Ship of Theseus

"I think!"

Luo Jun looked into his Master's eyes and answered solemnly.

Old Yuan nodded with satisfaction. "That's right. Now that you've embarked on this path of cultivation, you must set your sights on the very top. Whether it's the Peak or Feather Transformation, you must have the confidence to surpass it!"

Luo Jun was also deeply moved. "Master, what do you mean by asking me this? Do you think I now have the ability to challenge Feather Transformation?"

Although Luo Jun had fought Yu Hua before, the situation was special at the time, and he was not in his best condition. The Nine Provinces Beggar had obviously not taken him seriously. Now, Luo Jun had broken through to the ninth level of the Qi Cultivation Realm, and his various attributes had improved a lot. His strength was no longer what it used to be. If he encountered that old beggar again, Luo Jun would really have the urge to go up and have a go.

Old Yuan shook his head. "On the contrary, I asked you this to set a rule for you."

"You must never attempt to ascend to the Feather Transformation before you have truly attained the power of the Heart Refining Realm!"

"Absolutely not?" Luo Jun frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it says." Old Yuan nodded and said, "I'm not discussing this with you. If you still acknowledge me as your Master, this is the master's instruction: no matter what happens, you must not clash with someone in the Ascension Realm!"

"What if it's Feather Transformation coming to our door?" Luo Jun recalled the time he was bullied by the Nine Provinces Odd Beggar, and felt somewhat indignant.

"Then run!" Old Yuan said. "If you can't run, admit defeat, apologize, kowtow and admit your mistake. In short, do anything to appease their anger, just avoid conflict!"

"This is a bit too humiliating..."

"A gentleman takes his revenge, even after ten years!" Old Yuan advised. "When you have no power, your so-called dignity is worthless. But once you have enough strength, no one will dare to disrespect you!"

Luo Jun looked at Old Yuan and saw concern and determination in his eyes. He finally nodded. "I understand. Your disciple will obey your orders!"

Luo Jun hadn't necessarily wanted to challenge the Feather Transformation; he hadn't even considered it if his Master hadn't asked.

He was a little puzzled as to why his Master suddenly brought this up with him... Was it because he was afraid that he was reckless and would recklessly court death?

Are you kidding me? Everyone knows that Feather Transformation is the pinnacle of this world. Why would a Foundation Establishment Realm like him go looking for trouble with those Earthly Immortal?

Old Deng is really overthinking it.

Having ended that topic, the master and apprentice continued on their way and soon arrived at the door of the Black Shop.

This time, Ling Jian wasn't brought along, and Luo Jun had already taken out three Gold Ingot beforehand, so he shouldn't anger the shopkeeper again, right?

The master and apprentice made some preparations. Old Yuan put on his Eight Trigrams Finger Tiger, while Luo Jun held a gold ingot in one hand and took out his Wall-Building Magic Wand in the other. The two of them slowly stepped forward and carefully knocked on the door.

After a while, the iron gate slowly opened, and a head emerged from it. Unlike the previous two, this head belonged to a very beautiful young woman.

Not only were her features beautiful and her skin fair, but she also wore exquisite makeup, and even the two disgusting tumors on her head were gone. Because the door blocked her view of her body below the neck, one couldn't help but wonder if this was truly a human being, and no longer the grotesque monster with the giant hand-like head?

"What can I do for you two?" The woman's voice was very pleasant, but her tone was icy cold, devoid of any emotion.

"We're here to make a deal," Luo Jun said, shaking the Gold Ingot in his hand.

The woman nodded. "So you're a guest. Please come in..."

As she spoke, she opened the door.

To Luo Jun's disappointment, the body behind the door was still that disgusting giant hand, except that the woman's head was now attached to her ring finger.

The master and apprentice entered the store. The beautiful head took the catalog and asked, "Is there anything you'd like to buy?"

"I'd like food, ten servings, please." Luo Jun took out some money, and the beautiful head took it, quickly rummaging through the clutter to find ten food packages and handing them to Luo Jun.

When Luo Jun took it, he could feel something moving inside the bag, and he could even hear rustling sounds.

After putting the food into his Smart Equipment Pack, Luo Jun redeemed another map.

"Aren't you going to buy some higher-end goods?" the beautiful head asked. "You have so many Gold Ingot, don't just use cash."

