Oh no! I'm surrounded by female ghosts!

After reading the first few pages, Zhou Zhengyang finally understood why Su Ming had been so serious.

If one's own memory archive is faulty, it is confirmed that the nurtured characters around Su Ming have been quietly replaced all along.

This is the most chilling part of the whole thing, the most deadly hidden danger lurking beneath all the crises.

Let's continue reading.

The handwriting in the notebook continued from the previous entries, frozen in time in the cabin at an altitude of 10,000 meters.

Chen Zhiwei and Zhou Zhengyang's conversation on the plane was not yet over.

Upon hearing Chen Zhiwei's deduction, Zhou Zhengyang's heart nearly leaped out of his chest.

However, Chen Zhiwei calmly shook her head: "Regardless of whether they have been replaced or not? Regardless of whether Su Ming has failed in his past missions?"

"In the end, the only ones who can stay by Su Ming's side and become his nurtured characters are the survivors."

Zhou Zhengyang opened his mouth, then swallowed hard and said, "You mean... survivor bias?"

"That's right." Chen Zhiwei nodded: "From the moment Su Ming stepped from His position into the mortal world, he saw clearly the ending of all the possible paths in the future."

"So, he chose an ending."

"From the very beginning, the person chosen to develop the character was already decided."

"They are survivors selected from billions of people worldwide, who meet certain conditions."

Therefore, they are unlikely to be replaced.

She paused slightly, then added a precise closing remark.

"But the final conclusion can only be confirmed when Su Ming returns in 2026 and asks you for confirmation."

"This is also what I've been thinking about: why they are the ones who develop characters."

Hearing Chen Zhiwei's speculation, Zhou Zhengyang's Adam's apple bobbed, and he asked with difficulty, "Dr. Chen, what conditions do you think they met?"

Chen Zhiwei did not answer this question immediately.

She turned to look out the window at the vast, boundless stratosphere.

After a long silence, she finally spoke: "Perhaps it's to better understand us."

"Or perhaps, they will eventually become them."

"Understand them, learn from them, and become like them."

"The physical body will perish, but knowledge will not disappear, and so will human knowledge."

"And they may represent the knowledge that humanity has created, and become them."

Finally, Chen Zhiwei added, "Of course, this is just my speculation."

Upon seeing the description in the notebook, Su Ming's pupils suddenly contracted.

At this time, Chen Zhiwei was unaware of the so-called cleansing mechanism, let alone the truth she brought back after briefly becoming one of them.

But her deductions based on mere fragmented clues were already incredibly close to the truth.

The first rule of the cleansing mechanism is clear and cold: understand humanity, destroy heretics, and return the universe to eternal stillness.

Humanity, as an outlier that disrupts the stillness of the universe, will ultimately perish.

But knowledge will be preserved; it will not disappear.

According to Chen Zhiwei's speculation.

There are only two possible outcomes in this world, both are dead ends.

The first possible ending.

Su Ming, bearing all of humanity's knowledge alone, returns to the Ring of Destiny.

This kind of knowledge can ensure that heretics like humans, who break the silence of the universe, will never appear again.

The second possible outcome.

These selected survivors, inheriting all of humanity's knowledge, transformed into one of them.

Knowledge needs a home and a vehicle.

It was either Su Ming or them.

As for Su Ming, who is human, he still executes the first cleanup mechanism: to observe humans.

After Wen Qi blocked this cleansing mechanism, a second, more insidious and cruel cleansing mechanism was born.

In the second cleanup mechanism, Chen Zhiwei was taken away by the Twisted Temple and has most likely become one of them.

Once the gods have descended to earth and disappeared, Chen Zhiwei will begin the cleansing process in His position.

As for how to clean it up, Su Ming only knew about the Eternal Silence City in the Deep Sea.

It is a city that seals off all human imagination and the future, rooted in the deepest part of the sea of ​​human memory.

This one city alone is enough to cause human civilization to gradually wither and disappear.

After human civilization disappears, the knowledge they have accumulated over thousands or tens of thousands of years will inevitably give rise to entirely new carriers.

Keep reading.

Inside the cabin, Chen Zhiwei stopped the topic.

She brought up the topic of Xu Qinghe.

"I just said Xu Qinghe won't die."

"Because the subspace was born because of Xu Qinghe, and this special dimensional space originated from all of humanity."

"As long as someone is alive, the subspace will not completely disappear, and Xu Qinghe will not die completely."

"Unless, all of humanity is killed."

"Only when all of humanity perishes, the obsessions and evil thoughts in our hearts vanish, and the foundation of the transdimensional space crumbles, will she completely dissipate."

"As for the fact that some people become ghosts after they die, that's their influence, not ours."

Chen Zhiwei raised her eyes, her gaze sharp.

"So from the very beginning, the doomsday line of 2020 was not something Su Ming could sever."

"If he chose to personally annihilate all of humanity in order to kill Xu Qinghe."

"The impact on him is no less than the aftereffects of a low-level blind spot."

"The knife that killed Xu Qinghe is in the hands of all of us, except for Su Ming."

If I'm not mistaken.

