Li Aozi followed rid down the mountain, smiling, with an air of everything being under control.
[As expected, as expected indeed!]
The situation with Zhi Xiang was actually quite easy to explain. It did not truly disdain or loathe human life. On the contrary, it cared very much for the life of these mundane beings, perhaps more so than Li Aozi or any human leader.
However, for so reason, Zhi Xiang seed unable to resist the Void, or in other words, it could not take care of every life under the invasion of the Void. Its dispersal of Substance Rain inadvertently took more lives.
In the end, it found that the people of the Dragon Satellite, even without its help, were actively saving themselves and often fighting against the Substance Rain it painstakingly brought down.
This kind of well-intentioned but poorly executed action resulting in disaster was quite common in history. The more one tried to protect everyone, the more one ended up having to end so people’s lives.
For humans, this was not sothing to dwell on. After all, a human life lasted but a lifeti, and living longer naturally ant experiencing more.
But for a near-immortal being, akin to Lord Entropy, who could survive even after the heat death of this universe, such matters seed to be an extrely intense shock to its dignity and existence.
Zhi Xiang could not imagine itself, a Primordial Species, having accumulated countless ages of wisdom and possessing infinite life, yet watching as its protection not only went unappreciated but also prompted jeers and curses.
As a realist and an Ascender, Li Aozi found it easy to understand this mindset, being caught in the fissure between humans and deities.
To put it bluntly, it was like feeling omnipotent and invincible in one’s own mind but getting a harsh reality check, encountering nurous obstacles and ridicule such as "Do you even deserve to be called Zhi Xiang?"
So elite university graduates excelled in school, but when they entered the complexities of the workplace, their prestigious backgrounds did not necessarily provide definitive help and instead beca a subject of ridicule and scrutiny.
You thought you altered your fate through sheer intelligence, but in the face of true clan scions, you were rely sneered at as a "dojo champion."
Zhi Xiang probably had this kind of ntality too. Perhaps at the beginning, when it arrived on the Dragon Satellite and found no Pathway contamination, it felt extrely pleased, thinking it had found a pure land where it could rest and spend its endless lifespan in peace.
But unexpectedly, the Void aggressively invaded, accelerating the Dragon Satellite from a primitive slave kingdom to the Industrial Era within eighty years. It worked hard to protect the entire planet, monitoring globally, refusing the contamination of the Starry Abyss and simultaneously casting Substance Rain to purify the human world.
Yet for so reason, perhaps due to its limited power or injuries, Zhi Xiang did not have the omnipotent prowess of Lord Entropy, sweeping across the cosmos.
In the end, facing the endless Void, it fell into despondency, eventually confining itself to a small area, opening a kindergarten and awaiting the Void to consu everything, whereupon it would continue to wander the cosmos as usual.
Pathetic? Perhaps a little, especially as Li Aozi gradually stepped into the ranks of the Longevity Breed. He had grown indifferent to re survival needs and had begun to understand and resonate with this kind of thinking.
Not sure if it was a common affliction among the Longevity Breed, these odd beings beca increasingly unrealistic the longer they lived; the longer they lived, the less capable they were of practical action.
So forgot to eat and would weep with nostalgia at tasting their hotown dishes again.
So forgot the bittersweet aspects of reality, unable to empathize even when their descendants cried and complained to them.
So beings, living too long, even forgot how to breathe and ended up suffocating themselves.
As for beings like Zhi Xiang, they were born without even knowing the concepts of "life" or "death".
They had no understanding of death, rely seeing these little beings one mont full of life, bowing and flattering them, but the next mont, even their grandchildren were old and frail.
Who could bear such things?
Rather than enduring endless ages, the Longevity Breed yearned more to witness those glorious monts. They hoped to be present in those epochs firsthand.
Li Aozi could gradually empathize with this but that did not an he could endorse such actions now.
"Knight rid, I have a question for you."
Walking side by side, Li Aozi suddenly asked.
"If you’re going to ask those tireso philosophical questions again, I think you should just give up. No matter how many tis you ask, my answer is ’the Void is incontrovertible’. No matter how much you resist, the outco of the Void is already predetermined. Whatever you do is aningless."
rid said calmly.
"No, that’s not what I wanted to ask. I also know that nothing can change your understanding of this world."
Li Aozi lifted his head, pointing to the sky:
"I just realized — your planet doesn’t have a moon!"
"... Yueyue?" rid turned her head in astonishnt, looking at Li Aozi. "What is that?"
"A satellite of the planet. The Dragon Satellite orbits the sun and spins on its axis. On my howorld, planets also have satellites orbiting them, influencing tides — they don’t emit light like the sun, but at night, they reflect the sun’s light, not as bright or warm, with a serene coolness."
Li Aozi patiently explained.
"Really?"
rid nodded slightly, pondering for a mont, then said:
"Sorry, I can’t imagine such a thing. The Dragon Satellite is a lonely planet, with no satellites accompanying it, and day and night are rely due to the shifting Void cloud layers — our world is covered with forests, not oceans and tides, just sowhat larger... lakes."
"So, do you think the moon is aningless?"
rid held her chin with one hand, thought for a while, and said:
"I can’t quite say... but all things ultimately return to the void."
"No, you don’t need to hesitate, because the moon holds no significance to you."
Li Aozi said:"To you, the moon that you’ve never seen is indispensable to us. Without the moon, the tidal system would be disordered, the oceans would consu our planet, our days elongated with no seasonal divisions, adversely affecting countless forms of life."
"Hmm... I think I understand a little."
rid seed sowhat moved. She pondered for a mont, then said:
"But from what you say, it seems that even without this system called the moon, people would still find a way to live, right?"
"Yes, of course, life always finds a way."
Li Aozi raised his hand, calmly stating:
"But we would lose a lot of cultural heritage. The world would beco monotonous and dull, without the colorful changes of seasons, the rushing tides, the majestic ships, without sunrise and moonset, nights lit by lanterns instead of moonlit walks."
"That’s only a minor loss."
"I think it’s not just a loss, but a regret."
Li Aozi looked up at the dark purple sky shrouded by the Void mist, softly saying:
"From ancient tis to the present, the moon has carried a significant part of our cultural aspirations. We imagine even if separated by the ends of the earth, when moonlight falls, we are all under the sa moon, and despite being far apart, we can reminisce and think of each other because of the sa moon."
"If there were no moon, I think it wouldn’t matter what else happens. But if one day, a little girl nad ’Yueyue’ or ’Luna’ tugged at her grandfather’s sleeve, asking naively, ’Grandpa, what does my na an?’ only then would the old man be moved.
"The existence of things themselves isn’t aningful; perhaps everything is destined to return to the void. But only when its existence ceases, the wishes it carried and the shared dreams will form an indelible regret."
"It is this regret that makes people feel remorse and cherish everything in front of them."
rid gazed at him.
The Substance Rain pitter-pattered outside the umbrella, continuing to descend.
"Even if it’s regret, it sounds beautiful."
She opened her mouth, her purple eyes brightening, softly saying:
"I’d love to see the moon too."
[Romanticism Victory: 6.3%]
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