"Help me, Goddess!"
Xu Zhicheng staggered backward and did not manage to stand still until he reached a corner. He looked at Long Yangjun again and moaned like a drowning man. "I've been invaded by devils … Day and night, no matter how I practice the Serenity Arts, I can't completely get rid of the devils!
"I don't deserve to be the Grand Guardian of Nepenthe. I can't deal with the devils … So many devils, the wretched devils, have been haunting me all the time, making my head hurt so badly that I almost went crazy!
"This battle … If I win this battle, I will certainly be able to completely eliminate the devils in my head, right? Serenity Seraph, please tell me. Please save me! "
He raised his arms that looked like dry branches and extended them to Long Yangjun.
Long Yangjun stood nearby in silence and watched the conversation between Li Yao and Xu Zhicheng emotionlessly. It was not until this moment that slight confusion and bitterness appeared on her face. She took a step back and said with a bitter smile, "Grand Guardian Xu, you should know that even I haven't completely cut off my feelings and desires, right? If I can't even cut off my feelings and desires and save myself, how can I save you and all of you? "
Xu Zhicheng stared at Long Yangjun in a daze. His eyes were gradually burning, and the fire was condensed into a mask of desperation and fury on his face along every shivering wrinkle. He turned his hands that looked like dry branches to Li Yao and roared, "What — what — what are you up to exactly? What kind of Cultivator are you? You are a Demonic Cultivator and an incarnation of the extraterrestrial devils who are intentionally provoking the devils in my head! What do you want exactly? Why are you messing with my mind like this? Why are you so sordid and vicious? "
"I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry!"
Seeing that Xu Zhicheng had completely collapsed from the calmness and indifference at the beginning to the madness at this moment, Li Yao felt that an indestructible wall deep inside his heart had been broken, too. He also felt the urge to cry. He bowed deeply to Xu Zhicheng sincerely and said, "I'm sorry. I know that my methods are truly sordid and vicious. If I were … the father of two children, I wouldn't have been able to face such a situation, either.
"But, but I really have no other choice. This is the only way to save you and your two children!"
"You, what nonsense are you talking about?"
Xu Zhicheng breathed heavily, like an old wolf that had been driven to a dead end. With murderous intent in his eyes, he said, "My son is dead. They are all dead! Nobody can save them. Not Nepenthe. Not the Cultivators. Not even the Daluo Golden Immortals can revive my son. How are you going to save them? How are you going to save them? "
"Protector Xu, listen to me. The dead can't be brought back to life. Of course, I can't bring back the dead whose Divine Soul has dissipated, but —"
Li Yao opened his arms and said sincerely, "I've heard a saying before that everybody has to die twice. The first time is when their body and soul are exhausted, and the second time is when everybody forgets them!
"It's true that your two sons are already dead, but they still 'exist' right now. They exist in your memories, your feelings, your ineffable love, and your pain day and night. They exist in the toys and the certificates that you carefully polish every day!
"Do they have classmates? Do they have friends? Do they have childhood friends? Do they have buddies? Do they have buddies? I believe that they do, more or less, right? Then, they also exist in the memories of their classmates, friends, playmates, and lovers, and in the love and pain of so many people!
"They are already dead, but it is exactly because of the memories of so many people that you cannot erase your feelings even though you have practiced the Serenity Arts to the highest level that they can 'exist' in such a form. It is the last connection between them and this world and the only thing that they have left for you!
"If you erase everything because you can't bear the pain, you will also be erasing your love for your son, the most beautiful things in the past, the only glimmer of light in the infinite darkness, and the last 'existence' of them!
"By the time you completely forget them and burn the toys and certificates that have special meanings as' obsessions', and by the time all your friends and lovers forget them and can no longer remember their voices, smiles, or even their names, they will have completely ceased to exist and perished from this world!
"Do you want your son to end up like this? Do you want him to end up in 'complete annihilation' that is even more terrifying than death?"
As if struck by lightning, Xu Zhicheng was dumbfounded. He seemed to be so shocked that he even forgot to breathe.
"I can imagine your pain. It's true. Although I don't have a child yet, my computational ability is enough to simulate this kind of … earth-shattering emotional impact. I can feel your current state of mind. I'm feeling your current state of mind right now!"
