Master of Kaidan
Chapter 199: Resurrection Inside a Natural Kaidan

Chapter 199: Chapter 199: Resurrection Inside a Natural Kaidan

Upon hearing Old Li’s seemingly mundane, even somewhat redundant question, Feng Xue felt a sudden chill spread through his heart. An unsettling feeling crawled over his entire body.

At this moment, words like "faith pollution" and "poison of incense" began to flood his mind, transforming into countless related novel contents he’d recalled before, which started to resurface before his eyes.

The idea that Kaidan could resurrect from people’s legends was something he had known for a long time, as early as when Old Li introduced Kaidan to him, telling him that "ancestor Kaidan" could resurrect through imitation and performance.

But now that he thought about it, what exactly was resurrecting?

Was it the nothingness that created that Kaidan?

Or was it merely the Kaidan itself?

Seeing Feng Xue lost in thought, Old Li understood that Feng Xue had finally understood, or at least thought of something, so he continued,

"If performing is a technique to let ’me’ become Kaidan, then the subsequent digestion is to let Kaidan become ’me.’"

"Let Kaidan become me?" Feng Xue chewed over Old Li’s words. Uncharacteristically, Old Li didn’t hold back, perhaps worried that Feng Xue might misunderstand due to preconceived notions, and directly provided an answer:

"The so-called playing method is essentially leveraging the ’nothingness’ itself to ’transform’ oneself to disguise as the so-called ’Kaidan’ and steal the power of the Kaidan fire. Whether that Kaidan originally existed or was created by us, Kaidan is merely Kaidan.

"It’s like an actor playing a role; even if the role was created based on his prototype, the two can never be identical. He can gain attention and popularity through their similarities, but there are always differences—after all, an actor can never be as ’pure’ as a character in a play."

"Is that so..." Feng Xue nodded thoughtfully as he listened to Old Li’s explanation. Old Li’s metaphor was indeed superb. An actor can’t be identical to the character because a character only lives within the story, while an actor is a complete person with emotions.

Kaidan and nothingness are the same. Kaidan is just a story passed by word of mouth, while nothingness is an individual with a complete self.

Just like the oathkeepers told among people are selfless strong ones, orderly figures maintaining balance, who will treat all living beings fairly.

But Feng Xue was not like that.

Once he understood this, Feng Xue had relatively complete comprehension of the so-called playing method, yet he still had no idea how to go about digestion.

However, with a guide in front of him, he didn’t think much and directly asked,

"What should I do?"

"Reconstruct a Kaidan belonging to you."

Old Li uttered a riddle, and Feng Xue immediately frowned,

"Speak human language."

Old Li wasn’t annoyed by Feng Xue’s rude words; instead, he explained,

"Simply put, it’s about recognizing yourself. After acquiring the Kaidan entry, you already have the ability to generate ’identity.’ Recognize yourself, construct your self, and then ignite that ’self-awareness’ ’identity’ with a flame to embrace, absorb, and contain your other Kaidan fires, digesting them."

"Like creating a superior folder and putting other ’Kaidan files’ into it?" Feng Xue quickly made sense of this idea, while on Old Li’s end, the sound of writing "swoosh, swoosh, swoosh" came through, overlapping with Old Li’s voice,

"You can think of it that way, but the actual process is a bit more complex. As I told you before, mimicking Kaidan will awaken the mimicked ancestor Kaidan. This act of establishing self and devouring other Kaidan entries essentially turns you into an ancestor Kaidan, making all subordinate Kaidan entries belong to you.

"This way, when you die, those Kaidan will resurrect from the legends and will cause you to awaken from slumber since they are natural Kaidan perfectly fitting the legend. As a result, you will directly resurrect within these Kaidan—though, if someone plays your Kaidan during this time, you’ll have to engage in a fight to reclaim power."

"Got it, looks like I’m supposed to turn myself into a ’post-sequence’..." Feng Xue inwardly ridiculed while discarding the newly reappearing salt and simultaneously realized a problem—

"According to what you say, wouldn’t those who obtained Kaidan entries by mimicking existing Kaidan be unable to digest them?"

"Correct. Before killing and consuming the ancestor Kaidan, they cannot fully digest the power of the Kaidan," Old Li gave a surprising affirmative answer to Feng Xue. Before he could ask, Old Li guessed his subsequent question and replied,

"As you think, most of the Kaidan in the ’Hundred Tales’ are newborns who haven’t fully digested the Kaidan entries. They were the first to become Kaidan, and as forerunners, they paid the price along with the advantage of having a head start—

"Because most of their Kaidan content stemmed from mimicking existing Eastern Country Kaidan, they have to consume the ancestor Kaidan to truly digest the Kaidan entries. The issue lies in that such contests are mainly at the spiritual level and can only be conducted one-on-one. Under such a premise, ancestor Kaidan easily consumed is generally not highly intense, while strong ancestor Kaidan is not so easily defeated.

"This is why ’Hundred Tales,’ despite its enormous foundational territory monopolizing the entire residential area, still desires to hold every landfill manager position. After all, once the new generation passes the novice phase, they can revive through reading progression, whereas each Kaidan in ’Hundred Tales’ will see a decrease in combat power with every death."

"..." At the moment, Feng Xue felt a sudden clarity. He always thought the ’Hundred Tales’ as the largest organization in Infinite City acted in a petty manner, monopolizing residential areas, and the Tower of Babylon was one thing, but involving itself even in minor areas like landfills only felt understandable as possible Eastern Country cultural influence. But now it seemed the core reason might be this innate deficiency.

However, Feng Xue soon stopped pondering the issue with ’Hundred Tales,’ as he suddenly realized that, while Old Li made it sound easy, recognizing oneself was no simple task, right?

Not to mention, igniting a Kaidan fire that requires strong cognition from thousands, even ten thousand people!

Therefore, he unceremoniously inquired,

"How should I recognize myself? I’m not asking for shortcuts, but at least give me an effective plan."

Feng Xue didn’t doubt Old Li’s knowledge, or rather, the fact that most of the Kaidan participating in the tower climb this time only had one flame was enough to prove that this self-recognition indeed had a complete process—

Or even if there wasn’t a complete process, it certainly wasn’t a high-difficulty task only achievable by one in hundreds.