车生活

Through the vagueness, he felt as if he had passed through three barriers, two of which were the ones he had unintentionally broken the last time. Finally, as the chaotic play of light and shadow returned to normal, he found himself standing on ground that seemed paved with greenstone.

Looking around, he found himself in an unobstructed clearing. In the distance, a vast cluster of buildings of diverse forms stretched endlessly. At their center, an ancient well, magnified countless times, was placed there.

Zeus did not feel any sense of danger, but there was an almost unbearable pressure weighing on his heart.

It was like facing his father in the past, unrelated to the strength of power but to an insurmountable divide between him and the other, making him reluctant to entertain thoughts of resistance.

“That is the Well of Reincarnation, what I was busily constructing when you barged into the Spirit Realm a few days ago.”

“At the end of the second epoch, I surely did not spare any effort on it.”

A calm and casual voice came through, instantly breaking the strong ‘presence’ of the ancient well in the distance.

Zeus turned around and there, a deity who appeared very young sat on a chunk of greenstone. His features were not quite clear, or rather, they were difficult to remember.

By his side stood a goddess with lustrous black hair, enveloped in a halo of light purple light. That was the Goddess of the Nether Moon, whom the Divine King recognized at a glance. Although she rarely walked in the mortal world, there were still some records of her.

“Pardon my intrusion, Lord of the Spirit Realm. I apologize for my previous uninvited entry into your domain.”

Though he offered an apology, Zeus did not place himself in a subordinate position.

There might be a gap in power, but the status of the Divine King was granted by the world. At the very least, he would maintain an attitude of equal exchange.

“It is of no consequence, just a trivial matter after all, and you have already learned your lesson.”

“Speaking of which, that young one who inherited a part of the memory of Golden Humanity surely has a bias against deities, seeing as we viewed them as mere dust when creating them.”

The tone was indifferent, and unlike the previous generation. If viewed from the Divine King’s perspective, Laine didn’t really have much to say to him.

The powers that could be shared in the world were mostly claimed, and he no longer spent most of the time, like in the previous epoch, asleep at the core of the world, helping the Spirit Realm assimilate Source Power. The current Divine King was of no value to him, and if the deity before him wasn’t Zeus, Laine would not even consider meeting him.

Perhaps this attitude had been typical of the Twin Gods of the Dark Night in their original trajectory. Laine, however, could infer from later records that Zeus could turn things around with faith.

As for the specifics of the power, it was hard to say. Excluding the flattery and deification by successors, there had been two conflicts between Zeus and Nyx, but they had never really come to blows, so no one knew who had the upper hand.

“Golden Humanity – no wonder he is so opposed to deities. I thought it was your will.”

Maybe it was Laine’s seemingly congenial attitude that made Zeus relax a bit more.

“Now that the Spirit Realm encompasses the entire world, all the gods can sense its presence. I wonder if there are many lives like that recent one within the Spirit Realm?”

“Quite a few, considering how many years have passed. Some of them are hostile towards deities, but most don’t care much either way.”

Seemingly not catching the implied meaning in Zeus’s words, Laine spoke indifferently:

“Of course, I do not particularly care what they think, just as I do not care what they might do.”

“As long as they follow the rules I’ve set, the Spirit Realm will not deny any visitor. You can come and go as you please, and if you wish to kill those who come here with malice, that is fine too. Whatever you encounter here is your own affair.”

“That could not be better.”

The Divine King nodded. Having understood the Lord of the Spirit Realm’s stance towards the current deities, his visit was effectively complete. However, for Zeus, who had been born just a century ago, there were still many questions he wished to understand.

“Speaking of which, not long ago, due to my father’s doing, the Sun suffered a great blow, and the whereabouts of the ancient God of Sun are unknown. I’ve heard that this Titan God once had a conflict with the Spirit Realm?”

Lifting his gaze slightly, Laine saw the other’s intentions. What he really cared about wasn’t the Sun but the actual whereabouts of the former Divine King who had mysteriously vanished.

