The Game of All Beings

Chapter Six: The Wall Breakers

By the time they descended the mountain, it was nearly dark.

Lin Xiaohé walked in the middle, the basket bobbing on her back. Shen Yue watched her translucent form, almost merging with the fading light.

"Can you eat?" he asked suddenly.

Lin Xiaohé paused, looked down at her hands.

"Don't know," she said. "Never tried."

Chen Mo picked a wild fruit from the roadside, handed it to her.

Lin Xiaohé took it, bit down. The fruit fell from her mouth, rolled twice on the ground. Whole, unmarked.

"Can't bite," she said, her tone matter-of-fact, no disappointment.

Shen Yue bent, picked up the fruit, returned it to Chen Mo.

"Are you hungry?"

Lin Xiaohé thought, shook her head.

"Not hungry. Not thirsty. Not tired either." She looked down at the basket. "Just want to hold this."

Shen Yue said nothing.

They walked on. Full dark fell, stars emerged. Lin Xiaohé's translucent body was more visible at night, faintly glowing, like a firefly.

"You'll be seen like that," Chen Mo said.

"By whom?"

"People. Everyone." He paused. "And other things."

Shen Yue knew who he meant.

The gods.

They'd brought someone out of the editing room. The gods hadn't anticipated this, and wouldn't permit it. That cut person now walked in this world, outside any timeline, completely unpredictable—she herself was a walking uncertainty generator.

The gods would come for her.

But——

"Why haven't they come yet?" Shen Yue asked suddenly.

Chen Mo paused.

"What?"

"Three days since we left the editing room," Shen Yue said. "Thousand Eyes saw us long ago. That day at the foot of the mountain, when those gazes bore down, I thought we were finished. But they suddenly vanished. And for three days, nothing."

He looked at Lin Xiaohé.

"Why?"

Lin Xiaohé shook her head. She didn't know.

Chen Mo pondered this too. Pondered it the whole way, couldn't figure it out.

——

They travelled through the night.

Chen Mo led the way, further north. He said there was another Wall Breaker outpost, not like the destroyed one, but hidden, known only to a few.

"He Wan told me before she died," he said. "She said if we ever had nowhere left to turn, go there."

Shen Yue asked: "What's there?"

Chen Mo was silent for a moment.

"The final things," he said. "Everything they'd done in thirty years—all the records, all the failures, all the truth. All there."

——

They walked for three days.

The journey was calm. No Thousand Eyes' gaze, no signs of erasure, nothing. Too quiet, unnaturally so.

On the evening of the third day, they arrived.

A mountain. At its foot, a massive boulder. Behind the boulder, a narrow crevice, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. Unlike their expectations, this place showed no signs of destruction. Everything was intact.

They squeezed through. The crevice ran deep, about ten metres, then opened suddenly—a cave, vast, with lamps set into the walls, casting a dim yellow light.

Someone was in the cave.

An old man, seated behind a stone table, watching them. Very old, indeterminably old, wrinkles layered like a dried-up riverbed. Similar to the dead old man, but not the same.

"Waited thirty years," the old man spoke, voice rasping. "Finally, someone comes."

——

The old man was called Lao He.

Not his real name, a code name. Wall Breakers had no real names, only code names. Lao He was the fifth generation—He Wan was the fourth, she was dead, he was the last.

"This place was built by the first generation," Lao He said. "The first Wall Breaker, name long forgotten. He was the first to notice something wrong with this world, the first to start seeking the truth. Searched for six hundred years, died twenty-three times, and finally built this place."

He pointed at the densely carved marks on the cave walls.

"These are all his records."

Shen Yue moved closer to look. The marks were characters, very ancient script, some he recognized, some not. The content was miscellaneous—records of celestial phenomena, patterns of reincarnation, clues about the gods, characteristics of Thousand Eyes. Most frequent was a conjecture, written repeatedly, revised again and again.

"'This world is the imprisoned memory of a Forgotten One'"—this phrase appeared dozens of times, each version slightly different, some with question marks, some with exclamation points, some crossed out and rewritten.

"The first generation's final conclusion?" Shen Yue asked.

Lao He shook his head.

"The first generation went mad in the end," he said. "Studied for six hundred years, the more he studied, the more despairing he became. Before he died, he sealed himself in that stone chamber over there, refused food and water, starved himself to death. Before dying, he carved one last sentence on the ground."

He pointed in a direction.

Shen Yue walked over, saw a small stone chamber, its entrance sealed with rocks. Peering through the gaps, he saw a skeleton, curled on the ground. Beside the skeleton, carved into the floor, a line of characters:

"We are all in a dream. When the dream ends, there will be nothing."

Shen Yue stared at those words, a chill running down his spine.

——

They stayed in the cave.

Lao He arranged places for them to sleep—a few small stone chambers with stone beds, animal pelts for bedding. Lin Xiaohé didn't need such things, but she lay down on a bed anyway. On the stone, her translucent form almost merged with the rock.

"Can you feel it?" Shen Yue asked.