As Li Yao spoke, his eyes turned red, too. "However, I believe that 'father' is a great name even more. As long as it is good for their children, a father is willing to do anything and endure any pain.
"Therefore, for the sake of your children, for yourself, and for the sake of your dead wife, who gave birth to them with great difficulty, do not forget them. Do not let them be annihilated. Carry their 'existence' and continue to live on with determination!"
"Carry on …"
Shivering, Xu Zhicheng touched his shoulder and asked in a shivering voice, "Their 'existence'?"
"Not just their existence but everybody's existence, which is made of the happiest and happiest moments of countless underground natives!"
Li Yao raised his voice and exploded next to Xu Zhicheng's ears like thunder. "Did you know? Even in the darkest and most arduous towns below the ground, I still heard the most beautiful songs of my children and listened to them telling me their happy stories vividly. Even when I passed by the smelly slums just now, I heard somebody laughing!
"However dark your life is, there is still a vague brightness, isn't there? Isn't the brightness made of songs, laughter, and love for each other the reason why we grit our teeth and endure the pain and suffering? Isn't it the significance of our existence? Isn't it the reason why we are human beings instead of animals, weeds, and stones?
"But what you are about to do is to destroy the last ray of light in the darkness!
"If you really obliterate the feelings and desires of all the underground natives, including yourself, there will be no more songs below the ground. There will be no more laughter in the living area. There will be no more children who are learning how to speak. There will be no more young men and women who are attracted to each other in the forsaken tunnels. There will be no more fathers who make toys for their children in high spirits when they are not busy with their work, just to see the innocent smiles on their children's faces! They will all be gone. They will all be gone!
"If the exploitation and persecution of the Immortal Cultivators are only taking away your lives, what you are doing right now is depriving everybody of their 'existence'! When your so-called 'eternal tranquility' really arrives, all of you, both the living and the dead, will no longer have a personality, a name, a past, or any significance as a human being! Is this what you want? Say it! You have lost your family. So, you want everybody to lose their family in such a way, don't you? "
"A * shole, shut up!"
Xu Zhicheng couldn't hold it back anymore and really lunged at Li Yao. Naturally, he was no match for Li Yao. In his fury, he even raised his head and headbutted Li Yao's chest brutally like a bull.
He thought that he had hit an iron plate, but out of his expectation, Li Yao did not trigger any spiritual shield at all and was knocked to the ground.
"You —"
Xu Zhicheng did not know what to do after the successful attack. He could only kneel on the ground and stare at Li Yao not far away in a daze.
Li Yao rose to his feet. Rubbing his chest, he smiled at Xu Zhicheng and said, "I'm sorry, Grand Guardian Xu. I was talking nonsense again. I know that's definitely not what you meant. Besides, you haven't lost your family yet. Your wife and your two children still exist in your feelings. The more intense your feelings are, the more vivid their existence will be. If you recall the joy and happiness when you were together in the past, they will live in the joy and happiness forever.
"Until the day when you completely execute all the devils and abandon all your feelings and memories, that will be the time when you really lose them!"
Xu Zhicheng listened in a daze. His face had been numb for a long time, but his eyes were complicated and conflicted. He looked at Li Yao eagerly, as if he were expecting him to go on.
"There's one thing that I don't understand."
Li Yao said, "Why did you create Nepenthe instead of joining the Holy League, Grand Guardian Xu? I know that a lot of people of the Holy League are active below the ground of the capital, too, right?
"Is it only because the Serenity Seraph is too powerful? Or do you feel that the 'Path of Ultimate Benevolence' of the Holy League is too extreme, cold, and desperate?
"However, it is impossible to slay the inner devils. It will only make you lose your humanity and become more and more extreme. In the end, you will become a pure tool like the people of the Holy League.
"Grand Guardian Xu, it's still not too late to turn back. Just stop!"
Lowering his head, Xu Zhicheng was silent for a long time. Then, he said gloomily, "However, only the Serenity Arts and the secret arts of telepathy can help us eliminate the fear of the Immortal Cultivators so that we can fight the Immortal Cultivators fearlessly! We can't hold it anymore. We have to fight to the end! "
"Wrong. You are not fighting at all; you are running away!"
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