Chapter 95: Radiance and the Woodland
“Advancing from Level One to Level Two is easy and almost risk-free, but progressing from Level Two to Level Three is where danger begins.”
As Zhong Lingfan said this, Xu Zhi sat up slightly, remembering her own experiences of nearly getting lost in hallucinations.
“According to my investigation, one of the main causes of death for transcendent beings in Cloud City right now is advancement.”
“Everyone experiences a dream they can’t recall at all upon waking when advancing. Even I can only vaguely feel that I must’ve made the right choice in the dream to succeed. Those who make the wrong choice—or no choice at all, or even a choice that’s just not quite right—fail to advance.”
“The consequences can be severe, from death to madness. Lesser outcomes include unconsciousness or temporary insanity.”
Xu Zhi raised an eyebrow, guessing that the failures probably got too ‘lost’ in the dream. She was lucky to have a narrator reminding her not to lose herself in hallucinations—something other transcendents didn’t have.
At least now Zhong Lingfan understood the risks and could warn others.
“If the advancement succeeds, transcendent beings gain their first active ability at Level Three—though the timing may vary.”
“Beyond that is Level Four, which, aside from you, is currently the highest level I’ve seen in Cloud City.”
“And up to Level Four, no one has shown signs of possessing more than one active ability.”
Zhong Lingfan deliberately emphasized “aside from you,” because she knew Xu Zhi must be above Level Four. But she didn’t know the specifics, and couldn’t exactly ask Xu Zhi to participate in experiments.
She suspected that exceptionally talented individuals might unlock a second active ability at Level Five. Even so, she couldn’t confirm Xu Zhi’s exact powers. Just from what Xu Zhi had displayed, it was already clear she had at least two.
Xu Zhi simply listened quietly without interrupting.
“The danger in advancing from Level Two to Three lies in being unprepared for the risk. But from Level Three to Four, even with preparation, the death rate doesn’t drop.”
“People still can’t clearly remember their dream experiences, but they do retain some emotional residue from the Level Three to Four dream.”
“From this, we’ve inferred that dreams vary by attribute. Those with the same attribute experience similar emotional remnants—unless their personalities are drastically different.”
“Upon reaching Level Four, aside from improvements in physical condition and energy reserves, both active and passive abilities also enhance.”
Then Zhong Lingfan added, “For example, I can now more clearly identify someone’s alignment through their transcendent aura—their current emotions, whether they’re lying, whether they’ve killed before, what attribute they lean toward. Knowledge acquisition has become easier for me. I can see deeper into the nature of things, and I even vaguely recall fragments of the dream.”
It wasn’t a combat-oriented ability, but in Zhong Lingfan’s hands, it was incredibly useful.
“Oh?” Xu Zhi’s interest was piqued. “What else do you remember?”
Zhong Lingfan rarely fell into deep thought, but now she did. “It’s hard to put into words… I only remember a small part. If I had to describe it—perhaps… Radiance and the Woodland?”
“Oh—” At those words, Xu Zhi instantly pictured the same scene.
A flickering flame suspended midair, dazzling in the darkness. And a vast, pitch-black forest.
It seemed everyone would eventually go there.
Xu Zhi even had a theory—maybe the ‘track’ mentioned by the narrator was related to that woodland?
Like a race: whoever escapes the forest first wins, with all sorts of dangers lurking inside…
That actually sounded quite plausible.
After mulling it over, she asked, “So, what alignment do you see me as?”
Instead of answering, Zhong Lingfan posed a question of her own.
“Let’s say alignments include: Good, Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic, and Evil. Pick two words to form your alignment—what would you choose?”
First word—definitely Chaotic.
Although Xu Zhi didn’t fully grasp the difference between this kind of ‘chaos’ and the ‘Moth’ attribute’s version of chaos, she figured it didn’t matter. Just pick it!
As for the second word—Good and Lawful didn’t suit her. She didn’t think of herself as Evil either. That only left Neutral.
She shared her answer with Zhong Lingfan, who smiled. “Congratulations, that’s correct. You’re Chaotic Neutral in my eyes.”
“Individualistic, free-spirited, impulsive—those words fit this alignment well.”
Sounds about right! Xu Zhi thought the alignment system was pretty accurate.
She nodded in agreement and asked, “What about you?”
Zhong Lingfan: “Secret.”
Xu Zhi: ?
Not gonna say? Fine, whatever—she didn’t really want to know anyway!
Zhong Lingfan continued, “Due to the fact that the most powerful transcendents in the residential zone are only at Level Four, anything beyond that is speculation without evidence—so let’s leave it there.”
She had clearly excluded Xu Zhi from that “most powerful” group—implicitly recognizing her as above Level Four.
Xu Zhi nodded. “Are you planning to turn all this into a booklet?”
“Of course. People need to know these things to better understand themselves and others.”
“That’s true.”
“But you should charge for it!” Xu Zhi said firmly.
“Knowledge is valuable. And you spent a lot of time and effort researching all this, right?”
Zhong Lingfan closed her eyes briefly. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to hear that from Xu Zhi.
“Fine. I’ll charge. I need funding for future experiments anyway.”
Nowadays, “funding” means cores. In the residential zone, the currency system had completely shifted—cores had replaced money. Whether hiring someone or paying wages, it was all done with cores.
“Oh right,” Xu Zhi suddenly remembered. “How’s the core exchange station I set up doing?”
“Pretty well. Quite a few people are using high-grade cores to trade,” Zhong Lingfan replied. She was actually researching the differences between high- and low-grade cores. But due to a lack of manpower, equipment, and suitable cores, progress was slow.
Maybe Xu Zhi knew this, which was why she opened the exchange. Whether or not to admit that was Xu Zhi’s call.
“Alright, anything else?”
“If not, just point me the way—I’ll go have a little chat with those people.”
Zhong Lingfan shook her head. “That’s about it.”
“…Although, who is that?”
She pointed toward the other couch, where Yu Shenwei was still unconscious.
Xu Zhi: “…Uh.”
