From the end of the world

Chapter 588 Return to the real world
The reason why the gray stairs didn't appear immediately was probably because I was standing in an overlapping area with them, which prevented them from appearing. A long time ago, when I tried to escape from the basement on the 15th floor, a similar situation might have occurred. It seems that I was too nervous and forgot the lessons learned last time.

I didn't rush to climb the gray ladder, but first examined my status from the abstract level of fate and cause and effect to see if the power of the unlucky star was still in me. There was no phenomenon of loss in the "Apocalypse", but it was not the case in the real world. If I rashly returned to the real world without the power of the unlucky star, I might suddenly become a lost and impermanent. If I was careless about this matter, I would have no place to complain.

Although I am somewhat curious about how I can cut off all ties with the strange world in my current state, is it possible that after returning to the real world, I will suddenly find that all the strange elements around me have disappeared for no reason, as if the whole world has inexplicably become a world of common sense?
I already know the address of Luoshan headquarters. It is impossible that I can go to the corresponding place after being lost and still not get any clues related to the strange world? Since I really can't figure out the specific operation of the lost phenomenon, it makes me curious.

It's really embarrassing. Even though I take risks as my guiding principle, I dare not take any risks in this regard.

Soon, I finished my self-examination and roughly determined that I was safe. Just to be on the safe side, I conducted a more in-depth and comprehensive examination, striving to ensure that I would not trigger the loss phenomenon after returning to the real world.

Number Seven stared at the exit covered by a wooden lid above with a complicated expression.

"If I just push open this lid, I can return to the world of the living..." she thought.

"Do you want to leave the afterlife too?" I asked.

Xiao Wan continued: "If Ms. Seven also wants to go to the other side of the world, there shouldn't be any problem."

After hesitating for a moment, No. 7 shook his head and said, "No, I still have a lot of unfinished work in the afterlife... The remnants of the Tai Sui Army are still waiting for me to reorganize and protect them. I absolutely cannot irresponsibly go to a safe area alone."

It can be seen that she has a private desire to go to the world of the living.

The afterlife is called "Naraku" and also called "Hell". The "Hell is about to flow out" predicted by the Heavenly Master in the past used this alias. Although I have not personally seen what the afterlife was like more than a hundred years ago, the current afterlife is definitely worthy of the title of "Hell". Ma Zao, who is at the Great Perfection level, has suffered deeply in it, and No. 7, who is at the same level, must have also experienced countless unspeakable bitterness and pain.

Her desire to escape from this hell is completely understandable, but she suppressed her selfish desires through her sense of mission and responsibility.

I am a person who rarely uses such ideas as a priority principle to guide my actions, but I admire the willpower and self-discipline she demonstrated in this choice.

"But you...are you okay?" Number 7 looked at Xiaowan, "You are also planning to return to the world of the living with Zhuang Cheng, right?"

"That's natural." Xiaowan said.

Number 7 pointed out: "But you are a soul. Although you seem to have a physical body now, this is just a byproduct of the afterlife emulating the apocalyptic era of the real world. In essence, this is an illusion caused by the spiritual time and space of the afterlife. Once you return to the real world, your true form will immediately appear.

"You are now like water without a container. Even if you can move freely in the spiritual world, it doesn't mean that you can do the same in the material world, right?"

"It's okay, I'm here," I said.

The law of great impermanence allows the dead to move in the world of the living. In the past, I used my words to maintain the existence of Dongche, who should have been dead, in the outside world, and now I can do the same for Xiaowan.

This is actually a kind of power close to the law of heaven and earth. As long as it is within the scope of my law of heaven and earth, I can give Xiaowan natural privileges so that it will not become a person whose soul will fly away when the wind blows or whose spirit will be scattered when the thunder sounds.

Xiaowan herself should be able to achieve a similar miracle. With her own natural privileges, she can completely live in the material world in the form of a spirit, as if she were wandering in the afterlife. The power of nature will automatically gather around her body, like an invisible glass container to help her maintain her form. As the incarnation of dreams, the girl Lu Chan in the past could not survive in the material world, but the same thing will not happen to Xiaowan.

