Chapter 1103: Calm and Collected Lin Sanjiu
"You really should have listened to her," a voice said.
In an instant, the previous cosmos, stars, and flight all faded away like a dream, leaving not a single ripple. Now, she could feel her body again: her back was pressed against the ground, covered in gra.s.s and soil. A bandage was on her forehead, and her fingertips were wet with the night"s dew. Her eyes remained closed. Dr. Hu was beside her, close enough that they were nearly touching, yet she couldn"t communicate her current state to Meowie Hu.
The voice of the man did not come from her ears.
It seemed like he had replaced Mrs. Manas" position, or perhaps it was an auditory hallucination due to her fragmented consciousness, murmuring deep within Lin Sanjiu"s mind. His tone was slightly trembling with excitement as he spoke, "Of course, when people panic and don"t know what to do, they tend to run around like headless flies... which ultimately led me into their minds. You don"t need to blame yourself; you are not much different from them... except, I didn"t expect you to be a growth type."
As he spoke, he sounded like a gourmet sitting at a dining table, eagerly waiting for dinner.
"What"s going on?" Lin Sanjiu couldn"t articulate the words; she just repeated the thought, hoping the man could hear.
"Corresponding conditions, darling!" The man in her mind laughed heartily, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.
Of course, I know this is your corresponding condition!
Unexpectedly, her thought was heard again. Just realizing this sent s.h.i.+vers down Lin Sanjiu"s spine.
"I"m generous and fair. If you give me all your Potential Growth Value in exchange for some information, I might reluctantly agree." He laughed, thinking he was rather humorous, "Let me ask you this: how long do you think has pa.s.sed from when you opened your eyes in the Astral Plane until now? In my corresponding condition, time flows at the same rate as the outside world."
As he spoke, Lin Sanjiu involuntarily had an image in her mind.
It was a slippery, s.h.i.+ny leech, attached to the skin—somehow, she knew it was her own skin—biting into it, sucking blood vigorously, and her body gradually swelling.
Of course, this couldn"t be her real situation at the moment. It was likely her consciousness realizing a threat and desperately signaling her surface consciousness.
That man with pig-like eyes was now in her brain... like a leech, was he sucking her Higher Consciousness?
"A leech?" The man snorted lowly with some annoyance, "I don"t care how you describe it, as you"ll soon regress into an ordinary posthuman. But let me tell you, taking your Potential Growth Value isn"t some primitive method like a leech! My Higher Consciousness has established a corresponding condition in your brain. Do you know how rare and incredible this is?"
"How did your Higher Consciousness end up in my body?" Lin Sanjiu"s mind raced, and she hurriedly asked.
"Isn"t it because you willingly led me in?" The man replied. Since a while back, Lin Sanjiu had been clearly feeling something in her body diminis.h.i.+ng bit by bit. It was as if a sandcastle standing in the wind was gradually melting away.
At this point, she found herself actually missing the segment of her Nüwa gene she had expelled. At the very least, even if the spores were still within her, she would have a means of counterattack now.
"I didn"t lead you in," Lin Sanjiu pretended to be naive, "I didn"t!"
The man in her mind fell silent for a few seconds. Just when she worried he wouldn"t respond, she heard him sigh deeply, "Wow, I really didn"t expect this... Your Higher Consciousness has been exhausted, but your Potential Growth Value is so incredible. Unbelievably, it"s still growing! I"ve absorbed a growth type for the first time, and I wonder if I"ll become a growth type too after absorbing it... You probably don"t deserve such an astounding Potential Growth Value. If you give it to me, I can make better use of it."
It seemed that even the man with pig-like eyes had a hard time resisting the urge to show off in this life-changing moment, equivalent to a posthuman"s small climax.
"But I didn"t lead you in..." Lin Sanjiu said.
"If you want to know, answer my question. How long do you think you"ve been in the Astral Plane?"
Even if she had been trapped in his corresponding condition before, she was still within the Astral Plane. Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and replied, "Maybe three or four minutes?"
"Wrong!" Pig Eyes gloated. "Let me tell you, you"ve actually been in the Astral Plane for at least fifty minutes. Fifty minutes ago, you and your friend appeared in the Astral Plane, and I discovered you."
