The atmosphere began to cool. The Replicator and Xu Fu stared each other down, while John Chou quietly drank on the side. I stayed out of it.
"If it weren't for you handing us a fake Ghost Ancestor corpse, maybe everything would already be resolved, maybe we'd even have succeeded. The three factions would have given you everything you needed, but all of it was based on mutual benefit. Yet you people only think of your own gain, harming others for your own profit, and now it’s somehow our incompetence? How could the world be so absurd?"
Xu Fu laughed coldly.
"Why was I deceived? You control my heart. Our deal was never equal, was it? To get my heart back, I had to force myself to trade with you. Should I just let you do whatever you want to me? Heh, what kind of logic is that?"
Both sides seemed to have a point, but I didn’t support either of them. They were all snakes and rats in the same nest, suffering the consequences of their own deeds.
"Heh, say what you will, but the result is all the same. If John Chou hadn’t figured out a way to get Tantan out of here, we’d still be in the dark, thinking that high-grade fake Ghost Ancestor corpse was real. In the end, it was your selfish intent from the start that led us to this mess. Don’t forget, Xu Fu, when you were at your lowest, we saved you. Think about who gave you so much information, who brought so many benefits to your Immortality Society. Your power grew to what it is now, and you still have room to grow—who spent all that effort and time? Is all that just dismissed with a single word about inequality?"
"Sure, you helped me, but you had your own motives from the start, didn’t you? Did I ever want you to save me? You always wanted to control and use us. People who like to use others eventually get used themselves."
For a moment, neither of them could gain the upper hand in words. The atmosphere grew even heavier. John Chou took a sip of his drink and said coldly.
"That's enough, shut up. Save your debate for after things are sorted out."
"Enough, Xu Fu. Leave these matters aside for now. Hmph."
The Replicator spoke, while Xu Fu wore an amused expression and shook his head.
"Go ahead. What is it you really want?"
"Something crucial still hasn’t been found. This world isn’t what you see with your eyes—or rather, its density is layered. What you see is just the lowest, most basic part. Beyond darkness, there is more darkness, and beyond that, purer and vaster darkness. That’s why this world is without light."
"Don’t make it so cryptic. Keep it simple."
John Chou muttered, and the Replicator glanced at me.
"Looks like you’re someone favored by the Unreal, Ethan Zhang."
"What do you mean?"
I immediately asked, and the Replicator chuckled.
"The Unreal exists outside the world of darkness. We won’t talk about it for now, since we still haven’t managed to break into the Unreal. All we know is that’s where instinct is born."
I swallowed.
"And after you find that thing, what then?"
Felix Hsu asked, and the Replicator shook his head.
"Only the three who currently hold power over the darkness know the answer."
"Does Wraithshade count as one?"
The Replicator shook his head.
"He’s just a turncoat. At first, the darkness was divided into the Founders, just as you know, the Founding Emperors. Their dispute for the orthodox legacy of China didn’t end with the lifespan of the living world, but continued in this darkness."
"Is there any point in talking about such ancient things?"
The Replicator shook his head, but then he smiled.
"To help you understand the origins here: there’s no future or past, but there is a beginning. As far as we know, this is a world abandoned by the gods. Or, to put it simply, after Mother Goddess Nuwa created humans, everything changed. Once humans appeared, the emergence of Buddhism and Taoism made things even more complicated. The newcomers surpassed the old, or perhaps the gods have simply forgotten this world."
"Hey, why bring up mythology? Even if those things really exist, they’re beyond our reach."