Chapter 84: The Creation of Non-Aggression

Above the vault of the sky, the Heavenly Pillar was rebuilt, only to collapse once more, again and again.

Towns upon the earth cycled between destruction and peace, and the silhouettes on the streets alternated between wholeness and fragmentation. Survival and annihilation played out in endless repetition; in the end, even time and the past itself became so hollow.

Ji Jue walked through these lingering records, looking around at the shattered remnants of old times, a dream of yellow millet that remained forever out of reach.

It seemed close at hand, yet impossible to touch.

All that one sought in a lifetime was nothingness.

Compared to the ruins of the past, which of these scenes was more cruel to Mercury?

Amidst the tolling of the cathedral bell, he stopped in the square, unwilling to look any longer. He felt that perhaps he already knew where Non-Aggression truly was.

The bell tolled, booming and echoing.

From within that towering clock tower...

Ji Jue silently raised his head, gazing in a trance at the clock face on the tower, and even at the mottled, ancient stained-glass window behind the hands.

Mercury’s old workshop.

Throughout the long four hundred years, she had stood there, gazing day after day, waiting and singing in solitude. What kind of scene was it that she had been longing for?

Guests in formal attire, wearing smiles, arrived from all directions; petals were scattered, white doves spread their wings and soared, and the laughing bride and groom, arm in arm, stepped to the sound of the bells toward the hall that would witness their wedding.

Hoping to start a brand-new life from that moment on.

Yet, ignorant and unaware, they walked toward a predetermined death.

Once, and then again.

As the "culprit" behind it all, would Mercury’s heart not be torn to shreds while gazing upon such a scene?

From a brief moment of trance, he suddenly remembered the words of the Great Master from his memories.

In the old workshop, that weary man gazed at his most cherished companion and asked a final question:

"Do you regret it?"

But there would never be an answer, and no one had the courage to give that reply.

"Time is short, Ji Jue," the Prophet asked. "What are you still waiting for?"

"I don't know."

Ji Jue shook his head, staring at the world before him that constantly collapsed, was destroyed, and returned to its state, but his gaze fell upon the steps of the cathedral.

Amidst the countless flickering phantoms, there was that lonely, tiny figure.

A glitch in the countless cycles of time.

The little girl sat on the steps, hugging her knees, staring blankly at the firmament, still waiting for the person who could never return to come back from afar.

Silent tears fell.

"What are you doing here?" Ji Jue bent down, sat beside her, studied her profile, and told her, "Don't run around; Grandma is waiting for you to come home."

She did not speak.

She only lowered her head and raised her hand to wipe away her tears, for a long time.

"Mom isn't coming back, is she?" the girl asked softly.

Ji Jue was silent, subconsciously raising his head to look at the firmament she was staring at.

Four hundred years ago, four hundred years later, the skies of the Central Lands and the Northern Lands, of the small town and Yacheng, seemed no different—equally empty.

"I don't know."

Ji Jue sighed, answering bluntly, "She must really want to come back."

"Just as you are missing her, she is missing you too. Always thinking of you, always, always... but she can't find the way home, lost in the direction."

"How do you know?"

The little girl glared at him, but could not hold back her tears, sobbing, "Mom doesn't want me anymore! She might have forgotten me a long time ago..."

"Of course I know."

Ji Jue answered decisively, telling her, "All good mothers are the same. I dream of her, every single night. Because when she is thinking of me, I am thinking of her too. When you shed tears, she will only be even sadder."

He reached out and pointed at the girl's cheek; the tears passed through his fingertips, leaving faint ripples, unable to be touched. Clearly close at hand, yet impossibly far away.

Until the tears gradually stopped, the girl stubbornly raised her hand, wiping them away again and again. Finally, with red eyes, she looked at him: "Can I see her again?"

"I don't know."

Ji Jue shook his head slowly. Facing that pair of eyes identical to his own, he could not lie, nor could he deceive himself.

"Perhaps, you will never see her again."

He turned back and asked, "Will you still miss her?"

"Mm."

In the silence, the dejected girl nodded, and Ji Jue smiled, "What a good child."

He stood up slowly and heard the sound behind him.

"What about you?" the girl looked at him. "Do you miss her too?"

"Of course."

Ji Jue nodded, answering without hesitation, "Just like you."

Amidst the blurred crowd, that tiny figure seemed to smile as well. Just like that, she waved at him and gradually disappeared.

Leaving only Ji Jue standing in the empty square. He looked back one last time, walking against the tolling of the bells toward the towering clock tower, and pushed open that dust-sealed door.

There were no blockers, nor were there the anticipated obstacles.

There was only a winding staircase in the falling dust, and even, a door left ajar.

It was as if everything remained exactly as it had been four hundred years ago.

Everything in the old workshop bathed quietly in the sunlight, witnessing the cycle of destruction and reconstruction, but in front of the window, that figure who seemed to stand there forever had already vanished.

Mercury was not here.

Within the entire Rift, whether underground or above, past or present, among all the characters, the only one missing was Mercury.

But at this moment, when Ji Jue stood in that position once again, what he saw was the exact same scenery that she had once seen.

