Emotional Injection
Xiang Kun spent the entire day working on two wood carvings.
I originally thought that establishing a "Super-Sensory Link" with the materials would make it easier to create another special connection after crafting the finished product, but I didn't expect it to fail so easily.
Could it be because "Super-Sensory Link" is a connection built on the level of rational observation, while this kind of connection, which allows one to perceive others' emotions and dream images, is a "sensory" connection?
Xiang Kun still habitually tries to explain the phenomena he observes in a way that he can understand.
Around 10 p. m., he decided to put the wood carving aside for the time being and sensed the three objects with which he had established a special connection. The two calligraphy pieces remained unresponsive, but the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving did react.
This excited Xiang Kun greatly. He immediately sat up straight, ready to use his senses, just like constantly checking his phone and finally seeing that the goddess he was pursuing had replied to his WeChat!
However, as soon as he sensed that emotion that was clearly not his own, and saw the blurry image, he was so startled that he leaned back and almost jumped off his chair.
Holy crap!
What the hell is this?!
The scenes he saw on the first two occasions were different, but he was lying in bed in both cases.
This time, amidst the fear he perceived, the scene he saw from his subjective perspective was that he was immersed in a huge, boiling cauldron of oil, being constantly boiled, while several hideous monsters around him tore at his flesh and devoured him.
The eight-armed, eight-eyed monster was also among them, but it didn't participate in the devouring. Instead, it tilted its head and looked down at the "emotional being."
Through the gaps between the monsters, Xiang Kun could also see further into the distance a group of normally dressed humans, men and women, young and old, all watching from afar and clapping their hands in approval.
What did this guy do? He's actually terrified of the situation he's in and the state he'll become—is it some kind of hellish vision?
Having already experienced most of Guo Tianxiang's memories, Xiang Kun thought he had witnessed many "horrific scenes" and was quite thick-skinned.
But this scene... he'd never seen anything like it before! It was so impactful!
Xiang Kun even began to worry about this "emotional person." He could sense the other person's emotions and knew very clearly that those emotions did not belong to him, so the emotions would not cause a series of physiological and psychological chain reactions. But the "emotional person" was different. This intense fear could have a profound impact even in dreams.
Since this wood carving is in the possession of Tang Baona's maternal grandfather, it's very likely that it will affect Tang Baona's relatives or similar individuals. This is not a good thing...
Xiang Kun pondered that he needed to find a way to contact Tang Baona tomorrow and get the wood carving back; it wasn't a good thing for her to keep having nightmares.
However, what puzzled him was why the three dreams seemed to be caused by different people. Had the location of the wooden carving changed?
After the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving finished sensing, around 11 o'clock, Xiang Kun sensed a reaction from the "Memorial to the Throne".
The emotions he sensed this time were just as he had expected: nostalgia and a touch of sadness. The dream scene he saw was at a memorial service. From the black and white photo in the center, he could recognize that it was a comrade-in-arms from his father's time in the army who had died in a car accident more than ten years ago.
His father's comrade-in-arms had a very close relationship with him in the army. Although they were not in the same place after being discharged, they still kept in touch occasionally. Xiang Kun had also met him several times when he was a child.
It's already clear that this was the father's dream.
As you can see, among the mourners, is the old man who used to Tongshi Town and taught Xiang Kun to write calligraphy.
Xiang Kun knew that the old man was a projection of the emotions evoked by that calligraphy.
Subsequently, Xiang Kun saw, from a subjective perspective, scenes of his father and comrades during their initial training in the army. Naturally, these scenes also included various random appearances by the old man next door.
Seeing the old man's kind and gentle face, which still looked just Xiang Kun's during the summer vacation of his second year of junior high school, he felt a pang of emotion.
The dream ended quickly, and Xiang Kun tried to sense the lyrics he had given to Xia Libing again, but there was no response. Looking at the time, it was already past 2 a. m. Could it be that Lao Xia was still awake?
Or perhaps the calligraphy was placed in the hospital office, so it wouldn't affect her?
Or perhaps she was on duty at the hospital that night and didn't go home to rest?
Setting that aside for the moment, Xiang Kun continued to sense the "Memorial on Dispatching the Troops," and sure enough, he received sensory feedback shortly afterward.
This dream I entered was clearly my mother's.
This also proves that items with a special connection cannot affect multiple targets to generate dreams at the same time, but after a period of time, they can still continue to affect other targets, as if there is a cooldown period.
However, Xiang Kun was quite surprised by his mother's dream. She was watching TV in the living room at home, and a character in the show had just died. His mother's emotions followed the character's and she fell into sadness and nostalgia.
Not far away, the old man next door was playing chess with his father on the sofa...
After his mother's dream ended, Xiang Kun began to organize his judgments about this newly emerging special connection.
So far, a total of three items have been linked: Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving and two calligraphy scrolls. I have also perceived dream scenes five times.
