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Chapter 1613 Final Chapter: Guarding the Coastline: "OE: Die from the Ocean (19)"

Lu Shu etched the 101st mark on the calendar.

This is the number of times he has seen Su Ming'an over these long twenty years. Most of the time, it takes several months, but there have also been times when they haven't seen each other for several years.

What impressed him most was that Su Ming'an failed to appear for five whole years, from 2035 to 2040.

Those years were blessed with favorable weather and a more peaceful atmosphere compared to the chaotic world. But everyone knew that this peace was built on Su Ming'an's efforts. He must have made countless adjustments to guide the world onto the most tranquil path.

On the day he returned, Su Ming'an landed on the hazy neon signs, overlooking a bustling metropolis resembling a forest farm. As he gazed down at the lights, he realized how much the world had changed. In truth, he hadn't intended to return after so long; it was just that as he grew more accustomed to his divine status, his perception of time and space began to blur.

He heard the back-and-forth in the coalition government's parliament, the repeated pressing of the voting buttons, the smiles and sighs in the news, and the raindrops falling from the eaves, creating a mix of laughter and somber groans.

"...Su Ming'an, how are the recent battles going? When are you going back to the hub?" Lu Shu asked him on the phone.

"I'm fine, nothing's wrong," Su Ming'an replied.

After a moment, Lü Shu repeated:
"...How are the recent battles going? When are you returning to the Nexus?"

"It's alright, I'll take another look at your eyes later to see if they can recover," Su Ming'an said.

Lu Shu held the communicator tightly.

Su Ming'an's two responses were typical of his conversations with his companions. Their first question was usually, "How have you been lately?", and their second was always, "I'm doing very well." So, Su Ming'an answered them instinctively.

Lu Shu's vision, obscured by darkness, paused. His mouth seemed to be filled with blood. After a long silence, he held the communicator and whispered:
"...That's it."

"So you can't hear my voice anymore."

Perhaps because Lü Shu had been silent for too long, and then spoke too softly, Su Ming'an assumed that Lü Shu hadn't spoken, so he said:
"Why have you been silent for so long... Don't worry, my perception was wrong before, that's why I haven't been back for five years. It won't happen again... I will try my best to reduce such situations in the future."

"I've been too busy lately, and I've done many things that you can't understand... I promise you, after everything is over, we'll meet again in this settled world, okay?"

Lu Shu opened his mouth, swallowed the taste of blood, and then tremblingly grasped the communicator, softly saying, "Okay."

"It won't be long before the flesh-and-blood experiments make significant progress. In the next twenty years, the small world will stabilize into a world of medium magic and medium science," Su Ming'an said.

"it is good."

"Even if there is a lot of malice, my evil body can absorb it; if there is kindness, my good body will also absorb it. The emotions of the whole world are constantly being generated."

"it is good."

"However, it would still be troublesome if it were discovered by the higher dimensions again. Fortunately, Su Lin has been exploring the shipping route. I believe that the construction of the [Ideal Country] is not far away, and there will be a day of complete peace sooner or later."

"it is good."

No matter what Su Ming'an said, Lü Shu only replied "okay".

He acknowledged it all, he accepted it all. Even if he knew, Su Ming'an might not be able to hear him.

“We don’t need to go back to Zhaixing, right?” Lu Shu suddenly said.

The old friends are all here, and everything is just as it was before. Why insist on clinging to that familiar planet?

He thought Su Ming'an wouldn't hear him, but to his surprise, there was a pause on the other end, followed by a light, smiling reply:
"Correct."

Su Ming'an held up the red umbrella, the blood in his palm slowly flowing away. He looked down, the lights were dim, and the shadows of people were flickering.

"Where the heart finds peace."

"This is my hometown..."

……

Let's give this world some more time.

Let's give this world another chance.

The image of Su Baomian with her white hair is still vivid in my mind; she held his hand tightly before she died.

Perhaps many years later, flowers will bloom in this world, and life will get better and better. However, human greed is endless, and he will still be chasing that unseen "perfection".

What exactly is "perfection"?
Su Ming'an has pondered this for so long, but has yet to find an answer. He only feels that it should be a prosperous and harmonious world, where everyone is happy and joyful.

He went to suppress a battle as soon as he landed.

That was a battle between the nation supported by the World Tree Guild and the nation supported by the Human Self-Salvation Alliance. The World Hub's mediation failed. When Su Ming'an arrived, dragging his blackened tentacles, all he heard was the voice of "Evil Ghost Su Qing".

