Chapter 167 The Truth of the World
As the mage's voice fell.
Everything in the world seemed to have changed.
The burning flames no longer flickered, the twisted flesh no longer burned, and the wails filled with vengeance no longer continued.
The wizard took a step forward and walked out of the room.
It’s completely light!
Everything stopped flowing, whether it was the flames or the things in the sky, they were all like silent statues!
Liuwei suddenly opened his eyes wide.
Another "self" walked slowly into the solidified oil painting, step by step.
She turned around, put her hands behind her back, her seaweed-like hair flew up, her snow-red lips were slightly raised, and cracks appeared at the corners of her eyes due to years of experience, like a porcelain doll that was broken and glued back together.
Her voice was as brisk as a flying bird. She smiled at her other self: "If the order is correct, I am seven and zero. I am the beginning and the end..."
"My name is Qing Meng, and I'm the gravekeeper here."
"You should be able to feel it..." Qing Meng paused: "Your soul and mine are so close, just like the similar pair of wings of a butterfly in a dream."
"Another...me?"
Liuwei repeated these words in a trance, his face full of disbelief.
Then why had he never seen her in his memory, and why did she appear here?
It's like waiting for "myself", waiting for a long, long, incalculable time?
But it is close and familiar.
From the very beginning, he chose to believe the person who came to him with a hidden identity. Besides thinking that the other person just wanted to tease him, there was another reason, which was closeness, a kind of closeness without any reason.
Liuwei did lie again, he is a liar, isn't he? That's why he always lies.
The words that identified Qing Meng at the beginning were actually false, a lie.
The moment when Liuwei truly confirmed that "Shiyuan" was fake was much later than when they first met. It was discovered bit by bit during their subsequent interactions.
When Liuwei first saw Qingmeng, who was playing the role of Shiyuan, his first reaction was joy.
What was he happy about? Was he happy that the person he had lost contact with was safe and sound? Or was he happy... about this reunion after thousands and thousands of years?
He didn't understand and didn't know, he was just happy.
Because Liuwei's soul trusted her before his brain, he was extremely happy about her appearance.
"It's both seven and zero..."
Liuwei blankly repeated Qingmeng's words, not quite understanding the meaning.
Liuwei is not stupid...
No, it is better to say that all the "selves", every "selves" are not stupid. In countless cycles of life, countless reincarnations of fate, with the infinite advancement of exploration of the world, his understanding of the world is becoming clearer and clearer. He understands the source of the weirdness, the meaning of the existence of the simulator, and many more.
He thought he knew enough, more than enough, but he didn't expect that he still didn't know enough.
“…Is it the beginning, or the end?”
Liuwei and each of his selves are in tacit understanding with each other. Most of the lives they simulate have traces of arrangement. Everything is for the salvation of all living beings. This is really too grand an ideal, so countless "selves" have fallen on the road ahead, becoming stairs made of corpses, paving the way forward step by step.
Every "self" is always leading the next "self" forward!
Qing Meng's steps were so brisk. She leaned forward intimately and blinked: "Why, why are you so surprised?"
"Scared?" There was a hint of joy in her voice.
Liu Wei frowned slightly: "Gravekeeper...what does that mean?"
"Gravekeeper... of course it means literally." Qing Meng said with a smile: "You should have been curious, or rather, I should be curious about what that strange thing that can cover the sky with one hand is."
She paused and said, "To be precise, it's not just one hand, not just one, but... many, many, many, so many that they are too numerous to count, as many as the stars in the sky hanging there."
Qing Meng was silent for a long time, as if trying to organize his words: "Do you know what happened in the distant past?"
"That era is far away enough, so far away that immortals are free and unfettered, and so far away that weirdness has not yet run rampant in the world. That era is full of countless miracles, and is the pinnacle of the integration and development of technology and thought. That distant past is where we once set out."
Sadness and longing flowed in Qingmeng's crescent-shaped eyes: "This is the place where I was born, grew up, and would rather die for."
Liuwei was stunned.
There is a question that he has thought about, and every "self" may have thought about it too: "I" am just a lucky person who traveled through time unexpectedly, a baffling bystander. Why on earth would "I" appear in this conspiracy that spanned thousands and thousands of years?
Why was he not angry or furious about this arrangement, and was even willing to spend countless time, die and be reborn countless times, to try to save this broken world?
He thought it was the kind-hearted people who were willing to take him in even though he started out as an orphan every time. He thought it was the monsters and humans struggling on the edge of pain. He thought it was the countless saviors who wanted to save the world but had twisted minds.
Although the world is different, the radiance of humanity is always the same; although scarce, it is bright enough to illuminate the darkness.
He was walking on this rugged road, and he thought he was willing to go on just because he was a good man with great love, but this kind of character and quality would not always remain as solid as before, just like himself in this life, wasn't he just a liar with sweet words but a sharp knife in his heart?
Therefore, he would occasionally worry about the future of the world. Even a good person like him would be full of resentment at times. After constant reincarnation, sooner or later a terrifying "self" would appear who would want to destroy the world.
What will this world do then?
As a result, in addition to this chain, which can be thick or thin, there is also a stronger one.
Was this his hometown? Was this the new era that began after the invasion of the Outer Gods?
No wonder he can recognize the words from the past, and no wonder he is willing to contribute to this place.
What reason does a person need to save his home?
Qing Meng saw another "self" laughing happily. Even though "herself" sometimes couldn't understand "herself", she looked over curiously: "What are you laughing at? Is there anything funny?"
