Though life-for-life exchanges in battle are rare, they are considered a classic tactic. When pushed to the brink of desperation, using a self-destructive strategy with the resolve of preferring death over dishonor is understandable. Even the most timid of cowards may burst with an impressive willpower when faced with certain death.
But Huang Quan had not been pushed to a life-and-death crisis. On the contrary, he was always in a position where he could retreat entirely whenever he wished. Just as he said at the beginning, if I were to give up the battle and turn to flee, it would be extrely difficult for him to catch up and kill ; and if he made the sa decision, it would be equally difficult for to kill him.
Therefore, even if he couldn’t win this fight, there was no need to sacrifice his life. Unless in his view, killing here was more important than his own survival. For soone like the long-lived Impermanence, this was absurd to the extre.
To pursue my own desires, I could also forsake the peaceful days of living in harmony with the heavens and the earth and plunge into situations where danger lurks at every mont. Yet even I would not do anything based on the premise of suicide.
What exactly is he after?
Now I have no ti to ponder further, having to exert all my effort to escape the encroaching black sphere. However, the yellow-black array surrounding unleashed an imnsely powerful binding force, entrapping as if sealed. I tried to use Fla Transmission, but it malfunctioned, unable to activate; attempts to use space-ignoring steps were also futile, as if impenetrable walls barred my exit.
In my perception, the ever-expanding black sphere behind seed to be a "door."
Although viewing a spherical object as a "door" sounds perplexing, I could determine that once engulfed by that black sphere, I would be transported elsewhere. This made think of black holes, which in so sci-fi stories are regarded as bridges to other universes.
As for where that black sphere connects to, I have no way of knowing, only feeling my intuition screaming warnings.
Being swallowed and transported over there would be akin to death, or perhaps even more despairing than death itself.
The terror breaking from my soul, surpassing death, squeezed out an even greater strength from . Though all of my potential had been realized into my current power, I still managed to push further, exerting one hundred and twenty percent of my ability.
Just as the black sphere was about to touch , I broke through the binding force of the yellow-black array, about to charge out of its range.
Yet even this struggle turned out to be futile.
The grave soil forming the yellow-black array suddenly transford into the shape of Huang Quan, who, seeming to erupt with the last strength of his life, crashed into , thrusting into the black sphere behind.
My vision was instantaneously subrged in a black liquid, with Huang Quan entering the darkness alongside .
The battle between Huang Quan and reached its conclusion here.
Simultaneously, I sensed a change in mana fluctuations far away. The tangled conflict between Liu Shuying and the Taoyuan Village Master seed to also reach its final act. Their mana fluctuations were extinguished like blown-out candles, vanishing simultaneously.
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Darkness, darkness, darkness——
I was surrounded by an omnipresent darkness.
The so-called darkness is not a color. In a strict sense, colors are reflections of light, while darkness is the absence of light. In other words, the essence of darkness is "nothingness." I am now embraced by "nothingness."
Normally, even plunged into darkness, I should still be able to perceive the space and ti I was in. However, upon entering the black sphere, I seed to be transported out of thin air into a void devoid of both space and ti. Here, there truly is nothing, and nothing happens.
In the past, I learned from books that the birth of the universe originated from a great explosion, with ti and space erging from there. Before the big bang, the universe was rely a point, referred to as the "singularity." Many who learn of this likely have questions, where did this singularity co from, and what happened before its birth?
No one can answer these questions, and they are regarded as "aningless questions." Because ti is a asure of the change in events, "ti" before ti’s creation cannot be described. Just as there is no entity corresponding to the number "zero" in the real world, attempting to answer is simply a waste of ti, a breach of logic.
And at this mont, I am within this logically defying darkness.
Huang Quan also entered with ; I turned to glance at him. Though looking in that direction revealed only darkness, I felt he was right there.
In this place, the action of "turning one’s head" is aningless. It’s an action premised on being in so space, and here even the concept of "direction" doesn’t exist. I couldn’t feel my body, my soul, nor my superpower or flas, even my consciousness was ambiguous, as if only a sliver of True Spirit remained.
"What is this place?" I asked.
Though I couldn’t feel my mouth, and the concept of "sound" didn’t exist here, I wasn’t sure if I had spoken, I still felt I had asked.
And a response ca from beside . Though unsure if it was his reply or my own hallucination, I still felt I heard a reply.
"This is ’nothingness’," Huang Quan said.
It’s said that a person’s self is shaped through interactions with others. One must rely on those external to oneself to establish self. Thus, if I feel this response isn’t from another person but an echo within, then my self would dissolve in this darkness. At least, that’s how I felt.
"’Nothingness’?" I questioned.
"In simple terms, it’s the territory outside the world," Huang Quan said. "I’ve exiled you beyond the world. Here, there is no ti, no space, no life, and no death.
"You will spend a tiless ti here. Neither a mont, nor eternity, but nothing."
In a mathematical fraction, with the nurator unchanged, the smaller the denominator, the larger the number. One-third is larger than one-fourth, one-half is larger than one-third... If the denominator is set as "infinitesimal," the result of the fraction becos "infinite."
Even "infinitesimal" isn’t truly zero, but infinitely close to zero. So if the denominator reaches zero, can a number larger than "infinite" be attained?
But zero cannot be a denominator. Just as seeking an entity in reality to correlate with zero is aningless, a fraction with zero as a denominator violates basic mathematical logic.
And now I am banished to a place even mathematics cannot describe, destined to face a ti more drawn out than eternity, where even death dies, a aningless "ti."
Though knowing there’s no need to ask, I still inquired, "Is there a way to return?"
"Return?" he seed to chuckle.
Then he said, "Here, there is neither past nor future, neither front nor back, neither coming nor going...
"No direction, no distance, no motion, no stillness...
"You cannot return, because you are stuck in ’nothingness’. Here, you can do nothing.
"But ’you’ need not ’despair’. You ask why, because here, neither hope nor despair exists...
"Neither you nor I..."
After speaking, his voice, along with his presence, faded away, never to sound again.
He died.
Though here there is neither life nor death, how else to express his disappearance other than "death"?
It was normal for him to die; I had already obliterated over ninety percent of his soul, and coming here without allowing for material or soul existence, he vanished like a bubble in seawater. The one who spoke with was likely his last remnant soul, which now couldn’t hold on any longer.
Let alone a remnant soul, probably not even a complete Impermanence could survive in this void, it’s only soone like , barely able to exist in True Spirit form, who could persist.
No... In truth, I too cannot.
Though I can’t gauge how long I’ve been in this void, I will eventually be eradicated if this continues. Because fundantally, I haven’t truly self-verified my True Spirit. Temporarily abandoning body and soul might be okay, but over ti, my sense of self will genuinely thin out and vanish.
This seems to be the first ti I clearly sensed the limit of this state.
Moreover, having lost the recognition of others, my self has lost the reference fra for establishing itself, seemingly thinning out more quickly. Gradually, I began to doubt if my exchange with Huang Quan even happened; it was all my delusion, internal echoes, self-talk born from whimsy.
I must maintain my self through thought. Without anything here worth observing and analyzing, I can only reminisce about the past. Yet without the brain and soul as ans of mory preservation, recalling clearly becos difficult for the usually photographic .
The past is like transient smoke, much like watching the scenery on the shore while lurking underwater, everything is a blurry flash, gradually losing color.
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