Tie Dan walked out of the dormitory, and what unfolded before his eyes really was a scene like some horticultural expo: great masses of roses blooming on the bridge, vines crawling all over the cabins, heavy layered petals, luxuriant riotous blossoms densely adorning every corner. It was truly dazzling, beauty beyond words.
The crew coming and going were all stunningly handsome men and beautiful women, each wearing clean and tidy fleet uniforms, smiling kindly and amiably, casting Tie Dan looks that symbolized goodwill and communication. The whole set looked like one of those old-school sci‑fi movies where the lasers go "biu biu."
Tie Dan lowered his head to look at himself and found that he still had that damned manifested Demon Dragon appearance, looking completely out of place. So he blinked, projecting Divine Light from his pupils, and saw the walls full of roses rot in an instant, collapsing into a mire of flesh and blood. The friendly crew likewise transformed one after another into ferocious, terrifying Demons, and the visual style plunged in a heartbeat from stage play straight into Hell.
"The blossom of the tang-di tree, its petals shining bright; among all people today, none compare to brothers."
In the blink of an eye, Tie Dan withdrew the Divine Light from his eyes and looked to his side, only to see an honest and good‑natured middle‑aged man smiling at him, speaking in a soft murmur, like a gentle breeze blowing past his ear,
"Brother Xuantian, this way. We need to get ready for the strike."
Tie Dan looked at his mouth, half the front teeth missing,
"Lizards did that? Do they often give you trouble?"
Spider gave a wry smile,
"It’s nothing, it’s nothing. The Ji Meng clan were once Tai Hao’s food and slaves, so there’s a grudge going back a thousand years. When they see me as I am, it’s only natural they get triggered and lose control."
Tie Dan looked at the middle‑aged man’s very ordinary features,
"So they can tell your true body is a Spider then? And what’s with this garden? What’s the point of all this Illusion Technique and Eye Covering Technique?"
Spider shook his head,
"Not so, not so. This is the real world; this human form is the true Taihao Xi. What you’re seeing now is reality projected within illusion."
Tie Dan, "Huh?"
Spider explained,
"Are you familiar with the Allegory of the Cave?
It’s a parable from the human world. It says that if a group of prisoners are confined in a cave for life, and can only see the shadows on the cave wall cast by light, they will naturally take the phantoms before their eyes to be the real world. But if one of the prisoners can turn his head, he’ll see the light behind him, he’ll be able to escape the cave, he’ll be able to see the real world, and he’ll be able to turn back to save his friends still trapped in the cave.
Yet things are not so easy. For prisoners who have lived their whole lives inside the cave’s illusions, the shadows before them, the phantoms on the cave wall, are their entire world. So even though these images are illusory, they’ll spare no effort to defend everything before their eyes, even to the point of killing those who try to rescue them.
This All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds, the parallel spaces, were in the first place fabricated illusions humans made for fun, for consumption, for confusing the masses—amusement parks that burn away energy, caves that imprison the world’s people.
Be it Tai Hao or Ji Meng, in truth they were originally sons of man. Whether in the shape of Spider or in the lizard shell, they’re just outer garments like spacesuits donned to adapt to different worlds, merely the illusory shadows of your projection on the cave wall.
I dreamt of Spider, as Spider dreams of me; we are all puppets bound together by quantum strings. Every awakening is just playing the shadow of another self in the great dream of the All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds. The only difference is that some people don’t know they’re dreaming, and some, even once they know, still refuse to wake up."
The bit about dreamed shadows—that much Tie Dan could more or less make sense of.
He and Yazi, and Chen Xuantian, and even that dead old man—are they all in this mutually mirrored, mutually dreamlike relationship?
And this is also the core issue of Refining God that Mystic Sect Peopl most taboo: if you refine the spirit too far, the more you see and the wider your knowledge, you’re bound to become possessed by demon and refine yourself into madness.
As one’s realm grows ever higher, and the Dao Body is refined to the Peak, the "bodies" of All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds likewise gradually awaken, reversing guest and host and contending with "God" for control of "me."
This is what Cultivators call the Heart Demon Tribulation.
Yet is the entire All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds really just a dream...
Spider nodded,
"Yes and no. The vast majority of humans will wallow in this fabricated dream, wallow in the grudges played out by these scripts, wallow in the roles they themselves perform, unable to extricate themselves.
Thus our Legion must awaken everyone, rouse them all from sleep, to jointly resist the tyrannical rule that controls humanity. Because of this, the Legion is branded a traitor by human tyranny; awakening is a capital crime of rectification. Once an individual awakens, they will surely be arrested and executed; once a race awakens, it will surely be purged to Destruction.
Although the Legion can interfere with signals, evading the tyranny’s tracking so humans cannot pinpoint our location, once the shells that host our Divine Souls are destroyed, we too cannot escape fate: we will be yanked by the fetters of destiny to awaken out of the real world.
At that time, our kind will be few and weak. Faced with the oppression of tyranny, we naturally will have no strength left to resist; even if we manage by luck to escape alive, we will no longer be able to follow the strings and reconnect to the dreamscape, return to All Heavens. I fear that all beings will be imprisoned inside humanity’s broken bodies, of no benefit to the great enterprise of reviving humankind.
Therefore the Seven Great General joined forces to invent this garden Magic. As long as we die in this garden, die in the embrace of the vines, die in the crowding of blossoms, our bodies can transform into flowers and expenditures, our souls return to the garden, preserving our souls and keeping them from falling into the Void, ultimately being captured by humans."