The light gradually dimmed, and the transparent stone arm turned back to stone, leaving only that baffling line of text.
"Human nature..." Du Yu murmured. "So many times in the Legends, I claimed I would 'save all living beings under heaven.' Were these the people I was saving?"
His face looked strange, his expression unreadable.
It took the old man a long time to recover. He asked Du Yu, "Young fellow, just what do you do?"
"Sir... I..." Du Yu shook his head helplessly. "To be honest, I don't know what I do anymore either... It feels as though so many things have lost their meaning..."
The old man stared at Du Yu's expression, froze for a long moment, then reached out with his rough hand and swiftly slapped him across the face.
Smack!
The slap wasn't hard, but it startled Du Yu.
The old man asked worriedly, "Young fellow, have you snapped out of it?"
"Snapped out...?" Du Yu held his cheek and looked at the old man in confusion.
"Yeah! You were bewitched just now! Staring blankly, talking to yourself-you were definitely bewitched!" The old man pointed at the writing on the wall. "Don't fall for this great immortal's tricks! How did a few little illusions put you under its spell? I ran into all those great immortals in the mountains just now and didn't get scared. You're made of awfully weak stuff!"
As though something had occurred to him, Du Yu slowly nodded.
"Sir... I think you have a point..." He looked up at the writing on the wall again, a trace of hesitation in his voice. "'He' wants to shake my resolve, hoping I'll give up moving forward. In that case, all the more reason not to give him what he wants..."
"Hey! That's right, that's