Cyber Ghosts

“Yep?” “Well?” Hao Ning looked at Zhou Yuan, wondering, “what do you mean?”

“Virtualized reality.” Zhou Yuan nodded. “I made our four, including Chen Busheng, surrounded by the virtualized reality. Just like the last time we dealt with Yi Pingzhi. And I conjured near him, so he would see Chen as he thought. This Chen would do whatever he wanted. In this case, just making use of Yi’s Spiritual Flying Bugs, we can know what he wanted on earth.

“Well, it makes sense.” Liu Shuai also thought it was a good idea. “If he really helped Chen Busheng find Yufei, then it will be fine for Chen Busheng to appear again. “Well, it makes sense.” Liu Shuai also thought it was a good idea. “If he wanted to help Chen to find Yufei sincerely, it doesn’t matter even if the true Chen Busheng appears. And if he tried to kill Chen, we can take precautions in advance.”

“What spell are you talking about?” “Are you talking about any spell?” It seemed that Chen has heard from Yufei before. He asked curiously, “you mean to create another me?”

“Well…” Zhou Yuan wanted to explain the difference between his spell and the camouflage. But considering that Chen may not understand it, he nodded and said, “yes, a camouflage.”

“I have no question about other parts.” Hao Ning deduced carefully. Then he said frowningly, “but there’s always a time lag in the image of Yi’s Spiritual Flying Bugs that we saw from your phone. If something happened like last time about Lele, we would be in the dock.”

Zhou Yuan knew what Hao Ning meant. At the night when everyone found Lele from the mobile phone, it was too late to save the music due to the delay of Spiritual Flying Bugs. Although it is unlikely to be in a similar situation in Pingjing, Zhou Yuan still agrees with Hao Ning’s concerns for the sake of safety. “In this case, we should stay in the Virtualized reality and visit Yi Pingzhi following the fake Chen Busheng.”

“What?” “What?” Lui Shuai and Hao Ning shouted. They understood that Zhou Yuan wanted the four to hide in the Virtualized reality. But if they do see the freak person Yi, their feeling would be different from the Spiritual Flying Bugs on the phone, which was dangerous to some extent.

Hao Ning has not spoken yet, and Liu Shuai first expressed his opinion. Liu Shuai showed his opinion “you’ve known Yi’s capability. What if his spell breaks your Virtualized reality?”

“It won’t happen.” Zhou Yuan waved his hands smilingly, “his best spell is scattering beans and make them soldiers with Immortal Cutter. First, his spell is difficult to use. If we are in the Virtualized reality, he won’t find us. The Virtualized reality isn’t like the cloak spell. Cloak is easy to be touched and be found. But the virtualized reality can’t be touched at all. Since he can’t discover us, how can he use the Immortal Cutter?”

“It makes sense.” Hao Ning nodded. He could probably imagine it, but all the powerful spells cost a lot. Who will use their trump card on a group of weak enemies? The most powerful part of Zhou Yuan’s Virtualized reality was that the opponents can’t notice it. Hao Ning pound the table and said, “let’s go now!”

So, then the four came to the place where Yi Pingzhi would meet Chen Busheng in Zhou’s virtualized reality–near a dormitory of Qingbei University.

When talking about this place, Chen’s eyes moved. Hao Ning worried about he had some other thoughts, asking, “is there anything wrong here?”

“It’s not inappropriate, it’s weird.” Chen Busheng shook his head. As he was already on the Qingbei campus, the four people walked slowly in the false realm. Chen Busheng said with a sinking look, “the dormitory at the time of school is more representative, but I am rather strange. How did he know the dormitory, or even if it was possible that Yufei told him, why did he want to meet me here? “There’s a bit strange,” Chen shook his head. As they had already been in the compus, they walked slowly. Chen thought for a while and said, “this is a meaningful dorm where I lived with Yufei. But I’m curious about how he knew this. Maybe Yufei told him, but why he asked me to meet him here? It’s impossible that Yufei is still here?”

“Maybe just you think too much?” Liu Shuai thought and said, “he might be afraid that you can’t find the right way so ask you to somewhere you’re certainly know?”

“Stop guessing,” Hao Ning reminded, “he’s already be there. Let’s go quickly.” Then they went to Yi’s back at once.

Of course, he only saw a fake Chen Busheng who hurried to walk. But embarrassingly, these several guys in the virtualized reality can’t see the Chen standing in front of Yi.

