Thales froze as he listened to the stranger's words.
"Get ready."
The stranger came before Thales and slowly extended his right hand.
Thales subconsciously took a step back, but in the end, he stopped, gritted his teeth, and stood still.
'I cannot be afraid.
I must …
I must … '
The fog in the critical zone became thinner, and the darkness from before was gone.
The stranger's hand touched Thales' face, and he felt a cold sensation.
"Be careful.
"Even if you think you have it under control …"
Thales stared at him in a daze. He first felt weightlessness.
It was as if the ground had suddenly disappeared.
Then, he felt himself falling again.
'It's coming.'
Thales suppressed his nervousness, controlled his slightly trembling limbs, and said quietly.
"Even if you think you're doing the right thing …
"Even if you think the power of a Mystic is the sword of justice in your hands …"
The stranger still mysteriously stood still in front of him. He touched his face and did not move.
It was as if he did not have a physical body.
The light around him began to flow, and the scene changed from a vague and blurry image to a scene that was rapidly changing and out of focus.
"Still, you cannot let your guard down.
"Sometimes, the methods you resort to for a noble goal will unknowingly turn the tables on you."
The stranger's words seemed to contain endless meaning. His mysterious, glowing eyes were like lonely lights in the dark. They were the only thing Thales could see in this world.
"For example, debate is to understand the truth, but too many people are immersed in the vanity of victory. For example, violence is to protect survival, but too many people are lost in pure violent impulses."
The feeling of falling grew stronger, and the scene around him became more and more blurry, as if colors and shapes had lost their meaning.
The stranger paused.
"For example, magic is to …"
When he said this, he seemed to be unable to continue.
Thales looked at him and felt an inexplicable sense of melancholy.
"I know," the prince answered in a comforting manner.
The stranger snorted and shook his head, as if it did not matter.
"You know?"
He retracted his palm, raised his finger, and gently tapped Thales' forehead.
The stranger said flatly,
"You 'think' you know."
Silver light shone from the prince's forehead, and it seemed to resonate with the stranger's finger.
Thales just stared at him blankly.
The stranger uttered his next words softly. There seemed to be a deep emotion in each of his words, and it caused Thales to ponder endlessly.
"Just like a hero who believes that he will never compromise with evil."
"Just like how a wise ruler thinks that he can correct his mistakes with wisdom and power."
"Just like how the strong believe that they are the ruler of power and the master of weapons."
"It's just like how famous generals believe that as long as they keep winning, they can bring peace."
"Just like how mages believe that as long as their knowledge is increased and their skills improve, then all the problems in the world can be solved."
"It's just like how the reformers believe that as long as their intentions are noble, their goals are great, and their actions are selfless, they can and will eventually make the world a better place.
Thales was stunned.
Hero … Wise Lord … Strong … Famous General … Mage … Revolutionist …
Thales tried his best to stare at the man. He wanted to see something from the stranger's blurry face, but he failed.
They fell faster and faster.
The stranger stopped talking, and the mysterious light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
"Remember, my boy," he said, with a rare note of emotion in his voice.
"Stay true to yourself.
"Do not let them easily infect you, invade you, and capture you." He was like a wise man who had witnessed the vicissitudes of life and the vicissitudes of life. He slowly revealed his thoughts.
"No matter how reasonable and convincing they sound," Meng Qi said.
The flowing lights around them flickered for a while, and all the light was taken away.
It was as if they had entered a tunnel in the belly of a mountain. It was dark and gloomy.
Finally, Thales, who could not calm down his thoughts, could no longer hold back the thoughts in his heart.
He blurted out impulsively, "Who are you?"
'This' person 'who suddenly appeared in the critical world.
'This … Mystic.
'He's Asda's guide. He called the Two Empresses' girls', and he managed to deceive them.
'He's so powerful that he can come and go as he pleases in the' critical world '. He knows Silver Shadowman under Dragon Clouds City. He doesn't seem to belong to any faction …'
The stranger was silent for a moment.
