Chapter 108: The Flourish of Humanity (V)
Deer Town is full of vitality during the day, and the world outside Deer Town is also full of vitality.
Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian stood on a cloud a hundred meters in the sky, silently watching the towns passing by below.
Some are big, some are small, some are prosperous, and some are declining.
All the scenes in the world were filled with the flavor of everyday life, just as Chen Yunli had just woken up from the illusion and Chen Wenjian had taken him to Lu Town.
But...it's fake fireworks.
I hadn't looked closely before, but Chen Yunli cast two illusion-breaking spells in front of my eyes, and the world of red dust turned into a wrinkled, flowing painting.
The creatures in the painting are so lifelike that even the real scenes in the human world could not be more real than them.
Unfortunately, fake is fake. The more realistic the painting, the more desolate and terrifying it appears. Chen Yunli only peeled back a corner of the painting, and was shocked by the desolation and desolation beneath, and it took a long time to calm down.
"So... it's all fake," he muttered. "Only Deer Town, that little town where we live, still retains some semblance of reality."
Chen Wenjian nodded.
"After I awoke, I forgot many things due to the weakening of the Heavenly Dao. This included the dramatic changes in the human world and the collapse of the Netherworld. However, I still instinctively led you to the only real place in the world."
Chen Wenjian paused, then continued, "You were able to resurrect from the dead within the formation, thanks to the flaw in the imbalance of yin and yang. If not for this, even Luo... even if that person was a genius, he wouldn't be able to pull off such a heaven-defying feat."
The way things have developed to this point can only be described as a complete coincidence.
Chen Yunli was in a complicated mood. After going around in circles, he became an important turning point that determined the future direction of the world, just like the previous two worlds.
"Want to go down and take a look?"
Chen Wenjian took his hand and held his cold fingertips in his palm.
Chen Yunli nodded silently and interlocked his fingers with his.
The two flew down from the clouds into the city below, walked hand in hand on the streets and among the crowds, and felt the hustle and bustle of the crowds.
Chen Yunli even bought a candied haws fruit. The hawthorn fruit, wrapped in a thin, crispy sugar shell, left a faint sweet taste on his lips and tongue when it entered his mouth. However, before he could swallow it, the candied haws fruit turned into a wisp of slightly sweet wind, quickly dissipating from the gap between his lips and disappearing.
He lowered his eyes and sighed, "Such a real illusion, even immortals and gods would find it difficult to support it. Was it you who created it, or was it Heaven?"
"It's humanity." Chen Wenjian gave an unexpected answer.
"Humanity?" Chen Yunli was surprised. "Didn't you say that humanity lacks consciousness and only acts according to rules and instinct? Creating an illusion of prosperity and peace shouldn't be one of those things."
"Yes, so rather than actively creating something, I'm more inclined to believe this is an 'echo' of the past human world." Chen Wenjian's lips curled slightly. "He left these behind, waiting for me to return and restore the human world to this state—although he lacks humanity, he's almost developing his own 'heart'. After all, he was born from the great path of humanity."
Humans are born weak, but have the greatest potential. They are good at living their short lives in an ups and downs, magnificent way, and they can always create miracles.
The same is true of human nature.
The dust and clouds have cleared away.
Humanity recorded a "video" of the world a hundred years ago, leaving it for Chen Wenjian to restore it.
This is Chen Wenjian's responsibility.
"Yun Li."
"Um?"
Chen Wenjian pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked at Chen Wenjian who was also staring at him.
They walked into the shade of a locust tree. Chen Wenjian reached out and picked a locust flower spike with white petals and yellow pistil, and the branch was still covered with dew, and handed it to him.
"Do you like this world?"
Hearing this, Chen Yunli looked around, carefully examining every corner within his sight, and finally turned his gaze back to Chen Wenjian's face and took the locust flower.
"Yeah." He nodded, his tone gradually changing from hesitation to determination, "I like it."
Chen Wenjian smiled: "That's good."
…
After returning to Lu Town from the "Human World Picture Scroll", Chen Wenjian's physical collapse became even more severe, as if he was a walking countdown to the destruction of the living world.
