Pastor's Tantra

"...Resurrected undead?"

Aiwass was a little surprised.

Because he is a genuine priest - a third-level priest, which is the level of a weaker bishop. There was no way he couldn't tell the difference between the undead and the living.

In Aiwass's vision, both the dwarf Maghammer and Old William were real living people. According to them, they all entered Yingjia Village from the swamp, and they were all "resurrectionaries" as the elders called them.

"It is what it is."

The old man nodded slowly and looked at Aiwass with his one eye: "I will tell you this secret because... you are Jacob's chosen successor. And Jacob has a kindness to us that can never be repaid. .”

"I came here just to seek my grandfather's inheritance."

Aiwass bluntly said: "So I need more knowledge, more truth - so please tell me more truth."

"It should be so..."

The old man said softly.

He supported his body with his cane and stood up slowly.

He walked slowly step by step, and with the help of Aiwass, he approached the window sill, staring at the sun in the distance that had risen to the sky at an unknown time.

"Let me ask you a question, Aiwass... You are from the city and a college student. I guess you have a lot better brains than us old guys."

"Excuse me." Aiwass responded politely.

"Suppose there is such a person... After his death, no one saw his body, and no one learned of his death. His body was swallowed up by a swamp somewhere.

"And then, another swamp connected to this swamp spit out another person who was exactly the same as him. This person's knowledge, memory, personality, and abilities were exactly the same as those of the deceased, and his body was also a human body, even The birthmark was the same as the hidden wound. But there was no memory of death. After he woke up...he only thought that he fainted and was picked up.

"So, do you think such a person is the undead summoned by the corpse of the former?"

The old squire said slowly.

Aiwass understood everything halfway through.

——This is a classic thought experiment.

It's called the "Swampman Paradox."

Suppose that when someone dies, a very coincidental reaction happens to give birth to a copy that is exactly the same as the former person at the atomic level and holds almost all the memory and knowledge of the former person, except that it does not have the memory of the moment of death... And this person After waking up, he immediately resumed his life as if he were dead, continued to read the books he had not finished, and went to work as usual the next day.

So is this person the same person as the person who died?

This reminds Aiwass of the "Eggman" in the game EVE - when a pilot is about to die, the space capsule system will kill him instantly, and scan all memories and knowledge with a powerful scan that can destroy the brain. Save it, then use super-light technology to transmit the information to another place, and use the clone to "resurrect" it.

So the person resurrected through this method is still the same person? Or is it a new self?

Aiwass's heart sank.

——Because he immediately thought of himself.

If "Eggman" or "Swampman" is not his true self, then... what about himself?

He's also partly Aiwass Moriarty, but partly not. He awakened the memory of his past life for some unknown reason, but was that "past life" really him? If only the memory is transmitted, is he still the same person in the past?

And if what comes is a soul, is he still Aiwass?

Aiwass has been avoiding this problem in the past. But now this problem has come up on its own.

"...I can't answer this question."

Aiwass was silent for a long time, and could only shake his head honestly.

He really couldn't give a definite answer - because the question had touched himself. Even if Aiwass gives an answer, it is definitely an answer that is not carefully thought out and tends to fool people.

But even if it was such a hypocritical answer, Aiwass didn't want to give it. Because he doesn't want to treat himself so casually.

"You don't know, and neither do we."

The old squire sighed: “But that’s how they came.

"The first outsider to enter Eagle Point Village through this method was Inspector William. And the person who created this special resurrection ceremony and threw him in through this ceremony...

"That's your grandfather, Jacob."

——At that moment, Aiwass suddenly recalled the promotion ceremony he had just completed.

In that hotel, the young Jacob came into contact with Inspector William. But now it seems that Inspector William's appearance has not changed much from that time...

If this is what actually happened in reality, and it was just the dream that was modified by Weizhe...

That means the real William is probably dead.

Without Aiwass's pastoral care, a dream demon that is about to hatch cannot be dealt with. Not to mention that there is an Earthbound spirit guarding there... Jacob was able to escape and survive to give birth to a child, which surprised Aiwass.

