Chapter 1142 — The Trembling Truth

Silence settled over the incubation chamber once more, and Enya had to take the initiative to break it. "I know. This answer runs counter to common sense."

"Hold on, let me sort this out..." Gao Yang waved a hand unconsciously to cut her off, and only when he had finally straightened out his own thinking and confirmed the intelligence she had described did he slowly raise his head. "So what you're saying is — when the Great Demon Tide arrived, this world was in fact not affected at all. It was simply that every individual capable of becoming an 'observer' underwent a cognitive displacement, and the perfectly normal world became, in their eyes, something indescribable and incomprehensible. The so-called 'end of the world' was actually a 'hallucination' on their part?"

"It is not so simple as a hallucination. A hallucination can be dismissed by closing your eyes and shutting down your senses, and you can carry on as though nothing happened. But the 'exile displacement' brought by the Demon Tide breaches the boundary between matter and reality — if you mistake ice for fire, that 'fire' can truly burn you; if the sun in your eyes becomes a blackened ember gone dark, then the whole world will dim and cool around you. This sounds deeply counterintuitive, but such is the truth of the world.

"Observers construct the world they inhabit through their own cognition, and that world overlaps exactly with the real one. But when the Demon Tide arrives, this 'overlap' slips out of alignment. Observers are devoured by the chaotic phantasms in their own eyes. In extreme madness and terror they do everything in their power to leave behind records of a world warped and shattered, of the Demon Tide destroying all things — yet to those who come after, these records are... merely the ravings of madmen, and illusions that no theory can ever verify."

Gao Yang sat in the broad high-backed seat. A cool, clean breeze blew from the ventilation system; the low hum reached his ears and in that moment seemed utterly unreal and far away. He sank into a long meditation, and how long it lasted he could not say before he roused himself from it. "This... truly does defy normal cognition. The observer's observation shapes an 'observer's world' that overlaps with the real one? And the displacement of this observer's world brings about the observer's own self-destruction..."

"But you do not look as surprised as I expected," Enya said, her tone placid. "I thought you would at least lose your composure for a moment."

"That is because many of the concepts you mention are not unfamiliar to me — I simply cannot believe all of this happens in the macroscopic world," Gao Yang said, his expression complicated. With a hint of doubt, as though musing aloud, he went on, "But if what you say is true... then in our world, where exactly is the boundary between the real universe and the 'cognitive universe'? If an observer can be burned to death by a 'phantom flame' in his own cognition, then what meaning does the operation of the real world have?"

The voice in the golden egg paused a moment before responding. "...It seems that in your homeland, the material world and the spiritual world are sharply distinguished."

"At least in the macroscopic world, yes," Gao Yang said aloud. "Where I come from, the real is real and the illusory is illusory. The observer effect operates only in the microscopic domain."

"Is that so... A pity, then, that in this universe the boundaries of all things seem to be in a mutable state," Enya said. The pale golden runes flowing across her shell gradually slowed. It was as though she were using this means to help Gao Yang think calmly. "This stable and peaceful beautiful world in mortal eyes needs only a single Demon Tide to become an indescribable, twisted purgatory. When a divergence appears between cognition and reality, the crossing between sanity and madness becomes effortless. So from a certain angle, the very pursuit of the 'real universe' is meaningless — and even... does the real universe truly exist?"

Listening to the question Enya had finally cast forth — one sufficient to drive a scholar of insufficient resolve to madness — Gao Yang's heart somehow grew calm. All at once he thought of this world's bizarre "layered" structure, of the Shadow Realm beneath the material world, the Gloom Realm beneath the Shadow Realm, and even the "Deep Realm" beneath the Gloom Realm, and that "Deep Sea" that existed for the gods themselves only as a concept...

In his mind, a boundless ocean seemed to well up out of the void. That was the true appearance of this universe: layer upon layer of "realms" stacked within that ocean in ways the human mind could not comprehend, engaged in intricate mutual mappings. In the deep sea where sunlight could never reach, the deepest "truth" lay buried in darkness untouched by any hand — the ocean rose and fell, and mortals were but tiny mayflies drifting in the shallowest layer of water, while the true shape of the whole ocean lay far beyond the boundaries of the mayflies' cognition.

He drew a light breath and pulled his sanity back from that phantom-imagined "ocean." In a tone as though his spirit wandered beyond the world, he murmured, "I find myself suddenly curious... when the Demon Tide arrives, what does the world actually look like in the eyes of those who are 'exiled'..."

In Gao Yang Cecil's memories he had seen that catastrophe of seven hundred years ago — the earth scorched and curling, the heavens hideous beyond description, chaotic magical energy sweeping the land, countless monsters surging in from every direction. That was already almost the most terrifying "end of the world" a mortal could imagine; even Gao Yang himself had once believed it was the very face of doomsday. Yet at this moment he suddenly discovered that his imagination was simply inadequate before the true appearance of this world.

"Even for an outlander wanderer who can contend with the gods, the horrific impression the Demon Tide stamps upon mortal minds when it comes is something you would not wish to face," Enya's voice came from the golden egg. "Frankly, I cannot answer your question precisely, because no one can hold a normal conversation with the victims who have gone utterly mad, who have lost the focus of their perception within the 'real universe,' and it is very hard to distill from their chaotic, frenzied words — or even from mere noise — any clear picture of what they witnessed. I can only guess, guessing from the mad traces left behind by civilizations that failed to withstand the Demon Tide—

"The sun goes out in their eyes, or swells into a vast ball of flesh, or becomes a black mass descending from the sky. The earth melts, growing endless teeth and gigantic eyes. The oceans boil, spawning whirlpools that reach the heart of the world. The stars fall to earth and become cold flowing fire spattering out from rock and cloud. They may see themselves hurled into the starry sky while the universe opens its vast mouth, filled with indescribable radiance and colossal shapes; or they may see all things in the universe peel away, becoming frenzied shadows and ceaseless noise — and in the final moment of destruction, they themselves become sacrifices to these chaotic frenzies, become one of them.

"Such are the maddened observers, and the world in their eyes — amid the intricate mappings of all things in the universe, they have lost the focus of the self, and in losing it, lost everything. In such a state, anything at all may be what they see."

Gao Yang said nothing for a long while. Only after more than a minute did he shake his head with a complicated expression. "Your description is vivid indeed. That sight would be enough to make any person of sound mind shudder."