Chapter 58: All are prisoners under calamity and fate; there is no freedom in the realm of the masses…
Qi Jinghuan's expression darkened slightly. These villagers didn't care; they were cheap as leeks, and there was no way they could harvest them all.
But Gu Yinglan is different!
She was a test subject that the higher-ups specifically requested to be carefully protected; her abilities would be needed for the next cycle.
But now that she herself has eaten the flesh of the Tai Sui, she has become part of the sacrifice. However, the sacrifice cannot be lost, and it cannot be stopped because of her mistake.
"This... Brother Qi, what should we do now?"
When the others realized what had happened, they stared blankly at each other, a single thought simultaneously forming in their minds:
If I make mistakes even in a simple task like guarding the ranch, what will the higher-ups think of me?
Gu Yinglan's spirit body in the instrument has changed, and some people look at Qi Jinghuan, the highest-ranking person here, with strange expressions.
Although Qi Jinghuan was in charge of the project, such a major oversight meant that even if someone was held primarily responsible, they would inevitably be affected.
Those who are able to go on field missions in "Fate Cycle" are people with low backgrounds who want to try their luck and climb the ranks. Who would have thought that before they even achieved their performance targets, such a big mistake would happen right under their noses, when the project was about to be completed?
Gu Yinglan seemed oblivious to Qi Jinghuan's strange expression. Seeing that he wouldn't accept it, she threw the Tai Sui meat into her basket and went to dig in another spot on her own.
The remaining villagers stood there in a daze, watching Gu Yinglan's retreating figure as she dug, their movements hesitant for some reason.
They hadn't been moved by the death of their comrades before, but now they were at a loss for what to do.
It felt like two voices were clashing in my brain, like a puppet whose tether was suddenly cut halfway through a stage play, standing there comically and pitifully at a loss.
The villagers' already numb minds became even more confused. They didn't know why, but they had a vague feeling that the scene before them shouldn't be like this.
This scene seems to have happened many times before. But it has never ended like this before; the village chief shouldn't have joined them.
But that's exactly what the village chief did, and the invisible instructions behind him came to an abrupt halt, as if he didn't know what to do either.
"Get out of here, you bunch of lazybones! Hurry up and keep digging for immortal flesh. There's only so much time left to dig each year. If we don't offer enough, even your flesh won't be enough to make up for it!"
Qi Jinghuan, no longer as composed as before, was now enraged, like a cornered dog, his eyes sweeping fiercely over the villagers. He even attacked a villager who was a few steps slower than the others.
Stay calm, you must stay calm...
There are quite a few people in the company eyeing his position, including several right here. He needs to find a way to cover up this mistake as soon as possible.
Having allowed the villagers to vent their anger and regain their rationality, he narrowed his eyes, staring at Gu Yinglan, who was hunched over digging for the Tai Sui just like any other villager. A glint of malice flashed in his eyes, but he suddenly changed his tune:
"No, the purity of the immortal meat here is too low. Now, everyone, follow me into the mountains."
"Brother Qi, if the spiritual body is damaged too much, the number of reincarnations won't match up in the next cycle..."
Several Blue Grid employees stared wide-eyed and instinctively tried to stop him, but Qi Jinghuan pushed them away forcefully.
He was able to climb all the way up from the lower city by never giving up on his fate.
Since the current task has been botched, the remaining task must be completed perfectly, or even exceeded, no matter what.
The company doesn't employ useless people; he must prove his value and ability before he can have the opportunity to redeem himself.
"Stop talking nonsense! Even if all the spirits shatter this time, we can just spend some credits to buy a few hundred more people from the lower city. Put the blame on me!"
Seeing that Qi Jinghuan had made up his mind, the group exchanged glances, inwardly groaning. They had somewhat guessed Qi Jinghuan's plan by now; it was nothing more than a gamble, hoping to produce a high-quality crystal in exchange for a chance to plead for leniency.
But if he does this, the credit goes to him. If something goes wrong and management punishes him, those who actually did the work won't escape either.
Even if he wins the gamble, when it comes to cleaning up the mess, the lives of people in the lower city are cheap anyway, and Qi Jinghuan only has to pay some credits. The hard and tiring work of implanting common sense and brainwashing/hypnosis is all done by them.
But they couldn't do anything to Qi Jinghuan.
That's the company rule: rank is everything.
At this point, although their every move is no longer under the supervision of the central AI, it will still be monitored by their personal recording devices.
Once back at the company, this data will be uploaded to Yuanfu's database for review. Disobeying a superior's orders can result in punishment far more severe than dereliction of duty.
Gu Yinglan's hand, gripping the wooden handle, turned white, almost leaving deep fingerprints on it.
