Would staying alive definitely make things better?
Even mortals probably knew that staying alive would not necessarily make things better.
Then... putting it another way, would staying alive make it possible for things to get better?
For mortals, most of them would probably agree with that.
After all, to them, possibilities were endless. As long as they lived long enough, perhaps they could attain the future they longed for.
Yet none of that held true for second-rank beings.
Who said that staying alive meant one 'might get better'?
What utter nonsense.
It was entirely possible to keep someone alive while sealing off the path to a certain possible future, as though a wall had been built directly before them.
To second-rank beings, possibilities and spacetime were both a map 'spread flat' before their eyes. They could look upon that map and travel through it at will, without anything particularly remarkable happening.
But if a wall were built so they could not reach that possibility, it would be like locking someone in a cage. They might appear to be alive, but they would never be able to go anywhere beyond that cage.
Mortals might think that a second-rank being inside such a cage still possessed freedom, but that was only because the cage was simply too vast for them.
Just like those mortals living upon a planet.
They could not even step beyond the surface. The void of the universe and the speed of light imprisoned them, and they could never personally travel anywhere one light-year away.
Yet they still believed themselves free. They still believed they could go wherever they wished.
That was only because the planet's surface was already broad enough for them that they did not feel unfree.
To Yang Zhenqian, the mere possibility of surviving was far