Then, as he fell faster and faster, he sighed and said,
"I am Taurus Mill."
Thales was stunned.
Where did he hear this name before?
'That's …'
The mysterious man named Taurus continued, "The Magic Tower's glory and shame, the Empire's savior and disaster, the world's truth and end …
"I am luck, but also a sin."
His words hid a sorrow that could not be freed from.
It made Thales feel an indescribable heaviness.
Glory and shame, savior and disaster, truth and end, luck and sin …
Taurus said softly,
"I'm your earliest senior."
"The worst role model."
He pressed his index finger on Thales' forehead and pushed it forward.
"And … the worst future."
In the next moment, as the light shone again and the heat rose, Thales' vision darkened, and his breathing froze.
He knew that he had left the critical world.
Then, he sank into the deep and boundless sea.
Never to return.
— — —
'It's here again.'
In the scenes that flashed past his mind, he happily stretched out his hands. No, it was the tentacles of his thoughts that touched everything.
His frail body was no longer enough here.
He felt the sense of omniscience, accomplishment, and satisfaction that came again.
The vast emptiness and distance in the sky, the vast loneliness of the snow-capped peak, the boundless grassland, the numbness and silence of the boundless desert, the hidden undercurrents of the deep sea, the epic magnificence of the ancient city, and …
He slowly raised his gaze and felt the flickering in the distance.
It was the faint mystery of the endless stars above the sky.
He took a light breath and felt everything.
'The entire world.
'It's all in front of me.
'Show it to me.
'Hmm, the world?'
"When you think of this world, what is the first thing that comes to mind?"
A pleasant yet annoying male voice sounded absent-mindedly.
'It's here again.'
He shook his thoughts and threw out the boring words. He continued to feel the magical state of this moment.
Of course, this was far from enough …
He needed more. He needed to reach the supreme place in his dream …
So he began to rise, just like before.
And this time.
Nothing could stop him …
He touched the ultimate step.
With a thought, he raised his head slightly.
'Ah.'
He let out a satisfied sigh.
Yes, it was still the dark and silent void.
It appeared in front of him again.
He saw it very clearly. What was presented to him in the void was still the mysterious gray fog. It flowed in the distance and surged toward him in the endless white light.
It was as if the gray fog had a mind of its own. It opened its arms to him.
It was like the most formal invitation.
It was a call.
He continued to rise. As he felt the increasingly wonderful omnipotence and omniscience, he looked at the gray fog that continued to spread toward him. His heart understood.
That was a call.
Something in the gray fog … was calling him, yearning for his arrival.
"Come …"
In a trance, he could even hear a faint call coming from the fog.
"Together …"
Yes.
A familiar feeling of longing and impulsiveness spread.
He felt it. In the gray fog, there was something that he wanted the most, the most intimate, and the closest to him.
Come on.
He rose faster and faster, getting closer and closer to the strange dark void. He was also getting closer and closer to the flowing gray fog that was tainted by the white light.
Come on!
He almost could not help but roar.
Hurry, hurry up and let me enter that void …
Touch that gray fog …
This is the only way.
This is the only way …
I can be more perfect.
Only then can I truly own this world.
'World?'
His upward momentum suddenly came to a halt.
"'World? It's probably all humans. Asda, in your era, the era when the Empire and the Magic Tower still existed … what was the world like? " The echo of the past came to him like a whisper.
'Ahhhh!
It's that damn duck voice again!
'No!
'Get lost …
'Get lost!'
"'If I were to guess, there's actually not much of a difference, right? After all, to us, the world is just a small part of our cognition … It's probably the place where we are, all the people we know, and the world that they speak of, see, and surround us … We think that we see the world, but in fact, what we see is only our own retina."'
He stopped rising.
'No, no, no!'
He roared in pain. His head began to hurt.
'This again!
Duck voice!
