Ye Yan simply smiled, his fingertips gently tracing the warm surface of the cup. "Guess... how he described ' Elation '?"
The comical mask froze in mid-air, then suddenly loomed close to Ye Yan's face, its empty eye sockets seeming to spew forth sparks of Curiosity.
" Aha ~ Tell me quickly! Aha really wants to know what others think of Aha!"
Ye Yan sipped the amber liquid in his glass, his gaze fixed on a non-existent focal point in the void, as if recalling fragments of that Remembrance, his voice tinged with amusement:
He said, " Elation? That's just another futile attempt to break through the cold wall of ' Eternity '."
"Hmm?" The Fool's Mask tilted its head.
Ye Yan mimicked the scholar's cold and clear tone, " At that Anaxa believed that the very existence of Titan called ' Elation ' was absurd enough."
"Practitioners of ' Elation,' literally speaking, only use extreme sensory stimulation to fill the enormous emptiness caused by the finiteness of life."
Every burst of laughter, every revelry, every pursuit of " Elation " is essentially a fierce resistance to and a temporary forgetting of " Nihility."
"They used noise to combat silence, color to paint over Nihility," using near-hysterical joy to numb their fear of "death" and " Eternity."
Ye Yan paused, his gaze seemingly frozen for a moment as he looked at the exaggerated curve on the mask.
"I would describe it as... a kind of 'refined escapism'." Ye Yan's voice was calm, yet every word was clear.
"Um?"
The mask tilted its head slightly, as if it already knew what Ye Yan was about to say.
"A way of proving one's 'life' by constantly creating noise in the 'now' under the shadow of ' Eternity '."
"However, in his view, this endless pursuit of ' Elation ' is precisely an acknowledgment of the irresistible weight of ' Eternity.'"
"Because we cannot defeat ' Eternity,' we can only try to temporarily blind ourselves to it by using flashes of light and noise in the shadow it casts."
"Good heavens! How did they manage to belittle Aha so much! Aha has really lost face!"
Ye Yan looked at Hong Wen's mask with a smile. Aha was getting better too; he could actually be compared to " Eternity " and " Nihility."
"Ha?"
The Fool's Mask suddenly emitted a short, strange syllable, as if it were choked or in disbelief.
The pile of milk tea he was holding wobbled, and several cups almost slipped off.
"Wait a minute, Aha seems to have realized something. He said Aha's followers are... are...?"
The masked voice gradually shifted from shock to an offended excitement.
"Escape? Aha ~ This idea... this idea... Aha, I just love it! Hahahahahaha!"
The mask burst into a deafening laugh, then rolled around wildly on the sofa, clutching the milk tea, the red leather creaking under the weight.
"Funny, so very fun!"
"So harsh, so incredibly harsh!"
"So clear-headed... so clear-headed!" the masked man exclaimed in unison.
"To see through the Path of ' Elation ' so clearly, Aha, you're really embarrassing yourself... Waaaaah~"
"Refined escapism, using noise to combat silence... isn't that obvious?"
The masked man originally intended to offer a sharp critique, but doing so was simply too unfunny.
So, the mask continued its praise mode:
"Genius, what a mockery of a genius! It's a shame this guy isn't in the ' Genius Society.' Aha should write that piece of scrap metal a letter of recommendation."
"Your handwriting is terrible, let's just forget about it," Ye Yan said.
The mask ignored these words.
" Aha's affection for him has reached its peak, even more than for milk tea! Waaaaah~ I'm so touched I could cry!"
He laughed and faked crying at the same time, his movements exaggerated like a marionette out of control.
Then, the mask suddenly flew up, almost touching Ye Yan's face:
"And then what? Putting aside Aha, he called ' Eternity ' 'a cold wall,' and you didn't react at all?" The masked voice was full of anticipation, as if he were watching a good show.
Ye Yan maintained his calm and composed expression, but deep within his eyes, it seemed as if countless stars were slowly moving along a predetermined trajectory.
He gently swirled the glass in his hand; the amber liquid left a brief mark on the glass before slowly flowing away.
Where does this idea come from?
Ye Yan's voice was flat and emotionless, as if he were talking about distant stardust that had nothing to do with him.
He merely pointed out the insignificant nature of " Elation " in the face of " Eternity."
Ye Yan slightly turned his head, looked at the Fool's Mask beside him who was in a state of ecstasy, and a very faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
That curve held no warmth, only a profound and all-knowing indifference.
"And..." he added, his voice as soft as a sigh, "What he said is also true."
"What do you mean, looking down on Aha, huh!" Masked Man threw a cup of milk tea at him.
Ye Yan caught the milk tea smoothly and said calmly, "My friend, when have you ever had any face, except at ' Dual-Phase Paradise '?"
"Waaaa~ After hearing that, Aha couldn't find a single point to refute it!"
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, never underestimate a poor Aha!"
Meanwhile, the Grove of Epiphany the " Whispering Woods "
Hall of Philia, Dan Heng Hyacine were still searching for information about that Anaxa.
Dan Heng first found a document about several research projects applied for by scholars of the " Goat School," and the responses from the school's scholars to these projects...
Project 1: To investigate the discovery that many mythical creatures known for their long lifespans actually live in places where the records of their births and deaths are poorly managed.
The response was: lacking research significance, approval is not granted at this time.
Project 2: There are real plants in the Grove mimicking the growth trend of the nearby Dryad; research application requested.
It has still not been approved. The reason given is that this is the research direction of other schools of thought.
Dan Heng flipped through the pages, and the topics that followed became increasingly varied, but the answers remained the same.
"This perseverance... hopefully it will help him survive the Black Tide."
Soon after, Hyacine returned to Dan Heng's side, and the two of them began to read through the letters of complaint from the scholars against Anaxagoras, the " Blasphemer," which had accumulated into a thick stack.
"Cough cough, so much dust... Are these all the complaint letters he received?"
"Judging from the accumulated dust and the intact packaging, the person complained against never opened them and simply discarded them in a corner," Dan Heng analyzed.
"Even without opening it, you know it must contain something like, ' That Anaxa was disrespectful to the gods; his very existence is a threat to social Order '..."