"Cool," she said. "But not very cool. Just a little cool."

Shen Yue sat beside her, looking at that almost-transparent face.

"Will you always be like this?"

Lin Xiaohé thought.

"Don't know," she said. "Maybe one day I'll fade completely. Maybe not."

"Are you afraid?"

She smiled. That smile, still the same as before, pure and clean.

"Not afraid," she said. "I've already died once."

Shen Yue said nothing.

Looking at her smile, he remembered the question—why hadn't the gods acted?

He asked Lao He.

Lao He was silent for a long time.

"You've hit the nail on the head," he said. "This is something we've pondered for thirty years without answer."

He stood, walked to the cave wall, pointed at the carvings.

"You know what the gods live on?"

"Uncertainty," Shen Yue said.

"Yes," Lao He said. "Uncertainty. Every unpredictable choice generates a kind of energy that sustains the divine realm. And do you know what generates the greatest uncertainty?"

Shen Yue thought, shook his head.

Lao He looked at him, then at Lin Xiaohé.

"You."

He pointed at Lin Xiaohé: "She came out of the editing room, not in any timeline. Every choice she makes is something the gods cannot foresee—because to foresee her, one would have to see those discarded timelines. And Thousand Eyes doesn't look at discarded lines."

He pointed at Shen Yue and Chen Mo: "You two made free choices within the blind spot. Since then, you've carried a mark—not a mark on the timeline, but a mark from the blind spot. The gods can see you, but can't see through you. You're like two patches of fog—shaped, but without content."

He looked at the three of them.

"You three are the greatest sources of uncertainty in this world. Kill you, and the uncertainty disappears. But killing you creates another problem——"

He paused.

"When you die, you'll release immense energy. More than all the uncertainty you generated while living. Where that energy flows, the gods don't know. Maybe to the divine realm, maybe to this world, maybe somewhere beyond their control."

Shen Yue slowly understood.

"They dare not kill us."

Lao He nodded.

"Dare not," he said. "At least not now. They're waiting. Waiting for the right moment, waiting for a way to fully absorb the energy released by your deaths. Until then, they'll watch, but not act."

"Then Lin Xiaohé being cut——"

"That was editing, not killing," Lao He said. "Editing is discarding a timeline, not killing a person. The cut person still exists, just not in the main line. The gods can discard a line, but cannot directly kill someone not in any line. That would require too much power."

He looked at Lin Xiaohé.

"By coming out of the editing room, she's actually safer. Because now she's neither in the main line nor in a discarded line. She's outside. To kill her, the gods would first have to find her, then pull her back into some line, then erase her. But pulling her back into a line would itself generate immense uncertainty—in that instant, what choice would she make? No one knows."

Lin Xiaohé blinked.

"So I'm safe?"

Lao He smiled. It was an ugly smile, cracked lips pulling back, revealing a few yellow teeth.

"Safe?" he said. "In this world, no one is safe. You're just temporarily unkillable. But unkillable doesn't mean you can't be imprisoned, trapped, pinned forever in some corner."

He stood, walked to the centre of the chamber.

"The gods have all the time in the world. They've waited countless reincarnations, waiting a little longer means nothing to them. But you—you'll age, die, reincarnate. When you die and enter the cycle, become newborns—will that blind spot mark still be with you? If not, then they can act."

Shen Yue's heart chilled.

He hadn't thought of this.

Reincarnation. They would all die. Die, be reborn, become infants. Then, would they still be themselves? Would that free choice from within the blind spot follow them?

"So we have to do what needs doing before we die," Chen Mo's voice came from nearby.

He leaned against the cave wall, watching them.

"We have to turn this world upside down before we die."

——

That night, Lao He told them the greatest secret.

"The first generation spent six hundred years concluding: this world is the imprisoned memory of a Forgotten One," he said. "Those who came later spent two hundred years confirming this conclusion. Those after them spent a hundred years finding clues about that Forgotten One."

He looked at the three of them.

"That Forgotten One still lives. Sleeping in the deepest part of the world. If he could be awakened, the entire dream would shatter. Everyone would wake up—from reincarnation, from memory, from this world."

"What happens after waking?" Shen Yue asked.

Lao He was silent for a moment.

"Don't know," he said. "Maybe a real world. Maybe complete nothingness. Maybe nothing at all."

He looked at Lin Xiaohé.

"But she's the only exception. She came out of the editing room, not in any timeline. If she goes to awaken that Forgotten One, perhaps——"

He didn't finish.

But Shen Yue understood.

Perhaps she wouldn't be affected by the dream shattering.

Perhaps she could see reality.

——

"Where is that Forgotten One?" Chen Mo asked.

Lao He looked at them, silent for a long time.

"In the divine realm," he said. "Where the gods live."

The cave fell silent.

The divine realm. Where the gods dwelt, the invisible dimension, the place no one had ever been.

"How do we get there?"

Lao He shook his head.