Everything of rebirth and destruction, the collapsed and rebuilt cathedral, the cycle woven by survival and death.

Under the reflection of the collapsed Heavenly Pillar, everything was already destined.

The world was a battlefield for the Superior Beings, and history was the past woven by the tapestry. The life and death of mortals were not worth mentioning, and no one cared about the joys and sorrows of the dust.

Everything would eventually return to nothingness.

Perhaps this was destiny.

If, if all of this could be salvaged once more, even if only a little, even if it were only an insignificant fraction compared to what had been lost...

Ji Jue reached out his hand toward the world before him.

Just like Mercury once had.

"If the situation of the past and present were to repeat..."

Ji Jue asked solemnly, "Would you still respond to the same wish, Non-Aggression?"

In that instant, what lit up was the flash emerging from his wristwatch.

Like a silent call, after four hundred years, the power left behind by the Great Master reappeared from within the Rift, manifesting its brilliance once more toward the unreachable past.

And so, in the time of the old days, an unprecedented, intense upheaval appeared.

Just like the thunder after four hundred years.

Resounding through everything!

Bringing the endless cycle of time to an abrupt halt!

The firmament, the earth, the void—endless spiritual circuits appeared, enveloping everything, reaching everywhere. Like the complex threads from a loom, they intertwined, outlining the contours of the mortal world, evolving everything in existence.

Survival, death, struggle, peace, order, chaos, stars, earth, mountains, oceans...

Everything was there, covering all phenomena.

But in that instant, Ji Jue's perspective seemed to detach from himself, rising upward, toward the firmament, toward the higher place beyond the firmament, as if transcending all phenomena and destiny.

And so, at the end of the complex tapestry outlined by countless threads, he finally saw the origin and end of everything, the invisible hand that controlled all phenomena!

And now, the invisible hand had already gripped his arms.

Like a branding iron, it brought unprecedented, intense pain and burning, making Ji Jue unable to hold back a shout.

In that instant, endless changes of the Superior Beings appeared before his eyes, and an unprecedented qualitative change in spiritual quality erupted from within his soul.

It was as if a low voice sounded by his ear, turning into thunder and heavenly laws that shook the world, deeply imprinted into his soul, no longer allowing any deviation or wavering.

Telling him:

[The prosperity of all things is created by this hand]

[Everything in the world is formed by these ten fingers]

[Exorcise the roots of disaster, exterminate the seeds of oppression and trampling, so that this world may be peaceful and stable, with no more roots of cruel struggle—]

[--This is, the Creation of Non-Aggression!]

BOOM!!!

Amidst the illusory lightning that seemed to split the firmament and the earth, the time of the old days shook, unable to maintain itself. Endless spiritual circuits spread from the void, wrapping around Ji Jue's body, soul, and arms, as if burning, as if imprinting, carving the unavoidable iron law into his bones and soul.

Causing Ji Jue's eyes to erupt with fierce light!

When all the strange phenomena vanished, when the distant dream turned from the old days gradually dissipated, Ji Jue finally woke up from the endless pain and torment.

Staggering, he walked down the clock tower.

Just like that, smiling, he opened his arms to the companions who had been waiting for a long time, showing the complex totem extending from his fingertips to his elbows.

Like flames spreading, like the warp and weft of a loom, like encompassing all creation.

"This is, [Matrix: Non-Aggression]!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Continuous, massive roars came from afar, but they did not come only from within the dream; more of them were from outside this old time. Everything was shaking rapidly.

It was the Hub changing.

That inexplicable vibration and sense of weightlessness even made Ji Jue feel as if the Hub were rising from underground, upward...

Immediately after, in the next instant, they were ejected from the expanding old time.

Returning to reality.

But the deep well they had once entered had disappeared, replaced by a massive hall rapidly cracking apart, and even a violent sense of dizziness and weightlessness.

Ji Jue reached out and pressed his hand to the ground, repeating his old trick, feeling the massive rhythm originating from the workshop.

It was like a volcanic eruption.

The furnace was operating violently, spiritual quality flowing, merging into the workshop, causing the Hub to begin expanding and growing at a speed visible to the naked eye, even conversely devouring the external Rift.

The Hub was rising upward!

The earth cracked, collapsed, countless buildings turned into ruins, and the creations stored within fell amidst the collapse, deeply buried...

Everything seemed to be rapidly destroyed amidst the earth-shattering changes.

But this was not the end, but the beginning of another cruel cycle...

"The reboot is about to begin," the Prophet sighed lightly.

And then, he heard the whistling coming from afar.

A sharp, scarlet arrow suddenly stopped in mid-air, gripped by the youth in Xiao An's hand, unable to advance an inch. The youth, who had been silent for a long time, turned back, a sharp light appearing in his eyes.

Right at the end of the great hall, that line of disheveled figures.

At the lead, that face of near-manic anger stared at the group returning with a full load, his pupils gradually turning scarlet.

"Ji Jue—"

Lou Feng roared.

My physical condition has mostly recovered. Thank you all for waiting. I will strive to return to double updates tomorrow~