Chapter 539

Chapter 539: After the Ending

The sunlight filtered through the tree branches and fell on the grass, like tiny golden flakes floating in the air. The sky was a deep blue, and the fluffy clouds moved gently with the breeze, like waves rising and falling.

It was a splendid day, as if the cracks in the sky that appeared fifty years ago had also softened at this moment.

The old storyteller Jiang Chen walked behind, leaning on his cane, while the children played and chased each other in front of him.

Jiang Chen was very old, and deep wrinkles marked his face like a winding map.

Jiang Chen’s martial arts skills weren’t very high. Although he later practiced the "Human Path Sutra," his progress was ordinary. Even the top martial artists from Zhong Province would ask him for the secret to his long life when they learned how old he was.

But he was, after all, old; his energy had faded. He couldn’t keep up with his playful descendants ahead and instead leaned on his cane to rest in the shade of a tree.

Jiang Chen was a master storyteller at Tide Listening Building, and his family was quite prosperous. The children running ahead were his great-grandchildren.

After being scolded by the older relatives, the children gathered once more and crowded around Jiang Chen to listen to him speak.

The old man Jiang Chen pointed at the large tree behind him and said:

"Children, to say that today’s forest has grown tall, we must thank those who planted the seeds long ago."

"Since the Great Collapse fifty years ago, Jiu Province has sunk mostly underwater, the skies are no longer empty, and the worlds are now connected, with many races standing together and thriving freely in this age of ruin."

"Our clan’s survival in these worlds today also depends on the great ancestor of humanity who once paved the way for all realms."

"Speaking of that great ancestor…" the old man Jiang Chen began to tell stories from the past as he always did.

Although he was once a renowned storyteller at Tide Listening Building, he was getting old and often repeated tales from long ago, which the children had heard many times before.

Before long, soft snores began to rise; the little ones under the tree kept nodding off and were about to fall asleep.

"What are you sleeping for? The old man is talking, pay close attention!" A nearby elder scolded, waking the little ones up, their eyes wide open, but soon they started to squint again.

The elder was about to scold them again but was stopped by Jiang Chen’s hand wave.

"Alright, alright," Jiang Chen said with a smile.

"If the future generations are tired of listening, can we really force them to hear?"

"The people of today do not need to carry the heavy burdens of justice, history, and family grudges. If the ancestors knew, they probably would not blame us but instead feel relieved."

"But old man, you—"

"I said it is not necessary." Jiang Chen stood up with his cane, looking at the sleepy little ones in front of him, and slowly walked towards the hillside.

"I’m going to get some fresh air."

The hillside was covered in green grass, and the distant mountains looked like waves; it truly felt pleasant, a rare sense of relaxation.

At that moment, a voice came from behind:

"Back then, during the Jiu Province Sky Piercing River, when the Qiao family member disappeared for fifty years, you spoke for fifty years; now another fifty years have passed, and you are still talking… It’s been a hundred years, aren’t you tired?"

Two people approached from behind him, one was a middle-aged man with a faint horizontal line on his forehead, and he was Clairvoyance. The other was a handsome scholar with a refined appearance, the Tide Listening Building Landlord, Nian Chao Sheng.

"Is the Landlord here too?" Jiang Chen was quite surprised.

"I came to see you off one last time," Nian Chao Sheng said softly.

He was a mixed-blood king beyond the ordinary world, smiling as he listened to the tides of life, but the useless ones in the building who could only talk made him uneasy.

Jiang Chen was one of the few pure-blood human members in the building, and his long life was thanks to the secret help of the powerful Landlord.

"I found out some things: the True Immortals have left," Nian Chao Sheng said.

"After the Great Collapse disaster, there are still a few True Immortals alive."

"But since they know the Great Collapse has stopped, they return to their previous dignified selves, no longer fierce, and go back to their dwellings as if nothing happened."

"However, some ancient True Immortals believe that the Great Collapse has not truly ended; it has only been delayed."

"As for how it has been delayed, for how long, or if it can be postponed indefinitely… I do not know, and even the oldest True Immortals might not be able to figure it out, nor dare to guess."

Jiang Chen was clearly shocked by this news, and his pupils narrowed.

"How can this be?"

Next to him, Clairvoyance sighed, "As the saying goes, spilled water cannot be gathered, and what’s more, is the Great Collapse… Perhaps all efforts are in vain, and history will keep repeating itself."

