Chapter 369: The Laws of Deduction

But when he focused his attention to observe again, he discovered that the ancient city was actually gathering and dispersing from time to time; occasionally clear, but most of the time it was actually very blurry, with only a rough outline.

He asked the mirror what was going on.

The mirror's explanation was only one: "It is too big, and being big has its difficulties. It requires astonishing energy to consume, so it is very difficult to manifest. Furthermore, although this City of the Dead is spectacular, it must not yet be perfect."

"Perfect?"

"Every Soul Village has its own laws to follow. The more complete the laws, the more successful the Soul Village, of course."

Laws? He He Lingchuan muttered these two words in his heart, then asked it: "How can a Soul Village be made perfect?"

"Either it evolves slowly on its own, or it borrows some external force." The mirror said, "Like me, I want to learn from and borrow from this City of the Dead; then it must also have its own way of evolving."

Speaking of borrowing external force, He He Lingchuan immediately thought of the things the Divine Bone Necklace had devoured several times.

It was either the foundation stone of an ancient immortal's cave dwelling, or a heavenly divine medicine, or the remains of an ancient great demon like Zhu Zhu Xiuer.

In other words, the Panlongcheng illusion inside the Great Fang Hu was also trying to perfect its laws and evolve itself? The mirror asked him again: "Do you enter the City of the Dead often?"

He He Lingchuan nodded: "When I sleep at night, I enter the dream of the City of the Dead every few days."

"Dream? Wahahahaha—I already said that is a Soul Village, a Soul Village!" The mirror laughed uncontrollably; if it could grow two hands, it should be slapping the table with laughter now. "What kind of big idiot would treat a Soul Village as a dream! Oh my, are you trying to laugh me to death?"

He He Lingchuan bared his teeth at it and clicked his knuckles twice.

A few breaths later.

"Under normal circumstances, your dream must have you as the main subject." The mirror said gloomily, "You have stayed in the City of the Dead for so long; do you feel that it has you as the main subject?"

He He Lingchuan thought about it and shook his head.

He was just a part of it.

"But I can only enter when I'm asleep, why?"

"This is the law set by the Soul Village. Under normal circumstances, this is to prevent others from entering or peeking."

There were indeed many guys coveting the Great Fang Hu.

He He Lingchuan had wanted to ask for a long time: "What exactly is a Soul Village?"

"You can tell from the name, right? A Soul Village is a dwelling place for dead souls who are unwilling to perish; most are natural. Most of the dead souls living in a Soul Village do not know they are dead and will still live and act as they did in life."

It paused: "A Soul Village does not exist in reality, nor does it belong to the Blue Underworld; it is self-contained and can be considered a sanctuary for the dead. But in any case, that is not a dream! It has nothing to do with your absurd and stupid dreams!"

He He Lingchuan remembered a book of strange tales he had read in the Wenxuan Pavilion, which recorded a story:

A traveler encountered evil wolves in the wilderness and fled into a small town in a valley, following the lamplight. Life here was peaceful and harmonious, and everyone wore smiles on their faces. The enthusiastic townspeople not only helped him fight off the wolf pack but also treated him to food and lodging, and there was even a beautiful girl to talk to.

This person fell asleep in a beautiful dream, and when he woke up the next day, he found himself sleeping on a large rock; if he rolled over twice more, he would fall into a crevice. The surroundings were all weeds and wild trees; where was there any sign of human habitation?

He hurried away from the valley.

Later, he learned that the place had had a volcanic eruption ten years ago, swallowing the town at the foot of the mountain and over a thousand lives.

He didn't know what he had encountered, and no one believed him when he told them.

Some people had heard his story and went to the valley to search, but to no avail.

The "Ghost Town" never appeared again.

Now, listening to what the mirror said, this person might have entered a natural Soul Village.

"Are Soul Villages also divided into natural and acquired?"

"Soul Villages are occasionally generated between heaven and earth, mostly because too many people died in a short period of time, and the resentment soared to the sky; but this kind of Soul Village is very unstable and might disappear silently one day." The mirror explained, "Acquired Soul Villages are different, more stable, but they require a carrier."

The carrier of the world in the mirror was undoubtedly the mirror itself; then what about the carrier of Panlongcheng?

It should be the Great Fang Hu? "It is precisely because of this that once the normal state there is broken, the resentment of the dead will suddenly erupt."

The mirror continued to ask him, "Hey, wait a minute, you also changed the causality there?"

He He Lingchuan, of course, still nodded. Both reality and the dream had been walked askew by him; could the causality not have changed?

The mirror exclaimed: "Then how chaotic have the laws of the City of the Dead become, and why hasn't it collapsed yet?"

"It is orderly inside, it's doing fine." He He Lingchuan said irritably, "It is almost no different from the real world. Unlike your world in the mirror, which is awkwardly uncomfortable."

The mirror hummed twice: "To be able to be messed with by you like this without collapsing shows it has a powerful source of energy. Sigh, I'm envious to death. But at the same time, it also requires more powerful causal force. Otherwise, if it collapses one day, even your spirit will be buried inside and unable to come out; don't say I didn't warn you."

Regarding its warning, He He Lingchuan took it very seriously: "In other words, the greater the influence I have on the City of the Dead, the more powerful causal force I need to find for it?"

