Chapter 688: Thought Infection, Cognitive Distortion

As if responding to the Bodhisattva's concerns, the purple butterfly flapped its wings, slowly flew up towards the Zen sound and Buddha's light, and flew in front of the Bodhisattva.

Different from her sisters whose appearances have been seriously altered, the Butterfly Witch still maintains her fairy-like appearance and flies as gracefully as a startled swan. The only difference is the pair of huge butterfly wings on her back.

"How can you, who are beings without emotions, nature or form, know my joy?"

The Butterfly Witch's beautiful face was exactly the same as that of the Jade Fairy, one of the Seven Fairies. She tilted her head and asked the Bodhisattva with a smile, and it seemed that she was still the innocent and carefree little fairy.

“I dreamed of being a butterfly, a fluttering butterfly. I invite you to come into my dream and fly with me…”

Upon hearing this, Guanyin Bodhisattva's face changed color, and she raised her palm to form a huge golden palm print, as if she wanted to pinch the Butterfly Witch in her palm, but when the giant palm shadow closed, she grabbed nothing.

The butterfly witch seemed real and illusory, tangible but intangible. Her body penetrated the palm but still stood in the air.

As the outstretched wings flapped slowly, countless purple air currents like silk ribbons spread out. The air currents spread in all directions and soon formed a large area of thick purple mist above the sea of blood.

The butterfly witch's eyes sparkled with stars, and in an instant the world of the blood sea collapsed. The shattered fragments were pieced together again, and the scene changed.

The blood-red ocean faded from its deep red to a vast expanse of turquoise blue. The corrupted rocks on the shore where evil creatures bred turned into crystal white jade. The falling blood raindrops turned into pink petals, drifting in the wind like goose feather snowflakes.

The fishy smell turned into the fragrance of flowers, the dim underground space was filled with light, the gray sky turned into a clear blue sky, and the warm sun shone everywhere.

The corpses and limbs of the demon mosquitoes floating in the sea of blood turned into blooming white lotuses and leaping fish.

The four strangely mutated witches regained their original appearance as fairies, wearing feathered robes and colorful silks, and flying like auspicious goddesses.

This is no longer the border of hell or an endless sea of blood. All that is seen is peace and tranquility, like a paradise of fantasy.

More than 100,000 allied soldiers, including a group of divine generals, saw this harmonious and beautiful scene. Jinzha and Muzha even bowed their heads sincerely and praised the magical powers of Guanyin Bodhisattva.

"As expected of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, your mind is sincere, the Dharma is boundless, and your sincerity brings peace and prosperity to the world!"

Seeing is believing, hearing is false. At this moment, all members of the coalition forces fell into a real dream. What they said, heard and felt was exactly the same as the truth. They truly believed that it was the effect of the Buddha's Dharma of Guanyin Bodhisattva, which purified the sea of blood in an instant and created a pure land of Buddhism.

The Western Buddhist monks, in particular, believed it without a doubt and praised the Bodhisattva's virtues together, as if they were collectively playing a picture of victory.

The heavenly soldiers and generals might have hesitated, but when they sent out their spiritual senses, they could not detect anything unusual, and could no longer sense any demonic or evil spirits.

There are all kinds of strange and bizarre magic spells of demons and monsters in the Three Realms, and there are also many magic spells that confuse the five senses and create illusions. However, no matter how strong and realistic the illusion is, a god who has opened the seventh consciousness can see through it by slightly relaxing his spiritual perception.

Although the four gods, Yang Jian, Huang Tianhua, Xiaotian Dog and Huang Feihu, were suspicious, they could not detect that they were under an illusion no matter how hard they tried.

Yang Jian even opened the third eye between his eyebrows and looked around intently. Everything he saw was real, without any flaws or illusions.

"The Western Buddhist Bodhisattva has such magical powers. No wonder he advocated the expedition. It turns out that he has already made a plan and can wipe out all demonic obstacles with just one move."

After confirming that he was not possessed by evil spirits, Yang Jian murmured to himself, his faith in Taoism wavering again: "No wonder several top immortals of the orthodox Taoist school converted to Buddhism. Could it be that practicing Buddhism is the correct way to achieve enlightenment?" Those who are involved are often confused, while those who are not involved can see things more clearly.

Wen Rui, who was peeking at the screen through the drone camera at the information center, opened his mouth wide and murmured in the same tone: "Collective cognitive distortion caused by thought infection? They obviously stole my technology, how come they developed it more advanced than mine! I came up with the PTT, and they realized it for me! The clown turned out to be me!"

A picture-in-picture effect appeared on the big screen, with the split screen showing the scene seen from the perspective of the mind-infected person and the real scene filtered through Jarvis' mechanical mind.

In the real scene, the sea of blood is still the same sea of blood, but in the eyes of the mind infected, it is a peaceful and bright scene.

Thought infection is not an illusion, but rather changes people's perception of something from the underlying logic.

The concept of fragrance has been replaced by stench, the concept of beauty has been replaced by ugliness, right and wrong are no longer distinguished, and truth and falsehood are reversed.

This is thought infection, which is fundamentally different from the sleight of hand that deceives the five senses.

At this moment, if the coalition forces left the sea of blood and returned to the mortal world, what they would see would be a filthy, smelly and ugly hell scene.

If they returned to heaven or Lingshan, what they would see would be a stinking sea of blood and corpses, an indescribable and horrifying dimension beyond imagination, with the Buddha appearing as an extremely evil demon and the Jade Emperor as a violent beast.

I don't know if this cognitive distortion is reversible or not. If it is irreversible...

These coalition soldiers and the generals in command are probably completely useless. They can only feel peace in hell. Seeing any normal scene will cause serious psychological and physiological discomfort.

Cognitive distortion may sound outrageous, but it is very common in the biological world of the real world.

Many parasites can distort the host's cognition, such as iron wire worms, acanthocephalic worms, flatworms, wasps...

The animals infected by these parasites have their original fear perception distorted, and their survival habits completely changed. In order to allow the parasites to enter the next parasitic stage, they even directly deliver themselves to the mouths of their natural enemies.

Although Wen Rui has a level five intelligence, he has his own specialties. His expertise is in mechanical engineering, which is the same as the template owner Tony.

Taoist Mosquito has been soaking in the sea of blood for tens of thousands of years. Even if he is just a pig, he has acquired sufficient knowledge of biology. It is normal for latecomers to surpass others in research level.

Looking at the big screen again, I saw that Guanyin Bodhisattva had changed her sitting posture and was sitting upright on the lotus platform. The lotus petals continued to grow, wrapping it tightly.

Not only Guanyin Bodhisattva, but also Manjusri and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, who were hiding in the dark, also sat in meditation with lotus flowers protecting their bodies.

This seemed to be a defensive posture. The three Bodhisattvas were temporarily unable to break the Butterfly Witch's spiritual power. In order to prevent their minds from being shaken and being taken advantage of by a powerful enemy, they closed their five senses and six consciousnesses, and their spiritual consciousness fought against the inner demons in the mandala of the sea of consciousness.

The gods, heavenly soldiers and monks seemed to have achieved the final victory and let down their guard with ease. They really believed that the blood sea hell had been purified by the Bodhisattva and turned into a paradise on earth.

In the real scene, the sea of blood surged, and the demon mosquito crawled out of the sea again, pouncing on the unprepared coalition forces.

In the distorted cognitive perspective, countless auspicious goddesses walked out of the blue sea holding delicacies and garlands, as if to welcome the triumphant warriors and invite them to the Crystal Palace for a celebration banquet.

(End of this chapter)

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