But the difference between immortals and mortals is greater than an chasm, so what could she do? Even if she gave it her all and sacrificed herself, what she could do could not be considered resistance, but only a small act of revenge.
Gu Yinglan lowered her eyes, her expression unreadable. Like a sheepdog herding a flock of sheep, she watched the villagers enter the more dangerous deep mountains one by one. Finally, she glanced at the increasingly dark sky and followed without saying a word.
...
Do you know what you're saying?
Du Yu almost lost all composure at this moment. If it weren't for his perception that those glistening, greasy bits of meat were not a good thing.
She wanted nothing more than to rush down, grab Chen Xingzhi by the collar, and loudly question her:
A cataclysmic event, a truly massive cataclysmic event!
A hundred-meter-tall building collapsed in an instant, and a glorious civilization was on the verge of extinction. The human population, which once prided itself on being the dominant species on the planet, plummeted to less than one ten-thousandth of its peak.
The cause of all this is not a nuclear crisis imagined by mankind, nor an attack by a meteorite from outer space, nor a virus that has swept the globe, but a terrifying existence that is inexplicable, whose arrival is unknown, whose outbreak is unknown, and whose nature is unknown. It can only be broadly referred to as a cataclysmic event!
They lived without knowing why, and they died without knowing why. This is a complete picture of how these people struggled in the wasteland for more than twenty years.
Now Chen Xingzhi is saying the Great Cataclysm was man-made—what kind of joke is she making? How dare she make such a joke? She actually dares to make such a joke?
Chen Xingzhi seemed oblivious to the raging anger bursting from Du Yu's eyes. He slowly turned his head back to the sky, and at the same time, he raised his hands and pulled upwards, removing the strange iron basin that had been resting on his head.
Upon seeing what was above Chen Xingzhi's head, Xiao Qi couldn't help but scream and take a step back, while Du Yu was speechless for a moment.
Using the iron basin as a boundary, everything below the basin is normal, while the area enclosed by the basin appears as if it has been cut open parallel to the ground, leaving the brain exposed to the air without protection.
But none of that was the most astonishing thing. Inside the iron basin seemed to be some kind of other-dimensional space. It didn't look very big, but it actually contained a pitch-black monster that was wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, resembling a mutated mushroom!
As the iron basin was removed, the monster was exposed to the two of them, and countless air roots extending from its bottom all pierced into Chen Xingzhi's brain! Without the restraint of the iron basin, thick black liquid gushed out like a fountain from the wound on her head.
Chen Xingzhi's voice was as emotionless as an AI's, as he clutched the iron basin, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he wasn't the one with the mere fatal wound on his head.
"Disaster, what is a disaster?"
Before Du Yu could answer, she continued talking to herself:
"For ants, a sudden rainstorm is a devastating crisis."
"For fragile mortals, a gang of roaming robbers or an out-of-control car can take away their lives in an instant."
"So what qualifies as a disaster for civilization? It's not a predictable natural disaster, nor a man-made one with a motive."
"For a civilization that considers itself the pinnacle of the planet, that cataclysmic event that overturned everything may just be a joke driven by the interests of a higher dimension, or simply an ordinary observation."
"The Great Cataclysm—only humans would use that term. For those mindless creatures or simple-minded beasts, isn't a catastrophe a divinely granted evolution?"
"A colony of ants collapses in the rain. The queen ant, before dying, curses the ruthlessness of nature, but she cannot make the rain stop or change for the sake of a small colony of ants. The same is true of catastrophes; this is the essence of disaster."
As Chen Xingzhi spoke, he seemed to forget that there were other people around him. His tone became unusually excited, as if he had entered a state of complete self-forgetfulness.
Du Yu took a deep breath, suppressing her shock and anger. She wasn't stupid; she naturally understood Chen Xingzhi's meaning. She coldly said:
"That is why it is impossible for humankind to create an irresistible catastrophe."
"Of course not."
Streams of thick, black liquid flowed from the crack between Chen Xingzhi's foreheads, sliding down her stiff, metallic face, wetting the bright fabric embroidered with exquisite patterns and dark designs, staining her incongruous white coat with a thick, black grime.
Chen Xingzhi seemed completely oblivious and continued:
"But to an ant, what's the difference between a pot of boiling water poured on a whim by a mischievous child and a typhoon or torrential rain that sweeps across the land?"
They all swallowed hard, feeling their lips and tongues dry, and their vision blurred.
The biggest emotional upheaval since she transmigrated was at this moment. If she hadn't been lying, if that cataclysm really was...
Du Yu struggled to suppress the turbulent emotions surging within him. After a long pause, his voice still trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the overwhelming killing intent that was being suppressed:
"So, the great catastrophe of the 21st century was caused by Lang..."
Chen Xingzhi shrugged, as more and more black liquid almost submerged her face, making it nearly impossible for Du Yu to see her perpetually emotionless, three-white-eyed eyes.
