Chapter 159: The Mountains and Rivers Within

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe quickly recalled the rule he called the "Thought Steel Stamp":

1. The Divine is everywhere.

2. The Divine must not be looked upon directly.

3. Anyone who looks directly upon the Divine will be marked with a Thought Steel Stamp.

The content of the stamp may be freely edited by the Divine or those who control it.

Strictly speaking, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe did not possess the ability to imprint Thought Steel Stamps; he could only exploit this rule to a limited extent because he had assumed Yu Yu Zi Qian's identity.

Or more precisely, the identity of "Yu Yu Zi Qian as known by Tu Yu."

Tu Yu knew that Yu Yu Zi Qian possessed the Thought Steel Stamp ability; she mistook Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe for Yu Yu Zi Qian, allowing Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe to use Tai Yi to simulate a false rule and exploit it.

Rules are absolute. Rules are fair. Any bizarre rule has a fatal flaw, and Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe did not know the flaw of the "Thought Steel Stamp," so out of caution, he had almost never used this ability—not even the simulated version from Tai Yi.

Since acquiring Yu Yu Zi Qian's identity, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had only imprinted the Thought Steel Stamp on three people.

The first was himself—he forced himself to believe he was Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe.

The second was Feng Yu—he forced Feng Yu to obey him without question.

The third was Xia Xia Yubing—he forced Xia Xia Yubing to believe only he could help her escape Qianju Town.

The first two uses succeeded: Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe firmly believed he was Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, and Feng Yu indeed showed him unconditional trust and loyalty. But with Xia Xia Yubing, the Thought Steel Stamp failed.

Why did it fail?

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe rapidly listed several possibilities in his mind:

【1. Tu Yu has uncovered my identity.】

I could use the Thought Steel Stamp only because I stole the identity of "Yu Yu Zi Qian as known by Tu Yu." If Tu Yu, through subtle clues, realized that the current Yu Yu Zi Qian might no longer be the original, then Tai Yi's rule would collapse.

According to Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's knowledge, Yu Yu Zi Qian had hidden the Thought Steel Stamp ability extremely well; almost no one besides Tu Yu knew of its existence. Even Tu Yu only learned recently, while helping Yu Yu Zi Qian hunt survivors of the Bishuiwan Estate, that Yu Yu Zi Qian possessed "some ability to alter perception."

Lose the foundation of "Tu Yu's mistaken belief," and no matter how sturdy the tower, it becomes a castle in the air—crashing down instantly.

【2. Interference from other rules.】

Just as Tai Yi could interfere with Zhao You's judgment of fortune and misfortune, transferring punishment meant for those who violated the almanac's taboos onto others.

So Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had every reason to believe another rule existed in the world—one capable of interfering with human perception, canceling out or deflecting the process of imprinting the Thought Steel Stamp into Xia Xia Yubing's subconscious.

【3. I have misunderstood the triggering condition of the Thought Steel Stamp ability all along.】

In recent days, he had paid Lan Lan Shiwen for consultations and contacted several upgraded individuals who had interacted with Yu Yu Zi Qian, filling himself with vast knowledge about the Weird World and Rule Ghosts.

All upgraded individuals shared one consensus: rules are silent.

In most cases, untriggered weird rules operate silently, never actively interfering with the outside world, as if they did not exist—unlike zombies or demons in horror films, wandering about seeking victims.

Any weird rule that wishes to interfere with reality and act upon a person requires a "medium."

The medium for triggering Tai Yi is "perception."

The medium for triggering Zhao You is "fortune and misfortune."

The medium for triggering Te Rang is "shadow."

Then, what is the medium through which "the Divine that must not be looked upon" acts upon reality?

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had once believed it was the "eyes"—the Divine must not be looked upon, and the eyes are the windows of the soul, so he naturally assumed the medium for imprinting the Thought Steel Stamp was "gazing" or "eye contact." He had indeed successfully imprinted the stamp on himself and Feng Yu through direct eye contact.

But given the current situation, his earlier reasoning seemed… flawed.

Think of a light bulb. Humans trigger rules through a medium, like flipping a switch to turn on a lamp.

【Flip the switch】 then 【the light turns on】—this process is so natural that he mistakenly assumed the light turned on solely because he flipped the switch.

But in reality, within the process of 【switching on the power】, the 【switch】 is merely a surface appearance. The lamp turns on because the 【power source】 is connected—that is the true underlying cause. The switch merely happens to connect to the power source.

As long as the wiring is intact, even if you remove the switch, the lamp remains lit.

Conversely, if there is no power, even with the switch properly flipped, the lamp will not turn on.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe felt he had… confused the surface 【switch】 with the deeper 【power source】.

Perhaps the trigger for the Thought Steel Stamp is not the act of "eye contact" itself, but something else that occurs incidentally during eye contact.

And when he made eye contact with Xia Xia Yubing, that incidental event did not happen—the true condition was not triggered. He was merely flipping a switch whose circuit had long been severed, with no power at all.

Yet all of this was merely Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's hasty speculation within a short time. Verifying these ideas required time and opportunity—both of which he currently lacked.

"Let's take this woman out first…" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe took a deep breath. Once outside, he would ask Xia Xia Yubing's aunt to settle the final payment, then verify his final hypothesis about "the Divine that must not be looked upon."

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And for the first two hypotheses, he could now find ways to verify them.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe stopped walking and stood before Xia Xia Yubing.

"What's wrong?" Xia Xia Yubing asked cautiously, afraid he might suddenly snap and beat her again.

"Give me your compact mirror." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said.

Xia Xia Yubing silently pulled out her small touch-up mirror from her bag and handed it to him.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe opened the mirror, gazing at his reflection: a pair of bright, luminous eyes, radiant as sun and moon. He locked eyes with his own reflection and said:

"I am Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe."

"I am also Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe." He said again.

"We are both Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe." A hoarse voice drifted softly from beneath the demon mask.

"Y-you're Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe?" Xia Xia Yubing hugged herself, her gaze toward him filled with fear.

The pale moon still crawled slowly toward the zenith, like a plump white silkworm inching forward on a stool.

Cold moonlight spilled like water, illuminating a mentally disturbed man wearing a mask, holding her compact mirror, muttering nonsense about "we are all Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe."

Xia Xia Yubing's skin broke out in goosebumps, every hair on her spine standing on end.

"Alright, I'm returning it to you." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had successfully imprinted the Thought Steel Stamp on himself, disproving his first hypothesis.

Tu Yu had not uncovered his identity.

"No no no, keep it… keep it…"

Xia Xia Yubing waved her hands frantically, meekly.

(End of Chapter)