Chapter 382: The Sun Shines Upon Itself!

【The advice transmitted by the monkey left you, who originally harbored fervent enthusiasm and believed your future was bright, suddenly plunged into silence…】

【"I……"】

【You opened your mouth and, with a tumult of complex feelings, asked your own question: Why?】

【You don't understand what's wrong with your achievements now; according to your plan, you clearly found a retreat—as long as mortals can fend for themselves, even if no perfect way to clear the game is found, it's enough to create an acceptable ending… So where exactly is the problem?】

【"The Patriarch said."】

【The monkey saw your dispirited state, paused its tone to avoid upsetting you, and said: "This is because only the Primordial Wilderness is real; anything contrary to it is naturally false."】

【"In the Primordial Wilderness, the sun is the essence formed from Pangu's left eye, while the sun you have put on, benefactor, is a monstrous thing devoid of divine power and Dao law… It severely contradicts the Primordial Wilderness, making it the most false of products!"】

【False?】

【"Is anything contrary to the Primordial Wilderness therefore false?"】

【You furrowed your brow: "It's a genuine thing I obtained from beyond the realm…… It cannot possibly be false!"】

【On this point you are very confident: this new sun constantly spewing light and heat has its structural theory from the world of "another self," making it truly real—indeed, even more real than the Primordial Wilderness!】

【How could this possibly be false!】

【But the monkey's reply plunged you into thought: "I understand your reasoning, benefactor, but the dream world ultimately stems from a dream of the Primordial Wilderness sage, so its truthfulness is measured against the Primordial Wilderness—the more it resembles it, the truer it is; the less, the falser… This will not change."】

【"Now, benefactor, by bringing the outside realm's Great Dao to the dream world's beings, you make the dream increasingly unlike the Primordial Wilderness, the divergence growing until it has nothing in common with it!"】

【"By then, even if the dream world divergent from the Primordial Wilderness could still exist, the Patriarch's wondrous cultivation methods would be utterly ineffective……"】

【The monkey explained helplessly.】

【"It's just changing one sun—how could that be so terrifying!"】

【You gritted your teeth; although you also agreed with the monkey's true‑false theory, you still refused to believe, or even want to believe, that a mere change of the sun could cause such a huge impact!】

【But the monkey shook its head: "Not just the sun… You teach the beings that the sun is merely ordinary matter, which of course counts for nothing."】

【"Yet the so‑called 'Elements' course you lecture them on is disastrously harmful, enough to shake the world's foundations!"】

【"You say heaven and earth are composed of various elements and detail their specific natures and structures; when the beings all believe this, heaven and earth truly become so…… but the dream world was never made of elements to begin with……"】

【It sighed: "What you're doing is no less than a total overhaul of heaven and earth… Changing the sun and moon is merely foreplay; someday, if the beings unite in purpose, they might truly remake heaven and earth!"】

【"You are truly driving the beings to dare call for the sun and moon to be exchanged for a new heaven……"】

【Upon hearing this, you blinked and said: "You didn't say before that only the two sun‑and‑moon patches formed of divine power could be altered by the beings' thought power? How come you now say the whole heaven and earth will be changed?"】

【These contradictory statements, aren't they?】

【The monkey spread its hands, quite helpless: "The sun and moon are indeed divine‑power patches, but heaven and earth themselves are not truly material… After all, this is a dream, so everything in the dream is constituted by the sage's will."】

【"In essence, heaven and earth are a gigantic divine‑power construct… Previously, beings' thought power could only affect the patches, but after you thoroughly shake the world's foundations, their authority approaches that of the original Patriarch without limit, so their thought power can naturally influence everything between heaven and earth……"】

【"If enough people gather, then 'words become law, mind triumphs over matter' will no longer be empty talk."】

【"In other words, as continuations of the sage's will, the beings have reclaimed the power and authority rightfully theirs, able to rewrite the world at will just like the sage!"】

【This barrage of thunder‑like information blasted you, leaving you dazed for a long time.】

【But the monkey didn't stop; worried, it conveyed to you the most fatal piece of news……】

【"The most crucial point, benefactor……"】

【It lamented: "When the beings truly use thought to change the present dream world into a material one, and the world is left with not a trace of divine power, then myths and legends will all fade away."】

【"People will no longer be able to offer incense, cultivators will no longer become gods, and even true gods will no longer be immortal… By then, you will truly die of old age!"】

【"And once you die, the Primordial Wilderness and the dream world will naturally face destruction as well……"】

【It pleaded.】

【"Benefactor, save the Primordial Wilderness! Save the dream world! Save the beings! Save yourself……"】

【……】

【You, plunged into an unprecedented bewilderment.】

【"Am I destroying heaven and earth?"】

【You muttered to yourself.】

【You certainly don't want to believe these, yet the Bodhi Old Ancestor's words relayed by the monkey are clear‑cut and stand up to scrutiny.】

【If you truly continue with the original plan, these problems and speculations will sooner or later become reality, laid coldly before you!】

【So…… should you continue?】

【Your bewildered heart finds no answer……】

【Ding! Faced with this chilling, terrifying future, you have fallen into a difficulty and struggle unprecedented in three lifetimes…… How to choose? If you choose to keep advancing, you will die; if you choose to halt at the brink, you will still die; and your death is not just your own affair, but a major event for the whole world.】【Standing at this juncture, you see no path ahead, no retreat behind, no direction left, right, up, or down that holds any light…… Torn in your dilemma, you ultimately entrust this crucial decision to the hands of 'another self'.】

