Infinite Mask Game.

Chapter 349 Scattered Thoughts

The Five Lucky Rats is the deity enshrined in Futang. No one expected that it would disguise itself as a second-rate martial artist and lurk in the bustling city.

Wei Miao's battle with Da Talin that night alarmed many martial artists.

He might be hiding in some corner, spying.

The artistic conception of that slash was truly amazing, something that ordinary martial artists could not comprehend.

When they met, she mistook the "scarlet contamination" method for a heart seed, and thus thought that she was also a possessed idol.

Once Wei Miao understood this, she went along with it and revealed that she was a Chimei.

One reason why the Five Lucky Rats couldn't see her divine image was that the entry requirements for the Chimei divine image were strange, and it had never appeared before Pei Wenwei.

Pei Wenwei only revealed the name of the deity to a very few people.

Another reason is estimated to be that, among the idols, the Chimei was not as well-known as the Dalin.

The statues must know each other.

Wei Miao: "Alright, tell me. Since you've chosen to be honest with me, it means you're on the opposite side of Dantaling. Information is something only a brainless person would keep from their allies, as if they're afraid their allies aren't stupid enough."

Five Lucky Rats pulled out a pipe from somewhere, took a puff, and asked, "What do you remember?"

Wei Miao stroked the hilt of the knife: "I don't remember anything."

Five Lucky Rats looked at her helplessly: "You're only one step away from those blank thoughts. Fortunately, at least you've retained your complete consciousness."

"But you've come to the right person. I'm one of the people who knows the whole story best. To make things easier, I'll start from the beginning."

He seemed to be recalling: "In that terrible war, the Phantom of No Form fell!"

Wei Miao was taken aback; she had never heard of this prestigious name before.

His expression was complex, a mixture of awe, fear, and sadness...

"His divine body collapsed, and although the collective will was erased, the remaining aspects of his personality transformed into countless independent thoughts, scattered in the void."

“We should have been completely destroyed, but for some reason, we have survived.”

"Thus, some of the thoughts scattered across this plane."

"This was originally a world without magic, and the world's will should have planned to take the path of technology."

"Our arrival has changed the mind of Heaven."

"At that time, most thoughts were severely damaged and fell into a deep sleep. I was one of the few thoughts that retained a complete will. We represented all thoughts and signed an inviolable oath with the world will, witnessed by the void."

"The world's will provides the shell of the idol to help us integrate into the world's rules, and we will appear in the world as the idol."

"We infuse our power into the idols, offering worship rituals to plant seeds in the hearts of ordinary people and help them achieve the extraordinary."

"This is a power trade. We have jointly finalized the extraordinary system of this world. Even though this system is built around us, it can accelerate the world's development and raise its level. This is much faster than it slowly intercepting void power and developing its civilization on its own."

"After all, a large part of the world's progress comes from the feedback of living beings. When living beings die, some of their power is taken by us, and some of their power is harvested by the world."

"We provide the catalyst for extraordinary power. When a martial artist meditates, a portion of their spiritual power flows into their inner demons, while the remainder is intercepted by us. Accumulating little by little helps us accelerate the recovery of our power and status. Although we are restricted from actively inducing inner demons to harvest personality, it only means that the accumulation is slower; we still get exactly what we need."

Wei Miao nodded, indicating that she understood.

In fact, the relationship between martial artists and divine statues is also a kind of power exchange. Martial artists offer their spiritual power through visualization techniques, and their inner demons feed back their mental energy.

Moreover, the enhancement of physical fitness is real and true; even if the inner demons disappear, the physical fitness will still be retained.

After a warrior dies, the world's will gains a physical body, while the idol gains a spirit through inner demons.

They divided it up completely.

"In short, it was a balanced deal where both sides got what they needed."

"Once we recover to the maximum level of power allowed by this world, we will leave this world and enter the void."

"After all, we have gone from being an insignificant thought of the Phantom of No Form to independent individuals, and have the opportunity to go further."

"The original body has accumulated enough resources to leave this world. I am its clone that stays here to observe this world out of boredom."

"But the main body is still unaware of what happened to Talin."

Wei Miao thought for a moment and said, "Even if the statue leaves this world, it can still function?"

"Of course not, the oath forbids us from doing so. To put it bluntly, the world is afraid that we will become permanent parasites."

"Therefore, before leaving, the original body sold the statue of the Five Lucky Rats to another thought."

“The Five Lucky Rats that Futang worships now are no longer the original Five Lucky Rats, but that idea has inherited the name and worship ritual of the Five Lucky Rats.”

Wei Miao was incredulous: "You can do that?"

The Five Lucky Rats pondered, “In a normal worship system, this would be impossible. The honorific name and the ritual are related to the nature of the object.”

"The inner demon system is essentially just that we select an object, plant a seed in the mind, and receive power feedback through the inner demon. It's that simple. The equivalent exchange of power is guaranteed by our oath with the will of the world, not by rituals or honorary titles."

"The honorific name is real. As for the worship ceremony, we just put on a show for fun to make it look formal."

Wei Miao digested and understood it.

In fact, the inner demon system is somewhat similar to a belief system.

When believers pray to deities, the power of their faith flows to the corresponding deity through two anchor points: the deity's name and the prayer ritual. The deity then provides feedback to the believer, and the exchange of power is thus established.

However, in the inner demon system, the inner demon becomes the link for the transmission of power, without the need for a name or ritual as an anchor.

This means that the power of a martial artist flows to whoever is the source of their inner demons.

There are two important steps: planting the inner demon and visualization. The former, the ritual of worship, is a facade; in reality, the idol can be planted at will, without any strict conditions. The latter involves visualizing the outline of the idol, which, in terms of existence, is external and modifiable, and does not involve the essence.

Therefore, new ideas can be used to subvert expectations.

However, it seems that Pei Wenwei was tricked by the Chimei's wicked sense of humor.

Wei Miao found it somewhat amusing, wondering what the other party's mindset would be at that time.

She asked, "That faceless statue is actually a fragmented thought, lacking a complete will, right?"

"That's right. When the Phantom of No Form fell, under that terrifying power, those who were able to preserve their complete will were all lucky ones. Many thoughts were directly annihilated, and some were so severely damaged that there was no possibility of recovery."

"In the extraordinary system we have constructed, martial artists believe that they can use the God of Freedom to control their inner demons. In reality, we use them to slowly erode and destroy our broken thoughts through the God of Freedom until they are completely devoured. The 'Self-Agreement' does not allow for self-destruction, so we can only clean up the residue through a relatively roundabout way."