Chapter 626

Hmm? You’re asking me what a “soul” really is…

Fang Qi, I think you should already know the answer by now.

Yes. That thing.

Some things… are better left unsaid.

Even though the rules of the world seem to have changed a little now, and those eyes are no longer as sharp as they once were…

There are words that, once spoken, can never be taken back.

And besides, Fang Qi, you were the one who gave us the name “soul” in the first place.

Back then, you told us that people like us…

had begun to draw the attention of this “world,” bit by bit.

Everything we said, everything we did, every thought we allowed to show—none of it could escape the gaze of those eyes anymore.

They simply hung above our heads, cold and motionless, watching us.

You said we were like a school of fish swimming around in a glass tank, while they stood at the edge of the bathtub…

counting every bubble we exhaled, trying to figure out what was hidden inside.

So we needed some “code words,” some…

code words that could make the “world” misunderstand us.

That way, even if we stood directly beneath the “eyes of the world,” we could speak openly without being discovered.

We had to hide the things that should never be spoken inside words that were as ordinary as they could possibly be.

And so…

“Savior,” “Goddess,” “soul,” “new world”—those words became part of our vocabulary.

Heh. It really does sound like a cult, doesn’t it?

Judging by that look on your face, you think so too?

Liguang, do you understand? You are our goddess, after all.

But we were never a cult, and we never intended to recruit “believers,” because you always told us…

Never draw attention. Never use the name of some “religion” to expand.

Too much exposure would only alert the world, and once it set its sights on us, everything would be over.

All our efforts would be reduced to nothing overnight.

You also told us…

that we were a group of “viruses,” a group of “thieves.”

We could not stand beneath the light of day.

Perhaps we would fall in the darkness before dawn, but in the end…

we would “steal” a new world of freedom and light for everyone in this world.

We would let them see the true sunlight.

Look at how well you put it back then. You were so good at inspiring people.

Even now, when I think back on it, my heart still trembles.

Back then, we couldn’t see the light, but we followed the light in your eyes.

So we never drew attention to ourselves, from beginning to end.

We continued living our own lives.

Going to school and work every day, returning home to reunite with our families, eating meals together.

Helping our children with their homework, calling our parents, going to the supermarket on weekends, buying groceries, cooking, washing dishes, and occasionally bickering over the most trivial things…

Then, at the crucial moments, we would assemble and follow you…

together, to steal the “permissions” that belonged to our future.

We were shadows hidden among the crowds.

By day, we were students, employees, other people’s husbands and wives—ordinary passersby, indistinguishable from anyone else.

But at night, or at the moments you selected, we would become ourselves again.

Whenever we assembled, we would set out in twos and threes from every corner of the city in the dead of night, heading for the agreed-upon location.

Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?

But actually, many of us were in a daze back then.

Because you had told us the truth about this world. You had told us that everything in our world was…

Hah…

was fake.

But if the world was fake… what about our families?

Every day when we went home, the aroma of food drifting from the kitchen and the smiling faces waiting for us felt so real.

So real that it made people want to cry.

I was still young back then. I hadn’t entered society yet, and I was even a little rebellious, so I could accept that kind of worldview.

A vague, ethereal answer about the true nature of the world was, to me, nothing more than another excuse to let my imagination run wild.

I took it very seriously back then. I wanted to uphold justice for this world!

But…

Many people didn’t feel the same way.

Especially those who had elderly parents above them and children below them. They were genuinely shaken.

Some of them would return home and see the elderly parents who had sat on the sofa watching television, raising them for half their lives.

Some would return home to find their wife or husband busy in the kitchen, asking, “Was work tiring today?”

Their children would come running toward them, eyes shining, waving the report cards they had just received…

I spoke with them. All of them.

They had wondered whether they should continue.

At night, they couldn’t sleep. They would toss and turn, thinking until dawn, yet never finding an answer.

Some of them had even considered giving up, thinking…

Why not pretend we know nothing?

Why not simply muddle through life and see it to the end?

But whenever we assembled, they still came.

And you would still appear, standing before us…

The light in your eyes shone so brightly that no one dared look directly at it.

So should all of this really be shattered?

If one could find happiness while living within a false destiny…

then what was wrong with losing oneself in that falsehood?

If one could live an entire lifetime without pain or suffering inside a dream from which one would never awaken, then…

who would willingly be pulled from that dream?

But you saw all of this too.

Fang Qi, you truly were remarkable back then.

You told us…

not to think of all this as fake.

You simply asked us—do you think you yourselves are real?

Of course we said yes.

