Chapter 297: Illusions
Illusions were something humanity had experienced since prehistoric times. Whether it be by drugs, sleight of hand, or through stagecraft, it had been with humanity every step of the way. It came as no shock to Li Lang that Qi arts and formations could produce similar effects.
However, they were quite rare. During his intensive research into cultivation techniques, he hadn’t come across any of them. It was partly due to his focus on traditional cultivation techniques rather than Qi arts, but he surmised it was also because few wanted to share such abilities. It was the same with magicians. If they revealed their trick, then it would no longer mesmerize the crowds. It was almost definite that cultivators who used illusion techniques kept them close to their chest.
Unfortunately, that meant counters to illusions also weren’t widespread for the same reason. Only a fool would expose how you defended yourself for others to study.
Hmm, while I’m unclear what delivery methods Qi arts and formations are capable of, the end goal should be the same—to fool the brain.
So far, Li Lang observed that illusions using formations were more common. That was likely because it was a huge drain of Qi to maintain them. Illusion Qi arts likely only worked for short moments of time, as they didn’t have the same leeway as a formation. This likely meant that these Qi arts required a constant connection to fool the brain. Once it shuts off, the effects would disappear.
This’ll be just like the programming session I did for artificing. I’ll need to adapt the Absolute Dome Art to recognize when I am under the spell of an illusion and react appropriately. Otherwise, it would just drain my Qi.
It was one thing to measure his brainwaves and activity with specialized equipment, but in order for the technique to pick up on mental manipulation, Li Lang would have to get creative. How Qi reacted to a person’s mental state wasn’t exactly well-studied. He would have to do plenty of tests to track down what worked.
Too bad Li Lang couldn’t just shut everything off and only focus on his research right now. He was trapped in the crypt of some old expert, and it was set up to force him to move on if he lingered for too long.
An hour into his research, Ruby alerted him to the rumblings of his surroundings in the physical space. He was forced to pause his research and advance through the trials. It was only when he solved them that he took some time to continue his study.
Thankfully, he wasn’t completely grasping at straws. Knowing what he desired of the input and output simplified things, and he soon got a basic method that should theoretically block out illusions while active. It couldn’t detect illusions or trigger automatically, but it was enough to test his theory about the entire place being a hallucination.
The Absolute Dome Art was deployed around him before he activated his new additions.
Looking around, he found himself in the same cold cavern, with nothing changing.