A few hours ago, above the wilderness.
Stumbling and tripping, Yin Ren left the area of the Valley of Remains and decided to lie on the ground for a few minutes after his fifteenth fall.
Knowing that the subject was the “small” animal he had fed before his death, along with the “grand” scenery outside the window that had lasted for centuries, Yin Ren did feel some emotions, but these emotions were quite limited. Especially after they entered the same body, he could directly sense Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts.
This time, Zhong Chengshuo had exposed all of his secrets. This guy no longer had any secrets given the level of their relationship, so he didn’t bother hiding anything.
The convenience was that Yin Ren quickly grasped the perspective of Zhong Chengshuo from a thousand years ago. The inconvenience was even more apparent—they could only communicate verbally on a physical level; otherwise, Yin Ren couldn’t figure out which thoughts were in Zhong Chengshuo’s head he wanted to express.
In fact, he couldn’t even imagine what Zhong Chengshuo was thinking about before.
Now that the memory world had clearly encountered problems, they were almost clueless about the current situation. And as a more typical “monster”, Zhong Chengshuo’s inner thoughts… were unexpectedly normal but also somewhat abnormal.
[Today is Thursday, and there’s a promotion at the store. But we probably can’t go back today. If we buy chicken thighs after returning home, it will be two yuan and six jiao more per kilogram. How about buying some expensive ingredients to celebrate our improved relationship? But if I make chicken curry, I can add apples, which would be more meaningful… Yin Ren also prefers chicken curry.]
Thinking of this, Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts went blank for a second, and then a new train of thought emerged.
[Apples and cucumbers taste like cantaloupe when mixed together.]
[Cantaloupe… I need to explain King Yama’s recent whereabouts to the Nightwalkers, leaving some traces, saying that I was on a mission in the highland area. I can take the opportunity to turn Yin Ren into a partner of King Yama in appearance.]
[So, this is how I looked in Yin Ren’s memories. I should record it when I go back. I wonder what kind of Primordial Elemental I am and what specific physiological features I have. Does Yin Ren now count as my kind? I’ve given him some power, does that make him my descendant? Is this unethical?]
[Do Elementals have ethics?]
“I have human parents from a human perspective, unless you want to make up for a thousand years of Chinese New Year money.” Yin Ren spoke in a low voice. “Zhong Ge, I respect you as an elder brother. That’s about it.”
[But I had no cognition before, and my cognition from a thousand years ago was only equivalent to that of a human baby. Then I slept until twenty-eight years ago. Regardless of physical lifespan, my mental age is only around thirty.] Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts accelerated for a moment.
Yin Ren: “…” He could almost imagine that person’s serious tone.
It was such a familiar pattern, as if he had used it himself in the past.
But when he thought about Zhong Chengshuo’s actions from a thousand years ago, Yin Ren broke out in a cold sweat.
That guy directly infused him with half of his power—although compared to the “rotten” corruption source, these powers were relatively stable. But they were still the genuine, most pure power of calamity. The fact that he didn’t explode into fireworks on the spot could be considered a miracle in the field of anomaly studies.
He went from being an anomaly to an Evil Spirit… No, a Primordial Elemental cub. He was probably closely connected to these powers.
What was the situation with Zhong Chengshuo, and what exactly was he himself? Yin Ren was extremely curious. Unfortunately, they could only speculate here, and to further study it, they had to leave this cursed place.
To leave this cursed place…
“It’s a bit strange.” Yin Ren turned over on the ground, facing upwards. “This world should have ended long ago, but it still exists. The magical system is completely based on the ‘Archive’, consisting of memories and consciousness. It shouldn’t have these issues.”
“I don’t understand magic.” Zhong Chengshuo honestly responded.
“I know… I’m just thinking about the difference between the two.” Yin Ren stared at the fiery sunset. “If we had to put it into words, the Archive is a closed personal consciousness, while this one has a connection to the Evil Spirit… Apart from that, there shouldn’t be any difference. The corruption source didn’t issue any special warnings either.”
At this point, Yin Ren seemed to remember something. “Speaking of which, I have something to ask you. I showed you the memories of my communication with Dog Thing just now.”
Zhong Chengshuo asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Dog Thing initially thought that everyone outside was real. It told me that ordinary creatures couldn’t bear it.” Yin Ren toyed with the ends of his hair with his fingers. “But it can attach itself to a phone. After all, a human brain should be stronger than a mobile chip, right?”
“…”
[Storage space, definitely not. As for chips and systems, the biological brain, no matter how you think about it, should be more sophisticated than a mobile processor. Bearing capacity… storing large amounts of data…]
In the instant he received the question, Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts began to race.
[And there are unidentified external data… devices… entities… connections…]
This time, Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts were almost exploding internally. Countless principles and formulas that Yin Ren had never encountered before formed a hurricane, and clues about the Other Side danced within it.
And after the calm of the hurricane, Zhong Chengshuo once again took control of Yin Ren’s mouth.
“It’s the internet.”
“…What did you say?”
“This is my conjecture—the reason for the appearance of unknown memories in the memory world is the ‘internet’.”
This time, Zhong Chengshuo even took control of Yin Ren’s hands. He got up in one roll and picked up a stick from the ground.
“Without delving into deeper principles, you can think of the ‘internet’ as a ‘thing’ that can connect countless devices. Whether it’s complex devices or simple ones, you can obtain the necessary data through it.”
Yin Ren, who had been in the modern world for less than a year, said, “…Slow down and speak in plain language.”
Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts paused for a full five seconds.
“Let me put it in simpler terms. When you use the online features on a tablet, for example, the things you watch online are not provided by the tablet itself. If you don’t connect to the internet, you can only access locally downloaded data.”
Yin Ren struggled to recall his experiences with a tablet for watching shows. “That’s true.”
Leaving aside other matters, whether there was internet access or not was one of his major concerns in the modern world.
“If we consider the human brain as a ‘device’, then this situation can be explained.”
Zhong Chengshuo intentionally slowed down his thoughts.
“The ‘Archive’ only allows Shian to explore the individual human brain, which can be seen as ‘accessing local data’. But this time, in order to supplement memories, you also ‘connected’ the memories of the Evil Spirit into it.”
“That’s right…” Yin Ren instinctively responded.
“So, when you were designing the magical system, did you specifically design it to connect with the memories of ‘Shian’s Evil Spirit’?”
Yin Ren was stunned.
Indeed, they didn’t. According to their initial calculations, as the energy source supplying magical power, the Evil Spirit’s memories would automatically fill in the details of Yin Ren’s memories. Considering that no one else would have memories from a thousand years ago, they left a “loophole” in Yin Ren’s memories and didn’t specify a particular object.
“Your memories about this era have been ‘connected’,” Zhong Chengshuo said solemnly.
“This also explains why the people in Huajisi have such clear details—portraits, records, rumors… People like Fu Shangliu and Li Heyan must have left behind a large amount of information. These ‘brain devices’ provide memories that collectively form what you and I see.”
Yin Ren tried to digest this interpretation of the new era. “Are you saying that the memory world of the present actually comes from everyone’s memories of this era?”
“Historical books, paintings, rumors, anecdotes passed down by descendants, even memories and legacies of other creatures… The previous army of 150,000, perhaps there were scattered survivors who passed down their experiences to future generations.”
Those pieces of information transcended time and continued with the extension of life. In the depths of the memories of certain individuals still living in the world, fragments of memories from that era remained.
“Yin Ren, this world is ‘data’. It is a compilation of memories from countless creatures about this era that you obtained from the ‘internet’.”
“No, that’s not right.” Yin Ren frowned. “According to what you said, these brain devices would have to be ‘connected’ to function. I have seen memory magic, and its influence is not that extensive.”
This time, without waiting for Zhong Chengshuo to respond, Yin Ren read his clear and resolute thoughts.
[Your magic—I’m afraid it is closer to ‘commands’.]
[That enormous network composed of countless ‘brains’ may have existed even longer ago.]
Yin Ren subconsciously tightened his fingers, and the dried tree branch in his hand snapped. Zhong Chengshuo’s conjecture was too absurd, and he instinctively wanted to find the flaws in it… But upon careful consideration, it could explain many things.
The fact that Dog Thing could survive on a phone was probably because the “internet” is a lower form of that network and shares certain similarities with its natural habitat. It couldn’t return to its own world and could only condescend to accept a more primitive and accessible substitute.
Qi Xin and Mr. Qiu, those Elementals, enjoyed controlling people whose brains had issues. Perhaps it was because these people’s “devices” had malfunctioned, making them more susceptible to invasion.
Even the Archive provided evidence—only when abnormalities occurred in the brain did a significant invasion of Primordial Elements occur in the Archive.
Just like “Primordial Elementals” could refer to that group of peculiar beings, could that ancient network already have a name?
For example… “The Other Side”?
……
Darkness surged, and Shen Mo’s possessed body instantly crumbled.
He calmly “resurfaced” once again, leaving this so-called memory world. This time, he let go of his controlling consciousness and no longer attempted to return.
He had gathered enough intelligence.
For example, Shian had obtained detailed information from a thousand years ago through some means. For example, in the past, there was a colossal invisible creature in the Valley of Remains that was even deadlier than the Evil Spirits.
And this time, after Shian discovered the anomalies in this supposed memory world, it was highly likely that they would touch upon the essence of “the Other Side”.
To ensure smooth progress on Sunken Society’s plans, they needed to accelerate their actions.
Kinky Thoughts:
For those confused about the explanation of why the memories was still continuing despite the Evil Dog Spirit being sealed and Yin Ren (from a thousand years ago) is “dead”:
Basically, when they designed the spell in order to enter the memories of the past (similar to the Archive), it’s not really “magic” but more like a command prompt. Think of it like if a search engine.
Yin Ren designed the spell and inputted: Take me back to 1,000 years ago during this time and place so I can show my memories. However, given how much time has passed, Yin Ren’s memory may be spotty, so they tethered the spell to the Evil Dog Spirit to fill in any gaps.
However, Yin Ren left a loophole, in that instead of making the spell filter specifically “Take me back to 1,000 years ago during this time and place using my memories and the Evil Dog Spirit’s memories” he didn’t include the bold portion. After all, this was memories from 1,000 years ago and besides him and the Evil Dog Spirit, no one else would be alive now. So when the spell was cast, it not only pulled in memories of the two, but also the entire world (just like the internet; when you search for something, if you don’t specify specific details it’ll pull in a bunch of stuff related to whatever prompt you enter).
This explains why Huajisi’s headquarters is so vivid and other details despite the Evil Dog Spirit and Yin Ren never being there. The spell was pulling memories from the descendents of those people during that time that had passed down their stories/fables/recountings to their offsprings. Overtime, these stories became the memories of their descendents and when Yin Ren cast his spell, it also pulled in the modern day people’s memories.