As a leading figure of the Tide Listening Building, Jiang Chen had always shared the true stories of the Qiao family members, while Clairvoyance, after leaving the Hundred-mile Desert, had focused on the history behind the waves of the times.

At that moment, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but ask, "Landlord, if there had been no Great Collapse, if True Immortal had not returned, and if martial artists had faced fifty years of hardships, destroying the last Immortal Gate at the Soul Predicting Path Immortal Gate, what would have happened after that?"

Nian Chao Sheng read with a blank expression:

"Then naturally… the Jiu Province would welcome a perfect ending, Founding Emperor Yan would continue to be a hands-off manager, Emperor Wuping would lead the Great Yan Imperial Court through peaceful changes, starting the council he had long planned, and finally, the Jiu Province would have no immortals and no internal strife, and we would all come together to make dumplings…"

"Do you believe what I’m saying?"

Jiang Chen remained silent.

"Then let’s accept reality," Nian Chao Sheng said coldly.

"Actually, according to what Immortal Diyuan said back then, that person was already over twenty million years old during the last battle. We do not know what happened to him the last time he entered the Return Ruins," Nian Chao Sheng pondered.

"Is it worth it to trade his endless life for the brief peace of the current ruined era of all realms? Don’t you think that’s a loss?"

"Comparing it to the extremely long length of twenty million years, no matter how long this Great Collapse disaster lasts, it must be a loss, right?"

Jiang Chen shook his head.

"When our ancestors went to their deaths, who ever thought about whether it was worth it?"

Jiang Chen turned to look at Nian Chao Sheng, gazing at this still elegant and youthful scholar.

Over the long years, Nian Chao Sheng looked just as he did when Jiang Chen first met him, showing no signs of aging, while he himself had grown old.

Clairvoyance and Nian Chao Sheng are both hybrids of extraordinary beings, but Nian Chao Sheng has a stronger bloodline; his first ancestor was the divine beast Di Ting.

"Landlord, you have lived too long and sit too high," Jiang Chen said directly.

"Oh? What do you mean by that?" Nian Chao Sheng raised an eyebrow.

"Powerful beings like the True Immortal have a view that is too grand," Jiang Chen replied.

"The True Immortals live as long as the heavens and earth, and they see time as one moment, where countless generations pass in an instant. The changes in the world are merely a glance for them."

"From their perspective, exchanging the infinite for the finite is not worth it."

"But from the viewpoint of a short-lived mortal," Jiang Chen leaned on his staff, looking down the slope.

The children below, who had previously been dozing off, began to play and laugh again. They seemed to find joy in running and chasing on the grass, though it was hard to understand why.

"Fifty years of delay has fifty years of value, a hundred years has a hundred years of value, and five hundred years has five hundred years of value."

Nian Chao Sheng listened quietly, and only then spoke:

"Is this what you think that person is thinking?"

"No, it is my thought," Jiang Chen shook his head.

He probably guessed one of the reasons for Nian Chao Sheng’s appearance.

Nian Chao Sheng knows a lot.

But knowing is one thing; a person like Nian Chao Sheng, even if he knows everything, might still find it hard to understand Qiao Mu’s thoughts.

Jiang Chen is different.

As the first "beauty" saved by Qiao Mu, Jiang Chen remembers Qiao Mu’s original name. For all these years, he has been telling the story of the Qiao family member, from their youth to old age; he knows the Qiao family member very well.

"If it were that person, he wouldn’t think so much at all," Jiang Chen said.

"He has never held expectations for the future… No, it’s not that he is pessimistic, and of course, he is not optimistic either."

Jiang Chen spoke, as if remembering the many times Qiao Mu had died in the past.

Each time he faced death, he was not always on the side that most people agreed with.

Sometimes people praised him, and sometimes they did not understand him; they insulted him, turned away from him, misunderstood him, and pointed fingers at him.

But none of this could shake his determination or stop his actions.

"Even if he knows that these worlds will eventually fall, and that all efforts against the Great Collapse are in vain, and that the peace he gains will only last a thousand years, five hundred years, or one hundred years, it is unlikely to change his resolve."

Jiang Chen said slowly:

"This is actually the same as what he did before."

"It’s just that this time… after he dies, he won’t come back."

The legend has ended.

There is no sun that does not perish in this world.

The only thing that never changes is change itself.

