How can a lake be bigger than the sea?
In reality, this defies common sense, but in dreams, anything is possible.
Qingmu now saw such a scene: a lake that contained the ocean.
The sea is larger than the lake, and it is boundless, but the sea is indeed located within the lake.
The lake water is emerald green, and the sea water is azure blue. The sea water is both inside and outside the lake water. The waters blend together, yet remain distinct and do not affect each other.
The lake is the sea, the sea has islands, and the islands have lakes...
In the distance, rolling green mountains rise, and leisurely white clouds drift across the sky. The interplay of light and shadow is reflected in the lake and the sea. Mist shrouds the mountains and the islands; the clouds in the sky, the clouds in the water, the mist on the mountains, and the mist on the islands all intertwine, yet remain distinct, allowing you to see clearly: mountains are mountains, islands are islands, clouds are clouds, and mist is mist...
This dream space is vast, much larger than that of an ordinary person, indicating that the islanders' Mental Power is indeed stronger than that of ordinary people. Furthermore, Qingmu also noticed that this space is supported by another force, just as he had used his Mental Power to maintain spatial stability in others' dreams. Qingmu deduced that this supporting force originates from the mental energy field that covers the entire island.
He saw Su Huilan enter as well, standing with him at the edge of the dream. Logically, they had both entered the dream while their physical bodies remained in the jungle, posing a certain danger. However, the dream was very short, perhaps lasting only a few seconds. The chance of danger occurring in that blink of an eye was slim, and besides, Petru was monitoring from the mountain; if there was any danger, he would shoot.
Su Huilan was also surprised to see such a dream space. She communicated with Qingmu using her Mental Power, asking, "How was this formed? How did she combine the things from her memories into this?"
Qingmu said, "It's unlikely that she could have pieced it together from memory. Such a scene is not something the brain can simulate. I suspect she's seen it before, or at least has similar scenes in her memory."
The savage woman was on the white sandy beach by the lake, which could also be considered a beach, since the lake was the sea.
In the dream, she looked very young, with firm and delicate skin, and her complexion wasn't as dark as it was in reality. Her breasts were firm, she wore a brand-new grass skirt around her waist, and flower wreaths on her head and neck; she was clearly a young girl.
The girl walked step by step towards the lake, leaving two lines of footprints behind her. When she reached the lakeside, she took off the flower wreath from her head, and her beautiful long hair rolled down. She gently put her hair into the water and carefully rubbed it, and her black hair came alive in the water like a fish.
At this moment, an even stranger sight appeared.
She was washing her hair by the lake. The lake contained the sea, the sea contained islands, and on one of the islands was another lake. And on that lake, another girl was washing her hair...
From Qingmu's perspective, this scene forms a complete Dross effect, creating a visually infinitely recursive form.
Qingmu immediately thought of mirrors, because mirrors were the best props for conducting the Droste effect experiment. Thinking of mirrors, he thought of Situ, and the story about mirrors that Mo Yu had told him, as well as that mirror maze. In addition, in the Dream Guide game developed by Professor Mei and his team, the consciousness enters its own game world through a mirror.
If it were merely a visual representation of the Droste effect, it wouldn't be anything special. But what happened next was not just magical, but rather somewhat eerie.
The girl was washing her hair there, and the girl on the island in the lake was doing the same thing in sync, as if there was a screen there broadcasting her washing her hair live. However, just when Qingmu thought this visual recursion would continue, the girl on the island in the lake suddenly turned around.
The girl on one side was still washing her hair when the girl on the other side turned around and looked at her. The girl washing her hair seemed to sense something was wrong as well, and stood there stunned, one hand holding her hair.
The scene was quite bizarre, like when you're brushing your teeth in front of a mirror, and the person in the mirror is also brushing their teeth. Just as you're frantically scrubbing the dirt from between your back teeth, the person in the mirror suddenly puts down the toothbrush, freezes, stares at you blankly for a long time, and then grins at you.
Not to mention the girl who was washing her hair, even Qingmu and Su Huilan gasped in shock.
The girl washing her hair was clearly startled. After a moment of shock, she tried to straighten up, but her hair, which was submerged in water, seemed to be caught on something. Instead of being pulled up, it pulled her head to the side, almost causing her to fall into the lake.
She tried desperately to pull her hair ashore, but it was as if it had grown roots and wouldn't budge. Not only that, the hair in the water was growing wildly at a visible rate, turning the lake water pitch black like an overturned bucket of ink. This blackness spread towards the center of the lake, and a huge black fan shape could be seen expanding rapidly.
Meanwhile, the woman's hair on the island in the lake was also growing, but not in the water, but on the island itself, spreading out like swarms of black ants, quickly covering the entire island. Then it crawled into the sea, which was in the lake, and the lake was in the sea. At the boundary where the lake and the sea never intersected yet never separated, the two black strands intertwined.
Just like the sky before a storm at sea, two huge black clouds collided, changing the color of the sky and earth, and all the colors of the dream disappeared.
The girl screamed desperately, and several whooshing sounds echoed from the mountains and forests on the shore. Then a group of figures appeared, all shirtless, wearing grass skirts, and carrying spears or bows and arrows. The man in the lead had three tri-colored feathers stuck in his hair.
However, before these people could come down from the mountain to rescue her, the immense pulling force from all the hair in the lake dragged her into the water. The girl desperately tried to climb back to shore, but after only two steps, she was pulled backward and fell, quickly being dragged into the lake. After struggling for a moment, she sank.
This was a typical nightmare, and normally, people would wake up in a fright when they reached this point in their dreams. But Qingmu and Su Huilan didn't want her to wake up, so almost simultaneously, they used their Mental Power to protect this dream space and prevent it from collapsing.
Of course, this is extremely painful for the dreamer. She needs to experience the agony of being near death for a much longer period. What is a fleeting moment in reality feels like eternity in the dream. If this near-death experience lasts too long, the brain will judge itself as already dead, which is how many cases of sudden death in sleep occur.
Qingmu, of course, wouldn't let her die, so he forcibly interfered with her subconscious and dreams. Of course, in order to make her dreams continue, he didn't go in the opposite direction, but instead followed the force of the lake and quickly pulled her to the island in the middle of the lake.
However, once they reached the island in the middle of the lake, everything seemed to enter a cycle again. The surrounding lake and sea disappeared, and the girl returned to the lakeside.
The lake water is emerald green, the sea is azure blue; the sea is both within and beyond the lake. The lake is the sea, the sea has islands, and the islands have lakes...
A girl, soaking wet and looking terrified, stood on the shore. On an island in the lake, a group of strong men wearing grass skirts came down from the mountain and pointed at the lake. The man in the lead had three tri-colored feathers stuck in his hair.