Chapter 490 Ancient God Consciousness
Neither material nor energy; neither entity nor illusion - a higher-dimensional life form beyond the scope of human understanding, whose existence can only be defined by the will of "existence", is called... God.
And Yang Qiu, at this moment, is fortunately or unfortunately...looking into the eyes of "God".
When Yang Qiu transferred his thoughts from the anchor point of the player "Beibu Gulf Wolong" to the anchor point of "Only by hard work can one win", the "god" who "existed" in the material plane in an indescribable form and way synchronously rotated his white model-like "head" and cast his gaze in the direction of Yang Qiu's thoughts.
This time, the gaze He cast was no longer as curious and harmless as when He "looked" at Wolong in Beibu Gulf, but seemed to carry some kind of exploratory intent.
Yang Qiu instinctively withdrew his thoughts from the player's anchor point.
After hastily exiting the mental matrix, Yang Qiu suddenly realized that cold sweat was slowly seeping out of his forehead.
What followed was... a pain like the soul being torn apart.
The world in front of my eyes became blurry, and the only clear thing was the pair of big eyes that looked ridiculous, like ET.
This pair of terrifying eyes had been forcibly imprinted in his mind through the "eye contact" just now, and was unconsciously polluting and eroding his spirit and soul.
"It's really not good..."
Yang Qiu endured the splitting headache and the intense discomfort as if his soul was eagerly trying to separate from his body. He waved his hand to open the rift in time and space, gritted his teeth and threw himself in.
After passing through the space-time rift and entering the Earth plane, the gaze from the ancient god's will was slightly alleviated.
Yang Qiu heaved a sigh of relief, and hurried to his room, turned on his computer, and clicked on the PLA mix in his favorites...
After watching two PLA videos with over 10 million hits in a row, the strong impression of "foreign body feeling" left in the depths of Yang Qiu's soul gradually faded.
After Yang Qiu recovered, he finally had the energy to think about countermeasures.
That ancient god's consciousness was only a part of the ancient god's will, and the destructive power of its "gaze" was relatively limited. Even if he could not rely on the magic-free rules of the Earth plane and the anchor of the Chinese spiritual belief that Yang Qiu had believed in since childhood and had become more convinced of after traveling through time, he could hold on for a while and endure two more days of pain.
Of course, if it was a local spellcaster, he wouldn't be immune to all poisons like Yang Qiu... If it was Kingsley or someone else, they would basically be ruined by that one look.
What made Yang Qiu feel most troubled was that the ancient god's consciousness could detect him through the player's anchor point - this made Yang Qiu lose the relatively safe window to observe the ancient god's consciousness.
God is the carrier of will; God's split consciousness is also a part of will.
Simply discovering His existence is already a disaster for mankind.
Yang Qiu would never risk the mental health of the players , and would never resort to such a dirty trick as trying to allow the players to "witness" the consciousness of the ancient gods.
In the unobservable situation, how to accurately locate the ancient god's consciousness and find a chance to send it back to the void has become an impossible task...
"Hmm...? Wait—"
Yang Qiu, who was trying hard to think of a solution, suddenly thought of a key point.
The ancient god consciousness that is curious about the players undoubtedly has its own awareness and is not in a completely confused state.
Considering that the abnormal situation in Xinxili Town is conservatively estimated to have lasted for at least fifty years, it is not inexplicable that the ancient god's consciousness regained a certain degree of autonomous consciousness during its stay in the local area.
So the question is...after regaining its autonomous consciousness, why didn't this ancient god consciousness ask for believers?
For an ancient god who can split a part of his consciousness and project it into the material plane, no matter how crazy he is, it must be his instinct to seek believers, gain anchor points, and escape from the void.
But in the town of New Seely, there is no sign of wild sect activity - apart from those who openly believe in the Lady of Gold and those who secretly believe in the Whisperers, there is no third type of "believers".
"First... we can rule out the possibility that the Whisperers knew about this. If the Whisperers knew that there was a weapon of such magnitude that could deal a fatal blow to high-level spellcasters hidden in New Seely Town, they would definitely find a way to lure me here instead of trying to sacrifice the entire city's residents to fight me."
