CHAPTER 32: CHAPTER 29 THIS WORLD IS SO TERRIFYING

New Year’s Spring.

Shiguang Emperor holds a grand ceremony to worship the heavens.

This unparalleled Mythical Emperor commands great prestige, leading countless ministers in imploring the gods to reveal miracles and deliver divine decrees. The entire continent knows, how could Zhu Zhengwei not see?

"I didn’t expect the world within the dream to develop so rapidly and prosperously."

Zhu Zhengwei shook his head, sitting overseas on a private small boat, sunbathing and traveling everywhere.

"The middle-aged traveler I saw under the tea canopy back then, the leader who longed for change, I never thought he could reach this point. In the history of human civilization in this world, he is destined to leave a significant mark!"

However, he didn’t want to bother with his matters for the time being because he had other things to deal with.

For example, drinking tea.

For example, fishing.

For example, how to trim the leeks.

Of course, the most important thing is cultivation.

"Practicing the Qi Eating Skill here is far better than in reality. This four-dimensional world is great, with mining machines extracting ’Qi’, allowing for cultivation and strengthening the spirit."

Blowing the salty and humid sea breeze, watching the waves and tides roll in, the sky is blue; it’s refreshing no matter how you think about it.

Honestly.

Shiguang Emperor is probably just a guise.

Although it’s indeed his personal wish, this emperor of the modern age has too many questions about the world, about the future of humanity, but behind the scenes, it’s inevitably his brother’s handiwork.

And Zhang Zhi has been looking for him not just for a day or two, wanting to achieve something naturally understood.

There are too many questions accumulating in his heart.

And Shiguang Emperor, this unprecedented human great emperor who can be described as a hero, is indeed old, about to deteriorate, but he won’t die just yet; it’s just pretended misery.

He is clear-headed.

"Speaking of, although I, like Zhang Zhi, have lived as an Immortal for four or five hundred years, I’m just at the general level of a Witch."

After all, my time, though not spent in a dog’s life, has indeed mostly been about handling some matters outside.

One must know, I count as the "only player" in this Mobile Dream Net World, even akin to a GM, able to interfere with the world and heavens, modifying some parameters, changing the weather, rain, thunder, and lightning.

But the more difficult stuff isn’t that easy to handle.

Doing that would cause the foundation of the entire four-dimensional network to collapse, with serious consequences.

Simply put, it’s like a program; you can’t randomly change underlying data, doing so would cause a crash.

Moreover, this world is increasingly stable, approaching reality, about to become a super vast world gathering countless computing power; I’m even more cautious about making any rash moves.

Gurgle gurgle.

At this moment, a huge shadowy crab surfaced from the waters.

Its shell was cracked, vaguely showing previous severe injuries, not yet recovered from the battle back then.

"Boss Crab, what’s happening?" Sitting on the deck, Zhu Zhengwei asked calmly.

The little creature from back in the day has grown into an enormous being, but having raised it for decades, naturally, it still remembers my figure, remembers who created them.

These days when I’m sailing, it occasionally brings me something to eat.

Although they don’t have much intelligence, as beasts, deep in their soul they are still deeply fearful of me.

After all, back then I used to eat octopus balls, braised hairy crab, and grilled scallops every day in the lab in front of them... this was enough to embed fear deeply in their souls.

Gurgle gurgle!

The Black Copper Cloud Crab God bubbles, with an attitude somewhat reverent yet respectful, issues a call for help.

"You’re saying something happened?" Zhu Zhengwei stood on the deck, curiously asking, "Someone’s bullying your big brother?"

...

...

Seaside Ghost Kingdom.

Tuna Port, surrounded by towering stone walls.

In the Ocean Clock Family, the elderly Zhong Qingyu quietly set out to sea on a huge ship, taking along a white-haired elder lying on a sickbed, her brother heading for the journey.

"Brother, do you remember us as children at that harbor?"

The elder sat on a bench, gently touching the face of the elderly on the sickbed on the deck,

"Back then, I tried my best to earn money to support you through school, and you didn’t disappoint, leading our family towards glory, becoming the chief financial minister second to none."

"You are going to die of old age, and so am I."

With a sigh, there was endless melancholy.

In the blink of an eye, she too was over a hundred years old. Although she practiced Swallowing Wind and Eating Qi, she was heading towards the end of life just like Shiguang Zhizheng Emperor, sitting on the giant ship, feeling the sea breeze.

She finally understood why the Ancestral Witches who practiced Swallowing Wind and Eating Qi would die of old age at just over a hundred, with a lifespan not much longer than ordinary people.

Because the Qi couldn’t pass the neck.

