Myriad Paths

In Zhu Fengdan's cave, Li Qi was chatting with his teacher after a long absence.

After Zhu Fengdan raised the question, Li Qi immediately replied: "I encountered some problems and wanted to ask the teacher for advice."

It is only natural for students to ask their teachers for advice.

"Oh? You're so smart, I thought you wouldn't encounter problems at the seventh level. Tell me, what's the matter?" Zhu Fengdan asked.

"Me, why me?" Li Qi asked.

This is the question that Li Qi is most confused about.

What I am.

It's not clear at all.

"This question... Well, I'm thinking about how to say it. It's a little early to tell you this now. If I tell you, it's hard for you to understand, and it may even mislead you, causing you to have other problems later. "Zhu Fengdan's head looked distressed.

Moreover, his hand was still scratching something ten meters away. Looking at that thing, he probably wanted to scratch his head.

Unfortunately he can't do that now.

But Li Qi could tell that his distress was real, and Teacher Zhu really wanted to scratch his head.

Because this kind of thing is really difficult to say. If you tell Li Qi directly, the problem may be bigger.

If something goes wrong, Li Qi's understanding will go astray, or he may know something in advance, which will lead to early development, which will affect the future path to go astray, or it may be a dead end.

On the road, if you take one wrong step, you will make mistakes every step of the way.

The price of trying to change after making a mistake is too high. Otherwise, why would so many powerful people choose to reincarnate and rebuild?

It was really hard to get back, so I just ended my life and started over.

Zhu Fengdan was troubled for a while, then his head flew up and shook: "But you are also a measured person. Now that you ask me like this, you must know what you know, right? If you go to see the Witch God, he will definitely know the same thing. Give you some advice on this.”

"Teacher has a wonderful plan." Li Qi cupped his hands and said.

"In this case, I won't tell you anything. Let me just give you a few conjectures. Remember, these are all conjectures. None of them can be believed. They are contradictory and conflicting with each other. They can only serve as inspiration for you. use."

After hearing Zhu Fengdan's words, Li Qi sat down cross-legged, then took out a pen and paper, listened carefully, and prepared to take notes.

Of course Li Qi understood.

In the process of enlightenment, something like this will happen. You will find that your view of the same thing at different times will be completely deflected.

Moreover, both viewpoints seem to make sense, and if used in practice, they can also have different effects.

That's why it is said that the road is dangerous.

When you are at the ninth level, useful ideas are adopted. By the eighth level, this idea may become part of the shackles. And you don't know yet, you will only find that your cultivation has begun to stagnate, but you can't find the reason.

At this time, a few words of advice from a good teacher is better than ten years of hard work on your own.

Zhu Fengdan began to play the role of a teacher for the first time and lectured to Li Qi.

He did not use sermon sounds, which are used to convey extremely complex systems of knowledge and can condense a large amount of information into a single syllable.

What he wanted to teach Li Qi today was not those things.

What he wants to say today is just a 'guess', something similar to chatting.

It is only for inspiration and never for any substantive teaching.

Because of this kind of thing, Zhu Fengdan's idea may be right for him, but if he tells Li Qi, if Li Qi uses it, his life may be ruined.

Zhu Fengdan thought for a while: "Suppose, I mean suppose, that a powerful person uses his own magical power to create an exact replica of you. Is this person you?"

"No." Li Qi said immediately.

Whether it is from intuition or thinking, although the two people are exactly the same, they are obviously not the same person.

"Yes, of course it can't be you, because no matter how similar they are, they are two independent material entities. Killing one of them will not affect the other, and the two of you are not connected in mind, so we can draw a conclusion, That's the exact same body, it's not a necessary condition for me to be who I am," Zhu Fengdan said eloquently.

Li Qi was writing furiously below.

Zhu Fengdan continued: "Although these two bodies are the same, you are independent and free entities, and are essential things. The independent existence of each other does not need to rely on other things."

"Then, to take this hypothesis to an extreme, after creating an identical you, all aspects of you, including thoughts, memories, and feelings, will be exactly the same as the original one, and then completely destroy the original you. At this time, this new you You, still you?"

