Where is this?
Bai Ya touched his chest. His skin and clothes were intact, and it didn't look like he had been stabbed by a knife. His knife was also very clean, without a drop of blood on it. He looked at the ground and the sky, feeling that he could not describe what he saw. They are a chaotic black mass, but they are not pure black either. It feels like some... strange colors are slowly changing. It's like a person closing one eye, opening the other, and then using the open eye to see the vision of the closed eye. I couldn’t tell what I saw, but at least I knew I wasn’t blind. But the fact that he was the only one who could see him in the vast chaos made him feel suffocatingly small and lonely. He was struggling.
This is... the way of heaven? Not like that, not at all. Although he had never been to Tiandao and didn't know what it was like, he felt that it shouldn't be this kind of place. So could this be another place in the Six Paths... No matter how many steps he took, he felt like he was spinning in circles with no way out. What is this? Is there still a chance to get out? Bai Ya was confused and headache-especially about the fact that he was still alive. If he is really dead, is this place... Hades?
"woke up?"
It was a voice that was close at hand. Its appearance was not abrupt, it was as natural as an idea emerging in one's heart. Even so, Bai Ya still felt a certain degree of surprise. Of course, anyone would be surprised.
"Long story short, this is the rift of the Six Paths."
"Six spiritual veins?" Bai Ya asked, "Am I trapped here?"
"Yes." The voice answered simply.
Whether it's this abrupt, gender-neutral voice or Bai Ya's own voice, they all seem just right in this environment. The sound will not reverberate because the space is too small, nor will it be swallowed up because it is too wide.
"Who are you?"
"The Lord of Naraku."
"..."
Bai Ya felt that the voice was joking with him.
Perhaps he was used to seeing grand scenes of gods, but now his meeting with Yama, who claimed to be a legendary figure, the boss of Hades, and the Lord of Naraku, turned out to be so... out of character. It was hard for him to believe what this person said, but other than that, there seemed to be no one more worthy of belief.
"Then you - why are you in a place like this?" He asked suspiciously, "Shouldn't you be in Hades?"
It is said that Hades is located somewhere between the human realm and the hell realm. But they are all rumors, no one has seen it, and those who have seen it may not be able to come back. Bai Ya was not interested in all this.
"I'm in Hades, so I can't come to see you. I can hear the voice, and that's enough."
Bai Ya frowned slightly. He really couldn't associate this male-non-female voice with Yama Demon. The voice could not be said to be pleasant or unpleasant, but it also did not remind him of anyone he had ever seen. It's clearly something I've never heard before, but it doesn't feel strange. Of course, I don’t know where I am. It's as if there is a magic in this voice that makes you inherently have this kind of recognition, which is somewhat deliberate. It is neither repellent nor relatable.
It is...a simple fact, simply existing.
"...I can hear it. But what do you mean? I should be dead. Besides, I don't trust your identity."
The other party didn't reply, and I don't know if he was angry. But in front of its eyes, a strange color suddenly appeared, small, like a seed. Then it spread quickly - in a way Bai Ya couldn't understand. It's like flowers blooming or paint spreading in a dye vat. Some very conflicting colors sway, flutter, and spread in the eyes, one after another. Finally, his entire environment became indescribably colorful and bizarre. He felt a little dizzy and tried to take two steps back. Each step caused the surrounding color blocks to move with him, making him dizzy. He had to stand there and watch the collision and expansion of the warm and cold colors without any transition.
Then, those colors condensed into an outline. A rabbit-like color block swayed in front of him and jumped towards him. It also moves like a rabbit - but it's certainly not a rabbit.
Rabbit spoke. Parts of its mouth are split bright red.
"Bai Shaoxia Bai Shaoxia!" Its voice was exactly the same as before, but the tone was urgent, "Are you afraid if you are here alone?"
Bai Ya felt baffled. He squatted down and looked at this strange "rabbit". But he still answered:
"Don't be afraid. I should be dead already. The dead are nothing to be afraid of."
"The dead are much more afraid of." The little rabbit waved his front paws, and his scarlet mouth opened and closed. "You have to worry about where you will be reincarnated in the next life, or whether it will be in the human world; if you are in the human world, will you be able to be born in the human world?" A good family; if the memory disappears, how many regrets will I have; if the obsession was too heavy during my lifetime, I will feel lonely even if I am a ghost."
Bai Ya shook his head: "It's nothing to be afraid of. It's just that I'm too tired to be born as a human being. I don't want to die. Although I may look like... I actually didn't do anything. But the human world is really boring."
After that, he reached out his hand and tried to touch its head. The outline of this rabbit has no eyes except for its mouth. But before he touched the rabbit, it suddenly "broken", and the broken parts turned into the shape of a butterfly and flew behind him. Bai Ya stood up and turned around, watching its graceful figure fall to the ground, and suddenly a huge horse emerged.
