Him and their stars.

Chapter 2034 The Eye of Paradox
Yu Lian stared at Fei Fei beside him, and suddenly felt a touch of emotion.

He suddenly realized that this girl, who was born in an abnormal way, the girl he knew best, had always been living in the most carefree and determined way.

Whether worldly or extraordinary, she will not give up.

She hopes to leave her mark in the realm of "ordinary people," and also to witness the truth from the perspective of the extraordinary.

More importantly, she wanted to be with him.

“Feifei…”

"Don't say anything now. It's not important." The girl pointed to Yu Lian's chest and then tapped Yu Lian's palm with the fingers of the hand she was holding tightly. "That's what's important."

Their fingers were intertwined, feeling each other's touch and warmth.

Who says that in a virtual world, a person must be in a quantum state?
Then, Yu Lian vaguely heard Gongsun Qing, but he automatically ignored it.

Yu Lian seemed to hear Gongsun Qing's faint sigh, as if he was touched by the sweetness, but upon closer inspection, his emotions were still quite complex.

...Yu Lian felt that she should stop trying to perceive things in detail.

He certainly heard Yani's sneer, which was much clearer than Gongsun Qing's. Just as he was about to pretend he hadn't heard it, Feifei had already given a full response.

She held her lover's hand tightly with one hand, cupped his cheek with the other, and kissed his lips.

It was a gentle and lingering kiss, carrying the same tacit understanding and sweetness as always, but conveying the most ardent emotions, as well as the most hopeful dreams and expectations for the future.

Gongsun Qing exclaimed, her face once again showing an expression of being sweetened. However, considering that this was a promising aspiring actress, perhaps this was all an act.

As for Princess Rainbow Rose, she covered her not-so-full chest and took a half-step back.

She was truly devastated. She suddenly realized that even though she and that guy had tried every position (in the illusion) and had even had more than one child, they still lacked that kind of emotional connection.

“The virtual realm is a quantum state!” she exclaimed.

Only when the shimmering light disappeared into the undulating array of patterns on the ground did the girl part from her passionate embrace with her lover. Her breath brushed against Yu Lian's face, carrying a pure fragrance, like melted honey.

“This is the kiss of a mature adult,” she whispered, before handing the “Spear of Ether Phase” to Yu Lian.

"Go for it! The future of mysticism, the future of the Spiritual Technology Academy, and of course, our future, are all in your hands," Fei Fei said, half-jokingly and half-seriously, seemingly unconcerned that her words might put pressure on Yu Lian.

In fact, Yu Lian really didn't have anything to worry about anymore.

Since these are new props, new weapons, and new tools, it's necessary to conduct a trial run or two before students use them, while ensuring their safety.

Only then can one be considered a qualified teacher, right? Probably...

Yu Lian's fingers caressed the emerald green tiles, sensing the ebb and flow of Ling Xi within them.

He felt his senses leave his body and sink into the vast and endless sea of ​​ethereal nothingness.

Invisible pheromones and energy surrounded me, and starlight from the material world flickered faintly within reach. It was the radiant glow of life, imbued with warmth.

However, no matter how far we went, the starlight remained there, neither moving away nor getting closer.

Yu Lian was in the boundless ocean of ether in the void, letting the indescribable flow carry away his consciousness.

He wasn't worried at all about being devoured. Yu Lian's mind remained firmly anchored to the location of the academy, the only lighthouse in the chaotic ethereal ocean of the void.

In his mental perception, the concept of "distance" in space ahead was crumbling. The disordered energy did not erupt wildly, but instead transformed into a bizarre yet profound distortion.

However, this is not a malicious distortion, but a great change at a higher level.

Yu Lian "saw" the overwhelming mass, which then left the range of his perception. Its head and tail had completely extended to the edge of the space he could perceive.

"Jormungandr? It's been so long, and you're still in good health! But I hope we never see each other again." Yu Lian expressed his high emotional intelligence and respect to the Void Realm Lord who walked past him on the wind.

Jormungandr moved on with the wind, not stopping in the slightest by the minor incident. He might have sensed a slight disturbance, a slight sense of unease caused by the Academy's presence disrupting the flow of information, but He simply couldn't be bothered to pay it any mind.

