"Immortal mind, naturally, is a mind that will not perish or have thoughts of ending its life, no matter how time washes over it or what setbacks it experiences," Roger described simply.
"In other words, what you desire is a mind with great 'resilience' and 'strength'."
"You could also put it that way," Roger nodded.
"Then your path is definitely problematic," Nicolas Flamel stated with certainty.
He then began to explain, "You use the Time Plague Technique to connect the past and present, interacting with power and thought to a certain extent to protect yourself from timeline attacks. There's no issue with that."
"But using it as a multifaceted mirror standing above spacetime to reflect yourself and anchor your identity – I don't think that step is feasible."
"I'm about to say some things that might not be pleasant, I hope you don't mind," Nicolas Flamel gave Roger a heads-up.
"...Please, go ahead," Roger replied. Although he was powerful in magic, he never considered himself the most intelligent person. He believed his thinking was ultimately limited by his experiences and ways of thinking, so having flaws was normal.
That was why he planned to promote Virtual Reality, the Second Magic, the Three-Dimensional Law, and a series of other things, leveraging the collective wisdom of all beings to compensate for his own shortcomings.
"Roger, you are not old. Even if you've experienced many lives, frequent, superficial experiences might cause you to subconsciously overlook this point."
"A person's thoughts change at different stages of life. This is a very normal part of it, a constant state."
"In infancy, one only thinks of feeding and excreting. As one gets older, desires increase – youth, adulthood, middle age, old age..."
"You might think that only the mindset of a young person is the healthiest, and that the thoughts of middle-aged and elderly people are corrupt."
"But you see... the thoughts held by any age group, as long as they aren't so self-conflicted that their mental state is compromised, are not 'wrong'!"
Saying this, Nicolas Flamel changed the subject. "Not to go too far back, let's use yourself as an example."
"Your mindset before the Middle Eastern war, your mindset during the war, your mindset when you were imprisoned and tried in Britain, your mindset when you first encountered magic, and your mindset after achieving success in the magical path – they were all different."
"Do you believe there's a hierarchy among these?"
"If so, which is higher, and which is lower?"
Roger opened his mouth, "I..."
Nicolas Flamel waved his hand, interrupting the answer Roger was about to give.
"You don't need to tell me which is higher or lower; it's completely unimportant."
"What's important is this."
"Changes in mindset are also part of development. Perhaps the present is good, or perhaps the past was good."
"But by using the Time Plague Technique to anchor yourself with your past self, you've inherently limited the development of your spiritual path."
"The discomfort you're experiencing now is partly due to the emotions of the phantoms from history eroding your thoughts."
"And the other part, I suspect, is..."
"Your mind spontaneously wanting to enter the next mental stage, but being forcibly terminated by your time-anchoring magic, causing a backlash!" Nicolas Flamel said with a serious expression.
"If you truly wish to achieve the immortal mind you envision, you must learn to accept the changes in your mindset."
"Just like the saying you once uttered."
'Everything is easy, but ease is not easy.'
An immortal mind is not an unchanging mind, but a mind that is forever vibrant, forever open to new things, forever progressing and growing! Roger wanted to entrust Nicolas Flamel with a key technology for his path to eternal life, so he naturally had to reveal some of his background.
Therefore, Nicolas Flamel knew that the past Roger's Time Plague Technique could trace back was not very long.
The self-anchoring Roger spoke of actually began from the period after he achieved his magic.
The time before he accomplished his Three-Dimensional Law was not included within the scope of his 'self-anchoring'! "I think I roughly understand what you're saying," Roger's expression turned grim after listening to Nicolas Flamel's explanation.
While he didn't agree with everything Nicolas Flamel said, it was indeed a possibility.
If his path was flawed from the very beginning of self-anchoring...
Then, continuing to stubbornly pursue the path of reincarnation would only lead to things getting worse.
"But if I don't anchor myself with spacetime magic, how will I still be myself after hundreds of billions of years, and not get lost by being influenced by the minds of all beings?"
This wasn't just about the Reincarnation Plan; Roger intended to borrow the wisdom of all beings for his cultivation in the future. Even if he didn't execute the Reincarnation Plan, he would still face this problem.
When a new problem arises, it's often followed by a string of even more troublesome issues.
"To be able to maintain oneself while continuously progressing..."
If Roger could achieve this, he would essentially have achieved a certain degree of immortal mind, rendering the Reincarnation Plan unnecessary.
This reminded Roger of a movie he had seen as a child in his previous life.
It featured a comical scientist who invented a flashlight that would only light up when illuminated by another light source; without light, it wouldn't shine.
Roger faced a similar predicament.
To put it more vividly, it was like having a broken computer and needing to search online for methods to fix it, but because the computer was broken, he couldn't get online...
With this thought, Roger began to consider if there were other magical solutions.
A broken computer could be taken to another technician for repair, but in the entire magical world, there was no one ahead of him on the path to immortality.
He could also use someone else's computer or phone to go online.
Someone else's...
"Faith?"
"No."
"The path of faith is fundamentally similar to my spacetime anchoring; it still limits self-development."
"Then..."
Roger began to think frantically.
At this moment, Nicolas Flamel said, "Perhaps you shouldn't work in isolation."
Proposing a question is always easier than solving it.
Nicolas Flamel's intention was not just to pose a question, but to help Roger solve it.
"You should retrace your steps, everything you've experienced."
"Perhaps after you do this, you'll find your own answer."
"You said you wanted to find your true self through the Reincarnation Plan."
"But I think, compared to reflecting yourself through the myriad phenomena of all beings."
"Reflecting yourself through yourself is not bad either."
"Your previous mistake was that you reflected far too little."
"Your Time Plague Technique only connected to the part where you achieved fame and success."
"It completely missed your original path. Incomplete self-reflection naturally leads to a series of various problems," Nicolas Flamel said.
"If you retrace all your past, and let 'change' itself become a part of you, perhaps some wonderfully different reactions will occur."
"...Of course, what I'm offering is merely a suggestion. Ultimately, you'll have to experiment step by step to determine what's right and wrong."
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