Bengtie, I'm really not a villain!

Each time Jing Ye asked a question, the twisted spider lilies around him oozed thick blood, making the already eerie dream even more sinister and terrifying.

Time slipped by unnoticed, day after day. This eerie and chilling dream, like a tight band around her neck, became a new and inescapable torment for Raiden Mei.

During the day, she wandered through the streets and alleys of Izumo Province. Her numb heart, already burdened by the heavy weight of war's trauma, also had to endure the unease that gnawed at her like insects.

[And at night, when she falls asleep again, Jing Ye's phantom and that strange question will appear on time, pushing her to the brink of collapse.]

Finally, one day, Jingye revealed the truth that had always troubled her in her dream.

[Regarding that no matter how hard one tries, the final outcome will inevitably be destruction]

[A desperate answer to the question, "Why do birds fly?"]

Chapter 134 Kevin's Failure?

As usual, Raiden Mei's consciousness had barely faded when she was plunged into that nightmarish crimson abyss.

The red spider lilies surrounded her layer upon layer, and in this hellish sea of ​​flowers, Jing Ye's illusory figure appeared and disappeared.

Why can birds fly?

This familiar question now has an answer.

[Jingye's face was clearer than ever before. He gently stroked Raiden Mei's cheek; the touch, though ethereal, sent a shiver down her spine.]

"Why do birds, knowing they will one day fall to the earth, still so persistently soar into the sky?"

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze seemingly piercing through a dream, looking towards the distant horizon. "Because freedom is their innate instinct, a yearning etched deep within their souls. The sky is their true home."

Even if they ultimately cannot cross the sky, even if their wings are broken and they eventually die from exhaustion.

Jing Ye's words about the birds' pursuit of freedom should have been full of hope and strength, but when they reached her ears, they transformed into a deep-seated, indescribable despair.

Those words were like gleaming, sharp blades, carrying a chilling aura, piercing straight into her heart.

The bird in Jing Ye's words flapped its wings with all its might, relentlessly pursuing freedom even knowing the road ahead was fraught with peril.

Does this mean that no matter how hard she tries, even if she sacrifices everything, even her life, she cannot change the predetermined tragic ending, seemingly written by fate?

Amid Raiden Mei's reluctance to believe it, Keiya recounts the story he wanted to tell after that question.

In my hometown, there lived a man.

As Jingye's already deep voice took on a heavy tone, the scene that Raiden Mei saw before her eyes echoed the somber past that Jingye was about to describe.

Raiden Mei didn't understand why Keiya would bring up "hometown." She and Keiya were childhood friends who had known each other since they were babies, and Keiya's hometown should be this land of Izumo...

However, there are too many mysteries surrounding Jingye. Now, in the dream woven from the red spider lilies, Jingye once again presents words that she cannot understand, and Raiden Mei naturally accepts them.

Instead of getting bogged down in the mysteries surrounding Jing Ye, it's better to listen carefully to what he has to say.

The blooming and withering of spider lilies, in their interplay of blossoms and decay, present the memory that Keiya will show Raiden Mei—

Crimson flames scorched the earth, despair spread across the land, and in the deathly silence, only the white-haired man wielding a greatsword remained standing.

He was like an iceberg that had stood firm since time immemorial, yet he could only watch helplessly as the land beneath his feet was ravaged by disaster and life was lost.

He could only watch helplessly as the earth beneath his feet turned to scorched earth, his greatsword offering no protection.

What puzzled Raiden Mei even more was how the white-haired man Jingye presented was so similar to the Furibas she knew.

Despite the difference between men and women, the white-haired man seemed to be another Furibas.

However, now that Furibas is dead, Raiden Mei is unable to get the answer from Jingye, who is either a ghost or something else.

Raiden Mei's cold heart was once again stung by the death of Furibas, but what suffocated her even more was the disaster faced by the white-haired man who looked almost exactly like Furibas.

Jingye's voice recounted the pain experienced by the white-haired man before Raiden Mei, conveying the irreparable flames of war reflected in his eyes:

"Anyone he cherished, anything he valued, perished even after he exerted every effort, even his life."

Even though humanity triumphs over disasters after each battle, the price paid is a Pyrrhic victory that cannot be called a true victory.

In other words, humanity still lost in the face of disaster.

"Even though repeated battles against disasters may have delayed the demise of human civilization, the constant retreats and the loss of territory and countless lives have left humanity utterly defeated."

Even in such a dire situation where extinction was imminent, the greatsword in the white-haired man's hand remained burning.

The white-haired man gripped his greatsword tightly, letting the flames unleash the anger and grief within him, forming the final driving force that kept him going.

"At a time when the world is facing wounds that are difficult to heal, he made a decision."

Jing Ye slowly recounted the last resort the white-haired man could resort to after all his efforts had been in vain, and eloquently explained the goal that had sustained the white-haired man to the very end.

Then, the scene before Raiden Mei's eyes flickered—

………………

A white-haired man with his eyes closed, sinking into the water as bubbles rise and fall;

………………

The person lying unconscious on the ground also has Mei's face, but is clearly completely different—a leader and top researcher of a certain organization.

………………

There are also the figures of heroes who stand alongside the white-haired man on a scorched battlefield, never giving up even in the face of death.

………………

When all his companions had vanished, only unwavering resolve remained on the white-haired man's icy face.

He wanted to weave together the dreams of everyone in the world, connect people's dreams, and then bear it all alone.

"He will thereby create a giant, a spiritual Adam."

Scenes flashed by, some showing him clasping hands with his comrades in their final moments, others showing him raising his flaming greatsword to his former comrades in a heartbreaking instant.

Or perhaps it's the scene of him facing an insurmountable, suffocating wall of despair, yet still holding high the inextinguishable flame in his hand.