"Not accurate, but it will do."

He He Lingchuan nodded.

No wonder.

No wonder he had been interrupted after entering the dream twice at the beginning, and there were no dreams for a long time, until after the Divine Bone Necklace devoured the foundation stone of the immortal's cave dwelling, the real Panlongcheng opened to him.

Sigh, although he knew the concept of a Soul Village, he was still used to the term "Panlong Dream."

It turned out that it was because the Great Fang Hu had obtained causal force from the outside world, helping the Panlong Dream perfect more laws, allowing it to withstand the changes He He Lingchuan brought to the entire dream world.

The deeper he embedded himself in the dream and the more he acted, the greater the influence he had on the dream world, of course. According to the mirror's statement, a Soul Village should have been unchanging, yet the Panlong Dream had walked out a different path because of him, beginning to deviate from the history in reality.

This required increasingly powerful evolutionary force; otherwise, the result of not being able to operate would be getting stuck at best, and collapsing at worst.

The mirror's warning was not a joke.

It seemed that in the future, he would have to carefully ponder the things the Divine Bone Necklace took a fancy to and try every possible way to get them.

In addition, the mirror also mentioned that the Panlong illusion likely had a powerful source of energy.

What was going on with that? Unfortunately, there was even less of an answer to this question.

He could only return to reality and size up this mirror: "Then, besides fulfilling your duty as a heart-protecting mirror, what other uses do you have?"

It hadn't been easy for him to deal with this mirror; after subduing it, why hadn't he felt it was useful? "I can also grow larger and be used as a shield; General Yu was like this in the past!" The mirror promoted itself. "After being damaged, as long as it is replenished in time, it can also slowly repair itself."

"By the way, I also have mirror reflection. When others' attacks land on the mirror surface or the shield surface, as long as it is not a spell or divine ability, I can reflect back part of the force."

"The action of force is mutual; does this need to be specifically mentioned? Forget it, you are still somewhat useful." He He Lingchuan asked it, "Where did those evil ghosts that obey orders come from?"

"They are lonely ghosts I took in after I woke up; there are still three left now." The mirror said, "This world is not much better than it was two hundred years ago; there are wandering newly dead lonely ghosts everywhere. If I didn't take them in, they would also dissipate in a few days."

He He Lingchuan gave an "Mm."

"By the way, even if I turn into a shield, the ability to absorb souls is still there." The mirror added, "If an opponent stares at me, they might also become mentally confused."

"Fine." He He Lingchuan picked it up and tried it; this fellow really grew larger, turning from a round mirror into a round shield with a diameter of three feet, the surface still as bright as a mirror, which made it convenient for the soul-absorbing ability to be activated.

Actually, it was just that the volume grew proportionally.

He He Lingchuan waved it twice and felt quite satisfied with the quality and feel; it was suitable for use as a one-handed shield. At present, his attack methods were becoming more abundant, and he indeed needed one or two defensive pieces of equipment.

He had already purchased a shield in Panlongcheng, and now he had filled this vacancy in reality as well.

The only flaw was that there was an unsightly nick on the shield; this was the masterpiece of the Floating Life Blade.

"How can this nick be filled?"

"The more resentful souls I eat, the faster I recover; otherwise, I have to endure time to slowly repair." The mirror said, "If there are none, profound crystals will do, and nightmare energy will also do."

"Nightmare energy?" He He Lingchuan heard a familiar term; where had he heard it before? The mirror saw his expression and knew he was completely ignorant: "Heaven and earth spiritual energy nourishes all things; once it enters the body of a living creature, it becomes nightmare energy, or nightmare power, supporting birth, aging, sickness, and death."

This explanation was very simple, and He He Lingchuan understood in a second. For example, in his original world, all things needed sunlight to grow; plants grew by seeing the sun, cattle and sheep grew meat by chewing on plants, and finally, they were ingested by humans.

No matter how many circulation links or names there were, in the end, it was just "energy."

"Eh?" He finally remembered where he had heard this term: when he and his father caught an enemy spy in Xin Huang, the other party claimed to be a servant of the Frost Leaf National Master of the Between Beijia Kingdom, ordered to use the Punishment Dragon Pillar on the battlefield to collect nightmare energy!

The nightmare energy collected by that Punishment Dragon Pillar was very rich, but the light it emitted could only be seen by the servant and He He Lingchuan.

The servant claimed to have opened his "Heavenly Eye" and also said that the National Master wanted them to collect the nightmare energy and take it back for proper salvation and pacification.

"How come I heard that nightmare energy is the resentment, unwillingness, and anger of dead souls on the battlefield?"

The mirror laughed with a "Pfft": "Aha?"

"Hahahaha!" It laughed uncontrollably again, "Which big idiot said that? It's truly off the charts, super off the charts!"

He He Lingchuan didn't interrupt, and only when it was laughing boisterously did he say softly: "The Frost Leaf National Master of the Between Beijia Kingdom."

The mirror's laughter stopped abruptly.

"It's the National Master of Between Beijia?"

It was silent for a moment, then said weakly: "Perhaps he has other motives."

A dignified Between Beijia National Master, how could he make such a low-level mistake?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 370 =====