Hidden Moth

Chapter 627 365: Immortal Homeland—Reality and Illusion Alike

The so-called illusory realm, also known as the realm of dream birth, is a necessary test to break through the sixth stage of cultivation after achieving tier five perfection. To enter the illusory realm is to take the threshold step in seeking a breakthrough, which may be referred to as a half-step grand achievement according to novelists.And the half-step grand achievement is often the most perilous.

Because such individuals can enter the illusory realm, if they can clearly understand the illusory realm and still enter and exit it freely, they have not yet completely broken through the illusory realm. In the illusory realm, they can fulfill their desires as if it were real, achieving almost everything they want in this world.

The real world is as disappointing as the illusory realm is beautiful, an exceptional place for an immortal to hide from society! Over time, one cannot clearly distinguish between reality and illusion; even if some can discern, achieving inner truth is difficult.

In a world where everything can be done as one pleases, many abandon themselves, and their personalities may change significantly. But once back in reality, the gap becomes immense.

Not to mention the illusory realm; even online anonymity or offline real-life behavior can differ greatly from person to person.

Only by practicing true duality of body and mind can one break through the illusory realm and achieve great success.

This realm is indescribable and hard to characterize; a simple example would be: whether in the illusory realm or in reality, one remains the same person.

At that time, although He Kao entered the illusory realm, he had no delusions. Before breaking through, he was always working seriously, which might be the so-called "first break illusion, then break the gate" profound meaning.

Breaking the illusion is mental cultivation, while breaking the gate is perfect merit and conduct, both essentially the same thing. Looking back, the notion of "first break illusion, then break the gate" is not accurate, but lacking a better term to summarize it.

Once the illusory realm is broken, one can freely control its mysteries, and the illusory realm can predict the future based on the known. Doesn't He Kao then grasp the divine ability to predict the future?

This is indeed the case, not just for He Kao; any sixth-tier cultivator has the ability to use the illusory realm to predict the future.

However, illusory realm predictions have two drawbacks that require a clear understanding.

First, it only shows a possible development based on one's own knowledge, not a guaranteed result. If one insists that predictions must become reality and even force the present based on them, it's a delusion in itself.

Secondly, the experiences in the illusory realm are identical to real experiences. In reality, it may be just a fleeting moment, while in the illusory realm a long time has passed. It not only consumes divine power but also lifespan.

The time spent in the illusory realm corresponds to how much lifespan is consumed.

In ancient times, Tier Six cultivators were also called true men. Theoretically, true men have three cycles of lifespan, one cycle is sixty years, three cycles is one hundred eighty years, but this is just theory.

Many factors in reality can affect lifespan, such as injury, failure during tribulations, backlash during sacrificial alchemy, or artifact formation... The most significant effect is spending too much time in the illusory realm.

Knowing that using the illusory realm for prediction consumes lifespan, sometimes it is unavoidable because people always have things they must do.

From this perspective, the evolution of the illusory realm has something in common with the prediction of the Celestial Secret Skill, but is not the same.

Constantly consuming lifespan, probably no one can afford it. The Lingxi Sect's Celestial Secret Skill has its own mysteries, but the founder of this technique likely drew inspiration from the evolution of the illusory realm.

After He Kao broke through the illusory realm, another achievement was his long-time unachieved Lingxi Skill, which now naturally entered the entry level, and he became a tier one observer of the Lingxi Sect.

By further cultivating the Lingxi Skill on this foundation, he could indeed achieve twice the result with half the effort.

He has cultivated all eight techniques to the entry level, which is quite a rare achievement.

The next morning, before going out, He Kao stood in the room and took a deep breath, his gaze seeming to penetrate layer upon layer of barriers, looking towards his office—he truly "saw" it.

After breaking the gate, his cultivation soared, and the maximum distance his divine sense could reach suddenly increased to around ten kilometers, extending all the way from Sesame Apartment to his office.

There are many obstacles in between that form blocks, shields, and interference, but the divine sense can bend or penetrate, passing through windows and taking a roundabout path nonetheless.

The farther away, the weaker the divine sense becomes, eventually losing its power at extreme distances.

But from Sesame Apartment to his office, all things considered, it's no more than two kilometers. At this distance, He Kao can still do many things, like controlling a pen to write on the desk or opening the computer to type on the keyboard.

That truly is authentic telecommuting!

Of course, He Kao wouldn't actually do it; otherwise, it would be like haunting, shocking and unconventional, violating sect rules. If truly wanting to telecommute, just having a computer with internet is enough.

He stepped downstairs energetically and went to work in person, seeing Huang Xiaopang standing by the roadside at the community entrance, he greeted him: "What are you lost in thought about?"

Huang Xiaopang pointed across the road: "There's some foundation there!"

Turning his head to look, he saw a stove in front of Meishan Noodle Shop, with someone flipping a wok with their left hand and waving a scoop with their right, stir-frying toppings, surprisingly it was Wang Yuhan, who had not been seen for a long time.

Recently, Boss Mei started setting up a stove at the shop entrance to stir-fry toppings, showing off, flipping a large ladle like a juggling act, visually impressive, and demonstrating the freshness of the ingredients.

This attracted many onlookers, with some taking videos and posting them online.

But this morning, the personnel had changed to a bright-eyed young man; though his cultivation and foundation were nowhere near Boss Mei's, regular people couldn't see these things and just felt his appearance was more suitable for the camera.

