Chapter 1058: Down-to-Earth, Steadfast Faith
“Human perception can be manipulated. Whether it’s vision, hearing, smell or touch, to put it bluntly, it’s all the result of biological electric currents and neural information stimulating the brain.”
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes and sized up the surging undercurrent and the howling gale of the abyss. “As long as the spirit magnetic field is sufficiently complex and the vibration of the psionic ripples is sufficiently exquisite, it’s possible to interfere with the brain waves of humans and create any illusion, causing people to fall into unimaginable worlds… or nightmares.”
Ice Storm calmed her mind.
Her mother was a witch.
It was different from magic and divine spells that originated from Holy Light.
Witchcraft originated from the human heart, attempting to activate the power in the deepest part of the brain.
Therefore, wizards and witches also had a profound understanding of the human brain that far surpa.s.sed that of ordinary people.
After being reminded by Meng Chao, she immediately reacted.
However, she was still very curious. How could Meng Chao react faster than her.
Could he be a wizard too?
A wizard with black hair and black eyes. How interesting.
“How do you know?”Icy Storm asked with Bright Eyes.
Meng Chao Shrugged.
There were a lot of traps in the two Archean ruins in the monster mountain range. They were created by creating illusions.
Many of the demon G.o.ds created by the monster’s main brain were also very good at mind control and illusion attacks.
After returning from the apocalypse, his soul had been tempered in the flames of the apocalypse. His brain had been greatly developed, and he was even immune to most of the mental attacks. In the fierce battle with the monster civilization, he gradually grasped the ability to see through illusions.
Meng Chao removed his helmet and knelt on one knee. He pulled a lock of hair from his head and brought it to his mouth to blow lightly.
The lock of hair immediately flew into the abyss.
It was swept up and down by the strong wind.
Then, it was sucked into the bottomless darkness and disappeared.
At first glance, whether it was the trajectory of the hair flying or the strong wind blowing at his face, the needle-like stinging pain was real.
But Meng Chao discovered that when he sent out the hair, his eyes and the depths of his ears had sensed extremely weak spiritual waves.
Two extremely weak spiritual energies had invaded his visual and auditory nervous systems respectively, interfering with his perception and forming a lifelike illusion in front of him!
“That’s right, this is an illusion.”Meng Chao confirmed again.
“Even if this abyss is really an illusion, how are we going to get there?”Ice Storm asked from the side.
“Maybe –”
Meng Chao Thought for a moment. “We can just walk straight to the Abyss when it doesn’t exist.”
“It can’t be?”
Ice storm frowned deeply. “Just like before, we can just walk straight to the abyss — there won’t be any unexpected incidents this time, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
Meng Chao muttered, “You should know better than I do the significance of the temple built by the Tulan civilization — firstly, to worship the ancestral spirits, and secondly, to test the blood descendants.
“The mechanisms in the temple are both to guard against intruders and to test whether the new generation of Tulan Warriors are qualified to inherit the power of their ancestors.
“Since it is a test, there must be a correct answer.
“You should know that in the whole of Tulan, the two of us are not too weak. If we can’t pa.s.s the test even after racking our brains and using all our skills, how many people will be able to pa.s.s it?”
“That’s true.”
Bingfeng nodded in agreement, “After all, the scale of the blood skull temple is not too big, and its level is not too high. It is far from the main temple of the Blood Hoof clan and the main temple of the Blood Hoof clan outside black-corner city.
“As long as we receive Casavar’s blood, many gladiators who are far inferior to me will be able to enter this place to offer sacrifices to the warriors of the past.
“There’s no reason for us to be trapped in this nonexistent abyss.”
“Indeed.”
Meng Chao deduced based on his experience of exploring the Archean ruins, “As far as I know, similar mechanisms don’t necessarily require astonishing combat strength or divine techniques to pa.s.s. Many times, the tests are instead some very basic abilities, as well as unknown things like ‘opportunities’and ‘potential’.
“Some ordinary people, even if they don’t have the strength to truss a chicken, can still pa.s.s through the mechanisms in a daze and obtain unparalleled strength.
“Some people, even if they have mastered the ability to slay Tigers and slay dragons, split mountains and split rocks, ride the wind, and even control lightning, will still disappear into the depths of the mechanisms, and no one will be seen alive or dead.
“Considering that the level of this temple isn’t high, we shouldn’t complicate a simple problem. We should put ourselves into the ident.i.ty of the lowest-level clan warrior and think about which aspect of our potential this abyss wants to test.”
“How can we guess it?”icestorm blurted out.
“Not guessing, but thinking.”
Meng Chao’s mind raced, and he vaguely grasped something.
He asked icestorm, “Just now, when you saw this abyss for the first time, what kind of emotions emerged in the bottom of your heart?”
