Chapter 291: Maddening mirrors
Cao Yun was now fully immersed in his sea of consciousness. All the copies of himself outside, all his doubts and vagabond thoughts were muted and invisible. Yet he began to feel a strange and ominous sensation behind him.
When he turned back, there was another Cao Yun. He was looking at him with incredulous eyes.
"Who are you?! How did you get inside my soul?!"
"I'm the original!"
Once again, many Cao Yun had appeared all over the place. But this time, he could actually check whether he was the original or not. Indeed, he had been right under the Five Agents and the Drop of Wrath. He just had to look up and he would see. But the moment he looked up, Cao Yun saw that the Five Agents and the Drop of Wrath were now so high in the sky it was impossible to determine above who they were.
If even his sea of consciousness was invaded and he couldn't know for sure whether he was true or not, he just had to erase his thoughts once more.
So he did. Cao Yun got rid of all his thoughts. And when he opened his eyes, they were still here, in his sea of consciousness, still arguing. Some were now lying on the surface of the ocean full of despair.
"Am I not the real one?"
"It should have worked!"
"Make it stop!"
"I'll turn insane!"
More and more sounds were invading Cao Yun's mind and he could not take refuge in his sea of consciousness because that was where he was. Despite everything he was feeling, he had to keep a hold on his sense of self. No matter if clearing his thoughts had not worked, he was the real Cao Yun. But then again, all the others thought the same thing as well. Was it even important whether he was true or not? Even if he wasn't, he had no way of knowing. Even if he was, he had no way of knowing.
This place was not trying to threaten him, it was supposed to help him. He had to remember Elder Tang's words. The Palace of Supreme Wisdom was supposed to create worlds suited to what they needed. But how could an array formation know what they needed? Of course, it was because it could analyze their bodies, their minds, their very souls.
There lied the explanation to this world. It had to somehow be useful to Cao Yun. He was the disciple with the most powerful mind cultivation. So it wasn't a surprise that one of the tests would target that. Elder Tang had said it, there would be different ways to pass each test. Maybe Cao Yun could pass the test just by ignoring it. If he could shut down his thoughts long enough, maybe the test would be passed, but he would gain almost nothing from this place. Learning to keep one's mind blank was difficult but he could not really see many benefits of that kind of discipline. To be honest, he was certain that that was something he could do for several months thanks to his mind cultivation.
No, there was something way better to do. All of his thoughts, all of his doubts were laid bare in front of him, literally screaming in his ears. For a long time, he had been plagued by doubt and by uncertainty about his future and even his desires. Right now, he could listen to them all. What he had to do was to take it all in. There was no real Cao Yun. Each one was just a fragment of a whole. Some were very close to what he actually thought. Others were dark pieces lost deep in the recesses of his mind. But they were all him.
Thus, Cao Yun decided to not eradicate his thoughts but to listen to them one by one. Right now, everything was chaos. But he had to start somewhere. One of the Cao Yun had taken his spear out and was killing others all around the place. He would start with this one. Cao Yun began to focus all of his intent on this particularly violent Cao Yun.
-
Sun Liao found himself in a room. There was nothing particular about this room. It was a square with four doors, one on each wall. After examining the room for some time, Sun Liao found that there was nothing strange at all. Even with his best compass which he had taken with him, he found nothing unusual. Thus, he decided to try and open all the doors to find what was behind them. And he did. But each door was leading to the exact same room, with no indication on which one he had to take. Thus, Sun Liao took an arrow and made a small mark on a wall before taking the door that was on it.
Right now, this place seemed like a maze. For an array formation master, this wouldn't be hard to get out of.
He began to change his mind though when he crossed the threshold of the door. All of a sudden, he found himself in the middle of the room and all the doors were closed. The first thing he did was to look for the mark and it wasn't there. At least he had changed room. Or maybe the room itself had changed.
Once again, he opened all the doors to try and find the room from where he had come from. Unfortunately, the mark was on the wall beside the door so he couldn't see it without getting at least his head inside. And as soon as he did, he found himself in the middle of the room once more. But he had to be sure whether he was traveling through contingent rooms or if they were not linked at all. Thus, he made a mark on the ground this time, indicating his next direction.
After changing room again, he opened all the doors and found the exact same rooms, none with any mark at all.
This was an interesting puzzle for an array formation master. But this wasn't what he wanted. Right now, he needed to increase his cultivation, not his comprehension of array formations. He was going to pass this test as fast as possible to find a better suited one regarding his main objective.
-
Ren Chao was in a small cave whose ceiling had been completely blown to smithereens. Holding a giant hammer three times as long as Ren Chao was tall and with a head at least as big as his own torso. Just lifting it took all of his strength, despite his physique. Moreover, each time he lifted it, thunderbolts from the sky lashed directly toward the hammer. And as the thunder was penetrating Ren Chao's flesh, he used all of his strength to strike a perfectly round rock that was as tall as his waist and four times as large as him.
Even with his strength and the lightning still coursing through the hammer, not a single dent was visible on the rock. It did not even move at all. Ren Chao had already tried to move it with his bare hands but had not succeeded. His usual weapon was put in a corner of the cave. Although he still claimed that this was a mace, no one could see anything but a hammer when looking at this weapon. However, just by striking the metal with it once, Ren Chao had realized that his weapon would break if he tried to use it.