It's this again! It's preventing me from continuing …
He swore that when he rose to the top, when he attained perfection, when he became omniscient and omnipotent …
He must tear the owner of that duck voice into pieces! Crush! Explode!
Smash him into the tiniest and most indistinct speck of dust …
He must make this insignificant existence that obstructed his great progress …
Suffer the most terrifying, painful, and unimaginable ultimate punishment in the world!
Even if he had to destroy the world, even if it meant his own death, even if the end of all living things was imminent, he would make that duck voice pay the heaviest and most unbearable price!
'Ahhhh!
"'Have you left, Asda? Class is over? Asda? Sir? Asda, little … Ahem, little, puppy dog? Little dummy? "'
"'Phew, it seems that he really left. Damn it, this again … Why don't you change your name to Bruce Wayne …"'
"'Hmph, what is the world? You may not know … But in those unfamiliar memories, what I once wanted to do was to look at the world from another angle … To discover problems that we have never discovered, to doubt those principles that are tacitly correct, to break the external shackles that we are unaware of … "'
"This is not an easy task. Just like what Plato said, once you walk out of the cave and see the sun … Phew, hmph …
"'We used to laugh, laugh at those chuunibyou in anime … But sometimes, when you look at the world again and again from an angle that others cannot perceive, you will realize …
"'Perhaps, perhaps the one who is wrong is really not me …
"'But this world.
"'Right … Hmph, Old Ma, what do you think?"'
His head hurt more and more.
'Ahhhh!
'Damn it, don't, don't f * cking block me!
'I need it …
'I need that void, that gray fog …
'I need to rise!
'I need to possess it!
'I need this world!'
In the next moment, Thales woke up in pain, like a person who had just recovered from drowning!
* Boom! *
A strange and loud sound of thunder rang out.
'Ahhhh!
'How …'
Thales gasped for breath and looked around …
He was confused for a few seconds. When he felt as if he had forgotten something again …
He suddenly felt himself falling in an instant!
Then, he came to a sudden stop without any warning!
He was almost dizzy from the toss.
But it was not over yet …
As if he was caught by a gust of wind, he was thrown upwards and rose again!
'How …'
* Bang! Boom! *
The moment he rose to the apex, Thales used all his strength to open his eyes. Then, his whole body trembled!
He realized that what appeared before him was a storm that could be seen with the naked eye.
A storm!
* Swoosh … *
In the next moment, he was immediately blown down by a strange gust of wind!
The feeling he had just now was that he was uncontrollably bobbing up and down in this strange and terrifying endless storm!
'What the hell —'
* Boom! *
The wind here had colors.
They left a pitch-black trail in the air that looked like smooth blades formed by ink. Tens of thousands of ink blades would sometimes scatter in all directions, and sometimes gather together to form a huge wave. Like a tornado, they swept the panicked Thales and sent him tumbling back and forth!
It was like … flying a kite.
From time to time, the same dark lightning flashed in the lightless sky, accompanied by a loud thunder that almost broke his eardrums.
* Boom! *
Every time the thunder roared, it made the ink-black storm even more frenzied!
Thales was in the air, and he did not know if it was real or just an illusion. He endured the bone-piercing pain from the wind blades, and he felt the fear and panic of weightlessness …
'This is bad, this is bad …'
Thales trembled and tried to grab a piece of ink, but in his panic, he realized that he did not have a body!
'What is this place …'
* Boom! *
He waved his imaginary hands, but he could not find a place to exert his strength at all.
His gaze followed the rise and fall of the storm, and he changed directions at will. His entire person — if he could still be considered a person — was pulled back and forth by the storm in the air, and he did not stop!
What he saw was an ominous, pitch-black ink.
All he could hear were terrifying, strange flashes of lightning.
He was a lonely boat in an even more dangerous sea.
* Swoosh — Boom! *
'Damn it!'
He was blown upside down by another storm.
Thales felt that he was about to suffocate.