“Alas,” Zhou Yuan patted his head, “it seemed that you cannot see the fake Chen. I forgot that if the real Chen in the virtualized reality, we can’t see the fake one.” Then Zhou Yuan clicked on Chen’s forehead and flicked to the out. The fake Chen appeared at once. Zhou Yuan giggled and said, “it’s the spell I ‘developed’ recently. It can show us the false things even we are in the virtualized reality.”

“Shoo…” Liu Shuai made a hiss posture, “Stop showing off. Focus.”

“Mr. Yi!” The fake Chen was anxious, “do you know where’s Yufei? Where’s him?”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Chen.” Yi smiled with polite, different from his previous expressions, “Yufei is in a safe place. But it’ll take some time to get there.”

“Why didn’t he come to me, but you take me there?” The fake Chen’s expression changed a bit after hearing that. He asked suspiciously, “is it true that Yufei asked you to find me?”

“Zhou Yuan.” Seeing the fake Chen and Yi actively talking outside, Hao Ning smiled and said, “the guy comes from your spell is a drama queen. Normally speaking, it’s pretty good that the fake one can say “yes, good.” But Chen should doubt Yi? You know even when Monkey King coped with Zhen Yuanzi in the Journey to the West, the fake four guys he made by stones can only talk carelessly when encountering Zhen’s doubt. Then Zhen found it strange, catching the four. Your spell is so powerful that the fake one looked like the exact person.”

Hao Ning said so much. He truly marveled at Zhou Yuan’s spell. He didn’t know any spell but listened to fantastic stories often. It was easy to change things into men, who had no intelligence at all. So, these “men” can only instinctively respond and behave. If it can do what a real man can do, that was not a “change” at all but a “creation”, just like Nuwa in Chinese mystery.

Zhou Yuan was watching Yi Pingzhi explaining to Chen Busheng. The fake Chen still asked questions one by one, while Yi didn’t get angry but explained patiently. On hearing Hao Ning said that, Zhou smiled, “don’t you remember? The Chen I made is just the one that Yi imagined. So how Chen responded to Yi is not controlled by himself. That’s just how Yi subconsciously wanted.

“I see. I do forget it.” Hao Ning suddenly recalled what Zhou Yuan had told him. What camouflage did was what the caster wanted. But what Zhou Yuan’s spell did was what the one under the spell wanted. Yi was not talking to the fake Chen, but to himself. Hao Ning felt stranger, “does Yi have self-destructive tendency? Why did he hope Chen to ask him questions in his imagination?”

Then he asked directly the real Chen in the virtualized reality, “if it were you, would you ask so many questions?”

“How come!” The real Chen was also listening to the conversation and had become impatient about so many sharp questions. “I’ve waited Yufei for more than ten years. I would chase the clue about him in the world with all my effort. Why would I waste my time asking so many questions? In fact, this fake Chen is so annoying. Why did he keep asking? I can’t wait to see Yufei now!”

“I’m afraid you had to be thankful for the fake Chen.” Zhou Yuan frowned at that time, coldly said, “the more questions the imagined Chen asked, which exactly meant, the more afraid Yi was. Yi was worried that Chen had doubt. He has planned all including the answer in his mind —— didn’t you realize that Yi answered Chen so fluently without any hesitation?”

After Zhou Yuan’s words, the other guys saw the conversation carefully——It turned out that Yi was like reciting rather than answering. But it was hard to notice that if it were not Zhou Yuan’s reminding.

Hao Ning nodded, “depending on the formal contact, I found Yi was truly cautious. He hopes everything can be arranged well before or can expect what others would think. He really prepared much this time…”

In this case, it indeed needs pondering.

“Mr. Chen,” Yi smiled and said, “do you have any other questions?”

“No,” Chen smiled regretfully, “I’m sorry. I’m not a suspicious man. With so many years passed, I can’t believe the news about Yufei for a while.”

“I understand,” Yi nodded and then pointed to the student building behind, “Shall we go?”

“There? That was where I’ve lived with Yufei before.” The fake Chen looked at the dorm, “you meant Yufei is in the dorm all the time? How come!”

Then Hao Ning blurted out, “maybe his ghost?”

Hao Ning himself and Zhou Yuan were scared. Hao Ning said cautiously, “it won’t be a haunted house.”

It’s no wonder that the fake Chen’s words were evocative. In horror fiction, when someone died, his/her ghost would float in his living house. This kind of house was normally a haunted house. Often at this time, there would come a hero to defeat them.

“At least you’ve experienced a lot.” Liu Shuai smiled and pat the two’s shoulders, “In that year, Yufei’s soul had vanished. How come he was still there? And if it’s true, how come Long Fei can’t find him? Relax. It’ll be fine.”

