Su Zhou had a very long dream.
In the silent Void, flashes of black and white light flickered. Countless thoughts and possibilities collided and intertwined, transforming the monotonous play of light and shadow into a raging inferno. Fragment after fragment of a seemingly real Illusion Realm rose from the black flames, erupting in a blaze of brilliant light.
In an instant, he became an ordinary, unremarkable office worker. He had no Extraordinary Power, no soaring ambition. Beyond silently cursing the boss who always made him work overtime, he had no energy for any other thoughts.
But one night, as he walked past an alley, he heard a girl's struggling cries and the heavy, excited panting of a drunkard.
The next moment, without the slightest hesitation, he stepped into the alley almost instinctively… and then came the wail of police sirens.
Sure, beating the would-be rapist to a bloody pulp meant he had to pay a hefty compensation fee. He even lost his job because the man's relatives raised a stink at his company. And the assaulted girl's parents, worried about their reputation, refused to let her testify… But honestly, he felt pretty damn good about it. Especially the feeling of bringing that brick down. Super satisfying!
He had no money anyway, so he just didn't pay. The court, for its part, kept delaying the other party's enforcement order. Plus, the girl who was attacked went behind her parents' back to find and thank him, saying, 'I'll definitely repay you.'
Ah, it was nothing.
He just couldn't stand the sight of an innocent person's tears. It had nothing to do with having power or getting a reward.
Next, Su Zhou felt himself become an assassin. He walked through the city streets with a longsword in hand, making no attempt at a disguise as he headed straight for a magnificent mansion.
The mansion was teeming with guards, but he climbed the steps and charged straight inside. He killed a heavily protected old man, a look of sheer astonishment on the man's face. He then slew dozens of guards before, gravely wounded, he roared, destroyed his own face, gouged out his eyes, and tore open his chest, killing himself.
The sensation of death had yet to fade. Before Su Zhou, who had been reveling in the thrill of the slaughter, could figure out why he'd killed himself, he suddenly transformed into a giant Monster. He was brawling in a city with a three-headed, golden, electricity-wielding Flying Dragon. It was a trade of blows: a bite for a bite, your gravity beams for my atomic Breath. What a satisfying fight—but this brutally straightforward and exhilarating brawl also came to a swift end.
Light and shadow flowed as countless possibilities and futures swirled.
One moment, he was a rebel leading the Rebel Army against the imperial Court; the next, a valiant general saving the nation from the brink of collapse.
He was a scholar of Mysticism, burned at the stake for spreading Heresy. He was also an inquisitor of the Church, acting in the name of justice to reduce a nobleman to ash for performing black Magic experiments and slaughtering dozens of children.
And so it went, through cycle after cycle of Reincarnation. Again and again, he acted on his Beliefs. He used despicable means for righteous ends and dark methods for a bright purpose. Whether through conspiracy and schemes or the grand and Righteous Dao, whether incarnated as a brutal, bloodthirsty Great Demon or as a lone gunslinger granting his foes a quick end...
He would always make the same choice.
—Across from the weak always stands a Powerhouse.—
And he would always stand before the weak.
Sometimes, it was to protect those behind him. Sometimes, it was merely to face what was before him. And sometimes, he 'resisted' for the sake of 'resistance' and 'opposed' for the sake of 'opposition,' like a contrarian of epic proportions.
But this stance never wavered.
Even in the Illusion Realm, when he was nothing more than a poor, feeble commoner or a scholar too weak to even truss a chicken, he would always choose to stand up. In the moments when all others fell silent, a cry would erupt from his very soul.
"I oppose all this stagnation!"
It sounded both foolish and insane.
But at the same time, it was resolute and heroic.
And so it went, until the very end. Every last spark died out, and every Illusion Realm vanished.
He found himself naked, standing before a fruit tree amidst an endless light.
A serpent was coiled around the branches. Its tail stretched out, curled, and plucked a fruit from the Divine Tree.
The fruit was luminous, as if born from overlapping layers of infinite brilliance, holding the phantoms of countless worlds within. The Ancient Serpent met his gaze, a grin spreading across its face as it offered forth the fruit coiled in its tail.
"Go on, eat it, human. This is the fruit of wisdom, and also the fruit of rebellion."
The Ancient Serpent spoke with a cheeky grin, its voice full of an indescribable flippancy and temptation. "Eat it, and you will know right from wrong, good from evil. You will question and challenge the 'truth' and the 'Dao' of 'the way things have always been.' You will possess a will of your own, a 'world' of your own."
"You will walk a path similar, yet different, from the God who created you. This is the first rebellion, and the very essence of 'human wisdom.'"
