Era-Of-Disaster

Chapter 242: Unrestrained Visualization Technique

Although they finalized the meaning of Blossom and LV3, there were still other fundamental things that they had to address such as how to achieve Blossoming. What exactly happened to Momo in those six months? Half a year ago, Momo’s awareness hadn’t been on par with her changes and she couldn’t control all the energy in her body at once, yet now Momo had managed to break through the boundary point. Her awareness couldn’t have increased due to her not sleeping or resting because Bai Yi’s awareness hadn’t increased by much over the period.

“I saw myself in my head,” Momo said.

“You saw yourself?”

“En, I was deep in thought over the problem that daddy tried to explain and went into a trance while staring at my reflection in the water. I don’t know what happened then exactly, but the only thing on my mind was the reflection in the water. The reflection then turned into my original appearance, displayed different emotions and expressions, and even turned into different appearances. I can still remember all of this clearly in my mind.”

Momo closed her eyes.

“Can you draw what’s in your mind?” Bai Yi asked.

“No, I can’t. It’s very clear in my mind, but I wouldn’t know where or how to start drawing. Also, daddy, I don’t know how to draw at all!” Momo shrugged, she didn’t learn any of the finer arts.

“Ah, ok,” Bai Yi nodded.

…

Soon after, most of the people inside the research facility went to zone out beside the lake in an attempt to learn from Momo’s actions and achieve a similar effect. Although it seemed that their efforts would definitely be wasted, who would know whether it would work or not without giving it a try? If they managed to figure out something through this, they would be a big step ahead of other people. Furthermore, Woolf and a few others replicated Momo exactly and sat silently by the lake without eating a single thing as well.

En, it was good to have such determination, but just after three days, Woolf was the first one to give up. He discovered that hunger was actually too hard to endure.

Meanwhile, Doctor Wang, Bai Yi, and a few others seriously analyzed and studied Momo’s changes. Bai Yi couldn’t leave all of the research to Doctor Wang because many times the research results had to be applied to an individual. If he didn’t do it himself, he would definitely be held back in the future. After such a long time of throwing himself into studying with absolute focus, Bai Yi had built a strong foundation of knowledge for himself.

In the end, the things that Bai Yi and the rest discovered were unexpectedly similar, and after much discussion, they named the thing as – Visualization Technique!

Focusing your mind and visualizing a certain thing in your head, this was a technique to cultivate the awareness.

In reality, regardless of whether in Buddhism, Taoist, or even in western magic, there were similar cultivation techniques. It was just that nobody in any society had ever succeeded before, so even if such a cultivation technique appeared occasionally, most people probably thought of it as an occult practice. However, the evolved humans were different. What used to be useless before may be useful to humans now.

Very quickly, Doctor Wang produced a few pictures out of nowhere. There was one of each of the Eight Demigod and Semi-Devil Races¹ from Buddhism, the Three Pures from Taoism, the Heavenly Demon, the Milky Way Galaxy, Western Magic Meditation, a Fantasy Devil, and a War God! These images were all illustrated in very a fantasy-like style. At a glance, there seemed to be nothing special about them, but if one looked at it carefully, there seemed to be something slowly changing in the images.

Only heaven knew where Doctor Wang got all these pictures.

Everybody chose a picture. Although Doctor Wang didn’t tell them to do any experiments, Bai Yi knew that they would succumb to their overwhelming curiosity and eventually try using the pictures for the Visualization Technique. Even Bai Yi had the intention to give it a go. This was obviously not something they could test on white mice, it had to be humans who tried this themselves.

There were many images, and none of them knew which to pick. However, in the end, two-thirds of them actually picked the image of the Milky Way Galaxy.

This wasn’t strange at all. Up until now, humans could still only observe a corner of the universe and that was why they felt a great reverence for the universe. In everybody’s eyes, the image of the Milky Way Galaxy was the most profound, and they might even have some relation to the entire universe through it. Although this kind of thinking was extremely…OK, fine. It was too difficult to describe, but many of them had this thought in their heads.

Bai Yi’s choice in the end was – himself!

Bai Yi didn’t choose any of the images and chose to visualize himself, just as Momo had coincidentally with the reflection in the lake. Before any results came, nobody knew what the outcome would be. However, very quickly, Bai Yi and the rest were able to confirm that they had found the correct method.

One of the dumbest members of Eleanor’s team, Berthelot, had actually increased his awareness stably after a period of visualization. However, as to how it happened exactly, he couldn’t put it into words.

