Xuanxia

Chapter 1136 Let them choose

Ning Baimei's pupils trembled.

Is he threatening Fu Qingzhou?

He actually needs to threaten Fu Qingzhou?
No, it's not just a threat, but coercion... inducement!
It was not until this time that he finally had to admit that Fu Qingzhou was far more perfect and more powerful than they had originally expected.

Fu Qingzhou was silent.

He looked at the smoker in the monster's seven pupils and lowered his head.

compromise?

No, compromise is an attitude. Once you start compromising, there will be no end.

"Gamble."

Fu Qingzhou suddenly raised his head and said softly, "Let's take a gamble."

The monster tilted its head.

"Since you keep saying that this is for the sake of all the souls in the world, why not let all the souls in the world make the choice."

Fu Qingzhou said slowly: "Not only people, but also birds, beasts, insects, ants, and even flowers, plants, and trees... Tell them everything, let them know what they are facing, and let them make the choice."

"If they win, I'll give you everything I have, just follow your original plan."

"I won... Then, you are at my disposal."

The monster's central pupil looked directly at Fu Qingzhou.

"You are playing tricks."

He responded calmly, “Living beings are ignorant. It is not easy to make them understand all the pain and sorrow…Living beings naturally fear death and love life. They cannot understand all this.”

"You are just arrogant." Fu Qingzhou's eyes were stern: "Are you worried that you will lose?"

"..."

The monster was silent for a moment, then suddenly raised a hand and stroked the eyeball in the center of its face.

"three people."

His tone was indifferent and without a trace of emotion: "I will select three people on behalf of God."

"Only three people?" Fu Qingzhou's eyes lit up: "Sure."

Now that he possesses half of the power of Heaven, he knows very well that these three people are not chosen randomly.

The three people chosen by Heaven are not ordinary people.

In a sense, they must be able to represent all the people in this world...even all living beings!
……

Yanguo, Jiangnan.

The blind pianist's fingertips trembled slightly on the strings.

He is very old, so old that he has forgotten many of the pains of the past, but the pain brought by his illness is always soothed by the young and energetic girl in the yard next door... She is happy, excellent, and bright, and most importantly, she likes the sound of her own piano very much.

For those who play the piano, it is enough to have one close friend in life.

He thought that he could wait for the girl to come back from work every day, send her to sleep with the sound of the piano, and occasionally talk about her happiness and his past, and that would be enough.

But today, there has been a change.

He could not see the golden light that suddenly enveloped the cabin, but he could feel an unprecedented warmth seeping from the piano wood into his fingertips.

For the first time in many years, the excruciating pain disappeared, replaced by a strange voice from the bottom of my heart.

"What does it mean to continue living?"

He asked himself quietly, confusion showing on his wrinkled face.

In an instant, he "saw" - not with his eyes, but with some deeper sense.

He saw the girl in the neighboring yard grow up and marry far away; he saw himself sitting in the yard, the strings of his zither breaking one by one; he saw himself curled up on the cold bed on a cold winter night, and stopped breathing without anyone knowing.

What's even more terrifying is that he feels that this is just one of countless reincarnations. Every time, the girl will leave, the strings will break, and he will die alone.

The pianist's fingers froze on the strings.

Over the years, he had long accepted his fate, but he never thought that the little girl who always lay on the wall listening to him playing the piano would become a part of his pain.

"Can death end all this...?" he murmured, and suddenly heard the clear laughter of a girl coming from next door.

She was learning a new piece of music, playing it haltingly but joyfully. The sound of the piano came through the thin wall, like a ray of sunshine shining into the darkness.

The pianist's fingertips tapped his knees unconsciously following the melody that was full of errors.

He suddenly remembered that last spring, the girl used the money she saved from making sweets to buy him new strings; he remembered that every rainy day, she would come to help him collect the music scores that were hanging out to dry; he remembered the way her little face flushed with excitement when she played the "Qing Ping Diao" in its entirety for the first time - even though he couldn't see it, he could imagine it.

The severe pain came back, worse than before. Cold sweat broke out on the musician's forehead, but he smiled.

……

A small village in the South China Sea.

The farmer wiped the dirt off his hoe and walked towards the ridge of the field humming a little tune. The setting sun stretched his shadow very long. The cart behind him was pulling freshly harvested wheat. The tall ears of wheat swayed gently in the evening breeze.

He was very happy. A few days ago, he just got married. His wife was a beauty from the neighboring village. She was attracted by the farmer's hard-working, tall and strong figure. After adding a betrothal gift of a yellow cow, the beauty finally agreed. The two held a banquet and consummated their marriage a few days ago.

Not only that, this year's harvest is very good, nearly 10% more than in previous years!
Even before the wedding, he went to the old fortune teller at the entrance of the village to have his fortune told, and learned that he would have a big fat boy next year!

The farmer thought that he should be the happiest man in the world now.

"What sound?"

He was suddenly startled, stopped and looked around.

There was no one around, but the voice did ring in his heart, as clear as his wife whispering in his ear. When the illusion flooded into his mind, the farmer's smile froze.