Faced with this question, Li Qi thought for a moment and then replied: "To other people, he is me, but to 'me', he is definitely not."

Zhu Fengdan nodded: "Yes, two more questions arise at this time."

"The first question is that you may not be the real you in the eyes of other people in this world, and the real you may not be recognized by other people."

"So...?" Li Qi was a little confused.

Zhu Fengdan emphasized again: "Don't ask so, you can figure out the 'so' yourself. I only talk about the doubts derived from these things, and you can think about the rest."

Then, he continued: "Now let's talk about the second question, that is: since the physical bodies are exactly the same, but because they are two different entities, they do not have continuity in time and cause and effect, so it can be concluded that the two The conclusion is that the exact same person is actually different. This leads to the conclusion that he is actually not you. This is a counter-evidence. "

"Then, if we continue to go to the extreme, we abandon the physical entity, and now another personality appears in your mind. This personality is the same as what was said before. He has all your thoughts and all memories, and has nothing to do with you. The difference is, love what you love, hate what you hate, understand what you understand.”

"So, this second personality has no body. He is just another consciousness that suddenly appears. Now, this personality has killed your original personality and has taken control of your body silently and without any pain. Then , is he still you?"

This question was a little more tricky, and Li Qi fell into deep thought again.

If the body exists as a physical entity, the difference between the two entities can be clearly distinguished in any case, because the two have no continuity of time and cause and effect, and exist independently and freely...

What about spirit?

If the spirit also undergoes such changes, does it mean that there is a spiritual entity like the physical physical entity? Only in this way can there be a ‘two’ spirit.

With the existence of this spiritual entity, can spirit and will be judged, because spiritual entities and physical entities have the same properties and can be unified by the continuity of time and cause and effect?

This spiritual entity cannot be the divine soul, because the divine soul is a tangible substance, not an illusory consciousness. The divine soul assumes part of the responsibility of thinking and is a part of the physical body of this world.

Because it is not a soul, the spirit is more mysterious, but it is still a distinguishable entity?

While Li Qi was thinking, Zhu Fengdan did not stop.

He continued: "If you understand the above two steps, then we will go one step further this time. Now you have lost your memory and lost all your memories. Then, such a personality appears that is exactly the same as before you lost your memory. Is he you? You It’s still not you?”

Li Qi's thinking was interrupted and his mind was confused.

If the spirit has an entity, then in what form does this entity exist?

The answer is obviously that thoughts, memories, feelings, and preferences are the characteristics of spiritual existence, because apart from these, people cannot prove the existence of spirit at all.

Only thoughts, memories, feelings, and preferences can prove the existence of spiritual entities.

Well, if a person suddenly has permanent amnesia and completely forgets his previous experiences, everyone knows that at this time, it is difficult to say that this person is still the same person.

A person who has lost his memory is no longer the same person as before. Although he has continuity in time and cause and effect, it is difficult for anyone to recognize that he is the original person.

Because from the perspective of thoughts, memories, feelings, and preferences, he has become another person, another spiritual entity, because the representation of his spiritual entity has completely disappeared and he has become another person.

At this time, another spiritual entity with previous characteristics suddenly appears. At this time, who is who?

According to things like thoughts and memories, the second will that pops up is real, and the one with permanent amnesia is fake.

Li Qi was confused.

But Zhu Fengdan seemed to have no end, and continued to ask without stopping: "So, the spiritual entity and the physical entity are not enough to prove that you are yourself, so what do you rely on to prove yourself?"

Li Qi frowned. He suddenly raised his head and said, "According to this statement, teacher, does self-identity seem to be a little prominent on this issue?"

Matter is an independent and self-contained entity.

Spirit is also an entity independent of matter.

Because of the existence of these two entities, the entity has causal and temporal continuity, so it can be judged as ‘I’?

Then, ‘I’ is an entity with temporal and causal continuity?

So, to come up with the answer, what matters is identity.

Is this the answer?

Li Qi didn't know.

"Don't ask me. Today I am only responsible for making conjectures and asking questions, not for answering them." Zhu Fengdan rolled his eyes: "This is the third time I have said this today. I will take action next time."

