"So, what impact has the activation of this ability had on me?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Hehehe..." Woody replied with a laugh, "First of all, the 'cage' you used to lock people up in your Mind Palace has disappeared, hasn't it?"

"Oh... that thing..." Feng Bujue said, "I had the 'key' to the 'cage' from the beginning, so it wouldn't have mattered even if it hadn't disappeared."

"Hehe... how can that be the same?" Woody continued, "Being able to find and master the 'key' is because your spirit is strong; but the disappearance of the 'cage' itself... it foreshadows the awakening of your ability." He paused, "Also... don't take it for granted that you're unscathed after the cage disappears; normal people's minds and bodies have limits. If Gu Chen and Qi Zhi hadn't strengthened your spiritual body, even you... would have been in danger of a mental breakdown."

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue thought for a moment, "No wonder you said they 'put in a lot of effort'." He muttered thoughtfully, "Actually, I've been thinking about this... logically speaking, just the fact that I can 'feel the Earth rotating at all times' is enough to drive a person crazy. But... I adapted to that perception very quickly." He paused for half a second before continuing, "In fact, not only did I adapt, but I also felt like I had plenty of energy to spare, so... I did all sorts of experiments."

"Oh?" Woody raised the corner of his mouth and asked, "For example?"

"Take 'perception', for example..." Feng Bujue said, "In addition to the Earth's movement, I can also feel various physiological phenomena in my body, such as blood flowing in my blood vessels, air entering my lungs, and the digestive process of food in my stomach, and so on."

"I know that," Woody replied.

"And on this basis," Feng Bujue continued, "I also tried to perceive more external and concrete things—such as the flow of air, the flow of water, the flow of blood in other people's bodies, other people's breathing, other people's heartbeats, and so on."

"Hehehe... any gains?" Woody asked.

"Combining it with my trained detective skills..." Feng Bujue said, "I can now basically tell whether a person is lying with one hundred percent accuracy." After saying that, he paused for half a second and added, "Oh, of course, I'm talking about humans in the general sense; specially trained agents or guys like you are not within this range."

Woody laughed when he heard this. "Hehe... your attempts are based on 'practical application', which is good, but... precisely because of this, your training method is distorted."

"What do you mean by that?" Feng Bujue asked.

"It's very simple," Woody replied, "From the perspective of training your ability... since you want to train 'perception', then you only need to focus on 'perception' itself. There's no need to combine it with your already well-trained observation and reasoning abilities."

"I see..." Feng Bujue understood very quickly, "To use fitness as an analogy... I don't need to consider what the muscles I build will be used for, I just need to train."

"That's right," Woody continued, "Now that you know the truth about your ability, you need to pay attention in the future; if you want to practice 'perception', don't think too much... and don't use it with a 'purpose', that's the right way to do it."

At this point, he seemed to have remembered something from the past. After pausing for a few seconds, he laughed and said, "Hehehe... come to think of it, someone once gave me such advice..."

"Oh? You also had days when you were guided by someone?" Feng Bujue was immediately interested when he heard this, because Woody rarely mentioned things about himself.

"Hehehe... of course, I wasn't born in hell." Woody continued, "When I first became a devil, a senior told me... apart from some extreme cases, in most cases, people 'like us' are actually slower at practicing cultivation methods or improving our abilities than those fools." He paused, "God is fair... he gave us excellent brains, and we are used to using our 'brains' to solve problems; but when it comes to cultivation, sometimes 'thinking about nothing' makes it easier to improve."

"Hmm..." Brother Jue nodded in agreement, deeply understanding what he meant; although he hadn't achieved anything yet, he could understand what the other party meant.

"You know Gu Chen, right?" Woody continued, "He was a monstrous existence when he was young; a genius in the general sense could only be considered an ordinary person compared to him. But... his spiritual ability's tier hasn't improved for a long time; why? It's naturally not because he doesn't have enough talent, but because... he lacks the motivation to become stronger."