"Secondly... the possibility that the Gold Coin Church knew about this is not high."
The Church of Gold Coin was indeed at fault for allowing the Tachia Territory to become corrupt, but to say that the Holy Land of Gold Coin deliberately condoned the ancient god consciousness to cause harm is rather biased - again, the orthodox sects in this plane really do have gods watching over them, and their bottom line is much higher than those false sects on the Earth plane that would fight in the name of religion, divide the lower classes for power and profit, and encourage civilians to harm each other.
If the previous generation of night watchmen in Creek City had not been disturbed by the chaotic situation in Tachia Territory and had the energy and conditions to conduct a thorough investigation of New Seeley Town, then it is foreseeable what kind of countermeasures the Gold Coin Church would take... Once it is confirmed that there are suspected activities of the ancient god consciousness in this area, the church will definitely find a way to completely seal off New Seeley Town and wipe this town and the surrounding villages off the map.
Without any strong external interference, an ancient god consciousness that has regained a certain degree of autonomy and can instinctively avoid the risk of exposure, does not capture the gods' messengers (just like Yang Qiu was anchored by the tentacles of an unknown ancient god) to develop believers, and does not expand the range of influence... This is indeed very strange.
"Could it be that... there are some unknown factors that prevent this ancient god's consciousness from leaving the area? " Taking all the above into consideration, Yang Qiu could only come to this conclusion that even he himself found incredible.
This was unheard of, at least with Yang Qiu's knowledge, it could not be explained at all - whether it was the records of the Ivory Tower or the Orthodox Sect, the methods of expelling or destroying the projected consciousness of the ancient gods were nothing more than regional bans, or deliberately allowing the ancient god consciousness to devour the soul and body of a victim and then destroying its physical carrier.
"Will" cannot be destroyed. The loser in the war of gods will only be exiled to the void instead of being destroyed by a victorious god.
Even the gods can't do it, let alone mortals.
But the carrier of "consciousness" can be destroyed... This is also the best way humans can think of.
Of course, this kind of annihilation is still different from godslaying after all - the ancient god's consciousness whose carrier has been destroyed is just returning to the void, so it cannot be said to be godslaying or not.
Yang Qiu was not the kind of person who was so "merciful" as to think that sacrificing one person to save more people was never feasible. In fact, he had thought of sending sacrifices to Carter Forest Farm, since he had a lot of serious criminals on hand anyway... However, the ancient god consciousness did not want any carrier. The unknown ancient god tentacle that anchored him was willing to wait for him for three hundred years rather than just pick a target at random.
After thinking it over, Yang Qiu could neither understand the abnormal behavior of the ancient god's consciousness nor come up with a solution to the problem. He could only shake his head and sigh, open the space-time rift and return to the other world to see the progress of Professor Yin Zhengliang's investigation before making any plans.
While Yang Qiu was delayed going back and forth, Professor Yin Zhengliang had already finished investigating Carter's house and was visiting the residents in the town.
It’s called a visit...but in fact, it’s just walking, not visiting.
Wherever Professor Yin and Qi Tian went, the residents of that neighborhood would avoid them as if they were facing a great enemy. They had no intention of dealing with these two "annoying undead" at all.
After visiting more than a dozen households, Professor Yin Zhengliang finally got a chance to get close to the townspeople...
This house located at the end of the block is a rare old wooden house in the town.
The wooden building covers an area of about 50 square meters and has a total height of about four meters. It is divided into two floors. One floor faces the street and is separated into a small store of more than 30 square meters. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence, run a grocery business here.
When Professor Yin Zhengliang walked into the small shop with a sign that read "Lawrence's Grocery Store", Mr. Lawrence, who had gray hair and was concentrating on weaving a bamboo basket, let out a low cry, subconsciously dropped the bamboo strips in his hand, leaned back, and stood in front of his wife who was squeezed in the narrow counter with him.
