Chapter 342: Chapter 291: Another World
To the Yin people, the world is the world.
The world is everything before their eyes, the places they can walk to, they can see. This is true not only for the Yin people, but also for later Chu, Yu, and Chen people. Their concept of the strong is to ascend to the sky and become Immortals, their concept of death is to be buried underground and return to the earth, and even their understanding of ghosts is merely that lingering grievances keep them in the world until the grievances dissipate and they return to the heavens and the earth.
In general, everyone thinks that the world should be this way. The place they inhabit is the world itself.
This is evident in their choice of words: "the world", "under the heavens" — could there possibly be any place in this world not beneath this sky?
"Yes, there really might be."
Du Chengfeng raised a finger.
"Is there really only one world, or rather, only one universe?"
"If not, what else?"
The three Wu Zhaos looked utterly puzzled.
"The world is the world. How could there be two?"
"This..."
Du Chengfeng suddenly realized that something seemed amiss.
To him, the idea of multiple worlds was not difficult to grasp. After all, with his extensive reading of various works, he had pondered countless concepts like multidimensional worlds and multiverses, even more so considering that he could not strictly be considered a native of this world himself. But for the Wu Zhaos, such a concept was exceedingly hard to understand.
It was like the famous story of blind people touching an elephant; if they had never seen an elephant or even heard of one, how could they possibly have any concept of what an elephant was?
It was the same for the Wu Zhaos.
Even if they had once fought to the ends of the earth, once ruled over the whole world, the worldviews and comprehension of these Yin people inevitably had their limitations.
So there lay the problem.
How does one make a person who has never heard of elephants understand what an elephant is like?
"Hold on, let me sort it out for you."
Seeing that this exploration was veering into a chicken-and-duck talk, Du Chengfeng began scratching his head.
"Just, well, this... Oh right, you can try thinking of it this way."
After pondering for a moment, Du Chengfeng made his attempt.
"Look, the current world, compared to the world you once knew, hasn’t it changed?"
"It has indeed become very different."
The Wu Zhaos nodded.
"After all, so much time has passed that it’s normal for changes to occur... This is the work of time, right? The world itself just became different."
"Then think about it, is there a possibility."
Du Chengfeng attempted to explain this difficult concept.
"You’ve seen the situation with Forget Sorrow Village, right? A mysteriously emerging Peach Blossom Village pressed above it. If we hadn’t come out to explore, perhaps after a while, no one would remember Forget Sorrow Village, and it would have been completely covered..."
"You are trying to say that our Yin people’s world was overlaid by a new world, a world without the Yin people."
Da Lang Wu Zhao furrowed his brow.
"Like Forget Sorrow Village, the villagers can still live in Forget Sorrow Village, but the outsiders can only find Peach Blossom Village. After coming out, the people inside can only stay in Peach Blossom Village without returning... My reason for coming out to see this time was also because of this. Is this what you meant by two worlds?"
"Ah, yes! That’s it!"
Du Chengfeng let out a breath of relief.
Thankfully, there was no misunderstanding between them, and they reached a consensus. Otherwise, Du Chengfeng didn’t dare imagine what might have happened if they had gone astray in understanding this matter.
After all, in this crazy Idealist World, thoughts could become reality.
"World, there is a boundary between worlds."
As he said this, the Yellow Dog Wu Zhao picked up that staff.
"And following this thought, the origins of those Yi people become more understandable... Perhaps in our Yin people’s world, there are no Yi people, but on this overlaid level, there are these foreign tribes."
"Not necessarily, these Yi people could even be simply from another...world, to use your term, from another world."
Da Lang Wu Zhao took the staff.
"The will engraved on it is very clear, just like your blade is more inclined to burn and kill the enemy, the function of this staff is clearly to separate something."
As he spoke, Da Lang Wu Zhao swung the staff at the Yellow Dog Wu Zhao, who did not expect to be attacked himself and was immediately cut into two.
A wooden staff without a point or edge being capable of such sharp cutting was already considered impressive—but merely impressive. Perhaps in the hands of mortal men, it would be a highly disguised Divine Weapon, but to masters, this simple cutting attribute is just so; anyone reaching the peak of this world, like Du Chengfeng and the Wu Zhous, as well as the nameless giant, could easily evade such attacks.
"So this thing is likely not for combat, but for separating something..."
Thinking thus, Da Lang Wu Zhao looked back at Du Chengfeng.
"What if I knock on your house door with this thing at midnight?"
"Don’t mention it, that would be disgusting."
Du Chengfeng immediately understood Da Lang Wu Zhao’s meaning.
This staff might not be best suited for fighting people, but it was superb for making a path; humans can dodge and evade, but dead objects like a door lock cannot. A thing that could be considered a Divine Weapon used as a key would render even the sturdiest doors useless.
And it also aligned exactly with what those Yi people said.
According to those Yi people, their ancestors once used this staff...the original item, to perform great feats, separating the sea, leading those who were still slaves at that time away from a cruel kingdom. After that, the Yi people planted the original staff and would only take a branch each time to make a new staff.
Precisely because of this, this replicated staff could split mountains and waters, truly an essential item for both home and travel.
If Du Chengfeng had mentioned these things beforehand, Da Lang Wu Zhao’s supposition might have seemed isolated. But since he hadn’t brought it up yet, and the other deduced all this, it suggests that this idea might indeed be reliable.
"So... should we give it a try?"
Da Lang Wu Zhao raised the staff again.
The simple action made Du Chengfeng’s hair stand on end.
"No, what do you plan to do?"
Du Chengfeng sensed something off; his intuition told him this crazy Yin person was probably going to make a bloody move.
"You wouldn’t..."
"In a rare opportunity where the ghost in one’s heart can be better utilized, and now with this thing in hand, how could we not try it?"
Saying this, Da Lang Wu Zhao swung the staff down towards the empty space before him.
"Open."
Comments