"Are you talking about frustration?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Hehehe... frustration is also part of it, but the key issue is actually the lack of a sense of crisis..." Woody's tone revealed a hint of helplessness when he said this, "Can you understand? Opponents that others can only defeat with the Dali Jingang Zhang (powerful vajra palm) technique, we can take care of with a set of Luohan Quan (arhat fist) techniques, because people like us... can use our intelligence to make the Luohan Quan techniques as powerful as the Jianglong Shiba Zhang (dragon subduing eighteen palms) techniques. So... we've always been using Luohan Quan techniques."

"Ah... I can relate," Feng Bujue clearly understood.

"To sum it up..." Woody shook his head and continued, "Using existing conditions, combined with one's own wisdom, to solve the difficulties in front of you and enjoy the whole process... that's the problem with people like us." He spread out his hands and laughed, "In comparison, people with simpler personalities and minds... don't have this disadvantage. Although, under completely equal conditions, they will often lose to more talented people, but that doesn't matter... because they will gain motivation from failure, and then use the most direct methods they know to become stronger, without thinking about anything else."

"Hmm... when the road ahead is limited, or even only one, you can actually walk faster," Feng Bujue said with emotion.

"Hehehe... and what you need to learn now is to 'ignore some roads' and 'speed up on the right one'," Woody continued.

"Hehe... I'll do my best," Feng Bujue chuckled twice, then turned the topic back to the part he hadn't finished earlier, "Okay, I roughly know the direction of 'perception' training. Next, I'll tell you about my attempts at 'seeing through the laws of how things work'..."

He paused for a few seconds, thought for a moment, and then said, "At first, even for some relatively simple things, I had to concentrate and observe for a while before I could analyze their patterns; and when faced with relatively complex things that were beyond my knowledge, I had to open them or dismantle them to understand them. But... these days, after repeated attempts and practice, my level is almost at the point where—after staring for five minutes, I can take apart and reassemble a smartphone."

"Hehe... not bad," Woody said with a smile, "Using precision machinery to train this part of your ability is indeed a good idea."

"I feel like you're about to say 'but', aren't you?" Feng Bujue guessed correctly.

"Hehehe... but, it's also wrong to only focus on practicing with one type of thing," Woody said as expected, "It's not that the more complex the things you observe, the higher the training intensity of the ability... 'ability' is not a science problem, there's no need to follow that line of thought. There are many substances in this world, 'seeing complexity in simplicity' is what is called 'comprehension'."

"Then... should I try to observe something simple from today onwards?" Feng Bujue asked.

Before he could finish speaking, Woody was already laughing maliciously, "Actually... 'nothing in this world is simple'. When you can understand this sentence, your ability will not be far from the Bing (Combined) level." He licked his lips, "As for what you should observe from now on, my suggestion is animals, plants, ecosystems... After you are familiar with these, you can almost start to work towards returning to simplicity, such as observing 'a drop of water', 'a turd'... these are excellent exercises."

"Why don't you give me a selfie, it will be useful when I reach the realm of returning to simplicity," Brother Jue's retort came as soon as he said it, almost without thinking.

"Hehehe... do you believe that I can transform into a giant turd and wrestle with you?" Woody replied.

"Hmm..." Faced with this very courageous threat, Feng Bujue thought for two seconds, "I admit defeat..." and decisively chose to admit defeat.

"Hehe... okay, let's stop joking here," Woody said, "That's about it for the ability part. It's more appropriate to tell you further information after you reach the Bing level." He pushed his glasses with his middle finger and continued, "So... finally, let's finish telling you about 'this'."

What he said as "this" was undoubtedly the Atari Crown in the package in his hand.

"Ah... that's what we started talking about at the beginning," Feng Bujue said, "But you still haven't told me what this thing has to do with the Candidate Game."

"Hehehe... this thing is actually one of the game props from the previous Candidate Game," Woody explained smoothly, "In addition to the 'Crown', there are also three other props: the 'Philosopher's Stone', the 'Amulet', and the 'Holy Grail'... and the person who collects these four sets can get..."

