Chapter 900 - 899: Intersecting Reflections

Upon learning what was written in that ancient, weathered travelogue, Amber inexplicably felt a sense of "Why am I wasting time reading this?"—to the extent that she momentarily forgot how special this book was, and forgot that her adoptive father lost his life because of it.

But then again, remembering this fact at this moment would only make her more sorrowful—the content of this book had truly exceeded her expectations.

Yet soon she noticed Gawain’s serious expression and realized from it that Modir’s travelogue certainly contained something useful.

"His attempts finally succeeded," Gawain said, turning a page and pointing to the content on it, "and the subsequent information... there’s a lot to take in."

Amber quickly composed herself and leaned in again—

"X month X day, after... numerous failures, I think I’ve found a pattern.

"My disguise plan did not succeed, but that doesn’t mean my logic was flawed—the attempt to reduce the hostility of the Shadow Inhabitants and ’blend in’ was correct in direction, the issue was that my disguise was only ’clever’ from a human perspective, yet to true shadow beings, my disguise was likely quite clumsy.

"Therefore, when the Shadow Inhabitants saw me, it was perhaps as if a human in the real world saw a monster cloaked in human skin—and that skin was still bloody. It’s no surprise that this only incited greater hostility and tension, and understanding why I faced fiercer attacks became clearer.

"Upon realizing this possibility, I decided to conduct a more thorough transformation, a more adventurous transformation than before.

"I extracted my soul... using a method I ’learned’ years ago from a lich’s head, adding a little refinement, to maintain the ’humanity’ of the soul, and allowing it to return to its original body at any time.

"Here, I must warn any future readers—my method should not be taken as a reference; it is very dangerous and easily out of control. Even if you thoroughly understand lich practices, do not blindly believe you’re as powerful and knowledgeable as Modir Vealt; my attempts were based on my own circumstances, and anyone imitating me... well, by then I’m already dead, so don’t blame the great Modir Vealt for not having warned you."

"This guy really has a screw loose in his head!!" Amber couldn’t help exclaiming, a crude remark escaping her lips, "Extracting his soul just to ’contact’ those natives in the shadow realm? What’s driving him so much?"

"...To be honest, I’m a bit surprised too; it surpasses the pioneer’s courage... perhaps it’s the explorer’s obsession," Gawain shook his head, "but regardless, he succeeded."

Yes, this insane operation to extract the soul and transform it succeeded, as Modir Vealt wrote in his travelogue:

"...I succeeded; experiencing the world from a soul perspective is quite amazing, while my body now quietly lies over there, my old servant Malfoy nervously watching ’it’, which sparks many thoughts, even making me involuntarily think about my own appearance at my funeral some years later... but now clearly isn’t the time for random musings.

"In the soul state, I can still wield spells and use them to perform many actions that only living beings can (such as writing stuff). I’ve completed the preparation for the ritual, and this time, I will transform my own soul—without the burden of the body, this transformation will almost carry no ’scent’ of the material world, and the soul after transformation leaves no trace; it will be a true shadow soul, nearly identical to those shadow inhabitants... theoretically.

"I believe in my theory, in the name of the surname Vealt.

"...X month X day, I returned once more to the shadow realm, in the form of a ’shadow soul’. After wandering for a while, I finally captured the aura of those shadow inhabitants again... wish me luck.

"I succeeded! I just made a successful contact! I stood in front of that creature wrapped in bandages, openly, without any outbreak of conflict, everything went smoothly—the creature seemed very curious about me, it circled around me for quite a while but eventually didn’t attack, then it began to mutter some strange phrases to me... I need to emphasize these phrases, this is the language of the Shadow Inhabitants, previously during our conflict they often muttered these dreamlike sounds, but back then I couldn’t understand at all, yet now things seem to have changed—perhaps due to the ’shadow soul’ reason, I feel I can vaguely understand their meaning!

"I need some time to decipher the language of the Shadow Inhabitants and establish good relations with a portion of them; they possess intelligence and memory, and also have emotions and logic—although they seem quite different from humans, I have indeed deeply experienced their emotions, thus a good relationship is crucial for the next steps..."

Gawain slowly turned the pages, and after this was a rather tedious account. Modir Vealt devoted quite a lot of ink to this part, clearly, this marvelous adventure in the shadow realm held profound significance for him, and soon, his record reached a crucial part:

"...I’ve been in this world for quite some time now, only occasionally returning a few times to replenish spiritual energy and confirm the situation in the real world (mainly the mental state of old Malfoy; he gets somewhat anxious watching over my body, I worry if I don’t show up for a long time, he might bury me). As for now, I need to document my progress here.

"I’ve been able to communicate with those Shadow Inhabitants now, relatively fluently in communication.

"Surprisingly, these Shadow Inhabitants are quite... friendly in a state where communication is possible. They are not as thoroughly alienated, fierce, and brutal as I imagined; in fact, they are even somewhat... lazy and sluggish. I can only think of these words to describe them because all the Shadow Inhabitants I’ve interacted with—in cases where they don’t initiate attacks—displayed similar traits; they muddle around in this world, thinking very slowly, and have little enriching everyday life, they seem not to care much about the world’s changes nor contemplate their own matters, although they have intelligence, they mostly don’t use it—this is quite free-spirited.

"Of course, when they get angry, it’s a different situation... Given that I’ve already documented the relevant details before, I won’t elaborate here.

"In summary, the Shadow Inhabitants give me the impression of being... sleepwalking. They seem to be immersed in a half-dream, half-awake state, wandering about, though their ’sleepwalking’ is somewhat shallower than that of humans. They can communicate with me as long as I initiate contact; by asking repeated questions, a Shadow Inhabitant will eventually provide interpretations. Although their interpretations are often vague, at least I can confirm they are communicating with me.

