The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

The hall doors closed silently behind them, isolating the space filled with ancient joys and sorrows and the determination to make ultimate sacrifices.

The storms outside seem to have temporarily subsided.

The leaden sky hung low, and the Gothic spires of the Royal Mechanics College of Marston were silhouetted against the faint starlight and moonlight, like a row of tombstones pointing to an unknown end.

Zhao Qing and Xiao Shi walked side by side in the empty corridor, their footsteps echoing between the stone walls, clear and somewhat jarring.

"Ten days... Sister Qing, how are we going to get through this?"

Xiao Shi spoke first: "This world, these... living people, and their thousands of years of love and hate, poetry and songs, mechanical blueprints... are they really like sandcastles, wiped out by the tide, leaving not even a trace?"

"Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs." Zhao Qing also sighed, "But now, even 'heaven and earth' themselves will become straw dogs."

"What do you think?"

"We have no obligation to this world, just as a passerby is not responsible for a fire in a distant mountain."

Xiao Shi paused for a moment, then slowly spoke: "However, moral imperatives originate from the legislation of reason itself, not from external coercion, from contracts or causality. They come from the heart, from the heartfelt tremor when faced with innocent suffering, a burden that is 'unprovoked'."

"Just as Levinas said, the 'faces' of thousands of 'others' are issuing me an irresistible ethical command."

She raised her head, her eyes shimmering with a light that was not tears, but a purer kind of light: "Faced with impending destruction, is silence also a form of complicity?"

Such questions cannot be avoided.

“‘Benevolence is humanity.’” Zhao Qing nodded, his eyes revealing a hint of approval, but also a deeper consideration. “You should stick to your own position. This is also part of cultivation—to understand one’s true nature and know what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’.”

"However, I still want to remind you that there is not much we can do about this matter, and it is difficult to achieve the effect of turning the tide. Therefore, we must be soberly aware of the limits of our own power and the consequences of our actions."

"To be specific, I may only be able to barely save a very small number of people and safely transfer them to the other side of the Dragon World."

"To complete this process, it is necessary to sever their original threads of fate and then immediately reconnect them with new ones. The difficulty is almost no less than that of refining a miniature 'Fruit of Life,' and the manipulation skills are quite similar."

“The rebirth from the cocoon is ineffective against the ‘true wounds’ at the level of fate, because the Alaya consciousness within it is uploaded to the cloud and backed up, precisely by relying on the latter’s causal interaction and the ability to stain karmic habits.”

"To conquer a project that took hundreds of years to complete in ten days, a project that the White King and Odin had been working together on? To be honest, I'm not entirely confident."

"Furthermore, if we intervene, who should we take with us? Who should we leave behind? And what criteria should we use? Talent? Character? Age? Or how close or distant our relationship with us?"

"Caesar, Rundstedt... are certainly figures I admire, with outstanding talent and perseverance, but considering the stain of their involvement in wars of aggression, are they really more 'worth' living than a farmer who works in the fields but lives a life of kindness?"

"This is undoubtedly a huge injustice."

"In fact, if I were to follow my heart purely and disregard all the pros and cons, I would probably be more inclined to give that tiny bit of hope to those ordinary Ceylon refugees who are displaced, have lost everything, but still just want to live."

"They never held power, never stirred up any waves; they were merely powerless duckweed adrift in the torrent of history. Their suffering was more like an undeserved calamity. If we speak of 'compensatory justice,' they are perhaps the ones who most deserve compensation. Moreover..."

She emphasized: "...To some extent, a pure soul that has been stripped of the burdens of external identities such as nation and family may be more likely to take root in the new world and be less involved in the karmic forces of the old world. Like a blank sheet of paper, it is easy to draw a new picture."

“The karmic entanglements in their Alaya consciousness are relatively simple, and the difficulty of transferring and reshaping them may also be slightly lower.”

"Could this be considered a kind of... humble, technical compassion?"

Purely in terms of value, Caesar and the others did not reach the level that would make her make an exception for them; they were far from indispensable.

If he were to enter the path of cultivation, at best he would only have the potential to reach the seventh level of combat power, which would hardly arouse Zhao Qing's desire to cherish and protect his talent.

It offers zero feedback and consumes resources.

