Surviving the Maze of National Destiny: Hints from the Chinese Characters I Understand

Lin Mo remained silent for a long time, beginning to doubt whether everything he had done was right or wrong.

Some details also made sense. No wonder that almost none of the maze plants or animals could be eaten after being killed, because... they grew up eating all kinds of garbage and suffered from all kinds of pollution throughout their lives.

In a sense, we humans are the root cause of evil?

As a human being, Lin Mo will fight for the survival of humanity, acting in the best interests of humanity. This is something Lin Mo will always do, as he has done in the past, as he does now, and as he will do in the future.

But this does not mean that Lin Mo, as a human being, would not feel even a trace of guilt.

Everyone present fell silent. A military official then suggested:

"I know this is cruel, but... as humans, we should instinctively stand on the side of humanity. I suggest completely eradicating the End Land and killing Final Fantasy."

Kabu smiled and said, "That's what I thought back then, and all the guardians of the mountains and seas thought the same way. But... to kill a target, we first need to assume that the target is alive. Final Fantasy has no life. It simply exists. It was created by the pollution of the original world. You can think of it as the dark side of humanity. It is impossible to kill."

"What??? Can't kill it?" The appraiser was somewhat shocked.

"That's true. As long as humanity exists, the dark side should exist. This cataclysmic era has ended, but with the development of humanity, the next cataclysmic era will come sooner or later." Lin Mo understood.

Just like a person has both strengths and weaknesses, they cannot exist independently.

"Do you remember what I said before? The constant loss of Qi from the original world caused us to leave. This Qi eventually flowed to the End Land along with those pollutants, creating the End Creatures and Final Fantasy. It can be said that humans themselves created and strengthened them, weakening the original world," Kabu said, word by word. It hadn't been this serious in a long time.

"I think I know what to do." Lin Mo stood up.

"What do we do?" Everyone looked at Lin Mo.

"The one who tied the knot must untie it. Since we created the pollution, we should clean it up completely. The Dragon Kingdom is now powerful and has endless resources. We can completely clean up the pollution of the End Land ourselves."

"Lin Mo, the Land of the End is beyond saving. It can't be cleaned up like other places with a simple touch. We can only rely on conventional methods to gradually clean up the pollution," Kabu reminded him.

"Pollution should be addressed by starting small, step by step, shouldn't it? Isn't that what humanity should be doing?"

Lin Mo's question silenced everyone present for a long time, after which several appraisers stood up.

"We have no shortage of resources or manpower. As long as we can enter the Gate of the End, we will let the people of the Rising Sun Region, the Great Cold Region, the Moon South Region, and the Heavenly India Region personally clean up the pollution there."

"Agreed!" Everyone present nodded in unison, because this was the way to get to the root of the problem, although it was time-consuming and laborious, requiring a lot of time and energy.

"Then the next question is to open the Gate of the End and get Final Fantasy to accept our proposal." The appraiser looked at Lin Mo, knowing that only Lin Mo could do this.

"Leave this to me. Just because we can't kill it doesn't mean we can't defeat it." Lin Mo was very confident in his abilities.

"And me!" Xiao Hua hugged Lin Mo's arm tightly. Now she also possessed 99% of Lin Mo's strength and was not to be underestimated.

If this couple were to have a quarrel or fight at home, it would be a cataclysmic event.

"Then we'll leave everything to Mr. Lin! We'll start preparing supplies, personnel, and equipment now, and formulate a pollution control plan. Let's codename this operation 'Redemption'." The group of appraisers stood up, their eyes resolute.

One of the strongest aspects of the Dragon Kingdom is its extremely strong mobilization capability.

On the same day, the Dragon Kingdom issued a mobilization order to the aforementioned subordinate regions, instructing these people to go to the Gate of the End to properly clean up the pollution, and to double their material benefits.

The people in these areas were immediately excited, since having enough to eat was their ultimate goal at the moment.

Lin Mo, along with his family of four and the tens of millions of spirit bodies he had accumulated during the battle in the Endless Void, went to visit Final Fantasy.

Boom... In the endless void, Lin Mo kicked open the Gate of the End, truly making a grand entrance.

The first breath that wafted out from inside the door made everyone frown.

A stench filled the air, filth was everywhere, and there was a black, sticky, unidentified substance underfoot.

