Chapter 1654: The Cost of Principle
Lin Sanjiu couldn’t forget that scene for a long ti afterward.
She had once heard a saying: if there were anything in the world worth living for, it would be beauty. When Yu Yuan’s moir erged from the churning gray mist, she was reminded of this phrase.
It was a dark ocean subrged under torrential rain, breaking through thick fog. Pitch-black waves rose high, carrying a terrifying power that seed to shatter the very frawork of existence, roaring and surging in eerie silence. It appeared as if countless ancient angers born from the depths of the universe were sweeping away any notion of peace. The black sea, like judgnt and destruction from a darker world, pressed down overhead. If beauty could be derived from the extre, then there was nothing more extre than destruction.
Lin Sanjiu stood frozen at the edge of the city, s.h.i. vering as she watched the black sea rise and fall, rapidly closing in. For a fleeting mont, she even forgot who she was.
“moirs often change form, especially after being triggered,” Ah Quan said, drawing her out of her trance. “I’ve turned his around so you can see him.”
When Lin Sanjiu looked back at the sea, she saw a small figure in the waves’ varied shadows. From this distance, it looked like Yu Yuan.
As the moir touched the city and rged with it, the overwhelming beauty of the endless sea faded. Adjacent to the narrow, mundane city streets was a roiling ocean under a black rain. Yu Yuan was floating far out in the sea, his silhouette as small as a black bird tossed in the water.
“I can pause the moir,” Ah Quan said as they stood at the junction of the narrow alley and the sea. “Once you step inside, everything will be suspended, reverting to its original, unrecorded state. Then, he can be awakened. It’s rare to see soone so deeply imrsed that they forget their ident.i.ty completely; usually, stopping the moir is enough to wake them.”
As Lin Sanjiu prepared to step forward, she hesitated. “I… I have to go in there to wake him up? You can’t bring him out?”
Ah Quan turned and smiled. “I can control the moirs, but I can’t control the people inside,” he said knowingly. “For example, just now, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t forcibly pull you out.”
In other words, if she went to wake Yu Yuan, she would have to leave Ah Quan’s urban moir on her own. Whether Ah Quan would still be there when she returned was a question.
Lin Sanjiu bit her lip, pausing. He might have countless intentions, but even if she could guess his motive, it wouldn’t change her situation.
That’s how things work: every situation has risks and unknowns, and no matter how carefully you plan, it’s impossible to control every outco.
Of course, she could take Ah Quan captive first, and that would make things easier. But Lin Sanjiu didn’t want to. Despite the risks, she wanted to act on her own terms.
“I damaged your moirs hoping to uncover the truth and find my friends. eting you was… unexpected,” she said, glancing at him. “And the other one?”
“I’ll bring his moir over now,” Ah Quan replied instantly. He paused, looking at her. “So, are you going in?”
The question seed to hang in the air, freezing the mont.
Lin Sanjiu turned and gave Ah Quan a faint smile, then stepped over the boundary line between the moirs.
She expected to fall into water and had even prepared herself to swim, but when her foot landed, the seawater imdiately receded, and her steps touched down on a surface with an indescribable texture—like clouds that could suddenly bear weight, light and formless but sohow solid.
Glancing back, she saw Ah Quan watching casually, a slight smile on his face as he pointed off into the distance. She turned and started running toward Yu Yuan.
“This is an irrational act,” Yu Yuan said, precise and detached, seventeen seconds after being awakened. “If I had remained imrsed in mories, becoming lost in my own consciousness, it would have caused you no actual loss. Saving doesn’t an you’re preserving the Yu Yuan from your mories. But by leaving the urban moir, you’ve lost the one way to counterbalance the controller, drastically reducing the chance of leaving. From any perspective, this decision lacks logic.”
Lin Sanjiu listened to him and couldn’t help but laugh. She reached out and did sothing she’d never done to a Veda before: she tousled Yu Yuan’s hair.
“Let’s not waste ti now,” Yu Yuan admonished, still serious. “We’ll go separately. You check if Ah Quan’s urban moir is still in place, and I’ll find out if Ji Shanqing’s moir has been relocated. You’ve seen Ah Quan, and you can talk to him; you’ll be more effective than I will.”
Lin Sanjiu nodded and leapt up. The entire s.p.a.ce had reverted to its original state, with visibility only about ten ters, making it impossible to tell shapes or directions. After a mont’s thought, she turned and walked in the direction she thought was correct, calling out, “Ah Quan! Make a noise, I can’t see the way back.”
She walked for a while before a faint voice finally responded from sowhere in the hazy distance, “I’m over here!”
Realizing she was heading in the right direction, she sighed with relief, quickened her pace, but then began to slow down again.
The reason was simple: the voice sounded impossibly far away.
She had been walking back for quite so ti, yet Ah Quan’s voice still echoed faintly, like a thin thread in the wind.
“I’m sorry,” his distant voice called.
Lin Sanjiu stopped.
“Have we parted ways?” she asked, unsurprised—this was the price she had been willing to pay to get her friends back.
“Yes.”
Ah Quan’s voice seed to drift through the boundless chaos. “I connected the moir where the other child is; you’ll find him soon. I appreciate that you didn’t attack back there, and you should thank yourself too. Because if you had, you would have been trapped in the endless mories I’ve seen. Though I think you’re a good person, I can’t risk allowing you to co back. As the creator and overseer of this pocket dinsion, as the guardian of these mories, I have responsibilities to uphold.”
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