Lü Shu etched the one hundred and first mark on the calendar.
This marked the number of tis he had seen Su Ming’an over the long twenty years. Most of the ti, they would et every few months, but there were also years when they hadn’t t.
The most vivid mory he had was from 2035 to 2040 when Su Ming’an did not appear for a full five years.
Those years were peaceful, calr compared to the turbulent tis, but everyone knew this peace was established by Su Ming’an. He must have adjusted countless tis to lead the world onto the most peaceful path.
The day he returned, Su Ming’an landed on a neon sign shrouded in misty shadows, overlooking the bustling city that resembled a forest park. As he gazed down at the city lights, he truly sensed the changes of the world. He hadn’t intended to take so long to return, but he had increasingly adapted to his identity as a deity, causing his perception of ti and space to blur.
He heard the exchanges in the Union Governnt’s council, heard the voting buttons being pressed repeatedly, heard the smiles and sighs in the news, and heard the raindrops falling from the eaves, creating a symphony of joyous laughter and somber sobs.
"...Su Ming’an, how’s the recent battle being handled, when will you return to the hub?" Lü Shu communicated with him.
"I’m fine, nothing much." Su Ming’an replied.
A mont later, Lü Shu repeated:
"...how’s the recent battle being handled? When will you return to the hub?"
"It’s okay, I’ll look at your eyes again when I return and see if they can recover." Su Ming’an said.
Lü Shu tightly held the communicator.
Su Ming’an’s two responses were the usual questions and answers during the daily communications with his companions. The companions often start by asking, "How have you been lately?" and then say, "I’m doing great too." So, Su Ming’an subconsciously said that.
Lü Shu’s pitch-black vision paused, and with blood in his mouth, he remained silent for a long ti before softly speaking into the communicator:
"...I see."
"So, you can’t hear my voice clearly anymore."
Perhaps Lü Shu remained silent for too long and then spoke too quietly, Su Ming’an thought Lü Shu hadn’t spoken, so he said:
"Why haven’t you said anything for so long... Don’t worry, I misperceived before, which is why I hadn’t been back for five years. It won’t happen again... I’ll try to minimize such occurrences in the future."
"I’m just too busy recently, doing many things you might not understand... I promise, once everything is over, we’ll et again in this settled world, okay?"
Lü Shu opened his mouth, swallowed the taste of blood, then trembled as he held the communicator, softly saying, "Okay."
"It won’t be long, the blood and flesh experint has made significant progress, and in these twenty years, the small world is about to stabilize into a dium Magic, dium Science World." Su Ming’an said.
"Okay."
"Even if there’s a lot of malice, my evil body can absorb it. As for goodwill, my good body is absorbing it too, and the emotions of the whole world are constantly generated."
"Okay."
"However, if discovered again by the High Dinsions, it would still be troubleso. Fortunately, Su Rin has been exploring the air routes, and I believe the construction of The Republic is not far away. Sooner or later, there will be a day of complete peace."
"Okay."
Whatever Su Ming’an said, Lü Shu only responded with "okay."
He accepted it all, acknowledged it all. Even though he knew, perhaps Su Ming’an couldn’t hear clearly.
"We don’t need to return to Zhai XIng, right?" Lü Shu suddenly said.
The old friends are all here, everything is the sa as the past scenery, why insist on that familiar planet?
He thought Su Ming’an wouldn’t hear this, but unexpectedly, after a pause, there ca a light and smiling response:
"Right."
Su Ming’an held a red umbrella, and the blood in his palm gradually flowed away, as he looked down, witnessing the flickering lights and elusive silhouettes of people.
"Where the heart finds peace."
"Is my hotown..."
...
Let’s give this world so more ti.
Let’s give this world so more chance.
The image of Su Mianbao, with her gray hair, remains vivid before his eyes. She held his hand tightly before her death.
Maybe in many years, this world will bloom flowers, the days will get better and better, but human greed is insatiable, and he continues to chase after that elusive "perfection."
"Perfection"... what exactly is it?
Su Ming’an pondered on it until now, unable to find the answer. He only felt it should be the Great Harmony, where everyone wore smiles, a world of happiness.
He landed to suppress a battle.
It was a battle between the kingdoms supported by the World Tree Guild and the Human Self-Rescue Alliance. The World Hub’s diation failed, and when Su Ming’an approached with his dyed black tendrils, he heard cries of "Evil Ghost Su Qing."
