Some People Die, Yet They Still Live

Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng thought for a long time, then laughed heartily. He cupped his hands in a bow and said, "Today, a God has descended to the world to resolve the doubts of the human race. With your words, the future of my Blessing Shaman Kingdom is assured. Now that I can die, I can rest in peace!"

"The words have been spoken; the Three Questions and Three Answers are complete."

Zhu Zhengwei sipped his tea in silence.

He knew that this paranoid and fanatical man had held onto a pure dream since his youth, back when he first pushed for reform. Today, he had finally chosen to drown while clutching that very dream.

Once the tea in his cup was finished, Zhu Zhengwei stood up and strolled away, surrounded by a holy white light. Suddenly, his figure spoke softly: "Wasting the body to forge the holy scroll, bowing the head to ask the Immortal of the Heavens. Sacrificing the self to enter the kingdom, who says the Emperor dies when the Heavens remain?"

In the end, he rode a streak of five-colored rosy clouds and ascended into the sky.

Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng stood alone before the tea shed, his body standing tall like an ancient pine.

Soon, he summoned his guards and the royal historian, saying calmly:

"I speak, you write."

"Yes!"

A historian respectfully raised his brush.

"Today, I met with a God, and we exchanged Three Questions and Three Answers."

"The Blessing Shaman empire, established upon the Continent Surrounded by Ten Thousand Seas, the Country That Swallows Wind and Drinks Qi, begins with me."

Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng continued to speak, his voice filled with the domineering aura of a conqueror. He stood silently, overlooking the Royal City in the distance. As he spoke, he seemed to be reviewing his recent words, his eyes filled with a myriad of emotions that moved the soul.

Whoosh.

The rosy cloud qi on his body gradually dissipated completely.

It drifted away in colorful wisps, like a cloud fairy waving her ribbons.

At this moment, all the Immortal Herbs gazed at the back of the tall, elderly man, feeling the unprecedented, crushing weight of history, and could not help but be overwhelmed with emotion.

The Human Emperor's three questions and the God's three answers were truly classic.

Every word and phrase was full of twists and turns, exquisite and peerless. One could ponder them carefully, as this felt like a magnificent mythological epic—a dialogue between a God from the ancient era and the first Human Emperor of the mortal world.

The collision of the immense auras of the two men sitting under the tea shed had already left them feeling stirred to their cores!

Every question and answer was like the climax of a film, leaving the onlookers intoxicated!

If compared to the history of Earth's civilization, it was no less than an Immortal from the heavens descending to meet the first Human Emperor of Huaxia, the Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor.

Someone suddenly recalled an allusion and exclaimed:

"When the Yellow Emperor ascended the throne, he bestowed grace and followed the Heavens. He cultivated virtue and practiced benevolence. Peace reigned under the heavens. He had not yet seen a Phoenix, but he pondered its image. He would wake at dawn and sleep at dusk, and thus he summoned Tian Lao to ask him!"

As the crowd listened to the grand, ancient record, it seemed somewhat similar to what they were witnessing.

Sunset approached.

The sun had only a sliver of its radiance left.

Everything appeared very quiet, with only the rustling of the wind and the faint, delicate sounds of the swaying Immortal Herbs, as if they were whispering of the vicissitudes and fleeting nature of time.

As the sun set, time ticked away second by second.

"This is truly a beautiful day; I have no regrets in this life." As Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng finished his final word, his aura completely collapsed, and he let out a hearty laugh.

When the historian finished recording the dialogue in silence and looked up, he saw Stone Light Emperor Zhizheng sitting in the chair at the tea shed, no longer breathing. The old man's eyes, even in death, were still fixed firmly across the sea—toward the location of the Wall of Ten Thousand Stones, toward the ocean beyond the world, toward the vast expanse the God had described.

The historian's pupils dilated, and he was completely stunned.

"The King... has fallen." He scrambled away, running frantically to notify all the ministers of the royal court.

Around the edges of the tea shed, the temple stood still, and the world seemed to have fallen into absolute silence. There was no more sound; in the entire space, there remained only a King who had died of old age and a multitude of swaying Immortal Herbs.

They, too, were stunned. Having witnessed such a magnificent dialogue, they felt their eyes grow red and their hearts heavy with complex emotions.

"I suddenly remembered that post, the perspective of that wild grass at the tea shed. The traveler under the sunset that day, his eyes always radiating longing. That year, when he was a revolutionary leader, he spoke with the man with the tear mole, full of spirit, just like that line: 'In the days of youth, dressed in fine clothes and riding a spirited horse, one glance at all the flowers in Chang'an!'"

"I remember that other scene later on—when he, who had unified the Slave Dynasty but felt immense despair, discovered that wild grass on the tea shed and eventually consumed it. This weak mortal, who dared to draw his blade against the False God monarchs of three kingdoms, continued the path of the previous Slave Emperor and ultimately walked toward his own destiny!"