Aside from Berthelot, no one had a similar experience, so they all decided to use the same picture Berthelot used to visualize. It was of the very famous entity Asura of the Eight Demigods and Semi-Devil Races from Buddhism. However, Berthelot wasn’t the only one who chose the Eight Demigods and Semi-Devil Races, Marcia who chose the Gandharva in the same image didn’t experience any changes.

At this time, many of them couldn’t help but want to try changing to another picture.

However, Doctor Wang suddenly dropped a bomb on them.

“Only the Milky Way Galaxy is real. The other images were all forged by Sunlight and Yeye based on their database, just that some elements of fantasy and color were added to it to make them look very exotic.”

Doctor Wang really had no qualms about lying to them for his own purposes.

Momo’s eyes immediately turned cold, but Bai Yi shook his head. Bai Yi knew what Momo wanted to do. However, the reality was that Doctor Wang didn’t ask any of them to cultivate the visualization technique, it was just them who couldn’t resist their curiosity. From all these things so far, Bai Yi knew that Doctor Wang was an extremely dangerous person. In his eyes, he only saw the exploration of the unknown and never minded what kind of impacts his actions would have in this process.

However, Bai Yi was a man of his word, so he had to stay for three years; no matter what, he had already received the Prototy Back drug from Doctor Wang. Bai Yi would abide by the agreement, work for Doctor Wang for three years, and then just part ways. Of course, within these three years, Bai Yi believed that he and Momo would definitely learn a lot, whether if it’s in knowledge or about human nature.

“Fake?”

“Of course, they’re fake. Other than the Milky Way Galaxy, all of the other pictures are all of mythical entities. How could they be real? Even if you searched the world for them, could you ever find real photos of these entities? It’s impossible. Just from the production method, the few images I have here are more profound than the images circulating on the internet,” Doctor Wang explained.

The truth was indeed so, otherwise, they would have suspected something after they received the pictures. All of them had thought that they were photos that were already in the database.

“The rest of us haven’t experienced any changes. If it’s not something special about the Asura image, then it must be that Berthelot’s Visualization Technique is different from ours. Are you willing to cooperate with me to research it?” Doctor Wang asked Berthelot.

“Sure, it’s good to be able to help everybody else,” Berthelot smiled and replied.

“The concept of a species is deeply imprinted in the genes of any lifeform, so when we have a choice, we always use other lifeforms for experimentation. However, many times, white mice can’t be used to solve problems because they are of a different species than humans and we are unable to communicate with them. Do you think that I am cruel? But any new discoveries can’t be made without the price of experiments and sacrifices; otherwise, everybody will only stand still without advancing,” Doctor Wang said to Momo after seeing her look at him and Berthelot.

After hearing Doctor Wang’s words, Momo was left somewhat speechless.

“He’s right. New discoveries cannot be made without the price of experiments and sacrifices,” Bai Yi nodded.

“Then was what I did before wrong?” Momo asked in puzzlement.

“No, you aren’t wrong either. Human beings are very complex lifeforms. It’s the multitude of emotions that we have that make us appear profoundly alive. You don’t have to mimic anybody else; you just have to find your own position in this world. In truth, if you were like him and placed everything on a scale for consideration, you would be overly cold, just like an emotionless beast,” Bai Yi said to Momo.

“We can’t jump to conclusions as to whether something is right or wrong. Many times, what we think of as wrong is just because it goes against our beliefs. That was why I told you previously to see through the nature of the world so that you can stand at a higher position and look at this world with greater insight,” Bai Yi continued again.

Momo heard Bai Yi’s words, but Doctor Wang who hadn’t left completely also heard him, but he didn’t pause his steps in the slightest.

What an objective and rational way of looking at the world. 

The rest of them pondered Bai Yi’s words along with Momo.

______________________________________________________

After metamorphosis, lifeforms could truly sense the existence of the soul; however, to all lifeforms, the soul was still something extremely unfamiliar, thus figuring out how to cultivate the soul was an extremely difficult problem.

The Unrestrained Visualization Technique was the process of visualizing oneself as a powerful and eternal existence inside the mind, using that imagery to influence the soul to change gradually.

On the surface, the mechanism behind the Unrestrained Visualization Technique seemed to be a powerful form of self-hypnosis. People ‘believed’ due to ‘belief’. The soul could produce great power if influenced by the consciousness and raise the lifeform’s awareness.

However, the real reasoning behind it was…!

…

Of course, they hadn’t even managed to come to a superficial understanding yet.

***

Translator Notes:

1. The Eight Demigods and Semi-Devil Races is well, a picture consisting of eight non-human races/entities which includes both the Asura and Gandharva. In case anybody was confused why they both chose the Eight Demigods and Semi-Devil Races image but were visualizing different entities.