Chapter 256: Chapter 210: The Stronger, the Weaker; the Weaker, the Stronger
Is knowing more a good thing?
It certainly is a good thing, always has been, for understanding the world and recognizing all things are extremely important aspects. It’s because of the accumulation of such knowledge and experience that people can better pursue benefits and avoid harm. Summarizing and applying laws and rules enables people to do many things they couldn’t do before.
Even Du Chengfeng himself has enjoyed the benefits in this regard.
Or rather, everyone enjoys such benefits, just like in the memory fragment he just saw, the Yin Priest holding the Bronze Halberd also enjoyed the convenience of "knowing a lot." It’s because he knew more, he could easily forge weapons, utilize those strange Secret Techniques, and clearly know how to grow stronger.
But is knowing more really a good thing?
"...Not necessarily."
Du Chengfeng squinted his eyes.
Whether or not something is good always depends on the environment. In the peaceful world he used to be in, knowing more would certainly be a good thing—but that’s not necessarily the case now, because this world has another saying.
It’s the principle summarized by the Chu people through continuous trials.
"A firm will can change everything."
It’s not just "I will do it persistently and eventually succeed," but truly changing reality through one’s will—the best example is the Gray-Black Fire Phoenix nailed to the wall at a distance, whose extreme obsession with becoming an Immortal even allowed it to break free from its physical body, becoming a pure aggregation of consciousness. Similarly, the emperor of the Nan Chen Empire, due to his immense hatred towards the Gray-Black Fire Phoenix, turned into the form of the Illusionary Sword after death and even gained the ability to harm the Phoenix.
Du Chengfeng never thought this was an issue, given he had become accustomed to the absurdity of this world. But now, he’s suddenly realized a point.
That is, the so-called "firm will" conflicts with "knowing more."
In order to know more, one must maintain a relatively humble attitude. The more you know, the more you realize how little you actually understand. In this process of seeking knowledge, you must endure numerous hardships until you find that little bit that can be called "right."
But this "right" is not truly "absolute."
For this, Du Chengfeng has had personal experiences. Whenever he thought he understood this world well enough, this ghostly world would always give him a "surprise," which directly leads to him constantly revising his understanding, incorporating new insights into his experience. This indeed made him know a lot, even deepening his understanding of Evil Qi.
But it also took him further away from the so-called "determination."
It’s unavoidable. To maintain the absorption of new knowledge, it’s hard to be entirely resolute. Everything around is constantly changing, and he naturally has to adapt to these changes to understand and summarize experiences. But once he becomes overly resolute, he won’t be able to absorb any new knowledge, as he himself possesses power, relying merely on pure strength to perform miracles.
The Chu people’s so-called "domineering" is the ultimate interpretation of this concept. In the Chu people’s understanding, the strong should use their will to trample everything in the world.
But this concept itself is paradoxical.
To practice dominance, one must have power, must become strong, and to become strong, one needs to learn various skills, to understand the rules of this world—and in this process of becoming stronger, the more you learn, the harder it is to maintain determination amidst the complex information, and this ironically takes one further away from dominance.
"In other words, the stronger you are, the weaker you become, the weaker you are, the stronger?"
Du Chengfeng suddenly felt his brain overloaded.
No matter how you look at it, the conclusion he drew is somewhat abstract, but it’s this kind of absurd thing that actually exists in this ghostly world.
Even science fiction writers wouldn’t dare to use such an exaggerated setting, let alone fantasy novels where there’s a normal leveling and skill tree process, or martial arts novels where practicing leads progressively to strength—there’s no such a contradictory logic.
In such a ghostly mechanism, is there really the possibility of becoming stronger?
It seems, there actually is.
At least the Yin Priest originally holding the Bronze Halberd found a solution.
The memory fragments did not cut off here, but continued, and under Du Chengfeng’s observation, the Yin Priest indeed chose to lead his team to continue besieging cities—just like the first time he breached enemy cities, every place they went, this Yin Priest left no survivors, using his terrifying power to crush all living things within view.
And in this process, the Yin Priest indeed became stronger.
By the time they attacked the third city, one of the five warriors could only watch, and by the fourth city, two of the Yin Warriors could only stand aside. By the fifth, sixth, and up to the eighth city counted by the Yin Priest, this formidable priest had already taken to the skies, with just a swing of his Yue Saber, he demolished half a city.