Unlike Ding Ning and Xia Mi, she could quickly grow to a pivotal level and receive corresponding training verification.

Although it is inevitable that people will have different levels of closeness or distance, Zhao Qing and Caesar and the others had only met a few times and had only known each other for a day.

This superficial connection is hardly a significant bargaining chip on the grand scales concerning the survival of the world.

Clearly, any attempt to relocate personnel would consume a significant amount of Zhao Qing's time and energy.

This will directly affect her ability to advance other more strategic actions during these precious ten days, such as further exploring the mysteries of the Black King's embryo and refining her plans to deal with Ragnarok.

Resources are limited, and trade-offs must be made.

"Though countless beings are liberated, in reality no being is liberated." Zhao Qing concluded with the Diamond Sutra: "No matter what choices we make, the total amount of happiness will be negative."

"Action could lead to endless calamities, while inaction could result in being left to die... The balance between these two must be carefully weighed by you and me."

She looked at Xiao Shi again, her eyes deep and unfathomable: "Now, do you still think we should do something?"

"If the answer is yes, then how should we proceed to find a possible, albeit imperfect, crack in this predicament, a crack where we can have a clear conscience?"

“The ‘veil of ignorance’ may provide a fair and original standpoint, but when we lift the veil and face real, living faces, abstract principles often become overwhelmed.”

"The essence of existence is sometimes to confront cruelty."

……

At the end of the corridor is a stained-glass window. The remaining light shines through the blurred outline of the statue, splashing colors onto the cold floor like an overturned palette, both magnificent and sorrowful.

After much deliberation, Shi Yiguang quickly realized that pure, flawless justice was impossible in this predicament, and any choice would come with a huge cost and ethical flaws.

But she had to choose.

Her choice will define who she truly is.

“First and foremost, it’s about keeping records,” Xiao Shi replied confidently.

"'When the world began, humanity did not exist; when the world ends, humanity will also cease to exist.' But recording can at least leave a trace of the ended world in our memories."

"The value of this civilization is mediocre—there are other humans elsewhere, with similar histories, similar achievements, and similar failures."

“From a pragmatic point of view, its demise seems insignificant, and there is no special need to collect and preserve the thoughts, culture, skills, and emotions of the ‘Ancient Continent of Stars’.”

"But isn't every civilization unique?"

"This civilization has its own unique poetry, music, visual arts, understanding of the universe, and exploration of existence. Although it is similar to other human civilizations in general, the differences in details are precisely what make it unique."

"A sonnet created only in this world, an oil painting depicting the unique light and shadow here, a philosophical thought developed only here—do these subtle differences give it the value of being partially remembered?"

"At a Marston concert, I heard music composed by composers from this world, and the melodies contained a blend of sorrow and hope that I had never heard in other worlds."

"In the concert hall, people were moved by the same melody, and strangers' hands quietly clasped together in the darkness."

Her voice gradually became firm: "It is this persistence in the mundane, this faint yet unique light that this finite life ignites against the backdrop of infinite time and space, that constitutes a breathtaking beauty. Just as every grain of sand on the beach is ordinary, but the whole beach can be forged into a golden ocean under the setting sun."

"Actually, it may not be so mediocre."

Zhao Qing offered a hint: "For the grand cosmic will, destiny is like a nerve signal. Any means to manipulate or interfere with destiny fall into the category of alternative neural connections. This is a special kind of communication between heaven and man, which is not limited to the primordial energy of heaven and earth, but goes deeper into the coupling and coordination of space and time."

"And the 'Seraph' and 'Omega' mobile armors are precisely the pinnacle of this series of neural-soul technologies, containing the legacy of ancient times and hundreds of years of experimental data."

"For example, the change of 'self-devouring fate' may correspond to the 'neural short circuit' of the Seraph Rider to some extent."

"Considering that the relevant applications here are even more advanced than those in the Dragon Raja world, it is necessary to organize and record them."

"After all, the universal 'Knight's Bone' seems to be the alchemical work that Odin started with, and also the first manifestation of his talent for destiny engineering."

"Based on my personal intuition, the 'fate system' at a large scale above the stellar level should be a simple and elegant interaction, following a mechanism similar to neural networks or dream creation. At a small scale of individuals and communities, it may exhibit some quasi-particle patterns in condensed matter physics."