"...'Holy Sword', right?" Feng Bujue directly took over the other party's words, "I know that, the Atari 'Swordquest' event in the 1980s. I already knew its origin when you asked me to go to the Yage (Argo) ship to get the 'Crown' a few days ago." He wondered, "Speaking of... didn't that event die because the company went bankrupt? Did you recreate it in the Candidate Game?"

"Hehe... that's right," Woody replied, "And... we will still use these things in this Candidate Game."

"Oh~" Feng Bujue's eyes rolled, "So that's why you asked me to get the Crown for you..." He pondered for another two seconds, "But... why didn't you just snatch it yourself? For you, a teleportation, take it and leave... wouldn't that be done? Why bother so much and let me do this?"

"Hmph... it's not that simple," Woody sneered, "According to you, there's almost nothing in this world that I can't do with 'a teleportation'. If there is... use two."

"So... you are also restricted?" Feng Bujue finally probed this question step by step.

"Hehehe..." And Woody also keenly noticed this, "You don't need to ask so cautiously. I will tell you what I can tell you; you can't pry out what I can't let you know from my mouth no matter what..."

Brother Jue curled his lips: "Okay~ Okay~ Then tell me."

Woody continued: "In our universe, there exists something called 'Karma'; it is a power in the dark, created by a supreme being.

"'Karma' is not a tangible substance, but a concept; it transcends time and space, is omnipresent, and constantly affects everything tangible or intangible in the entire universe.

"Whether it is you humans, we devils, or even some beings called 'Gods'... are all restricted by 'Karma'. Our every move will accumulate or eliminate some 'Karma'. If we don't pay attention, it will attract irreversible destruction."

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue thought for a few seconds, "Sounds a bit like 'cause and effect'."

"It's a bit like it, but it's not exactly the same," Woody replied, "However, I can only reveal a broad concept to you, and I can't conveniently talk about the details... because 'explaining the characteristics of Karma' itself will cause a lot of changes in my own Karma."

"In short, it is this power that prevents you demons and ghosts from wantonly doing whatever you want in the world, right?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Hehehe... there are naturally those who do whatever they want," Woody said with a smile, "But the more they do that, the more Karma they accumulate, and the faster they die..." He tilted his head, "And the more well-behaved ones... like us, make 'deals' with humans to achieve our goals."

"Then... what about the guys in Heaven?" Feng Bujue asked.

"They used to make deals too," Woody said, "Before the thirteenth century, they had been providing believers with power, wealth, and the right to war... to expand their religious territory."

"Then why did they stop later?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Hehehe..." Woody did not answer this question, but just smiled without saying a word.

And Brother Jue also read some dangerous information from this laughter and did not continue to ask...

"Ahem..." Two seconds later, Feng Bujue cleared his throat and said instead, "Well... I have one last question..."

"Okay, I know what you want to ask." Woody didn't even wait for him to ask and snatched the lead, "I said, 'Thriller Paradise' is an experiment, so it is different from the previous 'Candidate Games'; the concept I advocate is—since humans are progressing and changing, we, who call ourselves gods and demons... should also adapt to the trend. The kind of game where 'you die and I live' is no longer suitable for the current era. Therefore, Thriller Paradise is a selection that 'does not require the winner to kill all competitors'." As he said this, he stood up from the chair, "But... not everyone agrees with my opinion."

At this time, Woody put away his usual wretched smile, leaving Brother Jue with a back view, and said solemnly: "Feng Bujue, I hope you can win... your victory symbolizes my success and the success of the experiment. And your failure... is not just your personal failure, but in a sense, it is also the failure of all mankind.

"The 'bet' outside the game is not just a bet on a few treasures... the result will also determine who will control the right to speak in the Candidate Game in many centuries to come.

"You can also imagine... our (Four Bastards) 'experiment' of completely breaking the established pattern of the past must be under tremendous pressure from many parties. If the candidate bet by the forces of 'Heaven' or the 'Four Horsemen' wins in the end..."

"I understand." This time, Feng Bujue interrupted Woody.

At this moment, Brother Jue also stood up.

He had a smile on his face, looked at the other person's back, and said in a calm tone... one sentence: "Don't worry, I will win."