Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 631 The Celestial Sphere, Activated! Vast Star Map!
"Dimensional Reduction Overwriting...?" Lin Yi was a little confused. He could easily understand the four words individually, but put them together, he really didn't understand. "What does that mean?"

Tian Bufan explained, "Expressing high-dimensional things using low-dimensional expressiveness, such as Van Gogh overlaying the starry sky from a multi-layered plane onto a two-dimensional plane, is called 'dimensional reduction overlay.'"

"Throughout history, no more than two people have mastered this technique."

"Only two people?" Lin Yi was shocked. Besides the founder Van Gogh, wouldn't that mean there was only one other group left?
Tian Bufan didn't waste words on this point, but continued, "Van Gogh was exceptionally gifted and had a strong perception of color, which laid the most important foundation for his later perception of celestial bodies."

"Later, he met Van Helsing, who was passing through Franz on his way to see the angel of the hunt sculpture. With Van Helsing's help, he came into contact with the armillary sphere on the observatory of the Art Tower, which was then called 'Black Moon Post'."

"After that, with the help of the armillary sphere, he embarked on an unstoppable journey of observing the vast celestial bodies, and eventually traced the trajectory of the endless starry path onto the celestial sphere and imprinted it on the circular stone wall of the observatory."

"That is, the first draft of 'Starry Night'."

"Later, while he was in Franz's mental hospital, he completed another standard-sized version of 'The Starry Night.'"

"In his exploration of the endless starry sky, the call from the stars and the existence of his place caused immeasurable damage and torment to his spirit. A year after completing 'Starry Night,' he committed suicide in an attempt to curb pollution."

"Van Gogh and Van Helsing knew each other?" Lin Yi was a little confused. "And you mean, Van Gogh arrived at the art building through a consciousness leap?"

Lin Yi suddenly remembered that Mu Daxian once said that Van Helsing was the best graduate of the class of 1887—even though there was no such thing as a gymnasium back then.

"The Starry Night" was created in 1889...

After graduating, Van Helsing spent his time in Europe hunting for the Smiling Angel. The so-called vampires, werewolves, and other monsters of later generations were almost all supernatural beings corrupted by the virus.

Damn it, things have somehow gotten connected...

Tian Bufan sighed, not saying much about Van Helsing, but continuing to talk about Van Gogh: "His spirit was incredibly strong, but his body was very fragile."

As they were talking, Mao Feiyang had already walked up to the armillary sphere.

The armillary sphere is very large, like a precision machine with a diameter of about three meters, full of the kind of technological style shown in old movies when exploring the future.

Tian Bufan said, "Later, I will take control of the Russian's body to control the celestial sphere."

"Once the armillary sphere is activated, it will cause quite a stir and will inevitably attract the attention of everyone."

"But there's no need to worry... because this wave of pressure is something we have to bear."

Lin Yi's lips twitched violently. He had originally thought that "but don't worry" meant "I was prepared," but what he got in return was that we would definitely suffer a lot of damage...

He then asked in a low voice, "How many 'people' are you referring to when you say 'all people'?"

Tian Bufan rattled off the names like the back of his hand: "Night Watchmen, art teachers, the sly angels, 'high-ranking alien angels,' 'angels'..."

"Alright, alright, alright..." Lin Yi was completely exasperated. "I know, to put it simply, we're about to be completely exposed, right..."

“Yes,” Tian Bufan said. “I’ll operate the celestial globe, and then you lock onto the target in the ‘Principal’s Office.’ Once locked, the Russian will immediately regain control of his body and initiate a layer jump.”

"Once you expand the layer transition, everything will be much easier to understand."

"But we only have one trump card..."

"Which one?" Lin Yi asked.

“Of course it’s that one…” Tian Bufan glanced at Mao Feiyang’s shadow.

"The Shadow of Orochi"!
Lin Yi's eyelids twitched violently: "It followed our layer jump here?"

"For it, it's just a basic operation," Tian Bufan said with an air of nonchalance. "However, from a negotiation standpoint, it won't reveal its existence until we confront the 'Angel.'"

"So..." Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, "Whether it's the Kamehameha wave unleashed by 02 using 'Sanctuary,' or the Amaterasu attack unleashed by 03 using 'Netherlight,' I have to bear it all myself?"