"I plan to save them up and use them all at once," Luo Jun said with a smile. "Also, I have a question I'd like to ask you."

The beautiful head glanced at Luo Jun: "This isn't a library; I don't answer questions here."

"I wanted to ask about hunting monsters," Luo Jun said with a smile. "Killing more Chaos Monster would be good for you, wouldn't it?"

The beautiful head blinked. "Alright, just ask. I can't guarantee I can answer."

"What I want to ask is, if one is infected by Chaos Creature and begins to mutate..." As he asked the question, Luo Jun activated the Dice of Heavenly Secrets and received a true answer.

Is there any way to salvage the situation?

Upon hearing this question, the beautiful head's eyes widened for a moment as it looked at Luo Jun: "You haven't mutated, so why are you asking this?"

Luo Jun picked up a gold ingot. "Do you know how this gold ingot came about? It was originally one of my companions, but it mutated into a monster right before my eyes. I had no choice but to kill it, and in the end, only this Gold Ingot was left."

"I could only watch helplessly as he mutated, without even knowing how it happened. If this happened to me, how could I avoid the same fate? Or at least, how could I prevent myself from being infected by the Chaos Monster?"

The beautiful head glanced at Luo Jun, then finally extended a hand. "Give me this gold ingot, and I'll tell you."

Luo Jun hesitated slightly, frowned, and then handed the gold ingot that Li Ying had dropped to the beautiful woman's head.

"The process of humans turning into monsters is not infection, but replacement." "Replacement?" Luo Jun was taken aback.

"Have you heard of the Ship of Theseus?" the beautiful head asked. "A ship that sailed the seas endlessly, never sinking thanks to constant repairs. Whenever a part rotted, the crew would replace it promptly. This went on for countless years. After every single part of the ship had been replaced, was it still the same ship? If not, from how many parts were replaced did it remain the same ship? And from which part did it become a new ship?"

Luo Jun frowned slightly upon hearing this. "You mean, people who are infected will be gradually replaced?"

"You still don't understand..." The beautiful woman shook her head. "That's not an infection. As long as a person is alive, they will metabolize and inevitably exchange substances with the outside world. With every breath, every bite of food, and every excretion, a part of your body is replaced by substances from the outside world."

"As long as you remain in this maze, your body will eventually be completely replaced by the Chaos Substance within the maze."

"What did you say?" Luo Jun broke out in a cold sweat. "You mean, if we don't leave this maze, we'll all turn into those monsters sooner or later?"

The beautiful woman nodded. "But you don't need to be afraid. Matter is the foundation of the soul. When matter is replaced, your spirit and thoughts will also change involuntarily. You won't even be aware of this change; you'll just feel that everything is natural and you'll gladly accept it."

"No..." Luo Jun shook his head and said, "The White Shop said that this change should be related to the Chaos Creature they came into contact with. And since it was an exchange, why did some people who entered the labyrinth together mutate while others were fine?"

"He's right," the beautiful head smiled slightly. "This labyrinth has been corrupted by Chaos. Those Chaos Monster are the manifestation of this corruption; they are extremely concentrated Chaos Substance. They will instinctively try to replace the creatures in the outside world. The best way to deal with them is to attack!"

"If it's just routine activity, being replaced is a long process. But if you're injured, your metabolism will speed up to repair your body. If you happen to be injured by Chaos Monster, the replacement will be accelerated even further... Replacement is irreversible. If you find yourself starting to mutate and don't want to become a monster, the best way is to have your companions kill you while you still have your sanity, and then bring the Gold Ingot to me to exchange for treasures."

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At this point, the beautiful head chuckled and said, "That way, at least our deaths will have some value."

"Unless you can find an exit before you completely mutate. The door to reality will cleanse away all traces of the labyrinth."

"Don't try to scare us!" Old Yuan scoffed. "How do we know if what you're saying is true or false!"

"I've given you the answer. Whether you believe it or not is none of my business," the beautiful head sneered. "So? Is there anything else you'd like to buy?"

"Wait a minute..." Luo Jun asked again, "The merchant at the White Shop said that if the Chaos Monster that injured me drops a gold ingot, then there's no need to worry about mutation. What's going on?"