Li Qi shut up obediently and listened honestly.

After that, Zhu Fengdan continued to raise various conjectures.

For example, do spirits really have entities? Are the choices you make out of free will, or are they based on many external factors that have been previously determined? For example, the state of the brain nerves and the state of the soul.

If Li Dao's puppet is precise enough, it can be almost the same as a real person.

So how to judge whether others are not puppets and really have spiritual entities?

Human thoughts are most likely just a fluctuation caused by various substances that are governed by physical laws to form specific neural networks.

For another example, are spiritual attributes independent of physical attributes? Is the mind the spiritual attribute of a physical entity?

Zhu Fengdan talked for a whole day, not talking about anything practical, only talking about these questions without any answers. These questions lead in contradictory directions, but they all make sense.

For a whole day, he bombarded Li Qi with these endless questions.

There are too many such conjectures, too many 'possibilities'.

Li Qi felt like his head was going to explode.

Every time Zhu Fengdan asked a question, she gave him a new choice.

Now there are hundreds of choices in front of him, and each one seems to be right, can be used, and can be used as a guide on the path. Some can even be developed further to develop new techniques. The new magical power can greatly increase his combat power or improve his cultivation level.

But the more choices there were, the more confused and scared Li Qi became.

Having too much is actually a kind of evil barrier.

Inner demons gradually arose, and the demonic thoughts of fear and doubt began to breed in Li Qi's heart.

Zhu Fengdan glanced at Li Qi at this moment.

His whole body was covered in cold sweat, his hands and feet were trembling, the pen and paper used for recording were thrown to the ground, his eyes were bloodshot, countless thoughts were tumbling in his mind, and the answer to each question seemed to be related to his future.

well.

Long before this sermon, Zhu Fengdan had said in advance that it was not good to encourage others, and telling Li Qi some things would only add to his burden and make his future path more difficult.

Look, this is coming.

However, he still believed in Li Qi.

It's a bit difficult, but it's always smooth sailing. In fact, it's also very dangerous, and your ability to resist risks will be greatly reduced.

Alas, the road is such an awkward thing.

The journey is safe, but it is also dangerous.

Is it right to deliberately abandon stability to look for danger and turn danger into opportunities?

That's nonsense. Danger is danger. If you can't survive it, you'll die. Pursuing that thing is just out of your mind.

Those who deliberately pursue danger usually die early, and only a few lucky ones can be screened out.

No matter how talented you are, you can only rely on luck at that time.

But what the great leaders want is not good luck, good luck is of no use.

But there is no way. There must be many reasons for a genius to grow up.

Wait until one day later——

Zhu Fengdan's head floated in the air and said: "The last question is, how can we be sure that the reincarnation of a powerful person is ourselves? After committing suicide and being reincarnated, why don't they worry about becoming another person?"

Li Qi was stunned.

yes.

If reincarnated, the continuity of the physical body will be broken.

In other words...spiritual entities really exist?

Reincarnation means abandoning the physical entity, choosing the spiritual entity, and then obtaining a second physical entity?

But... reincarnation also has the mystery of the womb, and you will lose your memory...

Li Qi fell into deep thought again.

Zhu Fengdan looked at Li Qi, whose eyes were bloodshot and his whole body was exuding despair, and shouted loudly: "Okay, don't look like that. I won't be responsible if you die here soon. What are you thinking about?" If you get your own answer in one day, I will give you a ball to play with. Get out of here and think about it later!”

After Zhu Fengdan shouted loudly, Li Qi raised his head and his mind became clearer.

He reluctantly got up, saluted and said, "Thank you so much, teacher. I'll think about it when I get back..."

Zhu Fengdan's head turned around Li Qi irritably: "What are you thinking about? It's useless to think so much. These are just introductions. Do you understand the introduction? You are only in your thirties, do you really want to reach the sky in one step? If you don't care, This stuff is just a bunch of crap, and if you think about it, this stuff is your motivator.”

"Clear your mind, go have a meal, change your clothes, and then get out of here!"