But he did not see the ground, nor did he see the sky. He could only feel the endless, merciless, and cold, ink-colored storm above and below him, left and right, front and back!
* Boom! *
He tried to shout, but there was no response. He could not even hear his own echo.
This was a scene he had never encountered since the first time he lost control, or even after he knocked on the Door for the first time!
'Is this … the truth behind losing control of mystic energy?
'The … ocean of mystic energy?'
He thought in a trembling voice.
"When you wander in the ocean of mystic energy, you will constantly feel the threshold rise and fall. Your physical body is not the only one affected …" Taurus' words rang in his ears.
* Boom! *
The crazy, terrifying, violent, uncontrolled, endless, and uncontrollable storm continuously tortured Thales' senses.
Compared to the wonderful feeling he had in the beginning … he really did not want to stay here at all.
As this thought rose in his mind, Thales felt his vision become hazy.
It was as if he had entered a drunken state in an instant. He felt that magical state of omniscience and omnipotence again …
'Ah …
'How wonderful …
'I saw the world again …
'And I want more …'
As Thales thought of this, he subconsciously smiled.
'No!'
But in the next moment, Thales shook his head desperately, trying his best to wake himself up!
* Boom! *
A strange clap of thunder sounded!
The illusion before his eyes dimmed. He, who was temporarily clear-headed, once again returned to the pitch-black, terrifying storm.
He rose and fell with the waves.
'Damn … it!'
The torture of his eyes, ears, and senses made him try his best to gather his remaining willpower.
He knew that the training in Asda's classes allowed him to temporarily break free from the hallucinatory state and avoid continuing to evolve. But obviously, his current state was still far from the "thing" stage that Taurus mentioned!
'No!'
Just as the mysterious Taurus said, he could not lose himself there, lost in his desires and impulses!
He had to cross over!
'Ahh! F * ck! '
Thales roared in his heart. He concentrated and tried his best not to think about the illusion just now.
"Hong long long long!"
The ink-colored storm roared again, pulling him back into the terrifying air.
'Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it!'
Thales tried his best to get rid of those comfortable and beautiful illusions, that feeling of power that allowed him to feel everything …
But the more he tried to get rid of it, the more he could not help but think about it.
The more he tried not to think about it, the more he could not help but think about it.
He thought about the pleasure of evolving, the excitement when he was about to knock on the Door …
He thought about the desire to enter his original form in the dark void and touch the gray fog …
That feeling of omniscience, that feeling of omnipotence, that feeling that he was the whole world, that he was everything, that he was everything, and that he was the majestic truth! When that time came, he would be able to go straight to it without any restrictions, without any discord … Damn it!
Thales, who was floating in the storm, desperately shook his thoughts away. He cursed and struggled to get rid of this tempting thought.
'No, no, no, no!
Don't think about it!
Maintain your rationality … Maintain … yourself … '
At this moment, his brain felt as if it had been split into two halves.
One half of him was in the perfect world that was like a fairyland, feeling the satisfaction and beauty of being filled with power, feeling the truth and secrets of the world, and yearning endlessly. 'F * ck! It's happening again! '
The other half of his brain was in the terrifying and brutal black storm, enduring the pain of being torn apart. It tumbled back and forth, drifting aimlessly!
'Wait!
This is not a solution. I can't go on like this! '
* Rustle … *
A gust of wind, accompanied by the hissing sound of the black storm, threw him into the air again!
'That's right, there's a solution!'
When Thales felt that he could not hold on any longer, he remembered Taurus' words.
'Mystic Energy Secondary Pact.
'Stay true to yourself.'
The illusion and storm from before occupied his body and mind, leaving him no time to recall. When he wanted to recall, he realized that he had lost too many memories while he was out of control.
'Myself.
'Soon …'
Thales touched the memories that seemed to have faded, and he thought about it hazily.
'Anchor point!
