Chapter 244: Past Instance, Curtains Fall!

"In Hong Kong and Taiwan movies, there is a very philosophical famous quote: With a Gun in Hand, I am a God." Chen Ran said indifferently.

Hearing this, Diwu Zeyi didn't refute. Right now the spatial anchor point is only known by this Chen Ran. From a certain perspective, he is a God.

Since Chen Ran couldn't trick out Diwu Zeyi's lie, then what he has to do next is maximize benefits.

"In this Instance, I have received a lot of interfering information. There is some from you, there is some from The 9th True Self Player, and there is also the foreshadowing planted by Mei Zhixu long ago. To tell the truth, even if I leave the Instance alive, I still feel the road ahead is confusing. Three directions, I don't know which one I should choose?"

Hearing this.

Diwu Zeyi looked at him with sympathy.

'The Wrath of a Common Man Splatters Blood Five Steps.'

'But, when a common man increasingly understands the world's operational logic, he will feel his own insignificance, and also become increasingly timid.'

'When Chen Ran first came to Hell he was full of drive. But when he understood Hell's operational logic, he became confused, having a feeling that whether going up to heaven or down to earth, there was no longer a place for him to stay. This is a psychological change every Newbie will experience.'

"For example?" Chen Ran asked.

"Before dying, did you watch Shrimp-person animations?"

"I have."

Diwu Zeyi smiled: "Before dying, I also often watched Shrimp-person silly animations."

"This type of animation basically uses the Ming Dynasty as the story background, and even birthed the relatively famous Great Ming Funeral Dirge."

"These Shrimp-people utilize modern knowledge to change the Great Ming. For example, they would advocate for the Ming Dynasty to abolish the Maritime Ban. Standing from a historical perspective, do you think the Ming Dynasty should have abolished the Maritime Ban or not?"

"Should not." Chen Ran answered almost without thinking: "The Maritime Ban is the most important link of the Ming Dynasty's Tributary System. If the Maritime Ban is abolished, the Ming Dynasty's economic system would collapse instantly."

"Right ah." Diwu Zeyi very much agreed with Chen Ran's viewpoint: "If one has understood our country's minerals, they should know that our country lacks gold and silver mines. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, with the perfection of funeral processes, a massive amount of gold and silver was used as burial items and buried underground. The Ming Dynasty also didn't have enough gold and silver mines. Therefore, during the Ming Dynasty period, there was no right to mint coins. The domestic gold and silver were not enough, so they could only earn foreign ones, making foreign gold and silver flow into the Ming Dynasty."

"Thus, there was the Maritime Ban, forbidding the populace from conducting maritime trade. Although the Maritime Ban birthed many troubles, such as Wokou pirates, for the entire Tributary System, the Maritime Ban definitely had more advantages than disadvantages."

"The Tributary System was the hooking together of war and trade. The surrounding small countries, wanting to trade with the Ming Dynasty, must worship the Ming Dynasty as the suzerain state and conduct tributes, and the kings of the small countries also needed to obtain the Ming Dynasty's permission to ascend the throne."

"The Ming Dynasty's decline actually also had the factor of the Tributary System's collapse, which is that the surrounding small countries had other trade routes, thereby abandoning trade with the Ming Dynasty."

"We are people of later generations, so knowing this isn't strange. But standing from the Ming Dynasty's perspective, standing from the perspective of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, facing the problem of having no right to mint coins, why were they able to think of this method to break the situation? This is the question you should ponder."

"'Guanzi: State Accumulation'?" Chen Ran asked uncertainly: "As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, in Guanzi's State Accumulation, it mentioned controlling the State Resource Monopoly to fight trade wars."

"I'm only providing trains of thought." Diwu Zeyi didn't answer his question: "The second train of thought is Wu Zetian."

"Standing from the perspective of people of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian should not have proclaimed herself emperor. After all, powerful empresses of the caliber of Lü Zhi and Dou Yifang didn't choose to proclaim themselves emperor, which already explains the problem."

Chen Ran nodded: "Not bad. The biggest problem a woman proclaiming herself emperor faces is the choice of the successor. Choose from the husband's family, or choose from the maiden family. Taking Wu Zetian for example, if the throne is passed to the Li family, why did she proclaim herself emperor? Isn't it doing something superfluous? If the throne is passed to the Wu family, it's equivalent to usurping the throne and changing the dynasty. Domestic forces would reshuffle. Those loyal to Li Tang, or domestic nobles, would all disagree. If she dared to establish someone from the Wu family as crown prince, these forces would immediately rebel and restore the Li Tang realm."

"Moreover, because both those surnamed Li and those surnamed Wu could fight for the throne, this led to neither family being of one heart with Wu Zetian."

