Chapter 251: The Land Of Returning Emptiness
When I opened my eyes again, or rather, when I regained consciousness, Big Brother, I didn’t know where I was.
It felt as if this place was shrouded in a heavy darkness, with not the slightest bit of light penetrating. Immersed in it, my eyes seemed useless; no matter how hard I tried to widen them, I couldn’t see even a tiny speck. The surroundings were eerily silent, devoid of any sound. Even my own breathing and heartbeat seemed to have been swallowed by this deathly stillness.
I opened my mouth to shout, but my throat felt as if a formless hand was tightly strangling it, preventing any sound from escaping. The air was filled with a suffocating heaviness, and I couldn’t smell anything.
I extended my hands, trying to touch the surrounding objects, but could only feel emptiness, as if the entire world consisted only of myself, existing alone in this endless darkness.
Time seemed to have frozen at this moment, and space became indistinct and difficult to grasp. Big Brother, trapped in this mysterious place, was filled with fear and confusion. I repeatedly cried out from the depths of my heart, “Hello? Where is this place, anyway? Can anyone hear my voice?” However, these desperate cries were like stones sinking into the ocean, not causing even the slightest ripple.
I ran forward frantically, as if only by doing so could I slightly alleviate the ever-spreading panic in my heart. But no matter how desperately I ran, the scene before me was always an endless darkness.
The deathly silence all around, this feeling of loneliness, followed me like a shadow, tightly enveloping me, making it almost impossible to breathe. I dared not stop, only continuing to run with my head down, trying to find a way out and escape this terrifying place…
As I ran, my consciousness disappeared again. Then I woke up again and continued to run, endlessly repeating this process.
After who knows how many times, I forgot who I was, and I forgot why I was running, and I even got used to this state.
Later, many people inexplicably arrived, and seeing me running, they started running along with me. Some idiots insisted on running ahead, and the others called those few “elders.” But everyone uniformly called me “Old Ancestor.”
That day, a handsome young man with an exotic appearance and a refined expression caught up to me and asked me,
“Hey buddy, why are you guys running so frantically?”
I asked, “Who are you?”
This idiot thought he was very clever and tried to deceive me, saying,
“Me? I’m one of you, but I only recently became like this. May I ask why you’re running like this?”
Hearing this, I pretended to be foolish and scratched my round head, tricking him, “I don’t know. It’s been like this since I was born.”
Actually, did I really not know? I am the Old Ancestor, I was just running for fun because I was bored, and everyone else was copying me.
“So where are you going?” the idiot asked again.
I continued to deceive him,
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the elder. I’m just a foot soldier.”
Hearing this, he said helplessly, “Alright then.”
I continued to tease him,
“Do you want me to call our elder for you to ask? I’m also curious why it always makes us run like this.”
The young man pondered for a moment, then clasped his fists towards me and said, “No, brother, you guys are busy. I won’t bother you then.”
Then he left.
Cough cough cough, you still want to trick me into revealing information, Big Brother, I am…, Huh? Who the heck am I again?
Ahhh! Forget it, I’m not thinking about it, it’s giving me a headache, whatever, whoever.
I ran with a large group of people for an unknown amount of time. One day, I felt a bit tired and stopped.
I established a cluster of temples in this place and named it Wuji Sword Sect.
As for why it’s called Wuji Sword Sect, I don’t know either. I just suddenly thought of this name, so I called it that.
In this vast, boundless, and profound space, through the diligent construction and efforts of my capable subordinates day and night, this place gradually became prosperous and flourishing. The once seemingly endless darkness was being dispelled bit by bit, replaced by bright and warm light.
This light did not come from any mystical power or ancient magical artifact, but from a little bird I accidentally found. I named it the Golden Crow.
The Golden Crow, obedient and sensible, followed the pattern of rising in the east and setting in the west every day, rising and setting on time. It became a unique existence in this space.
Gradually, through our continuous development, mountains, rivers, white clouds, earth, rivers, lakes, seas, plants, trees, and other life forms evolved.
One day, a clan member sighed to me, “Old Ancestor, the Golden Crow is warm and exceptionally bright when it’s working every day, but it’s too dark when it goes home after work. Can you think of a way to make the night have at least a little light? At least so we can tell directions. Otherwise, I can’t even find my way home after drinking. Old Man Wu from our village drank at my house half a year ago. I thought I’d keep him overnight because he drank too much, but this guy wouldn’t listen and insisted on leaving. He’s been lost for half a year and hasn’t come back. Old Ancestor, you really need to think of a solution for this.”
Hearing this, I smiled, picked up a handful of sand from the ground, and tossed it lightly into the void. The sand instantly hung in the void, hidden within. After thinking, I then arranged many regular patterns in specific directions.
Some looked like a ladle, some like a hunter, and some like two fish, and so on, many, many of them.
After doing all this, I still felt like something was missing. I looked at the large flatbread in my hand and threw it up there as well.
From then on, whenever night fell, countless grains of sand in the void would shimmer with the light of the Golden Crow.
And my large flatbread was exceptionally prominent and bright. The Golden Crow’s light flickered unpredictably when it slept, so the large flatbread sometimes looked round, and sometimes only a small bit was visible, which was super fun.
I named this space the Land of Returning Void, but later clan members forgot and gave it another name: the Milky Way Galaxy.
Whatever it’s called, I don’t care. I don’t care what they call it, because I don’t look at the world from a self-perspective like those clan members. They consider what they think is good to be good, and what they think is bad to be bad. In my eyes, there’s no good or bad, everything is fine.
Their original lifespans were very, very long, living for thousands of years was not a problem at all. Even the absolute worst could live for at least a hundred years.
It’s just that after continuous evolution, most of them lost themselves, forgot who their true selves were, and were dominated by two things called desire and distracting thoughts, becoming increasingly greedy. The energy within them became increasingly chaotic, and their consumption was much greater than before.
Later, to fight for resources, they began to form factions, slaughtering and plundering each other. Each faction promoted justice from its own standpoint, and the defeated side would be defined as evil.
When I, Laozi, couldn’t stand it anymore, I reshuffled them, made some subtle moves to cause their civilizations to perish, and then re-evolved them.
Moreover, I set up barriers in the sky. Any spirit that lost its physical body, if it did not wake up and realize who its original self was, would be assigned to reincarnate again based on what it did and thought in its previous life, until they could awaken on their own.
Some who awakened felt bored, so I would let them choose their own scripts and approve them to undergo further trials. This would allow them to become stronger and stronger in this process. Each return was a sublimation, more like a continuous upgrade.
I call this system the Six Paths of Rebirth, and this game is called Impermanent Mortal World, implying that when playing this game, there is no normal state. Impermanence is normal. To return, one must break free from this pattern.
Taking impermanence as the normal state, and having no mind as having a mind, this is called the Movement of the Tao is Through Reversal.
I spend most of my time living in the void, looking down at everything below. Sometimes, when I’m bored, I also come down to gain experience. Several times, I almost didn’t wake up, hahahaha.
But none of that matters. It’s a game, why be so serious?