Because there was already a giant hammer in that cave, the test seemed very straightforward to Ren Chao. He would need to break this rock. With each attempt, the thunder striking him was becoming stronger and stronger. Most of it was going through his bones and did not cause much pain. But even the remnant that was going through his flesh was enough to inflict incredible pain. Thankfully, Ren Chao's mind cultivation was weak in everything but will. That was the only aspect of his mind cultivation in which he could boast his superiority. Even Cao Yun might not have such a powerful will.
Thus, Ren Chao would continue relentlessly. Right now, he didn't care about the Palace of Supreme Wisdom anymore. As a blacksmith, he refused to admit that a rock could best him.
-
Mei Hua found herself in a colorful jungle. There didn't seem to be any beast. However, the entire vegetation was trying to kill her. At her feet, there was a permanent poisonous haze. Even the air she was breathing was full of poison. Since she had come into this place, she had been trying to control several poisons in her. As an alchemist, this wasn't too difficult. Thankfully, those were not powerful poisons, but she knew none of them.
Because she had no knowledge about any of the species around her, Mei Hua was completely lost. In the sky, the stars were different and they even seemed to be moving around. She had soon understood the concept of this test. The only way for her to leave this jungle was to understand its ecology. Only after gaining a substantial understanding of the different plants and poisons could she really orientate herself and find clues.
Maybe it was because she was an alchemist that this kind of test had appeared. But deep down, she wondered whether this was linked to what had happened in the beginning of her second year. To this day, she was still frustrated by not having been able to detect the Burrowing Deadly Typha. Since then, she had studied poisons a bit more in depth. After all, her alchemy had been stagnant because her cultivation could not keep up with her progress in the occupation.
-
Cao Yun completely lost himself in his observations. Every one of his senses was focused on that other Cao Yun. And everything about this other Cao Yun seemed real. In other circumstances, he could have been that other Cao Yun. Then, was he really the original Cao Yun? Was there even such a thing as the real Cao Yun? If he couldn't control his thoughts, wasn't he just a slave to something else? Wasn't he just deluded into thinking he was an individual with any semblance of control?
Cao Yun did not try to control his thoughts at all. The more he was suppressing them, the stronger they came back each time. Thus, he simply focused on that other Cao Yun and let his thoughts wander wherever they wanted to go.
Slowly, he realized that he had fewer and fewer thoughts. Even without actively trying to suppress them, they were disappearing and the noise around him was lessening. After some time, the other Cao Yun even disappeared. The thoughts and doubts that had led to him were now fully understood by Cao Yun. By understanding his own doubts and his own thoughts, he had realized that he was not defined by them. They were just passing through his mind.
Several more times, Cao Yun focused all his attention on other Cao Yun. Each time, it took a lot of time, but ultimately the other Cao Yun disappeared. Some Cao Yun were almost identical to him. So understanding them was easy and they disappeared faster. But others were so foreign that he himself wondered how they could have diverged from him so quickly.
All things considered, getting rid of them one by one was not a really good strategy. Although they didn't seem to be infinite in his sea of consciousness, there were thousands of Cao Yun. He couldn't spend all his time in this first test. Besides the demonic cultivators had to try something at some point.
Now that he had understood what was going on, he didn't need to be so slow. Since he was still in his sea of consciousness, Cao Yun was literally walking on the surface of the ocean below. Suddenly, he got sucked into the depths of the ocean. Soon after, the water level rose and all the other Cao Yun were also drawn into the water. This water was part of Cao Yun's mind. And now that all the other Cao Yun were with him inside, he simply spread his intent and his will through this ocean. However, he had decided not to activate his mind cultivation at first.
After assessing that his ideas were correct as many Cao Yun very similar to him had already disappeared in the water, he finally activated his Five Agents. Zhi the Water Will and Yi the Earth Intent were greatly amplified by Shen the Fire Spirit. On the other hand, Po the Metal Corporeal Soul and Hun the Wood Ethereal Soul were not pushed to their maximum.
Thanks to that, Cao Yun was able to focus on almost all of the Cao Yun. Because there was still a bit too much noise, he also activated all the chambers of his Upper Dantian he had already energized. In particular the Chamber of Moving Pearls allowed him to remain perfectly neutral while hearing sometimes horrendous thoughts. And the Chamber of Heavenly Court was somehow slowing time around him. In reality, it was speeding his thought processes to the point where time seemed to freeze.
Using every advantage he had with his mind cultivation, Cao Yun soon got rid of every other copy in his own mind. Even disgusting thoughts were not representative of who he was. No amount of thoughts, doubts or desires could define him. What would define Cao Yun would be his actions on those thoughts. But he had to admit that those thoughts had indeed gone through his mind. In other circumstances he could have turned into a really different man. However, he had not. Other men would have held on his hatred and would have been devoured by the Drop of Wrath. Others would have abused his newfound strength and indulged in many desires.
All those possibilities were part of him. But they could not define him as a cultivator. Cultivation was going against fate, and the entire Dao of the world. Cao Yun would let his actions speak for him. He was not afraid to face the darkest parts of his mind.
Thus, he exited his sea of consciousness and was now ready to confront the infinity of Cao Yun. Thankfully, he didn't have to get rid of them all alone. When he opened his eyes, many other Cao Yun were already starting to erase the other ones. Just by focusing on those thoughts, meditating on them and accepting them, the copy would disappear. More and more Cao Yun were now focusing on the others. One by one, the other Cao Yun disappeared until only the meditating ones remained. And even they started to fade away.
In the end, only one Cao Yun was remaining. And when thoughts entered his mind, it caused no ripple on the world around him. Each thought could pass through him without disturbing his mind. His sense of self had increased. It was now rooted in something more solid and robust, his Dao heart.