Lin Sanjiu had a few questions, but upon closer consideration, she thought it wasn"t right and decided to continue listening. At that moment, she suddenly caught the sound of rustling fabric from outside, followed by Bohemia"s voice coming through clearly, "Hasn"t she woken up yet?"
It seemed that Pig Eyes had also noticed the situation through her consciousness and immediately fell silent.
Dr. Hu wondered, "Why did you come back alone?"
Bohemia cursed under her breath, "This is bad." Shortly after, Lin Sanjiu felt her face being slapped several times. The cool fingertips stung her skin, like they were burning. She recalled doing the same thing to Puppeteer"s face. In the eyes of Dr. Hu and Bohemia, she probably looked no different from a comatose patient.
Pig Eyes observed for a while but then relaxed. "Haha, it must be frustrating for you to just wait helplessly outside."
"You tell me, fifty minutes ago, we entered the Astral Plane together, and then?" Lin Sanjiu inquired.
"I observed you from a distance for a while. At the beginning, you exchanged a few words and then your friend hid within your starlight, pointing at the place you were at," Pig Eyes said.
So the memories after she woke up were indeed real experiences?
"At the time, I couldn"t hear very clearly, but I knew you were planning to go somewhere, presumably the Concrete World Branch. The Concrete World Branch has been gone for quite some time, and many posthumans, unaware of this, have gone there in vain. As expected, I guessed right; the two of you were running around aimlessly like headless flies," he continued, chuckling. Half of her Potential Growth Value had already been absorbed, so he was in a good mood.
"Forty minutes ago, which is ten minutes after you entered the Astral Plane. When you were about to ask someone for help, I rushed over and applied a corresponding condition to you. Unfortunately, this corresponding condition of mine can only hold one person at a time. Otherwise, it would have been perfect to trap her in too... Do you know what my corresponding condition is called?
Lin Sanjiu only hoped he could finish speaking before absorbing all her Potential Growth Value.
"[Delusion Sphere], how does that sound? A good name, right? From the moment you entered, it altered your perception..." Whether it"s because of the satisfaction from the ability or the abundant results of the battle, Pig Eyes spoke with excitement, even slightly accelerating his speech, "You can think of it as my corresponding condition performing cognitive surgery on you. Opening your eyes, talking to friends, trying to find the Concrete World Branch... this series of real experiences were captured by my [Delusion Sphere] and they were replaced the moment you were attacked and fell into my hands. In other words, in your perception, you believe you entered the Astral Plane forty minutes ago, and the ten minutes prior are blank... because that segment of memory was taken by me and s.h.i.+fted ten minutes later."
To think he could explain it so fluently—Lin Sanjiu took a few seconds to finally understand his method.
If memories were like a ribbon, he was essentially cutting off the second-to-last section and using it to replace the end of the ribbon. This naturally created a gap in the ribbon—yet, just before entering the Astral Plane, she had been sleeping, so that part was already blank! No wonder she couldn"t figure out when she was. .h.i.t. What she felt was, after all, her true experience.
"But what happened after I entered your [Delusion Sphere]?" Lin Sanjiu carefully avoided using Bohemia"s name as she asked. "How can I hear my friend"s voice? She even warned me that I was trapped in a corresponding condition... Oh, and not just that, I also had a conversation with a red star!"
"I"ve never seen someone with such a curious mind as yours," Pig Eyes hesitated for a few seconds, mumbling, "To know the answers, you"re even willing to accept becoming an ordinary person soon...? If you think I"ll reveal my weaknesses by speaking too much, you"re mistaken."
Lin Sanjiu didn"t have that intention in the first place.
"After you entered the [Delusion Sphere], there"s nothing new. You heard your friend"s voice because she was continuously chasing you outside, shouting loudly. Sometimes, I couldn"t stop her, and if her voice made its way into the sphere, your consciousness, influenced by the [Delusion Sphere], would process this external information as if it were a current event."
Pig Eyes explained patiently, "It"s like dreaming. If someone soaks your feet in water while you"re sleeping, you might dream of walking into a river. It"s the same principle. The red star was something you imagined, or how else could you have known about the market research questionnaires and gas station?"
