Dark Logic Knowledge

"Are you fooling me?"

Gaoxin had never expected Luo Yan to directly say that his blood had no effect whatsoever.

How was that possible?!

When Luo Yan said it was only effective once, Gaoxin had not thought much of it. After all, Mind Shift No. 1 was said to last only three hours, yet he could still enter the Mind Shift state whenever he wanted.

So perhaps the effect of "Luo Yan's Blood" had mutated when it manifested in him.

But... Luo Yan was actually saying that he had fooled him, that it had never had any effect at all?

That was completely absurd.

"No effect? But yesterday, I clearly..." Suspicion appeared on Gaoxin's face.

Luo Yan sighed. "That was the placebo effect!"

"The placebo effect?" Gaoxin asked, baffled.

Luo Yan explained, "I found this knowledge in Emperor Penguin's bookstore. It's also known as the fake-drug effect."

"According to the information, it's a phenomenon in which a patient receives ineffective treatment but 'expects' or 'believes' that the treatment works, causing their symptoms to ease."

Gaoxin's eyes widened as if he had been struck by lightning.

Then he suddenly grabbed Luo Yan by both arms, exerting so much force that the veins on his arms bulged. "What did you say?!"

His expression was terrifying, as if he wanted to eat someone. He looked as though he had just discovered some incredible treasure.

Luo Yan thought he had not understood and said, "In short, you trick the patient into believing the medicine is effective, but it actually isn't. It's just ordinary nutrient fluid, yet it still produces a therapeutic effect."

"Ow, you're gripping too hard! Gaoxin, calm down!"

"I had no choice but to fool you. In that situation, you couldn't possibly defeat Daishan Beida, and you had entered an extremely obsessive state."

"To save you, this was the only method I could think of. I decided to treat a dying horse as though it were alive and try out this bit of knowledge."

"Fortunately, it really worked. Didn't you feel your injuries improve and your pain ease at the time? And then you stopped feeling much pain, as if you'd been under general anesthesia? You even had a sudden burst of power and stabbed through his throat!"

Gaoxin released him, but his eyes remained fixed on Luo Yan.

Suddenly, he laughed.

His laughter was unusually manic. "So that's how it was! So that's how it was!"

"All you need to do is believe."

Luo Yan said worriedly, "Hey, don't take this effect too seriously. The success rate is very low."

"The fundamental way humans overcome all diseases is still by letting the body heal itself. Medicine is only an aid."

"As for the placebo effect, it's simply that the brain has been deceived into thinking it has reinforcements, causing it to become excited and strengthen the body's healing process. Your lack of pain and your final burst of power were nothing more than the effects of adrenaline."

He tried to explain the principle, but Gaoxin waved him off. "Don't explain the principle. Just tell me whether it's real!"

"Does this phenomenon really exist?"

Luo Yan froze. "Yes. There have been many clinical studies proving it."

"I read a great deal of related material. This phenomenon was discovered as early as the last century. There are even many suspected examples of it in ancient historical texts."

"But it really is difficult, and 'believing' is too vague and impossible to quantify. Don't treat this effect as a lifeline. Yesterday, I only tried it because I had no other choice..."

Gaoxin's eyes darted around as he waved his hand. "Don't say all that. Just tell me whether this is a phenomenon humans have possessed since ancient times!"

"Yes... yes, it is... But so what?" Luo Yan had no idea what he was getting excited about.

Gaoxin's face was flushed with excitement, as though he had discovered some earth-shattering secret.

"I understand now. I understand... So that's how it is..."

"No wonder I couldn't figure out why I had never learned about this before. Of course. This was a phenomenon I had very little chance of encountering..."

"It's fine... It's not too late. Let me think. Let me think..."

He muttered frantically as he wandered around without realizing it, like an idiot searching for something.

"What's wrong? What did you figure out?" Luo Yan went over to support him, but Gaoxin shoved him away.

Gaoxin said excitedly, "Don't bother me. I'm about to figure it out!"

"No, no, I'm still missing something. Ah, that's right! Mind Shift! Mind Shift!"

His eyes shifted, and he immediately entered Mind Shift.

At once, the external information received through his sense of touch, vision, hearing, and other senses bombarded his consciousness directly, without being processed logically.

At the same time, he recalled all the things he had thought about and summarized during his childhood.

Those memories appeared directly before his eyes in a form that language could not describe.

Combined with his overflowing imagination and the inspiration he could no longer suppress, Gaoxin moved his hands through the air, as if trying to assemble everything.

"So that's how it works... Yes, these phenomena all connect!"

"Good, good. What about this one? Excellent, this one connects too!"

He muttered to himself, staring at the air and waving his arms wildly.

Then he suddenly pointed at the dead pigs hanging inside the cold storage and said seriously, "Right! And them! Them too!"

"Xin!" Luo Yan was dumbfounded. What was he doing?

Why was he talking to the air? Talking to pigs?

Gaoxin looked far too much like a madman.

Like someone with a mental illness, he manipulated things in the air and ran around. One moment he stroked the hanging meat, the next he hugged his arms and frantically kneaded his own body, and then he flapped his hands at the air like a butterfly, murmuring dreamily.

Everything was simply too bizarre. Luo Yan felt that... Gaoxin might genuinely have lost his mind.

"Xin! Don't scare me. Let's stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it and calm down!" Luo Yan rushed forward and hugged him.

But Gaoxin struggled desperately, using his tremendous strength to throw him off.

"Leave me alone! I'm only missing one last step!"

