From the end of the world

Chapter 179 Lu Chan's Nightmare 1
I am Lu Chan—this is what the young girl Lu Chan claimed.

I had no choice but to ask her to explain in detail, and she did so, telling me the whole story in detail.

Because what she said was so bizarre, I couldn't believe it for a while. But she saw my doubt and said bluntly: "Don't you have the black rope lock heart ring given to you by Lu Chan outside? Although I am a spirit, the black rope lock heart ring is still useful to me. You can come over and grab my heart and let me repeat the truth I just said."

I didn't know if this "strange thing" was trying to lure me into a trap, but it wasn't my nature to hesitate before a problem. So I stepped forward, took out the black rope lock heart ring and put it on my left hand, and held the outer sword in my right hand, ready to fight back at any time.

The girl hanging high on the cross looked at me calmly.

I climbed onto the metal base of the cross and raised my left hand toward her slightly raised breasts.

Then, my left hand passed through her chest unimpeded.

I could literally feel her beating heart.

It should be a ghost-like entity, but I can feel the slimy and warm internal organs from inside, just like a living person. While holding this heartbeat, I felt a familiar feeling in my heart again - she could neither lie nor remain silent in front of my questions.

Everything was ready. She took a deep breath and told the truth again.

Two years ago, Lu Chan was betrayed by Chen Long and captured by the Humanitarian Department's Transformers in a secret location, where he was subjected to inhumane human experiments. This dark time lasted for eight months, and the endless torture caused Lu Chan to completely change his outlook on life in the abyss of despair.

In the past, he was a kind-hearted demon hunter who fought for mortals, the weak, and society, but he was abused by many mortal scientists. His powers were deprived, his spells were analyzed, his dignity was trampled upon, and he became a guinea pig consumable that was squeezed dry by the Humanitarian Department in order to create "extraordinary warriors serving mortal leaders."

After disappointment, anger, and despair, he completely abandoned his past dreams amidst the endless humiliation and decided to regard mortals as evil offspring destined to be dominated by demon hunters. He changed from a hegemonist like Zhu Shi to a transcendentalist today.

In the end, he miraculously escaped from the Humanitarian Department's base, but a part of his soul was left in the hell that tortured him.

He believed that this was a kind of growth, just like the unrealistic dreams that people have in childhood, which are destined to be denied by the outside world and themselves in the future setbacks, and finally replaced by more realistic and mature ideas.

The girl Lu Chan was the dream that was abandoned by Lu Chan in hell.

"…Wait a minute, I still don't understand, is this some kind of romantic metaphor? Are you a 'dream'?" I asked.

"This is not a metaphor, it's the literal meaning." The young girl Lu Chan said calmly, "When a person experiences extreme grief, he will feel the pain as if his soul is torn apart. In fact, this is not a descriptive sentence. Extremely strong negative emotions can indeed split the self's spirit and even cause direct changes to the body. You should have heard of some people who turned white overnight after experiencing a huge blow, or suffered a serious illness. That is also a manifestation of this phenomenon.

"Even ordinary people will have a violent reaction due to changes in their state of mind, let alone demon hunters like us who mainly manipulate the power of the spirit and soul. And I am the part of Lu Chan's mind that he abandoned when he changed himself. I am the embodiment of his desire to 'become a hero' and the incarnation of his dream.

"You can understand it this way: after death, people become ghosts; and during those eight months of torture, the old Lu Chan died and the new Lu Chan was born. I am the ghost that the old Lu Chan turned into after his death."

I gently squeezed her heart, and the black rope lock heart ring told me that she really was not lying.

But I'm not sure whether the Black Rope Locking Heart Ring is really effective for a spirit like her, and this ring was originally given to me by her real body, Lu Youxun... No, if I were to worry about the effectiveness of the ring for the latter reason, it would be tantamount to acknowledging that she is the incarnation of Lu Chan's dream.

Could this fairy-tale-like plot really happen in reality?

"Okay, assuming that what you said is true, I will believe you for now...but why are you a woman?" I asked, "Even if the old Lu Chan died, the ghost that was born should be a male, right?"

"What I'm going to say next is just my personal guess. Maybe it's because I... because Lu Chan has always looked down on women." She said, "He thinks women are naive, short-sighted, and weak, so even though he will appear to be elegant in front of women, he actually despises their spirit and ability from the bottom of his heart.