The kind "World Master" held compassion like a deity, with multicolored hair, listening to the wishes of all living beings.
The evil "Evil Dragon" acted decisively, with black hair, face covered by a mask.
"Ignoring central law for personal desires, inciting conflicts, and causing harm to the innocent—I judge you..." Su Ming’an held up a sword with one hand, surrounded by curses and wailing cries.
"We don’t want stability; we want glory!"
In the crowd, a young soldier shouted sharply. His appearance gradually overlapped with the defiant Soul Hunts in Su Ming’an’s mory.
"Do you assu the sound of crying is proof of suffering?" The young soldier, face covered in blood, shouted in sadness: "We will make mistakes, we will bleed—but the conscience forged from sin is just as important. We don’t need a fairytale written by omniscient beings; please give us a chance... Even if humanity is ugly... they can survive!"
Su Ming’an understood this sentint, having said similar words before, questioning the Cloud City God as a despicable one.
Indeed, the cost of abandoning stability is the death of more people, so without the controlling hand of gods, it is glorified as "freedom"? The young soldier in front yearned for that freedom because he wasn’t afraid of life and death, but what about those ordinary people with families? Aren’t they afraid to die? Aren’t they afraid of conflict?
"Freedom" and "peace" have always been where those who gain one desire the other, and those who have the other seek the first. Therefore, Su Ming’an can only be divided in two, persisting for freedom as the "World Master" and for peace as the "Evil Dragon".
"I don’t need... your evidence." Su Ming’an said.
The young soldier paused.
"Your evidence... proves nothing. Besides you, there will be a second, a third, a billion people proving the exact opposite theory to ... because there are too many people in this world, and too many entirely different minds." Su Ming’an said: "...there is no, correct answer."
He closed his eyes, absorbing countless malice.
—When Yi Song arrived, this was the scene he witnessed.
Thick as ink malice swirled around the black-haired deity, wearing a clown mask painted with a smile, pitch-black energy snaking up his limbs, he absorbed the malice, but it seed the malice was hungrily sucking every inch of his flesh, pulling him into the abyss.
The young man’s head hung low, thick black hair falling down like poisonous vines entwining a flawless white jade statue. The ingrained warmth of the ink burned fiercely around him.
He listens, he judges, he accepts.
He suddenly opened his eyes, the gaze devoid of human desire seed to penetrate the mask, as if the world and mountains were emotionless and unfeeling.
Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs.
After a mont, Su Ming’an turned his head and looked at Yi Song.
"What’s the matter?" That voice was as cold as snow lting from the Tianshan Mountains, sending a chill down one’s spine.
A small piece of his mask shattered, revealing a portion of skin, like solidified asphalt, manifesting an inhuman ferocity and fragntation. It was as if divinity and demonic nature were engaged in a fierce battle on his face.
...God is falling.
This concept flashed through Yi Song’s mind, yet his tone remained normal: "You haven’t attended psychological counseling for a long ti, it should be once a week."
Facing the deity shrouded in dark mist, his deanor was as ordinary as a doctor discussing a return visit with a patient.
"...Is that so." Su Ming’an said, "I don’t rember, sorry, Doctor."
He raised his hand, the dark current rged into the ink, tendrils more frantically twining into his body, as if countless greedy venomous snakes burrowed into the deity’s flesh.
"I’m afraid I’ll scare the doctor like this, so I didn’t go." Su Ming’an said.
"I never disdain my patients." Yi Song said, "Moreover, the more I converse with you, the more I understand why you have such a broad circle of friends... I still hope to learn your friendship techniques."
"..." Su Ming’an was silent for a mont: "But most of my ’friends’ are no longer here."
He slowly choked the ink swirling around him, returning to the ground, his appearance restored to normal.
"I’ve tried countless tis, countless tis..." He raised his hand: "Never able to derive complete humanity, they are like a school of sharks, the mont they sll any bloodstained break, they rush up to gnaw and devour... Indeed, there are those who try to stop them, but as long as sharks exist, the scent of blood will always linger..."
"So I’ve realized, only by making such a taste commonplace, can we prevent triggering the monsters’ bloodlust; crystal-clear waters have no fish, there is no eternally clean Utopia."
He squatted down, his palm pressed against the base of the tree, pouring in all recent malice and goodwill.
