I made the entire cultivation world cry

Chapter 620 Sneak Attack (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

The construction of Kunlun Pass proceeded smoothly, with demons and cultivators each fulfilling their respective duties.

Only at the Sword Washing Pool of Youxian Ferry, Zhu Xin seemed to have lost all his energy, sighing deeply as he looked at several turtles that were flipped upside down, futilely paddling their limbs.

A cloud of mist drifted closer and coalesced into the figure of Hua Gu beside Zhu Xin. She looked at Zhu Xin's dejected appearance, tilted her head, and her clear eyes were filled with worry.

"To break their spirit?" Hua Gu called out cautiously. "You've been sighing here for so long. The turtles are pitiful too. Just let them turn over and walk."

Zhu Xin didn't answer, but poked one of the turtles' bellies intermittently with a finger, making it dizzy.

"The tortoise is pitiful, but am I not pitiful too? If I tell the tortoise to leave, who will tell me to leave?"

Hua Gu squatted down, her entire face scrunched up. "What are you saying? I don't understand. Am I too stupid?"

Zhu Xin sighed again, speaking in an almost ethereal tone, "Hua Gu, tell me, are we... real? Do we truly exist?"

Hua Gu was puzzled. "Aren't we talking? We're all really here."

"Do not……"

Zhu Xin raised her head, looking at Hua Gu with a complicated expression, as if looking through her at the whole world.

"I mean all of this, this Kunlun Pass, this boundless sea, this sun, moon and stars, this demonic tide, and us... including Jiang Yi, including you, including me... could it all just be a dream? A powerful being with unparalleled cultivation, like that Lazy Immortal, having a bizarre and endless dream? And dreams, in the end, must end."

Hua Gu looked completely bewildered, blinking her two big, watery eyes.

"Is it laughable? I pride myself on knowing everything, using heaven and earth as a compass to deduce the past and present, yet I can't even be sure if I'm just a bubble conjured up in a dream. If... if this really is just a dream, and when the dreamer wakes up and opens their eyes, then we..."

Are we, these "dreamers," like morning dew, vanishing without a trace? Are all our efforts, all our perseverance, all our laughter and tears, even the traces of our existence, just illusory shadows, utterly meaningless?

Hua Gu: …………

"Hua Gu, if this is true, if this dream ends tomorrow, and you, me, Jiang Yi, Hong Li, and everyone else cease to exist... will you be sad?"

Hua Gu was stunned, her big eyes blinking repeatedly, overwhelmed by the profound and pessimistic thought of "piercing the heart."

She didn't answer immediately, but instead, like a quiet little blade of grass, she took root in place, tilted her head, and rested her chin on her hand, thinking seriously.

After a long while, Hua Gu finally raised her head. Her eyes showed no fear, but rather a clear and enlightened look.

“Yes,” she admitted frankly, “I would be very sad, extremely sad.”

"I love Kunlun Pass, I love moving stones with Zhenshan, I love watching Sister Duanjin make puppets, I love watching Jiang Yi sit on Wangbei Tower drinking tea, I love listening to Hongli snoring and talking in her sleep, I love watching Yaoling bully the little monsters... I love everything about me now. If all of this is gone tomorrow, I'll definitely cry like a torrential downpour!"

“But,” Hua Gu’s tone shifted, becoming firm and warm, “precisely because it will be so sad, I must cherish every day I spend with Jiang Yi and everyone even more, and live each day as if it were my last!”

A flicker of emotion flashed in Zhu Xin's eyes, yet a deep sense of powerlessness remained.

"But it's all fake, what's the use of cherishing it? When the dream ends, nothing will be left."

"no!"

Hua Gu shook her head vigorously, her eyes stubborn and earnest.

“How could it all be fake? My happiness right now is real! The sweat I shed while moving stones was real, the laughter I shared with everyone was real, and the peace I felt seeing Jiang Yi sitting there was real! These feelings, these feelings that I have 'now,' are all truly here!”

Hua Gu patted her chest, her face full of gentle smiles.

"Even if I wake up tomorrow and everything disappears, the joy, satisfaction, and feeling of being needed that I experienced today are real in this moment of Hua Gu's 'existence'!"

Zhu Xin fell silent, a rare occurrence. Hua Gu moved closer to Zhu Xin. "Zhu Xin, you always want to live forever, until the end of time. But is living the same as just living?"

"Huh?" Zhu Xin was taken aback.

"You were sealed away and buried underground, living in darkness and without awareness for thousands of years. Now you're with us, and you've lived for less than a hundred years. Which do you think is better, those thousands of years of life or this less than a hundred years?"

Zhu Xin fell silent again, his mind involuntarily conjuring up the image of himself buried deep underground, in endless darkness and deathly silence, passively sensing the long years of change in the outside world.

That kind of 'living' is merely existence, meaningless, and filled only with eternal loneliness.

Compare that to now...

He bickered with Jiang Yi, watched her struggle to become stronger, worried about this bunch of little brats, and got so angry at the two idiots, Hong Li and Zhen Shan... Although there were constant troubles, it was full of unprecedented vibrancy and color.

"Of course they're different..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but the warmth hidden beneath his disdain in his eyes said it all.

"That's right!"

Hua Gu's eyes brightened a bit. "You've been buried underground for thousands of years, you've lived long enough, but it's no fun! Now every day is new, even if you wake up from your dream tomorrow, today's fun is real! So why worry about that 'wake-up' that may or may not even exist? A fun day is a bonus day!"

Hua Gu's words were like a gentle breeze, dispelling the thick fog that had shrouded Zhu Xin's heart.

Yes... True or false? Existence? These grand questions are inherently unsolvable paradoxes for a being trapped in a 'game'.

Clinging to this will only lead to endless suffering and stagnation, and will bring no benefit whatsoever.

What Hua Gu and Jiang Yi practice is the 'truth' that can truly be grasped.

The feelings of the present moment, the efforts of the present moment, the entanglements of the present moment—even if the world is a dream, the joys and sorrows within that dream are the entirety of the true meaning for the 'me' within that dream.

Zhu Xin looked into Hua Gu's clear, bright eyes, smiled, and shook his head. "Sometimes, it's not without its advantages when your mind is blank."

Hua Gu angrily clutched her head, "Who said I'm empty-headed? I know a lot of things now!"

"Oh? Is that so? Then let me test you!"

The demon whispered, and Hua Gu's face turned deathly pale. She stood up abruptly.

"Ah! I...I remember now, I have something very important to do, I...I have to go now!"

After saying that, Hua Gu transformed into a cloud of electrified mist and fled at lightning speed.

Zhu Xin clapped his hands and stood up, his gaze piercing through the walls of Songfeng Pavilion. He saw Jiang Yi fast asleep in the back hall and snored, "You threw me an unsolvable problem, but you're sleeping soundly. You're really carefree!"

Zhu Xin was about to go to his own territory to cultivate when he suddenly stopped after taking two steps and turned his head sharply to look at the center of the Sword Washing Pool.

At the same moment, Jiang Yi also opened his eyes and arrived at the Sword Washing Pool in an instant.

The area around the Sword Washing Pool is filled with lotus flowers, with a single black and white lotus standing alone in the center, surrounded by rippling water that reflects the outside world.

Suddenly, the sky over Kunlun Pass darkened!

"It must be the demons taking advantage of our relaxed defenses when the boundary-stabilizing array was just activated to launch a sneak attack. I've ordered everyone to prepare!" Zhu Xin said urgently.

Jiang Yi raised his hand, "No need. The main framework of Kunlun Pass is complete, and I'm also looking forward to testing the power of this city!"

(End of this chapter)