Number 7, who is always in the afterlife, probably has never seriously studied this kind of "unused knowledge". He suddenly realized it after hearing my and Xiaowan's explanation.

But when I thought of the young girl Lu Chan, I realized another issue that would be more directly related to Xiaowan's life and death, and then asked: "Xiaowan...what about your 'mission'?"

Xiao Wan quickly understood what I meant and said, "Brother Zhuang Cheng, you want to ask, if I complete all my missions after returning to the real world... will I disappear directly?"

The incarnation of a dream is a spirit formed based on a certain obsession. Once the obsession is resolved, it will disappear like the ghosts in old horror stories.

"My obsession is to help you and Sister Ma Zao live a happy and fulfilling life, and I will not give up on this. However, even if I achieve this obsession, I probably won't disappear immediately." Xiao Wan said, "Because my original setting is to help Zhu Shi become happy and fulfilled. If helping Sister Ma Zao is my acquired mission, then helping Zhu Shi is my innate mission. This obsession is very likely to still remain in the main trunk of my soul.

"Otherwise, when I first met Sister Mazao and hadn't had time to think of 'wanting to help her', I should have disappeared long ago."

"So..." I asked, "Do you want to fulfill that innate mission at all costs now?"

"...I don't know." Xiao Wan said vaguely, "Although I have now fully recovered my memory, I am neither Zhu Jiu nor Zhu Shi. The evidence is that when Brother Zhuang Cheng asked me about these two names in the virtual world, I was not able to fully identify with and resonate with these two names...

“However, I do not intend to sever my relationship with Zhu Jiu and Zhu Shi. It is absolutely true that I am a spirit born from them—from the soul of the mother and the fantasy of the daughter. I exist to fulfill their dreams.

“So… I’d like to discuss the details after I meet Zhu Shi.

"I have a feeling that once I've seen her face, touched her body, and had a conversation with her, I can draw a conclusion."

Although she said she would make a decision later, she wanted to complete her innate mission. The ghosts in the old ghost stories knew that fulfilling their obsessions would mean their own disappearance, but they would still fulfill their obsessions without hesitation.

They are beings with a different underlying spiritual logic from humans, and accomplishing their mission is the meaning of their existence.

"only……"

At the end of the speech, Xiaowan's face showed hesitation and uneasiness.

Looking at the gray stairs in front of her, she seemed to be afraid of it, so she didn't urge me to go forward quickly, nor did she take any action herself.

I knew exactly what Xiaowan was worried about. In fact, ever since I heard her true origins from Xiaowan's mouth, I immediately thought of the huge landmine that existed.

Xiaowan, the spirit, can be interpreted as "an individual created with Zhu Jiu as a living sacrifice" or "an existence that lives on in place of Zhu Jiu". Although there is no subjective malice on Xiaowan's part, and Zhu Jiu even voluntarily gave up his existence to his daughter's dream incarnation, how would it be from the perspective of Zhu Shi and Mr. Zhu? Would they regard Xiaowan as "a strange thing that occupied Zhu Jiu's existence"?

Suddenly, I remembered Zhu Jiu's body in the real world. Xiaowan's existence was already established, but the body showed no signs of death or decay, as if Zhu Jiu's wandering soul was still alive.

Not only that, there is no case of unexplained death among patients with amnesia in the real world. In the past, Luo Shan believed that the reason why these bodies did not die due to the loss of souls was because they still maintained a mysterious connection with the souls that existed somewhere unknown. However, those souls should have died in large numbers after falling into the afterlife, so why have no unexplained deaths of bodies been confirmed in the real world?
I tried to throw this question to No. 7. Although No. 7 did not seem to fully understand our previous communication, he still answered: "I guess this is because the time in the afterlife is chaotic, which causes the way the bodies of patients with amnesia detect the state of the soul's existence and death through mysterious connections to be chaotic.