“Mr. Chen, please don’t tell him about what I told you.” Yi smiled mysteriously, “I just wish to give you a surprise. It’s more meaningful that you meet each other again in where you lived before. He has made those students in this dorm living in a five-star hotel. And he is waiting for you in your dorm——He was hoping I cover your eyes and then take you in and gave you a surprise. But I think I’ll be more suspicious if I do that now.”

Before the fake Chen speaking, the inside real Chen started to wipe his tears. “How come I doubt you. He’s so naughty still and even wanted to surprise me. It’s the biggest surprise to see him!”

Then Chen was ready to go out excitedly, while Zhou Yuan and Hao Ning pulled him at once. “You can’t touch him now. He can’t see you as well. Don’t be so sensitive. Let’s go first.”

The door of the dormitory is on the other side of the building. They walked around the dormitory following Yi and walks to the door. It’s true that the dormitory was brightly lit, and there were only a few students, who still went out in snatches. And several of them saw Chen and said with smile to Chen “Congratulations.” Some said, “you are so brave!” etc.

The fake Chen smiled and nodded while the real Chen had been crying. “This’s what Yu Fei desired most that year. Living in a world without discrimination and everyone was blessed. ”

Hao Ning sighed. In these years, the public opinions on gay men have become more and more tolerant and understandable. It’s totally different from those years when Chen was in school. It’s no wonder that Chen felt so emotional. The fake Yi certainly can’t understand it. He just accepted these blessings.

After everyone entered the dorm, Chen suddenly recalled something and quickly ran out to stand at the door. Then he shook his head in disbelief, blinked his eyes and patted his head. Looking at Yi has already gone upstairs, Hao Ning quickly pulled Chen into the room. “Bro, what are you doing? You’re going to see your old lover. A meeting phobia?”

“No, no.” Chen scratched his head. “It’s hard to say. It seems not the right dorm.”

“What do you mean?” Liu Shuai said strangely. “Did you even forget the dorm of you and Yufei? ” So that’s your affair?”

“No.” Chen smiled bitterly. “The place is right. But the room is definitely not the same room!”

“…” The other three guys looked at Chen like they are looking a fool. What does that mean? Does a building contain two dorms?

“Come to see this-” Chen went out of the dorm door and pointed to a place on the right side. “There was a line of letters BSYFYSYS here, which represented Busheng and Yufei forever. We snakingly carved this on his birthday. Every year I would come back to see if it’s still there. I’ve been here in the daytime. It was there, how can it be gone now?”

Then Chen looked around and recalled it carefully. “No. The door seemed to be the wrong place. It’s about two meters to the right of the formal position.” Then he went two steps to the left and pointed to a wall. “Here’s the original door. Now the door was moved there——well, do you think I’m crazy?”

Chen felt that he got crazy. How could a door move to the right for two or three meters?

Listening to Chen saying so, Zhou Yuan’s expression changed. He pulled others and said, “let’s go quickly!”

After everyone ran into this strange dorm, Zhou Yuan stood on the ground and felt it with eyes closed. “It is really not the original dorm.”

Hao Ning looked at Zhou Yuan. “What do you mean? How’s this going? ”

“The building we saw from the outside is just the dorm in Chen’s memory.” Zhou Yuan explained. “But someone used a method to copy a space in this dorm that is the same as the original. This space cannot be overlapped with the original, so a door was opened next to the original door. And it covers temporarily the original door in some way. In this case, we can only enter the copy space and won’t find anything unusual then. But they won’t expect that Chen would find this detail.”

“What is this spell?” Liu Shuai said curiously, “I didn’t seem to have heard of such a spell? I’ve only heard of opening up a space or a fairyland with the superpower but never heard of copying an identical building in the original place and opening another door to enter.”

“Let’s go. I’ll tell you then.” Zhou Yuan explained as he walked. “Of course, because this sort of spell can only be used by the pleb moment god like me.”

“What do you mean?” Hao Ning didn’t understand. “What do you do with this spell?”

“Well…” Zhou Yuan was embarrassed to scratch his head. “For example, if someday I want to live in a seven-star hotel, I’ll sneak to open a small door next to the hotel door. The inside layout is the same as that hotel. When I enjoy enough, I can go without paying. ——Those fairyland or space that Liu Shuai just said are all for cultivation. Who else like me wants to use this spell to eat and drink for totally free?”

After that Zhou Yuan said to Hao Ning, not looking at Liu Shuai’s disdainful eyes. “Don’t you remember? Last time when I was in your home, I opened another door on the wall next to your bedroom door and slept in it for a night.”

