445 Essay

After receiving the notebook, Ye Qingxuan and Wolf Flute left.

The dwarf stayed in the silent darkness. He lit his pipe. Inhaling deeply, he blew out a plume of thick smoke. The scale was shrouded in the smoke. It looked dead rather than mysterious.

"You gave him the entire thing," he said. "What he gave could only be exchanged for one page. Haven't you always been neutral? Why are you biased toward that kid?"

"It's not a bias. Hermes has paid everything for him." The cool voice rang out from the darkness. It sounded like both but neither genders at the same time. "And he deserves to know what had happened."

The dwarf laughed and tapped his pipe. "Is this your judgement? Or the judgement of all of you?"

The darkness was silent. There was no more sound.

-

In the moving carriage, Ye Qingxuan turned on the light and opened the notebook. Without a doubt, this was written by Ye Lanzhou's own hand. There were no mistakes in the words and style. In between lines and in empty spaces, there would even be some improvised phrases. Some places were filled with drawings and sketches.

Some sketches were of surgical staff with their faces and bodies covered completely. Some drawings were of a large pot. It had been colored black and was full of holes. There seemed to be small figures on the side, acting as a scale and looking up at the vast ceiling.

It was clear that Ye Lanzhou did not treat the experiment seriously. Otherwise, he would not be drawing or writing sonnets everywhere. This guy could never be serious, and only put in seventy percent of his effort. He did whatever he wanted without thinking of the consequences—or he did think of them and decided he did not care. Otherwise, with his talent and skill, he would not end up like this.

Decades ago, the east and west worked together in the Sacred City and successfully created a miracle. The most powerful of the natural catastrophes were the Three Pillar Gods, the Three Saints, the Four Living Objects, and the Eight Phenomena. The one with the most sense of existence with endless vitality and fury is Hecatoncheir. But it had been defeated, sealed, and captured by humanity.

The nations all paid heavy prices for this battle and still have not recovered. The Caucasus had fallen and was still in chaos now due to this. There were countless saints who had died as well; even the King of Yellow had changed.

Of course, years later, another person paid for this—Ye Lanzhou.

All of Ye Qingxuan's misfortune originated from this. Now he held this notebook, not knowing if he should feel disgust or joy. His mind was just a mess.

To defeat Hecatoncheir, the Sacred City had started research on the nature of natural catastrophes. It was the most successful attempt in human history and also the one with the largest consequences.

According to the notebook, Ye Lanzhou was responsible for analyzing the 'source of consciousness'—where the consciousness of natural catastrophes originate from and why. However, he had delved too deeply and entered forbidden territory.

According to history, humanity's first interaction with natural catastrophes was the birth of Hyakume. One of the Three Pillar Gods, the god representing chaos and evil had appeared from the Dark World. The abyss that existed in the aether world was finally discovered by mankind.

Some even hypothesized that Hyakume was the consciousness born from the terrifying abyss. But no matter what, it was just a hypothesis.

All was created by the Originator. However, in addition to miracles, the Originator also created freaks like the natural catastrophes. If humans wanted to survive in this world, they must fight against the natural catastrophes. One day, there would be an ultimate battle to decide the ownership of the world. That was why they began researching 'the nature of natural catastrophes.' Ye Lanzhou was responsible for the core—the classified of the classified. It was rare for a baseless Easterner to be trusted by the Sacred City and parliament.

This notebook contained his records of the research. Unfortunately, there were too many useless things. The b*stard was more willing to copy an old menu from a restaurant than something important! While Ye Qingxuan was furious, he could relate. He was like this too, after all.

If he could remember it all, why would he write it down?

This record was just some bullsh*t he wrote down for work. They were just scattered running accounts. Ye Qingxuan had to flip through for a long time before he could find useful bits. Sadly, the dates were blank and he could not guess when the accounts had taken place.

The first useful sentence had no context.

It can understand my speech.

Then there was a long rumor with some notes on what was interesting or how this story was too stupid. Two pages later, there was another random phrase.

I found the solution.

After a bunch of doodles, there was an off-handed complaint.

Took only two days to learn five hundred words. What were those idiots doing earlier? If they gave it to me earlier, it could be writing poetry now!

After paragraphs of nonsense, Ye Lanzhou went back on topic.

It wants me to name it but I don't dare.

Ye Qingxuan froze. Understanding what the words meant, he sank into deep thought. Hecatoncheir wanted a name that belonged to itself but Ye Lanzhou did not dare. Once something had a name, it would start differentiating between itself and the outer world. It would have a sense of self. Something that had a sense of self would become difficult to control. There would be countless changes.

After more nonsense, there was another phrase without context.

The subsidiary experiment is going on. It's revoltingly successful.

And then there was only one last sentence of the records.

It's learning so quickly. It already knows how to trick me into opening the door for it.

-

After that, there were no more related records in the notebook. It seemed as if every day was spent carelessly. He would write down a few unreliable things and then draw some self-portraits. His beard grew longer and longer. And then, all that remained was white paper.

Ye Qingxuan's expression darkened. He flipped through the pages but there were no more records. Finally, he reached the last page and saw a long and messy essay. It seemed to be a message left specifically for others. This was the last thing Ye Lanzhou left on this world.

Lowering his head, Ye Qingxuan read through it silently.

-

To Whomever It May Concern,

When you see this, it will already be irrevocable.

Firstly, I thank the Sacred City for giving a wanderer like me such trust. I am truly sorry for betraying this trust.

If everything is successful, the result will be as everyone has witnessed. Yes, I personally released Hecatoncheir.

Hermes was right. If we were truly searching for a good ending, this experiment should never have existed in the first place. I stepped into this forbidden territory due to my curiosity and thus discovered revolting secrets.

Therefore, I spent the last few days thinking if the goal of the experiment truly is as pure and glorious as we had thought.

No matter what, it must be stopped.

I should have guessed that, whether it is the East or West, it is the same everywhere.

I hope that I can destroy the horrible result born from the experiment in time. Hopefully, my actions can serve as a warning and make you all more clearheaded. Please rethink your actions.

Compared to the world, humanity is so insignificant yet how can we commit such atrocities?

Perhaps, we should have never come to this world.

This world belongs to them.