"I see..." Lin Sanjiu nodded in her mind, listening to Bohemia and Dr. Hu mumbling anxiously by her body, unable to come up with a solution even after such a long time.
"I think my Potential Growth Value is almost completely absorbed," she said.
She couldn"t deny her worry, but she tried to remain calm and asked, "I have one last question. I was clearly trapped in the Astral Plane, but now I don"t know how I left the Astral Plane and returned to my own body, bringing you along. I never left."
"You really aren"t very bright," Pig Eyes scoffed twice and replied, "You were enclosed within my sphere. When you ran in a certain direction, you dragged my sphere along with you. This movement, of course, isn"t arbitrary. Since my corresponding condition is unique, when you run far enough, your Higher Consciousness, along with my sphere, exits the Astral Plane and re-enters your mind, just like the usual process when you exit the Astral Plane, except that this time, you were deceived into leaving."
"Then how are you here now?"
"Don"t you have any basic knowledge about Higher Consciousness?" Pig Eyes seemed a bit annoyed. "My corresponding condition is a part of my Higher Consciousness. When it entered, my entire Higher Consciousness followed."
"Oh, I see," Lin Sanjiu said, "because I"m running out of Potential Growth Value, I got a bit anxious and forgot. So now, in my mind, only a part of your Higher Consciousness remains?"
Pig Eyes sighed impatiently, "My, you can access the Astral Plane now, but you"re so clueless about basic knowledge? This is the final form of my Higher Consciousness, the star you saw in the Astral Plane! In other words, a star entered your mind. Understand?"
Lin Sanjiu finally had an epiphany, "I understand," she sincerely said, "You"ve been very patient. Thank you."
Pig Eyes didn"t respond for a while, likely contemplating whether he had misheard or if she had gone insane.
"No matter what you"re planning," after a while, he spoke again, guarded but with a hidden excitement, "I"ve completely absorbed your Potential Growth Value! There isn"t a trace of your Higher Consciousness left."
Lin Sanjiu wasn"t angry; she remained considerate. "How will you return to the Astral Plane now? Your Higher Consciousness is disconnected from your own brain. You can"t use your usual method to enter the Astral Plane, right?"
In terms of Magus" a.n.a.logy, each person"s physical body is like a computer, and the pathway to cultivating Higher Consciousness is like an internet connection, ultimately uploading the unique data of Higher Consciousness to the Astral Plane, which serves as the World Wide Web.
So, in a way, Pig Eyes" corresponding condition was somewhat like a computer virus. Just like a virus, it had entered the computer via the network, affecting Lin Sanjiu"s mind so much that her "computer" couldn"t function properly.
Given that everyone"s conditions were different, the "internet connections" varied. In theory, Bohemia couldn"t open [School of Higher Consciousness] and Lin Sanjiu couldn"t enter the Astral Plane using [Garden of Intercrossing Paths]. But Pig Eyes, with a mocking tone, said, "Why are you so foolish? Can I trap myself? Although I can"t use my own cultivation path, I can use yours."
"Use mine?"
"Yes, you haven"t forgotten, have you? I absorbed a bit of your remaining Higher Consciousness. Just like every piece of skin contains your complete genetic code, even with just one drop of Higher Consciousness, I can extract the path of your Higher Consciousness cultivation..." Pig Eyes didn"t waste any time, surely implementing what he was saying because his voice abruptly cut off.
If she could smile, she would have. Lin Sanjiu waited patiently without any particular thoughts. Bohemia and Dr. Hu appeared to reach a consensus and decided to sit back and observe Lin Sanjiu"s condition, which suited her just fine.
After an unknown amount of time had pa.s.sed, when Pig Eyes" voice suddenly pierced the silence and sounded almost frantic in her mind, she couldn"t help but feel an uncontrollable urge to laugh.
"What"s going on?" Pig Eyes cried out in disbelief, his voice sharp. "How is this possible? This... this can"t be right!"
Lin Sanjiu waited, content, for his next words.
"Why isn"t your Higher Consciousness level not enough to enter the Astral Plane?"