Chapter 00272: Liquefied Consciousness
# Liquefied Consciousness
Chapter 272
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 272 Liquefied Consciousness
The wind blew through the verdant treetops, revealing purplish-red mulberries, plump honeybees, and sparrows building their nests.
Beneath the trees, clusters of flowers climbed the trunks in a riot of color, while green shrubs and dark green vines swayed with the verdant treetops in the gentle breeze.
A moment later, the flowers all scattered.
The entire scene, like a flower in a mirror or the moon on the water, vanished amidst ripples.
Li Chengxi clapped his hands and said:
"Incredible! It looks just like the real thing."
"Hehe."
Aidas scratched her head in embarrassment.
"By creating illusions, I can practice the fine control of my divine power more accurately. Besides, when I have nothing better to do, I can use it to relieve my boredom."
Without delay, Li Chengxi immediately gave it a try as well.
Of course, he wasn't trying to bite off more than he could chew.
He had to start with the simplest thing first.
He held up a finger, hoping to create an illusion of a light orb.
But after several attempts, he only managed to produce a small mist of light, far from being an orb.
"Take your time, don't rush. The important thing is a clear image in your mind."
It was extremely difficult for a mortal to control divine power, like riding a fierce steed that was always fighting against you.
After all, a mortal did not possess divinity, so divine power was naturally hard to control.
For a god, however, controlling divine power was the exact opposite; it was as easy as eating and drinking.
The key was imagination, or rather, the will of the god.
Just as it was written in the Bible, God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
A deity could use divine power to twist reality.
The larger the scope of the distortion and the more outrageous it was, the higher the level of divinity and the more divine power it required.
At the same time, the scope of this reality-twisting was also related to the divine office.
For example, Aidas was the Springwater Goddess.
For her to use divine power to draw out an underground water vein and create a spring was a sure thing.
But if she were asked to use her divine power to set a forest on fire, putting aside whether she would be willing to do it, even if she wanted to, the difficulty would skyrocket.
"What if two gods try to twist reality at the same time? For example, say you're trying to put out a fire with water, and another god comes along to start one."
"When different gods oppose each other, it also follows the principle of whether the divine office is suitable, unless your level of divinity is exceptionally powerful."
Let's take Aidas as an example again.
Aidas's divine office of springwater also included the aspect of clean water sources.
The mere act of her walking past a stinking ditch would turn it into a gurgling stream.
Meanwhile, the Plague Goddess's divine office of pestilence was to spread plagues, and poisoning water sources was one of her specialties.
One was purification, the other was poisoning.
Both were exceptionally effective in their own areas of expertise.
In this case, the contest came down to a pure clash of divinity levels.
Aidas's divinity level was far weaker than the Plague Goddess's, which was why she was helpless against the poisoned springwater in the Springlight Woodland.
Conversely, although the Demon God did not have an advantage in terms of divine office, his divinity level was ridiculously strong, so he easily drove the Plague Goddess away.
In short, in a confrontation between gods, being in one's area of expertise was important, but the level of divinity was even more important.
"Then how do you raise your divinity level?"
"That depends on the divine office."
"The more you have, the stronger you are?"
"Having more does give you an advantage, but it's not a case of the more the better. Rather, it's better the more they complement your original divine office."
Using Aidas as an example again, she was the Springwater Goddess.
If she were to obtain the divine office of Earth or Mountains, her divinity level would jump up a notch.
After all, springwater relies on the earth or mountains for its existence; it doesn't just appear out of thin air.
"Additionally, the type of divine office is also related to the divinity level. Divine offices closely related to mortals are generally weaker."
For example, the divine office of Kingship that Li Chengxi held was a relatively weak one.
Natural phenomena that exist in the natural world, however, were considered stronger divine offices.
Things like the sun, moon, earth, storms, volcanoes, and so on.
The strongest divine offices were those related to fundamental principles.
For example, fate, time, space, reincarnation, and the like.
The Demon God once held the divine offices of 'Power', 'Creation', 'Spacetime', and 'Demon Race'.
Apart from the Demon Race, the other three divine offices were absurdly powerful.
Possessing just one of them, even a fragmented part of one, was enough to create a great divine power.
"Normally, no one would be bored enough to split their divine offices for fun. But in the future, if you want to create subordinate gods, or even an entire pantheon, you can split your own divine offices and bestow them upon other subordinate gods."
As Li Chengxi listened to Aidas's explanation, he looked down and saw that the light orb had finally taken shape this time.
"You've already learned it. The rest you can practice slowly when you have free time."
Aidas reached her hand out towards the cola can next to the computer desk.
The can suddenly lit up with a golden spiritual radiance and shot into her hand with a whoosh.
"My divine power is a little low, so I can only demonstrate it this once. You give it a try."
Li Chengxi swiveled his computer chair and also made a grasping gesture in the air towards another can.
As he turned his chair to face the monitor, he happened to see that Audel on the screen was in a state of combat.
He forgot all about the can and quickly asked:
"What the hell? What is Liquefied Consciousness?"
"Ah... that's a Mind Flayer technique. They are creatures without souls, so when they die, they're dead for good. They can't be resurrected with spells."
The soul carries all of a person's consciousness and memories.
The principle behind resurrection spells was to rapidly repair the body and then stuff the soul back inside.
But Mind Flayers had no souls.
When their physical bodies died, they were truly dead, and couldn't be revived by spells.
"So they developed a technique to liquefy and store the consciousness of their dying kin. Once the body is repaired, they stuff the consciousness back in. Because Mind Flayers are extremely skilled in psionics, they can fight using only their psychic abilities even when they are just consciousness."
"Does this thing have any weaknesses?"
"Liquefied Consciousness is mostly composed of water, so it's quite easy to deal with. For example, you can use a necromancy spell like Dehydration, or burn it dry with a fire spell, or electrocute it with a lightning spell. You could also freeze it with a cold spell to immobilize it. Isn't that follower you were paying special attention to a mage? This shouldn't be much trouble for her."
In other words, this type of enemy was troublesome for a pure warrior who just hacked away with a machete.
It was like trying to cut water with a sword; physical attacks were largely useless.
But for a mage, it was something that could be killed in an instant.
However, Li Chengxi saw on the screen that the four people were being chased all over the place by three pools of Liquefied Consciousness.
In the few seconds they had been talking, Audel had even been pinned against a wall by one of them.
Audel could only hold her staff horizontally across her chest to barely block the direct assault of the Liquefied Consciousness.
She looked to be in imminent danger.
This was because the space was too narrow.
The room the four of them were in was only about seven or eight square meters and was filled with various objects.
With all four of them inside, they barely had room to stand.
Drawing a sword might even result in hitting an ally's head with the hilt.
There was simply no space to fight properly.
If it were a more open area, these three pools of Liquefied Consciousness would have been finished off the moment they appeared.
But in such a confined space, anything Audel did could potentially affect her own people, or even blow herself up along with them.
In contrast, the Liquefied Consciousness itself was just water, completely unconcerned with the cramped quarters.
Plus, they possessed psychic abilities, and the dwarf and tiefling, who had little resistance to such things, were already dizzy and disoriented.
His long-term experience with tactical grid games allowed Li Chengxi to quickly grasp the situation.
He was already preparing to intervene directly.
But just then, he saw Audel pull something white out of her magic bag and toss it at the Liquefied Consciousness...