Chapter 350 - 17: A Small World

There were eight, if not ten, thousand ghosts present—a number so staggering that even Duan Fei found it hard to believe.

After the ghosts left, Duan Fei stood in the now-quiet Daoist Temple and said to the Little Daoist, "What on earth is this Water Town? Why are there so many ghosts?"

"I don’t know either," the Little Daoist said, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

It had felt great acting so tough, but the fear only set in afterward. After all, there were so many ghosts present; the slightest misstep could have cost him his life.

Even with Duan Fei standing guard, he was still scared.

After calming down, he mulled over Duan Fei’s question, then said quietly, "In all of Water Town, my master and I were the only two living people. Everyone else is a ghost. I don’t know why it’s like this, only that it’s been this way for as long as I can remember."

"You never thought about leaving?"

"Of course I have." The Little Daoist gave a bitter laugh. "Ever since I realized I was surrounded by ghosts, I’ve thought about it every single day. There’s more than one road leading out, but every time I follow one, I eventually end up at the entrance to another road, and then right back where I started."

"...I see. What about through the air?"

"I can’t fly, but some chefs who were here before tried. They used a drone to fly out, but it just ended up flying right back to where it started."

"Hmm... wait a second. That’s another thing that seemed odd. You’ve never been to the outside world, so how do you know what a drone is?"

"Is that so strange?" the Little Daoist asked, confused. "It’s the kind of thing you just learn about online, isn’t it? I have my own cell phone, with a 40-gig monthly data plan."

Watching the Little Daoist pull out his phone, Duan Fei was momentarily stunned.

’The instances in the Abyss really don’t play by any logical rules.’

Duan Fei even began to suspect the Abyss’s scenarios were written by an AI; otherwise, why would such ridiculous settings keep appearing?

Just as Duan Fei was wondering if there was some deeper meaning to all this, the first group of ghosts finally returned.

A pair of chubby paper effigies, a boy and a girl, walked back in, holding a Daoist Scripture. They trembled as they placed it in front of the Little Daoist.

But the Little Daoist didn’t dare open the Daoist Scripture. He only dared to push it toward Duan Fei, turning away as he said, "You’re the powerful one. You look at it."

Seeing Duan Fei flip open the book without a moment’s hesitation, the Little Daoist shivered. ’What a badass,’ he thought.

Daoist Scriptures were not to be read lightly. For some, merely looking at the title was enough to drive a person mad and afflict them with all sorts of illnesses.

Even his master, a man of great virtue when he was alive, had to make thorough preparations, fortify himself mentally, and cast various forms of Magic before he would dare open a Daoist Scripture to glimpse the mysteries of the Great Dao.

Therefore, seeing Duan Fei dare to flip open the book so unhesitatingly filled him with both envy and admiration.

His admiration grew even more seeing Duan Fei’s nonchalant expression, marveling at what a truly formidable individual he was.

He slowly crept closer, intending to sneak a peek at the contents, but the words within felt a hundred times more blinding than the midsummer sun. A single glance made his eyes ache and water uncontrollably.

Duan Fei, however, was flipping through the Daoist Scripture. "This isn’t the *Cultivation Chapter*," he said.

"Then what is it?" the Little Daoist asked, wiping his tears.

"This is the *World Chapter*. It’s about the origin of the world. Judging by what just happened, I can’t tell you the contents directly, so I’ll have to explain it through analogy. Just try to understand as much as you can."

The Little Daoist immediately nodded, his heart filled with anticipation.

"A long, long time ago, the world was filled with many powerful people..."

"Wait a minute." The Little Daoist raised his hand. "I’m not a child anymore. You can make it a little more sophisticated."

Duan Fei narrowed his eyes at him, then said, "In the beginning, there were Immortals in the world..."

That single sentence was like a clap of thunder right next to the Little Daoist’s ear. It struck him so hard his vision went black, his chest constricted, and he nearly coughed up blood.

It was a simple sentence, yet it touched upon the Great Dao itself, and he was completely unable to resist its resonance. He nearly fainted right there.

Clutching his chest, he raised a hand and said, "Duan Someone, I was wrong. Please, just treat me like a child."

"I think you’re a mature adult now. It’s time you learned a few things that adults should know."

"I already know plenty of things I’m not supposed to know, so let’s just skip this. Uncle Duan, please, continue."

Looking at the now-docile Little Daoist, chastened by the harsh reality check, Duan Fei found him much more endearing. ’Now *this* is his cute side.’

So, he picked up the *World Chapter* and continued to "translate," "Those super-powerful guys were, well, super powerful. But they got so powerful they became bored. Then they started to fight, and they fought each other really hard, and they broke all the walls of their house."

The Little Daoist translated this in his head. ’A great war between the Immortals shattered the world.’

"After that, the powerful guys who were left decided this couldn’t go on. So they got together and came up with a set of laws to keep each other from doing bad stuff."

’After the great war, the assembly of Immortals agreed upon celestial rules and established heavenly edicts to bind them all.’

"But their home was too badly damaged. The walls were smashed to bits, and all the good things inside kept getting stolen."

’The world is incomplete; its Spirituality is being lost.’

"Some of them decided to fix the walls, but others started stealing what was left and running away. In the end, the walls never got fixed, and almost everyone took off."

’The Immortals decided to mend the world, but some abandoned this realm, taking vast amounts of Spirituality with them. The mending failed, and the world was brought to the brink of collapse.’

Duan Fei’s "translation" was straightforward, but he left clues in key places to help the Little Daoist understand, ultimately sketching out a rough outline of the world’s history.

Afterward, with the failure to mend the world, the remaining Immortals fell into despair. Some began to flee to the outside, taking more Spirituality with them and causing this world to grow increasingly barren.

Eventually, the world began to collapse. The original Immortal Daoist Techniques devolved into mere Illusion Techniques. Some powerful Divine Spirits degenerated into ghosts, remaining in this world along with the Immortals who had failed to leave.

After countless ages, the Immortals fell further, as did the ghosts. Both sides forgot their own histories, and this place eventually became a forgotten world.

The interesting thing was, perhaps as a lingering effect of the great war between the Immortals, that items from the outside world would occasionally drift in. As a result, this world wasn’t completely isolated.

This also explained how the Little Daoist had gotten a cell phone and was able to get online.

The phone was just something that had drifted in from the outside. And since this world was already riddled with holes, it was no surprise that a bit of a network signal could leak through.

And the reason the Little Daoist couldn’t leave Water Town was also very simple.

Because his world was only ever this small.