It can be seen that when someone is holding these items that have established a special connection, Xiang Kun can vaguely sense the emotions of the holder, but he cannot determine the location, nor can he see any images or obtain any sensory information.
When people near the object fall asleep, the emotions "imbued" on the object by Xiang Kun will have an assimilation effect on them, causing them to experience the same emotions while asleep, and then they will begin to dream. Xiang Kun can "see" the dreams through his perception.
He speculated that when a person is awake, these items, which have established a special connection, do not have enough emotional influence to assimilate the holder's emotions; they can only relay the holder's emotions to Xiang Kun. Only when a person is asleep can they have a sufficient influence to induce dreams and receive feedback from those dreams.
Compared to the previous "Mental Intimidation," "Emotional Assimilation," and "Projection Manifestation," the impact of these items on emotions can only be described as weak.
These items are like routers. Xiang Kun can obtain a small amount of data (emotions) from the target "host" through them, and send fixed instructions to the target "host" through the "program" (emotions inserted during the creation) pre-installed on the router.
However, during the day when the target is awake, there is a relatively strong "firewall," and commands cannot affect the target "host." Only at night can the commands enter the "host" and exert influence. However, although the commands are the same, the results (dreams) of the programs running on different "hosts" are different.
The entire dream is like a form, whether it's a gym membership registration form or a job application resume, it's determined by the emotions that produce the dream. As for what to fill in on the form, that depends on each person's actual situation.
The Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving and the old man next door are like the text and titles on a table.
Xiang Kun suddenly remembered Guo Tianxiang's ability to "Self-Fear Projection" after making eye contact. He had never understood why he could not "Self-Fear Projection" when he could easily do the "Projection Manifestation" that he had created after "Emotional Assimilation" through eye contact.
In retrospect, it wasn't that he didn't "transmit" enough data after the gaze, but rather that he "transmitted" too much.
Guo Tianxiang's "Self-Fear Projection" should only be an emotional instruction of "fear" to the target. How it is carried out afterward is up to the target's own imagination.
It's as if Guo Tianxiang simply assigned an essay topic, and then the students began to write their essays based on their knowledge and imagination. After finishing, they went up to the podium and read them aloud with great expression.
Xiang Kun's "Projection Manifestation" involved simply slapping a completed essay in front of the student. "Stop talking nonsense, this is what you wrote, go read it!"
The emotional impact of Guo Tianxiang's "Self-Fear Projection" is clearly different from Xiang Kun's "Emotional Assimilation." The former is assigning an essay topic, while the latter is showing the whole class a model essay, and the overall writing style is still limited to the framework of the model essay.
Even if Xiang Kun realized this, he couldn't find a way to exert the same emotional influence Guo Tianxiang.
But now, the way that these items, which have established a special connection, can influence other people's dream emotions is very similar to Guo Tianxiang's "Self-Fear Projection"!
Once we know that the function and effect are similar, the next step is to consider how to extract, improve, and apply this function.
Furthermore, Xiang Kun had a further idea: could he "collect" the emotions reflected back from items with which he had established a special connection, and then use them to inflict on other targets?
For example, Xiang Kun had previously envisioned using "Emotional Assimilation" to influence those around him and simultaneously generate an extremely strong appetite for a particular dish. However, the problem is that he now finds it difficult to generate that strong appetite for ordinary food, and the timing for entering that emotional state is also hard to grasp, so he had to give up.
But if he had a way to "collect" other people's emotions and then "release" them through some other means, controlling the type and duration of the effect, wouldn't that allow him to do many things that "Emotional Assimilation" cannot?
After consideration, Xiang Kun decided to temporarily call this ability to imbue objects with special connections by cultivating emotions during the construction and creation process "Emotional Injection".
Until after nine o'clock the next morning, Xiang Kun still couldn't sense any emotions or get any dream feedback from the calligraphy he gave to Xia Libing, so he had to give up.
He decided not to engage with the calligraphy of "Memorial to the Throne" at home tonight, but to call his parents tomorrow to see if they had any dreams, in order to determine whether the dream was triggered by his own feelings or whether it occurred regardless of whether he had any feelings or not.
If these dreams keep recurring, while the nostalgic emotions they evoke shouldn't have any negative impact, it's still not good to keep having them. He'll find an excuse to get his mom to send him the "Memorial to the Throne on the Eve of the Northern Expedition."
Around 10 o'clock, just as he was about to contact Tang Baona to arrange a time to meet her grandfather and exchange the "Canary Wooden Carving" for the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving, and also to subtly inquire about who the extremely tragic and terrifying dream from the previous night belonged to, Tang Baona sent him a photo on WeChat first. The photo showed his eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving.
Chapter 175 was temporarily blocked from 10 AM to 1 PM. After discussing and revising it with the editor, it has been released. If you noticed any plot inconsistencies during that period, you can go back and check if you missed Chapter 175.