In short, the pressing matter at hand was to first calm down.
Chai Cuiqiao silently lifted the Wolf Brush from the exam paper, looking around the examination hall. All candidates in the hall faced the same situation. Even those who progressed the fastest were merely struggling to write one stroke on the exam paper under immense pressure before their strength gave out, unable to complete their names.
Something’s not right... Chai Chai withdrew her gaze, resting her chin thoughtfully on her hands. The Academic Palace’s final examination is set up for recruiting students, not for torturing them. The Advanced Scholar Groups in Chang’an had rated the 2,500 candidates who advanced to the final exam, dividing them into Class A, B, and C, each with three sub-levels of upper, middle, and lower, to predict who was most likely to pass the final exam and become Academic Palace Disciples. According to the odds, there should be at least four Class A candidates in this examination room. If even they were stumped at the first step, it’s even less likely the other candidates could pass...
Chai Chai became lost in thought, blocking out the external noise.
The invigilator had mentioned earlier that this final exam not only tests courage and perseverance but also one’s nature, intelligence, and enlightenment. There must be clues hidden within the Illusion Realm created by the exam paper. Whether it’s the ordinary candidates who had just begun to possess Spiritual Power or those recommended by the Ministry of War who had been to battle and trained their courage, the starting conditions should be fair for both. As long as one finds the clues, or understands the crux, one can unravel the Illusion Realm...
After pondering for a moment, Chai Chai put the hairpin back on her head, set aside the two intact exam papers, and once again took up the Wolf Brush in front of the first exam paper that was stained black with ink.
In the next moment, the Illusion Realm with alternating light and darkness formed around her. The beam of light projected from above was warm and bright, highlighting the perilous chaos of the surrounding darkness. Without warning, the light above began to shrink slowly, becoming weak and dim, while the surrounding darkness crept over unhurriedly.
Chai Chai felt a chill sweep through her body, her scalp tingling involuntarily with the instinct to turn and flee.
She forced herself to stand her ground and did not retreat, beginning to look around for clues. The light above was cylindrical and shrank at about an inch per breath. It did not seem to emanate from a normal light source but rather seemed to be constructed by the Illusion Realm itself. The ground beneath her feet was neither gold nor wood, seemingly some kind of stone material, hard in texture, with no dull echo when stepped on, indicating no hollow space underneath.
In my hands... I’m not holding a brush. This proves that only my consciousness is within the Illusion Realm. Also, I can use Spiritual Power. But even the best candidates this year have only just entered the Qi Sensing Realm. They have no mastery over talismans or Magic, let alone creating an artificial light source with Spiritual Power to illuminate the environment. Where are the clues?
She pulled out the hairpin she was wearing and firmly gripped it in her hand as a weapon, her eyes peering into the darkness ahead. That eerie sensation of being watched by a natural predator surged again, and uncontrollable fear overwhelmed her will like a tidal wave. Her blood flow accelerated, and her muscles tensed and stiffened. As darkness spread step by step, fear finally reached a threshold, and her feet lifted involuntarily, retreating. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ ⓝovelFire.net
Light and darkness vanished in an instant, and her consciousness returned to the exam hall once more. Extra drops of ink fell from the brush in her hand, further blackening the exam paper.
Just like last time, I didn’t even see what was hidden in the darkness. Almost no progress was made.
Chai Chai placed the brush on the desk, paused a moment, and touched the hairpin securely placed on her head. Hmm... It’s not completely accurate to say there was no progress. In the Illusion Realm, I distinctly removed the hairpin and held it as a weapon. Yet upon leaving the Illusion Realm, the hairpin still adorned my head... Are illusions merely illusions, having no physical impact other than mental intimidation? Wouldn’t it be the case that if you die in the Illusion Realm, the person in reality dies as well...?
After some contemplation, Chai Chai picked up the Wolf Brush again and returned to the Illusion Realm. Before the darkness could scare her back, she intentionally stepped back half a step, exiting the Illusion Realm.
Retreating is indeed the trigger for leaving the Illusion Realm. So, moving toward, walking into the darkness, is the method to break the Illusion Realm? But how do I overcome the fear of the unseen and untouched...?
Chai Chai pursed her lips, looked down at the Wolf Brush, and the previous conversation with Li Ang about the mechanisms of biological fear came to mind.
"That Darwin, based on the fact that chimpanzees fear snakes they have never seen, believed that chimpanzees passed on the trait of fearing snakes to their offspring in the form of genes."
"What are genes? Uh, you can think of genes as the idea that ’dragons sire dragons, phoenixes birth phoenixes, and a mouse’s son will know how to dig holes.’"
"But this theory... to some extent, is half correct."
"The things genes can do are relatively limited. Psychologists and anthropologists have conducted studies showing that humans, even as babies, begin to simply categorize the things around them. For instance, people who walk on two legs, immobile objects, fish swimming in water, dogs walking on all fours, and so on."
"In this process, the brain will build cognitive patterns to filter useful information, irrelevant noise, and potentially harmful information."
"When something occurs that contradicts the brain’s common sense, the brain will immediately identify it as an anomaly and generate a fearful curiosity."
"For example, when you’re walking down the street and everyone is walking upright on two legs, you simply won’t be in the mood to observe each individual. However, if on a regular street, suddenly a few people start crawling on all fours with their faces to the sky, fear will involuntarily arise, even before curiosity or confusion."