【In silence you steeled yourself to accept whatever comes, no matter how "another self" chooses—you will accept it…… and can only accept it.】

【After all, you know full well that even Zhao Si could not possibly offer you any constructive proposal; there are only two paths, both leading to death, and handing over the authority to decide death to him is your evasion, indeed your cowardice……】

【Your choice: (?) Please answer freely!】

【Left or right, a choice of certain death, you ask me?】

【Zhao Si stared blankly:】

【"This…… what should we do?"】

【Lin Liu's this evasive‑reality question also left Zhao Si at a loss for what to do.】

【What else can be done? No matter which way you go, it's a dead end! "Continuing to push the dream world's materialization will only diverge further from the Primordial Wilderness's basic setting, making it ever more false, so there's no longer any chance of turning the false into the true and transcending to the Primordial Wilderness…… What's worse, a purely material world devoid of divine power will have no immortality, and Lin Liu cannot escape mortality……"】

【"But if we halt the materialization of heaven and earth, there remains no possibility of communication between the dream world and the Primordial Wilderness, and Lin Liu being stuck however long is useless…… Moreover, actively denying materialization is tantamount to driving in reverse; eventually even reliable solar power cannot be provided, and humanity's self‑reliance is out of the question……"】

【Such a hellish trajectory, it's no wonder Lin Liu would choose to evade.】

【"If you can't make up your mind, let me decide…… alright?"】

【Zhao Si muttered a few words, then began to think of a strategy—after all, he's not the party involved; no matter what choice he makes or what result he gets, this gamer player will suffer no substantive loss.】

【However, Zhao Si did still care somewhat about the simulated protagonist's mental and physical health, intending to give him, as much as possible, a more acceptable strategy:】

【"First, now is the moment when the arrow is nocked and must be released; all prior efforts have only earned us the present material sun. If we choose to go in reverse, without even mentioning the wasted time and energy, just figuring out how to reverse is already a major problem!"】

The Sun has been materialized, the Sun God was slain by Pangu's divine power, not a trace of divine power remains; wanting to put the car in reverse is utterly impossible.

Besides, even if Lin Liu managed to put the car in reverse, what then? Without a stable material sun, would the future just repeat the same mistake, trying to build a god‑way civilization?

Finally, if Lin Liu were to put the car in reverse, how would he explain this to others? Claim he'd been deceiving everyone before? Say that the idea that the world is made of elements is just a scam? Say that from now on everyone should just keep living in ancient low‑productivity ways?

If Lin Liu really did that, Li Ziliang, who'd worked in vain, would surely turn against him; the billions of commoners who'd wasted generations and centuries of effort would also denounce him as a complete fool, and no amount of favor could keep their loyalty…

"So, we absolutely cannot put the car in reverse!"

Zhao Si furrowed his brow: "But there's no road left to move forward either……"

If we keep moving forward, isn't the future still just death?

Zhao Si pondered long and hard, then suddenly shuddered: "No…… this problem is wrong!"

It's such a simple truth—could Lin Liu really not grasp it?

Following this line of thought, Zhao Si gradually came to realize:

"Lin Liu's question isn't really directed at me…… he already has his own answer in his heart!"

Any choice in this situation leads to death; given Lin Liu's years of experience and decisiveness, there's really nothing to choose from:

Compared to putting the car in reverse and ending up disgraced and alienated, only to die later, Lin Liu would surely prefer to die in a blaze of glory.

Moreover, he's faced death many times already—being afraid of it now makes no sense.

"Moreover, in the description of this issue, Lin Liu's attitude is described as 'avoidance,' not confusion……"

He isn't hesitant out of confusion; he's merely avoiding, and that avoidance proves he actually does have an answer in his heart—he just doesn't dare to choose or face it.

Thus he handed the decision over to others……

"So what I should do isn't help him choose, but give him the courage to choose for himself……"

A student stuck on a multiple‑choice question in an exam often doesn't lack the answer; he simply lacks the courage to stick with the choice he's already made, keeps changing left and right, making it more and more hollow, and ends up abandoning his original answer.

When the test papers are handed back, the answer to that question turns out to be exactly his original choice……

Zhao Si seemed to grasp something: "Then I think I know how to write the answer for him."

"Tell him, the Enlightenment Old Ancestor means nothing before me; all his words are meaningless to me, so I am the solid backing for his Lin Lao Liu!"

"Moreover, just as you've always wanted the commoners under your rule to leave the gods' embrace and walk an independent, self‑reliant path, now I too want you to walk an independent road."

"You say there's no eternal sun; after you're gone, everyone is their own sun—this principle applies equally between you and me, so you don't need to constantly seek my opinion, for you too are your own sun."

"You once illuminated the way forward for countless people as the Sun; now you should also light this path for yourself, this road you've already chosen!"

"You believe in me, and I believe in you…… besides, no matter what choice you make or what results it brings, I can let you start over, so don't fear taking a wrong turn."

"A sun that has spent a lifetime shining for others and pointing the way—now it's time to shine for itself!"

……

(End of Chapter)