"You mean, the 'atoms' and 'molecules' of fate correspond to the level of the Alaya consciousness of ordinary people, and these tiny particles forming 'fate neurons' are roughly on the scale of celestial bodies?" Xiao Shi pondered. "The Black King Nidhogg could be considered a dendrite? And the Fruit of Life a vesicle?" "Of course, the most valuable research subject is the activation of higher-level thought ripples, the initial impulse of the 'cosmic brain' that has not yet surfaced in the sea of ​​subconsciousness... If the power of such an indescribable being could be stirred even slightly, it would probably be enough to overturn the starry sea and cause the birth and death of countless beings!"

Having participated in the learning, research and development, and application design of the Xuanbing brain-computer chip, she also has her own understanding in this area.

"Well said."

Zhao Qing smiled slightly, with a hint of loneliness: "Zhuangzi also said: 'I am like a small stone or a small piece of wood in a great mountain between heaven and earth.' Since I am concerned with seeing little, why should I be arrogant?"

"Our current dilemma, from a higher perspective, may just be the whispers of two specks of dust on a mountain."

“Recording is to prevent these whispers from being completely lost to nothingness.” Xiao Shi continued, “The reason why heaven and earth can endure is that they do not live for themselves, therefore they can live long.”

“Secondly,” her tone turned somber, “I intend to offer a possibility of ‘trial’ and ‘peace’?”

"Saving lives may not be the only way; saving the dignity and meaning of life may be more important."

"The value of existence lies not in its length but in its density, just as Zhuangzi lamented, 'The ephemeral mushroom does not know the difference between dawn and dusk, and the cicada does not know the difference between spring and autumn,' but who can deny their complete life experience?"

"If the end of the world is inevitable, and since the vast majority of people cannot be taken away, then at least we can live 'like a human being' during these last two weeks. The old social structure of this world must contain oppression, injustice, and profound sins."

"Those powerful and wealthy people who prey on the common people, those tyrants who run rampant in the countryside, those hypocrites who appear virtuous but do despicable things... how can they possibly meet the same fate as those who live a life of diligence and kindness, in the same destruction?"

The Book of Documents states: "Heaven punishes the guilty, employing the five punishments in five ways."

She quoted extensively from classical texts, her gaze sharp and penetrating, "Assuming there is no apocalypse, given our nature, would we stand idly by if we witnessed great evil? No. So why should we abandon this fundamental instinct of 'punishing evil and promoting good' because of the arrival of the apocalypse?"

"Just because everyone will die 'indiscriminately' at the same time, does that mean the sins of the past can be wiped clean?"

“No.” She shook her head gently, her long hair fluttering slightly in the still air. “Precisely because we will all die, it is all the more necessary to draw a clear line before the end. Let the oppressors, in their final moments, taste the pain of being stripped of all pretense; let the oppressed have the opportunity to stand tall and witness the dawn of a new era!”

"Even if it's just for half a month, you must stand up like a 'human being'!"

"Sometimes, ten days or half a month, if spent in dignity and justice, can indeed surpass the intensity and brilliance of a long, humiliating, and muddled life!"

"Though dead, may your soul find peace!"

"I recall the verses that have been passed down through the world: Do not go gentle into that good night, for old age should burn and roar at the end of the day; rebuke, rebuke the passing of the light!"

"As for 'peace and tranquility,' it means to alleviate the suffering of the innocent in their final moments and to offer them comfort as much as possible."

A look of compassion flowed in Xiao Shi's eyes: "Death at the level of fate should not bring pain, but the 'despair' of the world being sacrificed will still spread and seep into everyone's heart."

"To counteract the influence of this emotion, we might weave them a 'beautiful dream,' an ultimate 'happiness' that satisfies their deepest desires, and bring it into their consciousness."

"In that dream, all their regrets were made up, all their wishes were fulfilled, and all their love was reciprocated. They would freeze in the happiest moment of their lives, and then, with this perfect illusion, peacefully 'fall asleep'..."

"To 'melt' along with the world."

"As one's mind is pure, so too is the Buddha-land pure."

"If, at the final moment, we can bring peace to the minds of all beings, freeing them from fear and resentment, and leading them toward 'purity,' perhaps... it would also be a kind of 'expedient method.' And with this method, I can purify my own mind."

