Chapter 2717: Identity Token Exploration, Abnormal Temperature Changes

Thinking deeply, Xia Duo wished he could take action immediately, but after this thought arose, he couldn't help but smile bitterly; whether it was the "Reality" of the Main Plane or the so-called "Order Force," both were closer to being concepts.

The former seems ubiquitous yet impossible to grasp, while as for the latter, Xia Duo has been researching Order Force for a while now, but it has been limited to the Order Cycle mentioned in the Ascension Ritual, and he has no way to directly interfere with reality.

Or rather, what he has been struggling to find is a method for Order Force to directly interfere with reality.

As it stands, only the Eastern World possesses methods for the direct application of Order Force, and the proof is the Identity Token he is holding in his hand right now.

Of course, this is under the premise that Sheng Nuode'er is not lying to him.

However, Xia Duo believes that Sheng Nuode'er has no reason to lie to him, let alone fabricate an Eastern World that is concrete, clear, and full of details everywhere yet devoid of any obvious flaws.

In the process of communicating with Sheng Nuode'er, he could feel the other party's sense of frustration from being unable to obtain what they desired; he has every reason to believe that the other party gave him the Identity Token because they had their eye on the "Maruente" Red Heart Alliance identity.

Furthermore, back when he returned to the Red Heart Alliance in the Projection Plane, he had performed a detailed inspection of the Identity Token. First, regarding the material: the jade texture was warm and moist, yet it was not an entirely natural material, but rather seemed to have been processed through other means.

Otherwise, even if they were only making Identity Tokens for a select few, they wouldn't use flawless, top-grade beautiful jade to do so.

Xia Duo is more inclined to believe that an extraordinary craftsman of the Eastern World used some method to extract pure jade substance from anomalous jade stones, and then transformed that jade substance into beautiful jade.

Retracing his memory, returning to the moment he just felt the Jade Tablet undergo a change, interpreting the change of thought that arose in his heart at that moment, and tracing it to its source.

Illusions are the same; a person's perception system is a multi-modal integrated state, and the subconscious is analyzing and making decisions every moment. Feelings, illusions, inspiration, and crises—those thoughts that can be transmitted to the Conscious Mind—are all relatively prominent parts of the countless surging waves in the ocean of the subconscious.

If the Conscious Mind catches an inspiration and verifies it, then there is a chance to truly solve the problem.

Simply put, Xia Shao himself is not sure whether that thought just now was an illusion, but he can verify it by retracing his memory and interpreting his subconscious!

And right now, regarding the illusion that the Jade Tablet underwent a change, Xia Shao actually truly hopes it is not an illusion.

Inside the Study, Xia Shao repeatedly rubbed the Jade Tablet in his hand while pondering where exactly to start in order to discern the true mysteries of this Eastern World Identity Token.

Before, not going to the Laboratory was mostly because there was no way to start; now that there is a direction, more quantitative testing is needed.

Xia Shao is undoubtedly lucky; his Bloodline Power allows him to retrace memories and interpret his subconscious, which also means that even the slightest ripple buried long ago in the ocean of his subconscious can be retrieved.

But they are only relatively prominent; if one does not value or pay attention to them, those waves will soon be covered by other, more numerous rising waves.

Even if he could attempt to build a temperature model at the level of perception based on sensing cold water and ice water, perception itself is not linear, and it is very difficult to map it one-to-one with temperatures in reality.

Xia Shao held the Identity Token in his hand; after a while, he could clearly feel that the Jade Tablet seemed to be emitting a faint warmth. After a longer time, this warmth did not intensify, but maintained that warm and moist feeling.

This is, of course, an illusion, but to be able to have such an illusion clearly shows that this type of jade texture was not chosen at random, but was intentionally shaped.

Naturally, there are also cultural and traditional factors involved in this.

……

To put it colloquially, the scale of perception is not fixed, and to measure, the most basic element is that the measurement standard must be fixed—at the very least, there must be a fixed reference; otherwise, wouldn't it just be relying entirely on feeling and talking nonsense!

Although the subconscious perception is extremely fine, it is mostly built upon perception. He now knows that the temperature rose and fluctuated when the jade texture was rubbed at that moment, but as for exactly how much it fluctuated, he only has a sense of it in his heart, yet he cannot state exactly what that number is.

This further illustrates the underlying depth, which in turn proves the authenticity of the Jade Tablet.

The change perceived at the time was actually a slight difference in temperature, which did not conform to the natural heat growth curve of hand-rubbing. Although it was only a tiny fluctuation that the Conscious Mind could not perceive at all, his consciousness did perceive it, and even gave a reminder in the form of an illusion.

The most obvious point—Mithril is a simple substance, while jade is a mixture; what substances to retain and what to remove during refining must be determined through long-term practice.

Elves do not revere jade; Xia Shao speculates that the main reason might be that "jade is hidden within stone, making it difficult to highlight," whereas various Gemstones are different—they are essentially Energy Gems, which inherently possess quite high practical attributes.

The change in the subconscious originated from the extremely subtle perception when his skin touched the Jade Tablet. Xia Shao's Conscious Mind could not feel it, but his subconscious would perceive and record everything in minute detail, and the touch of his skin was no exception.

This is actually the source of the vast majority of inspirations; it is not just thinking about something randomly, but a possible solution found by the subconscious by aggregating countless pieces of information.

Therefore, it is still necessary to use definitive instruments and equipment to perform precise measurements; only then can the changes within be truly determined.

Even if it is an illusion, it can be traced back to the source of the illusion. It is just like the illusion of the jade being warm and moist, which can be explained by the natural heat sensation caused by compressing blood vessels when holding it with one's hand, while at the same time, specific parameters such as the temperature and heat emission of the Jade Tablet can be quantitatively measured.

This is not something that is easy to do; a few years ago, Netheril was still worrying about the problem of Mithril Refining! And the purification of jade is even more complex than Mithril Refining.

Therefore, when he realized this point and effectively traced it back to the extremely minute change in his past perception, Xia Shao stood up immediately and left the Study.

……

If he missed it, it is very likely that he would miss it forever; inspiration is not a crisis, and the subconscious will not keep reminding him.

In short, Sheng Nuode'er could not fabricate an Eastern World full of details, nor could he possibly manufacture a jade Identity Token that differs from Elven culture.

At this time, if it were someone else, they might only think it was an illusion, but Xia Shao is different; he can retrace memories and interpret his subconscious. To him, the thoughts and ideas of any moment in the past are like a book full of details that he can return to and flip through at any time.

And jade is just a good-looking stone; Elves might use jade for decoration, but they would not treat it specially, instead maintaining the same attitude as they do toward other decorations.

Just rubbing it like this, he didn't know if it was an illusion or not, but Xia Shao actually felt that the Jade Tablet in his hand had undergone some slight changes, yet after examining it closely, he found nothing.