The surrounding scenery flashed past rapidly, forming a black-and-white band of gray that was impossible to discern with the naked eye. This is a sensation typically only seen from a speeding maglev train or airplane. However, to Ling Yun, who was moving at high speed, every scene was identified and separated from his field of vision; no minute change escaped his precise perception. With his enhanced abilities, his speed had also surpassed previous limits.
A hurricane seemed to sweep across the wilderness; viewed from high above, it appeared as a straight plume of dust moving rapidly. At the forefront of the plume was a blurry afterimage, within which the faint silhouette of a young boy could be seen.
Ripples occasionally spread out in the distance behind the boy.
After an unknown amount of time, Ling Yun finally felt a bit tired and stopped, thinking that after traveling for so long, he should be close to his destination. Looking ahead, he was shocked to find that the black dot, which had been clearly visible, had now become almost invisible. Despite his best efforts, he was actually getting further and further away from his goal.
The countdown timer on the clock showed 8540. If each number represents one minute, Lingyun had been running continuously for over a day and a night. He had covered at least a thousand kilometers!
However, the goal seemed like an unattainable shore, like a mirage, visible but unreachable. In that instant, Ling Yun felt a sense of weakness, a feeling that he would never reach his goal. And this feeling of weakness continued to grow within him, as if a gaping, dark maw in the boundless wilderness was uttering a powerful mockery: What right do you have to reach this place? Go back, go back to where you belong, or… die.
Ling Yun shook his head vigorously, instantly banishing the feeling of weakness from his mind. A true strongman shouldn't have such thoughts; something must have affected his state of mind. Before arriving here, Ling Yun's heart was already as hard as iron. Even a day ago, facing terrifying humanoid creatures, in a life-or-death situation, Ling Yun hadn't felt any fear or weakness. But now, with no threats whatsoever in the wilderness, why did he involuntarily feel such a sense of weakness?
Ling Yun frowned, walked aimlessly for a few steps, turned around, and then came back. The wilderness was unusually calm. Apart from the occasional strong, cool breeze, there wasn't even a trace of an insect. Under Ling Yun's control, the perception of his mental field extended in all directions like ripples on water, exploring a range of hundreds of meters in great detail, but to no avail.
Ling Yun's face showed a thoughtful expression. It seemed that the fifth simulated mission was not as simple as just fighting; wisdom, courage, and ability were all indispensable, and a bit of luck was also needed. At least the huge dilemma of not being able to reach the goal could not be resolved. If he couldn't even reach the target location, how could he talk about completing the mission?
Chapter 70, Paragraph 5: Simulation (6)
Another long day passed. Ling Yun had exhausted almost every method, from detecting the mental field to using his pupil technique that could see through the invisible. All of it yielded nothing. He dared not venture any further toward that barely visible dot. The wilderness stretched endlessly, with no other conspicuous landmarks besides the pendulum and the target location. Once he lost sight of the target location, it would be difficult to find the correct direction to proceed.
The energy expended that day was almost equivalent to a major battle; Ling Yun had traversed nearly dozens of kilometers of the surrounding area. However, the vast expanses of arid, black earth seemed to stretch to the horizon, and apart from that, there was nothing else unusual. Moreover, the thought of weakness kept involuntarily creeping into Ling Yun's mind. Although his state of mind remained unchanged, he felt an inexplicable sense of extreme irritation and impatience.
Two more days passed, and Ling Yun still hadn't found anything. In the wilderness, there was no real distinction between day and night; the black sky remained unchanged. Ling Yun simply used the countdown timer on the pendulum to calculate the passage of time. Nearly half of the timer's numbers had already passed, leaving only a little over five thousand.
Ling Yun forced down his despair and suppressed the urge to use his third eye. A feeling told him that he would definitely use his third eye, but not now; he had to be patient and wait.
