Getting closer and closer to the city ahead, I felt an indescribable strangeness. Everything within this city seemed chillingly cold, waves of unbearable coldness constantly rushing toward me.
"What on earth is going on?"
Standing at the open city gate, I asked. Past Ethan Justice responded with a hum and said:
"This is a dead city. Everyone inside is already dead."
"What do you mean?"
Past Ethan Justice glanced at me, his eyes filled with doubt.
"Can you see it?"
"Isn't there not a single person inside?"
Just as I finished speaking, Past Ethan Justice stepped up to me and placed a hand on my forehead.
Gradually, I felt something surge into my head. The cold I felt before vanished instantly. Sounds entered my ears, and lights appeared before my eyes.
In the blink of an eye, my eyes widened. It was already so late at night, yet trucks loaded with goods were still constantly passing through the city gate, inspected by soldiers before entering. Looking into the city, I saw thousands of lights and a bustling nighttime street.
I rubbed my eyes.
"What is going on? Just now I couldn't see anything at all."
"There should still be some residual power left in your body, which is why you can sense that what you see here are ghosts. Just now, I used a little trick to temporarily suppress the power in your body, so now you're just an ordinary person, and can only see what ordinary people see."
The more I listened, the more confused I became. Why would there be such a ghost city in the world of the living, and why is it full of ghosts?
Past Ethan Justice began to explain.
Cities like this ghost city are not unique to the world of the living—there are several now, and there are some in the underworld as well. The world I see now is one shattered by war. Too many people have died in the world of the living, and after the war ended, to prevent the world from falling apart entirely...
The only way was to restore everything in both the living and the dead realms as it once was, using 'thought' to fill the gaps. The dead cannot be brought back to life, so the only solution is to collect their thoughts and create the illusion that they are still alive. Ordinary people can't distinguish between people and thoughts. The ghosts here aren't real ghosts in the strict sense, but thought-forms filled in by the power of the underworld.
I understood immediately.
"Who did this?"
"Now, it's the ruler of Hell, the Emperor of Fengdu, who did this. That's why I said from the start not to think about anything and just go through. I didn't expect you to sense it, which means there's still a part of Ethan Zhang's power left in your body. That trace of power might be the only key to unlocking this bizarre past for you. Don't worry, I've already protected the power that remains in your body."
Then I followed Past Ethan Justice into the city. I couldn't imagine that these people were actually thought-forms. It must be that the power of thought directly affected the senses of ordinary people, making them feel that the people before them were truly alive; all their senses numbed by the power of thought.
"The world I'm in now is gradually being repaired, restored to the trajectory it was supposed to follow. Perhaps you happened to touch the past here through a dream, or maybe something caused you to deviate from your own path and end up here. In reality, you might exist in another trajectory."
I scratched my head, unable to understand what Past Ethan Justice meant, so he explained it to me.
The past, present, and future exist in people, events, and objects. These things are like strands in a hemp rope, all interconnected. Time is what twists this rope together, gradually correcting each point and connecting it to the future.
And each strand that forms the rope is a person's past, present, and future. Maybe I came from one of the strands belonging to Ethan Zhang's rope.
With this explanation, I immediately understood and nodded.
"So I need to find the strand I originally belonged to."
Past Ethan Justice nodded.
"That's exactly right. Didn't I say before, if we connect the past I'm in to the present you're in, I have no idea what would happen. Everything—people, events, objects—might change. For example, the Ghost Lords: in my strand, they died in the great war between humans and ghosts, but in your strand, Ethan Zhang's present, the Ghost Lords are still alive. The great war between humans and ghosts is about to happen but hasn't actually occurred. Because there is a past, there is a present, and then a future."
As Past Ethan Justice said this, a chill ran down my spine, my scalp tingled, and I was overcome with dread. I had to find a way to fix all this and return to my own strand.
Then Past Ethan Justice continued to explain.
"No matter what the past or future is like, there is only one present—the present of Ethan Zhang that you inhabit. Time constantly corrects these strands and ultimately selects only one, calling it the 'correct' strand of Ethan Zhang, connecting it to your present. If we use the hemp rope metaphor, Past Ethan Zhang and Future Ethan Zhang are thick ropes, while the present Ethan Zhang is just a thin thread."
