Li Ang calmly said, "What a cliché story."

"It is indeed cliché." Zou Zhengze smiled. "When I figured things out and returned to that city, I found she had completely left. I started searching for traces of her, wanting to apologize to her once."

"But when I heard news of her again, it was already twenty years later."

"Naturally, she had become a wife and a mother. I didn't hate her for it; on the contrary, I felt sincerely happy and wished her well."

"I started collecting their household waste. People can lie, they can deceive, but their garbage doesn't."

"I saw her kitchen waste and knew she still liked millet porridge for breakfast, and still liked sweet and sour pork ribs and stir-fried mushrooms with meat. I saw her shopping tags and knew she still liked using Bee & Flower sandalwood soap and Peony hand cream. I knew they went to the concert hall once a month and danced slowly in the living room to the music of the vinyl record player every Wednesday evening."

"Seeing that she was doing well, I was very happy."

"If that's really the case," Li Ang asked, "then why did you murder them?"

"Just like I said... because of love."

Zou Zhengze smiled bitterly, "Do you know about the Zhonghua Yixuehui (China Anomalous Phenomena Society)?"

Li Ang nodded.

The Yixuehui, or Anomalous Phenomena Society, can be traced back to the Qin and Han dynasties. It is one of the earliest extraordinary organizations in this country, formed by players of the Shachang Game (Killing Field Game).

In ancient times, the "Fangshi (magicians)," or "players," naturally interacted with the rulers after possessing extraordinary powers. Because the royal family also had top players, the Fangshi's repeated attempts to usurp the throne were thwarted. Finally, under the leadership of the royal family's extraordinary individuals, an organization called the Yixuehui was established.

This organization was loyal only to the current ruler. When the Shachang Game started and spiritual energy revived, the Yixuehui was responsible for absorbing and recruiting players from the common people, assisting the royal family in eliminating demons and monsters that roamed the world.

When the Shachang Game stopped and spiritual energy withered, the Yixuehui was responsible for compiling classics, drawing demon and monster illustrated handbooks and mission records, and attempting to bypass the Shachang Game, recording and passing on extraordinary powers in the absence of spiritual energy.

It can also be understood as evangelism.

After the Sui and Tang dynasties, the frequency and scale of the Shachang Game decreased, resulting in the decline of spiritual energy and the gradual retreat of extraordinary elements.

The Fangshi of the Yixuehui possessed bamboo scroll inheritance. Although they wouldn't be as desperate as fish trapped in a dried-up pool waiting to die of thirst, they couldn't develop at all, and their existence became increasingly insignificant.

By the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, with the country in decline and the connection between heaven and earth severed, the Yixuehui was left with only a handful of members and a warehouse of dusty bamboo scrolls in the Forbidden City.

The new rulers, who had never experienced a surge of spiritual energy, took a negative or even dismissive attitude toward the work of the Yixuehui. A large number of bamboo scrolls were lost or destroyed, and the mission logs, extraordinary power inheritance, and demon and monster illustrated handbooks of the past Shachang Game were lost.

Until the spring breeze brought thousands of willow branches, and all six hundred million people of China became like Emperor Shun, the Yixuehui, which had been mostly stagnant, was finally able to regain its vitality, taking advantage of the massive movement to destroy temples and collect lost bamboo scrolls to enrich its records.

Seven months ago, the Shachang Game started on a large scale again, and the Yixuehui, with its good historical reputation, returned to the historical stage, assisting the Special Affairs Bureau as an intelligence support agency.

It can be said that the existence of the Yixuehui is a legacy of a long history, a reasonable, legal, and justifiable innate advantage at the strategic layout level of the state machine.

After all, their ancestors were once rich.

Even in the luntan (forum) that gathers most players, the Yixuehui is one of the most mysterious and unpredictable ancient organizations, with its own awesome retro-style background music and maxed-out reputation.

But what does this have to do with you, Zou Zhengze?

Faced with Li Ang's puzzled gaze, Zou Zhengze sighed, "Just yesterday, I entered a single-player script mission mode. After eliminating the vengeful spirit of an ancient Fangshi, I learned a shocking secret about the Yixuehui."

"In addition to absorbing and recruiting players from the common people, eliminating demons and monsters, and compiling classics, they also shoulder a heavy responsibility, which is—to guard death."

Guard, death?

Li Ang vaguely felt that he had grasped the overall context of something.

"As a player of the Shachang Game, you must have killed modern vengeful spirits before, right? Aren't you curious why those vengeful spirits told you that the world after death is empty, with no ghost officers to arrest you, no underworld trials, no six paths of reincarnation?"

Zou Zhengze said sinisterly, "Because since the end of the penultimate large-scale Shachang Game, the entire underworld had disappeared for more than five hundred years."

"Since then, the six paths of reincarnation have completely stagnated. After mortals die, their souls cannot be reincarnated. They can only fly to the far north sky, be crushed into pure soul fragments, mixed evenly, and reassembled into a completely new soul that doesn't belong to them."

Speaking of this, Zou Zhengze looked terrified, his body trembling uncontrollably, "When the six paths of reincarnation were still functioning, no matter how many times a soul had been reincarnated, how many bowls of Meng Po soup it had drunk, how many times it had walked the road to the Yellow Springs and passed the sea of ​​Manjusaka flowers,"

"Death, rebirth, resurrection,"

"Memories change, but the essence of the soul does not. You are still you."

There is great terror between life and death. Throughout their historical development, all human civilizations in the world have held the most devout fear and reverence for the afterlife.

From ancient times to modern times;

From the barbaric cannibal tribes of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific to the modern American metropolis of New York;

From the war-torn Middle East to the solemn and sacred Vatican.

All human beings of different eras, different languages, different cultures, different races, and even different levels of education, believe, deeply believe, and hope that human souls exist to alleviate the fear of facing death.

The opening of the Shachang Game was the first time that the existence of the soul was truly proven. Before those in the know could cheer, the heavy reality made it difficult to breathe.

Humans have souls, but souls are crushed into fragments after death. There is no hell, and even less a heaven. The so-called tranquility after death is all bullshit. Death is death, and it will never exist again.

Li Ang was silent. Although from an external point of view, there was not much difference in the overall operation of the living world between souls being crushed into fragments and souls being reincarnated as a whole, the difference was huge for individual humans.

In the eyes of some who are concerned about the integrity of the soul, the world after death is extremely hopeless.

"After death, the soul will be crushed into fragments, scattered and lost forever. You will no longer exist in this world."

Zou Zhengze said in a deep voice, "The only way to avoid the soul from being crushed is to become a wandering ghost. And there are two ways to become a ghost: one is to die with great grievance and sorrow, and the other is to be told the operating mode of the world after death."