174 - The Truth Behind It All

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“How many? Whatever do you mean?”

A sly grin remained plastered on the old man's face, giving Qin Yun no end to his frustration. He despised being strung along in this way, never being given a straight answer. It felt patronizing, especially considering who he was and the amount of experience under his belt.

However, looking back on it, he had used the same tactics more than once when dealing with those who weren't ready for the truth. It was no surprise, as compared to himself, everybody else may as well be children. It was for their own protection. Yet, the thought of being treated as one was grating and much more than he was willing to endure.

He could only shake his head and smile wryly at his own hypocrisy.

“Drop the false pretense,” he said. “How long has it been since this place was left here unoccupied? You mean to tell me no one before me entered these halls, that she didn’t guide anyone else down this path? Give me a break. We both know she isn’t that passive. I even suspect you were once one of the candidates. Isn’t that the reason you chose to escape?”

The old man remained silent for a while, yet Qin Yun could see his expression soften quite a bit. Actually, it wasn't so much as softening, but instead becoming more neutral. Almost all emotions faded from his face, except for a slight hint of approval, as if it were to be expected.

“You’re the fifth,” the man finally said. “There were four others before you.”

“Does that include you?”

“You are the fifth to grace these halls since this plane became desolate.”

“You mean this underground chamber?”

The man merely nodded.

So that doesn’t include him, Qin Yun thought. But wait—why specify this chamber? Why not the manor itself? The guardian isn't something most can prevail against. There must have been others. Many more to have fallen to the Alteran Hound or even to the miasma outside. How many? And yet, none succeeded in whatever it wanted them to do. The cycle remained unbroken, and if I were to fall, surely another would take my place. Such a bleak reality.

Qin Yun wasn't bothered by the untold number of corpses buried in this place. His only concern was that none before him had succeeded, making the endeavour much more dangerous than he first anticipated. Yet, there was a silver lining. If what he had uncovered was the truth, and the man before him succeeded in breaking free of the cycle, then there was a chance he could do the same.

Still, the mere fact that someone succeeded before means her guard will be heightened this time. She will have put countermeasures in place.

Qin Yun thought back to how readily the world had granted him a part of its strength, how unexpected was the tribulation to strike when he finally reached the Qi Refining realm. At first, he believed this was meant to aid him in his quest to rid the world of Corruption, and while he knew this gift came with some restrictions, he didn't think much of it, believing it was merely a secondary function. But now, he wondered if the roles weren't reversed, the monitoring features being its primary purpose while enhancing his strength being just a side-effect. All this sparked from the barrier currently suppressing his lotus.

I guess I can only play along until an opportunity presents itself.

"Where are they now?" Qin Yun asked, already knowing the answer.

“Dead,” the old man replied with an indifferent shrug. “Some weren't cut out for it. They were all talented, but few possessed the strength of mind to cope with their situation."

"What do you mean?" Qin Yun asked with a frown.

“Do you even realize where you are?" the man asked, smiling with a look that would freeze even the most hardened criminal's bones. Yet Qin Yun showed almost no reaction. He remained completely calm and collected, simply awaiting the answer to his question. Seeing no reaction, the old man shrugged again, looking slightly bored.

"You're no fun, do you know that?" the man added. "Usually, people would panic when thrust at the end of the world, seemingly betrayed by the world they believed they were blessed by in the first place, but not you. You saw the world turn against you, strike you down with Heavenly Tribulation, and then woke up in this strange, desolate land, estranged from all you have ever known. No life remains on this world leaf except for mechanical ones, like the Alteran Hound behind you or those transformed by Corruption, becoming shadows of their former selves. Most people would grow mad, but not you. You've already seen too much to be affected by all this. In short, you're no fun."

"So she was reluctant to use people like us and first experimented with 'ordinary chosens.' And when she saw they weren't fit for the job, she reluctantly chose me. Is that what you were saying?"

"So—that's what you gathered from this? I thought you'd be more concerned about all the deaths here. You know that most of them couldn't cope with their own situation. They used to be the chosen ones, adulated by the masses for their talents, but were thrust into a quest regardless of their own wills. The shock of losing everything they cherished was brutal, causing them to take drastic measures. They became aware of the consequences of Corruption and wished to avoid this fate entirely. So—they—you know..."

“Why should they concern me? Everyone is responsible for their own lives, no matter how deluded they might be, rationalizing they were threatened into making that choice. At the end of the day, succumbing to those threats or standing up against them is still considered a choice. I made my choice, as did they. If you wanted me to feel a sense of kinship, as those in a similar situation, I don't. I don't even see why I should. Only I, myself, matter. Why should their deaths be of any consequence to me?"

“That’s cold—”

“—don’t talk as if you’re any different. I don’t know what you’re trying to get out of me with this. Is it guilt—empathy? What purpose would that serve? I can only think you’re bored and trying to mess with me.”

