Guidestone (7)
Mi saw Al and Joe walking hand in hand again in front of the canyon. Joe always stood half a step behind Al until Al pulled Joe to his side. What a strange combination—master and apprentice? Lovers? Mother and daughter? Master and servant? These two travel between different worlds; Mi thought their lives must be very colorful.
"Can I go back?" Mi stared in the direction of the valley. "I mean, back to Earth."
“Yes, the rules of the Witch Forest are different from the outside world. Time in the Witch Forest is calculated according to realms. That is, every time you pass through a world, your body on Blue Star also spends a day. According to the world you are in, a day is a world.” El said softly, “No matter how long you stay in the Witch Forest, only a day has passed on Blue Star where your body is. If you find your way home before your life force dissipates, you can go back.”
“The way home,” Mi held up the guiding stone in his hand, “wasn’t it said to guide the way, and that the way home would take a long time to walk?”
"The guiding stone points the way in your heart. Unless you are very strongly and firmly determined to go back, the guiding stone will only lead you to where you want to go. There are many worlds out there, and there may be places that are more attractive to you than your hometown. Your heart will tell you. Trusting the guiding stone is trusting yourself."
"There are many worlds outside?" Mi thought of the elders. "Is each planet a world?"
“Planets, nebulae, voidlands,” El listed them one by one. “Some planets are very small and no humans live on them; some nebulae are very large, larger than several planets; there are voidlands in the middle of nebulae, and the human body is very fragile, so special devices are needed to pass through them.”
“I understand, it’s a spacesuit.” Mi nodded. Not all worlds have humans, which is similar to the solar system. It seems that only Earth in the solar system has humans. She thought for a moment and then asked, “Besides humans, are there other life forms?”
“Yes, there are many forms of life on your planet Blue Star alone,” El said, nodding. “There are many forms of life. As you travel to more worlds, you will see incredibly huge creatures. When you have traveled for a long enough time, you will see planets colliding with each other. Human life is very fragile.”
"Wow!" Mi exclaimed, her mouth agape in surprise. She tried to suppress her questions while being captivated by the scenes El described—different worlds outside, it all sounded incredibly appealing. Mi closed her mouth, thought for a moment, and then continued, "I want to know, in those worlds with people, are all people the same? I mean, people are born, grow old, get sick, and die, and there are men and women? Are there any special people, or intelligent beings?"
“Intelligent beings, you mean species like humans that can unite and also oppose each other?” El pondered for a moment. “Recently, I have been searching for a race—the Long-lived Race. Legend has it that this race exists in the Flower Country and the Sea Country.”
"A long-lived species?" Mi thought about the name for a moment. "Does this species have a very long lifespan?"
“Yes, legend has it that the Long-lived Race possesses eternal life. They look exactly like humans, and unless they say so themselves, no one knows they are the Long-lived Race.” El’s words carried a hint of anticipation. “I’ve always wanted to find the Long-lived Race and see how they live.”
"Look at their lives?" Mi raised his head and looked into the void again. Is this El one of your staff members? You've been observing the lives of different species? Then what am I? Does consciousness have life? Can being trapped here all the time be called living?
"How do you control time? I mean, how does the Witch Forest control time?" Mi began to probe El.
“Time is just a human-defined concept,” El said somewhat awkwardly, but she continued, “You know that time flows at different speeds, right?”
"The passage of time is different?" Mi pondered this sentence, as if she had heard that the flow of time is different at the mountaintop and at the foot of the mountain. Mi thought of the equator and the North and South Poles. The Earth completes a rotation in twenty-four hours, and time is the same whether you are at the equator or the Arctic Circle. Although the Earth rotates, people do not change, but a day is longer for people living at the equator than for people living at the Arctic Circle, right?
“Yes,” El nodded, and she continued, “Time flows differently on Earth than on other planets.”
Mi nodded noncommittally. This was beyond her comprehension, but she could accept the message. Mi imagined that air routes had been opened between this forest and different planets, allowing any spaceship to reach them in just one day. She looked up at the sky above the forest again. What kind of technology was this? Were the space stations located behind those clouds?
“One world is one day. How many worlds can I go to?” Mi didn’t know whether she would be determined to go back once she was able to leave this so-called witch forest, or whether she would want to see this strange world. Perhaps staying would allow her to get closer to the species that had captured her? Mi tried to make herself seem like she had accepted everything, and then continued along with El’s words.
"Have you heard the story of the Eight Immortals?" Qiao couldn't help but ask Mi, who was deep in thought and hesitating. "The story of Tieguai Li?"