"Although the souls of many amnesiacs have already perished in the afterlife, from the perspective of the body, the time when the soul has 'died' and the time when it is 'still alive' exist at the same time."

Is it like the wandering soul and sandalwood? I tried to speculate. The wandering soul is dead, but the sandalwood is still alive. In the final analysis, the wandering soul and the sandalwood are the same person with amnesia. If I were this person's body, I would definitely find it difficult to determine whether my soul has really been scattered.

Maybe those bodies have never been able to understand what this state of "living and dying" is all about, and can only judge it as "half-alive and half-dead". After all, it is not really dead, so the body thinks it should be alive first - the real situation may involve more professional details, I can only come up with this unprofessional statement at the moment.

Then, I came up with this possibility: "That is to say...'the time when Zhu Jiu was still alive' also exists in the afterlife?"

"Although I'm not sure what you were talking about, I must remind you that the God Seal fragment has a unique timeline property, and we who are bound to the God Seal fragment will also be affected by it." No. 7 said, "The most direct point is that in the afterlife, we, the Apostles of the Void Realm, will not encounter ourselves at other times. For example, our past selves, or our predecessors or prototypes... At least the person concerned cannot encounter them.

"At the same time, we all have the property of being absolutely immune to 'historical modification'. Even if we find our past in the afterlife through the hands of others, it is impossible to truly change our fate. It will be automatically modified by the nature of the divine seal fragments. By the way, human gods who transcend time and space to a certain extent will also experience similar phenomena in the afterlife.

"Assuming that we really did encounter a being like 'ourselves from other times', it would also be a fantasy created by some kind of power, just like the Doomsday Demon."

According to this logic, the route of saving Zhu Jiu by taking advantage of the phenomenon of time chaos in the afterlife is invalid.

Once Xiaowan opens the wooden lid on top and reaches the world of the living, Zhu Jiu's body in another place may detect Xiaowan's soul through a mysterious connection and conclude that "Zhu Jiu is dead", thus falling into complete death.

However, is Zhu Jiu really dead? I noticed this suspicious point. From other perspectives, Zhu Jiu may not be dead yet. Although he has become the material of the small bowl, his soul component has not disappeared, and can be regarded as being active "in another structure". It is like disassembling a building block toy and splicing it into another form. Although the original building block toy is invisible, can it really be defined as "disappearing" in the literal sense?

If it is impossible, and even Zhu Jiu's body determined that Zhu Jiu's soul was still alive after Xiao Wan went to the world of the living, then it is very likely that there is a way to reassemble Zhu Jiu's soul. Even now, I can combine my knowledge to conceive at least two methods.

But if I do that, I will undoubtedly erase the small bowl that now occupies Zhu Jiu's existence. I will never do that. How will Zhu Shi and Chang An view this matter?

It's a variation of the trolley problem.

No matter what, if we don't take this step, we won't get any answers. Even if we stop because we are worried that Zhu Jiu's body will die, it will only delay the inevitable problem. I looked at Xiao Wan and reached out to her. She still seemed to be unable to shake off her hesitation and uneasiness. What I can think of, she can definitely think of, but emotional conflicts cannot be easily resolved by reason.

"Xiao Wan, let's go together." I said, "I'll always be by your side."

"……Um."

Xiaowan seemed to be trying to calm herself down, then she raised her hand and held mine.

"Well, let's say goodbye for now," said Number Seven.

With No. 7's farewell gaze, we climbed the gray stairs and came under the wooden lid. I raised my hand and pushed the wooden lid open, then took Xiaowan's hand and climbed up to the floor above step by step.

The bright sunshine shines through the floor-to-ceiling windows and onto me, and the bustling noise of a vibrant city can be heard outside the window.

Xiaowan and I came to the room on the fifteenth floor where Changan used to rent.

We have returned to the world of the living.

(End of this chapter)