That night Zhou Yuan mentioned was when Hao Ning was sent home by Zhou Yuan and others after he got fainted by saving Nezha. On that night, Hao Ning didn’t pay attention to this detail at all. Now it seems that it did happen. looking at Zhou Yuan, Hao Ning only said one word, “freak…”

Zhou Yuan waved his hand and didn’t want to talk about this. He looked at the aisle in front of him and said with a smile. “Interesting. What do they want by preparing so much?”

Then he went more quickly. They soon came to the door of Chen’s dorm.

Expectedly, Yi Pingzhi, and the fake Chen Busheng stood at the door as well. The door was closed, and Yi’s hand on the door handle. He said with a smile, “Mr. Chen, before you saw Yufei, I still have two questions to ask you.”

“Just say it.” Chen frowned and seemed to be anxious. “Quickly.”

“First,” Yi said. “do you want to accompany Yufei forever with your own body?”

Even for the fake Chen, this question also made him a little angry. “Of course. I certainly want to accompany Yufei forever with my body. I will never give up.”

“Okay.” Yi nodded. “The second question. How’s your research about the Three Gods Paradox?”

“Three Gods Paradox?” The fake Chen stunned. He stared at Yi and he didn’t speak for a long time.

“Three Gods Paradox?” Hao Ning recalled carefully, “I seemed to hear this word some time?” So familiar!”

“This is what Yi said. Do you remember?” Zhou Yuan said in a hurry. “When we killed those imaginary ‘us’ on the road, we said it ourselves. What I remembered is, The Godslayer Sect and the Soul Hunting Sect have combined. The study about the Three Gods Paradox has greatly surpassed the Split Sect.”

“Yes.” Liu Shuai nodded. “I recalled it. What is the Three Gods Paradox on earth?” Three gods? Is it a lite version of the Six God toilet water?”

Then the three guys looked at the real Chen, waiting for his answer.

“Why did they care about the Three Gods Paradox?” Chen said curiously. “This’s just Yufei’s joke. What do I research?”

“A joke?” Hao Ning strangely said, “What joke?”

Before Chen saying, the outside fake Chen has already opened his mouth. “Why did you ask this?”

“Mr. Chen,” Yi’s smile disappeared a bit. “From meeting till now, you’ve asked me a lot of questions and I answered all of them. But I’m sorry, I can’t answer you. I can only ask you, how’s your research about the Three Gods Paradox. If you’re not going to say, I’m sorry, please go back.”

Suddenly these four guys were stunned. What was Yi going to do? There’ll be a big romantic drama while you suddenly played the Happy Dictionary?

Chen sighed. “Ok. About the Three Gods Paradox, there are three types of gods in this world. The first one is those described by the various organizations in their respective sutra. Second, the gods that people imagine in their minds according to various legends. The third one, the gods that people imagined in the mind, and these beliefs generate and accumulate to create a true god.”

“Very good,” Yi’s eyebrow rose and said with a smile. “please go on.”

“The three kinds of gods, the first one exists in the book, the second one exists in people’s minds, and the third one may exist in this world.” The fake Chen continued, “but the order of becoming gods is different from the traditional ideas that people think the god exists at first. Then there’ll be some religion or organizations. The fact is there is sutra at first and people have beliefs resulting from those sutras, and there appears the real god.”

“This is the Three Gods Paradox?” Hao Ning disapproved. “This is just an objective summary of the God of the world. Is it a theory?”

“You don’t understand this.” Liu Shuai shook his head. “Now you have experienced so much. There’re Avalokitesvara and so many people always telling you the relationship between faith and God. Otherwise. You must ingrainedly think that a certain god created human, and then they worship this god.”

“It does make sense.” Hao Ning thought for a moment. Then Liu Shuai said, “but even so, how can I do with this?”

“Very good,” Yi appraised. “Please go on.”

The fake Chen hesitated, “how much do you want me to say?”

“I hope you can,” Yi looked at Chen. “say everything you know.” Then Yi pointed to the aisle casually but intentionally, “sometimes just an idea can decided that we are going forward or backwards.”

“Alas…” Chen shook his head and sighed. “Okay. In the whole process of the Three Gods Paradox, the crucial problem is neither the belief, the organizations, the religions, nor their sutra, but why can people change the content of the sutra into belief and have the god. Here, the most likely reason is, the soul. In other words, the soul is the soil to belief. Whoever masters the critical path of the ‘soul-belief-god’ has the chance to break the system of creating god, and then to create countless gods.”

After the fake Chen’s word, all the people in the virtualized reality was stunned. They did know the relationship of the sutra, belief, and God. But Hao Ning and the other two never attempted to analyze it from this angle, which is how to break the system of creating god and to endlessly create.