"I can’t help but wonder if the ’sleepwalking’ state of the Shadow Inhabitants is a normal feature of their kind. Are they naturally like this when they’re rational and clear-headed? Or... have I encountered Shadow Inhabitants who are truly in a half-asleep state, and there exists another completely ’awake’ state? I’m uncertain of this, and unsure if ’waking’ them is a good idea, so I have not attempted it further.

"After multiple exchanges, I’ve learned some intriguing knowledge from these shadow realm creatures, based on their worldview. They are evidently aware of the material world, yet they refer to our material world as the ’Shallow Realm’— a peculiar term which took me a while to understand... A shallow world? Interesting.

"...After further inquiry, the Shadow Inhabitants revealed another term to me: ’Deep Realm.’ This term seems to correspond with ’Shallow Realm.’ When I delved deeper into querying this term, I made an incredible discovery— the Shadow Inhabitants stated they were all born from the ’Deep Realm.’ But when I subconsciously asked if the ’Deep Realm’ was this world (the shadow realm), they told me—No!!

"They were not born in the shadow realm; though they wander and live in this space, their true birthplace was a place called the ’Deep Realm,’ an unfamiliar world unknown to human scholars!!

"I considered the linguistic differences between the Shadow Inhabitants and the real world— they refer to the material world as the ’Shallow Realm;’ therefore, their ’Deep Realm’ might correspond to a human-known place but with a different terminology. However, after multiple inquiries, I found no evidence... There is no evidence to prove what the ’Deep Realm’ mentioned by the Shadow Inhabitants really is, making it a mystery...

"I think I need to stay here a while longer.

"I have a good relationship with one Shadow Inhabitant, and I have started to try to obtain more ’knowledge’ from him. Unfortunately, I can’t write down the name of this new friend—the Shadow Inhabitants don’t have names. Although I’ve tried giving him some titles, he doesn’t seem to like them... So I privately call him ’Blaine.’

"Blaine hasn’t been able to help unravel the mystery of the ’Deep Realm’ either; in this regard, the information he provided is similar to other Shadow Inhabitants. However, in further conversations, Blaine told me some matters beyond the Deep Realm... He mentioned the Shadow Inhabitant tribe itself. He did not care how the Mortal Races of the ’Shallow Realm’ refer to their tribe; he merely said—’We walk along the edge of a dream, wandering the borders of the waking world,’—those were his exact words...

"A very mysterious and seemingly metaphorical statement. I tried to interpret it but struggled due to a lack of critical clues. What is this ’dream’? Blaine did not provide an answer...

"After multiple attempts, I can only summarize this point: All Shadow Inhabitants are Wanderers walking along the dream’s edge. It seems to be a dream originating from the Deep Realm, a dream sustained for many years, and the Shadow Inhabitants... from a certain perspective, they too seem to be part of this dream, at least they think so themselves. They wander along the dream’s border, repeatedly circling, as if delineating the dream and the waking world’s boundary...

"This reminds me of the ’feeling’ I previously had about them—they are a half-dreaming race, dazed as if sleepwalking. I think I’ve found evidence for this feeling; they really are ’sleepwalking’...

"This gives me a sense of eeriness, further suggesting... that ’waking’ these Shadow Inhabitants probably isn’t a good idea.

"Aside from the progress made on that bizarre ’Deep Realm’s Dream,’ ’Blaine’ also helped me understand more about the shadow realm and the Deep Realm, the Shallow Realm...

"They express that a certain connection exists between the ’Deep Realm’ and the ’Shallow Realm.’ The two are essentially overlapping, yet the Deep Realm and Shallow Realm cannot directly establish contact. Only a select few gifted individuals have ever sensed their intersecting moments, but those fortunate ones can’t comprehend it—it surpasses human intellect...

"They also talked about ’home,’ that mysterious ’Deep Realm.’ They say the Deep Realm isn’t static. When the Shadow Inhabitants first emerged, it was a stable and beautiful place—I’m unsure if the ’beauty’ the Shadow Inhabitants speak of aligns with the beauty as perceived by ordinary people in the material world, as the aesthetics of the two races could differ greatly. But I can sense from ’Blaine’ and several other familiar Shadow Inhabitants a feeling of loss and disappointment—the stable and beautiful Deep Realm is gone now.

"In Blaine’s words, it is now a twisted, desolate, barren place gradually spiraling into madness. The Deep Realm is moving toward its end, although there have been brief moments of ’restoration.’ Yet, the overall decline seems unstoppable... This is why the Shadow Inhabitants have left the Deep Realm and wandered into the shadow realm, closer to the ’Shallow Realm.’

"Moreover, they mentioned an event, a significant event—it’s rare for something to be noted as significant among the generally dazed Shadow Inhabitant tribe— they mentioned that not all Shadow Inhabitants wander on the edge of the eternal ’Deep Realm’s Dream.’ An individual once, by accident, fell into the ’Trap of Wakefulness,’ took a misstep, and left the tribe’s sight...

"’Blaine’ told me that this was the only ’awakened’ Shadow Inhabitant in history.

"Of course, the Shadow Inhabitants have no ’history,’ ’in history’ is just a figure of speech.

"Strangely, although the Shadow Inhabitants refer to this as a ’major event,’ they seem rather indifferent about it in conversations, without intention of retrieving that ’missing’ tribesman, despite many Shadow Inhabitants, including ’Blaine,’ expressing regret about it, yet without seeming to care much more...

"I asked Blaine about it, and his answer was thought-provoking. He said—

"’Why find them—eventually, we all have to wake up.’"

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