Above them hung a perpetually churning, gray-black cloud of poison.

The air is highly toxic; an ordinary human without any equipment would probably be inhaled and die instantly.

However, Lin Mo's health bar is now at X9191, and his physique is extremely powerful, so he is not afraid of these mere contaminations at all.

The group soared through the air towards the deepest part of the Land of the End, a black sea, or rather a thick black soup made up of all sorts of filth.

The black sea seemed to be breathing, its surface rising and falling slowly, each rise accompanied by a deep, muffled sound.

Lin Mo then realized that this was not the sea, but the pot of black soup that was the legendary Final Fantasy, boundless and silent, changing shape every moment.

A distorted human face rose from the black sea, reaching a distance of 100 kilometers.

Lin Mo stood by the sea. Xiao Hua stood beside him, her sword still sheathed. "I'm here to talk," Lin Mo said.

The black sea did not respond. But the sea's rise and fall changed, becoming slower and deeper, as if listening, or as if indifferent.

"I will govern this place. Humanity will govern this place itself. With hands, with tools, with time. Clean it inch by inch, and restore it generation by generation."

The face's mouth didn't move, but the voice came from the depths of the sea, from the cracks in every piece of trash:

"We eat the garbage you produce and live in the dirtiest places." The voice was soft, as soft as stating a fact, "and then you brazenly mock us for being ugly, call us evil, call us cruel, and even wage war against us."

"Now... what are you trying to say by saying you're going to govern? What are you trying to express?"

Silence. Lin Mo didn't speak. Because he couldn't refute it.

"How ironic." The sea returned to calm. There was no anger, no accusation, just calm. They had been tormented for countless years and were no longer angry, or rather, simple anger could no longer express their feelings.

Lin Mo slowly drew his sword.

Kabu, standing to the side, was taken aback: "What are you going to do? Aren't we supposed to be talking?"

Lin Mo shook his head: "If you can't get it on the battlefield, don't expect to get it through negotiation. Let's fight first."

A million blades of light rose from the ground, and the Black Sea surged with countless waves.

A silvery-white beam of light shot out from the tip of the blade, slashing across the black sea.

A deep, bottomless trench was blasted open on the sea surface, and black liquid surged to both sides, revealing a mud bed that was also soaked and polluted below.

Billions of spirits surged forth from behind Lin Mo. They were the final creatures that Lin Mo had slain, now transformed into a silvery-white tide, rushing towards this black sea.

Spirits have no emotions, no pity, only the instinct to fight. They tear at the surface of the sea, dive into its depths, and stir up this stagnant water that has remained undisturbed for millions of years.

Kabukali also moved, and Xiaohua also drew her sword.

The black sea began to boil, and hundreds of thousands of cataclysmic creatures emerged from it. They were hundreds of times larger than fantasy-class and hundreds of times larger than end-class creatures. Their skin was covered with thick, steel-hard grime, and their eyes were hollow, without pupils, only two slowly burning, dark red lights.

They surged toward the spirits, and toward Lin Mo.

Two silver-white longswords drew two intertwined arcs of light across the black sea.

Each strike shattered a Cataclysmic-level monster, and each fallen monster would recombine and coalesce in the next second.

The face on the sea surface showed a rare expression of horror. It hadn't expected Lin Mo to be so powerful, even stronger than the Devouring Sky beside it.

Lin Mo glanced at the black sea. The sea was still rising and falling, still breathing, seemingly unaffected by these catastrophic life-and-death situations.

As long as pollution persists, catastrophes will recur.

But the absence of life does not mean you are invincible. Lin Mo used overwhelming combat power, along with billions of spiritual beings, to drive these cataclysmic beings into the deepest part of the world.

The spirits also became more intelligent. They understood Lin Mo's way and stopped tearing at the cataclysmic monsters. Instead, they used their bodies to ram, drive away, surround, or directly drag these monsters away.

The Cataclysmic Being was pushed, squeezed, and driven back step by step by the silvery-white tide, retreating towards the deepest part of the Land of the End.

Final Fantasy is powerful enough to withstand tens of thousands of spirits on its own, but it cannot withstand millions or even tens of millions of spirits.

Lin Mo used a blade to cut the body into tens of thousands of pieces, and then each piece was dragged away by the spirit without any emotion.