But Laine did not intend to reveal the upheaval in the Abyss. Since the other had openly asked about the Sun, he would respond with the Sun.

“There was such an incident.”

Standing up, Laine revealed a smile that left Zeus somewhat puzzled.

“Since you’re so interested, come with me,” he said.

“After all, you are at least a Divine King. Since you’re here, I’ll give you a gift.”

Walking on a cobblestoned path, the three of them moved forward slowly.

In the mythologies of later generations in The East, Samsara is an important place and hub for All Spirits, but in the world of Chaos, it wasn’t the case.

The world instinctively knew this was a good thing, but like the Magic Net, for something that didn’t originally exist in fate, it actually didn’t provide any extra favor. Even because it was a Divine Artifact without a corresponding Deity, no one knew of the existence of ‘Samsara’ in the world.

Laine didn’t care whether people knew or not. He twisted the light and time of the All-Spirit Realm, stretching a day into a week. Now, the place had begun to function on a basic level.

So, as they approached the Well of Reincarnation, what Zeus saw were countless souls with lifeless eyes, moving slowly like puppets, leaping into the huge stone well at the edge of their sight.

Watching these stiff movements of the souls, an indescribable feeling rose in the heart of the Divine King.

Intuition told him that he would never become like this, but it didn’t prevent the strange atmosphere from affecting him.

“What’s going on here? They seem a bit… lively?” he asked, trying to make his voice sound normal.

“Because they have already passed several checkpoints, in fact, this is already the core of reincarnation,” Laine said without responding; instead, it was Liana who spoke:

“In the outer perimeter, apart from those with strong wills, lingering in the surface of the Spirit Realm, the souls that are drawn to reincarnation by the All-Spirit Realm are first cleansed of their memories by one of the three caretakers of the All-Spirit Realm, the Goddess of Autumn and End, Erinys.”

“Although the Well of Reincarnation can also do this, in that way the memories would be ground down into the most primal energy by the power of reincarnation and integrated into the Spirit Realm itself. Clearly, the memories of the living beings themselves are more valuable than some energy.”

“Erase memories?”

Zeus felt a sudden realization. In the past, people only knew that after death souls would return to the Spirit Realm, but apart from those in heaven who served as Heroic Spirits, few deities knew the fates of other souls.

Most believed that souls would continue to exist in the Spirit Realm until they were completely exhausted and returned to nothingness. But today, Zeus felt he had discovered a great secret. It turned out that after death, living beings had their memories stripped away and were thrown into this Divine Artifact known as the Well of Reincarnation.

In the straightforward cultural values of Chaos, memory is a noble and mystical thing; this is also reflected in the mythologies of later generations and even sparked much exploration among the wise. To them, stripping away memories was an unimaginable punishment.

“So, did they commit some kind of mistake?” he asked, despite only being curious about mere beings.

Zeus didn’t care about the fates of ordinary spirits; he just wanted to know if the Lord of the Spirit Realm took pleasure in tormenting living beings.

“No, they are just about to embrace a new life,” Liana said with a calm voice, which was why she was unwilling to communicate with foreign gods.

There were few secrets in the outside world about the Spirit Realm, but they found it hard to understand everything about the Spirit Realm.

“We judge their deeds in life, of course, because of different races, statuses, and circumstances, it’s hard to judge them as ‘good’ or ‘evil’.”

“Put simply, apart from a few exceptions, those who had achieved extraordinary things among their peers in life, or whose souls had grown stronger, would receive a higher evaluation, and vice versa.”

“Then, based on the standards, the other two caretakers of the All-Spirit Realm will grant them different endowments, deciding the location of their rebirth in the next life.”

“Finally, they step into the Well of Reincarnation, just like you see,” Liana pointed at the souls, saying, “They will separate from their previous lives, born from death into a new life.”

“To ensure a gap between two consecutive lives, naturally, memories cannot remain. Otherwise, hatred will continue generation after generation, and all living beings will be unable to find release.”