“That’s right, in short, including but not limited to these,” Tian Bufan affirmed.

Lin Yi took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled: "Phew—okay, I understand."

Tian Bufan said, "Maozi."

"I'm leaving it to you. I'll get in the 'passenger seat'." Mao Feiyang closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, his aura had undergone a complete transformation. The faint, servile air he had previously exuded had dissipated considerably, and his cold eyes now held the chilling rationality and composure that belonged to Tian Bufan.

Tian Bufan slowly said, "I'll emphasize this one last time—Old Lin, I've already found the approximate coordinates of the 'Principal's Office' in 'Starry Night,' so you just need to conduct a more detailed search of a specific area."

"Once we find the exact coordinates of the 'principal's office,' immediately call the Russians."

"Maozi, from now until your body is back under your control, I will not call you on my own initiative. But if either I or Lao Lin calls you, you must immediately take control of your body and immediately enter the layer jump."

"Do you understand everything?"

Lin Yi and Mao Feiyang said in unison, "Understood!"

"Let's begin!" Tian Bufan passed through the outer wall of the celestial globe, entered it, and then grabbed a section of the metal structure.

He took a deep breath, and the next moment, a cloud of golden mist suddenly rose around him!
"Supreme Judgment!" Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat. So Young Master Tian had indeed touched upon, or even reached, the level of Supreme Judgment?!
After the brilliant golden light mist appeared, it immediately flowed into the armillary sphere like liquid. As the brilliant golden light mist continued to flow in, the golden liquid flowed through the mechanical mechanism of the armillary sphere like irrigation canals, gradually seeping into the entire armillary sphere.

Gradually, mysterious star symbols emerged from beneath the dark green rust of the armillary sphere, and the entire armillary sphere began to vibrate slightly.

Immediately afterwards, the rusted copper rings and gears on the armillary sphere meshed and rotated one after another, the dark green copper spots peeled off inch by inch, and hundreds of starlight burst out from the cracks.

"Click-clack...click-clack..."

The meshing of gears, like the rhythm of dominoes, transforms into the cadence of star trails, weaving a three-dimensional star network of floating golden threads in the void. The handle of the Big Dipper shifts with the rotation of the ecliptic ring, and the positions of the Twenty-Eight Mansions are precisely displayed on the scale ring. All the series of star-related information from both the East and West are depicted in this moment, eagerly awaiting observation...

Once the golden light mist had completely transformed into flowing liquid, coating the inside and outside of the celestial instrument, this ancient instrument, which had slept for countless years in the river of time, seemed to awaken like a sleeping dragon, emitting a long, resonant tremor like the roar of a tiger and the cry of a dragon!
“Clang—”

The armillary sphere trembled violently, like a powerful furnace poised to unleash its power!

Finally, with a loud "BOOM!", the armillary sphere exploded outwards like a high-pressure popcorn container, releasing a terrifying shockwave!

"Click-clack click-clack..."

After being released, the armillary sphere moved slowly like an old horse. Its rings rotated continuously, and the dial-like mechanisms operated in a magical way, constantly intersecting yet perfectly offsetting each other. Its speed increased, but it did not harm Tian Bufan, who was inside.

The armillary sphere whirred faster and faster. Within it, the Milky Way appeared as a mechanical chain studded with shimmering light, traversing the entire star field. Countless meteors, trailing crimson tails, drifted slowly along the grooves of the gears. With each rotation of the gear shaft, new star trails were created and annihilated on the surface of the armillary sphere, an endless cycle of birth and death...

Lin Yi's senses became increasingly active as the celestial globe operated. He felt the entire world becoming distorted, and then a subtle feeling began to grow within him...

He looked up at the night sky, his vision and perception extending through the frantically spinning rings and orbit of the armillary sphere...

He saw a thin curtain of rain, above which was a transparent dome, and above that, a night sky filled with dark clouds, and above that... he hadn't seen it yet, but it must have been endless stars.

As the celestial globe continued to operate, Lin Yi discovered that his senses were transforming into countless threads that merged into the celestial globe, and then, under the celestial globe's frantic operation, they became more and more powerful.