The kind-hearted "Lord of the Realm" is as compassionate as a god, with long, seven-colored hair, and listens to the prayers of all living beings.

The evil "dragon" is ruthless, with black hair and a mask covering its face.

"Disregarding the central laws and regulations for personal gain, provoking disputes, and harming the innocent—I judge you..." Su Ming'an raised his sword with one hand, his ears filled with curses and cries.

"We don't want stability, we want glory!"

Amidst the crowd, a young soldier shouted sharply. His appearance gradually overlapped with the resentful soul hunters in Su Ming'an's memory.

"Do you take the sound of crying as proof of suffering?" The young soldier, his face covered in blood, cried out in sorrow, "We make mistakes, we bleed—but the conscience forged from sin is just as important. We don't need fairy tales written by an omniscient and omnipotent being. Please give us a chance... Even if humanity is wicked... they can still live!"

Su Ming'an understood these words perfectly; he had said similar things before, questioning the gods of Cloud City as a despicable person.

Yes, the price of abandoning stability is more deaths, so the absence of divine control is euphemistically called "freedom"? The young soldier before me yearns for that freedom because he is unafraid of death, but what about those ordinary people with families to support? Aren't they also unafraid of death? Aren't they also afraid of struggle?

"Freedom" and "peace" are two sides of the same coin; the former is always desired in exchange for the latter, and the latter in pursuit of the former. Therefore, Su Ming'an can only divide himself into two: as the "Lord of the Realm," he insists on freedom, and as the "Evil Dragon," he insists on peace.

“I don’t need…your proof,” Su Ming’an said.

The young soldier was taken aback.

“Your proof… proves nothing. Besides you, there will be a second person, a third person, billions of people proving completely opposite theories to me… because there are too many people in this world, and too many different minds.” Su Ming’an said, “…There is never a correct answer.”

He closed his eyes, absorbing countless acts of malice.

—This is what Yi Song saw when he arrived.

A thick, inky malice swirled around the black-haired god. He wore a clown mask painted with a smile, and dark energy climbed up his limbs. He was absorbing malice, but malice seemed to be sucking every inch of his flesh and blood, thirstily dragging him toward the abyss.

The young man's head was bowed, his thick black hair falling down like poisonous vines entwining a flawless white jade statue. The ink, scalding hot, burned intensely around him.

He listens, he judges, he accepts.

He suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze devoid of any human desire, as if piercing through a mask, revealing a world and mountains devoid of emotion and desire.

Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and all things are dogs.

A moment later, Su Ming'an turned his head and looked at Yi Song.

"What is it?" The voice was as cold as melting snow in the Tianshan Mountains, sending a chill down one's spine.

A small piece of his mask had cracked, revealing a section of skin that looked like solidified tar, displaying an inhuman ferocity and brokenness. It was as if divinity and demonic nature were engaged in the most brutal battle on his face.

...God is falling.

The concept flashed through Yi Song's mind, but his tone remained normal: "You haven't come for psychological counseling in a long time. You should come once a week."

He faced the inky black deity with the same calm demeanor as a doctor discussing a follow-up appointment with a patient.

“…Is that so?” Su Ming’an said, “I don’t remember, I’m sorry, doctor.”

He raised his hand, and the dark torrent merged into the ink, the tentacles coiling even more frantically around his body, as if countless greedy venomous snakes had burrowed into the flesh and blood of a god.

“I’m afraid my appearance will scare the doctor, so I’d better not go,” Su Ming’an said.

“I never look down on my patients,” Yi Song said. “Moreover, the more I talk to you, the more I understand why you have such a wide circle of friends… I still hope to learn your skills in making friends.”

“…” Su Ming’an was silent for a moment: “But most of my ‘friends’ are no longer here.”

He slowly suppressed the darkness surrounding him, returned to the ground, and his appearance returned to normal.

“I’ve tried countless times, countless times…” He raised his hand: “I can never arrive at a perfect understanding of humanity. They’re like a group of man-eating sharks; as soon as they smell a bloody opening, they’ll rush in and devour it… There are indeed people who try to stop them, but as long as the man-eating sharks exist, there will always be the smell of blood…”

"So I understand that only by making that taste commonplace can we prevent the monsters from being enraged. Water that is too clear has no fish, and there is no utopia that is always clean."

He crouched down, pressed his palms against the base of the tree, and poured all the malice and goodwill he had felt recently into the tree.