"Xu Qinghe noticed it as soon as Su Ming stepped into 2020."

"She is laying the groundwork for her own death."

"For example," Chen Zhiwei paused for half a second, "what would you show Su Ming?"

"This doomsday line will inevitably show changes that have never appeared before."

"And this change is something only Su Ming can remember."

The flight landed; we had arrived in Beijing.

After disembarking, Chen Zhiwei and Zhou Zhengyang rushed to the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts.

Xu Qinghe was already dead at this time, and her body was lying in the general hospital in Nanxian County.

But the traces she left in this world remain.

She was a student at the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, and one of the most outstanding students there.

Therefore, she left behind many excellent paintings.

In the art academy's exhibition hall, Chen Zhiwei paused in front of a work titled "Sea of ​​Flowers".

"Sea of ​​Flowers" is one of Xu Qinghe's most representative works.

"Dr. Chen, these are all of Xu Qinghe's paintings."

Zhou Zhengyang handed over a tablet computer, which contained a high-definition archive of all of Xu Qinghe's works.

Chen Zhiwei lightly swiped the screen with her fingertips, glancing over the various paintings one by one.

In the end, besides "Sea of ​​Flowers", she also focused on two of the most special works.

The first painting is titled "New Life".

The painting is rich and vibrant in color. In the center of the painting, a hazy and ethereal figure falls from the heavens, its form ethereal.

A thick, dark shadow was wrapped around his figure, creating a striking contrast between light and shadow.

Beneath the figure, a somewhat ethereal girl crouched on the ground, her shoulders trembling, silently weeping, filled with regret and sorrow.

The second painting is titled "Under the Sun".

The painting has a bizarre style and an extremely fragmented composition, as if it had been forcibly split in two.

The upper half of the painting features bright and vibrant colors, depicting a realistic and bustling metropolis with towering buildings and vibrant street life.

In the center of the picture, a little girl holds a colorful balloon, looks up at the clear sky, and has a pure and bright smile.

The lower half of the painting is dark and desolate, filled with broken walls, ruins, and deathly silence.

In the center of the picture, it's still that girl.

She was more like a shadow, holding not a balloon, but a knife.

Chen Zhiwei stared intently at the three paintings.

After a long silence, she raised her hand and rearranged the three paintings on the tablet.

First Place: Under the Sun

Second place: "Sea of ​​Flowers"

Last place: *New Life*

Looking at the three paintings rearranged, Chen Zhiwei's eyes lit up, and she suddenly realized, "So that's how it is."

Zhou Zhengyang, standing to the side, stared at the three paintings with some confusion.

Chen Zhiwei reminded him, "Read the names of these three paintings together."

Zhou Zhengyang murmured softly, "Under the sunlight, a sea of ​​flowers is reborn."

He was an extremely thoughtful person.

After murmuring it twice, he immediately understood.

Under the sunlight, Xu Qinghe possesses an innate ability to hear minds.

No matter how beautiful and splendid the world may be, she can always see through appearances and hear all the darkness, malice, and obsessions hidden in people's hearts.

The sea of ​​flowers is a reflection of herself, corresponding to the flower of evil.

The word "newborn" is easy to understand; it represents her new beginning.

"So, in Your Majesty's memory, Xu Qinghe's backstory has never changed."

"The reason her life trajectory changed is because she broke free from the old path and gained a new life."

"But why was she given a new life?"

Zhou Zhengyang couldn't figure this out no matter how hard he tried.

Chen Zhiwei added three words: "subspace".

These three short words, like a thunderclap, instantly dispelled all of Zhou Zhengyang's confusion.

He said, his face filled with shock.

"The subspace contains the old world, and it contains the life trajectory that Xu Qinghe was destined to have long ago."

"And our world now is a completely new world, a new life created by Xu Qinghe relying on subspace."

"But how exactly did she do it?"

Chen Zhiwei pointed to the sky: "There must be His interference."

"And this 'He' is not necessarily unfamiliar to us."

"For example, Wen Qi."

She uttered a name.

Although it is unclear how Wen Qi became them or how they came to be in 2020.

However, it is known that only Wen Qi briefly became Him in 2003.

Looking at this page of records, Su Ming felt a surge of emotion.

The truth that she only learned when she met Wen Qi in the old world was actually dissected and explored step by step by Chen Zhiwei, and almost completely restored.

The new world was rebuilt by Wen Qi based on the endless regret of the old world.

It's like stripping away all the filth from Earth, allowing civilization to grow anew.

The filth and darkness that were stripped away never truly disappeared; they simply accumulated layer by layer, eventually transforming into a dilapidated and desolate old world that bore witness to all the tragedies.

To put it simply...

The relationship between the new world and the old world is like that between a person and their shadow, coexisting and depending on each other.

When the sunlight remains constant, the shadow will change depending on a person's movements.

Su Ming suppressed his emotions and continued to turn to the next page of records.

Countries around the world have begun to join forces to eradicate cult organizations.

The cleanup operation went very smoothly.

According to the text description, Chen Zhiwei was very uneasy at this time.

As she looked at the real-time battle report that Zhou Zhengyang handed her, her brows furrowed deeper and deeper.