173 - A Bet Against the World

First - Previous - Next

“A copy? What might you be referring to?" the old man asked, yet his expression showed none of the bewilderment that his choice of words implied. He remained completely calm as he eyed Qin Yun, showing a slight look of interest.

“Cut the crap!" Qin Yun spat as the man tested his patience. "You know what I mean. You couldn't risk her finding a connection linking back to you, so you uploaded a duplicate of your neural matrix and superposed it onto an artificial architecture. In short, you created a copy of yourself on this device and masqueraded it as an AI, but for what purpose? Why would you go to such lengths to remain here waiting for me? How could you even know I would come here?"

The old man merely smiled, showing no signs of wishing to answer Qin Yun's question, which caused him no short amount of exasperation. Still, Qin Yun couldn't fault him, however much he wanted to, for he understood the old man's concern.

Even now, at the edge of this desolate world, there was no telling if she could still spy on them. The man feared she could use the power she had implanted into Qin Yun to trace his location. Even with his own designed barrier tightly wrapped around Qin Yun's core, the old man didn't dare take that chance.

“What did you do?” Qin Yun finally asked. “She may be a little forceful, but she’s not unreasonable. Even if I may not agree with everything she does, I know, deep down, that it stems from a place of concern for this world. Why would you be so afraid of her?”

“Who says I'm afraid!" the old man said, pumping up his chest, yet Qin Yun could see this was merely false bravado. Something was in the man's eye, a dread Qin Yun could barely imagine. Even in his long years travelling through countless worlds, he had never seen so much concealed terror."

Qin Yun remained silent, almost feeling sorry for this man, until he realized he was in the same predicament. If anything, the two were similar—too similar even. The man was almost like an older version of him—one he could become were he to be disillusioned by her goal.

Judging by the man's actions, Qin Yun suspected her goal wasn't simply to drive back Corruption but something more, whether sinister or not. However, he knew that the two—her and the old man—were diametrically opposed to each other, and Qin Yun had yet to choose a side, if he would take one at all. If given the choice, in most cases, Qin Yun would instead seek neutrality, especially now that he had much to lose.

"Forget it, then. If you don't wish to say it, that's fine. I'll find out one way or another," Qin Yun sighed. "In the meanwhile, why don't you get on with it. Why were you waiting for me?"

“I’m surprised you'd give up so easily," the old man said. "Last I remembered, you weren't one to let things stand so easily. I thought you'd fight me more on this. You know, grill me for answers."

“You're a young one, aren't you? How many cycles have you gone through? How many lives do you remember? For my part, I've lost count a long time ago. I am me, and they are they, just as you and I aren't the same. Still, while every life is distinct, a small part of their lives rubs off on us, subtly changing us. It seems I have just been part of more of those changes that you have..."

The old man looked pensively at Qin Yun, and surprisingly, hidden behind his visage ravaged by time were youthful eyes, possessing a striking exuberance Qin Yun hadn't felt in a long time.

They were walking contradictions. One was an old man with a burning blaze for a heart, while the other was a young man with a heart as dry as a parched desert. They couldn't be more opposed, yet they were strikingly similar.

“Time is such a convoluted thing,” the old man finally said. “I thought I could show you the wisdom that came with age, rub it in your face a little, yet it seems I was the one that was shown.”

“It’s not such a glamorous thing,” Qin Yun sighed. “A man's age is born out of the weight of his memories. It is a blessing—as well as a curse— that one accumulates all their lives to be then discharged at the moment of their deaths. However, in our cases, the discharge never happened. We remained burdened by the weight of all those lives—"

“—some more than others, it seems.”

“Enough of this," Qin Yun replied, waving his hand. "I've never had much interest in self-pity, much less with you as my counterpart. The world is how it is, we simply have to make do. So, let’s stop wasting time. Now that I know what you are, why have you gone as far as to wait for me here? Creating a digital copy of your neural matrix shouldn’t have been without risk.”

“Insurance,” the man said, but didn’t really elaborate.

Qin Yun could only frown. His first instinct was to berate the man, insisting that he explain himself, but he relented, for he knew that if the man had no intention of doing so, he never would, under any circumstances. Qin Yun knew this quite well, for he was the same way.

Instead, Qin Yun chose to ruminate on his words. He chose to believe the two weren't so different that the man would do so for no reason. There was a slight chance the old man could have left a copy of himself here purely out of a twisted sense of enjoyment, trying to string along someone who may—or may not—come later, but Qin Yun found that hard to believe. The chances of that happening were genuinely infinitesimal.

