The Word of Heaven

Chapter 361 The Last Road

"Return the clock."

The White Emperor's voice was amiable: "What's next?"

Gu Zhuo calmly said, "There is no next step. This is the end."

The White Emperor slowly raised an eyebrow, looked at him, and said, "A century of grudges, several life-and-death struggles, are they really over?"

Gu Zhuo hummed in agreement.

After a moment of silence, he continued, "This is the best and most reasonable choice."

The White Emperor heard it clearly; this statement was serious.

The aged emperor did not answer, but glanced to the side.

It was early morning, but the night outside Weiyang Palace was still deep.

Outside the palace, no rain was seen falling, but snow was falling.

Time seems to have turned back here.

No matter who writes the history books of later generations, they will inevitably mention these two people. They will try to find their personalities from the gaps between the lines of the relevant records, and then deduce how each decision that had a great impact was made. The related books must be piled up like mountains. In fact, when Gu Zhuo came into the public eye again with the sound of the morning and evening bells, the officials of the court conducted a very profound study of him, comparing him with the Daoist master of a hundred years ago.

Those words, delivered through the prime minister, reached the ears of the White Emperor, depicting for him what kind of person Gu Zhuo truly was.

Even so, he was still surprised by it at this moment.

From the life-or-death battle on Xuandu back then to the near-death siege in the wasteland last year, the phrase "blood feud" can be applied perfectly to the two of them without any error.

If not resorting to violence upon meeting is a sign of magnanimity, then how should we explain peace talks?

"Is it because of her?" the White Emperor asked.

Gu Zhuo knew who "she" was referring to, and shook his head, saying, "You know she never likes to get involved in these kinds of things; this is my own decision."

The White Emperor smiled, his smile filled with emotion, and said, "Indeed, after all, she was someone who didn't even care about the world."

The original crown prince of the Great Qin Dynasty was none other than Bai Nanming, but in the end, she gave him to her younger brother who should have lived a leisurely life.

"Thanks."

"I understand."

Gu Zhuo understood that this meant rejection, and his voice inevitably carried a hint of regret and an indelible weariness.

The negotiations had broken down in just a few words, but the two did not start a fight as soon as the words were spoken, because some things needed to be clarified and a complete truth needed to be reached.

The White Emperor's smile faded, and his gaze fell upon the fragments of the Morning and Evening Bell, which emanated a mystical Daoist aura. He said, "Yuan Dai's existence is utterly meaningless, yet he refuses to accept this fact and insists on living on forever."

Gu Zhuo thought of that beam of white light falling from the sky, how could he not understand?
“For practitioners like you and me who stand at the highest point in the world, if there is a responsibility related to the practice itself, I believe that the specific place of that responsibility is to kill Yuan Dai.”

The White Emperor said calmly, "Of course I would like to see you die, but Yuan Dai's death is more important than your survival."

Anyone who hears this would find the reason utterly absurd.

What kind of inexplicable responsibility is there in this world?

Gu Zhuo, however, understood.

If it were him, he would make the same choice as the White Emperor.

Yuan Dai should have understood, but unfortunately, this founder of the Heavenly Dao Sect lived too long.

Time is the sharpest sword in the world, capable of cutting through anything, so how can responsibility be an exception?

In this light, Yuan Dai's death was not unjust.

How did you gain his trust?

Gu Zhuo asked.

The White Emperor said with a half-smile, "You are my enemy, and he wants you dead. How many purely self-interested relationships are there in this world?"

Gu Zhuo thought about it and realized that there was indeed truth to that statement, so he said, "But he misjudged you."

The White Emperor smiled slightly and said, "This is not Yuan Dai's fault."

Gu Zhuo asked, "Is there another promise?"

"Heaven."

The White Emperor's tone carried a hint of mockery: "In that dilapidated Taoist temple, Yuan Dai and I fully explained this idea."

Gu Zhuo picked up the conversation, saying, "Objectively speaking, this could indeed allow the Qin Dynasty to last for millennia." The White Emperor said, "If this succeeds, heaven and earth will be divided into two."

Gu Zhuo said, "These are the original words of the patriarch."

"good."

The White Emperor stood up and looked out of Weiyang Palace, as if he were a ruler surveying the world.

The entire world was within his sight.

"But why should I divide the world in two?"

When he said this, the White Emperor's voice was devoid of any emotion, as if he were simply stating a fact.

"The vicissitudes of life are the true path of humanity. Without the courage to turn the sea into mulberry fields, what is the meaning of lasting generations achieved through compromise and trade?"

Gu Zhuo remained silent.

The White Emperor's gaze fell upon his eyes, and he said, "Not only is it meaningless, it's also utterly pointless."

How can a single ruler for thousands of generations be meaningless?

The answer was already in the words.

From the very beginning of the conversation, Bai Yingzhou never referred to himself as "朕" (Zhen, meaning "I" or "I"), but instead used the character "我" (Wo, meaning "I" or "me").

Then.

For someone whose name includes the characters for Yingzhou, the allure of Yuandai is the greatest boredom in the world, a prison from which one can never see the blue sky for thousands of years.

Yuan Dai was completely unaware of this, still believing that Bai Yingzhou was the same person he was during the Weiyang Palace Incident, unaware that the reason that sustained him had long since vanished with the sound of the morning and evening bells.

It was only natural that he would end up dead and forgotten.

Gu Zhuo said, "In this world, is killing me the only way to find meaning?"

Bai Yingzhou hummed in agreement.

Gu Zhuo was silent for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh, saying self-deprecatingly, "This really doesn't make any sense."

"Moreover, this is a personal grudge."

Bai Yingzhou's voice was calm yet firm: "I must give an explanation to those who died because of me."

Gu Zhuo said no more and asked the most crucial question.

"How confident are you in killing me?"

……

……

Bai Yingzhou did not answer the question, but said slowly, "Yuan Dai abandoned his physical body and merged his soul with all things, living in the wilderness for tens of thousands of years and replacing the Heavenly Dao. Therefore, he was called the Heaven by the wilderness people. However, you took this step a hundred years ago, and even went further than Yuan Dai in that short period of time, which made him so afraid that he wanted to kill you."

Gu Zhuo looked at him quietly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Bai Yingzhou said, "Back then, the morning and evening bells of Xuandu rang twice, but stopped abruptly on the way to the third rang, because when the bells rang for the third time, it was no longer just the sky turning backward."

Gu Zhuo reminded him, "On the day of the Weiyang Palace incident, I made the bells toll continuously to save your sister."

Bai Yingzhou shook his head and said, "Why be so hypocritical at this time? You and I both know that it's not the same thing."

Gu Zhuo sighed with some regret, "So it turns out I have no talent for lying at all?"

"Over the years, I have been thinking about what will happen to the world when the morning and evening bells truly ring for the third time."

Bai Yingzhou's gaze fell on the fragments, and he said, "However, only now has the answer finally appeared before my eyes, and I want to get the answer from you."

Gu Zhuo laughed and said, "Although at this point it seems there's nothing that can't be said, unless you guess right..."

I couldn't finish my words.

Bai Yingzhou looked into his eyes and asked earnestly, "This is the path to transcendence, isn't it?"

After a long silence, Gu Zhuo stood up.

"Yes."

He sighed and gave his answer: "This is one of the paths to leaving the human world, and it is also the reason why Yuandai was unable to transcend it."

(End of this chapter)