"Wuwuwu!"

"In the blink of an eye, the scene remains the same. He is already a mythological emperor who has shaken the world. He is still in the tea shed; he has grown old, he has passed on, yet the God remains, and the tea shed is as it was back then."

"I have seen his entire life."

"Wuwuwu! This is filled with destiny and reincarnation!"

"We are all but dust in the long river of history!"

They were suddenly filled with a thousand thoughts.

Some people die, yet they still live.

Some, like Stone Light Emperor Changheng, ride on the heads of the people to act as tyrants, while others bow their heads to serve the people as beasts of burden.

Some, like Stone Light Emperor Changshou, want to carve their names into stone, wanting to be "immortal," while others prefer to be wild grass, waiting for the fire beneath the earth to burn.

Some could have lived much longer, yet they chose to lead by example, accepting their lives as humans and facing the most tragic thing that everyone in this world must face: birth, old age, sickness, and death.

Even though he was so unwilling, he chose to accept such a sorrowful fate.

"Wasting the body to forge the holy scroll, bowing the head to ask the Immortal of the Heavens. Sacrificing the self to enter the kingdom, who says the Emperor dies when the Heavens remain?" someone suddenly spoke, chewing on the True God's Poem just now, feeling only the magnificent, epic, and heroic spirit of the common people pursuing immortality!

Perhaps his body had withered and his soul dissipated, but his spirit had become a true immortal.

"The one who sacrificed his body enters the kingdom; who dares say the Emperor has passed and Heaven is gone?" Someone began to repeat.

Others felt their eyes redden, crying out in grief. Wishing they had a roll of tissue nearby to wipe away tears shed for a drama far more epic than any myth, they could not help but follow suit:

"The one who sacrificed his body enters the kingdom; who dares say the Emperor has passed and Heaven is gone?" The essence of humanity is to be a repeater.

Rumble!

The sound waves rolled.

Within the Immortal Pool, they suddenly fell silent, then simultaneously chanted that very line. The surging sound waves rolled across heaven and earth, seeing off this great sage.

The ministers who had rushed over stared blankly at the scene.

They found themselves witnessing an incredibly miraculous and dreamlike spectacle.

The old man's remains were surrounded by the Qi of the "Cloud and Mist Qi Sea," the Origin of Humanity. It surged like a Huge Wave, layer upon layer, as if a harmonious, celestial hymn were being sung to send off this great Human Emperor.

Inside the Immortal Pool, the Immortal Herbs swayed in unison, and an inexplicable, fragmented melody rose and fell with the wild grass.

The sound grew increasingly massive, resounding throughout the City of a Hundred Stones, passing over hills, fields, and deserts. It seemed to ring in the ears of every subject, sounding like mourning, like a eulogy, like a lament.

Everyone inexplicably raised their heads, hearing this mysterious holy song.

In the vast ocean.

The remaining Immortal Herbs, those not present at the scene of the six hundred, also began to chant, repeating that same line: "The one who sacrificed his body enters the kingdom; who dares say the Emperor has passed and Heaven is gone?"

These Immortal Herbs wanted to leave something behind for this era.

They wanted to prove they had once witnessed it, to prove that although they were mere Onlookers in this Mortal World, they had once been here.

Boom!

All one thousand Immortal Herbs entered a certain frequency. As the thousand cornerstones of the entire world, they actually began to vibrate the world in a special way.

A faint, ethereal hymn drifted down from the sky, spreading to every corner of the world: the Seaside Ghost Country, the Bronze Country, every town, and every desolate land.

Under a large banyan tree.

An old man was playing chess.

Residents of the surrounding buildings pushed open their windows and stepped out of their homes in unison.

They only felt a string snap within their hearts; a towering existence had fallen, causing heaven and earth to be tinged with a layer of sorrow.

The old man looked up and could not help but laugh, "Incredible, simply incredible! Those Immortal Herbs actually hold such secrets—sensing the people of the world, listening to the affairs of the world. How many mysteries are there in this Mortal World that one cannot help but explore?"

In the endless ocean.

A luxurious and magnificent Undersea Kingdom was under construction.

A colossal creature with a massive shadow raised its head and surfaced.

It seemed to see a light shining above the clouds of that continent—a holy, white light that seemed to pierce through the night sky as dusk approached.

"That is??" She was stunned.

"So beautiful."

"So, the Man with the Tear Mole has come to this world once again." She closed her eyes gently, as if listening to the wind.

Throughout the City of a Hundred Stones of the kingdom, all the Qi Consumers and Blessing Shamans knelt down one after another, chanting loudly.

"That is Qi!"

"This is the Evening Glow Qi!"

"No! That is the Immortal Herbs speaking, seeing off this towering Emperor of our human race!"

"Future history shall record: At the death of the sage, the heavens showed omens, the God saw him off, the Immortal Herbs sang in grief, all things mourned, and the common people wept!"