He had once twisted his sensory tentacles into a sensory rope when he was in the Perception Art Building, but now, this celestial instrument is like a loom, turning his sensory tentacles into threads and weaving them into a thick cloth of perception in another way!

Tian Bufan's voice echoed in his mind: "The effect of the Armillary Sphere is to continuously enhance your perception, and then weave it into a pseudo-layer—the Perception Canopy!"

"Its side effects are also very obvious, causing severe damage to your perception, spirit, and will!"

"Van Gogh's mental problems stemmed partly from the armillary sphere, but you are different. Your healing abilities far surpass those of ordinary people, and the armillary sphere, at this 'power,' cannot inflict significant damage on you."

"Now, open your sensory veil! Sensing the 'Starry Night' once more! Sensing the true—'Starry Night'!"

"It's right here, in the endless starry sky above the dome!"

"Look, Old Lin! Look—"

Tian Bufan's voice, like an old monk chanting, carried an unprecedented sense of inspiration and a powerful, uplifting force, and resonated in his heart like a great bell.

Lin Yi quickly opened his sensory canopy. At that moment, his mental vision suddenly opened up, and he felt as if he was embracing the world!

The drizzling rain completely disappeared from his world, and the thick clouds and dense gray fog also vanished in an instant. All that remained in his vision was a vast, turbulent, distorted starry sky that defied all logic!
The deep blue and inky black swirling nebulae surged like giant waves, staining the entire night sky.

In that night sky, stars and galaxies were distributed in a swirling pattern of fiery yellow and white.

Amidst a swirling array of galaxies of varying sizes, a dim, yellowish lunar eclipse hangs like a sickle. It is a black moon with an orange-red halo around its edges, suspended high in the night sky like a lighthouse piercing through the fog.

A dark figure suddenly caught Lin Yi's attention. He looked towards the horizon, where a twisted building stood, resembling a black castle, "Black Moon Outpost," writhing and burning in black flames, or a giant, burning, dead cypress tree.

It was enormous, resembling a black, flame-shaped tongue that twisted and climbed straight up to the clouds. Its texture resembled the cracks of charcoal, exuding the smell of withered wood and burning.

What exactly is this? !

Is it really a cypress tree?
Is it really Black Moon Outpost?
Or perhaps, it's a fragment of the black sun that has fallen to the boundary between the layer and the real world?!
Its size accounts for a large proportion of the entire "Starry Night". In comparison, the quiet and tiny village seems to be a sleeping ghost, unnoticed.

The outlines of those houses were blurred like paper cutouts, all represented by short, straight lines, with the only clear one, the pointed church, shrouded in a huge black shadow.

Below the houses, on the horizon, the vast ground resembles flowing blue-black liquid, with short, wispy oil paint strokes forming a broken, trembling texture that looks as if it were composed of countless shards of glass in various colors.

They distorted constantly in Lin Yi's vision, seemingly about to shatter into the black void at any moment.

As Lin Yi continued to perceive the "Starry Night," the pollution emanating from it began to erode his senses at an alarming rate, causing him to gradually lose his perception of space.

Even the fluctuations from the layers began to become blurry, broken, and grotesque and distorted.

He began to notice the imbalance of space, because in his world, the distant mountains began to appear as low as bonsai trees, while the stars and moon suddenly began to expand, growing to a size that was enough to oppress the eye in a very short time...

Immediately afterwards, the swirling star began to erupt from its tranquil state with terrifying audio that sent chills down one's spine. It seemed to be endowed with a new and strange phenomenon as it spun, like a candle flame swirling in the wind, spiraling and contracting toward its core, as if to devour everything around it.

Countless swirling galaxies tug at each other in the long night, their piercing buzzing making Lin Yi's head feel like it was going to split open.

During this process, the shadow cast by the enormous black object, which resembled the Black Moon Outpost or the burning cypress tree, began to stimulate Lin Yi's will and soul, accompanied by a burning and scorching sensation.

Strangely, it was as cold as ice scooped up from the polar regions, yet also so intensely hot that it made one's heart race.

The entire "Starry Night" seemed to have transformed into a stagnant, distorted... frenzied world!
(End of this chapter)