After once again banishing his negative emotions, Ling Yun slowly sat cross-legged in the air. Since there was no immediate solution, he might as well meditate to calm his turbulent emotions. The primary goal of the meditation practice Yu Xiujie taught him was to eliminate all distracting thoughts and enter a state of emptiness and clarity, where the body automatically regulates its response to the external world. Since he didn't want to think about anything, naturally there were no chaotic emotions to influence him.
Gradually, Ling Yun closed his eyes, his mind becoming clear and unobstructed. After entering meditation again, his understanding deepened even further than before. His subconscious mental field was automatically adjusting, carefully integrating the new insights into Ling Yun's mind.
This meditation lasted for two whole days. When Ling Yun opened his eyes again, the countdown timer showed 2237, less than a quarter of the original number.
Feeling the tranquility in his mind and the subtle changes in his mental energy field, Ling Yun's face showed a satisfied expression. Suddenly, a thought struck him. He sensed something rapidly flying towards him.
Ling Yun looked up and saw an insect resembling a bee flying past him several meters to his left, its transparent wings trembling. While its speed wasn't slow, it certainly wasn't fast. Ling Yun was secretly surprised. He had been in the wilderness for several days and this was the first time he had encountered such a small creature. He wondered how something as small as an insect could survive in such a harsh environment.
However, Ling Yun remained vigilant. Often, the smaller the creature, the greater the damage it can cause. This was especially true of unidentified insects of unknown origin. His copying ability easily analyzed the insect's data, revealing that it was completely non-aggressive and a perfectly ordinary insect.
The insect paid no heed to the bewildered human watching it from several meters below. Its thin, transparent wings flapped at a rate of twenty times per second, and in a moment, it flew past Ling Yun and continued on its way into the distance without stopping.
Ling Yun turned around, his eyes fixed on the insect as it flew away until it became a black dot and disappeared below the distant horizon. After a long while, suddenly, a thunderous thought exploded in his mind.
No, a wary voice inside him warned that something must have just happened. Ling Yun clutched his head, racking his brains. He had a vague sense of the key point, but he couldn't quite grasp that fleeting flash of inspiration.
The memories replayed in his mind, like slow motion, transforming the insect's less than a minute-long flight into a lengthy educational film. Lingyun didn't miss a single detail, carefully studying what was so strange about it.
Time passed like flowing water. Ling Yun remained motionless. After meditating again, he had regained a calm and peaceful state of mind, and his patience became unusually long-lasting.
The memory flashed back to the moment when the insect flew in, then suddenly froze.
Ling Yun finally realized something was wrong. He clearly remembered that when the insect flew towards him, it was on his left. But in the replay of his memory, it suddenly turned into his right side. The memory storage couldn't be wrong, but the replay produced the opposite result from the actual situation.
Ling Yun squinted, as if he had thought of something. He closed his mouth, flared his nostrils a few times, and took a few breaths of the stuffy, polluted air of the wilderness. His expression froze instantly.
He was clearly inhaling air through his left nostril, but strangely, air was entering through his right nostril. If Ling Yun hadn't been testing him beforehand, he probably would still have taken it for granted.
A flash of inspiration struck Ling Yun, and he immediately realized that, apart from the vertical direction, everything in this wilderness was the opposite of the world he knew. No wonder there was a huge discrepancy between the replay of his memories and the real scene. No wonder he was getting further and further away from his target location as he ran at full speed. In the opposite direction, no matter how fast you go, you are going in the opposite direction.
What kind of place has a constant vertical direction, but all other directions are reversed?
A mirror. A perfectly ordinary object flashed through Ling Yun's mind.
Ling Yun entered the world within the mirror at some point, and he was still viewing everything in the mirror from an outsider's perspective, which naturally caused a contradiction between the playback of memories and the world within the mirror.
Once the problem was solved, Ling Yun felt a sudden clarity in his mind. Some things seem incredibly mysterious before the answer is revealed, but once the answer is known, they completely lose their mystery and become worthless.