Mrs. Lawrence, who also had gray hair and looked very old, looked at the two dead bodies that came in with horror, but did not make any attempt to get up and run away.
Professor Yin Zhengliang lowered his eyes and found that Mrs. Lawrence, who was sitting on a bamboo chair with a worn blanket draped over her knees. The legs exposed from under the blanket were obviously thinner than those of an ordinary middle-aged or elderly woman, and the muscles in her calves had atrophied to the point that she couldn't even hold up her trouser legs.
Moving our attention to Mrs. Lawrence's upper limbs, which are also obviously atrophied but can still be considered normal, it is not difficult to see that this lady may have encountered some accident in her early years, resulting in paralysis of her lower body.
Due to the language barrier, Yin Zhengliang couldn't say any words of comfort. He could only nod politely to the two peers from the other dimension and step over the threshold.
Mrs. Lawrence was physically disabled and Mr. Lawrence was also very thin. It should have been difficult for him to pick up his wife and escape. He could only stare vigilantly at the hideous uninvited ghost and try his best to use his thin body to erect a fragile barrier for his wife.
Qi Tian couldn't bear to see this kind of scene, so he followed into the store silently, looked around, found a broom and mop from the corner, and proved with his actions that he had no ill intentions.
The Lawrence couple were frightened when they saw Qi Tian picking up the broom, as if they were worried that the ghost would use the wooden handle of the broom as a weapon. When they saw that the tall ghost was busy helping them clean up, the old couple were even more frightened...
Most of the first floor of Lawrence's house is used as a grocery store. In the remaining dozen or so square meters of space, there is only a small bedroom, a crowded kitchen and a toilet.
Professor Yin Zhengliang took a quick look at the area separated on the first floor, turned the ladder placed against the wall over, stepped onto the entrance leading to the attic on the second floor, and climbed up.
The attic is not a storage room full of junk. On the contrary, it is kept very clean, even cleaner than the first floor.
Professor Yin's expression changed and he climbed into the attic swiftly.
This area, which is low at both ends and high in the middle, looks like an ordinary room. The sheets are neatly made, and the pillows and quilts are clean. There are wardrobes and boxes near the entrance. There is also a small table and an armless chair for a child on the other side near the small window. There is even a book on the table.
Professor Yin Zhengliang bent down slightly and walked to the desk. When he looked closely, he found that the book on the desk was not new, and even the cover had turned yellow.
Although the small desk was wiped very clean, the tabletop showed obvious cracks due to temperature changes, and the paint was also mottled... Obviously, it was an old piece of furniture from at least many years ago.
Professor Yin realized something and turned around to check the bed and wardrobe.
The bed cover, which looked smooth and well-maintained, had fibers that were visibly yellowed and aged; Professor Yin simply pulled the sheet lightly, and a noticeable tear appeared.
There were several neatly folded sets of children's clothes in the closet, and the fabric fibers had obvious signs of decay and mold.
There are no photos in this attic room, nor any text information that can describe the condition of the owner, but Professor Yin Zhengliang can still make a judgment - the young owner who lived here should have... died many years ago.
The Lawrences had carefully preserved the room's original appearance, but they were apparently powerless to prevent the furniture from aging and the fabrics from decaying.
"The family remembers their deceased relatives... and can't tell whether it's good or bad."
Professor Yin shook his head and prepared to go downstairs.
Just as he was about to step down the stairs...something suddenly flashed through his mind.
Professor Yin suddenly turned around and looked again at the small desk quietly placed in front of the attic window.
The book with a yellowed cover was placed neatly on the right side of the desk, where the little owner could reach it.
"Books...books—wait, the books in this alien world are not as common as those on Earth!"
Professor Yin ran to the desk again, picked up the book and opened it.
The spiritual matrix allows people on Earth to understand the texts of other worlds. The content of this book is not complicated. It is just some simple fables for children.
On the title page of the book, there was a fancy and gorgeous family crest, and a line of small handwritten words:
"Gifted by Viscount Carter to the outstanding young man from New Seeley, Carl Lawrence, June of the new calendar year 988."