'Yes, find the anchor point …
'Anchor point, point to myself …
'Pull me back …
'I need to get rid of this damn, terrifying storm.
'From this fake, seductive, comfortable, contented, expectant, and infinitely wonderful dream of evolving … Ah, knock on the Door. For it, I can completely give up everything just to throw myself into its arms and become supreme … F * ck! 'Again?
'Get lost!
'I can't even control my own thoughts anymore!'
Thales felt like a depressed writer who had stayed up all day at work, panting and exhausted when he returned home, and still had to struggle to write his story …
He forced himself to stay awake, but if he was the slightest bit careless, he would fall into a sweet dream and never return …
He woke up the next day with an empty screen …
* Boom! *
Thales, who was cursing everything fiercely in his heart, was once again blown by a rapid cyclone, and he somersaulted six times in a row.
While he was dizzy, he was in unbearable pain from being cut by three ink blades.
'Damn it!
Where's the anchor point?! '
Thales struggled to hold on. He tried hard to search through his damaged memories, trying to find the answer …
'Seriously, I was fully prepared before, but when things came to a head, I realized that the preparations I made before were completely useless!
'It's even worse than a thesis defense!
'The anchor point I set, the self I understand … What exactly is it?!'
At this moment …
"Have you ever thought about what exactly you are?"
His vision became blurry again.
But it was different from before.
This time, what appeared before Thales' eyes was a towering palace.
In the north, in a certain room in a certain snow-covered palace …
A young man with an elegant demeanor faced a pale boy. He closed in on him step by step, and his slender fingers slowly straightened, as if he was pointing straight at the boy's heart.
"When you are stripped of all the definitions given by others, and you leave all the situations in which you exist, what is left of yourself?"
Ripples appeared in the scene, and they dispersed like water waves.
Thales was stunned.
'The definitions given by others …
'The situations in which I exist …
'Anchor point …
'Anchor point!'
* Boom! *
In the boundless storm and thunder, he slowly recalled the conversation he had with Taurus just now.
"So, to anchor one's self, what is really needed is to get rid of all external labels …
"Get rid of what you said, 'things that are tainted by others'."
Thales was lost in thought.
'What are' things that are tainted by others'?
'What are' things that are tainted by others'?
'What are … the anchor points that truly point to one's self?'
* Whoosh — Bang! Boom! * Thunder and lightning flashed around him, and they never stopped.
He was confused and puzzled.
It was as if he had forgotten that he was still tossing and turning in the terrifying storm and suffering.
'The anchor points that point to myself have to be more realistic.
Is it his unique … mystic energy?
Is it the Sin of Hell's River?
Is it the JC dagger that saved him from danger several times?
Or his so-called royal bloodline?
Or … his so-called wisdom? '
* Boom! *
'No, neither.'
He felt that the direction of these anchor points was wrong.
'Things that are tainted by others …
'Or should the anchor points be more focused, concentrated, and short?
'Like himself.
'Like Thales?
'Jadestar?
'The second prince?
'The Mystic?
'Or … Wu Qiren?' He paused when he thought of this name.
'Or … the transmigrator?'
* Bang! Whoosh — * The storm continued. He was blown away again like a duckweed in the rain.
'No, no. The anchor points are also not these … things that are tainted by others … have to be more abstract.
'So, the anchor points are his will? The spirit of never admitting defeat in this world?
'The memories and knowledge he obtained from another life?
'Is it everything I have sensed and known since I was born?
'It's a little close, but is it true?
'Anchor points …
'Can the anchor points really point to the self that he and Taurus talked about so much from these things?
'Things that are tainted by others …'
At this moment …
* Crack — Boom! *
An unprecedentedly loud thunder roared, accompanied by another strange bolt of black lightning, and struck Thales!
It struck him so hard that his entire body trembled. Like a broken sack, he kept rolling in the air!
Intense pain.
Even his consciousness trembled.
But at that moment, Thales suddenly saw it.
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