“Hahaha…” Liu Wei laughed out loud, and wiped away the tears from his eyes: “Nothing, I just thought of a joke.”
Liuwei only got the look from his other self as if he was a mental patient.
Qing Meng curled her lips: "Continue to listen to me."
Liuwei is all ears.
"If we look at it from the perspective of today, how can we not be considered immortals and gods in the past, able to travel a thousand miles a day and send letters ten thousand miles away."
Qing Meng couldn't help but show regret: "It's a pity that the era of immortals and gods is destined to be gone after the hyena invasion."
"Under the constant pollution, all things in the world have their own destiny. Flowers, birds, insects, animals, even every cell has come alive and has a strange vitality."
"Ever?" Liu Wei chewed on the word, slightly distracted, and looked at the person opposite him again: "You haven't explained to me what the gravekeeper means."
Qing Meng tilted her head and smiled: "It means exactly what it says."
She took another step forward and grabbed Liuwei's hand.
"This world was once destroyed, and everything was annihilated in terror. In the end, it was rebuilt with the efforts of all the gods."
Liuwei repeated: "With the painstaking efforts of all the gods... reshaped?"
"If it were me, I would know the story of Pangu creating the heaven and earth. After his death, his breath became wind and clouds, his voice became thunder, and his limbs became east, south, west, and north..."
"What you mean is..." Liuwei's pupils shrank, and he saw the "self" opposite him falling outwards. He not only held her hand back.
"So, their bodies became the earth and mountains, their flesh and blood flowed into rivers, their skin covered the naked world, their hair became grass and trees, and finally their eyes became the sun and the moon, rising and setting."
“But the world is so big, and yet so small. Countless gods have died, leaving behind countless bones that have nowhere to rest. There are even more things that have nowhere to rest, hanging in the sky with everything they have left…”
"wait--"
Liuwei was suddenly pulled out by Qingmeng.
The sky was like a huge cover turned upside down, with countless black bruises on it, mottled like a dying zebra.
A severe dizziness accompanied by a strong feeling of vomiting quickly invaded Liuwei's brain, and everything in the world was spinning continuously at that moment.
The figure of another "self" is like a blurry photo, stuck in the running track.
Liuwei couldn't even think for a moment, what else was hanging in the sky besides the sun and the moon?
Those black bruises swelled up like sponges in Liuwei's eyes. The black color spread like water droplets and infected the entire sky. Then, some distorted white suddenly spread out from the black.
Liuwei seemed to hear a wailing sound in his ears, as if someone fell off a chair.
【——】
【——】
【——】
He suddenly realized what those things looked like!
They are eyes. In the sky, there are the sun and the moon, and there are countless eyes that are like stars!
Countless figures were reflected in their pupils, and countless information was instantly stuffed into Liuwei's brain. He saw countless people and the appearance of countless people, including the dead Nirvana Buddha, the still-living Gu woman, and...
Even worse, there is "him", Yan You at his desk, a student teaching...
Finally, in the mirror that was like countless pairs of fly compound eyes, Liu Wei finally looked at himself!
In her eyes, he opened his lips slightly in surprise, showing a look of surprise, and then slowly smiled at her.
Is that him?
It must be him...
Is this really him?
“…Oh, I forgot you can’t watch it.”
A pair of hands reached out and covered Liuwei's eyes. Liuwei was shocked, his eyes widened, and he grabbed those hands.
The hands were still a little cold and had uneven cracks to the touch.
"I just waited for so long that I almost forgot that you are no longer the same as you were before..."
Liuwei's vague thoughts gradually became clear, and the pain that seemed like his brain was about to burst gradually disappeared under the ethereal and dreamy coldness.
"It's the same with them. They just forgot. In the long loneliness, they forgot everything completely."
"We... just want to take a look at you."
Liuwei's brain suddenly roared, and all the surging emotions were like a flood that broke through the dam, completely submerging his brain.
He is a smart man.
It's a pity that he is a smart man.
Smart people always tend to think of things that are and are not.
In this world you have to give before you can receive.
Everything is like this, so the "Gods" of the past paid with their flesh and blood to reshape the world, and shed their skin to become the skin of the world. As a result, the underlying tone of this world has become that you must give first before you can get.
In this world, everyone who intends to save all living beings is always coveted and watched by the outside gods, and then their minds are twisted in a nightmare that they can never escape.
Just like a saint, like a unicorn, like a witch, and like... him.
Yeah, he's been watched too.
Watched by the eyes left behind by those "gods" who died for survival, they are so eagerly looking for their "successors", and they are so earnestly watching the growth and distortion of their "successors".
Do They wonder why those who are watched always make mistakes and let everything fall?
Will they suffer? Will they suffer as countless hopes are drowned in the flood of despair?
“……” Liuwei’s lips trembled and he was speechless for a moment.
He felt uncontrollable sadness and pain, which cut through his body like a strong wind. What a sad fact it was.
Those eyes were staring at them so intently, with everlasting longing and hope.
Ah, so this is the truth about "Heavenly Tricks".
Ah, so this is the truth about the "world".
It is the countless bones that have nowhere to rest, it is the morgue that stretches for thousands of miles and is guarded by the lonely man, it is the pain and hope that remain on the corpses...
It’s those countless concerned eyes!
The only thing left in my ears was the hoarse voice of another "myself".
"We've been waiting for you."
"Waiting for that day to come..."
"What awaits us is the funeral."
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