After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 109.2

Xiu Si raised his eyes, silently gazing at the white tower.

It had no door visible to the naked eye, so— he should use his mind’s eye to sense it.

Therefore, Xiu Si closed his eyes, moving forward while feeling with his hands, like a blind person touching an elephant.

Again, he didn’t know how long he had been searching, maybe one or two days, maybe one or two months.

His sense of time had been infinitely weakened during those eight thousand years, often feeling like he would close his eyes and day would turn to night, and a day had passed.

If there was no day and night, and the sleep process in between, time for him would probably be like a long tunnel without an end in sight. And life would be an endless falling.

After closing his eyes, the only thing that had let him measure time – day and night – disappeared. That feeling of falling became even stronger.

Looking back, his life had truly been repeatedly encountering falls – that time of crossing over, that time of parting with friends, that time of parting with the cubs.

What would happen if he went with the flow, letting “gravity” envelop him? The answer didn’t need thinking about – either he would lose his life, or lose himself. So he couldn’t fall, he had to lift his head, had to look up.

He had to find a place to rest, a lifeline to grab, even if what was above wasn’t the path to salvation, he still had to pursue upward.

Only by maintaining firm beliefs and keeping calm could he see the light.

As Xiu Si pondered in his mind, his determination grew stronger. Then, he really felt what seemed to be the outline of a door.

Xiu Si stopped his steps, opened his eyes, and looked again. Before him was a brilliant golden light, the door opened naturally, and the scene gradually appeared.

Inside the tower were endless books, vast and countless, making one’s eyes dizzy.

Looking up, the floors connected one after another, like a thousand-layer cake. Standing at his position, he couldn’t see the highest level at all.

So he walked in, his steps slow, already intentionally lowering his volume to minimize noise, yet still inevitably making some sound.

He had disturbed what should have been a quiet place, which gave him more or less a sense of guilt.

He had to quicken his pace, walking towards that cluster of light. Finally arriving there, he stopped his steps, eyes widening, because he saw countless people, all with equally blurred faces – some were reading, some were looking for books, some were deep in thought, as if studying the mysteries of the world.

Xiu Si froze, feeling a sense of bewilderment, not knowing what to do next.

And at this moment, a gentle voice sounded.

“Do you have any troubles?”

It was a man’s voice, steady and mysterious.

Xiu Si turned his head in response, looking at the person beside him.

The other person was about three steps away, with an equally blurred face, even his eyes couldn’t be seen, but through the blur, a smile appeared on his face. Xiu Si felt it was an extremely beautiful face, but it was too blurred to see clearly.

“Is something wrong?”

Seeing him not speaking, the other person asked again with concern, his tone carrying worry yet remaining very polite, without any hint of overstepping.

Faced with the only person he could communicate with, Xiu Si naturally chose to communicate, and said what first came to his mind.

“Excuse me, are there… books about creation here?”

Xiu Si looked at the other person, trying his best to appear as if he was making eye contact.

The man heard his words and answered calmly, “Yes, would you like me to take you to see them?”

Xiu Si nodded, “Thank you for your trouble.”

In dreams, everything seemed natural, so he didn’t question why the other person was so kind to him.

The other person also didn’t say much, as if they both understood. He turned and walked in front, leading Xiu Si step by step to the upper floors, then guided Xiu Si to sit by the window, while he went to find those books about creation.

Xiu Si sat down, placing both hands on the table, his thoughts seemingly scattered on the water’s surface, some ideas suddenly emerging, and he naturally accepted them, now realizing in hindsight, he couldn’t help but ask himself.

“Why did I come here to read books?” For learning, yes.

He blinked, looking down. And before long, the man came back carrying some books, placing them one by one on his table, while introducing their titles, being very thoughtful and attentive.

“…”

Xiu Si seemed to naturally accept the man’s service, receiving the books handed to him one after another.

And as he looked through them, he suddenly felt amazed in his heart – were there really so many books about creation in this world? Why had his system never shown this knowledge, and in the outside world, not even one book could be found.

“These books…”

Xiu Si couldn’t help speaking out.

The man paused his movements, asking with concern. “What about these books? Are they not right?”

Hearing this, Xiu Si stopped his thoughts, looked up at the other person, and said apologetically. “I’m sorry, thank you very much for helping me find them, I was just talking to myself just now.”