What a dashing and great man!
Yu Lian then realized that he had actually learned a lot about being cool from a giant beast, and immediately felt that he should indeed take the world as his teacher.

Then, he "saw" a gigantic creature with three large heads, six small heads, and seven tails. Each of its heads was indescribably shaped, seemingly changing form every second and every frame, yet it had the body of a feline. Its fur, forming beautiful golden-black tabby stripes, was incredibly glossy and smooth. If one ignored its bizarre nine heads and mountain-like size, it would probably be quite pettable.

He stood there in his field of vision, leisurely grooming his fur.

The indescribable head was combed with glossy, smooth hair, like a mosaic rolling on a silky carpet, making the scene instantly bizarre.

"The Shadow of Contradiction? You know, although I'm a cat person, a cat isn't your true form. Something so abstract is destined to be out of my reach."

The enormous nine-headed demon seemed to have "seen" Yu Lian's words, but it only glanced in that direction before disappearing into the mist of the Ether Sea, leaving not a trace of cloud behind.

Yu Lian's perception and consciousness were suspended for a long time amidst the overlapping chaotic mist.

He seemed to have waited for a long time, or perhaps only for a moment. In his own senses, the flow of time was always sometimes fast and sometimes slow; the afterimage of the previous second had not yet dissipated before the scene of the next second was abruptly superimposed on it.

Thus, one can perceive that information bends on its own at the end of the darkness and without a source, forming intricate geometric patterns.

The overwhelming amount of information almost made Yu Lian lose his footing. He returned to his "body," opened his eyes abruptly, and saw a massive vortex composed of billions of geometric fragments.

The essence of beings in the virtual realm is the aggregation of information and energy. However, of all the virtual realm objects I have seen, none demonstrates this better than this vortex that suddenly appeared above the academy.

It rotates silently, each fragment containing endless changes of collapse and recombination, as if the creation and destruction of the universe were compressed into a small space.

At the heart of the vortex, a serene and profound eye, formed by the fluctuations of temperature and the flow of light, looks down upon the palaces, plazas, and arenas on the floating island, as well as the people in the arena.

No, it should be said that only Yu Lian.

Yu Lian was still holding Fei Fei's hand, but he didn't sense any fluctuation in the girl's emotions.

She had no sense of the existence of this illusory object. "It's here?" she asked in a low voice.

"They've arrived," Yu Lian said.

“What did you see?” Yani asked.

I'm watching. Just as Yu Lian was about to reply, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

He wasn't sure if he was actually making contact with the flickering monster, but he was definitely making eye contact with it.

He felt a murmur resounding from the depths of his soul.

"Goo, kill me. Goo, save me. Goo, deny my existence. Goo, prove my reality."

Yu Lian immediately revealed the face of an old man on the subway with his phone. He wasn't sure if this spiritual onomatopoeia was a choice made by his own mind and consciousness, but he absolutely refused to admit it.

"Very well, it's you I've chosen!" Yu Lian suppressed his discomfort and pointed at the being high in the sky!
He gripped the seemingly ordinary green jade tile and the Ether Phase Spear tightly in his hand, and forcefully threw them into the void, as if he were throwing a red and white bouncy ball.

The tiles dissipated into the misty void, and an almost imperceptible realm began to expand. The chaotic space began to regain its order, and the laws of order began to resonate uniquely with the disordered ether. A phase lock was forming.

"The vortex of paradox! Prepare for the onslaught of reality! Our lives have been set on fire!"

"So this is it? As expected, this must be the choice of quantum entanglement." Princess Rainbow Rose revealed a calm and detached expression, as if she had seen through everything. Further discussion would probably lead to shattering the void.

"Yani, you finally said quantum entanglement instead of 'fate' or anything like that. You've really gone to a lot of trouble to maintain your persona," Feifei said with a smile.

She still held Yu Lian's hand tightly, and even made a gesture of interlocking fingers that would never be separated.

Gongsun Qing said nothing, only keeping her eyes tightly closed. Her entire being had transformed into a sharp blade about to be drawn. She still saw nothing, but she was the first to enter combat mode, whether due to an innate sense of danger or simply acting in accordance with Yu Lian's reactions was unknown.

“That jumbled mess of characters, that’s the target,” she asked.

The good news is the former.

