The Spirit World

Chapter 372 Equivalent Exchange
【【Equivalent Exchange】

It is the common sense of alchemy.

No matter how cruel it is, it is extremely real that there are absolute principles that constrain alchemists to carry out concepts such as material transformation.

To put it simply, it is absolute fairness.

In pure material exchange, this kind of equal fairness is not the fairness of the spontaneous party, but the fairness of the created law.

The most fundamental attribute of the spiritual world is the energy body called "spiritual power", and this energy body was created at the same time as this world, and it was created by a "creature" called [Light of Creation].

Chang Yufeng was still carefully observing everything in the dream. It was bright here, but no matter where he looked, there was only a shining golden door blocking their way.

"Equivalent exchange...absolute fairness...the law of creation...the light of creation." Lin'er repeated the important words one by one. Although it was the first time she heard it, she at least understood the general idea. It was like something as powerful as the Creator possessed a set of unique logical laws to manage the world it created.

[The Alchemy Manual states: The Law of Creation believes that gold and stone are branches of the same mineral, no matter what kind of stone or gold, because the concept of stone is a broad term, and gold is a definite derivative of the concept of stone, so all definite derivatives of any stone branch can be transformed into a substance called gold. The reason why alchemy disappeared is that the concept of energy body has not been widely recognized. Even if spiritual power is an energy body, it has only been developed by each person through long-term "ignorant exploration" and personal use, not to mention the more grand concept of energy body mentioned in the Law of Creation.]

Chang Yufeng paused for a moment, because he felt that Lin'er was already confused at this time. He glanced at Lin'er, and Lin'er also looked at him, with a puzzled look as if asking him why he stopped.

"Brother Yufeng, I'm listening..."

"Okay..." Chang Yufeng discovered that this door really showed no signs of being opened, so it was okay to explain the details of equivalent exchange to Lin'er for the time being.

He simply sat down and continued.

[It's like... our world cannot change something called a tree. It is a fixed existence. As long as nothing artificial is imposed on it, it has a natural process of extinction. But through some form of alchemy, it can be converted into an energy carrier. For example, an apple tree can be converted into an energy carrier like "tree", and then it can be transformed into... a pear tree through alchemy. That's how it feels.] He used his spiritual power to carve out two trees of completely different shapes so that Lin'er could understand.

The two trees were decomposed and reconstructed through different shapes, exchanging positions.

Lin'er also sat cross-legged on the ground with her, but her clothes were too long, so she had to lift her skirt with her hands and put it aside.

"Hmm... I almost understand..." Lin'er nodded, looked at the endless white space very seriously, then turned back to look at Chang Yufeng and blinked: "Then... how to do it? This [Alchemical Transformation]... looks like a medium..."

“No, alchemical transformation is a means, and the energy body of the law of creation is the medium…” Chang Yufeng recovered his spiritual power and looked at Lin’er with a serious expression: “Generally speaking, it is impossible to achieve the ultimate alchemical transformation… because ordinary people do not have such a huge energy body required by the law of creation, and this kind of energy body is often stored in a container, not in flesh and blood, unless that person himself is the embodiment of the energy body of the law of creation.”

"Then...Brother Yufeng...is he the embodiment of this energy body?" Lin'er listened very carefully and asked very seriously. A situation like this seemed very normal. Now being able to sit here and look at Chang Yufeng and chat with him naturally was also a very happy thing.

There is no other feeling, except that when I was running out of that corridor, I was able to remember such a good friend in the spiritual world. I can only say that luck is such a wonderful thing.

"I'm not..." As to why Lin'er asked this, Chang Yufeng felt that it might be because there seemed to be too many strange things that happened when they were together with him, and they were all centered around him. As long as it was a new thing, Lin'er would naturally guess that it was related to him. And, in a sense, he didn't quite understand what his current situation was.

"But... this dream is... this dream is the energy body of this law of creation." Chang Yufeng pointed upwards. There seemed to be a golden gate there as well, but they all knew that Chang Yufeng was referring to the space that had just collapsed.

"Then... how do we take this body back? Can humans also be transformed into energy bodies? Or do we need to use this energy to replace ourselves with our outside selves?"