"From that time on, the giant stood between heaven and earth, becoming the pillar supporting the existence of the entire world."

As Jingye recounted the events, the white-haired man engulfed in crimson flames before Raiden Mei's eyes suddenly burst into flames, the crimson fire transforming into a chilling demon.

Although Raiden Mei only saw it briefly, the white-haired man's inhuman form was clearly visible to her.

It was no longer the cold, white-haired man, but a demon with only one tattered wing behind him and a long tail with two horns on its head.

Standing on the surface of the moon, in order to shoulder the burden of humanity's survival and to preserve the last vestiges of human civilization, he chose to bear the sins and karmic burdens and become a demon alone.

On the moon, shrouded in deathly silence, in the hands of the demon wielding icy flames, only the greatsword of blazing fire remained crimson.

That was the ever-burning flame of hope that the white-haired man held tightly in his heart, a flame he had never extinguished, a flame dedicated to protecting the survival of humanity.

Despite Jing Ye's seemingly noble statement—that the white-haired man was willing to shoulder the burden of all human dreams single-handedly—

But what happens after all of humanity has entered a dream state?

"The Adam of the Spirit"—these five words, though simple, carry considerable weight.

In the Bible, the initial propagation of humankind relied on Adam and Eve, the only survivors of the Great Flood.

Since the white-haired man refers to himself as "the Adam of the Spirit," does this mean...?

Did he become the beginning of another rebirth of human civilization, another completely new civilization?

Is the dream woven by the white-haired man, the spiritual giant he constructs, a god?

The white-haired man, a creator who created dreams and provided a home for all humanity.

Does that mean they become gods?

Does he have any other thoughts?

Or rather, even if the white-haired man's will was initially incredibly firm and pure, as time went by...

How long can he hold on?

How long can he maintain that dream?

Are dreams really that secure? Can they guarantee that those trapped within them will live out their remaining years in peace?

What happens after you've lived out the rest of your life in peace?

Is the continuation of human civilization still taking place in dreams?

Is the reproduction and inheritance in dreams real? Or will human civilization still die completely and face extinction after the first batch of humans who entered the dream world all die?

All of this remains unknown, from how long the white-haired man can maintain the dream state to its stability, and even whether human civilization has truly achieved "survival" through this method...

There are far too many unreliable factors.

But even so, did the white-haired man still choose this method?

Why did he do that?

Although Jing Ye's story was grand and heavy, ...

Jing Ye stood there at that moment.

Standing in Izumo Province, standing before Raiden Mei.

Despite the white-haired man's grand plan—to keep all of humanity trapped in a beautiful dream—...

Raiden Mei isn't stupid; she's very smart.

Seeing Jing Ye standing there, she understood that the man Jing Ye spoke of, despite his grand plans, boundless ambition, and immense abilities, was ultimately...

"But the fact that you're standing here means..."

"That man failed."

Raiden Mei asked Jingye as if she were stating a fact, her voice tinged with melancholy as she looked at Jingye with his back to her.

No matter how moving that man's plan may have been, in the end it was all for naught...

In contrast, Izumo Province succeeded in every war between it and Takamagahara.

Despite the price she paid was the pride and self-respect she once cherished most, even if it meant that she herself, along with her mother, Furibas, and Himeko, became Kageya's playthings, or even his stage.

Even though they all ultimately gave their lives, Raiden Mei is still alive and standing here, allowing the people of Izumo to live.

But now, Jing Ye stands before her, repeatedly asking the same question in her dream: "Why can birds fly?" Does bringing up this man's failure mean...?

Will Izumo become just like that man, reduced to ruins and scorched earth?

Crimson mist churned in the dream, as thick as congealed blood.

Raiden Mei's white hair moved without wind in the strange airflow, strands of silver hair hanging down on both sides of her pale, paper-white cheeks, obscuring her calm, expressionless eyes.

Those eyes, which once shone with unwavering determination, are now shrouded in a layer of gray mist, like a frozen deep pool, no longer able to ripple even slightly.

When Jing Ye's voice came as he told the story of the white-haired man, her eyelashes didn't even tremble, like a beautiful white jade statue.

Only the already cold heart in his chest, as if slowly cut by a rusty, dull knife, stirred a dull, almost negligible pain.

The pain was so faint, as if it were her last vestige of cherished memories of once vibrant emotions, fleeting and ephemeral.

The white-haired man's plight only stirred a very shallow ripple in her heart—after all, she had already witnessed too much destruction and loss under the merciless crushing of fate.

The floodgates of memory quietly opened, recalling her mother's trembling hand as she lay dying, trying to stroke her face but ultimately falling limply to her side.

At the critical moment of life and death, Himeko's eyes burned with a mixture of determination and relief.

Furibas's signature kind smile was frozen forever in the moment his life ended.

There was also the image of Jing Ye entrusting her with an important clue with his last bit of strength before he passed away. These images played on a loop in her mind like an old silent film.

However, she can no longer be stirred by these memories.

Now she is nothing more than a shell carrying a mission, mechanically repeating the duty of protection.

All the burning passion was exhausted in that brutal bloody battle.

All that passion and fervor has long since turned into dust scattered in the wind with the passing of loved ones.

"It's just another tragedy."

She thought indifferently to herself, her voice as cold as the north wind in the dead of winter.

The dream seemed to be completely frozen by the cold winter, and the bone-chilling cold seemed to have a tangible presence, spreading more and more intensely, like countless sharp and tiny ice needles, piercing every inch of Raiden Mei's skin.

Raiden Mei instinctively lowered her head slowly, her gaze fixed on her clenched fists, her nails already deeply embedded in her palms, leaving bloody marks.

Crimson beads of blood slowly trickled down the lines of his palm.