The man responded considerately. “It’s alright, I often talk to myself too, becoming immersed in my own world, forgetting about things outside.”

“Is that so?”

Xiu Si couldn’t help but smile, asking curiously: “Wouldn’t that cause a lot of troubles?”

The man nodded, his gaze falling, “It’s not troublesome for me, but it troubles my family, they often say I speak in riddles, so it became my trouble after all.”

“Family…”

Xiu Si felt deeply moved by this word.

But the other person changed the topic, saying gently, “Are you ready to read?”

Xiu Si came back to his senses, his gaze sweeping across the books, nodding. “Yes, I came here to learn.”

The man lifted his eyes, asking, “To learn about creation?”

Xiu Si nodded again. “Yes, does that sound strange?”

“Not strange at all, creation is a great thing, how could it be strange?”

The man was understanding and reasonable, speaking in a normal tone, as if discussing something completely ordinary.

“Creation… great…”

Xiu Si paused, couldn’t help but recall how the cubs also loved to say things like great father, beloved father, and so on. He often felt embarrassed hearing it, but couldn’t bring himself to stop Them, and besides, how could he? The cubs were innocent and romantic, whatever They said was adorable.

How could you discipline Them and affect Their natural development?

While thinking, Xiu Si’s lips curved slightly upward, his eyes filled with gentleness, as if remembering something beautiful.

After a while, he lifted his head, saying firmly, “Yes, so I will study hard to become a better creator.”

The man seemed stunned by his words, and only smiled slightly after a few seconds, saying, “You will.”

“Thank you.”

Several minutes later, Xiu Si immersed himself in the books about creation.

He clearly knew this was a dream, so regardless of whether this knowledge was true or false, he felt he must quickly learn it all, lest he wake up and lose this opportunity.

He opened the book with an anxious heart. At first, he was confused, not understanding what it was talking about, but after countless sunsets outside, he gradually began to understand some of it, about the rules of how the world operates and the beauty of order contained within.

Few people feel that the “world” is beautiful, this requires first viewing the “world” as a whole, as an object of aesthetic appreciation.

The prerequisite for taking this further step is to first fully recognize the world.

Because all judgments, all assessments, have no meaning before thoroughly understanding the object.

These books, rather than teaching him how to create, were telling him about the mysteries of the world.

On an extremely macroscopic level, they told him about the operation of planets, the birth and death of star regions, and the laws and order involved.

Without order there is chaos, and chaos cannot give birth to anything, it only constantly leads to world instability, making people fearful and uneasy.

But order gives people peace of mind.

It is stable, unchanging, gentle, peaceful. It is a collection of beauty, or rather, it is what gave birth to that beauty.

It is the prerequisite for all beauty.

Creation, in some sense, is precisely creating a kind of order. Creating worlds is the same.

Only orderly stable things won’t break, the more stable the longer lasting, existing forever.

Then in what aspects is the order of things manifested?

Perhaps it’s — structure.

If something breaks easily, the primary responsibility probably lies in its structure, followed by its content.

When you set up the structure of something well, sometimes it can exist for a long time even without content.

Xiu Si analyzed while reading the books, and the more he read, the more enlightened he felt, as if his originally narrow thoughts were continuously being opened up, clearing away the fog, suddenly becoming clear.

He pondered in his heart. “But structure cannot be without content, even if a structure without content is stable, it remains unchanging, lifeless.”

“It needs content, needs vitality, only with content, only by filling it with momentum, can the structure transcend its basic existence, have life, possess consciousness, grow and then evolve.”

“What is evolution, actually? Fundamentally, isn’t it a kind of structural improvement?”

After life is born, it must still have the freedom to improve its structure, and this freedom must always be traced back to the initial structure.

Regarding this, Xiu Si thought of a very fitting Blue Star concept — genetic defects.

If that creation’s structure isn’t good, there will be many genetic defects, leading to inability to grow smoothly, or even premature death.

So as a creator, you must be cautious and careful, putting your heart and soul into every creation, you cannot be careless.

Although many times, you think you’ve done well, seeing no defects, yet many years later, those defects reveal themselves one by one.

Things don’t always go as planned, not everything can be achieved perfectly as wished.

You cannot create things beyond your own understanding.

When you yourself have defects, the things you create may also have corresponding defects.

Thinking of this, Xiu Si’s note-taking hand stopped, his eyes showing a hint of heaviness.

