Ark, they don't revolve around you

That looked really miserable.

Ling walked forward step by step, taking each step carefully and with his head down, like a child who had made a mistake.

When she saw Zhuang Ning vomiting, she remembered the brave doctor in her dream. When he was surrounded by Yumen’s soldiers, he argued and resisted angrily, as if the person behind him was his only one.

She looked up and saw the starry sky again. Once in her dream, she and he had looked at such a starry sky together.

After vomiting, Zhuang Ning finally seemed to feel better and climbed up shakily.

He didn't look at the order, but just stared at the deep canyon. His body swayed slightly, and one mistake would lead him to fall into the abyss.

He clenched his fists for a long time before finally turning his eyes back. He looked at Ling and said the first sentence:

"you are right."

"If you kill me, you will come out... Then do it sooner rather than later. What are you playing house for? Why do you need my tricks? You are just pretending to be a fake. Why don't you just kill me right from the start?!"

"Am I ungrateful? Do you think I am like that?" The more he spoke, the colder his expression became, and his hands trembled. "Would it be better if I didn't come? You are so powerful, so strong, and I... Ha, who am I?"

As he spoke, he knelt down again, holding his chest. This time, trickles of blood flowed onto the ground as he stared in a daze.

He looked at the blood, slowly stretched out his finger, and gently rubbed it on his lips with the sticky feeling.

It was as if it were some kind of nectar.

It's like it's the finest delicacy.

At that moment, a trance smile appeared on the man's face.

There has always been a wound on his chest. His body is already full of holes. Even his two hands under his coat have experienced extreme heat and extreme cold.

And it wasn't the first time that his chest had been pierced, by enemies, friends, enemies who thought they were friends, and those who thought they were enemies but ended up ignoring him... enemies.

It hurts so much. Is it because I reacted too strongly just now and there’s something wrong with the wound?

It hurts so much. Everything in the dream is fake. Her tenderness towards you and the loneliness she occasionally shows are all acting.

He laughed. He felt that he was no longer normal. What kind of world was he in and what role should he play?

"Doctor, it's not what you think..." Ling wanted to comfort and explain, but she couldn't say anything.

She looked at the crazy man and was inexplicably swept by panic.

Zhuang Ning lowered his eyes, not caring about the blood on his chest: "Since you have escaped Sui's control, it proves that Sui has also deceived me. This is good. After all, I originally went to save you, and now you are safe and sound. I am very happy."

He said in a low voice, staggered to pick up his bag, and never looked at Ling again from beginning to end.

"Wait, no..."

He walked very fast.

Ling didn't want him to leave, and she forcefully held his hand. She had never thought she would be so embarrassed before, and she would never have thought she would show such an expression: "This is all a conspiracy of the year-old!"

"Conspiracy?" He raised his eyes.

"Yes."

“You just want to say that Sui misled you and made you think that I was here to harm you, that I was a part of Sui, that I was someone Sui fabricated to make you collapse, so you were so cruel, right?” Zhuang Ning was bored, there was no hatred or annoyance in his eyes, even the anger from being assassinated just now was no longer there.

There was only a deep exhaustion that seemed to be unable to dissipate: "Yes, it's all fake. With your heart of Taoism, how could you show mercy?"

He actually drew a faint smile at the corner of his mouth: "But so what? You suspected me all along, but I didn't see it at all. You must think I'm stupid, right? I actually wanted to believe you, but you never believed me."

"You know how long we've been running away together in my dream? I saw our relationship getting better little by little, and you even comforted me when we were caught in the rain... At that time, I was quite happy, but were you mocking me in your heart?"

"Ling, I don't blame you. I just figured it out." He emphasized the last word, his voice revealing a bone-chilling chill. "You're good to me, I'm devoted to you, I envy your freedom, I thought our friendship wasn't even friendship, it was something beyond friendship."

"These, all of them, are... fake!" he said almost word by word.

"Sui said that if I didn't go over, you would disappear little by little in the nightmare."

"He put me into this dream. He bet with me that I have the strength to escape from the dream at any time, but He is sure that we will not understand each other." Zhuang Ning sneered, "He is right, right? How can you refute it? He knows you better than I do."

He seemed to be complaining, but after seeing Ling's reaction, he suddenly became bored and murmured, "You must have met many heroes in your life. Which one remains in your memory? The same goes for me."

"Ling, thanks. Now I don't feel like I'm being watched by a giant beast." He turned around without hesitation, "Goodbye."

Ling watched him walk down the mountain, wondering what happened to her? She still had the warmth he left on her shoulder. In that dream, when the whole world was hostile to her, he was the only one who stood by her.

A long time.

In your eyes, that person's smile was indeed fake; it was just a simulated scene designed to defeat you.

She doesn’t need a partner, she didn’t need one before, and she won’t need one in the future, because true freedom should not depend on external things, but, but——

She covered her chest, tears falling down. She remembered, how could those be fake? In that dream, he made choices with his own consciousness.

