Chapter 1440: Void's Curtain Falls |
Zhen Xin stood motionless in the Void, her face a mask of shock.
"You're saying... the Flame of Hope is Ming Yu's true Benefactor?!"
Cheng Shi nodded, his voice heavy with emotion.
"Ever since I learned that the Flame of Hope would transform into a Container of Fate upon death, I began reexamining Its identity. And when I discovered that Fate had already fallen at the dawn of the era — that this era's Fate was nothing more than a role played by Deceit — I was finally able to connect all my suspicions.
I don't actually have any direct evidence proving that the Flame of Hope is the fallen Fate. I simply... looked back on the whole story from Deceit's perspective.
Void bound them together. Even though their time together was brief, theirs was a bond that transcended time.
Deceit watched His sibling god fall — He would never just let it go. Given His nature, even if the Origin was involved, He would have tried. After all, that was exactly what He was already doing.
And at that time, He still had a thread of the Origin's power left behind by Fate's prophecy.
So, if you were Deceit, what would you do?"
"Exactly! Resurrect Him.
I believe Deceit did try to bring Fate back. But a variable that had been excised by the Origin was hardly something so easily restored. So all He could do was use the Origin's power to gather everything that remained of Fate, and from it, create what now stands before us... the Flame of Hope.
That is precisely why the Flame of Hope, despite being a creation of Deceit, is considered an Envoy of Fate.
Deceit placed a portion of Fate's Change within the Flame of Hope — perhaps He was also entrusting His own hope for Fate's Change.
So I think it wasn't that Fate discarded the Change it could not accept. Quite the opposite — Deceit deliberately preserved Fate's Change. He wanted His sibling god to stop championing that so-called Fixed Destiny. But His sibling god could not be reborn, and the world — just as Fate had 'wished' — marched step by step toward the predetermined.
Fixed Destiny, in the end, cannot be defied.
Ha. Sometimes I even wonder whether Fate's prophecy had foreseen the world's future — perhaps even the sole path leading to it — and that is why Fate chose to 'embrace' the Origin at the dawn of the era, leaving His sibling to push the world toward its 'endpoint.' Otherwise..."
Watching Zhen Xin's eyes grow wider and her pupils contract smaller and smaller, Cheng Shi shook his head. "Forget it. Thinking about all this is meaningless.
Cluttered thoughts like these keep flooding my mind lately, giving me no peace.
I don't even know when the era will end. The sense of urgency pushes me forward, but it also makes me overlook certain things.
Thank you, Zhen Xin. And thank you all. I know everyone is working hard, trying to share the burden with me. But..."
"There is no 'but.'"
Zhen Xin set aside the shock on her face and smiled. "If even the gods couldn't control their own destinies, what chance does a mortal like you have?
Cheng Shi, everyone is doing this not just for you — it's for the world, and for themselves. Nobody is asking for a reward. But please, don't be so quick to dismiss..."
Cheng Shi smiled bitterly and shook his head. "I'm not dismissing anything. I'm grateful..."
"I know, but your keeping us at arm's length feels like dismissal.
The universe, top to bottom, is one body. You've already held up an entire sky. The remaining cracks — let us help with those.
As Zhen Yi would put it: 'While you're alive, you ought to do something that everyone will remember, right?'"
"...?"
The conversation had been perfectly heavy and normal until that moment, but the mention of Zhen Yi yanked Cheng Shi right out of the mood.
So was that the reason Zhen Yi became the universe's number-one jinx?
Making the world aware of her sister's existence, while also doing infamous things people would remember?
"..."
Cheng Shi shook his head and laughed in spite of himself, then said something cryptic. "But what if the world never finds out?"
Zhen Xin blinked, then a look of resolve flashed through her eyes. "Then forget what the world thinks. Just be true to your friends and yourself."
"And if there's no 'yourself' left?" Cheng Shi pressed, raising his gaze.
A radiant smile broke across Zhen Xin's face, full of longing.
"Then... it would be liberation, wouldn't it?"
"Liberation."
Cheng Shi rolled the word over and over in his mind, the smile on his face gradually widening. "Yes. Liberation. There will be liberation."
...
An Mingyu turned out to be a girl you could count on. Before Cheng Shi could even go looking for her, she came back on her own.
When Cheng Shi laid eyes on the black-dressed Blind One cradling the Container of Fate in her arms, a vivid scene from the False Curtain Call flashed through his mind once more:
The Flame of Hope igniting violently in the Void, its cold fire shrouding the universe. It stood within the flames, slowly fading away.
"You were never the kindling — you are the flame. The light that illuminates this world.
And I, called the Flame of Hope, am in truth the Kindling of Hope.
Ignite me. Take this light. With the world's final Change, seize a hope — for yourselves, for the world!"
Cheng Shi would never again have the chance to ignite the Flame of Hope, because An Mingyu had already brought hope's ember home.
Cheng Shi felt almost numb. He was beginning to lose all expression.
His gaze skimmed over the Container, then drifted toward the distance.
"It..."
An Mingyu held the Container of Fate against her chest, her shut eyes fixed on it with fierce intensity — in that moment, she looked exactly like a Prophet delivering a fate prophecy.
"It left.
It told me many things, and asked me to relay some of them to you.
It said that Deceit once asked It: 'Will I be forgiven for doing all of this?'
The Flame of Hope gave no answer at the time. But after a long silence, today's Flame of Hope gave me this answer:
'No matter what He did, at the very least He sheltered the passing of the flame, and He sheltered the Flame of Hope.
The fact that the Flame of Hope was able to burn in this era — that in itself is the best answer.'
I don't understand the deeper meaning, but I understand the word 'hope.' So let me ask you, Fate Weaver — does our world still have hope?"
Cheng Shi's expression didn't change. He nodded.
"It does. It absolutely does.
There's something you may not know. No matter how rough the road ahead, no matter how dire the present situation, the Flame of Hope will never go out — because It represents the survival instinct of the smallest minority, the last remaining hope of this world.
The only thing that could extinguish It is this: our world's hope growing large enough that Its protection is no longer needed..."
Silence fell over the scene. No one knew whether Cheng Shi was lying. No one dared assert he was right, either — after all, his own voice didn't sound entirely steady.
But Cheng Shi wasn't concerned about whether his message had landed properly. At that moment, his mind was on something else entirely:
Void... had taken its final bow at last.
The era hadn't yet reached its end, yet its two Void rulers had exited the stage early — an irrevocable curtain call.
But strangely, facing Void's departure, Cheng Shi found he wasn't as grief-stricken as he might have expected. He was silent for a moment, then looked at the Blind One, his face devoid of joy or sorrow.
"Did you see Sun Miao?"
An Mingyu shook her head.
"No. But I did see someone else.
Come with me. I'll take you to him."
"Where? To see whom?"
"To the depths of memory. The place where all memories are born."
...