Chapter 337: True or False
For a cultivator who was already infinitely close to the Fifth Tier, dealing with these rioters barely counted as bullying.
After stepping into the Unmelting Realm and mastering simple flying Spirit Arts, no matter how many ordinary people came, they were merely offering themselves up. The ability to take to the skies already rendered Xiao Yan invincible. Those transcendents, high above, weren't merely superior in status.
However, those who pillaged everywhere in the name of rebellion had evidently lost all concept of fear. They chased the blood-soaked Gu He to the front of the Xiao family mansion. From their gleaming eyes, Xiao Yan understood their intentions.
"How tedious." Dark green flames erupted from his body. This unnatural flame, possessing immense lethality to the human body, instantly cleared the surroundings.
The hundreds who had followed Gu He were instantly incinerated to ash. As if having completed a trivial task, he lightly clapped his hands, turned, and walked back into the house, resuming his study of the crystal in his hand.
"It seems you've already guessed." The Red World Disciple suddenly said, looking at Bai Mo. With its realm and the characteristics of an informational lifeform, it could faintly sense how many people knew information related to itself.
"To use the entire world as a chessboard, or perhaps, a dinner plate—not bad." Bai Mo's expression remained utterly devoid of emotion, as if he weren't the one currently being utterly suppressed.
"Your kin are becoming my food. Do you feel nothing at all?" The Red World Disciple, feeling it had gained an absolute advantage, even had the presence of mind to crack a joke.
"Kin, species, or even fellow countrymen—they are all merely artificial divisions, convenient little circles for labeling. I don't care for so many; there are only two categories: myself, and everyone else."
Battles on the informational level inherently posed this problem: they could easily escalate into a death-feud. Information leaks were unavoidable in offensive and defensive information warfare, and once an opponent uncovered one's secrets, even if they weren't mortal enemies before, they would instantly become so.
"Are you afraid?" Bai Mo countered.
"Afraid we would exceed your control, so you chose to activate everything now?"
"You truly know too much." The Red World Disciple did not deny Bai Mo's words. From its lofty perspective, such verbal sparring was utterly irrelevant. It simply continued doing what it needed to do, as neither agreement nor denial held any meaning.
The two simply conversed in a desultory fashion. To an outsider, it wouldn't have seemed like a battle at all. Aside from the two entangled masses of light, there were no other significant sound or visual effects in the surroundings; even the objects around the laboratory remained perfectly intact.
"What are you scoundrels doing!" After learning through various channels that their properties in the city had been seized, many enraged cultivators disregarded the threat of the Spirit Devourer, rushing relentlessly toward the city center, attempting to recover some of their losses.
The moment both sides met, they clashed violently, though it would be more accurate to call it a one-sided slaughter. Against transcendents of the Third Tier and above, ordinary people without thermal weapons were simply sending themselves to their deaths.
…
Three hours later.
"You still haven't given up? Do you truly believe you can turn the tide with a self-made so-called 'Golden Apple'? Aren't you afraid of turning into a madman?" Through scouring Bai Mo's memories, the Red World Disciple also learned of this trump card he relied upon.
"What a pity." Seeing the situation was dire and the enemy's strength constantly increasing, Bai Mo decided to take a gamble. He took out the Golden Apple he had kept on him and ate it whole.
Originally, he had wanted to spend two or three years slowly exploring a more efficient and safer way to utilize it, but man proposes, God disposes; an anomalous entity had appeared, seeking his life. Left with no choice, he could only abandon the search for a safer method.
If not for its relentless pressure, Bai Mo wouldn't have wanted to begin breaking through to unknown realms so early, even though he had already deduced the general direction.
Many details had yet to be perfected, and he was forced to hastily advance as if ducks were being driven onto a perch. This was not the choice he desired, but such was reality, and Bai Mo had no other recourse.
After consuming the Golden Apple, he took out the half-vial of abyssal bloodline remaining from Gaia's descent and swallowed it in one gulp.
The Red World Disciple did not stop his actions. In its view, this was merely his final act of madness before despair. He would attempt every possibility, and perhaps ending his life in such a manner would be the best outcome.
The Golden Apple, born from an apple tree that had condensed the thoughts of millions and been nourished by countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures, he had only ever had a single guess as to what heights it could truly reach.
After the Golden Apple's effects manifested, Bai Mo quickly experienced the terrifying side effects of an explosive growth in thought—he could no longer distinguish between what was real and what was illusory!
Although his body endured the surge in thought and computational ability without spontaneously exploding, the excessively powerful thought and computational ability instead brought him a terrifying imagination capable of even deceiving himself.
An ordinary person could imagine a water cup before them, filled with water, and even pretend to pick up that cup and pour the water into their mouth, but they would certainly not believe they were actually drinking water.
But the current Bai Mo was different. Because his imagination had become excessively powerful, everything he imagined became overwhelmingly real; even he couldn't necessarily distinguish between truth and falsehood.
Whether it was the cup's color, its shape, or every other minute detail, an extremely clear description existed within his mind. Even the cool sensation of the water in the cup making contact with his throat was no exception.
Even the simplest imagination, which would be a mere sketch to an ordinary person, became something nearly indistinguishable from virtual reality in Bai Mo's perception, its realism even capable of deceiving his own brain.
Therefore, in Bai Mo's perception, the process of imagining himself picking up the cup and drinking water felt more like he had actually consumed the water.
Illusory imaginations and true memories intertwined. Perhaps one or two such thoughts could still be rationally discerned.
But he, having ascended to dizzying heights in a single step by relying on the Golden Apple, saw his thought complexity suddenly soar from the level of a thousand thoughts to over ten thousand thoughts. This meant he could simultaneously ponder over ten thousand things.
Among these ten thousand matters, if only five thousand were products of his imagination, it would be enough to shatter Bai Mo's memory world.
He possessed only a memory that could not be considered lengthy. Now, countless fragments were abruptly inserted, fragments that even he couldn't distinguish as truly having happened or not, much like being in a state of half-dream, half-wake, where dreams and reality are difficult to discern.
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