The Black Sea was receding, dragged into the deepest part of the Gate of the End by the army of spirits.

Lin Mo stood on the edge of the sea, watching those cataclysmic creatures disappear into the darkness.

"I'm sorry, everyone." His voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear. "In the days to come, we will use the spirit of the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains to thoroughly govern this place."

He gave an order to the army of spirits: "Stay put and keep watch. Don't let them leave even a step."

He didn't wait for a response. Because he didn't need one.

What followed was a long process of governance. In the first year of governance, the Dragon Kingdom mobilized all the labor force from the regions of Xuri, Dahan, Yuenan, Tianzhu, and Batan.

Wearing protective suits and gas masks, and carrying specially made tools that can break down pollutants, they entered the Gate of the End.

That year, they cleared less than one ten-thousandth of the End of the World.

Two major events occurred this year.

The first thing was to complete the collection of pollutant samples from the Land of the End and analyze them in the Dragon Kingdom.

At the same time, the Dragon Kingdom activated its star map function to search the entire universe for substances that could decompose these pollutants.

That year, Lin Mo and Xiao Hua's first child was born.

Regarding the timing, Lin Mo explained that he could previously fight monsters, but now there are no monsters to fight, so he can only…

When people are bored, they really like to find things to do. Lin Mo understood why people in the 70s and 80s often had eight or ten children, because that era was truly boring.

Lin Mo thought it looked a lot like Xiao Hua, but Kabu said it looked like it because the baby's belly was also round, which made Lin Mo laugh in exasperation.

In the fifth year, the governance of the Land of the End showed visible improvement.

The mountains of garbage were targeted for decomposition, with some being broken down into harmless substances. The black sea shrank by one percent, indicating that the power of pollution is diminishing.

Xiao Hua's second child was born, a boy. He didn't cry or fuss at birth, just stared at the world with big eyes. At one year old, he could urinate a meter high. He was very energetic, just like Lin Mo.

In the tenth year, the first blade of grass sprouted in the Land of the End.

It is a genetically modified grass brought from other planets by scientists from China. It can grow in polluted soil and also helps improve the environment.

In the twentieth year, a new aquatic species with no internal toxins was discovered for the first time in the rivers of the Land of the End.

It was a small fish, less than a finger's length, with transparent scales that revealed its beating heart. It swam in the river where once only dead fish had remained, its tail swaying gently, the splashes of water shimmering faintly in the light.

For a whole month, news about this fish dominated the headlines of Blue Star's media, a landmark event.

In the fiftieth year, humans were able to walk on the land of the End without wearing protective gear.

The air is still a bit pungent, and the water is still a bit astringent, but it won't make you vomit, burn your lungs, or corrode your skin.

That year, Zhulong came from the endless void to the Land of the End and told Lin Mo a piece of news: the Qi of the Origin World had recovered somewhat, proving that the pollution control was effective, and the strength of the Mountain and Sea Divine Beasts had also increased considerably.

The 188th year.

The last source of pollution in the Land of the End has been removed.

For the first time, the sky over the Land of the End appeared blue.

The sea is no longer black; it has turned turquoise, and there are fish in the water.

There are trees on the bank, and the trees are laden with fruit.

On this day, all the spirits returned to Lin Mo's side. Their mission was to monitor those creatures, but now those cataclysmic creatures were long gone.

They have disappeared. As products of pollution, they no longer exist now that the pollution is gone.

Their disappearance also signifies the end of the Cataclysmic Era.

…………

Author's Closing Remarks

To be fair, this book is still generating income, but I don't plan to write any more filler content. My worldview can only go this far. It's perfect to end it now, without dragging it out.

After all, you helped me through the most difficult period, and I can't be ungrateful to my benefactors.

Here, I would like to thank every reader for your support. Positive reviews are an encouragement, and negative reviews are an incentive. I will humbly accept them and continue to work hard.

My next book should be a post-apocalyptic novel, but unlike other post-apocalyptic novels, only the protagonist is reborn.

My book is set before the apocalypse, where the whole world is reborn. Hehe, just imagine how exciting that would be! Everyone around you has experienced the apocalypse; they're all shrewd and know what's about to happen. They'll go crazy...

The journey through the world is long, I look forward to meeting you again...

Lin Mo, along with Kabu and Kali, bows in respect to all our readers!