It seemed these thoughts had dealt him a certain blow.

“Is truth really the sharpest knife?”

Xiu Si felt dejected for a while, but quickly pulled himself together, continuing to study desperately against time.

He increasingly discovered that what these books said was correct, he must memorize them thoroughly before waking up, whether he could understand them completely or not, he should just memorize them by rote first!

****

Outside the dream. Extraordinary magic power floated in the room.

The short-legged cat seemed to sense something and opened its eyes. It drowsily looked toward the bedside, then discovered an incredible magic power surrounding its father.

Hmm… was that magic power, or authority?

The short-legged cat didn’t understand, worried, jumped down from its cat bed, and nimbly ran to the edge of the pillow.

The room was dim, barely able to see people with the naked eye. Its light green eyes emitted a faint glow, dimly illuminating its father’s face.

Father’s brows were tightly furrowed, as if experiencing a nightmare.

It was frightened, almost wanting to wake Father up, but then immediately realized it probably wasn’t a nightmare.

Rather… Father was trying hard to accomplish something in his dream?

The short-legged cat paused, thought of its Third Brother who loved leveling up in dreams, and then understood.

It couldn’t wake Father up meow, it would disturb Father’s leveling up meow.

It nodded, but didn’t return to its cat bed, instead lying prone at the edge of the pillow, watching over its father, eyes full of worry.

Half an hour later, it suddenly discovered something – was Father deconstructing meow?

****

On the other side. Looking at the Cat Head group’s intelligence updates, the demons showed various expressions.

Due to poor signal, the intelligence updated extremely slowly, spitting out one character every few minutes, ridiculously slow.

Aelioge’s expression gradually became interesting, saying in a subtle tone. “Hero Wang Chang’er broke out of his coffin, revealing Arnold as the mastermind’s true identity, as well as the Evil of the Universe behind him?”

Things developed quite fast in just a few days.

In the room, Buer lay on the sofa sleeping soundly under a blanket.

Gusin was snoring in a magic hammock.

Bachin lay on the table, unknown if he had died from overwork, with a white flag stuck in his head from Buer’s prank.

Morax was exercising in the next room, already preparing for the upcoming “Great War.”

Counting up, the only reliable demons turned out to be just Aelioge, and sixth sister Valefor who was monitoring Chaos in subspace.

Aelioge narrowed his eyes, saying softly, “The mastermind actually managed to escape from Third Brother who had awakened authority, supposedly possessing an authority that could nullify other authorities.”

Without breaking his authority, probably finding him would be useless.

Evil of the Universe… sounds like something extremely evil and cunning. Its lifespan, if not as old as the universe, must at least start from several hundred thousand years.

Looking at this lifespan, its actions should be watertight, nearly perfect, but what was it doing now?

Aelioge keenly discovered the contradiction within, believing it was most likely Arnold’s humanity fighting against the Evil of the Universe.

This must be the only explanation. Aelioge’s thoughts differed from Beelzebub’s – Beelzebub believed human nature was dark, while Aelioge believed human nature was about struggle, whether struggling with external things and people, or struggling with oneself. As the God of War, He was more sensitive to this.

The Evil of the Universe wanted the hero dead, but Arnold didn’t want that, so everything was done half-heartedly, not killing when should kill, repeatedly flip-flopping, showing no trace of decisiveness, practically asking for trouble, leaving himself no way out.

But so what?

Aelioge’s eyes were sharp as he said softly, “No matter what, you must face what you’ve done. The more half-hearted you are, the more you flip-flop, the more things will go against your wishes.”

Aelioge was silent for a few seconds, suddenly lifting his head.

Changes were happening in the monitored Chaos, Amon’s body contraction speed was accelerating.

Soon, He would soon regain the power of the God of Chaos.

Then He would have confidence facing Big Brother!

****

On another side, in the dream.

Xiu Si had studied too much, his brain gradually overloaded, his eyelids feeling like they weighed tons, practically impossible to lift.

A few minutes later, he indeed collapsed from studying.

He hadn’t expected that he could fall asleep within a dream.

Of course, what he expected even less was that after waking up, his level would make great progress, because he had studied for exactly three years in the dream space.

A few seconds later, the man who had guided him to read books walked out from beside him, his eyes deep and gentle, silently putting a coat over him.