Chapter 329: Between Cause and Effect

For a long while, Luo Qi sat blankly in the tree, until the scorching sun shone down on his head, baking the top of his skull until it was burning hot.

The future he had struggled so hard to choose, his father had known about all along. So, even though he had never amounted to much, his father was never nervous, nor was he angry, because he was extremely confident—did he know his son was destined to amaze the world in the future?

This was a bit too ridiculous. But Luo Qi couldn't laugh; he remained somewhat dazed. For a moment, he even foolishly thought—he really couldn't help it—that he wanted to go and discuss it with Du Zhengyi. As a result, he couldn't help but actually laugh out loud. How did he intend to tell Du Zhengyi? "Hey, brother, I want to go to Gushan to explore the secrets of immortality or rebirth, and my dad seems to know about it, so I'm under a lot of pressure right now. What do you think I should do?"

In fact, he should thank the heavens that the person who knew about this future was his own father, and not someone else. Not the Qionglin, and not Pei Shu, which was why he was able to live until today.

Only now did he understand why his parents had wanted to castrate his abilities without the slightest hesitation.

When he was locked up in the Qionglin, his parents hadn't shown much heartache for him, and he had never been able to accept that. This matter had been even more painful for him than his parents sealing away his Telepathy. For such a long time, he had felt that no one in this world cared about him. But thinking about it now, if his parents had known all along that he would one day end up in prison and had been living in fear for twenty years, then his actual arrival in the depths of the Qionglin was, for his parents, merely the other shoe finally dropping. He didn't know how they had judged the situation at the time; when the news arrived, they might have thought their son had truly already raided Gushan once...

That was why they had remained still, without being emotionally agitated like ordinary parents. Because their son was simply not innocent. But to be labeled as guilty for something that hadn't happened yet—Luo Qi truly didn't know what to do. It was no wonder that after learning it had been a false alarm, his parents had been almost frantic in their desire to bring him home, to re-castrate his abilities, and had even taken the stance of wanting to lock him up.

This matter had also drawn a deep rift between him and his parents, and he felt somewhat guilty. Under the impression that he would die for him, his father's final words to his mother had been that all their efforts to stop him had failed, and from then on, she could only choose to help their lawless, reckless son.

Luo Qi lowered his head, curled up his legs, hugged his knees, and buried his face deep away. At this moment, he truly missed his parents. In this whole affair, there was no right or wrong, only helplessness.

But in the final analysis, why he had made such a choice was quite interesting. His parents had known the outcome, so they had tried desperately to stop him, to a point that seemed completely unreasonable and insane. Yet, this outcome had led to the cause of the outcome.

Because of his parents' actions, he had fallen into a complete predicament. The justice-filled Du Zhengyi had stood up for him, taken him in, given him the support and trust he needed, and bestowed upon him the purest loyalty and friendship in this world. His world had been rebuilt because of Du Zhengyi. He couldn't bring himself to betray Du Zhengyi either. If he knew for a fact that there was a way in this world to let Du Zhengyi live, yet he turned a blind eye and hypocritically chose to respect Du Zhengyi's creed, then how would he face himself in the future? Whether he lived for one day or lived as long as an immortal, he would never forgive himself for watching his friend die.

The fruit had turned into the cause, and the cause had turned into the fruit.

He remembered when he first sat at a table with Du Zhengyi, he had asked Du Zhengyi if the future could be predicted, and Du Zhengyi had expressed a deep hatred for Prediction. Now he understood that most of the time, Du Zhengyi was right, because his worldview was simple and practical.

Luo Qi sat alone in the tree for a long time. He was grateful for the choices his parents had made, even though he had indeed walked a difficult path. But knowing all this, he still wouldn't change anything. His path lay ahead, and no matter how many broad avenues others thought he could take, his eyes saw only that one.

Now he couldn't return to his parents' side, nor could he tell his friends the truth; it was as if he had secrets from everyone. This was a strange sense of loneliness. He couldn't ask anyone for their opinion or ask them to offer ideas. Anyone who liked him, or didn't like him, would unanimously try to stop him. Unknowingly, he realized that he had stepped onto a lonely path; he couldn't rely on anyone. He couldn't ask others if he was right or wrong; he could only be confident. He couldn't hope for others to understand him, because it was mostly impossible for them to do so.

Just then, Luo Qi suddenly thought of one thing: it wasn't that no one was helping him. In fact, someone was helping him, and had helped him a great deal. If he forgot this person's help, he would truly be a bastard.

This person was the girl who had walked into the Ancient Town.

She had clearly known everything; she had known what would happen in the future, and she had used her life as the price to help him. He didn't know what virtue or ability he possessed to owe someone such a great debt.

Suddenly, his heart was filled with anger. It was a young girl's life, and they had just killed her like that.

Luo Qi forced himself to calm down. He gradually realized that he had never thought about this matter from today's perspective. Why had she come to the Ancient Town? To help them, of course, but Luo Qi had never thought that she was changing a future. Just as his father was also trying his best to change the future, she must also have been trying her best to change a certain future.

In fact, Luo Qi could think about it in reverse: if she hadn't appeared, what exactly would that future have been like?

If she hadn't appeared, there was no doubt that Luo Qi would still have had a high probability of not dying. Because Du Zhengyi would have unleashed his true power, and the result would have been perishing together with the Alien creature. But Mahjong and Guan Xinyue had almost no ability to protect themselves; even with Du Zhengyi's protection, the probability of their deaths would have been quite high.

Then, after the battle of the Ancient Town, Luo Qi might have been the only survivor.

What would he have done?

Luo Qi stumped himself; he didn't know what he would have done. He might have gone to find the mastermind behind the scenes, but the mastermind was his own father; perhaps all he could have done was to never have contact with his father again for the rest of his life—he couldn't exactly commit patricide, could he? He could only be miserable for the rest of his life, cynical and bitter. He estimated he wouldn't have just let it go at that; he would have gone to find the mastermind behind the mastermind, to find the person who had facilitated all of this, to find the person who had severely wounded Du Zhengyi back then, the one who had caused Du Zhengyi to be unable to escape death in this battle.

He would have found his way to Clownfish...

Luo Qi was a bit confused; he was not a match for Clownfish at all. In that future, his greatest possibility would have been being killed by Clownfish. Unless, within the love-hate entanglements of those few idiots, even larger events had been set in motion—that was not something the him of today could imagine.