He saw that all the rice seedlings of this year were eaten up by locusts; he saw his wife coughing up blood and dying in the cold winter; he saw his child, who was born with great difficulty, fall into the river when he was five years old; he saw himself, with white hair, leaning on a cane, talking to himself facing the wall in an empty house.

What frightened him even more was that these scenes kept repeating, changing and replaying - sometimes it was drought, sometimes it was war, sometimes it was plague, but the ending was always the same: loneliness and loss.

"no, I can not!"

The farmer screamed and shook his head vigorously, and his hoe fell to the ground with a clang. He always believed that good days were ahead and never thought that fate would be so cruel.

I heard my wife calling from a distance.

He turned his head and saw her standing in front of a thatched cottage with smoke rising up, waving at him. There was flour on her apron and she had her favorite smile on her face.

The farmer bent down to pick up the hoe, his hands shaking so much that he could hardly hold it.

He lived a life of poverty but was always optimistic because he believed tomorrow would be better. But now, he knows all the possible tomorrows.

"Boss! What are you standing there for? The noodles are going to clumping together!" the wife shouted with a smile.

He took a step, but it felt heavier than when he was carrying the heaviest bag of grain.

With every step he took, the visions became clearer: his wife's sunken cheeks in front of her sickbed, his child's cold body, his own withered hands...

……

Shu, in the mountains.

The deserter huddled in the corner of the dilapidated temple, gnawing on moldy dry food.

The wind blew the torn window paper, and every sound made him tremble all over.

He was originally from Xishuo, so naturally he joined the Xishuo Army.

He participated in the selection of ghost cultivators, hoping to reach the top in one step and become a superior person, but... of course, he failed and could only be an ordinary soldier.

Not long ago, facing the Northern Frontier Army, he was frightened and ran away.

He didn't know what the outcome of the battle between the Northern Frontier Army and the Western Shuo Army was. He just went into the mountains on the edge of Shu and hid there.

He was afraid of being killed in battle, and also afraid of being captured and punished... he was afraid of everything.

Therefore, when that voice sounded in his heart, he thought that his hallucination had worsened.

Until the scenes emerged before my eyes: he was captured and brought back to the military camp, screaming under the whip; he hid among the pile of corpses and watched his comrades being slaughtered by the enemy; he was still on the run when he was old, and was awakened by nightmares every night.

These scenes repeat themselves over and over again, sometimes the details are different, but the fear and guilt never change.

"no, do not want……"

The deserter held his head, digging his nails deep into his scalp.

He thought that his current life was hell, but he saw an even more terrifying future - eternal fear and a nightmare with no end.

Suddenly, a child's laughter was heard outside the dilapidated temple.

He trembled and looked through the crack in the door, and saw several farm children chasing and playing. They were wearing patched clothes, but they were laughing so happily. A little girl with pigtails fell down, and the other children immediately surrounded her and helped her up.

The deserter remembered that when he was a child, he also ran in the fields like this.

My father was still alive at that time. He always said that he would make him a wooden sword after the autumn harvest. Later, the Northern Barbarians invaded and the Northern Frontier Army recruited soldiers everywhere. My father left the house that day and never came back.

"Death will end everything..."

He muttered to himself, but saw new scenes in the illusion: when those children grew up, some died on the battlefield, some starved to death in disasters, and some became deserters like him.

He slid to the ground, blood oozing from his cracked lips.

It takes courage to die, and it takes even greater courage to live.

He thought he was a coward, but now, no matter which path he chose, it seemed that it would require strength that he had never possessed before.

At this moment, from a distance... bursts of wolf howls were heard.

……

Fu Qingzhou and the monster raised their heads at the same time.

Their power turned into two entangled beams of light that rushed into the sky, spreading into countless tiny points of light in the clouds, and sprinkled on every corner of the earth, but only three points of light were the brightest, falling on the courtyard of the zither player, the field of the farmer, and the deserter's ruined temple.

The pianist represents mankind’s pursuit of “meaningful connection”. Although he suffers from physical pain, the spiritual bond he establishes with the girl next door through the sound of the piano constitutes his reason for living.

Heaven chose him to test whether humans would still choose to maintain the short-lived beauty after seeing the truth that "relationships will eventually sever" in all reincarnations.

The farmer, as the most common optimist, represents the simple trust of most people in "linear progress" - getting married, having children, and having a good harvest.

God allowed him to foresee all possible cycles of disasters in order to destroy this worldly hope and see if he has the courage to use the "reality of the moment" to fight against the "illusionment of the future."

The deserter, this cowardly soul represents the deepest fear of survival of all living beings.

What Heaven showed him was that no matter whether he chose to fight, flee, or die, pain would repeat itself in different forms.

But...will this most cowardly life transcend its individual fear because of the instinct of "continuation of the same species"?
"What will they choose?" Fu Qingzhou asked softly.

The tumor under the monster's skin squirmed, and countless blurry human faces emerged: "All living things fear suffering and difficulties."

"But they also love life, they yearn for happiness, and more importantly, all living beings... have courage."

The star between Fu Qingzhou's eyebrows flickered: "You only see the pain, but not the light in the pain..."

"Wait, then."

"They will give the answer."

(End of this chapter)