“I know, Tieguai Li was originally a handsome young man, but his soul left his body to travel,” Mi thought for a moment, this was somewhat similar to her current situation: “He instructed his servants to take good care of his body, and that he would return in seven days, or his body would be burned. But after seven days, he was delayed by something and returned a little late, so his servants burned him. When he returned, he found that there was no body available, so he could only occupy the body of the recently deceased Li the Butcher—is that the story?”
“That’s the story,” Joe replied. “You are now a soul that has come to the Witch Forest.”
"My soul left my body?" Mi was startled. "Isn't that brain death? I'm still dead." For some reason, Mi wasn't surprised by this answer. She had lingered here for too long. Mi looked up, her eyes filled with images of murderers. Now she was certain that the person who had brought her here must be a murderer.
“No, don’t panic,” El quickly said. “You are a witch, not a human. A human body does not lose its vitality just because a witch leaves. If no one touches your body, it will only be temporarily unable to move.”
“I live alone, no one will burn my body,” Mi said. “So I can stay as long as I want?”
“That’s not how it’s calculated. According to your rules, a person’s body will lose its vitality if they don’t eat or drink for three days. If you want to go back before your body loses its vitality, you’d have to find another body, and that body must be one that has just been brain dead and hasn’t lost its vitality yet. However, I suggest you don’t. A person’s consciousness and the body they originally used are the most suitable. Using someone else’s body means two souls are fighting for the right to use the body. You will risk your soul leaving your body, and if you leave your body too many times, the body will become unusable.” El continued to explain, “Now you are a witch, protected by the Witch Forest, but your body is still on Earth and must abide by Earth’s rules.”
Mi listened, dumbfounded. Going back and forth between different worlds and bodies? Mi imagined it: she entered someone's body, and that person opened their eyes and came to life; then she was kicked out of that person's body, and that person died? Mi even lowered her head and pondered for a while, wondering if she had traveled into the world of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, or some bizarre animated film.
“You said you live alone, so you might need to go back as soon as possible,” Al said, shrugging. “If someone takes care of you, gives you water, or goes to your local hospital to keep you active, you can stay outside for longer.”
Isn't that just being in a vegetative state? Mi looked at El: "So, according to you, I can only go to one world?" Of course, she has to go back. After going back, she can just treat it as a dream. She was just dragged here for nothing?
At this moment, Mi realized that she didn't really want to go back. What Mi wanted was to go out, to receive more information, to investigate why she was here in this state, to find out who controlled the dome above the entire Witch Forest, what kind of creature it was, and what purpose it had brought her here, instead of having her embark on a strange journey, arriving here without knowing anything, and leaving without realizing it, like an absurd dream.
“Yes. You need to go back as soon as possible,” El explained. “If you don’t want to go back, you can travel through several worlds. As long as you want to go, the Guide Stone will take you there, and as long as you remember that you are going back, the Guide Stone will also take you home.”
"Is Tieguai Li traveling the world too much?" Mi asked doubtfully. Even if someone had taken care of Tieguai Li's body, he would have turned into a corpse after more than seven days.
“You can understand it this way,” El said, “a body that has lost its vitality cannot be used again. According to the rules of Blue Star, Tieguai Li’s body is dead.”
"My body is dead, but my brain isn't dead yet?" Isn't out-of-body experience brain death? Mi is getting more and more confused.
“Your brain is still alive, but your movements have become extremely slow.” Al tried to explain the difference clearly. “You are a witch, and before you were just sharing a brain with a human. In reality, you are not human.”
"I'm not human?" Mi looked down at herself. She was indeed not human now, but what did it mean to share a body with a human? Was her body not her own? Mi wanted to scream. What kind of crazy world had she entered? What concept was this El trying to instill in her?
“Actually, almost all witches choose not to return when they travel,” El recounted his predecessor’s experience. “The outside world is full of wonders, and many witches travel from world to world. They simply abandon the constraints of the human body, give up human life, and choose to become witches completely. Mi, you must be clear about the direction in your heart. If you miss the right time to go back, you will never be able to return.”
"How do you know my name?" Mi was certain that she hadn't said anything about herself, and even when introducing Joe to Earth, she was very careful to only mention things that everyone already knew.
“This is a witch’s ability—insight,” El said with a smile. “I’ve seen your witch’s headband. When you have a body, I can show you mine, and then you’ll know everything about me.” With that, El took out a shimmering blue ribbon and handed it to Mi.
"This is the witch's headband?" Mi looked at the ball of blue light in front of her. So El was blue. She stretched out her hand: "I see it."
A gray cloud of gas passed through the blue ribbon. Mi opened her fingers and tried to grab it again, but still grasped nothing. She stared at El's hand and asked, "How are you able to grab light?"
“You need to touch the witch’s body with your own hands after you have it. This is a necessary condition for a witch’s perception—physical touch.” El put away the headband. “Only by learning the witch’s skills can you create your own witch’s body.”
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