He could clearly feel that the world was being elevated, the energy was becoming more abundant, and things were getting better and better here...

The world continues to turn as usual today.

He looked up—the sky seemed like a large, molten piece of glass, clear yet desolate.

The rays of the setting sun stretched over the rugged mountain peaks, swayed over the peach treetops, and caressed the faces of passersby. Everything he could see was tinged with a heavy gold, like a giant golden basin.

The ridges of the fields lay across the sunset, one or two farmers walked away into the distance, their figures overlapping the vast earth. The oxen, having finished plowing, dragged their feet, and the windmills in the distance turned slowly. Children ran along the alleyways, holding candied hawthorns in their hands... Under the light of the sky, everything lost its color. A deep crimson gilded the entire field, burning into a dark gold, and then hesitantly turned into bluish-purple.

—So silent.

His pupils reflected the sunset, the beauty of the world, a scene of great harmony and prosperity, dancing gracefully toward him.

The future that Su Shaoqing longs for may be realized here.

But when he lifted his foot and saw Yi Song beside him, and saw himself reflected in Yi Song's eyes—surrounded by thick black ink—he realized how grotesque it was.

Such a beautiful world should not have "evil dragons," and he awaits the day when he will slay them all.

“I will always treat you, patient,” Yi Song said, looking at him.

"Okay." Su Ming'an smiled, still not going for psychological counseling, and turned to leave.

He still has much chaos and battles to quell, and many good and evil people await him.

That night, he had a dream. He dreamt that he was lying on a hillside, and the hillside turned into a sea—the very sea that Lü Shu had longed for. He lay in the sea, counting the stars on the seabed, discovering familiar constellations and planets, even glimpsing the sun and the moon… Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Draco, Ursa Major…

But when he reached out to grab it, he realized it was like trying to catch the moon in the sea; this wasn't Zhai Xing, so naturally he couldn't reach those familiar constellations.

But he fantasized... that they had retrieved the moon, that this was their hometown, and that since everyone was here and everything was as usual, why should they miss that distant, real moon?

The simulated moon in the sky has the same phase and color as the one in my homeland, so why should I be attached to it?
Those who yearn for the moon, those who chase the moon, the longing of their homeland for the moon, the old sentiments of Chang'e and Wu Gang, the bright moonlight before the bed, and the white jade plate, should all be put aside now.

Now only the West River Moon remains, which once shone on the people in the palace of the King of Wu.

Spring breezes have turned the south bank of the Yangtze River green again; when will the bright moon shine on my return?

How can we talk about letting go?
……

When Su Lin returned, he was travel-worn and still carried the scent of cosmic dust.

He returned to the World Tree and saw a man swaying as if drunk, buried in the grass, his ten fingers covered in mud, digging something.

"...!" Su Lin immediately pulled the man up and saw a face covered in mud, dirty and grimy, like a wild beast rolling in the mud.

"Such a strong aura of malice... Have you lost control?" Su Lin grabbed him: "Time travel, flesh experiments, malice extraction... Do you really think you're a god?"

"Am I not a god?" the madman asked him as if drunk, his eyes shrouded in black mist. "Then what am I?"

“You’re just nitpicking,” Su Lin said.

“I’m scared… scared.” The madman sighed, “I’m scared that the higher dimensions will come again, I’m scared that all our previous efforts will be in vain, the sunk costs will be too high… I won’t stop until this place is safe and sound, and I’m sure it won’t be destroyed. Fortunately, it’s almost here… almost here.”

Su Lin squatted down and turned her head: "What are you looking for? I'll help you find it."

As if reminded, the madman immediately lay back down in the mud.

The sharp roots pierced his ten fingers, and golden blood seeped deep into the ground, but he seemed not to feel the pain, searching through the soil like a wild cat.

"I can't find it, I can't find it..." he murmured repeatedly.

"What are you looking for?" Su Lin shoved the dirt aside with her hand to help him search.

"I've been saving them so carefully, I'm reluctant to use them, and I've only used a few dozen so far... I want to use them slowly and cherish the memories..."

"What is it?" Su Lin asked again.

The madman paused, then stopped pointing, staring at the soil and looking at his bleeding hand.

He opened his mouth, then let out a bitter smile.

"...Yueyue gave me ten thousand beautiful dreams."

"I haven't dreamed about them anymore. Maybe there was too much kindness and malice, which crowded out my collection... I won't dream about them anymore..."

"Great engineer, I can't dream about her anymore. I've lost her."