Chapter 273: Desire for Knowledge

Is someone following behind?

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe frowned, shielded Bai Zhi behind him, turned around, and shone the corpse oil lamp forward, revealing a pale human face with deep dark circles in the darkness behind Bai Zhi.

"Spencer." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe patted Bai Zhi on the shoulder, signaling her not to be afraid. "It must have been Spencer pulling you just now. Although you couldn't see him, he has been following you the whole time."

Bai Zhi was stunned for a moment and asked, "Why is he still following me even after he's dead?"

"Protecting you, perhaps. After all, your current identity is his sister, Katya." As Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe spoke, he slightly rotated the corpse oil lamp in his hand, adjusting the angle of the light source to observe Spencer's pale and illusory face.

Bai Zhi thought for a moment and said, "Once a person is killed by a ghost, they are assimilated into a ghost. This is the rule of Vanishing Castle."

"But I have seen the original ghosts in the castle, and I have also seen ghosts that players turned into after death. Their common trait is that they lack reason and kill anyone they see, like an antivirus program running automatically on a computer. Why are other ghosts mindless killing machines, yet the ghost Spencer turned into protects his sister because of his own emotions?" Bai Zhi was somewhat confused.

So many players have been killed by ghosts; why is he the only one who retained his emotions?

"People killed by ghosts turn into ghosts; this is the rule of Vanishing Castle." After confirming Spencer's state, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe carried the corpse oil lamp, turned around, and continued walking forward along the secret passage, saying, "And what allowed Spencer to retain part of his emotions is my rule."

"I see..." Bai Zhi nodded and followed behind Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, continuing to walk forward.

The pitch-black secret passage was both narrow and long, and the walls beside them radiated a warm heat. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe carried the oil lamp and walked slowly, organizing the currently known intelligence in his mind:

The strange phenomena in Vanishing Castle can generally be divided into two types.

【1. Parallel Worlds】

Using the Third Great Renovation led by the Europa government as the dividing node, this world simultaneously contains the 'Old Vanishing Castle destroyed by the flood' and the 'New Vanishing Castle fully renovated after the flood.'

The architectural structures of the new and old castles are generally the same, and the two worlds overlap seamlessly.

After 'players' like Spencer are drawn into the strange event, the default scene they enter is the fully reconstructed New Vanishing Castle. After lighting the oil lamp, they can use the light to see the Old Vanishing Castle. Countless ferocious ghosts wander in the old world; they lack reason and kill anyone they see, and those killed also become ghosts wandering in the Old Vanishing Castle.

【2. Time Distortion】

The flow of time in different areas of Vanishing Castle is different.

The flow of time on the ground floor is basically the same as in the real world outside the dream. The higher the floor, the lower the ambient temperature, and the flow of time in that environment will become slower accordingly.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe previously descended into Gai Zha and stayed in the library for 30 to 40 minutes, but after waking up, he found that less than three minutes had passed in reality.

"Time distortion and spatial separation—this shouldn't be a strange phenomenon caused by a single ghost."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe pondered for a moment and reached a preliminary conclusion: "There are at least two ghosts and two core rules in Vanishing Castle. One rule affects time and temperature, while the other affects spatial overlap and the fierce ghosts wandering here."

The two rules influence each other yet remain independent, together forming the mist and haze shrouding this ancient castle. And Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe knows he must spare no cost to dispel the mist and dig out the truth from the deepest part of the haze.

Because 'Jue Yuan' has already branded him with a thought steel seal that he must do so.

Walking on the path of Ascension, every step is involuntary.

"Okay... let's put the time flow issue aside for now. Let's focus on thinking about the situation of the new and old Vanishing Castles." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe quickly picked out a key point.

When first entering Vanishing Castle, Bai Zhi's 'inspiration' informed her of the precautions for surviving in the castle:

1. Do not be found by 'it'. 2. Do not touch the dead.

3. Do not approach places that do not exist.

4. Do not eat food that does not exist.

5. Do not explore knowledge that does not belong to this world.

"Given that there are at least two ghosts in Vanishing Castle, who does 'it' refer to? Time or space?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe quickly reached an answer: "It should be the latter."

Because the dead, places that do not exist, food that does not exist, and knowledge that does not belong to this world... are actually all related to that Old Vanishing Castle that shouldn't exist.

These 5 precautions Bai Zhi learned are essentially all pointing to the parallel world phenomenon of Vanishing Castle.

Pointing to the same ghost.

"In other words, Bai Zhi did not obtain any intelligence regarding the ghost that caused the time flow disorder."

In a situation where two ghosts exist simultaneously in one area, can this so-called 'inspiration' only perceive one of the ghosts?

"No, that's not right, it's not like that..."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe squinted slightly outside the halo of the corpse oil lamp, recalling a more distant event. It was when he and Bai Zhi were at the Sunshine Gas Station; the gas station owner and employees were driven by the 'God That Cannot Be Looked Upon' and were branded with the thought steel seal: 'I must kill Bai Zhi.'

The precautions Bai Zhi perceived at that time were:

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1. God is everywhere.

2. God cannot be looked upon.

3. Be careful of people who have looked upon God.

Among them, 'God is everywhere' is easy to explain because the medium through which Jue Yuan influences people is 'thought' and 'belief.' Everyone has thoughts, and everyone has things they believe in.

Jue Yuan's medium is everywhere; God is everywhere.

'Be careful of people who have looked upon God' is also not hard to understand; those were all people branded with thought steel seals by Yu Zi Qian. Driven by Jue Yuan, they would spare no cost and use any means to try their best to kill Bai Zhi. Of course, Bai Zhi had to be careful of them.

But what about 'God cannot be looked upon'?

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe has now mastered Jue Yuan, and he clearly knows that Jue Yuan does not have a 'cannot be looked upon' rule, nor can Jue Yuan make people generate thoughts out of thin air that they didn't originally have. It can only extremely solidify a person's existing thoughts into a thought steel seal.

"The gas station employees had no grudge against Bai Zhi; they wouldn't generate the thought of wanting to kill Bai Zhi out of thin air. So, what made the employees obsessed with killing Bai Zhi back then wasn't Jue Yuan, or rather, not Jue Yuan alone."

Jue Yuan only turned the thought of 'wanting to kill Bai Zhi' into a thought steel seal, and what made this thought appear in the employees' minds was another ghost.

'God cannot be looked upon' is that ghost's rule.

"At the gas station outside Gubei Town, Bai Zhi perceived the rules of two ghosts simultaneously; why can't she do it here?"

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe stopped walking; the wall beside him had lost its temperature.

Given that there are two ghosts in Vanishing Castle, one affecting time and one affecting space, why can Bai Zhi only perceive the one affecting space?

Or is it that there has only been one ghost in this castle from the beginning? Is the so-called existence of two rules just his own erroneous deduction?

With mist shrouding his head, an intense 'desire for knowledge' surged in Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's chest. He must solve the puzzle; he must learn the truth, otherwise, he will go mad.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 274 =====