge you have learned yourself? And knowledge is created by humans. If that knowledge has been tampered with, and the knowledge you have learned is wrong, then how can you judge whether you are a man or not?" the con man said again.
"Your question is meaningless. Even if the whole world is deceiving me, what's the point? Whether you are nominally a man or a woman, it has no effect on me. It's just like the color blindness that cannot distinguish between blue and green. Although they will confuse blue and green, the blue in the eyes of others is green in their eyes, and the green in the eyes of others is blue in their eyes, but when others talk about green, they also know which one is the real green. It's just that the color they see is not green but blue. They themselves don't know that it is blue, but it does not affect their normal communication with others." The young man pondered.
"Of course it has an impact. If the knowledge you learn is all false, then how do you know that the things you know are true? Maybe it's not women who give birth to children, and maybe other places don't exist except the places you have been to. Maybe the earth is not a sphere at all, but a plane. Things that you have not verified personally may be false, but you just don't know it." The con man said seriously.
"Isn't this nihilism? According to what you said, even if you see something with your own eyes, it may not be true. It may also be deliberately staged by others." The young man felt that this question was really meaningless.
"Yes, so when you can't tell the real from the fake, what standard do you use to measure what is real and what is fake?" the con man asked again.
"Then I can only rely on my own feelings." The young man murmured.
"Yes, by feeling. But if you rely on feeling, people are often only willing to believe that things that are beneficial to them are true." The old con man continued, "In ancient times, there was a legendary story about a very powerful man. He found a fortune teller who was very accurate in fortune telling. The fortune teller said that there were two people who were his lucky stars. With the help of those two people, he would be able to dominate the world. So the strong man found those two people and took them in as his favorite generals. With the help of those two people, the strong man did dominate the world."
"But the fortune teller predicted a second half to his fate. Those two people could help him gain the world, but they could also cause him to lose the world. If you were that strong man, would you believe in the second half of his fate?"
"Of course I don't believe it." The young man sighed. He already understood what the con man meant.
"Yes, even if the fortune teller's predictions are accurate, people will not believe the truth that is unfavorable to them. When fate is in their favor, people will believe in fate. When fate is not in their favor, no matter what the truth is, people are more willing to believe that man can conquer nature."
The con man continued, "For example, if you are a fat person, and one person tells you that you can lose weight easily by just enjoying delicious food, and another person tells you that you must exercise painfully to lose weight and give up all delicious food, before you know which one is right, you try them, and then which one would you be willing to believe?"
"If you don't know the truth, once you try it, you will probably choose to enjoy the food as you please. But how is it possible not to know the truth about this kind of thing?" the young man asked.
"What if the truth you know is false? In fact, you only need to enjoy delicious food as you please to lose weight, but you don't know the truth, and you keep struggling and not being able to enjoy delicious food as you please. You also exercise from time to time, but you don't lose weight. At this time, you will still wonder if it is because you can't stick to the diet or exercise that there is no effect?"
"This..." The young man seemed to not know what to say for a moment.
"If everyone in the world suddenly told you that you have been deceived and that you can lose weight by enjoying delicious food, would you like to give it a try?" The con man's expression turned into that of a devil tempting people to fall.
"I think so. After all, it doesn't hurt to try it." said the young man.
"What if it really works after trying it?" the old con man continued to ask.
"How could this possibly work?" The young man thought this was ridiculous.
"How can it not be effective? How do you know whether you have lost weight or gained weight?" the con man sneered.
"I have eyes to see," said the young man.
"What do you think? In fact, you can't see yourself completely directly. What if the self you see in the mirror is fake? What if the number on the scale is also fake?" the old con man asked in a forced manner.
"Can this be false?" the young man said with a wry smile.
"Why not? Do those beauties with long legs and curvy figure that you see on your phone really look like that in real life?" the con man asked.
"Well, although it's unlikely, if something like that really happened, I really have no way to tell whether it's true or not." The young man said, spreading his hands helplessly.
"Yes, you can't tell what's true and what's false, so after you eat delicious food, all kinds of illusions make you feel that you have lost weight, and the delicious food makes you happy physically and mentally. Are you willing to live in such a beautiful world, or live in a world where you can only lose weight by suffering? Which world do you want to be real?" the con man continued to ask.
"If I could choose, I would certainly prefer to live in that beautiful world," said the young man.
"That's right. The truth is often painful. Things that are good for people are often against human nature, and things that make people feel happy are often false and cruel. If you can weave an illusion that makes it impossible for people to judge whether the final result is good or bad, then most people will choose the path of false happiness. Some people may even indulge in it even though they know it is false. As long as they feel happy, it will be enough until their life is destroyed. If the future is illusory, life will also be destroyed. This is the illusion of life." The con man said slowly.
"What an illusion! If one can really play with life to this extent, he is probably no different from a god." The young man exclaimed.
“How do you know that we are not in a life fantasy woven by some gods?” The old con man squinted his eyes and sneered: “Perhaps everything you have now and all your past achievements are just illusions of happiness woven for you by the gods. Perhaps everything you are experiencing now is just a dream. Perhaps in the real world, you are already a stinking dying person.”
The con man's voice was eerie and terrifying, making people shudder.
The young man couldn't help but fall into deep thought. If the reality he understood was not real, then how could he tell what was real?
"Haha, it's rare to meet someone who shares the same suffering as you. I've said too much today. You don't have to think so much. If you can practice the two realms of true illusion and false illusion to the extreme, you can almost have a place under the light base. As for the realm of living illusion, it is not something that humans should consider. It is a realm that only gods can play with. I'm just daydreaming when I have nothing to do." The old man laughed.
The young man suddenly raised his head, looked at the old man and said, "I want to try the realm of life and illusion you mentioned."
"Didn't I tell you all that? Those were all my imaginations. I can't do it myself, so how could I let you try?" The con man said with a smile.
"No, I believe you have reached the realm of living illusion. Please give me a sword." The young man stared at the old con man and said calmly.
“What…a…joke…” The con man tried to be humorous, but when he saw the man’s determined gaze, he couldn’t finish the rest of his words.
"Please give me a sword." The young man stared at the con man with burning eyes and spoke slowly, enunciating each word.
Seeing the man like this, the old con man's expression became serious. He looked at the man and said in a deep voice: "I do understand a little bit of the illusion, but it's just a little bit. I don't know what effect it will have, and I can't even control it. If I draw my sword on you, you may be addicted to the fantasy life for the rest of your life and can't extricate yourself until you die."
"I want to give it a try." The young man still insisted.
"But I don't want to kill anyone." The con man shook his head firmly.
"Then go die." The young man suddenly pulled out a revolver and pulled the trigger at the con man's head. The speed was so fast that the con man had no chance to react.
The old con man's face changed drastically. Looking at the speed at which the young man drew his gun and fired, he knew that he was not joking but really wanted to kill someone, and it was so fast that he couldn't dodge the shot at all.
It was almost a conditioned reflex of the body. A dreamy lightsaber appeared in the hands of the con man and instantly pierced into the chest of the man in front of him.
Bang!
The bullets hit Lao Qian's head almost at the same time. Lao Qian felt his head shake and thought to himself that it was all over. He didn't expect to die like this.
But after waiting for a while, the imagined pain and head bursting did not occur. He touched his head and found that there was no scar there. Instead, a force spread through his body, erasing the scar on his forehead left by his previous battle with the evil spirit.
The old man touched his smooth forehead and was stunned for a moment. He looked at the young man in front of him in disbelief: "Are you crazy?"