Chapter 910: The Third Type of Causality Weapon |
What the music civilization had said instead gave rise to even more questions in Xiao Yu’s mind.
“No existence can directly come out and destroy me? Nor can any existence directly come out to help me? Then how did the Rebel Alliance take action against me, and aren’t you directly helping me by coming here yourselves?” Xiao Yu asked.
“If the Rebel Alliance were to directly come forward and destroy you, then even though you are already a Level 7 Civilization, for them it would still be a very simple matter.” The music civilization spoke in a chiming tone, still as if singing, with a moving melody hidden within it. “We came here only to give you certain hints to help you walk out of this restricted circle. We also are not permitted to directly act and rescue you.”
“Fine then.” Xiao Yu shook his head and suppressed all his doubts in his heart. After all, for now, leaving this place was the most important thing. “What kind of hint can you give me?”
“We already gave you the hint.” The music civilization spoke, once again narrating in that wondrous melody, “Near my home there lives a strange youth…”
“This is our hint.” the music civilization said. “The Rebel Alliance has blocked you here in order to delay the time at which you arrive at the Feiyuan Galaxy. Our purpose is also simple, to help you escape this restriction as soon as possible and reach the Feiyuan Galaxy as soon as possible. In the Feiyuan Galaxy, there are still many things waiting for you to do… We are leaving now. If you can successfully escape this cage, you may come to the companion galaxy of this quasar to find us. We will wait for you there for one thousand years… If you have still not arrived after one thousand years, then we will leave…”
“That is all. Farewell…” In the music civilization’s message, the ethereal flavor became ever stronger, the voice lower and lower, increasingly faint and hard to detect. Within this indistinctness, Xiao Yu seemed to sense something.
“O boundless dark universe, you are our homeland. Among endless stars, there lies our dream. Do you still remember when you first left the shelter of your star and began your maiden voyage in confusion and uncertainty? All this unknown filled you with fear and panic. O brave lives, bravely continue your journey. Here there is vast heaven and earth for you to soar through, though there will also be destruction and storm. After passing through all of this, you will discover that paradise lies ahead of you. You must remember, never despair, never despair…”
This music civilization actually left just like that. They remained here for less than an hour before drifting away, just like certain reclusive sages of legend. Only the lingering song continued to echo in Xiao Yu’s mind.
Within this melody there seemed to be a power that inspired confidence, encouraged people to strive upward, and never give up, making one unconsciously cast aside all sorrow, grief, and despair. Xiao Yu knew that the music civilization was encouraging him, encouraging him never to abandon hope and never to despair.
“Is the music civilization an interest-based civilization?” Xiao Yu thought somewhat doubtfully. “That much is beyond question. It is just that they also seem very powerful… They also possess extremely strong war potential. This seems somewhat different from the forms of existence of the microscopic civilization and the Architectural Civilization.”
“Judging from the information this music civilization has revealed, although their words also cannot be fully trusted, the possibility of a third-party force existing has already greatly increased, and the one that has always been sheltering me seems to be this third-party force, the so-called Spokesperson… Because the universe sensed the Guardian of the Way’s arrangements in the unseen, the Spokesperson was born? And what exactly is the Completion Plan? If I am a product of the Guardian of the Way’s Completion Plan, then when I broke through the Level 7 barrier, why did the Guardian of the Way come forward to stop me? Or… perhaps the one that stopped me was not the Guardian of the Way at all, but the rebels? And the one who appeared and changed the speed of light, lowering it by five hundred and twenty-one micrometers, was not the rebels either, but the Spokesperson?”
Countless thoughts surged and rolled through Xiao Yu’s mind, yet in the end they still failed to produce any result. For Xiao Yu, there were still many mists lingering in his mind. After a while, Xiao Yu sighed once more. “I should first think about how to leave this place. The music civilization said they would wait for me in the companion galaxy for one thousand years. Reaching the companion galaxy is expected to take me six hundred years, which means I still have four hundred years to break through this restriction. Once I find the music civilization, I imagine they will clear up many of my doubts.”
