YinKong was standing in a black void of space. She couldn’t tell the directions. There was no left, right, front or back. Nor was there up or down. Even the senses of space and time felt hazy. YinKong couldn’t see herself, just like when you dream, you normally wouldn’t see yourself.
This was the heart, the sea of consciousness that existed within every person. The mind normally floated on the surface of the sea and sunk down to just before the middle layer during sleep. Deep level of hypnosis would bring the mind into the middle layer. Only in extreme circumstances would the mind enter the deepest layer, where the most fascinating power a life form possessed resided.
At this time, YinKong had only reached the middle layer. All the glasses Xuan built had similar functions. They differed in the direction the hypnosis led the user. The ones he wore hypnotized him into becoming a hot blooded young man, whereas the ones he gave to YinKong brought her into a deep level of hypnosis.
She didn’t know she had been hypnotized and brought into the middle layer of the sea of consciousness. Here, space and time ceased to exist. The only things remaining clear were her mind and memories. No matter how fuzzy those memories were, they flowed to the surface like a stream of water and felt as though they materialized in this space. YinKong combed through her memories. Over ten years seemed to have passed until the memories faded away. A black mirror emerged behind her. YinKong leaned on the mirror on her back and simply floated in the void.
“These memories… you forged them, right?” YinKong’s mind spoke.
Another her stood on the other side of the mirror, mirroring each of her movements and expression. It was like the shadow inside the mirror. The YinKong in the mirror said. “Yes. I forged them.”
“Are they, the friends who grew up with me, are they also fake?” YinKong sighed and asked in a low voice.
The one in the mirror also sighed and muttered. “The friends aren’t fake. But I did conceal some of those who grew up with you. I erased them from your memory.”
Both of them quieted down at the same time. Neither girl could find the words to say.
After a while, the YinKong in the mirror said. “This place is the sea of consciousness that belongs to us both. I don’t know why that damn Doraemon put you here through hypnosis. However, as long as you wish, you can seek the memories I erased from you. We will share the same memories… as long as you wish. You will know everything in an instant.”
YinKong nodded. She noticed this fact instinctively the moment she entered this layer of the sea. The minds belonging to the two personas crossed in the sea, so the other her had all the memories of her since entering this realm. Similarly, when the other her read those memories, she opened up her own to YinKong. This is the place where the two of them could effortlessly see through each other.
The YinKong outside the mirror said in a low voice. “I am probably scared… I was suspicious of my memories, my past, and everything I know since long, long ago. Some fragments of those memories seem so crude. It’s like a scene crafted in a movie. That isn’t the most questionable. The strangest is I was crowned a genius in those memories but why did I feel so powerless a lot of times? Everyone called me a genius since I was very little. I mastered assassination techniques better than anyone else. No one rivaled me in actual combat. I unlocked the genetic constraint much earlier than anyone else. Yet, as I grew, and especially after I entered this realm, the techniques which had been carved into my soul gradually faded away.”
She held up her hands and stared at them. “So, I had to keep training and training, to search for the feeling of mastery I once possessed. Yet, I couldn’t get there. I forgot… I forgot how the fights with ZhuiKong went. When I saw that he was so strong, I tried to remember our fights from the past. But I couldn’t remember anything.”
The YinKong in the mirror also held up her hands, copying every movement of the YinKong outside. They were the two sides of a mirror. The two girls sighed. The girl in the mirror said. “Yes. Rui-Kong used her psyche force on me at the end, but she forgot that I also unlocked to the mid-fourth stage. I hadn’t overcome the heart’s devil. Still, I had some degree of defense against psyche force, which allowed me to craft you using her psyche force. While for myself, I didn’t forget that part of my memory… Do you wish to know what has long been gone in the past?”
“What has happened belongs to the past. You are the one who experienced that part of the memory, not me. The thing I care about the most is what am I when my past is faked? Your doll? The tool you use to escape the pain? Are my friends, the memories of our happiness and sadness, the experiences of our games nothing but illusions?” YinKong kept her head down. Her voice dropped into the depth and a few drops of tears slid down her cheeks. The girl who had remained strong all this time finally let out her tears in this space.
“Sorry… This isn’t my intention. The weight and pain pressing down on me were too much to bear, so I let my heart sunk into a sleep where sadness does not exist. The wish for happiness, for my heart to become strong gave birth to you. I originally wished for you to have a happy future. I never thought of you as a doll… I understand. Let us accept this past together. Memories that belong to us both, happiness, sadness and despair that belong to us.”
The YinKong in the mirror slowly turned around. Her little hands pressed against the mirror. The girl outside the did the same movements. Their hands firmly pressed against each other through the mirror.
“We share the same memories, the same sadness, the same friends. You are also me.”
Light began to emerge throughout the sea of consciousness and enveloped the two girls and the mirror.
“It’s inconceivable… I never thought you are actually a child molester. You used horrendous means to lure cute lolis into your house and then xxoo. That delicate white body, the pitiful helpless moans… Ah! My cute big breast babyface! Your vir…”
Bang!
Still inside the basement of Xuan’s room. The energy experiments had ended for the while. Xuan was designing mechanical devices that fused with rune word formations through a computer.
ChengXiao somehow happened to witness YinKong entering his room. An hour later, this man made his way inside. It was obvious he wanted to catch Xuan on the crime. Perhaps, he intentionally gave Xuan enough time before gathering everyone outside Xuan’s room and getting him to open the door. He charged straight down to the basement and saw YinKong sleeping on a chair. His imagination went wild immediately as he cried with contempt and disappointment. Though his expressions seemed more excited than anything else.
Unfortunately, luck did not side with him. While he was shouting, YinKong opened her eyes and her foot landed on ChengXiao’s face. He went flying straight across the room toward a wall in the distance.
ChengXiao was not the same person who just entered this realm anymore. The enhancements, dragon blood, prototype T-virus, and Nanto Suicho Ken raised his dexterity. He flipped his body during the flight and made a handsome landing. However, his feet slid on the ground and thump! He fell with his head kissing the ground. It looked pitiful. He seemed to have lost a few teeth.
YinKong glanced at ChengXiao who was crying miserably then held up her hands and stared at them. She moved her eyes toward the rest of the team. A smile crept up to her face as she opened her lips. Yet, no words came out in the end. Zheng smiled when he saw her smile. He and Xuan were probably the only ones who knew what happened to YinKong and the only ones who understood the meaning of this smile.
“Since everyone’s here, let’s conduct a practice battle as a preparation for the final battle.” Xuan suddenly brought out a pair of sunglasses. He pressed some buttons on the glasses while he said to the team.
Zheng immediately threw any question he was going to ask YinKong off his mind and turned to Xuan. “Doraemon… What did you make again? I am not going to wear them until you explain yourself clearly!”
“Uh.” Xuan gave him a straight answer this time. “I translated one of the white stones. The section is about virtual reality. I searched the exchange system and found some of the parts available, like the rune word embedded plate named Seed of Meru. The cost is high due to the unique characteristics of the metal. I couldn’t figure out what this item was until now. It’s used to create an illusory domain that you see in Cultivation. You can think of the plate as the mainboard of a computer. The One Ring converts energy from the reactors into refined Qi which is used to activate this virtual reality device. It can reproduce any enemy that you have met before… Cultivation technology is amazing. The domain can compensate for the growth of the people or monsters in your memory. It could be far from actuality but it can still act as a point of reference.
“Do you want to battle your clone, Zheng?”