"The Gold Ingot are products formed by the collapse of Chaos Monster under the rules of the labyrinth," the beautiful head said. "You can think of them as the corpses of Chaos Monster. When a Chaos Monster dies, the remains of its body are not the real corpse; the essence of Chaos Substance is concentrated and sealed in the Gold Ingot, thus preventing the replacement of the wounded from being accelerated."

"Of course, the injury itself will still accelerate the mutation. Those guys in the White Shop don't understand the principles behind this at all. They only know that you won't mutate immediately after getting Gold Ingot, so they think you've escaped the fate of being replaced. Hmph, a bunch of idiots. They're clearly protected by the rules, but they don't understand anything and are wasting great resources."

"I have another question." Luo Jun looked at the beautiful woman's head. "Why does your Black Shop offer bounties on those Chaos Monster? What is your relationship with the Chaos Monster? And what is your relationship with the White Shop?"

"That question is beyond my scope of answering," the beautiful head chuckled. "Is there anything else you'd like to buy?"

Luo Jun asked a few more questions, but to no avail, so the master and apprentice had no choice but to leave the store.

"In my opinion, we can't believe what that monster says!" Old Yuan shook his head and said, "There are many suspicious points in what she said. It's very likely that she's deliberately spreading false information to confuse us."

Luo Jun shook his head. "I think what she said is true."

"How do you know?" Old Yuan asked, frowning.

"Intuition..." Luo Jun sighed, thinking to himself that he couldn't very well tell him that he had divined the future in his mind and the result was extremely bad.

Since what the Female Monster said is true, even if they have sufficient supplies and can survive in the maze indefinitely, they will eventually lose themselves and turn into monsters.

From this perspective, even this seemingly timeless maze cannot be stayed in forever.

Luo Jun originally intended to focus on his cultivation here and go into Closed Door Cultivation a few years before venturing out, but now it seems he simply doesn't have the time for that.

It now seems that everyone, including myself, has been replaced to some extent by Chaos Substance. But the key point, as mentioned in The Ship of Theseus, is that it's impossible to verify how much has been replaced or how much we've started from.

In other words, they have no idea how much time they have left.

"Master, after we get back, let's not tell everyone the truth." Luo Jun sighed. "I'm afraid they won't be able to accept it, and if there's further infighting, it'll be even more troublesome."

"I think so too." Old Yuan nodded. "Moreover, I don't believe that's the so-called truth at all."

"The key question is, what about Ling Jian?" Luo Jun frowned. "According to that monster, he's beyond saving."

"Even if what she said is true, as long as we can find an exit as soon as possible, Ling Jian can survive." Old Yuan frowned and said, "As long as there is hope, I don't want to give up on him."

Luo Jun wanted to refute, but he suddenly remembered the Old Yuan who had helped him at the Midnight Hotel.

Yes, if Old Yuan had given up on him back then, he would most likely have died in that hotel forever... Master is Master, he's never changed...

The two quickly returned to the group and told them the information they had obtained from the Black Shop. Of course, they omitted the truth that everyone was being assimilated, only saying that being injured by the Chaos Monster would risk mutation, and that the only way to save Ling Jian was to leave the maze and return to reality before he was completely mutated.

Even so, everyone remained desperate. The problem had returned to finding an exit, but at present, finding an exit that changed location at irregular intervals in a huge maze that was at least hundreds or thousands of kilometers long was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

"Don't be discouraged, at least we now have a way to make money quickly," Luo Jun encouraged. "Now we have the Monster Attracting Incense, and I've bought the food from the Black Shop. As long as we can earn enough money quickly to exchange for the ultimate items on both sides, we'll be able to leave soon!"

There was really no other way now, so everyone immediately took out the Monster Attracting Incense, opened the food package from the Black Shop, and as soon as they opened it, the insects crawled out, causing the girls to scream.

After much persuasion, they finally managed to combine the Monster Attracting Incense and the strange meat. The two ingredients indeed produced a strange reaction. The strange meat originally emitted a foul stench, and the Monster Attracting Incense also had a peculiar smell. But after the two were combined, they emitted a unique fragrance that drew even humans, let alone monsters, to approach.

However, Luo Jun didn't use it immediately. The area had been scanned on a map beforehand, and everyone knew exactly what monsters and traps were there; there was no need to waste the item. They walked several kilometers in a new direction, arriving at a completely new area, before finally lighting the enhanced monster -Monster Attracting Incense...

(End of this chapter)