Chapter 43

I hadn't noticed before, but now I see that after the monster died, its body didn't lie across the road as a corpse, but slowly turned into black mist and dissipated.

"Do these stories record the reason for the monster's birth? ... For example, why did it appear now?"

Mo Huaizhen didn't mind my many questions and patiently pieced together the clues from his memory: "I can't say for sure either. The book doesn't record much about it, only summarizing the whole thing with the words 'endless troubles' and 'no solution for now.' I can't be completely sure now either, but based on my observations and speculations, I judge that there should be some connection between them... So when I sensed the fluctuations there from afar, I immediately decided to go. More samples mean more credible clues, and I didn't expect to meet you."

“Me? You mentioned earlier that I possess a peculiar power. I'm sorry, I don't know much about it. I've tried to understand what the problem is, but I haven't found the answer… It's not described much in the books I can find.” I looked at him sincerely, and his clear, bright eyes met mine without flinching. The young man, well past fifty, moved his lips slightly.

“Cough… Ah. It’s an intuition,” he said, frantically fiddling with the arrow fletching, almost plucking the feathers off. “I think you should have noticed that in life, there are many people who inexplicably become very close to you, or who always try to get close to you. I have more abilities than them. If they just feel that you are approachable, then I can see the flow of energy within you, why it gathers outside the body, how it operates, and what it looks like.”

I kept listening, and as I listened, I couldn't help but step on the cracks between the bricks. I heard his silence, and looked up to see why he wasn't speaking.

Now it was my turn to be stunned.

There was an emotion in his eyes that I couldn't quite describe, as if he were reading someone's tormented soul. I think he was probably reflecting on his own academic journey—over fifty years, filled with hardship, arduous study, and repeated cycles. My probing wasn't based on any reconciliation with him.

He said to me, as if he had made up his mind: "There is a seed inside you. I know it, I..."

He frowned, hesitating to speak. I guessed he didn't want to tell me; perhaps it involved a deeper secret, one that even knowing the truth, he couldn't bring himself to reveal because he was still irresistibly drawn to it.

“But I hope you don’t know too much,” he concluded. “Knowing too much won’t do you any good.”

Here, I must stop. This is the right choice. I stand still, and under his puzzled gaze, I take his bow and arrows, awkwardly mimicking his movements.

I said, "First of all, I'm an adult. Secondly, I don't know what you're seeing. Do you have eyes that can see the future?"

"But whatever I do, I must follow my heart. This is not because I am ignoring advice, but because I have already engraved your suggestions in my heart. When I find that I cannot do it or do not want to do it, I will express my gratitude to you for the advice you have given me."

The arrow flew lightly, grazing his cheek, causing his clothes to flutter even without wind. The seed was planted inside the monster, and soon, as it grew, it caused the monster to explode. A cloud of black mist, with nowhere to hide in the world, left only the withered seed, which had just sprouted a single bud.

"Are you angry?" He watched me walk away to pick up the plants and couldn't help but ask. "I didn't mean to say that to pique your interest. I know that people who only say half of what they mean are the most annoying. Are you angry with me?"

I turned around, puzzled, and walked back to him: "Why would you think that?"

I placed the new sprout in his palm, and its roots quickly spread through his veins. I could sense Mo Huaizhen's strength; a beginner was naturally no match for a senior from a sect, and he could easily drive this small plant away if he wanted to. But he didn't.

"I'm glad you're not angry." He breathed a sigh of relief. "This plant is lovely. As the creator, do you know its name?"

"I don't know," I said bluntly. "Can you figure out why you're being so friendly to me?"

“I’ve seen it before, in the yard when I was a child. It’s called Sky Dome, and it’s hermaphroditic. When it grows up, it produces round, plump flowers. The flowers are only green, and apart from being soft, they’re not much different from seeds. It has two channels inside its body; the narrower one is for self-pollination, and the wider one is a suicide path. If it can’t survive on its own, it’s more likely to wither and die.” Mo Huaizhen explained to himself, “Sky Dome doesn’t like light, heat, humidity, or dryness, and it especially dislikes cold and water. If you try to cultivate it, it will always die; but when it grows freely, it can live anywhere.”

