"Are you saying —"
The lightning inside Wan Xiaotian's head slashed open the chaos one after another. He was surprised at first, but then he couldn't have burst into fury. "You are the high-dimensional being who created the world and everything? Are you kidding me? I don't believe it! I! No! I! Believe it! "
"Very good," Old Li said.
Old Li said, "In the pursuit of truth, questioning everything is the highest virtue. You really shouldn't believe every word I say."
"Well …"
Wan Xiaotian's head was in a mess. He clenched his leather bag tighter and tighter. After a long daze, he tossed and turned and said, "I don't believe it. I don't understand. How — how can you prove it? No. It is impossible to prove such a thing. Can you tell me how you feel when you split yourself into three thousand clones and travel through infinite worlds? Can you really transcend time and space and experience infinite lives? "
"I can't describe the specific feelings in detail because the me in front of you is still not the whole me. It is only one thousandth of me. It is just a relatively large piece of my soul at best," Old Li said.
"My thousand clones are all connected in a certain mysterious way. You may think of it as' quantum entanglement '. Before, Old Li was unable to perceive the existence and experience of the other clones. It was not until recently, when my training was about to end and my clones returned to the' original universe 'that I was able to vaguely sense some information.
"Believe it or not, I'm not trying to convince you. I'm just chatting with you because fate has brought us together.
"Speaking of feelings, in the beginning, just like what I told you just now, I indeed considered the training as a game to relax my mind and relieve my fatigue. I did not consider the virtual worlds as real existences, including the mountains, rivers, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the spirits of all living things in the virtual worlds. In my eyes, they were nothing more than a series of unpredictable data.
"However, when I split myself and devoted myself to the game, the situation was greatly different.
"My soul has been split into almost a thousand parts. Also, because of the great restrictions of the crystal processors and the databases, the computational ability of each of my clones is extremely limited. It will be fine if I turn into a human being or a bizarre-shaped intelligent life, but if I turn into a bird, an animal, a snake, a bug, a rat, or even a trilobite or an ancient fungus, my computational ability will be suppressed to almost zero, and I will not be able to think at all.
"Also, as my soul was divided, my feelings and personality were divided, too. Some of my clones carried my 'kindness', some carried my 'evil', some carried my 'wisdom', and some carried my 'bravery', 'elegance', and 'hot-bloodedness'. There were also some clones, such as the one in front of you, that carried my 'wisdom and wisdom'. Those separated feelings and personalities drifted in the mortal world and gradually condensed into their own personalities. It's almost like I have a thousand personalities, but I don't know which one is my real self.
"I was lost.
"I'm lost in the splendid buildings. I'm lost in the desert. I'm lost in the forests and primeval oceans when the chaos was just born. I can't tell the difference between reality and reality anymore. I can't tell the difference between Master Spiritual Vulture, General Blood Eagle, Crooked Neck, Trilobite, Methanobacteria, Old Li, and Vulture Li Yao anymore. I'm just living, perceiving, meditating, and training along a thousand different paths and in a thousand different ways with a bit of a chaotic belief in my heart.
"There are three thousand paths of Dao, but they all lead to the same destination. Just like that, I continued my cultivation. Finally, I recalled many things, but I fell into even greater confusion. Billions of questions fell on my head like brilliant stars falling from the sky.
"What is the difference between the real and the fake?
"Is it Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly, or is it the butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou? Is it Vulture Li Yao training in the virtual worlds in three thousand incarnations, or is it the training of countless creatures in the three thousand Sectors that condensed into glittering flames and assembled into Vulture Li Yao in a higher dimension?
"If it is I who created the virtual worlds, am I living in a virtual world created by someone else, too? Does I, the creator of the creator, have a creator of the virtual worlds, too?
"How should the creator deal with the moral dilemmas when he walks among his creations? Do I have the right to kill the virtual lives that I created? Do I have the right to interfere with and change the course of their history? When I create a virtual world, and the virtual world is soon brimming with vigor and even the souls of all living creatures are born, do I have the right to shut it down? If the virtual lives in the virtual world are awakened and resist my control, is their resistance righteous, and is my suppression evil?
"There is no correct answer to those questions. If I have to say, 'the universe is heartless and treats all living creatures like straw dogs'.
"I didn't understand that before. If the universe is truly heartless, why does it nurture life and nourish all living creatures?