I swallowed hard.
"So if I connect a past I know nothing about—or even a past that is a mistake, in terms of time's correction—to the correct present, then maybe people who died in the past will also disappear from my present."
Soon we passed through the city and walked out beyond its walls. At that moment, I felt a wave of cold. As I turned my head, I saw the city behind us sink once again into deathly silence.
"You can retain a certain amount of power now, but you can also perceive the existence of thought. First, tell me in detail about the dream you changed before."
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I responded with a hum and began to talk to Past Ethan Justice as we walked.
After walking for an hour, we stopped. I had already told Past Ethan Justice everything in detail—from Wu Xiaoli, Yu Xiaoting, to my childhood self. I had changed all these dreams, and explained what the original dreams were.
"Do you know what a dream really is?"
I shook my head.
"Dreams also have a past, a future, and a present."
This was something I had only just learned. It was through dreams that I returned to the past, hoping to collect good dreams so their power could break the nightmare realm created by the dark will of the present.
"People don't dream without reason. Many things you see in your dreams are actually yourself from other erroneous past or even future strands."
I swallowed.
Then Past Ethan Justice spoke again, using the hemp rope metaphor to explain the past and future. To twist a hemp rope, countless strands are needed, twisted little by little. In the process of tightening, many strands that make up the rope will snap.
That's why people sometimes dream of death—it's actually another version of yourself on an erroneous strand who has truly died, and that thought is transmitted and becomes a dream. The correct self will dream of it; some prophetic dreams are like this, meant to warn the correct self not to step onto the wrong path.
The tangled complexity of dreams is built from those erroneous strands, slowly corrected by time until only the one correct present strand remains.
"I think I understand now. Should we just go find Meng Po?"
I said it directly. Past Ethan Justice realized I knew he was lying, and then he laughed.
"The reason I lied to you, saying only the Emperor of Fengdu knows Meng Po's whereabouts, was because I didn't want you to worry. But if you really knew, you might not be able to sit still."
I swallowed.
"I've never heard the name Lan Ruoxi before."
It was like a bolt from the blue. I was struck, petrified, swallowing hard.
"What do you mean?"
"You said before that Lan Ruoxi is from the Lan family of the Yellow Springs. But I know all the families of the Yellow Springs very well, since I fought alongside them. I remember every name and face. The last master of the Lan family was indeed Lan Qinmo, and his wife was Lan Chuhan, but they never had any children. The two of them died together before my eyes."
My head buzzed. I even started to doubt what I was hearing.
"Impossible. Ruoxi should exist in the past."
"That's what I thought too. But Ethan Zhang, there's something you must understand. If, in your present, a woman named Lan Ruoxi exists, and you return to a past you know nothing about, you should be able to find a woman named Lan Ruoxi. But in my memory, there is no Lan Ruoxi at all."
"Isn't it the same with the Corpse Realm?"
I suddenly said. Past Ethan Justice nodded.
"When we get to Fengdu, let's investigate first. After all, if Lan Ruoxi exists in the correct strand you inhabit now, then she should exist in countless strands of the past or future. Why doesn't she exist in this erroneous past strand? You need to figure it out before you return, or else the woman named Lan Ruoxi will be erased by time."
I swallowed, then lowered my head as a wave of gloom rose from the depths of my heart.
"She's someone very important to you, isn't she?"
I hummed in response.
"She's my wife."
Past Ethan Justice smiled and began to walk slowly.
"Let's go. No matter what, I'll help you figure this out. There's no need to worry, Ethan Zhang. Strictly speaking, you and I aren't exactly the same person, or rather, because we're from different timelines, we're not the same Ethan Zhang. But the essence of being Ethan Zhang is the same. No matter what happens, we never give up, right?"
I lifted my head. By now, the sky was bright, and a streak of red appeared on the distant horizon. A gentle ray of sunlight shone down, and I smiled in relief.
"This time, I'm counting on you, Ethan Zhang."
"Ah, don't worry, Ethan Zhang."