[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies":3,"chapter-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-390":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Notes on Kraft Anomalous Studies",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283868,4467,"Chapter 390: The Secret of Ascension","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-390",390,"\u003Cp>The world is material; at least, the vast majority of what can be perceived is material.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Electromagnetism arises and interacts, fire rises and steams—even seemingly immaterial things either cling to matter or are special forms of matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even so-called spiritual entities and souls might merely be unknown types of matter, governed by natural laws beyond current understanding, awaiting some future person to integrate them into a unified system at the right time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But “information” or “knowledge” is a far vaguer concept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It clings to matter, manifesting as states and differences within matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Theoretically, wherever there is material difference, there is information—from ink on paper, to rock textures, to base sequences in genes—all objectively preserving information.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet as an appendage of matter, information itself has no substance; it cannot directly influence the material world nor exist independently. In a certain sense, it can be said to “not exist,” or rather, to be a “latent, unmanifest existence.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A book unread still contains information at the material level; only when a reader’s consciousness intervenes is it endowed with thought and value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It cannot be classified as matter, nor reduced to conscious activity. Rooted in matter, yet destined for consciousness, it lies at the boundary between the two.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It never existed, yet is everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft had always been a flexible materialist and supporter of knowability, believing that only things yet undiscovered or ununderstood existed in the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the most bizarre and strange depths had failed to fundamentally shake his worldview, instead expanding his scope of understanding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet now, the impact upon him was greatest: a living knowledge, overturning prior understanding, plunging him into utter confusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The barrier between matter and consciousness had been utterly shattered; it drifted between them, sometimes residing in consciousness, sometimes manifesting in matter—an outright refutation of materialism.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Higher-level entities?】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>True magic—a passage, a bridge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That makes sense. What he saw were merely phenomena, just as one cannot explain to an ordinary person that there exists a world overlapping yet utterly distinct from this one, nor how one traverses between them, because spatial cognition forbids them from comprehending how two layers without a passage can communicate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft faced a similar situation; his cognition limited him from perceiving the higher essence of matter and consciousness, so he could not understand how a living entity could exist between them and shift seamlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, even without understanding, mortals could still severely injure or kill deep-layer beings—there was no necessary causal relationship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Similarly, Kraft could seize this creature beyond the bounds of his understanding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now it was frozen within consciousness, tightly wrapped by a succession of thoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Consciousness, through frequent contact, generated these thoughts—some coupled with the unknown, others comprehensible, like specific antibodies latching onto their targets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, it had not merged into consciousness; it had merely been caught.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A fascinating and dangerous state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft still could not precisely describe where it came from or where exactly it resided, but he could indirectly observe and sense its strange mode of existence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It could be a smooth, silver or glass-like mirror, reflecting half-real memories, leaving one unable to tell which side was true.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From another angle, it resembled a scale, growing from some being’s hidden flank or back, independent yet not entirely so; when touched, one felt the distant, majestic pulse reverberating, shaking the soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had no beginning or end, yet possessed inner and outer boundaries; it could extend infinitely, or be held within the palm of a hand, or contained in a single mustard seed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At times, it appeared as a bone—the sole remaining trace of its former self, once deeply embedded at the nexus where thought and consciousness were born, now unbound by matter, open to all things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Sphenoid bone】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This seemed to reveal an unbelievable truth: it might have originated from a human, transformed from a being entirely grounded in matter into this current form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fascinating.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All notions of worldview collapse had been cast aside; Kraft was wholly captivated by new hypotheses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Human” beings could completely shed their bodies and exist in this manner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The advantages were obvious: any bodily disease, even aging, lost meaning; for outcomes beyond medical repair, this mode of persistence might be an acceptable final solution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The eternal life countless souls longed for lay before him—even with a thousand flaws, it surpassed the ultimate goal of curing all diseases through exhausting physiological limits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the problems were equally clear: could this truly be called life?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was not even fully consciousness; merely a fragment of information enduring in the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did it possess complete self-awareness? Did it retain memories from its human life, latent thoughts, habits of behavior?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or had it long since discarded its past and body, existing merely as an insignificant part of some vast whole, not as an individual?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In prior interactions, only human-like cunning and self-preservation had been observed; no “humanity” had been detected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a servant of the “serpent,” a scale upon its body—nothing like its former self. What was shed went beyond mere human form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this thought, Kraft felt a sudden weariness. This mode of existence seemed less “human” than that of a vegetative patient; at least vegetative patients still retained a human shape, with occasional reports of awakening.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Losing the body, then losing original consciousness, resembled death more than eternal life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>HeLa cells used in cancer research were immortal—but that did not mean HeLa herself was immortal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the insights were not meaningless; he noted the inspiration, perhaps some optimization method could be found to harness it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before that, he finally connected the known clues, piecing together the full story.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pathological changes once incomprehensible now had explanations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had once puzzled over the purpose of abnormal pituitary tumors causing hollow-bone syndrome—reducing bone weight at the cost of durability made no sense for movement, as only birds required such lightweight skeletons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now everything became clear: they truly needed to become “birds.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gales brought by the cloud-dwellers were strong, yet insufficient to carry seekers the final leg from mountaintop to sky—unless they grew lighter, imitating creatures naturally suited to flight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this stage, bone durability no longer mattered; those who failed to be accepted or faltered at the last moment would plummet and shatter—no matter how resilient the skeleton, it meant nothing; the successful would shed their past, no longer needing mortal flesh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They rose higher and higher, until they faced the formless, infinite thing, entering the nonexistent heights.\u003C\u002Fp>",1072,"2026-06-20T02:15:56.940Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","2f2a174d452e2df322fa6eea38a411389e9dbdeb87433b8eded927c64e263de0","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-391","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-389",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]