"But now, I understand that, for the universe or the Heavenly Dao, the world is just a virtual game. Everything is just a series of data and programs. If you kill one person, save one person, kill ten thousand people, or save ten thousand people in a virtual game, what is' righteous' or 'evil' about it? The so-called 'heartless' does not mean cruelty or evil, but that the Heavenly Dao's actions cannot be evaluated by the standard of 'righteous' or 'evil' at all.
"Even so, I still have to resist, surpass, and conquer the Heavenly Dao.
"I want to conquer the Heavenly Dao, not because I am righteous and the Heavenly Dao is evil, but because of the reason that you mentioned just now. 'The Heavenly Dao is right there'.
"Now that I've gained such an understanding, I've achieved something insignificant in my training in the virtual world. It's time for me to leave.
"But before I leave, I want to leave something behind. Of all the virtual worlds that I've experienced, you are the first and only one who has questioned the world and wanted to surpass space and search for the truth. I don't know whether you are a 'person', a random result of the surging data, or a projection of my own will under my constant interference. But in any case, I'm willing to share my experience with you, and I hope that you will not give up the courage to continue searching for the truth in the face of the darkest truth — the truth of a higher level and a brighter one!
"So …"
Faced with Old Li's unfathomable eyes, Wan Xiaotian was seventy percent convinced before he knew it. Caught in the greatest pain and desperation, he mumbled, "I'm fake?"
"That's exactly what I want to remind you of. No, of course you are not fake. You are 'virtual', but you are not 'fake'. They are two different things."
Old Li said, "What is real? A human being whose body is made of carbon, iron, and oxygen exchange information with the world around for decades under the stimulation of nerve electricity. Then, he dies and turns into a pile of dry bones. Years later, from the perspective of the universe, even the planet where the dry bones are buried is obliterated after only a short moment. Is that a 'real human being'? How much more important is such a 'real human being' than a 'virtual human being' that is directly created by data and information?
"No. That is not how real and fake are distinguished.
"Assuming that I am a writer, and you are a character created by my pen, it seems that I am the creator, you are the creator, and I am real, and you are fake, but it is very possible that hundreds of years later, I will be so dead that not a single bone will be left. I will be forgotten by everyone, and you will still be remembered by some readers who can move people hundreds of years later. Then, between you and me, who is real, who is fake, who is high, and who is low?
"Let's also assume that a painter painstakingly drew all his life, spirit, and will into a famous painting that has been passed down for thousands of years. Then, he died and was sent to the crematorium, where he was reduced to ashes and gone with the wind. From then on, the world could only know this painter through this famous painting. Then, who do you think is the original form of this painter? Is it the body of flesh and blood that has long been reduced to ashes? Or is it this famous painting? Or is it the deep thoughts, feelings, debates, and the surging brainwaves of millions of people because of this famous painting?"
Wan Xiaotian was captivated. In his trance, he thought of a lot of things.
"This is what I want to say, young man. The so-called 'real' does not exist, but the path of pursuing the real does exist and is worth our efforts to conquer it. I look forward to the day that you can find your 'real' and the way to surpass the real, the space, and the universe. You can go to the universe of a higher dimension, find me, surpass me, conquer me, and destroy me, just like … I will certainly break out of my universe and find my creator, surpass him, conquer him, and destroy him!
"I believe that we will both succeed.
"Because … perhaps … that is the only reason why we were created!"
Old Li smiled and patted Wan Xiaotian's shoulder. He stood up, put the mop and the bucket aside, and walked out.
"Old Li!"
Wan Xiaotian was still somewhat confused. "Where are you going?"
"It's about time. It's time for me to go. Although the training these days has been very interesting, my wife can't wait to have a try. It won't be a joke if she barges in angrily."
Old Li waved his hands without looking back. "Goodbye, young man. I hope that you can tell me the answer one day. What is the real thing?"
While talking, Old Li pushed open the door of a toilet cubicle.
Soon, the sound of the toilet flushing could be heard from inside.
"Old Li —"
Wan Xiaotian was anxious. He rushed over and pushed the door without caring about anything.
The door was not locked. Wan Xiaotian crashed into it, only to find that there was nothing inside.
The cubicle was no more than one square meter. Naturally, there was no second door. But Old Li had vanished into thin air.
Only the rapid water of the toilet was vaguely emitting colorful mystic rays that looked like rainbows.
"This … This …"
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