In this era of ruins where all realms connect and countless races coexist, how long can there be peace? Can the Great Collapse really be delayed forever?

No matter what, the mortals living in the present will continue their lives.

Nian Chao Sheng quietly listened to these words.

"Someone once said something similar to you," Nian Chao Sheng began to speak.

"The time is almost here; it’s time to go. Follow me."

Jiang Chen instinctively widened his eyes, and his body began to tremble slightly. As the storyteller of the Tide Listening Building, he felt as if he could hear the sound of the world’s great tides rising and falling.

…………….

The mountain path twists and turns, leading to a broken-down small temple at the end.

In the temple courtyard, Wu Qizheng sits with his eyes closed, then opens them to look at the visitor.

The incense-burning temple no longer exists in Jiu Province; this broken temple is just his temporary home now.

"You brought someone else here to try to persuade me?" Wu Qizheng raised an eyebrow.

"Not at all," Nian Chao Sheng shook his head.

"I understand now that there are indeed people in this world who know it is hopeless but still walk down a dead-end path. I do not understand it, but I will not try to stop it."

"This young man…" Nian Chao Sheng pointed at Jiang Chen and the nearby Clairvoyance.

"They are storytellers who can pass down the tale; they have come to bear witness, so no one will be forgotten after death."

"That’s true," Wu Qizheng pondered for a moment and nodded slightly.

"Then follow me."

He pushed open the tightly closed main hall door, and what was behind it suddenly appeared in Jiang Chen and the others’ sight, making them widen their eyes in surprise.

In the main hall of this Taoist temple, there were no statues, but a full hundred of Qiao Mu’s past physical forms, all looking the same, with skin still having a hint of color, as if they had not died.

"This is…." Jiang Chen was momentarily speechless with shock.

Keeping the True Immortals calm and no longer fierce was closely related not only to the halted Great Collapse, but also to these unknown one hundred physical bodies.

"Qiao Mu has perfected the martial arts true body, and he has hundred past physical forms. Each physical body is almost like a self-contained small world, unchanging over the years."

Wu Qizheng explained:

"And all these years, I have been studying the ‘No Move No Thinking Skill’ he left behind."

"No Move No Thinking Skill is a wonderful technique that allows the body to respond to martial instincts, driven by one’s obsession."

"But Qiao Mu was still a bit cautious," Wu Qizheng said.

"He needs humanity to maintain my understanding of myself."

Wu Qizheng slowly said, "And I do not need humanity."

Jiang Chen instinctively took a half step back.

This reaction made Wu Qizheng smile.

"There’s no need to be afraid."

"Power itself is a price; humanity cannot withstand the long passage of time."

"Then isn’t it better not to have humanity?" Wu Qizheng laughed loudly.

"I do not need humanity; I do not need a self."

"Using Martial Saint’s ‘Taotie Swallowing Heaven Skill’ as the foundation, and Qiao Mu’s ‘No Move No Thinking Skill’ as the guide, rewrite the body’s instincts, deeply engrave the obsession, and drive the body to act."

"Today, I will become what Martial Saint could never become…"

"Saint of Martial Arts"

A hundred bodies of Qiao Mu came rushing in like a tide, drowning Wu Qizheng within.

Jiang Chen and the others quickly stepped back, only to see flesh and blood flooding this broken temple like a swamp.

In an instant, the temple collapsed into ruins.

Amidst the rubble, a tall Blood Flesh Divine Being slowly stood up.

"Without my self-awareness of being me, there can be no selfishness."

"Using the heart of a saint to drive this united Blood Flesh Divine Being with obsession."

"Qiao Mu, this is my last transformation into a holy being—" The voice gradually faded, and on the tall Blood Flesh Divine Being’s face, Wu Qizheng’s features began to blur.

At this moment, a sound came from behind. Nian Chao Sheng and Clairvoyance turned around to see Jiang Chen sitting on the ground, the fire of life in his eyes had gone out without them noticing.

Before dying, witnessing the birth of the Saint of Martial Arts, he held his fists tightly, with only a faint sense of peace on his face.

"He has died too," Clairvoyance said as he stepped forward and gently closed Jiang Chen’s eyelids.

"History always repeats itself, history never repeats itself," he whispered.

All fire, in the end, will burn down to a pile of ashes.

But when night falls, there will still be someone who raises a torch, even if it is just a brief light.

It is so now, and was the same before.