Instead, he pivoted his thoughts towards there being a reason for it all. “Insurance”. The word itself was loaded with meaning. The literal meaning would be that he left this copy here in case something happened, but the question was, 'happened to whom?’ Himself—maybe?

He may have left the weight of his memories here for posterity. After all, he was the genius who had created such a marvellous creation: this sublime formation acting as a barrier around the manor. This alone was worthy of adulation. If this formation saw the light of day, it would revolutionize the world. Cultivation strongholds would become impregnable, ushering the hegemony of many sects for millennia to come, a blessing for some and a curse for others.

Was this a conscious effort born out of the knowledge of its possible consequences, or the supreme authority of this world banning its existence to secure the balance?

Qin Yun leaned more towards the latter, considering the man's antagonistic relationship with her. This may have been one of the root factors of their current relationship. She truly did not view components that may upset the status quo favourably and often resorted to drastic measures when faced with them. Keeping the balance was one of her foremost functions.

And yet, the reasons for this prudent approach—leaving something like this black box trapped within this force field—were truly mind-boggling. Qin Yun couldn't conceive of a situation where he would knowingly—decisively—choose to part with this faithful companion. It was inconceivable, and yet such a thing happened.

Insurance...

Something warranted this. Something so monumentally preposterous that it warranted this. Qin Yun couldn't help but feel chills when thinking about it deeper. He believed that only Corruption threatened this world—this force that sought to swallow it whole, only to change it to fit its views, a war between the mutable and the immutable—but now, he wasn't sure anymore.

There may be something else out there that threatened the peaceful life he wished to build alongside his wife. Something unknowable with his current means, yet the man before him had seen a glimpse of it, maybe even its full scope, and had been deigned a pariah for it, forced to hide—wherever he was—to escape from what was deemed inescapable.

This was but a theory without evidence. Qin Yun knew that he shouldn't put too many thoughts behind this, lest it affected his life in even worse ways, yet he couldn't erase the thought. It remained hidden in the recess of his mind, constantly whispering to accept it as the truth.

Otherwise, what other reason could she have to chase a man so, prompting him to mutilate himself just to leave a part of himself behind, carefully hidden from her grasp?

“If you are asking me to act against her without granting me the full context, then you’ll be sorely disappointed,” Qin Yun finally said, yet the man showed no reaction. Neither disappointment nor frustration. Instead, he merely gave Qin Yun a look he could only interpret as if it was to be expected.

It was, in fact, to be expected. Qin Yun was never one to support something by simply being asked to. Sure, sometimes, on a whim, Qin Yun would be called to action, but those actions always resonated with his own moral values. He would never go against his conscience for any reason, especially those he was unaware of, and the man knew that, for he was the same.

He knew that even if he were, for example, to take Qin Yun's wife hostage, threatening her life, it still wouldn't be enough to move him. He would rather let her perish than be forced to live with something that would plague his mind for the rest of time. After all—to him—death was but temporary—a transient phase—while memories were eternal. It might seem self-serving, but it was how he had always lived, and he was much too old to start changing now. It would only be an affront to those who had already been burned by this side of himself.

This was also why the Heavenly Dao took such a hands-off approach when it came to him. It could have threatened those close to him, hoping to move him in the way it wished, but it was much easier for the world's regulatory system to subtly shift the world itself than it was to change Qin Yun, and until this point, it seemed to have done so successfully.

“I don't need you to do anything," the old man finally said. "This is just a bet between me and her. We both have different viewpoints, and I thought having a third opinion would be interesting."

“But you’re not going to tell me what those opinions are, nor the subject of those disagreements, aren’t you.”

"Nope," the old man replied almost flippantly, showing a large, practically creepy smile.

Qin Yun's eyes narrowed. While not much had been said—almost nothing, in fact—Qin Yun couldn't help but find the exchange enlightening. He now had a better grasp of this world, but most of it was still hidden in a veil of mystery.

The scale of it all was much more than he could accept at the moment. Even if he knew the full scope of it, there was probably nothing he could do. Until he earned the right to stand alongside them, it was perhaps best that he didn't probe any further, lest he earned her wrath. If she wished to rid herself of him, there would be nothing he could do.

"I'm surprised once again," the man said. "Aren't you going to be more persistent? I would if I were you."

“I told you, I’m old. I don’t need to know everything to know what I should do. The world is much simpler than some people would make it out to be, but riddle me this: How many?”

“How many?” the old man repeated, confused.

"How many were there before me?" Qin Yun asked, being deathly serious. "How many of them have reached this place before me? Surely, I can't be the first to be chosen. Which one am I?"

Upon hearing this, the old man’s smile grew even creepier.

First - Previous - Next