He could distinctly feel, the world is transcending, energy growing ever more abundant, things here are improving...
Today, the world also operates as usual.
He looked up — the firmant appeared as a piece of glass lted by fire, translucently clear yet desolate.
The sunlight stretched across the jagged mountain peaks, swayed over the peach blossom treetops, brushed the faces of passersby, everything he saw was dyed in thick gold, like a massive golden basin.
The ridges lay horizontally in the evening glow, one or two farrs gradually walking away, their figures rging into the vast earth, the plow-done cattle dragging their steps, the distant windmills gently turning, children on the alley holding sugar-coated haws running... under the day’s light, all things lost their hue, drenched in intense crimson, burning into dark gold, then hesitatingly transforming into greenish-purple.
—So silent.
His pupils reflected this evening sunset, the world’s beauty, approaching him like the Great Harmony Prosperous Era.
The future Su Shaoqing yearns for might be realized here.
But as he lifted his foot, he saw Yi Song beside him, saw reflected in Yi Song’s eyes the swirling black mist around himself— he sensed the stark ugliness.
Such a beautiful world should not harbor an "Evil Dragon", he awaits the day when the Evil Dragon is completely vanquished.
"I will always heal you, patient." Yi Song looked at him and said.
"Alright." Su Ming’an smiled, still did not attend psychological counseling, and turned to leave.
He has much chaos and battles to suppress, many good and evil people awaiting him.
That night, he dread, he dread of lying on a hillside, discovering the hillside had turned into the sea— it was the sea Lü Shu yearned for. He lay in the sea, counting the stars beneath the water, discovered familiar constellations and planets, even saw the sun and moon... Venus, Jupiter, rcury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Draco Constellation, Ursa Major Constellation...
Yet when he reached out to grasp them, he found it was rely fishing for the moon in the sea, this wasn’t Zhai Xing, naturally couldn’t grab those familiar constellations.
But he imagined... they caught the moon, this was ho, since everyone was here, everything as usual, then why miss that distant, real moon?
The celestial moonlight simulated above, if the lunar phases and color are identical to the holand, then why would one hold affection?
Those who pursue the moon, chase the moon, the enduring hosickness for the moon, Chang’e and Wu Gang, moonlight before the bed, the old lant of calling it a white jade plate, should be let go, right?
Now only the West River moon, could illuminate the people in Wu Wang Palace.
Spring wind green again Jiangnan shore, when will the bright moon shine upon my return.
...Talking about letting go?
...
Su Rin returned, dust-laden, carrying the scent of cosmic dust.
He returned beneath the World Tree, yet saw a person staggering like drunkenness, buried in the grass, fingers full of soil, not knowing what they were digging for.
"...!" Su Rin imdiately pulled the person up, saw a face full of dirt, dirty like a beast rolling in the mud.
"Such thick malice breath... You’ve lost control?" Su Rin held him: "Again shuttling through ti, again flesh experints, again malice extraction... Do you really consider yourself a deity."
"Am I not a god?" The madman asked him as if drunk, eyes shrouded in black mist: "What am I then."
"You’re just picky." Su Rin said.
"I’m afraid... afraid." The madman sighed: "I’m afraid High Dinsions will co again, afraid all previous efforts wasted, the sunk costs too high... I must have this place safe and secure, ensure it won’t be destroyed, then I’ll rest. Fortunately, soon... soon."
Su Rin squatted down, tilted his head: "What are you looking for, I’ll help you find."
As if reminded, the madman imdiately lay back into the dirt.
Sharp roots pierced his fingertips, golden blood sunk into the earth, yet he seed insensitive to pain, like a wildcat searching in the soil.
"I can’t find it, I can’t find it..." He muttered repeatedly.
"What are you looking for?" Su Rin pald the soil, helping him search.
"I clearly stored it well, reluctant to use, only used dozens till now... I still want to use them slowly in the future, slowly reminisce..."
"What is it?" Su Rin asked again.
The madman paused, halted his fingers, stared at the soil, looking at his blood-dripping hand.
His mouth opened and closed, finally revealing a mournful smile.
"...Yuanyuan gave ten thousand beautiful dreams."
"I never see them again, maybe too much goodwill and malice squeezed out my collection... I can’t dream of those anymore..."
"Great Engineer, I can’t dream of her, I’ve lost her."
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