Chapter 267: Colliding Totalities
Once again, he was back on the shore, and having prepared beforehand, he averted his gaze from the direction of the ocean immediately. Zhanxian and Hai Yin Zhe had already made their way to the center of the island, it seemed. Not wanting to be the first one to face the oncoming monstrosity, Han Xuhan floated over to the central area as well.
He found both minions crouching in a corner of Zhanxian's tower. Unable to sit still, he could only hover around the hall in tense silence.
Minutes passed one after another. None of them had the guts to peek out from the door to see if any of those alien creatures had entered the small island yet. Why they were attacking the bottom of the island was a mystery. Han Xuhan placed all his hopes on the demon. Maybe that guy would have a solution as well as the answers to his questions.
Heavy thumping noise was still reverberating through the island from time to time, but the frequency of the sounds had gone down a notch or two at some point. Gradually, the frequency went lower and lower till several minutes passed without any tremors.
Nervous and cautious, Han Xuhan inched forward to the door of the tower and looked outside.
"FUCK!"
If he had a corporeal form, he'd have probably stumbled back in fright. The scene outside the tower brought a sensation of instinctive fear in him.
An enormous black silhouette was standing a few meters away from the tower. Han Xuhan immediately averted his gaze and tried to slink back into a corner of the tower, only to hear a familiar voice shouting his name.
"You're safe for now. Come out!"
It had worked?! The mental demon had won!
"Can we look at that thing without being mentally influenced now?" he shouted from behind the door.
"Yes! I've made it retain the predatory spiritual aura. But just to be on the safe side, try not to look at it for long. Creatures like Tupshu don't have to consciously focus on polluting your sanity."
Gaze on the ground, Han Xuhan floated out of the tower with Zhanxian in tow. Hai Yin Zhe was still too skittish to venture outside, much to their relief.
The demon, however, was nowhere to be seen.
"Where are you? Don't tell me you're on top of the Tupshu!" Han Xuhan kept his gaze locked downward despite standing a mere dozen feet away from the source of mental pollution. He could feel the enormity of its existence, almost like a suffocating drape weighing down on his senses.
A chuckle came from above their heads. "On top of the Tupshu? I AM the Tupshu right now, Xuhan!"
"....You became its mental demon and possessed it?! That's...Okay, I didn't know you could do that."
Han Xuhan was floored. That worked too? A mental demon was too overpowered! A primordial predator was defeated in a matter of minutes!
"How else did you think I could stop the attacks? These creatures were starving, ready to tear the island to pieces and savor your spiritual bodies. Only their own kind, the strongest Tupshu among the horde could make them fall back. But this is only a temporary safety. I've gone through the memories of the Tupshu here, and it seems that this territory specifically is a safe haven."
"Awesome!" Zhanxian cheered.
"Let me finish, skully. This territory is a safe haven for the young Tupshus, not us. All around us, thousands of younglings and larvae are swimming. Unhatched eggs have been embedded into subspatial pockets filled with violent spiritual energy, ready to burst into this Totality with such explosive power that it can rend us into the smallest units of energy and consciousness, just some food for the child Tupshus. Even I may not survive the explosion of these subspatial pockets, let alone unrefined spiritual bodies like you four."
"...I'd say this situation can't possibly get any worse, but I would probably be proven wrong," Han Xuhan said glumly.
"Yeah, you better keep your cursed mouth shut," Zhanxian said in agreement.
"Speaking of mouths, how are you even talking to us?" Xuhan asked the mental demon. "Do these Tupshus have mouths like us? Vocal cords?"
The demon sounded quite annoyed as he replied. "Why would you even ask such a stupid question? What part of the concept of a 'spiritual world' do you not understand? Nothing you see or encounter here is real material, just projections. Do you think we're communicating with vocal cords and lung air? The only relation this entire totality has with your macrocosm is the internal laws working behind the scenes, many of which are similar in nature. The spiritual body and the physical body are separated here, connected only by the string of consciousness. Speaking, traveling, touching, beating others up, everything that you can do in the material world can be mirrored here if your spiritual body is powerful."
Struggling hard to make sense of the convoluted rules in this new domain, Han Xuhan's mind continued to generate more and more questions.
"Is that why my current spiritual body is a mere ball of light? Because my spiritual existence is uncultivated and weak?"
"Yes! Finally! You're getting the hang of it. Humans can only start consolidating parts of their spiritual body from the Soul Reformation Realm. Until then, all your current form can do here is to exert some control over the elements belonging to your dao foundation and nothing else! I doubt you'd survive an attack from even the weakest Tupshu larva. You're entirely in a passive spot for now. Once you reach the Soul Reformation realm, you'll have the chance to forge a better, stronger, form that corresponds to your physical body in the material world."
"Makes sense, but I have another question. If this Totality of Autonomy is pretty much a primordial spiritual world beyond contemporary heavenly laws, what is the Astral Totality? You know I've dabbled a bit into techniques based on that Totality as well. From what I know, the Astral Totality houses the projections of all existing things in the universe-"
"Nope," the demon said, interrupting Han Xuhan halfway through his regurgitation. "Not the universe. If you were born...say, a few millennia ago, you wouldn't be wrong to say that you live in a universe. But the universe has developed, and grown beyond a singularity. Now, the world you live in is better defined as a macrocosm, a part of the universe that holds humans and humanoids. Like your master Kong Ye told you, most Totalities and macrocosms overlap each other in a way that an uncultivated human mind cannot comprehend. And this Astral Totality you speak of is one totality birthed by the primordial universe during its growth."
"....Okay, but what's the difference between that Astral Totality and this Totality of Autonomy?" Han Xuhan said. If his material body was here, he'd definitely be scratching his head furiously. The confusion was torturous!
"The Astral Totality is the conservatory of everything that exists in your macrocosms, whether living or non-living. It doesn't represent anyone's full cultivation. Grab one of those small lizards from the wall of your hut. Tear apart its tail so that it can grow a new one. Both the old tail and the new tail will have separate projections in the Astral Totality. And as long as the old tail doesn't rot away into tiny organic units that are absorbed by something else, that separate astral projection of the tail will exist freely. But here, inside the Totality of Autonomy, it's mostly the spiritual projection of living cultivators that thrive. There might be some exceptions to that, though."
"I get it now," Han Xuhan said, feeling like his worldview has been refreshed. "But how do you know so much about this world? Do you have some connections to this Totality? Or is it common knowledge for all mental demons?"
"You're exceeding your question limits, Han Xuhan. Remember the deal? It wasn't about me answering your questions. If I can save you and your dao foundation from the Tupshu horde, you will pay with your body, that's the deal!"
"....kekekekek!" Zhanxian started cackling immediately, befitting a skeleton.
"Man, you've corrupted these minions," the demon said in a disgusted tone.
"So sayeth the mental demon from the body of a Tupshu," was Han Xuhan's unhappy reply.