Inspector William didn't look very strong either. He most likely died there.

Because they had fought side by side...or had the other party's permission, Jacob decided to use his corpse to conduct experiments to see if he could be resurrected.

But after the resurrection, William has lost the memory of meeting Jacob. Therefore, in his words, the first time he met Jacob was after he entered Eagle Point Village.

"After entering the village for the first time, Jacob brought us new people. These outsiders who entered the village through his resurrection ceremony gave the village some vitality. After all, it was not completely frozen in the cold wind. middle."

The old man recalled the past and said slowly: "And after he returned to the village for the second time... he seemed to be busy with something.

"I don't know what ceremony he was preparing, and I don't know what tricks he did. But that's when children started to be born in the village. That was about twenty years ago."

In this time-stuck and isolated village, a pregnant aborigine appeared for the first time.

It was as if the completely frozen time began to move again... Although the operation was still stagnant, the frozen waterwheel finally started to rotate slowly.

"...Is that why there are no young people in their early thirties in the village?"

Avas suddenly understood.

Not because all the young people of that age have died or left the village.

But since then, no one has been pregnant.

Immediately afterwards, Aiwass also realized another thing: "Doesn't that mean that not many people have died?"

Without outsiders or newborns, the population will only fall but not rise, and it will soon become a completely dead village.

But this village has obviously been around for a long time. And you can still see many middle-aged people on the street...

"...or is it that it was not long ago that the villagers were unable to have children?"

Aiwass asked tentatively.

If the village was sealed from forty years ago, that would be understandable. Time stood still for forty years, and then started to flow again... A young man under twenty years old has now become an uncle in his forties, which is quite appropriate.

The old man just shook his head and said nothing more: "It's not that short.

"We are all Amber people who have sold our souls to Amber and sought refuge; we are all the afterimages that have been forgotten by Sand Time. Being able to continue living is already the limit... How can we participate in 'Rebirth' ceremony.

"Fertility is an extremely sacred ceremony. It heralds the birth of a new soul and is the result of the nine paths. That is not worthy of people like us who have even lost their names."

Aiwass frowned.

Outsider.

Newborn.

What do they have in common...

What is the purpose of my grandfather's experiments here...

He thought for a long time, but finally Lily opened her eyes slightly and realized something.

She gently pulled Aiwass and said something in his ear.

Aiwass' expression paused and he took a breath.

He realized the most outrageous possibility—but even more outrageous, that possibility was even the most likely.

"Old sir," Aiwass suddenly asked, "Those outsiders who were 'resurrected' from the swamp... do they have souls?"

——The Swamp Man Paradox actually has a solution.

Because there is no "soul" on earth. Precisely because there is no soul, matter or thought can become the pros and cons of the philosophical question "What am I?"

But this world is different.

This world really does have a soul - not only does it exist, but in a sense there is also "reincarnation" and the afterlife.

Although it is not directly reincarnated into the next person after death. Instead, it returns to the world like a recycling machine, and then a newborn baby is born from the world... But it does have a unique "soul". It is so unique that it can even make the other person undead to prevent the other person from reincarnating or reaching the afterlife.

On the other hand, if that person becomes an apostle after death, then the other person cannot be turned into an undead. Because the only soul has been taken away.

unless……

Aiwass suddenly remembered why, as a priest, he could not recognize that the other party was an undead.

——What are the criteria for a priest to judge someone as undead?

He had never thought about it.

But now, this almost blurted answer made his hair stand on end.

If time here stands still, you can't get in or out.

——So where do the “extra” souls of strangers and newborns come from?

The old squire was silent.

He slowly turned around and stared at Aiwass with his dim yellow eye.

"some."

The old man replied: "They all have complete souls, souls that are exactly the same as when they were alive.

"But there is another soul stored in the abyss of the swamp. It was their soul in life."

Aiwass finally determined what research his grandfather Jacob was doing while hiding in Eagle Point Village, and why Noble Red wanted his research manuscript so much...

——He is trying to copy the human soul.

update completed!