As expected of Gongsun Qing! Even though his strength is far from reaching its peak, his ability to discern the true nature of friend and foe through appearances is undoubtedly that of a sword saint.

At this point, the phase anchor point had already locked onto that indescribable vortex.

"Ah, I finally see it," Fei Fei said. "The little thing is quite unique."

Are you sure that thing is really that unique? Yu Lian glanced at the girl.

“Chaos is the manifestation, but existence necessarily implies order. That’s the meaning of paradox, and it’s also a kind of law of truth.” Yani looked at Yu Lian and said earnestly, “We may all see and hear different things now. But you are… well, you and Feifei are the core. What you observe is the key to everything.”

What I see is a vortex made of geometric fragments. What do you see? And what are those unique little things that Feifei sees?
Yu Lian looked up and stared directly at the eye formed by the interplay of light and shadow, observing the geometric vortex that was constantly breaking and reforming, feeling the voices resounding in his head becoming more frequent, noisier, and more chaotic.

He heard his senior brother's advice: "Don't speak. What we see is the reality. Any information we perceive is subjective and will affect everyone's objective judgment!"

“Yes, don’t answer. This is the way to confront paradox, to find objective order within subjective disorder, and this is the way to approach the truth,” Yani said.

It does sound a bit like subjective idealism, but because it's a psionicist, it suddenly becomes objective.

Yu Lian almost laughed, then burst out laughing on the spot: "Then, these aren't objective, are they?"

At that moment, everyone, including him, felt a strange chill. This feeling was not just superficial, but truly affected their souls, so much so that even Yu Lian, a seventh-ring Grand Perfection cultivator who was only one ritual away from becoming a demigod, couldn't help but sneeze.

The dim light surrounding everyone began to distort, like venom thrown into water.

Individuals filled with malice toward life and matter have extracted the illusions that constitute themselves from distortion—they are twisted creatures existing in a strange and mystical world, a collection of bizarre information that darts back and forth between the virtual and the real.

They have no fixed form, resembling condensed shadows, shattered mirror reflections, or amorphous entities composed of distorted energy. Some are like pale will-o'-the-wisps, trailing long, smoky trails as they dance in the center of the arena, only to be repelled when they touch the tiered seats.

Some resembled aggregates of countless screaming, regretful features, rolling silently like a writhing lump of mud.

Others are merely dark outlines that devour light, their shapes indescribable, yet they seem even more terrifying than black holes—at least the outlines of black holes are aesthetically pleasing in terms of geometry.

The minions of the Void Realm, before they capture enough information and evolve their own concepts and entities, will always be like this. That's why they're called "Void Realm Ghosts."

These strange beings have always roamed around the academy. But now, with the appearance of the Eye of Paradox, they have descended upon the academy, baring their fangs and claws before everyone's eyes.

"The protective barrier has not been breached! The island as a whole remains under concealment and protection." Herito River's voice echoed through the Grand Arena.

He had already taken Si Wang to the stands next to the stadium, but at least he could play a support role.

“They didn’t break through the defenses; they just appeared along with the Void Realm Lord,” Yani explained.

Feifei asked, "Is it like fishing with a net? When you catch a big fish, you also catch a string of small fish and shrimp?"

"Although the nature of the two is different, it's still a fitting metaphor," Yani said with a smile.

So, it really should be called the Etheric Phase Harpoon, or a fishing net would also be fine. Where's the spear?

Tantai Jing sighed inexplicably, "Our academy hasn't been lively in a long time, has it?"

Has this place ever been lively? Yu Lian was very curious about his senior brother's current mental state. But that wasn't the point. The moment the "Eye of Paradox" descended, even his own mental state began to deteriorate.

"Kill me, kill me, you're about to kill me. If you don't kill me, you can only save me. If you kill me, you're denying me. If you save you, you're affirming you. So who are you, and who is you..."

The increasingly rapid babbling continued to echo in his ears, like listening to a series of distorted chants, but he looked up and stared at the distorted vortex of spiritual particles, then let out a ferocious laugh.

"I'm not coming over! If you're so capable, come at me first! Come and kill me head-on!"

Although he was shouting wildly, he was like a mountain standing on an island, a mountain that would never shake or move.

Of course, even at this point, he and Feifei were still holding hands, their fingers intertwined, as if they were preparing to hold hands until the day the world ended.