Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 331 - 309 Becomes Impermanence

Chapter 331: 309 Becomes Impermanence

All bodies and souls were annihilated, I thought I was undoubtedly going to die, yet for some unknown reason, I have not yet died.

No, actually I now understand why I have not died...

It’s because my spirit has fused with natural thermal energy. This fusion is not like treating natural heat as a house in which my spirit resides. It goes deeper—my spirit has melded into the natural heat. To put it more completely, now, I am the heat itself.

This ability didn’t just suddenly appear; from the beginning, I possessed the ability to perceive my surroundings by melding my spirit with natural heat. Given this characteristic, I had also pondered under what circumstances I could be killed. One possible scenario I concluded was that unless I didn’t set up "fireflies" and thermal energy markers in other areas, and no other derivations of power, and my enemy created an absolute zero environment around me, I would never die.

Later, this idea slowly faded from my mind; not only was it a wild guess borne out of my own chaotic thoughts, never tested through practice, but I found it hard to believe that merely relying on the Mana of heat dispersed outside, or my spirit fully integrating into natural heat, could allow me to rise again once my soul was completely killed.

Ying Lingyun— or rather, the creator of monsters had also told me in battle that no matter how proficient I am in transforming my spirit into flames and heat, I could never convert my soul into power entirely, because I always needed to divide myself into "the entity that manipulates power" and "the manipulated power." If I turned entirely into the latter, my consciousness would lose its entity structure and dissipate as a pure natural phenomenon.

—Unless I am a true "Manifestation," a real God or Immortal.

So... since I haven’t died, am I truly a "Manifestation"? However, there exists a multitude of evidence suggesting that I am not a "Manifestation," which is why I felt previously that it was impossible for me to continue maintaining a conscious existence after my soul was completely destroyed.

The notion that I can maintain consciousness after the soul is destroyed—this seems truly contradictory. Soul, consciousness, mind, spirit... these terms should all be equivalent.

Moreover, now on Moon Concealing Mountain, the flames and heat I summoned with my superpower have also extinguished, not just my body and soul, but all symbols of me have disappeared without a trace. Under these circumstances, I truly struggle to understand how I can still perceive anything.

Or rather, what exactly is "I"?

This seems to be more of a philosophical question. Under the scientific worldview I accepted in the past, the self is thought to be an "emergent" result formed by the electrochemical reactions in the brain. The so-called "emergence" refers to the phenomenon where, after simple individuals are stacked into a complex collective system, properties that the simple individuals do not possess appear. For example, the surface tension of water is a property that water molecules do not have. However, applying this to the formation of self often feels forced and incongruous.

Some people advocate that humans are essentially biological machines, and that the so-called "I" is just a complex illusion, but I cannot accept that notion. Because even if it is an illusion, there must first be an "I" that can generate this illusion.

I think, therefore I am; the self is self-evident. Precisely because of this, the self seems to be something difficult to prove. Humans can only believe at most in the existence of their own selves; further still, even among billions of people, proving that a second person other than oneself truly has a self, or is just a biological machine that seems to have a self, is impossible.

Since the scientific worldview cannot locate the "I," can it be found using the demon hunter’s worldview? For example, is the "I" within the soul?

I had also previously been predisposed to believe so, but as the soul became something visible and tangible to me, or rather something that could be observed and intervened with, the soul increasingly felt like an alternative form of material and energy.

In the ancient religious and mythological worldview, the soul was also considered the body after death, even thought to have a clear structure like the physical body, possessing three "souls" and seven "spirits" or other structures. If so, where exactly is the self in this body? Or is the self also an "emergence" formed through some complex energy reactions of this body? If the self, which cannot be verified in the material body, can be verified in another "material" body, it indeed lacks persuasiveness.

I remember Zhu Shi once explained to me that in the ultimate realm that demon hunters yearn for, there exists a stage called "True Spirit," and reaching this realm requires verifying and contacting the existence of the "I."

Other ultimate realms, such as "Dream" and "Manifestation," seem also to have certain connections with this "True Spirit."

And the "Reincarnation" achieved by Shan Liangyi might also have some connections with "True Spirit"—or more specifically, the verification of the self.

Pondering these matters, I looked towards Water Navy Xuanwu again.

Currently, I cannot discern my specific location; saying I looked, but without a body and soul, I can neither see nor hear anything, only form images like imaginations in my consciousness amidst the nothingness of dark. Since it’s imagination, I can sketch out both his front and back simultaneously in my mind. This isn’t a third-person perspective, but rather a God’s perspective.

And perhaps, precisely because I have lost all my body and soul, and because Water Navy Xuanwu brought me unprecedentedly close to death, I believed for a moment that I truly died... Now, I feel as though I have been liberated from all shackles.

Even all the powers have been completely liberated.

Water Navy Xuanwu stands on a desolate land filled with broken stones and rubble, looking around. Half of the mountain was shattered by his ultimate move; if not for the wrong angle, perhaps he could have flattened the entire mountain. Even the legendary Tsar Bomb would not be capable of such a feat.

Even the fog shrouding Moon Concealing Mountain was torn apart by the previous Xuanming Strike; now, looking up, one could even see the silver moon hanging high in the night sky.

He raised his right hand, a "Golden Core" appeared again in his palm. This one, however, felt far less oppressive than the last. As this "Golden Core" appeared, massive amounts of black water emerged from all directions, the same Dark Mysterious Power formed after the previous "Golden Core" shattered.

Countless Dark Mysterious Powers surged into this "Golden Core," giving it the same oppressive feel as the previous one.