"How much does it have to do with me? I am not its creator; it is its own creator."

"Its language is 'eternal love, tolerance, and everlasting gaze'... It's called 'the language of flowers,' right?"

Mo Huaizhen watched as the sky entered his body, and, somewhat intrigued, spun around a few times. I thought he seemed very childish, not at all like an elderly person.

“I am friendly to you because I have seen you.” He was candid. “I know there must be some kind of attraction at play, but I cannot deny my feelings for you because of that. I am not a student of the study of souls, but your soul has already overflowed, more so than anyone I have ever seen. You know, the soul has an average value. The soul of a noble person will appear in a full state throughout their body, while the soul of a base person will wander in fragments in various places, neither near nor far.”

He started talking about things I couldn't understand at all—soul values, nobility and baseness. Considering my past environment, I'm lucky I didn't grow up to be a morally deficient person. He was probably blind to these similar concepts.

I just thought that maybe we could get more information from people who live in the same world as us and might know the truth.

Looking into his eyes, which swayed with the shadows of the trees behind him, and at the faint smile that unconsciously appeared on his face, I believed that these were very likely sweet words meant to send me to be dissected. He used fabricated stories to attract me, and feigned gentleness to comfort me, making me want to cry for no apparent reason.

I stubbornly denied his words: "Let me see what you described with my own eyes next time we meet. As an apology for taking up your time, how about I treat you to a meal?"

"Okay," he readily agreed. "I haven't eaten out in a long time either."

He specified, and I went to buy it. We each had a roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), a very simple meal. The juicy texture brought back a shadow in my mind, and I simply accepted the memory that had surfaced. I didn't even have time to react; I was just lost in thought, and then I forgave it all. Those years I spent hiding, those unnoticed lives, those times when everything I did was hated.

It seemed like there had been some prior warning, and I was quick to forgive.

But he still left unsaid.

At the same time, I realized that Ward was nearby.

While I was lost in thought, Mo Huaizhen went and bought some milk tea, looking quite excited. I sat on a bench by the roadside and waited for him to return.

“Because you’ve become more connected to the world, I can no longer help you suppress it…” Ward said dejectedly. “Sorry, I only have the ability to exploit loopholes in the rules. Oh right, don’t worry, I’m in your head now, you can think whatever you want! That’s a dialogue!”

"Don't you have anything to say to those monsters?"

"Those are the loopholes in the world!" Its voice sounded innocent and pure, and I vaguely saw a golden light flow before my eyes. "But I really want to solve them... there are just many obstacles, but fortunately, I'm almost able to solve one of them!"

I don't think it'll do anything good. I went back to my previous question and asked it: "Right now I only see these monsters, but I can't guarantee that it's not you who misled my memories and those of some others. You are a wisp of consciousness in the world, a being higher than gods, can you assure this world, swearing with your power, that life truly possesses the desperate suffering you once vaguely described?"

“I can,” it answered quickly. “I know you just want assurance that you’ve worked for something, and you doubt whether I would ally with those creatures who can blind you. But you also know that their approach would suffocate you.”

Ward, unusually serious, spoke in a rhythmic tone that echoed in my mind.

"...I swear by my *omniscient* power to the world that has the *power to punish* me, calamity will surely come, and humanity will be displaced; this is no falsehood. The *consciousness of the world* will forever advance and retreat with the *world*."

It coughed a few times like a person, and then disappeared.

I've been too lazy to verify whether something is true or not for a long time. If I really had to verify the authenticity of each item one by one, I probably would have gone crazy from trying to prove it.

I stared listlessly at the oily food, feeling it would be a waste to throw it away. After a long wait, a hand stopped in front of my drooping eyelids. Mo Huaizhen stood in front of me against the light, a smile in his eyes. Suddenly, something vaguely occurred to me.

*

"Why are you willing to tell me about something that's only kept in your family? And why isn't it available on the market?"