Ling Yun smiled slightly, extended a finger, and gently touched the air as if touching the surface of water, instantly creating countless ripples in the space. Ling Yun glanced at it indifferently and stepped into the ripples without hesitation.
A moment later, Ling Yun's figure emerged from the ripples, finally stepping into the real wilderness. Turning back to look at the mirror-like world, Ling Yun suddenly realized that the weak and negative emotions that had arisen in the mirror world had vanished without a trace, and his unwavering confidence returned to the depths of his heart.
Ling Yun suddenly realized something. The mirror in the wilderness wasn't just reflecting opposite directions; more importantly, it was reflecting his own inner world. In the real wilderness, his beliefs were unwavering, but in the mirror, they became weak. If he continued to be influenced by weak thoughts and negative emotions, he wouldn't be able to maintain good patience. And without good patience, long-established habits would inevitably cause him to ignore his visual blind spots, thus permanently trapping him in the world within the mirror until his demise.
Because defeating others may be relatively easy, but defeating oneself is extremely difficult. When facing the dilemma in the mirror, what you need to overcome is yourself.
Ling Yun stood silently in the wilderness for a moment, slowly digesting the insights he had gained from the world in the mirror. After this spiritual cleansing, his understanding of supernatural arts reached a new level.
The time on the pendulum did not change because of the world inside and outside the mirror. The number was less than two thousand. Although he did not know what would happen when the countdown ended, his keen senses told Lingyun not to wait until the countdown ended.
The target location reappeared clearly in his field of vision. The opposite direction was just an image in the mirror; in reality, Ling Yun hadn't gone very far from the target. Although it was just a black dot, the estimated distance was only a few hundred kilometers, which would only take Ling Yun about two hours to cover.
As he sprinted at full speed, the scenes beside Ling Yun shifted rapidly once again. Ling Yun's eyes reflected the scenery within his sight, but his mind clearly displayed the panoramic image perceived by his mental energy field several miles ahead.
This is a new and extraordinary technique that Ling Yun comprehended after escaping the world within the mirror. Within the range reachable by his mental energy field, visual images can be formed in Ling Yun's mind, allowing for observation from any angle and focal length without blind spots. Unlike before, when he could only perceive what was happening but couldn't describe it precisely, this means that Ling Yun's eyes have essentially become useless. Even with his X-ray vision and other supernatural abilities, his mental energy field possesses not only all of these functions but also far more. If Ling Yun so desires, he can have a complete understanding of the area he's surveying, like a satellite. Because his mental energy field is extremely sensitive, no invisible or slight energy fluctuation can escape his perception.
Of course, the naked eye is not entirely useless. At least the spiritual field cannot replace everything in the secular world, and many eye techniques must also rely on the naked eye to be performed.
The black dot at the target location kept expanding, vaguely resembling a magnificent base.
Suddenly, Ling Yun stopped in his tracks. A panoramic image of a stone forest suddenly appeared in his mind. There was nothing strange about the stone forest, but what was important was that a strange creature was slowly moving around in the square behind the stone forest.
Chapter 71, Paragraph 5: Simulation (7)
The creature was over three meters tall. From the waist up, it resembled a beautiful woman, but the dark blue skin covered with black and red scales told Ling Yun that it was definitely not human. From the waist down, it was the body of a giant python, which slid rapidly across the ground with its steel-like scales, making a rustling sound from time to time.
The creature's stunningly beautiful face offered Ling Yun no pleasure whatsoever; instead, it evoked a chilling sense of malevolence, as if she were beholding a terrifying female ghost. This malevolence largely stemmed from her eyes and emerald green hair.
Its eyes had no pupils, yet they constantly emitted a blood-red and terrifying light. The hair was not thin strands, but rather tiny, finger-thick, emerald-green snakes with bright red tongues flicking out. Each snake was about fifty centimeters long, its tail deeply rooted to the creature's head. Its slender body danced erratically, appearing from a distance like a head of long hair flowing in the wind.