"At the same time, he also despised his past self from the bottom of his heart - despised me, thinking that I was childish, stupid, and feminine. This image was synchronized with the image of women in his mind, which made me become a woman. Not even a woman, but a girl." "Is this okay?" I was stunned, "Is this kind of split phenomenon common among you demon hunters?"

"...No, on the contrary, this is something that should not happen." She said, "Just because you let go of a dream, this dream becomes a facet of your existence, an incarnation of self-discipline... This phenomenon will happen, and it will only happen in the mythological era, or to those great impermanence who are like gods. At the very least, it should happen to people with divinity."

A person with divinity... does he mean someone like Zhu Shi?

As I thought about it, I asked, "So who are you?"

"I only know what kind of existence I am, but I don't know why I was formed. Although I have tried to explore the truth, as you can see, I am tied to a mechanical restraint device and now imprisoned in this special cell without sunlight. I am really powerless." She said, "However, judging from the cold treatment of Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long towards me, they may know the specific reason for my formation. If they regarded me as a 'weird thing of unknown origin', they would not just put me aside."

Hearing this, I looked more closely at the device that restrained her.

The cross and the wooden yoke that bound her at the moment were no different from the ones that bound me and other demon hunters before. It can be seen that no matter whether she was "Lu Chan's dream incarnation" as she said, at least Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long did not use the proper means to deal with "unknown dangers" against her. Even if I don't believe her words, I should also believe in the vigilance of Dr. Silver Mask and Chen Long.

"Does Lu Youxun know of your existence?" I asked.

"He can't realize my existence, but he should know it unconsciously." The young girl Lu Chan said lightly, "In his heart, I am a taboo existence. I am not only his past that he can't bear to look back on, but also closely connected with the hell in his heart. I am the embodiment of his past dreams, but he mostly regards me as the embodiment of his nightmares.

“Whenever he uses divination in the outside world with this place as the target, I can synchronize his memories in bits and pieces, but he cannot do anything similar. The most he can do is to vaguely see the scene of this place through me under extremely coincidental circumstances.

"He just thought it was because of his innate advantage in divination. Obviously, if he thought about it a little more deeply, he would find that it was not the case... And this is all because he rejected me from the bottom of his heart."

"So this is why Lu Youxun can be here through hallucination." I nodded tentatively. "Other demon hunters believe that you are the real Lu Chan, but you are obviously nothing like the Lu Chan outside... How do you explain this?"

"I think this is probably due to the properties of this space," she said. "Although it conflicts with the scientific research activities of the Humanitarian Department, this may be a dream-like space. When it was restarted, since the 'data' of Lu Chan who had escaped could not be retrieved here, I, the incarnation of Lu Chan, could only be used as a substitute. And so I took over Lu Chan's identity here.

"I guess the reason I was able to form is because this is a dream. The 'Dream Incarnation' that should not be able to appear is able to appear in the 'Dream' - this makes sense, doesn't it?
"As for why you were also given an identity in the dream, I have no idea. Perhaps it has something to do with some properties of this dream."

"No, this is not a dream, but the real space tailored by Ying Lingyun." I said.

"What?" She was stunned.

I explained in detail, and she said in disbelief: "How could it be so... How could it be so? Even the Great Impermanence can't cut out 'reality' itself! Besides, if this is the real reality, how can I explain my existence?"

Things that go against common sense are mostly related to the fragments of the divine seal. Since this independent reality space was created by Ying Lingyun using the power of the divine seal fragment, then maybe the girl Lu Chan was also summoned by Ying Lingyun or by Dr. Silver Mask using the power of the divine seal fragment.

But although this explanation is easy, it will lead to a problem that cannot be ignored, that is, why did Ying Lingyun or Dr. Silver Mask use the power of the divine seal fragment to summon the girl Lu Chan. And since they want to summon her, there must be some purpose, so why do they treat it coldly?
Although the young girl Lu Chan is not the real body in the outside world, I have no intention of explaining the existence of the fragments of the divine seal to her.

She could only put aside her thoughts and ask me, "Can you please untie my restraints and take me out of this cell?"

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Although Lu Chan and I have many differences in our thinking, we agree on this secret base of the Humanitarian Department. I want to help you destroy this place." She proposed a deal, "Have you found your friend Zhu Changan now? If not, I can also find a way to help you find him."

(End of this chapter)