She had an ageless head, terrifying divine power, yet possessed a frail and withered mortal body, heart, bones, skin, spine, limbs, every exhausted organ telling her she was heading towards ultimate decay.

At this moment, the two elders, who controlled most of the nation’s wealth, traveled on a giant ship, gazing at the coastline as they gradually distanced themselves from the port, away from the hustle and bustle.

"That was once our home."

"As we walk towards death and rebirth, we shall never return."

She took one last look at the port, her turbid eyes filled with blood vessels, her expression a mix of nostalgia, uncertain astonishment, deep pain, struggle, and a kind of silent fear and hysteria.

She suddenly recalled her girlhood.

Her father killed her mother, and they lived without a mother. The bald, beer-bellied, drunken sailor father beat and scolded her and her brother until one day she couldn’t take it anymore upon seeing her brother’s head injured and his leg crippled. From the next morning on, they lived completely without parents.

She started to work hard to earn money with her small shoulders, doing odd jobs at the dock, her frail hands dragging fishing nets to catch fish, supporting her brother’s education with her hard work, exhaustion, struggle, and diligence, living a life as uneventful as most poor people’s until she met the man who changed her life. That tall, heroic figure left an eternal impression on her.

"Over the years, my brother and I climbed higher and higher, gaining fame and success." The old woman’s voice was low and hoarse, "But looking back at our lives, what does it really mean?"

The elder on the sickbed opened his mouth, seemingly about to refute.

The old woman seemed to see through his expression and said, "I know, you say life is meaningful, after all, before mother passed, she hoped for us to live happily and have a family... We’ve almost succeeded over the years. I have a successful brother, but still lack a man who loves me deeply."

"Unfortunately, he left me."

"Over the years, every day, every day, every day... I’ve painted his portrait, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand paintings, filling my castle, covering my room, yet I cannot fill my heart."

"Later, I regretted countless times that I should have put poison in his food, imprisoned him... That way, the man I loved wouldn’t have left me, and my brother and I would finally have a happy home."

"Every day, every day, every day... I took care of the flowers he left me, hoping that when he returned, he would see them again, until one day, I ate them, and felt an immense and unparalleled joy."

The white-haired elder on the sickbed seemed accustomed to it, his spiritless eyes turned his head, watching the vast ocean outside the ship.

"Do you still blame me for killing the first her? She wasn’t worthy of you."

"The second woman you loved, she was nothing more than greedy for our wealth, she would become the second unchaste mother, creating a second tragedy."

The elder on the sickbed still couldn’t say anything.

He was too old, nearing the end of his life, and even speaking seemed to exhaust all his energy.

The shadow of childhood hovered over his sister and himself.

He would never forget that alcoholic father who murdered their mother for an affair, how his sister killed their father to protect him, and he would never forget the sister who was originally gentle, that day’s madness, the pathological waving of the kitchen knife, the frenzy, the scarlet eyes.

From that day on, his sister became even more afraid of losing him, losing her last family member.

Yet, that man appeared, saving his sister, bringing calm to her extreme heart. Originally, they would have found happiness, but he suddenly left without regard, and his sister became utterly extreme too.

"You, ah, are going to die of old age."

"I, ah, am also going to die of old age, everything has already passed."

The old woman continued to talk to herself,

"The whole world seems to be becoming unfamiliar, relatives, servants, guards, even His Majesty Emperor You You, looked at us with an extremely greedy, beast-like expression, waiting for us to die."

Thinking carefully, she reflected on her life, a life as a human being. It seemed incredibly successful, yet no different from most mortals.

Glory, wealth, gold and jewelry, luxurious castles, acquired all the ridiculous things people pursued their entire lives.

What was she truly chasing after?

That ultimately wasn’t what she wanted.

Perhaps humans are creatures living within such an absurd social framework.

Zhong Qingyu showed a hint of sarcasm, looking at the endless coastline, spreading her arms wide, and shouted loudly: "This life! It’s like the sunrise and sunset of this coastline, cyclical! Day and night cycle! Totally meaningless!"

"And what Shiguang Zhizheng Emperor and the scholars of the ’City of Hundred Stones’ pursue, is nothing more than the ultimate greatness beyond humans, transforming into divinity by drinking dew, swallowing wind and eating qi, but in essence, it is the great freedom beyond beings!"

"It’s freedom!"

"Only for freedom!"

"If for the sake of freedom, form can be discarded!"

As she stood on the deck shouting loudly, ripples stirred, shaking the heavens and earth, rolling waves swept open.

No one knew that this was a mighty figure hidden in the world, comparable to an emperor.