"You don't intend to tell the world the truth?" Zhao Qing asked.

Xiao Shi shook his head: "Epicurus once said: 'Death has nothing to do with us, because everything that has vanished has no feeling, and everything that has no feeling has nothing to do with us.' Perhaps a sudden, unknowing death is more merciful than prematurely learning an unbearable truth and counting down in fear."

"Then let's proceed accordingly."

Zhao Qing extended his hand and gently shook hers: "Let's record, let's choose, let's judge, let's witness."

"The Tathagata comes from nowhere and goes nowhere!"

In her predictions, if all these things were accomplished, it would be considered half a salvation for all living beings, and she might even be able to draw upon a special power in the process.

Offering the fate of the world as a sacrifice squanders boundless karma, and this immense karma is often accompanied by corresponding "merit." They belong to the two opposing sides of cause and effect, coexisting as one.

The so-called "merit" is certainly not like in some fantasy novels where one's cultivation level skyrockets after being sprinkled. According to Buddhist theory, it is simply the accumulation of pure seeds, which can influence and transform defilement into purity, helping to enhance the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom and integrate into the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya.

This is undoubtedly beneficial to the evolution of Pure Land, such as the Samsara Sword Realm.

In fact, Zhao Qing's questions and the plans she outlined were exactly the same as what she had planned in advance, and she had already made preliminary preparations.

However, it may not be able to be implemented as scheduled.

On the surface, the end of the world will arrive in half a month.

But it might be delayed again and again.

Without a significant breakthrough in his cultivation level and having to fight from across realms, Zhao Qing basically abandoned his plan to confront the Black King head-on, opting instead for trench warfare and even guerrilla warfare to preserve his strength.

She was prepared to fight for several years, retreating as she fought, until she could break through the enemy's defenses or seize their weakness.

The time flow rate in this world is ten times that of the Dragon World, so theoretically, it can last for decades.

However, it could also fall at any time.

Therefore, "recording, trial, and comfort" still need to be planned.

……

"I'll first modify the 'Omega's' karmic purification program and implant 'Blessing Heart Plague' into the 'spiritual body' system it generates. It can split and expand exponentially, and the efficiency is acceptable."

Before the operation, Zhao Qing gave a few more instructions: "The method of recording is too slow if we just look with our eyes or scan the cat with our divine sense. What I have prepared is the 'Vacuum Serpent' alchemical phase control array, with a single field radius of 30 kilometers. It can be mounted on a train and run on red mercury."

In an environment where vital energy is scarce, the power of words is not effective.

“Xia Mi is going to be busy for quite a while,” Xiao Shi replied.

“There’s no way. Unless that Norviken sends people.” Zhao Qing sighed casually, glancing at the clouds directly above the church.

A tremendous wind howled in the dark sky, swirling and refusing to dissipate, as if something enormous was suspended there.

Lightning tore through the night sky, illuminating the white cross in the air and the giant black airship.

Black metal giants descended from the sky along thick cables, landing heavily around the church. They slowly straightened up, their nearly ten-meter-tall steel bodies seemingly reaching for the heavens and the earth, with a chilling light flowing from the cannons on their shoulders.

It was something completely different from motor armor; it was extremely tall and thin, with a hollow skeleton, a rumbling steel heart, and countless valves spewing out billowing white steam.

The skeletal black giant strode toward the church, leaving deep footprints a meter and a half long with each step.

"Count Lecht, the Templar Armored Division, reports that Prometheus has successfully landed in the center of the Sanctuary and has detected that Omega has awakened and begun to cleanse the Holy Calamity."

The lead officer in white, expressionless, said: "Hallelujah!"

His voice was simultaneously converted into an electrical signal, which eventually appeared as a paper tape in distant Florence.

"An untimely minor character has arrived." Zhao Qing raised an eyebrow.

She also made a radio communication, targeting all the teachers and students who had been divinely enlightened and had their minds imprinted: "Hold your 'iron fists' and thermobaric missiles, bravely move forward, and destroy the heretics!"

At a single command, rudimentary recoilless gun barrels immediately emerged from the windows of the school buildings, library, and lecture halls, like a group of lurking steel serpents, yet suddenly spewing forth blazing flames like a giant dragon!

...(End of chapter)