(Please vote for me in the Three Rivers poll. They say only die-hard fans vote, even though it's free...) As he spoke, a brilliant light blazed in Tang Changsheng's eyes, shining on the clown like flames.
Boom... The clown caught fire and burned fiercely. As the light spread, everything around him shattered and fell away...
Tang Changsheng was back in his room, sitting silently in meditation.
Before him, the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp had gone out at some point!
Tang Changsheng sat for a while, carefully recalling the sensation of the Heavenly Heart shining into his Sea of Consciousness.
Only then was he certain he had truly escaped the illusion and returned to the real world.
Anything could be faked. Sounds, smells, sights, and sensations could all be changed by influencing the senses and nerves.
In Buddhist terms, these were the six faculties and the Six Dusts: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. In Daoist terms, the five colors blinded the eye, the five tones deafened the ear, and the five flavors dulled the palate...
All that was merely the mortal body at work. But when the Heavenly Heart lit up and the Embryonic Light emerged, the Primordial Spirit was truly at work.
Illusions could no longer affect him!
He lit the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp, and its small glow shone on him once more.
"Interesting, interesting... When did it get me?"
Under the Heavenly Heart's light, his recent memories began to replay, little by little.
The image in his Sea of Consciousness froze at the moment just after that dark shadow had returned to his body...
Examining it under the Heavenly Heart's light, he could make out wisps of strange black aura within the shadow.
That aura definitely did not belong to Tang Changsheng...
It was Karmic Sin