On his face, which was as black as an abyss, Du Yu could only vaguely make out a glimmer of light—that guy was still smoking.
"I don't know either."
Du Yu was immediately deflated, feeling as if he had used all his strength but had hit a ball of cotton.
Don't look at me like that.
Chen Xingzhi said very confidently, "If I knew everything, I wouldn't be hiding in the spacetime rift; I would have been sitting on a divine throne long ago."
"Divine position"—this was the first time Du Yu had heard this term besides from the system, and he hurriedly asked, "What is a divine position? Can only a true god ascend to a divine position?"
"True God?"
Chen Xingzhi's tone was exactly like a professor hearing a student ask a stupid question: "Where did you hear that outdated theory?"
"God is God, there is no such thing as true or false. How dare mortals set standards for God? Adding the word 'true' makes no difference between a true God and a false God."
Du Yu felt her heart pounding like a drum. She seemed to have touched a corner of the ultimate truth of the world: "How can one become a true god?"
"Only by surpassing."
At this moment, most of Chen Xingzhi's body was already enveloped by the black liquid, resembling a thin, long black candlestick.
Her voice had somehow become tinged with murmurs. Xiao Qi, who was already hiding in the newly drawn array, covered her ears tightly, but she could still hear the murmurs lingering around her.
"Seize the three elements of different inclinations, and ignite a lamp in the darkness; elevate your divine kingdom until it becomes the stars in the spirit world; finally, reach the end of each inclination, and your divine position will manifest. Welcome the eternal night, and all calamities will end—"
A purple flame burned fiercely in Du Yu's eyes, burning away the incomprehensible ramblings in Chen Xingzhi's words, leaving only precious knowledge.
At the end, Chen Xingzhi's words even carried a faint smile:
"I am the first person to surpass this in the 21st century, but fortunately—"
The wax pillar, no longer human-shaped, turned, and Du Yu felt her gaze linger on the purple flame for a moment: "I'm not the last one."
Gathering elements from three different sources... This is completely the opposite of what she learned from Bian Shaoyan!
Du Yu felt a strange sense of dread creeping up his spine: "...Shouldn't we first acquire enough elements for the unification pathway?"
"That is the path of dependence, not the path of transcendence."
Chen Xingzhi's voice remained steady, yet it sounded much more distant, as if they weren't communicating face-to-face, but rather across a vast expanse of time and space:
"That's all I can tell you. The rest is for you to find the answers yourself. The way to end the cataclysm lies at the end of that road."
Du Yu was unsure whether to believe her or not, and vaguely agreed.
Chen Xingzhi didn't seem to care, but she suddenly raised her voice, as if she had encountered some unsolvable confusion: "Not a [disaster]? Why isn't it a [disaster]? Who planned this path for you?"
Du Yu didn't answer; she seemed trapped in a vicious cycle of talking to herself, her voice sometimes filled with indignation, sometimes with doubt, sometimes with despair, but ultimately all of it transformed into the pure joy of suddenly glimpsing the truth:
“That’s right, that’s how it should be… Ha… We were all wrong before, all wrong…”
Chen Xingzhi seemed to have gone into a frenzy, completely losing his reason. His black, waxy surface cracked, revealing a bright red wound, from which countless wild laughs emanated. The minced meat in the valley melted into blood, rushing towards Chen Xingzhi.
The murmurs in the air suddenly increased, and Du Yu's eyes widened. The purple flames transformed into a fiery cloak that enveloped Xiao Qi, barely stopping the blood flowing from her seven orifices.
These symptoms were far more severe than any of the Fallen Beings Du Yu had ever seen! Just as Du Yu was on high alert, Chen Xingzhi seemed to regain some of his sanity, although his frantic babbling had drowned out his normal voice:
"When this physical body completely falls into depravity, it will be at its most vulnerable. Destroy it, and this spacetime rift will collapse, allowing you to stay here."
"remember--"
Her voice suddenly became frantic, as if it contained countless unspeakable pains and indelible hatred:
"You must always remember! Chaos is dead! All are prisoners under fate, there is no freedom in the cosmos. To achieve godhood, there is only leap! Memories have been altered, devoured and plundered, there is only one path to leap—"
At this point, Chen Xingzhi seemed to struggle for a moment, but then her frantic babbling suddenly erupted, almost tearing apart the black, wax-like human pillar and the last two words she uttered as a human.
She succumbed to depravity under Du Yu's watchful gaze.
-----------------------
Author's note: I updated 4,000 words today!
I thought about it and realized that writing 6,000 words a day is a bit too difficult. I've decided to split it into three days, writing an extra 1,000 words each day. That way, everyone can read more, and it won't be as tiring for me. (orz)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