Those are all true!

On a rainy night, they walked hand in hand in the bamboo forest, as if there were assassins hidden in the bamboo. They did not carry lanterns, but walked in the dark in small steps, holding each other's hands. This was the only time they could feel each other's warmth in the heavy rain.

The waves were rolling on the river and the sea. He looked at the people in different clothes with curiosity, and there was a hint of satisfaction in his eyes when he looked at Ling.

They were being targeted by the whole world, but the man still chose a path. He was not sad because he was protecting the person he thought he loved out of his own ideas.

——But, all of this was shattered by you.

"Shut up!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

"Stop whispering in my ear! This is my fault! I know, but you don't need to tell me that you are the culprit!"

The dream was shattered again, returning to the empty darkness.

In the narrow chaos, the lofty dragon looked down at Ling, whose eyes were red. The girl's blue hair had spread out, and her ethereal eyes were filled with hatred and anger: "You lied to him!"

"Do you regard your self-righteousness as my deception of you? Very well, Ling, both you and he are essentially insignificant people." Sui sneered coldly.

"Shut up! Get out of my body!"

"The reason why I was able to take advantage of you was because of the flaws in your heart. If you really had a clear conscience, I should have been eliminated in your dream long ago."

Sui transformed into a human form, looking like a loving mother, but not lacking in majesty, wearing the Tai'a sword and wearing a nine-jade ring on her waist, "Come back to me? Then I will eliminate all your regrets for you."

"I will use my authority to influence him and erase that memory. It will be easy for me."

"You have never been afraid of death. You used to take death and disappearance for granted. Your open-mindedness is something everyone envies. Why don't you come back to me?"

"That was in the past." Ling said coldly, "Now, I just want to kill you."

The sound of breaking echoed again.

Sui smiled gently, his whole body trembling slightly, and the golden light in his eyes flowed like lava: "Do you know why I chose you?"

"Because he came to see me." Ling was unmoved.

"That's certainly one reason. Another reason is that you're a lot like me." Sui sighed, "You're a lot like me when I still had some kind of longing for humans."

"Forget it. It's useless to tell you this now. If you don't give in, we'll do it all over again. If one time doesn't work, we'll do it a hundred times or a thousand times. Time in a dream is different from reality. When will you choose to perish in the endless cycle of reincarnation?"

She didn't react.

She took a deep breath.

dream.

Without external force, she cannot wake up from this dream.

Even if her occasional emotions were just hazy and intoxicated, she still had obsessions, and——

"Well, is there anyone?" Sui suddenly turned around and smiled, "You are lucky."

"He is back. After a year, he has come to the peaks where you lived in seclusion."

The figure of the old man gradually dimmed, and Ling opened his eyes in a trance.

Someone was pushing her. In the middle of the pavilion, the doctor looked at the girl quietly without saying anything.

There were traces of tears at the corners of her eyes and a faint smile appeared on her face.

"You came."

"I know you will come."

……

Zhuang Ning once thought that he should not have embarked on this path.

If the second brother could get rid of Ling in advance, he wouldn't have to meet that woman, his hands wouldn't have to be stained with the woman's blood, and everyone would be happy.

It’s a pity that the man still left this final problem to him.

His steps were a little heavy, and from time to time he would think of the insights he had gained here in the past.

In essence, how were all the experiences I had in Yan, Syracuse, Victoria, and various other places different from that dream?

The case is solved.

No wonder they could leave so directly, everything is fake, only the sword is the truth.

So, this time it was his turn to kill Ling - only he could do it.

Without any hindrance, Zhuang Ning passed through the barrier and entered the Eighteenth Peak that was supposed to not exist.

The memories accumulated in dreams for a long time, the ties of hundreds of years if not thousands of years, are all heavy burdens, but you always have to face them.

The maturity of a person is to strangle his immature self. Zhuang Ning laughed unexpectedly.

He thought of something that seemed unrelated but was closely connected.

It was on this mountain that he attained enlightenment and left Ling, giving up any attachment to anyone and returning to Rhodes Island without stopping.

He still remembered that empty place. No one noticed his departure. He was like a ghost, an evil spirit floating in the corridors of Rhodes Island.

He went to see Kal'tsit, who was busy dealing with the subsequent diplomatic issues with Kazdel. When she saw him, she didn't ask him where he had been or what he had experienced. She just said indifferently as always:

"Doctor, you are certainly free to act as you please, but your body is also important."

"Is it important?"

"Of course, you must know that you are different from other Terrans, but you are now the commander of Rhodes Island. If you are not here, there will inevitably be many problems. For the sake of safety and responsibility, you should at least let me know next time you travel."

Caring about my health is just because I am the last "human", right? As for responsibility, is it what those people expect of me... Zhuang Ning nodded. He didn't mind Kal'tsit's attitude and turned around:

"Not anymore, Kelsey."

"I will lead Rhodes Island and create the future I want."