“Strange youth… is this the hint you gave me? But what exactly does it mean?”
Xiao Yu calmed himself and let every word in this song circulate through his mind, analyzing them one by one, trying to decipher the mystery hidden behind them.
“Why does this strange youth’s hair grow shorter and shorter? He cut off his arm, so why is the arm still on his body? After eating his fill, why is his stomach still flat with hunger? Why are there so many contradictions? And also… what connection does all this have to the environment I am in now?”
“The music civilization very likely already knows what exactly this thing or mechanism is that has trapped me here. It is unlikely they came all this way merely to amuse themselves by toying with me. What they said carries a high degree of credibility. Then the key to my escape from this restriction is also very likely hidden within this strange youth.”
No matter how much goodwill this music civilization had displayed, Xiao Yu still could not completely trust them. This was the lesson of nearly two hundred thousand years of wandering in the dark universe. No matter what civilization he faced, Xiao Yu would never fully trust them. That was true when facing the Architectural Civilization, and it was equally true when facing the music civilization. Perhaps in the future, even if Xiao Yu truly met this so-called Spokesperson, met the existence calling herself Chen Mo, before completely and thoroughly understanding everything, Xiao Yu still would not fully trust Chen Mo.
This was a very tragic thing, yet it was precisely because of this that Xiao Yu had managed to make it safely this far despite repeated dangers.
For the moment, Xiao Yu set aside his worries about his current situation and began to focus entirely on deciphering the meaning of this message.
“Strange youth… why is this youth strange? It is because ‘everything upheld in this world is reversed when it comes to you.’ What does ‘everything upheld in this world’ refer to here? Is it referring to Rules? And this seems to point toward causality… According to normal logic, because ‘the hair is growing,’ it ought to become longer and longer, but this strange youth’s hair becomes shorter and shorter as it grows. Because ‘he ate his fill,’ his stomach ought to bulge out, but this strange youth’s stomach remains flat with hunger even after eating his fill. Because ‘he turned on the lamp,’ the room ought to become bright, but after he turned on the lamp, the room remained pitch black…”
“There is a very high probability that causality has been reversed in this youth. The cause exists, but the effect has been reversed.”
“If I apply this situation to myself, should it mean that because I have ‘made countless attempts to leave here,’ and from every standpoint I ought already to have left, I should now have broken through the restriction, but I have not? Is this our common point? Has causality also been reversed in me?”
A chill suddenly ran through Xiao Yu’s heart. Xiao Yu thought of a possibility that had a very high chance of already being close to reality.
“The rebels attacked me using a causality weapon. They reversed causality, so that although I created the cause of leaving here, I cannot obtain the effect of leaving here… It is precisely because of this that I am trapped here, no matter what, unable to leave…” Xiao Yu steadied his mind slightly and continued thinking. “Another causality weapon…”
Xiao Yu believed that what he was thinking had a high likelihood of being true, because it could perfectly explain everything he was currently encountering. Moreover, this was something a ancient Level 8 Civilization had specifically come to tell him.
“But… are these things really meaningful?” Xiao Yu thought somewhat blankly. “Even if everything I have inferred is true, so what? I still do not know how to counter a causality weapon, or in other words, a philosophical weapon. In the song sung by the music civilization, they only described the situation this strange youth encountered, but did not explain how this strange youth solved his problem. This strange youth did not ultimately solve the problem, so where am I supposed to learn the method for countering a causality weapon?”
“And moreover, the causality weapon I am currently facing, it should belong to the third type of causality weapon. It is not the same as the causality weapon possessed by the Guardian Civilization. The method to counter this kind of causality weapon may not necessarily work against the Guardian Civilization’s causality weapon. Likewise, the method I conceived to counter the Guardian Civilization’s first type of causality weapon would not apply to the third type of causality weapon I am encountering now.”
“Or perhaps this is another test? The music civilization only told me what kind of situation I am facing now, while the method of solving it still requires me to think it through and find it myself…”