We had our own consciousness, our own will, our own “souls”…

Of course we weren’t fake!

And that was what you had been telling us all along.

You never let us doubt ourselves.

You always made us first believe that we were alive, that we were truly, undeniably alive.

And then you said…

You are real, and so are they.

Your families are real too.

They have their own “souls,” their own consciousness.

Their feelings for you, their love for you…

all of it is real.

They are not scenery, not props, and certainly not puppets casually molded by the “world” to deceive you.

When they smile at you, they are truly smiling.

When they cry for you, they truly feel pain.

The meals they prepare for you are made with genuine care.

You said so much, and you said it all so well. Even now, I can still recite it from memory.

And we listened.

I began to understand…

Home was real. Love was real. The things we fought with all our strength to protect were real.

You told us that, to us, this world was real—it simply wasn’t beautiful enough yet.

And our purpose had never been to escape from a “false world” into a “true world.”

Rather, we must transform a “predetermined” world into a “random” one.

Only then can all of us truly be “free.”

Only then can this world freely grow a civilization of its own—walk its own path, and find its own unique destiny.

You said that only a “random” world is truly alive!

A world where everything has already been arranged, no matter how beautiful, is nothing more than a play whose ending was written long ago.

Hmm?

Was what I said… a little too flat?

Sorry. I don’t have your gift for oratory. I was only… repeating the words I remember you saying once.

Back then, when you said these things to us, you were nothing like me. You were so passionate!

Everyone was fired up!

Quite a few people even suggested on the spot that we should tell our families the truth, so they could learn the truth too!

So they could join us on our journey!

Everyone’s eyes were red. Some people shouted aloud; others clenched their fists.

But you told everyone to calm down first.

You said that we were “thieves” now, stealing authority from the world.

No one could say what might happen in the future.

If they remained uninvolved… they could continue living happily.

You said that we were stealing these authorities in the first place so they could go on living like that forever.

Their “ignorance” was actually a form of protection. Ignorance was bliss.

It was the greatest kindness we could give them.

So…

Back then, were we more like… secret agents from a mysterious organization, living undercover in the world?

Heh. At least, that’s how I saw it.

Like shadows, deceiving the world while remaining undetected…

Little by little, we stole the freedom that belonged to us from the ends of the world.

Then we returned to our own world and enjoyed those brief moments of peace.

Those days were tense, but peaceful in their own way.

We were always walking carefully along a tightrope invisible to everyone else, taking one cautious step after another.

No one knew whether the next step would send us plunging into the void.

We were so careful that even when we passed each other on the street, we didn’t dare look at one another for too long.

We were afraid that one unnecessary glance might expose the word hidden deep in our hearts.

But…

That peace ultimately failed to last.

Later, we were discovered after all.

That “authority” was simply too heavy.

And our “souls” were incapable of bearing such a vast amount of “authority.”

Each of us could take on only the tiniest fraction for you.

But even that tiny fraction was enough to make it hard to breathe.

Some people were crushed beneath the weight of that little bit of authority, unable to sleep night after night. Whenever they closed their eyes…

they could see those “eyes.”

So, as the authority within you continued to grow…

the world finally discovered you.

But by then… you had already become an indestructible “supervirus.”

Impossible to erase, impossible to kill, impossible to delete completely.

You had already taken root in the world, becoming a thorn embedded in its body that could never be pulled out.

Of course…

You had long since anticipated that day would come.

Fang Qi, you really were amazing back then… Have I said that several times already?

…Liguang, don’t look at me like that. That’s not what I meant.

…Anyway, you had already been secretly planning a way to resolve the problem.

Yes. That’s right.

Judging by your expression, you’ve thought of it too, haven’t you?

The nine cores.

The nine super-cores created around Goddess Liguang, capable of carrying every form of authority.

Liguang, you are the most important of them all.

You are the true core of our entire plan.

Those nine cores were vessels for all our authority, our final escape route, and the only place where we could entrust the future…

Little by little, we gathered the tiny fragments of authority we had stolen from every corner and poured them into the cores.

And among them, the one true core capable of bearing everything was you, Liguang.

Fang Qi, you once said that only the most powerful existence could bear so much authority at once.

Hmm?

Your parents? You mean Uncle Fang and Aunt Su?

Ah…

They aren’t. They’re different from us. They weren’t part of the “shadows.”

But they were important people too.

Um… explaining it would be rather complicated.

All I remember is that you once said that without you, Fang Qi…

the “protagonist” of this world might have been Fang Chu instead.

The one favored by fate.

You even joked at the time—

That’s what you call hiding in plain sight!