“Oh—I’ve been caught, it seems.” The old man offered Qin Yun another creepy smile. “It’s not every day that two of us meet in the same timeline. Really, when was the last time?”

The old man looked pensive, almost as if he were reliving an untold number of memories. But then his eyes brightened suddenly, and his smile grew slightly wider.

A rifle appeared in his hand. It was semi-transparent, just as the rest of the hologram was, yet Qin Yun's eyes couldn't help but narrow, for he recognized that rifle. It was an early modern model—one with a five-round magazine and a bayonet attached to the barrel.

There was blood on the blade—fresh one. Qin Yun could still see the red liquid slowly slide down the cylindrical, metallic tube until it dripped onto the floor but disappeared into the ether before it could splatter.

Qin Yun turned to his black storage. While access was still denied, and he couldn’t retrieve anything from it, he remained able to scan its inventory. As expected, the rifle he once held in his hands as he woke up within this manor was gone from where he had stored it, leaving nothing behind but a slight imprint as if to reserve its place.

Soon after, the rifle disappeared from the man’s hands—being there one moment then vanishing the next—only to reappear within Qin Yun’s black storage as if nothing had happened, except he could now see the man’s fingerprints over the body of the gun, and even a slight smear within the dripping blood.

Qin Yun turned back to face the old man, and as expected, a small amount—a trace—of blood remained on his index finger, which the man promptly put in his mouth, licking the blood clean.

“Time is convoluted, isn’t it?” the man said. “You’re not wrong to think of me as an AI. I wouldn’t be stupid enough to communicate openly when she could trace it back to me. But you know that what you saw is real, and not just rendition extrapolated through recorded events. Even now, I exist somewhere, out of your reach, just as many others do. Coming back to your question: Why shouldn’t I mess with you? It irks me to see someone so similar to myself being used like a pawn by her. It cheapens my worth.”

“Was I that shallow?” Qin Yun pondered aloud. “Honestly, I don’t remember—I must have lost it along the way. Still, is that the reason for this meeting? Was this just to fulfill a twisted sense of superiority? If so, I’m disappointed. Why should I be made to compete with you?”

“Because you can’t avoid it,” the man said dryly. While there was a slight antagonistic nature to be found within his tone, Qin Yun felt more pity from the man’s words, and yet, this grated his nerves to no end—more than simply being overly hostile.

"You've asked me why I would go this far to meet with you all. It's simple. I owe you this much. It's the least I can do," the man added. "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here. It's also why I left this manor as it was. Considering what you will have to go through next, it wouldn't do for you not to have a safe haven. Still, even that is hardly enough, just the bare minimum."

"Does that also apply to this?" Qin Yun asked, not missing a beat as he pointed toward the black box imprisoned within the cylindrical force field, not ignoring what had been said but compartmentalizing his thoughts to ponder them later.

"That's different. Call it a price, if you will," the man replied helplessly. "Still, it's a price I'd be willing to pay again if needed."

Qin Yun couldn’t help but frown. The implications of this all were gigantic—at least for himself. The man was probably referring to his escape from her grasp and the price he had to pay. If what he said was true, the price was much more than Qin Yun was willing to pay.

To be young again...

Qin Yun couldn't help but be envious of that man somehow. They were so similar but also so different. He had something he had lost along the way—a willingness to go much further than Qin Yun had. Parting from this black box and leaving it behind would be unthinkable for him. After such a long time, it had become an integral part of himself, another limb, if you will.

"Is that all? All of this out of guilt? It shouldn't be so simple." Qin Yun said, spreading his arms as if to show everything around him.

“Of course not,” the man replied. “Even I am not that bored. Who cares about guilt? Even if we were to assume I felt such an emotion—which I don’t—those emotions would fade in the end. Didn’t they for you? After all, nothing is eternal. Nothing is immutable, no matter how much some would like to make us believe.”

Somehow, the old man's last sentence was laced with meaning. It remained freshly imprinted into the forefront of Qin Yun's mind as if he unconsciously found this detail essential and worth remembering. Yet, there was something else that occupied Qin Yun's mind.

“You spoke of what comes next,” Qin Yun said. “That means there must be some sort of plan. What is it exactly?”

"Nothing you should worry yourself over," the man replied. "We all believe in free will, don't we? Even if there was a plan, we cannot force you to do anything. And yet, even if every decision was yours, you still found yourself here. Isn't fate an interesting concept? Anyway, what comes next is up to you. I only left this here to give you all a chance to leave. I owed her that much.”

While Qin Yun had many more questions for the man behind the image, this was the crux of the matter, which had plagued his mind since he had been sent here. He also wondered what he would have to do to return to the world above, as surely he wasn't meant to spend the rest of his life in this desolate place.

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