Wang Yuhan's posture and movements, ordinary stir-frying, yet had a unique rhythm, making people feel comfortable... clearly there was some foundation, even passing-by Huang Xiaopang noticed.

The same scene indeed appeared in reality, yet nearly two months earlier than He Kao witnessed in the Illusion Realm. Just yesterday morning he discussed Wang Yuhuan with Boss Mei, not expecting to meet him early today.

Wang Yuhuan has returned, evidently not spending much time with his senior brother.

The actual situation should be as expected, only needing decent aptitude and entry-level cultivation, mastering the skill of stir-frying toppings doesn't take too long, returning quickly to the mentor for guidance is the main task.

Mei Wenhua sent Wang Yuhuan elsewhere for a period, primarily with the intention of changing his environment and thereby adjusting his mindset.

In just a few months, this young man seems to have experienced a second growth, his eyebrows and eyes appear fully developed, no longer carrying a downtrodden anxious look, instead looking tall, confident, and invigorated, adding a handsome charm that shines brightly.

First there was the Tofu Beauty, now there's the handsome noodle master like Pan An.

He Kao hooked Xiaopang's shoulder: "Sixth Uncle's disciple is well taught... Stop looking, your skill is better than his, hurry to work."

Huang Xiaopang waved: "You go first... Just made me crave, I want to go in and eat a bowl of noodles, with this freshly stir-fried topping."

During the morning work hours, He Kao inadvertently kept a slight smile, his expression neither fully smiling nor not. Because he had already done these tasks in the Illusion Realm, it was no different from reality, he completed it earnestly.

At this moment, hardly needing much thought, as if entering a state of flow, the morning seemed to pass quickly, he completed a load of work, many tasks even the leader hadn't assigned yet.

He sent an internal link to supervisor Huang Si, shortly after he was called to the office by Xiaopang.

Huang Xiaopang's office was formerly Gao Xue'e's, a small cubicle in the corner of the open space, once the door was closed, Xiaopang lowered his voice: "Are you asking for long leave for anything?"

He Kao shook his head: "I am not considering it for now."

Huang Xiaopang: "Then what's with the work you did today, the progress plan for next month is completed, and there are even parts I'm unaware of, are you trying to point out directions to the leader in reverse?"

He Kao laughed: "Doing as I think, inadvertently did a bit more.

You also know, most regular work, time is consumed by repeated revisions, what I've done hasn't been submitted for revisions, so it looks slightly more."

Huang Xiaopang: "You doing it like this, what will others do? Our few departments, no one can keep up with your pace. At your work efficiency, if you change leaders, wouldn't they assign a bunch of tasks, treating everyone as super workers!

Take my suggestion, hold those work contents for now, match the department's plan schedule to submit. This way you can leave plenty of time for other things..."

Being the leader indeed, Huang Xiaopang's words even carried somewhat a heartfelt tone.

He Kao immediately nodded: "Understood, thanks for the concern, boss!"

Huang Xiaopang glared at him: "Between us, what's with 'boss,' are you mocking me?"

After returning to his workstation, He Kao couldn't help but smile, his morning's overtime, over-schedule, over-planned work didn't serve any other purpose, but somewhat to verify things he had done in the Illusion Realm, and he was willing to do them.

How did the project merit such accomplishments? Among the most basic employees alone, there are two Great Success Cultivators!

Looking back, the current digital life project he's involved in is quite interesting, similar to the Illusion Realm, seemingly a kind of Illusion Realm woven together by many ordinary people.

The underlying logic of the digital life project is similar to traditional life simulation games, creating a virtual scene in the digital world where players carry out various activities, complete different tasks.

With technological advances, today's virtual scenes are AI-assisted generated, and wearable devices can help immerse people in it.

The first phase of the project's digital town is modeled after Pugang Town and surrounding areas, simulating reality yet surpassing reality.

But the greatest achievement of the digital life project, true to its name, is these digital lives, not just those virtual scenes. Each digital life is a dataset, yet increasingly resembles a true individual.

Sometimes it's even difficult to discern, are they virtual or real? Because real players can also log into their account to engage in virtual world activities, but after logging off, the virtual person represented by the account still exists.

The development team mainly focuses on technology, market development isn't their forte, but now they've also experimented with a batch of commercial promotion projects.

It's anticipated that by next year, the input-output balance can be fundamentally maintained, and the core team of over a hundred people can support themselves.

For the group leadership, the greatest application value of this project has yet to be discovered, still requiring ongoing investment and relying on continual technological advancements, and its prospects are undoubtedly enormous.

Since digital lives don't just have to exist in the virtual world, they can also step into reality.

Currently, many technology companies are developing simulation robots, some of which in hardware technology are already quite exquisite, resembling works of heavenly craftsmanship, so what's missing? Just two words—soul!

The project team mainly gathers data from real people to develop digital lives, if input into real-world simulation robots... the scene is a bit hard to imagine.

There might appear intelligent simulations of He Kao, intelligent simulations of Huang Xiaopang, and even Qian Guran, Lin Qingshuang, Li Chun, Meng Ya and other simulacrums, possibly even celebrity models.

These simulacrums exist with real templates in reality, and those who inherently didn't exist in reality, can even be customized by need...

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