Chen Yunli took him back to his room and sat by the bed until he could no longer hold on and was forced to fall asleep, then he got up and left the room quietly.
The sun was still shining on Luzhen, but the wind was very cold. He raised his hand to feel it, and a familiar chill passed through the back of his hand and fingertips at the same time, causing goose bumps all over his body.
This cold and gloomy aura... is the same as the gloomy wind that blew past him last night.
It seems that the human world and the underworld have become more deeply integrated.
Chen Yunli shook off the remaining coldness in his palms, and seeing that it was almost the time he had agreed to meet Bai Ai, he slowly walked downstairs.
Walking out of the courtyard, he opened his eyes in the cold breeze and saw that the white bamboo raft had already stopped in front of the sandbank.
Bai Ai sat cross-legged facing Chen Yunli, with a bamboo pole across his knees, his hands relaxed above him, and his back slightly arched.
He looked like he had just woken up, with sleepiness and confusion in his eyes, and smiled casually at Chen Yunli.
"Mr. Chen, I remember now." Bai Ai said, "This year is the 103rd year of Emperor Zhao of Great Chu."
Chen Yunli was amused by him: "You are quite good at finding joy in adversity."
Bai Ai scratched his head: "There's nothing we can do about it. Even if the world is going to end this evening, life has to go on."
Chen Yunli walked over to the bamboo raft and sat beside him, smoothing the wrinkles on his clothes with his hands, and said casually, "I went to look around some other places with my family today."
"What's the situation?" Bai Ai blurted out, with a barely perceptible expectation in his tone.
Unfortunately, Chen Yunli ultimately disappointed him: "As you think, apart from Lu Town, there are no 'living people' anywhere else. The false appearance of prosperity and peace is merely an imprint left by humanity, equivalent to an illusion."
Bai Ai's eyes, which had just lit up, dimmed again.
"So that's really the case." He sighed deeply. "In this era, there are no true cultivators, nor are there immortals or gods. We are fortunate that our ancestors and their legacy have been able to preserve Lu Town. We can't ask for more. The most fortunate thing is..."
Bai Ai paused and glanced around. There were many pedestrians walking on the nearby land. Their expressions were either distressed, happy, or calm, but they were all living their lives seriously, unaware of the disaster that was about to happen.
“…They know nothing.”
In the face of being unable to change the tide of fate, ignorance is God's greatest mercy.
Chen Yunli was silent for a long time, and suddenly asked a nonsensical question.
"If one day the world returns to normal and the dead can come back, what kind of life would you most want to have?"
Bai Ai tilted his head: "Why do you ask this?"
"Curious." Chen Yunli smiled, "Anyway, we have nothing else to do except daydreaming."
Bai Ai thought it made sense, and he thought hard for a long time with his chin in his hand. Finally, he clapped his hands and smiled brightly.
"I want to study hard, pass the imperial examination, and then return to Lu Town to open a private school to educate the children."
"So... simple?"
"How can it be easy? Do you know how difficult it is to break down an article and explain it thoroughly to a three or five-year-old? It might even be harder than passing the imperial examination!" Bai Ai disagreed. "When my younger brother was still around, I had to break three firewood sticks before I could get him to memorize all the Four Books and Five Classics!"
"..." Chen Yunli took a deep breath and silently moved away from him, "Thank you for your hard work."
Bai Ai looked at him with a smile, and after a while, she sighed softly.
“If only that day could come…”
Chen Yunli said calmly: "Yes."
It will come.
…
That night, a cold moon hung in the sky, almost level with the distant horizon.
Chen Yunli and Chen Wenjian stood side by side on the second-floor corridor, watching the cold frost turn scarlet, then gradually spread, eventually turning it into a blood moon, making the underworld on this land even more desolate and terrifying.
Chen Wenjian's figure flickered, and the blood color faded from his body, turning him into a phantom as thin as a cicada's wing. Chen Yunli wanted to grab his hand, but he grasped nothing and only held the cold air.