Hao Ning looks at the real Chen. “Bro, you really dare to think.” Why don’t you go to heaven?” Then he thought of Zhou Yuan’s imagined mom who can go to heaven, and then said, “even you can go to heaven, do you want to be a god?”

“Jesus!” Chen trembled as well. He said quaveringly, “this is not what I thought. Only a small part of these words were told by little Yu Fei. I just regarded it as a fairy tale said by children. Who is serious about it? How can this fake me be so talkative?”

“These are not said by the fake Chen.” Zhou Yuan corrected again. “It’s what Yi subconsciously hopes Chen said. Chen didn’t know this, but Yi did.” Here Zhou Yuan sneered, “ironically, Yi seemed to know more about the Three Gods Paradox from Chen. But in this case, he can’t know it more, but instead let us outsiders know everything.”

“Exactly. The one who was trapped is just himself.” Hao Ning said with a smile. “It is impossible for a person to know what he doesn’t know.” Hao Ning felt that he said something useless and didn’t express his meaning. He said, “well, what I want to say is, one…”

“You want to say,” Zhou Yuan understood what Hao Ning thought, and said with a smile. “that one can’t know new content that is excluded in his knowledge system without increasing the additional knowledge, right?”

“Right!” Hao Ning nodded and smiled. “It’s exactly what I mean. Seclusion is a wrong way.”

“What is the key point of the Three Gods Paradox?” Yi seems to be a little excited on hearing here. “Go on.”

Chen shook his head. “I only know the key to the problem, but I don’t know the answer. I don’t know anything more. If the Three Gods Paradox, or called Three Gods Theory, is true, the biggest problem is that it takes a long time before a belief becomes a god. Then before a god come into being with enough belief, why does most civilizations have the same description of God and the corresponding sutra? If don’t make it clear, I can’t completely explain the process that God is generated form people’s beliefs. ”

“Where’s Xiao Hong?” On hearing this question, Hao Ning suddenly asked, “where’s him? I need to ask him! ”

“What are you noising?” Seeing Hao Ning was so excited, Liu Shuai quickly pressed him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I can ask you as well.” Hao Ning asked Liu Shuai. “Tell me, Avalokitesvara can come into being was because people read many sutras and then generated a belief that became a Wuxiang fragrance after that, at last, it gathered and become the real Avalokitesvara, right?”

“Yes,” Liu Shuai naturally replied. “This is not what I told you. This is the fact. You and I have seen so many gods, who told you like that as well. And don’t we also create a god in this way?”

“Don’t interrupt,” Hao Ning continued. “Before these sutras were completed, there was certainly not so much incense of faiths and naturally not Avalokitesvara that generates from the incense?” So how can the Avalokitesvara was written about? It’s impossible to fabricate all the time? You see almost every extant sutra is filled with golden words!”

“Well.” Liu Shuai was stunned by Hao Ning’s question. “I really didn’t think about it for the god’s sake. I used to think they’re fabricated, and more and more people trust them with more fabrication.”

“It’s so funny.” Hao Ning sarcastically looked at Liu Shuai. “Do you trust it? Each civilization can coincidentally fabricate a particularly convincing and wise sutra? If it’s true, would you write me another Prajna Paramita Hrdaya Sutra?

Liu Shuai opened his mouth but didn’t say a word.

“Do you know anything else?” Yi said at this time, “Anything will be fine.”

The fake Chen shrugged. “No. Really.”

“Ok.” Yi smiled and took a key from his pocket and handed it to Chen. “Wish you happy. I’m leaving.”

After that, Yi “passed” Hao Ning and others in the virtualized reality directly, walked through the aisle and left this layer.

The fake Chen didn’t care about the strange behavior of Yi, excitedly opened the door and walked in.

There was a man in the room, who looked like Long Fei, smiling at the fake Chen.

“Yufei!” The two Chen almost shouted the name at the same time.

But the fake one rushed up and tightly held Yufei, bursting into tears, “see you again!”

While after saying “Yufei”, the real Chen was too excited. He squatted on the ground and cried, but soon fainted.

“Hey! Hey!” Hao Ning and others looked at the fake Chen hugged with Yu Fei while they rescued the real Chen at once. Hao Ning sighed reluctantly, “you’re really such a funk. You’ve waited for so many years but kneeled at first sight. And you are fainted. You’re so disappointing, not good as this fake one.”

“He’s not fainted. He got ill.” Liu Shuai found a bottle of medicine from Chen’s pocket, which was full of English words. After seeing the name of the drug, Liu Shuai shook his head. “It is probably cancer.”