“This…”
Icestorm thought for a moment and said with certainty, “Fear, of course, is fear. This has nothing to do with strength. I think, when anyone first sees such a large-scale abyss, the first emotion that emerges from the bottom of their heart is definitely fear.”
“That’s right, it’s fear.”
Meng Chao snapped his fingers lightly. “I feel that this mechanism is testing our ability to overcome fear, which is also courage.”
Icestorm’s eyes lit up.
High-level orcs were the race that worshiped bravery the most in the entire Otherworld.
Moreover, they believed that courage had nothing to do with strength. It was something that came naturally to them.
“There’s no need to be too strong in battle, only astonishing courage. In other words…”icestorm thought quickly.
Meng Chao was already one step ahead of her, stepping out of the cliff.
Ice Storm widened her eyes.
Just like how she had watched Meng Chao break into the first trap, she didn’t have time to cry out in surprise.
Then, she saw the strong wind whistling in from all directions as Meng Chao stepped into the air.
However, it didn’t disturb his life magnetic field and blew him into the darkness. Instead, it condensed into a stepping stone as thin as a Cicada’s wing and as hard as iron under his feet!
The pitch-black stepping stone was not much bigger than Meng Chao’s feet, and it did not reflect any light. At first glance, it was exactly the same as the surrounding darkness.
However, Meng Chao stood steadily on it and took a second step forward.
As expected, the whistling squall condensed into a second stepping stone in front of him.
Just like that, Meng Chao took seven steps forward in one go.
The squall continuously condensed into stepping stones under his feet, gradually extending into the sky above the abyss into a small path that was as thin as hair.
Meng Chao stood still as if he was standing in the void, turning his head to look at the ice storm.
The ice storm steeled its heart, stepping on Meng Chao’s footsteps and also walking on the abyss.
The two of them looked straight ahead and took more than a hundred steps in one go, arriving at the center of the Abyss.
The Darkness was endless in all directions. It was like a raging wave of darkness that continuously squeezed their souls, making them feel extremely small and that they would be completely devoured by the darkness at any time.
The ice storm felt as if the world was spinning.
Finally, she could not help but take a glance at the abyss under her feet.
Even if she was rational, she was very clear that such a terrifying abyss could not exist under the blood skull arena.
Her senses and fear instincts were still screaming hysterically in the depths of her brain.
She swallowed hard and mumbled, “If… If all of this is an illusion, what is the real thing under Our Feet?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a solid ground,”Meng Chao said.
“In other words, we won’t fall into the Abyss at all?”
Ice storm said, “Then, how should the mechanism punish those who are afraid and fail the test
“By controlling one’s perception, the illusion might be able to kill people.”
Meng Chao said, “Perhaps, a person who falls into the Abyss in the illusion will still be smashed to pieces. Of course, his bones were not smashed, but crushed by his muscles, which were tightened to the extreme.
“On the other hand, as long as you realize this and believe that you are walking on the right and solid path, you don’t have to be afraid that you will be smashed to pieces.
“Look, the end is here.”
Ice storm was slightly startled. When he looked up, he saw a cliff that looked like a tusk that was similar to the beginning appearing in the dark void.
“So Fast?”
The ice storm remembered that he had only walked through half of the abyss. When he looked up, he did not see anything floating in front of him.
This cliff seemed to appear out of thin air. It was extremely strange.
“Since the Abyss does not exist, as long as we have enough faith, the end point will appear at any time.”
Meng Chao said, “Perhaps the second mechanism is only a few dozen steps long. We have been spinning in circles under the guidance of illusions.”
Now, they were only three steps away from the finish line.
Three Black stepping stones silently appeared in front of them.
Each stepping stone was an arm’s length apart.
This was a distance that even untrained rats could easily cross.
Meng Chao stood in front of the three stepping stones.
Gazing at the finish line that was so close to him, he pondered for a long time.
Then, he took a step forward.
Without hesitation, he stepped on the two pieces of void between the three stepping stones.
Ice Storm widened his eyes.
He thought Meng Chao had miscalculated the distance.
However, this was impossible. Although the dark stepping stones were almost merged with the dark void, it was indeed difficult to distinguish them.
However, the faint light on the cliff in front of him had already outlined the shape of the stepping stones.
Even when he had walked to the center of the Abyss and could hardly see any light, Meng Chao had not stepped on the wrong stepping stone.
How could he have made such a low-level mistake?
Then, something that the ice storm could not believe happened.
Meng Chao had clearly stepped into the void.
He was about to fall into an abyss that did not exist. According to his own words, his brain was controlled by an illusion, his flesh and blood were controlled by his brain, and his bones were forcefully crushed.
But he stood firmly on the void without a stepping stone!