The horse spoke. Its mouth is blue and it has no eyes.
"Well...don't you want to be reincarnated? If you really think so, it's not surprising." Its voice did not change, but its tone was much calmer, and it was a bit verbose, "But reincarnation, reincarnation, there is nothing wrong with it. After all, You have forgotten everything about your life, why do you care so much, it’s all a new beginning anyway… maybe your fate this time is not bad.”
"Living is troublesome." Bai Ya spread his hands, "I'm not saying this because I'm afraid of suffering. The joys and sorrows are decided by the people involved. But I just find it boring. People have various reasons I die for various reasons and live for various reasons. Don’t I hope that everyone can live and work in peace and contentment, and that the world will be peaceful and prosperous. Good weather and peace for the country and the people are indeed what I look forward to. But I am just one person - I am alone, I tried my best to make the biggest changes in my life. In the end, nothing got better, and I didn’t even save myself.”
Ma tilted her head and said nothing. Bai Ya stretched out his hand tentatively again, and it suddenly shrank and turned into a mouse with a long tail. The mouse crawled up his trouser legs, leaving white paint-like traces on the fabric as it ran. It stood on Bai Ya's shoulder and opened its mouth, which was also white. It also has no eyes.
"I see you lived a full life!" it chirped. "You saved many people!"
"I...ah, that's too bad." Bai Ya suddenly remembered something, "I wonder what's going on in the human world now. Do I...do I prevent the appearance of 'Heaven'? If not, wouldn't all this be..."
"I did it, I did it." The mouse ran from his left shoulder to his right shoulder, and he turned his head, "You live in the myth that everyone praises. Many people spurn you, you killed their faith; many people admire you , as a god-slayer, as a knight, as a human being. Ah, I forgot to mention that in the gap between heaven and earth, time flows much faster than in the human world. We can chat here for two quarters of an hour, and it will take more than ninety hours in the human world. ! Your friends have left. Lord Yingyue told the court, and the court sent a boat to take them home."
"...Really?" He breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know whether he was happy for his friends or glad that the world had not yet been destroyed.
The mouse jumped to the ground and turned into a fish. It spiraled around him and had no eyes.
"Wait a minute, that Aoyan is still..."
The fish stopped, as if thinking about something or hesitating. It opened its mouth and its mouth was green. The fish said lazily:
"Well...how about you go and see for yourself." The fish slowly swam again, "There's nothing to say."
"Can I still go back?" Bai Ya asked.
He didn't know whether he felt happy or sad at the moment. His heart was empty and he just said whatever came to his mind. The fish swam higher than his head and suddenly plunged into the ground. What finally emerged slowly was the outline of a humanoid, similar in size to Bai Ya, but he couldn't tell whether he was male or female.
It has no mouth.
At this time, all the mottled colors in the background quickly gathered at its feet, as if the figure suddenly absorbed the entire landscape. Everything returned to the original darkness, a darkness that looked like darkness, but was not darkness.
It opens its eyes all over. There are all kinds of shapes, big and small, nothing that does not exist in the world, nothing that this human form does not have.
Bai Ya took a step back.
The original voice came again, toneless and emotionless.
"Do you regret it?"
"I don't regret it." Although he was afraid, he didn't hesitate at all.
"Names - names are like a plague, spreading to every corner of the world. The world's praise and criticism are the talk of tea and dinner, and are completely unaware of its savior. Admiration, love and hatred constitute the only symptoms of this plague."
"Then I don't regret it. What others say has anything to do with me?"
The figure was expanding, getting bigger and bigger. Then more and more eyes opened.
"Are you afraid of death?"
Bai Ya paused. He thought for a while and then said:
"I'm not afraid of dying. I don't feel unwilling to die like this. I just feel...empty. It seems that I shouldn't die in peace so easily, but other than that, there is nothing else I am looking forward to."
"Do you still want to see the future situation of the Jianghu you saved?"
This time, Bai Ya was silent for a long time.
The other party was not in a hurry, and just looked at him silently with countless eyes. It has become very big, standing in front of Bai Ya like a mountain. Those countless eyes, like lights and stars, were all staring at him. Interrogating, but not urging.
"Think about it," he said.
Everything in front of him suddenly disappeared, as if billions of eyes were closing at the same time. The surroundings were plunged into complete darkness, but unlike before, this time it was pure black, like a shadow. He suddenly felt a force pulling on him, pulling him all over his body, not knowing where it was going to take him. In panic, he heard the last statement of the voice.
Before and after this, Bai Ya will no longer be here.
