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Chapter 364. The Main Truth and Its Branches

High above on the other side.

Accompanied by a catchy background music, Jiang Jianxin saw a person flying towards him from afar.

It was a boy in a blue and white school uniform, surrounded by crackling lightning. The violent current exploded into tiny sparks at his feet, turning the clouds indigo blue.

Jiang Jianxin, unsure whether he was friend or foe, frowned and was about to strike with her sword when the school-uniformed boy shouted:

"We're all from the same company, don't hit me!"

Jiang Jianxin stopped, but still pulled away to create some distance, then asked:

"You're also from the Fools' Society?"

—She looks unfamiliar; how come she's never seen her before?

"Yes, I am from the prison branch of the Fool's Society's Black Eye Pharmaceuticals."

The boy in the school uniform explained, and before Jiang Jianxin could ask any more questions, he said:

"I just heard from Dog Chasing Immortal that you are Sword Master, right?"

Jiang Jianxin frowned and nodded. The young man continued:

"I was looking for the Great Emperor and President Xie, but I didn't see them, so I followed the Sword River and found you first—does the Sword Master know where those two are?"

Jiang Jianxin pointed to the two dark roads stretching across the sky on the right and said:

“Follow this path to the source, Xie Yan is there. As for the Great Emperor… I don’t know, but you can look for him where the mountains rise.”

Upon hearing this, the boy's eyes widened suddenly, his gaze first falling on the two dark roads, as if he had seen some incredible spectacle.

"Is Xie Society that powerful now? This road can actually be suspended in mid-air!"

He had been in prison for too long, and his memory was still stuck in the days when Xie Yan was building roads along the mountains.

Back then, her roads wound along the mountainside, unlike now where roads are built directly to the sky.

Without further ado, Lin Shen tapped the tape recorder on his belt, switching the mesmerizing background music around him. He was enveloped in lightning and sound waves, speeding towards Xie Yan's location like a blue shooting star.

Sword Master scratched her head, puzzled. With a flick of her wrist, the frost-like blade drew a sharp arc in the air before turning back to look at the suffocating black threads before her.

Those were countless writhing threads of truth, as thick as ink, and twisting like living things, spreading out into an endless black ocean under the gray sky.

These black threads were not still; rather, they multiplied at a visible rate, surging in from all directions in dense numbers, as if to devour the entire sky.

A cold glint flashed in Jiang Jianxin's eyes, and without hesitation, he slashed down with his long sword. The sword energy poured down like a silver river, instantly cutting the black line within a range of dozens of feet in front of him in two.

"Ding--"

Amidst the crisp metallic clang, the severed black lines parted to both sides like severed spider silk, only to reconnect in an instant, as if they had never been severed at all.

Jiang Jianxin frowned, her sword aura rising again. This time, she unleashed an even more exquisite sword technique. The sword light swept across like a bolt of lightning, breaking the black lines wherever it passed, emitting a soft "hissing" sound.

However, just a few breaths after she severed one black line, new black lines surged out from all directions at an even faster speed than the ones she had severed.

Jiang Jianxin's heart tightened, and he focused his attention on observing the source of these newly formed black lines.

At the broken ends of the black lines, a faint silver light could be seen shimmering. Following the guidance of this light, her gaze pierced through the layers of darkness and finally landed on the ground below.

On the vast land, the numerous libraries built before the apocalypse had mostly collapsed, with countless broken pages scattered among the ruins.

The pages fluttered like butterflies in the wind, each tattered page revealing fine silver patterns. As Jiang Jianxin watched, more and more silver light burst forth from the pages, transforming into thin black lines that, as if summoned by some irresistible force, rushed towards the sky, ultimately merging into the boundless black ocean.

Jiang Jianxin's eyes widened slightly, and he suddenly realized that this truth could seemingly draw energy from ancient books.

"No way, they can find energy from ancient books? How are we supposed to fight like this?"

Jiang Jianxin felt a chill run down her spine. She subconsciously wanted to ask if there were any countermeasures for the answer, but then she remembered that this was someone else's main body.

Although the answer, as a branch of truth, has its own ideas and doesn't take the main body seriously at all, she still has some hesitation.

"Om..."

Jiang Jianxin swung her sword at the black lines of truth again. Seeing the black lines surge back up after being cleaved, she couldn't help but ask the heavens:

"The answer is truth, are you there?"

【I am here. 】

Huge white subtitles suddenly appeared on the dark sky screen.

Before Jiang Jianxin could even ask, the answer, Zhenli, slowly explained:
I know what you want to ask me, but don't worry, I can tell you directly—truth cannot be killed, it can only be replaced.

Jiang Jianxin was slightly taken aback and asked:
【What's the meaning? 】

The answer, according to objective truth, is:

As you've seen, truth is a line, and the basis for distinguishing which part of the line is the main trunk is simply to see which part is thicker.

Jiang Jianxin was surprised:

"what do you mean……"

"Truth" is actually just a label, a name people use for the thickest branch of truth. In reality, any branch can be considered "truth," as long as it's thicker than the others.

The answer, truth, remains as calm as ever:
The gods are divided into those above and those below truth, because truth is a single thread, eternal and indelible, but the branches that constitute "truth" can change.

If you want to stop the invasion of truth, you might consider elevating other branches of truth to higher positions.

With a flood of information, Jiang Jianxin felt a little dizzy. She tried to calm herself down and said:

Can I choose who gets promoted?

The answer, the truth, states with certainty:
Of course you can.

--why?
The first question that popped into Jiang Jianxin's mind was this.

The answer, Truth, always felt that she could easily accomplish anything, even defeating the opponent who was Truth.

Having spent so much time with the answer and the truth, Jiang Jianxin's knowledge had broadened. She knew that there was only one answer that could make the supreme truth, representing omniscience, so certain:
Above all truth.

That intense sense of incongruity returned, as did the calm and collected way she was told about her priesthood in the fourth episode, and the pauses in the answer whenever she mentioned that she was the High Priestess of Deathly Silence.

Jiang Jianxin wasn't stupid; she vaguely guessed at a certain truth, a potentially shocking fact.

But just as she was about to blurt out the answer, she swallowed it back.

Jiang Jianxin thought for a moment, and finally slowly said to the answer:
From an emotional standpoint, I really want you to become the new "truth," but from a factual standpoint and considering whether it can truly succeed in the end, the fortune teller has already given me the standard answer, right?

The truth calmly hummed in response, and told her:

This is an emotional truth.