"In other words, starting from the moment Wu Zetian proclaimed herself emperor, her greatest reliance, or rather the force behind her, instantly crumbled and fell apart. It can be called abolishing one's own martial arts."

Diwu Zeyi nodded: "Logically speaking, after Wu Zetian proclaimed herself emperor, she would become a Puppet emperor, but she stabilized it."

"This is very easy to explain. Through wantonly appointing male favorites, Wu Zetian rebuilt the maternal relatives system. Otherwise, a female politician of her caliber, not to say her heart is still like water, but at least she would be pure in heart and have few desires. How could she possibly wantonly collect male favorites just because of that little bit of desire between men and women?"

"Right ah." Diwu Zeyi took a drag of his Cigarette and continued: "She utilized male favorites to rebuild the maternal relatives system. In the later Shenlong Coup, Zhang Jianzhi's target was also very clear: kill Wu Zetian's two most heavily utilized male favorites, and directly begin to force the emperor to abdicate. Wu Zetian had absolutely no leeway to resist."

"We are subjected to malicious smearing from the West, saying we have no faith. What's even more interesting is that most of us also think we have no faith. But actually..."

"We have faith!"

"Human determination can overcome heaven! This is the faith carved in our genes!"

"You think that the several roads you can walk are all dead ends, but actually the several roads you can walk are all roads of survival. Don't be interfered with by these surface-level pieces of information. Randomly choose one among these several roads, walk out a road that belongs to you yourself, and firmly walk down it."

Hearing this, Chen Ran slowly closed his eyes, feeling the impact brought by these words.

'Insight of Thought, Insight of Prudence, Insight of Patience, Insight of Change, I have grasped them all. But I seem to have always lacked one thing, or one kind of thought.'

'This is what led to Diwu Zeyi understanding the logic here, while I didn't.'

'I should have understood the logic here. But previously, why was I interfered with by these messy pieces of information?'

'It's my heart not being firm enough, leading to me not believing these things I could think of.'

'Therefore, the Id actually views the entire world with extreme subjectivity.'

'If I live the world exists, if I die the world perishes. The world exists because of me.'

'Therefore, the so-called Id suppressing emotions, is precisely using absolute subjectivity to ponder all logical problems?'

In continuous pondering, Chen Ran's Mental State gradually underwent changes. This change was also felt by Diwu Zeyi.

'This guy...'

'However, fortunately, he is not the Chen Ran within my space...'

Not knowing how long had passed, Chen Ran gradually opened his eyes. At this moment, he had already stepped half a foot into the Mental State of the First Realm of Lingtai. But he still generally felt he lacked a bit of something. Or perhaps to say, he still lacked something in his psychological construction.

"Many thanks." Chen Ran said solemnly.

The three Chen Rans. The wise, aloof, and extremely arrogant Chen Ran, and the insidious, crafty, and calculating Chen Ran, had both successively stepped half a foot into Heart Cultivation. Only the cautious Chen Ran, which is the true Chen Ran, was still stepping in place.

This is perhaps the Butterfly Effect. Miss by a hairsbreadth, err by a thousand miles.

But, A Blessing in Disguise?

Sometimes, controlling the Id too early is actually also not a good thing. Perhaps the logic understood only after experiencing the wind and frost will make a person's Mental State even more solid and firm.

...

Having obtained what he wanted to obtain, Chen Ran also no longer acted hypocritically. In The Tunnel, using Gao Sheng's blood, he left a line of words: Observe the corpse's fingers. The direction the right thumb is pointing towards is the location where the corpse initially died.

With this left message, as long as the players in the other spaces see it, they can judge which space they themselves belong to based on the information obtained previously. The six people can then return to the space they belong to.

At the same time, Chen Ran also continuously underwent spatial transmissions, leaving the same information in all three spaces.

After another period of time passed.

Chen Ran and Diwu Zeyi were once again transmitted into The Tunnel. This time...

The heavy fog in The Tunnel disappeared. It also meant they cleared this Secret Room.

At the same time, the subway of this line could pass through normally. Moreover, the players on the past timeline had all died, and they could also return to the normal timeline...

To carry out the final showdown!

On the return train, Chen Ran sat on the right side, and Diwu Zeyi sat on the left side.

The two were both resting with their eyes closed.

When the train arrived at the station, they simultaneously opened their eyes. In their eyes, there was no longer the previous kind of laziness akin to clocking in for work. Simply because they knew that in the Past Instance, no one could kill anyone. But next, returning to the normal Instance, only one of them could live.

Both of their eyes revealed a kind of desperate gleam, it was that kind of ruthless vigor of having no way of retreat and definitely killing the other party.

"You left Qiu Yinong and the BOSS in the Instance on the normal timeline. I'm very curious, what kind of Unknown Lie will appear next?" Diwu Zeyi said coldly.