Free Web NovelChapter 283: Chapter 281: Forever Free
Bai Zhou continued to smash the stone in his hand against the giant boulder.
The tremors grew increasingly violent.
Moreover, Mo Ling was shocked to find that under Bai Zhou’s blows, the previously unmovable boulder had actually begun to change.
The giant boulder was slowly getting bigger!
At first, the change was subtle, but then it began to expand faster and faster.
At the same time, the "immortal" character Mo Ling had carved expanded to an immense size along with the boulder. The small indentations he had originally cut had now become terrifying chasms.
The warm sunlight was instantly blotted out by the giant boulder.
Soon, everything Mo Ling could see was gradually enveloped in the boulder’s shadow.
Those things that had long since fallen apart were rapidly being swallowed by these bottomless chasms.
Mo Ling could no longer see the shape of the immortal character; he only felt that the giant chasms were pressing down on the entire world.
The sky had lost its light, leaving only a network of intersecting cracks.
The entire world was becoming a part of the immortal character!
Bai Zhou wanted to make the entire world immortal!
Mo Ling had only just realized this when he was devoured by the sweeping shadow and buried in the bottomless chasm.
All around him was the sound of howling wind. Mo Ling could vaguely sense countless shattered objects hurtling past.
Countless Black Shadows were swept into the chasm named "Immortal."
Mo Ling, too, sank into chaos, his senses a complete mess.
He could no longer tell if the chasm was pressing down on him or if he had fallen into endless darkness. He only felt that he was in a dark void.
’Have I become immortal, too?’
This absurd thought suddenly flashed through Mo Ling’s mind.
Unconsciously, he had been led astray by Bai Zhou’s strange words.
Mo Ling was jolted from the chaos only when he suddenly plunged into a soft, yielding liquid.
’Where is this?’
Mo Ling guessed he might have fallen into one of the disintegrating objects.
’It’s so calm here.’
As soon as he arrived, Mo Ling noticed something strange.
The outside world had clearly been swallowed by the chasms and lost its light, yet this liquid was a vast expanse of azure, as pure and beautiful as a sapphire.
Mo Ling felt as if he had seen this scene somewhere before.
He quickly remembered.
’This looks like... the "sea" I saw in the fish school’s memories.’
The "sea" of words.
Mo Ling watched in disbelief for a long time before slowly confirming it.
This was that sea!
Because that sea was so unique, and Mo Ling had "seen" it with his own eyes, it wasn’t hard to recognize.
It seemed to be the sea from Bai Zhou’s memories, which had also fallen into the chasm when everything disintegrated.
As a memory, this sea was of course incredibly pure, just like the one in the texts, without any impurities.
’But why would the sea from Bai Zhou’s memory become the sea where the school of fish was born?’
’Could there be a problem with time again?’
Since Bai Zhou’s world was already detached from reality, Mo Ling had no way of knowing if time here corresponded to time in the real world.
’Or maybe... this isn’t that sea, but just one that’s very similar?’
While Mo Ling was still confused, he saw a figure appear in the distance.
The person was sitting unsupported in the water, fiddling with something.
Mo Ling hurried closer, only to realize the person was Bai Zhou.
At that moment, Bai Zhou was muttering to himself:
"Disciple, do you know why I taught you *Free and Easy Wandering* first?"
"Because that is your master’s dream—to roam freely between heaven and earth."
"But, my disciple, I don’t know if the Kunpeng that flies in the sky is truly free..."
"It is so heavy. It must ride the wind, bear the weight of the blue sky, be swept up in the world’s swirling dust, and be entangled by the breaths of countless living beings."
"If the Kunpeng did not bear these burdens, it could never use the wind to fly. This is its price, one it cannot escape."
"From the heavens, I wonder if the Kunpeng often sees the devastation below, the land littered with the starving dead? I wonder if, like your master, it often smells the scent of scorched earth lingering in the air?"
"Disciple, do you think the Kunpeng cares about these things? Would the Soul Spirits also entangle it, lock up its heart, and prevent it from ever being free? And if so, what should it do then?"
Bai Zhou rambled on, his face filled with confusion.
Mo Ling wanted to reach out and shake him awake, but his hand froze in mid-air.
It seemed Bai Zhou didn’t want to wake up.
"Disciple, tell me, if one truly lived forever, would anything still have meaning? Twenty-two hundred years and a single instant... there seems to be no difference."
After asking this question, Bai Zhou fell silent.
His hands moved, molding something unseen, as the confusion on his face slowly vanished, replaced by a clear and calm expression.
"Disciple, you always asked me what my ideal of an ’immortal’ was."
"It’s shameful to admit, but your master didn’t know either. I used to think the Kunpeng was immortal, that the great Chun tree was immortal. But after the disaster that befell our clan, the immortal in my heart ceased to exist."
"But now, I think I understand a little."
"Disciple, you were right, actually. The carefree little fish, that is immortal. Unburdened by anything, it doesn’t fly high, so it won’t be entangled by the Soul Spirits from below..."
"They were right. I just want to escape. I’ve always wanted to escape, to run far, far away. I even wanted to pretend I knew nothing, saw nothing. But I have seen."
"I am the Kunpeng flying in the sky. I saw everything clearly..."
As Bai Zhou’s hands moved, he actually molded a small fish.
"Now, I’m going to escape. I’m going to become a little fish that knows nothing, free and unburdened."
Bai Zhou cradled the lifelike Little Fish in his hands. It was the most carefree thing in his memory, and it was also the last thing he would create for this world.
"Forgive me, disciple. I’m running away. I’m sorry."
"I won’t be the Kunpeng anymore..."
As Bai Zhou spoke his trembling words, his figure began to blur, gradually melting into the azure sea.
Soon, he vanished without a trace, and the Little Fish in his hands fell into the water.
The Little Fish clumsily moved its body and began to swim.
It flicked its tail, seemingly not noticing Mo Ling beside it. After a moment’s hesitation, it swam straight off into the distance.
Seeing this familiar scene, Mo Ling felt a sudden jolt.
’This is the birth of the school of fish!’
’Bai Zhou is the origin of the school of fish?’
Watching the Little Fish swim away, a sudden impulse rose in Mo Ling’s heart—he wanted to kill it.
However, with his teleportation frame aimed at the Little Fish, Mo Ling couldn’t bring himself to act.
He hesitated.
’Would killing it really be better?’
A question arose in Mo Ling’s mind.
In an instant, everything that had happened on Fishman Island began to replay rapidly in Mo Ling’s mind:
Twenty-two hundred years of being half-awake, half-dreaming.
Twenty-two hundred years of continuous hatred.
Twenty-two hundred years of a civilization’s struggle.
...
The school of fish trapped on the island, the Chali Race, the new Fishman Race, the never-dissipating dense fog, and the moon that repeated itself time and time again.
All of it trapped Mo Ling like a set of shackles.
His thoughts were in chaos.
In the silent sea, Mo Ling seemed to once again hear Bai Zhou’s ramblings:
"I am the Kunpeng flying in the sky. I saw everything clearly..."