"I'm going to succeed! I'm really going to succeed! Dad!"

Hearing him shout that he was going to succeed, and even call him Dad, Luo Yan immediately burst into tears.

He became even more convinced that Gaoxin had finally gone mad after enduring too many failures.

There had already been signs of it yesterday, but the placebo effect had helped him survive that ordeal.

Most likely, deep down, Gaoxin had already regarded "Luo Yan's Blood" as a lifeline, an important stepping stone toward success.

And then today, Luo Yan had told him that everything was fake, that he had deceived him, and that it was merely because his body had secreted too much adrenaline.

How could Gaoxin endure that? His longing for success had tightened his heart into a taut string, and he had been carrying too much pressure. Now that his psychological support had collapsed, he had finally suffered a complete mental breakdown.

"I'm not your dad! Calm down, Gaoxin! I'm Luo Yan, I'm Luo Yan!"

"It's all right. We'll escape. You still have me!"

Luo Yan called out to him, hoping to awaken his reason.

But Gaoxin had completely gone mad.

He seemed immersed in some grand experiment.

Even though he was only fiddling with the air, even though he muttered incomprehensible sounds as if an ancient god were whispering, he continued without pause.

No one knew how long passed before Gaoxin suddenly shouted indistinctly.

"It matches! It matches!"

"This one works too, so they all match! Everything matches!"

"I figured it out! I figured it out! I finally figured it out!"

Gaoxin stopped moving his arms and collapsed as if all his strength had drained away.

He lay sprawled on the ground, laughing loudly. Yet his eyes were bloodshot, and tears streamed down his face.

"Dad, humanity has always been sacred!"

Luo Yan pounced on him and hugged him, adopting a mature tone. "Son, I understand. I understand."

"You understand too, Luo Yan?" Gaoxin sat up joyfully.

Luo Yan froze. "You still recognize that I'm Luo Yan?"

Gaoxin smiled happily. "Luo Yan! I've seen through a cosmic secret! A secret belonging to humanity!"

"..." Luo Yan looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Yes, yes, exactly..."

Gaoxin's eyes were filled with tears of emotion. "Every one of us is perfect. We are all children of the cosmic mother."

"Yes, yes, exactly..." Luo Yan choked out bitterly.

Gaoxin wiped away his tears. "Everyone's spirit is equal, and the talents within our souls are equal as well. Every ability possessed by one human is possessed by every human! When some people fail to display them, it's only because they don't believe they possess them."

Luo Yan shook his head. "Why are you still hung up on the placebo effect?"

"Everyone's personality is certainly equal, but our bodies are unequal from birth."

Gaoxin smiled. "That's because everyone believes that people's bodies are unequal from birth..."

"You know this, don't you? Consciousness can influence the brain, and thus influence the entire body. So as long as one believes strongly enough, consciousness can directly change oneself."

The corner of Luo Yan's mouth twitched. "How could that be possible?!"

"You've been possessed, Gaoxin. You were having a complete fit just now. Do you know that?"

Gaoxin said, "Just now, I was combining all the phenomena I had recognized from childhood to the present and integrating them into a complete body of knowledge."

"I succeeded... I did it. I saw through a piece of Dark Logic knowledge!"

Luo Yan was bewildered. "Dark Logic knowledge?"

"You were talking to the air!"

Gaoxin pointed at the air and said, "That's because you can't see my hallucinations."

"No, holy crap... You know they're hallucinations too? Floaters? Delusional disorder? You've lost your mind! Do you know that? You're sick!" Luo Yan said in anguish.

Gaoxin laughed and cried at the same time. "I'm not sick! Hallucinations are originally a function of our brains. Naturally, if I want a hallucination, I can have one!"

"Just now, I projected the things in my memories into visual hallucinations in my mind so that I could organize them more conveniently."

Luo Yan asked, "Organize what? What exactly were you thinking about?"

Gaoxin grinned. "I finally understand... who I am, where I came from, and where I'm going..."

"Huh?" Luo Yan's head buzzed.

"Wait, the three ultimate questions of human philosophy?"

"That's what you were thinking about just now? Who wouldn't go crazy thinking about that? Those are ultimate questions with no answers!"

Gaoxin laughed loudly. "Who says there are no answers? I figured them out."

"So this is called an ultimate question? No wonder. Then its answer must be one of the universe's ultimate answers, representing some kind of ultimate truth..."

"So I've seen through a universal truth!"

Luo Yan could not help rolling his eyes. He thought that humoring him would not work, so he could only say seriously, "Gaoxin! I know you're unwilling to accept this and that you're frustrated!"

"But reality is reality. You have to pull yourself together!"

"That placebo effect or whatever—just assume I made it up, all right? Yesterday, you were on the verge of death, and your adrenaline simply exploded."

Gaoxin stared at him and sighed. "The phenomenon you mentioned was only one part of it. It's meaningless for you to deny it now, because I've already verified everything."

"Verified what? By waving your hands around in the air a few times?" Luo Yan demanded angrily.

Unexpectedly, Gaoxin turned around and grabbed the enormous frozen rat, lifting it with a whoosh!

The thing weighed at least two hundred kilograms, yet he raised it high above his head.

"Huh?" Luo Yan's eyes widened, and he was completely stunned.

With a boom, Gaoxin threw the heavy object to the ground. "My strength has truly been unlocked, Luo Yan... all because of your blood."

Luo Yan was utterly stupefied. His entire worldview exploded at that moment.

P.S. Sorry.