In response to Lin'er's question, Chang Yufeng nodded and then shook his head.

"What do you mean..." Lin'er looked at the wrinkles on Chang Yufeng's clothes. The clothes seemed a little old.

"Half right, half wrong." Chang Yufeng really seemed to be teaching Lin'er more knowledge, and was surprisingly serious: "We will indeed let the energy of the law of creation here return our current body to the spiritual world, which is where we rest. But... humans... cannot form energy bodies. When humans have consciousness, that is, when they have souls, they cannot become any form of energy body of the law of creation. They can only become energy bodies after death. However, the soul is also classified as an energy body of the law of creation, so... to be precise, it also works."

The more Chang Yufeng spoke, the gloomier his face became. He thought of something bad, and he paused for a moment and fell silent.

Seeing that he was silent, Lin'er asked him what was wrong.

He said it was okay.

Lin'er looked at him in confusion and had to continue asking: "Could it be... that some alchemists want to achieve a certain purpose through the alchemical transformation of the soul? For example... to resurrect an important person..."

"This is impossible..." Chang Yufeng said: "Even if I tell you that the soul is also a kind of energy body... However, the soul of a person after death needs to be transformed into an energy body. The amount of energy cannot be reassembled into a new complete human being. It is absolutely impossible to achieve a completely identical human being... To be more precise, if you want to rely on the soul... you can't do something like "resurrection" because the law of creation does not allow it..."

Chang Yufeng paused again... It was not like this when he started speaking. Although he was equally calm at that time, he was more like a learned master, instead of the pauses he was now.

Lin'er discovered that Chang Yufeng seemed reluctant to talk about this matter.

I don’t know if it’s because of what Chang Yufeng has experienced…

This feeling is very subtle. Such emotional fluctuations seem to be inappropriate...

Jie'er looked at Chang Yufeng who was a little hesitant, and lowered her gaze to his legs. He was wearing black boots, which looked like he was wearing all black with only some white patterns.

"Then... what is the purpose of alchemy? If it's just bartering... money and other things should be easy to get... then there should be a lot of people who want to learn alchemy... However, I haven't met many... alchemists..." Lin'er stopped asking about this and changed the subject. Maybe he has a resistance to the soul... Or maybe Brother Yufeng met a good friend in this spirit world... and he died...

Death cannot be resurrected...

If... if it were possible, given Brother Yufeng's personality, he would definitely use alchemy to revive that person, even at any cost...

This is him...

but……

Obviously, he knew it was impossible... and could only... watch...

Therefore, the current silence made Lin'er feel a little sad. This dream was originally quiet, and now only Lin'er's voice was left, so clear, so crisp, gently echoing in the dream world.

"This... is about equal exchange..." Chang Yufeng seemed to come back to his senses. He looked at his boots. There was no dirt on them, but the shoes were unusually old.

"Another equivalent exchange... Isn't this the basic principle of alchemy... How could it be..."

Coming back again...

"That's true... As the basic principle of the principle of equivalent exchange, all alchemical rules must abide by it, but... the specific rules of equivalent exchange are not so clear, and... it takes a long time to explore... If alchemy is just about making money... the price is too high..." Chang Yufeng coughed and adjusted her sitting position. She was now face to face with Lin'er, looking at her eyes seriously. Lin'er didn't look at him, but at her sleeves. As if she was absent-minded...

Such small movements are very natural...

It won't make people feel awkward...

He looked at her eyelashes, then down her eyes, to her delicate nose, then her red lips, then her white neck, and then the red dress.

So familiar, yet strange.

"What's the price?" Lin'er looked at him puzzledly, staring into his eyes.

Chang Yufeng continued to look into her eyes and said slowly: "Although, after thousands of years of continuous inheritance and exploration by alchemists, the alchemy [General Codex] has been discovered, the specific details in it... are still changing, and are even completely different from what appeared in the codex... In other words... the laws of alchemy are not reliable through the material transformation that has been discovered..."

He continued: "In a sense, yes..."

He said that the two trees of different shapes appeared again using his spiritual power.

One has a round top and the other has a triangular top.