"Time is up."
Chen Wenjian's tone was extremely indifferent, as if he was saying "go out for a walk after dinner" rather than the end of his free will.
He turned around and gave Chen Yunli a last nostalgic look. Then a strong wind raged in the underworld, and mist rose, submerging all the people and buildings that should not have existed... everything.
The reincarnation cycle has been off track for a hundred years. In order to put it back to its original place, the world must be restored to its original state - the chaotic period when heaven and earth were not separated.
Then Chen Yunli saw the thick and majestic fog covering up everything he saw and heard, and the sky and the earth merged into one, becoming a spherical existence without the concept of direction, time, or even existence.
Here, there is no distinction between light and darkness, no distinction between consciousness and unconsciousness. As the only human being who remains awake, he gradually forgets what "awake" means.
Chen Yunli had almost merged into the fog, becoming a part of it, completely unaware, yet also fully aware.
He could feel three tiny sparks being born and burning in different locations, and then extending countless lines of fire in all directions.
Most of these fire lines were extinguished along the way, and a few spread farther but could not escape the fate of being swallowed by the fog.
There was only one... I don't know which one it was, nor which spark it came from. By chance and with great risk, it touched the other two sparks at the same time, connecting the three into one, and then ending up connected to form an ellipse similar to the uncivilized world.
That crucial node is also the origin of life. From this point on, life was born and flourished, and the eternal cycle of life began.
Then, the rules emerged.
Rules need to divide heaven and earth, divide yin and yang, judge life and death, good and evil, and distinguish right from wrong.
Many things have been derived from the rules. Under their joint action, all things in the world are naturally nurtured, following the simple law of survival of the fittest, evolving or being ruthlessly eliminated all the way, and finally evolving into what people... or Chen Yunli is familiar with.
In this process, the three sparks also followed the rules and differentiated into different "functions".
The Way of Heaven appeared first. It controls all natural laws and is the most ruthless and fair.
Reincarnation followed closely behind. It was derived from one of the cornerstones of rules - the Avenue of Life and Death. The concept of life and death was elaborated to the extreme by the weak human race, so the incarnation of reincarnation is half human-shaped, and the other half imitates part of the body of a mythical creature that humans most revere.
As for humanity, it appeared the latest, but it is the most brilliant and has the most potential.
Countless years passed in the process of the evolution of heaven and earth. Chen Yunli also maintained a terrifyingly clear mind in this process, accompanying one of the fire seeds through most of its life.
This spark later turned into reincarnation. Although it had a real body, it could only sleep in the darkest and coldest place in the world. During countless years of loneliness and desolation, only a very short experience made it feel that it truly existed in this world, and not just a vague consciousness that could only dream.
The human world and the underworld seem to have become two rotating and connected yin and yang fish on the Tai Chi diagram. They were originally very closely integrated and as close as one, but gradually separated in the process of the world repeating itself, looking at each other from afar across a chaotic fog, but the invisible connection between them is even closer.
The Great Evolution of Reincarnation - this term suddenly popped up in Chen Yunli's mind. Although he was not sure whether it could be considered a magic, it was just right to describe what he had seen and heard.
The worlds of Yin and Yang were separated, the bridge of reincarnation was rebuilt, and the time between the human world and the underworld was rapidly reversed, flowing back to the peaceful and prosperous era a hundred years ago.
People walked out of the paintings drawn by humanity and into villages, towns, mountains, rivers, lakes and seas.
Ghosts queue up to cross the Naihe Bridge and the Wangxiang Terrace, or are speared into a sea of fire and swords by green-faced and fang-toothed ghosts to experience the real purgatory.
The moment the windmill in the little girl's hand started turning again, the dead soul by the Naihe Bridge took the soup handed to him by Meng Po.
In the human world, in an unknown city, at the end of a crowded street, there is a patch of shade under a locust tree.
Chen Yunli stood under a tree, the wind blew petals all over his head. He raised his hand, and a locust flower with white petals and yellow stamens fell between his fingers.
——Do you like this world?
"……I like."
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