Tear open reason to obtain elements, devour elements to achieve sublimation?
The meaning behind this is enough to drive one to despair with just a thought.
At this moment, Xin Nan truly felt something viscous and scorching that caused a trace of his reason to waver, which condensed into the sediment within his spirituality.
In a daze, Xin Nan even felt as if his own existence was being filled to the brim, as if he were about to touch the veil of reason once more.
Have you already felt the emotional sediment?
As if seeing his shock at this moment, the Female Dean chuckled lightly:
"It seems you've indeed thought of it. That's right, all of our advancements are built upon extraordinary elements."
"We all must devour different elements."
"But you must understand, this is very different from those perverted behaviors. Because elements are not what you imagine, like flesh or organs growing on the body. They are the condensation of emotional sediment and transcendent essence deep within the soul, the components of a consciousness body."
"When the original owner of an element dies, it will slowly exude from the deceased consciousness body. It does not exist in a physical form. What we call devouring is more like a spiritual fusion, no different from reading a book by a predecessor, only that the elements are more intense."
Xin Nan spent some time digesting the meaning of elements, but couldn't help but ask:
"Reading can precipitate knowledge and even influence a person's worldview. Then what kind of impact will devouring external elements have on a person? And how do you advance through this method?"
Xin Nan had already guessed the method of so-called transcendent advancement.
"Fusion Refinement. Through the arrangement and combination of different elements, they wear down and dissolve each other, shaping new forms to achieve a delicate balance. Then, it is consumed in a specific ritual, thereby allowing one's own elements to sublimate and gain a more transcendent essence. In ancient times, people in your East District liked to call this method alchemy, while we in the West District called it alchemy. In modern times, everyone habitually calls it magic potion."
"Of course, any act of obtaining elements will lead oneself towards madness. Next, I will explain the Despair Steps to you."
Saying this, the Female Dean left her chair and walked intimately to Xin Nan's side, taking one of his hands.
A warm sensation came from her soft skin, and the whale behind her began to swim faster.
"The oldest records of elements appearing date back to about four thousand years ago. At that time, the awakening of elements was very rare, and those who could awaken were mythologized, becoming the beginning of heretical worship."
"Later, with the reproduction of humans and changes in the environment, elements appeared more and more frequently. Those with elements began to interact more often. A strong instinct drove humans to obtain more elements, and thus, the dark age arrived."
"This process continued until today. In this long period, those who obtained elements continuously experimented and found the only answer for sublimation: Fusion Refinement. Among various fusion attempts, those that successfully found a fragile balance were called Secret Formulas. Secret Formulas are the bricks, building steps towards higher places from nothingness, piece by piece. This is the Despair Steps, the path of transcendent advancement."
"It currently only has eight orders. After humans explored the eighth step, they could not advance further. Although Secret Formulas leading to the eighth step are constantly being developed, they only enrich the existing ones."
"These eight steps, from bottom to top, are Delirium, Hallucination, Nightmare, Split, Folly, Madness, Rage, and Collapse!"
Xin Nan couldn't help but take a deep breath.
"According to what you've said, doesn't that mean the sublimation and advancement of transcenders is a process of constantly tearing apart reason and contacting the essence of the universe? So, are the names of these steps because..."
"That's right, they are named after the sequelae of drinking each tier's magic potion! After drinking the corresponding magic potion and achieving the first sublimation of elements, you will step into the First Order and begin to hear dense and weird delirium. Even if you pierce your eardrums and eliminate your hearing, they will still resound in your mind."
"Then, entering the Second Order, you will frequently see baseless hallucinations, and the delirium will become stronger. Like the delirium, even if you destroy your own eyes, the hallucinations will directly enter your mind. This is unsolvable."
"Upon stepping onto the Third Order, the delirium and hallucinations will form chaotic nightmares that invade you in every sleep, and will still disturb you during every waking hour."
"Stepping onto the Fourth Order will inevitably lead to a split in personality!"
"The Fifth Order: Folly!"
"The Sixth Order: Madness!"
"The Seventh Order: Rage."
"Until the Eighth Order, you will completely collapse, becoming a human nuclear warhead that, when thrown anywhere, will destroy indiscriminately."
"Now, you should understand why the path of transcendence is called the Despair Steps by us, right?"
The Female Dean leaned down and whispered softly in his ear:
"Little boy, in our circle, there's a self-deprecating saying."
"Do you want to become a god? When you lose everything on the steps of despair, you will be."
Xin Nan frowned and subconsciously retorted:
"If only by breaking through the veil of reason can one obtain elements, then aren't all of us in this line of work lunatics!"
"Mental patients are not imbeciles. We are irritable, we are autistic, we are mad, we are foolish, but we perform very well when handling abnormal events."
The Female Dean asked back with some surprise:
"Also, what makes you think we would use a group of so-called normal people to confront those unspeakable, incomprehensible, and weirdly profound entities? Do you think I'm not really a psychologist, and that this organization isn't really a mental hospital?"
This made Xin Nan recall what the Female Dean had said at the beginning – that they not only knew him but also knew Doctor Pu and all the mental patients in this city.
And he himself had seen one of the members of the Materialist Bureau, that JK girl.
So, could he reasonably guess that because transcendence leads to madness, the group of mental patients would be more likely to become transcenders? Therefore, the Materialist Bureau was observing these potential hidden members or... enemies?
So it wasn't a coincidence that he had seen the JK girl before. Perhaps it was during one of their regular visits to confirm if he had touched upon elements.
And such things had actually happened many times before, but because they were so well hidden, it wasn't until the girl appeared. Perhaps it was her personal style, or perhaps an oversight, but the JK girl, who didn't deliberately hide herself, was finally seen by him once by sheer luck?
Such a guess was reasonable.
Xin Nan was speechless for a moment.
Perhaps for the people of the Materialist Bureau, as long as they were crazier than the pollution of your madness, then those pollutions would cease to exist.
So, were the members of the Materialist Bureau patients, the Materialist Bureau a mental hospital, and the leaders of the Materialist Bureau psychiatrists?
The world was to be saved by a group of people who had torn through the veil of reason? And the weirdness was to be countered by a group of the mad?
Then such a world was truly mad to its core.
Was this the result he had been pursuing?
It was truly ironic. Xin Nan had originally sought to heal his eyes and achieve so-called normalcy, which led him to attempt to enter the world of transcendence.
Who knew that the end result of entering this world would be true madness.
The Female Dean tightened her grip on his hand, as if trying to impart strength to him, and comforted him:
"From the moment you gave birth to elements, all of this became irreversible. By understanding the essence of elements and the universe, you will discover that the human spirit is not entirely void. It is merely a force relative to matter. It transforms into emotional sediment, and over time, it has already formed a place relative to the material world, which we call the spiritual world."
"Emotional sediment is the energy that elements ignite the transcendent essence to influence the material world."
"And elements, in relation to emotional sediment, are like a magnet and magnetic powder. Even if you want to return to a normal person's life, and do nothing, the elements will attract more and more sediment, crushing your spirit, and eventually leading to your mutation. This world is like this; there is no retreat."
Do you guys think this system is suitable for a Cthulhu worldview?
Also, please vote.
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