The two trees spun in his hands.

"We know... the rule we know now is that apple trees can be transformed into pear trees, right..." Chang Yufeng asked Lin'er.

"Hmm..." Lin'er nodded lightly.

"Then... relying on certain rules... we need to alchemically transform apples into pear trees. We need some stones. Of course, the real alchemical transformation is definitely not stone. I'm just assuming..." Chang Yufeng used his spiritual power to manifest a third thing, which was a stone of a different shape.

"Hmm..." Lin'er looked at it seriously and continued to nod.

"Then... by sacrificing this stone, we can boil it and extract the energy of the law of creation from it. Of course, it's not limited to boiling, we can also grind it into powder. Then, the stone will be gone... It has been completely consumed..."

Chang Yufeng made the stone disappear.

"Then, use the energy of the stone's law of creation to infuse this apple tree, and then through a relatively special magic array, a pear tree may be successfully created..." Chang Yufeng changed the round-top tree into a triangular-top tree.

"But!" he said seriously: "What if I still want a pear tree? Even when there is no apple tree, I still want a pear tree... Then, what should I do?" Chang Yufeng looked at Lin'er, who was holding her face with her hands and looking at it very seriously.

"Ah?" Lin'er didn't expect him to ask.

"Then...it should...require more energy from the law of creation?" Lin'er tried to answer.

"This is a big misunderstanding of alchemical conversion... This rule is not fixed... That is to say, the energy of the law of creation of an apple tree plus a stone is not always equal to that of a pear tree." Chang Yufeng tried to give a more precise explanation: "Because this rule is always unequal, or even unknown, alchemy has encountered great difficulties. The Tongfa Book only records a very vague concept, which is equivalent exchange."

"I just talked about this equivalent exchange... that is... the absolute fairness of the law of creation. A more understandable explanation is the concept of value..." Chang Yufeng looked at the two triangular "pear trees" and said: "The value of an apple tree plus the value of a stone is equal to the value of a pear tree at some point, but more often than not, it is not equal. In other words, alchemy cannot and will never be able to make your wishes come true. Even under the rules of the law of creation, you never know what the value of something is equal to what. You can only guess, or even try your luck."

Chang Yufeng took a breath, then exhaled and said: "There are even people who hope to achieve immortality and resurrect someone through alchemy, but they have not been able to do so. There are countless such people in the cases recorded in the Tongfa Book. They do not use the dark sacrifice method to resurrect the dead in an "incomplete" way, but hope to resurrect the dead completely through alchemy. Therefore, the results of their failure are shocking."

"How... shocking..."

"They watched as the person they hoped to resurrect turned into a pile of scum crawling around in the mud... or even a pool of blood wailing in the magic circle..."

Chang Yufeng said this very clearly and neatly.

"Then... this alchemy... really can't do anything... no wonder no one has learned it..."

"No... this is just one reason... the more important reason is... the price required to complete complex alchemy... which is the legendary equivalent exchange... will make alchemists lose something they didn't expect..." Chang Yufeng looked at Lin'er who was a little frightened.

"Some people only got a pool of mud and lost their eyes, some people only got a pool of roaring blood and lost their limbs... and... more..."

"So... alchemy is too scary... then... didn't you say that we also need to use alchemy to transform it out? It's too dangerous!" Lin'er was so scared that she looked up and didn't dare to get close to Chang Yufeng.

"Yes... But we are different... We have a whole living human body as a medium..."

"What! Could it be?!"

"Yes... it's outside the dream... our sleeping bodies..." Chang Yufeng looked at the frightened Lin'er, but he was calm instead. There was no trace of fear at all.

"This...if it fails...we are not..."

"It's cruel, isn't it?"

"This is more than just cruel..."

"This... is equal exchange..."

"This is completely different from the equivalent exchange I thought of!"

"So... this dream has a real meaning. Didn't I say that? Dreams... are also an energy body that creates the law..."

"…Oh my god…this is all in your plan!"

If you think it’s a bit hard-core, I can only say: to be honest, it’s true.

There are still relatively few loopholes in my logic.

It is normal to feel different here and before, because there is no explanation there.

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(End of this chapter)