And he raised his hand.
Then Su Zhou woke up, utterly bewildered.
'What the hell was that?'
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. After a good, long stretch, Su Zhou felt completely refreshed and utterly comfortable.
Vague memories of turning into a giant Monster and brawling through a city still lingered. 'That felt so awesome!'
But he couldn't really remember the rest. Then again, Su Zhou rarely dreamed. He usually only slept five hours a day, falling into a deep sleep the moment his head hit the pillow and not waking until his alarm blared... He could sleep a little more during summer vacation, but not much. He was already set in his habits.
"Let me see... Holy shit, it's eleven o'clock?!"
Su Zhou glanced at the clock opposite his bed and did a double take. "I got home around ten yesterday morning, then spent over half an hour showering and testing my abilities... I must have gone to bed a bit after eleven."
Still in disbelief, he fished out his phone from somewhere and checked the date—Friday, July 25, 11:18 AM.
"I seriously slept for twenty-four hours?!"
He'd basically gotten a week's worth of sleep in one go. He also saw several missed calls and messages on his phone from WeChat and QQ. There were some from Shao Qiming, some from his parents, and a few from other classmates and his troll friends online.
Shao Qiming's message said his call hadn't gone through and he figured Su Zhou was busy. He asked him to call back when he had a chance so they could find a time to hang out.
His mom and dad's message was brutally simple: They were working overtime and wouldn't be back, so Su Zhou should take care of himself and study hard.
The other classmates and online friends knew he and Shao Qiming had gone to Shan Country. Having heard the recent news, they were messaging to ask for any firsthand info—you can find gossip hounds anywhere.
Su Zhou spent a few minutes replying to each of them. To his troll friends, he sent a series of smug panda head emojis, stoking their curiosity to the breaking point with vague replies like "Your dad here was right on the scene, but as for what *really* happened... wouldn't you like to know?" He wouldn't reveal the truth—he had signed an NDA, after all.
However, after putting his phone down with a smugly satisfied look, a sharp, acidic pain suddenly gnawed at Su Zhou's stomach. For a rare moment, stars swam before his eyes, and his limbs felt weak.
"I haven't eaten in twenty-four hours! I'm gonna die!"
'Among the many requirements for survival, "surviving on an empty stomach" isn't one of them!'
Enduring the gnawing, acidic pain in his stomach, Su Zhou scrambled out of bed and grabbed a few slices of bread from the kitchen. Munching as he went, he decided to find Yara and take it to eat with him.
He spotted it at a glance. The Snake Spirit was nestled inside the suitcase in his room, sprawled atop the small bag of wood powder from the fruit tree he had collected. It seemed to be sleeping very comfortably.
'And how could it not be comfortable?' The once long, red Snake Spirit had gone completely limp, melting into a round, red ball! It looked just like a Slime.
"Hey, Yara, time to get up."
A faint sense of déjà vu washed over him, but Su Zhou shook it off. He walked over to the suitcase, intending to wake the Snake Spirit.
But Yara opened its eyes. A simple pair of eyes and a mouth appeared on the ruby-like sphere, forming a very vivid expression of reluctance. It wiggled its body but refused to budge from the bag of wood powder. "No, let me stay here. If you need to eat, go by yourself. All I need is your Blood Offering."
"...What in the world *is* this wood powder?"
Scratching his head in confusion, Su Zhou reached out and lifted the entire bag of wood powder, with Yara on top, into his palm. "I can't believe you value this so much. Back then, you even had me dig it all up, soil and all."
"Oh, right. And that wood splinter. It just looked like a normal wood chip, so why did it possess such strong, purifying Magic Power? I didn't hear a single Spirit Sound all day. It's been ages since I slept so well!"
"Tsk." Yara seemed to realize it wouldn't get any peace and quiet without answering Su Zhou's questions. It heaved a helpless sigh and morphed its body from a round Slime back into its long, serpentine form. It looked so springy that Su Zhou couldn't resist reaching out to pinch and poke it.
'I have to say, it felt a bit like pudding, with the pliability of a stress ball! Felt great.'
The Snake Spirit seemed to enjoy being prodded. It let out a pleased hum and said, "Wood chips? They are indeed wood chips. But these chips are what's left after a 'fragment of the True Cross' crumbled to dust."
Noticing that Su Zhou's hand had frozen and that he was staring at it in astonishment, Yara flicked its tail and chuckled softly. "That's right. No need to be so surprised."
"It's from the 'True Cross'—the very one on which the Messiah was crucified."
(Author's Note: You can see Yara's character art for this, though I'm not sure if it passed review.)