"Don't know," he said. "The first generation searched their whole life, found no path. The second generation searched their whole life, found none. The third, the fourth, none. We only know where it is, not how to get there."

He paused.

"But we know someone who went."

"Who?"

"Thousand Eyes," Lao He said. "That bird. It's the gods' tool, but it's also the only thing that shuttles between the divine realm and this world. If it can go, there must be a path."

He looked at the three of them.

"What you need to do is not find a path. It's wait. Wait for Thousand Eyes to descend again. Wait for it to gaze upon someone, to edit some timeline, and in that instant, grasp the moment and climb up along its gaze."

"Climb along a gaze?" Chen Mo frowned. "How is that possible?"

Lao He smiled.

"Possible," he said. "Thirty years ago, someone did it."

He stood, walked to the cave wall, moved aside a stone. Behind the stone was a hidden compartment, and in the compartment lay something.

A hand.

Dried, like a mummy's hand. On one finger, a ring—the Wall Breaker's ring.

"His name was Lao Gui," Lao He said. "Third-generation Wall Breaker. Thirty years ago, he performed an experiment. Not a fate interferometer experiment—another kind. He used himself as bait, lured Thousand Eyes to gaze upon him. In that instant when Thousand Eyes looked at him, he climbed back along the gaze."

"Climbed?"

"Climbed," Lao He said. "He went to the divine realm. We watched from below, watched his body slowly fade. Just before he vanished, he turned and looked at us, and said one thing."

"What?"

Lao He looked at that dried hand.

"He said: 'Don't come looking for me.'"

——

They were silent for a long time.

Shen Yue looked at that hand, thought of the man called Lao Gui. He'd gone to the divine realm, never returned. His hand remained in the mortal world, an eternal reminder.

"Why didn't he want us to look for him?" Chen Mo asked.

Lao He shook his head.

"Don't know," he said. "Maybe something in the divine realm made him not want to return. Maybe he couldn't return. Maybe——"

He didn't finish.

But the implication was clear.

Maybe he was dead.

——

That night, Shen Yue couldn't sleep again.

He left his chamber, sat in the cave, looking at the words on the walls. Lin Xiaohé drifted over, sat beside him.

"What are you thinking?"

"About Lao Gui," Shen Yue said. "When he climbed up, what was he thinking?"

Lin Xiaohé thought.

"Maybe he was thinking, finally I'll see the truth."

"And then?"

"Then maybe he found the truth wasn't so beautiful."

Shen Yue turned to look at her. Her profile was translucent, the carvings on the wall visible through her.

"Are you afraid?" he asked.

Lin Xiaohé shook her head.

"Not afraid," she said. "I don't have much to lose anyway. I don't remember before, don't know what comes after. I only have now. Now, here, talking to you."

She looked at Shen Yue.

"Are you afraid?"

Shen Yue was silent for a moment.

"Yes," he said. "Afraid that after waking, nothing will remain. Afraid those memories, three hundred years of them, will all be emptiness. Afraid that when I find the truth, the truth will be 'there is no truth.'"

Lin Xiaohé listened, said nothing.

After a while, she leaned her head against his shoulder. Cool, light, like mist.

"Then don't think about it yet," she said. "Just sit here for a while."

Shen Yue didn't move.

They sat like that, in the dim lamplight, before those walls covered in words.

——

The next day, Chen Mo made his decision.

"I'll go," he said.

Lao He looked at him.

"Why?"

Chen Mo was silent for a long time.

"My mother," he said. "She was a blank slate. Twenty-three years ago. When she died, she said, 'Son, I only have this one life. You have to live several lives for me.' She didn't know she'd reincarnate. She thought death was the end."

He raised his head, light in his eyes.

"If the dream shatters, if everyone wakes—then could she wake too? Truly wake, not the waking of reincarnation, but waking from this endlessly repeating dream."

Lao He looked at him, silent for a long time.

"Maybe," he said. "Maybe not."

Chen Mo smiled faintly.

"Worth trying."

Shen Yue stood nearby, watching Chen Mo. He remembered this person when they first met, sitting against the wall, knees drawn up, saying "I want to find my mother."

Now he was truly searching.

"I'll go too," Shen Yue said.

Chen Mo turned to look at him.

"You sure?"

Shen Yue glanced at Lin Xiaohé. She stood there, translucent, faintly glowing in the dim light.

"Sure," he said.

Lin Xiaohé drifted over, stood beside him.

"I'll go too," she said.

Lao He looked at the three of them, his wrinkled face unreadable.

"Decided?" he asked.

None spoke, none moved.

Lao He nodded.

"Then wait," he said. "Wait for Thousand Eyes to descend again."

He turned, walked deeper into the cave, then stopped and looked back.

"One thing I must tell you," he said. "When Thousand Eyes gazes upon someone, that person will die. Not immediately, but along that edited path, step by step towards death. To climb up, you must first be chosen. And the chosen already have their fate sealed."

He looked at Shen Yue and Chen Mo.

"You two made free choices, aren't in any timeline. Whether Thousand Eyes can choose you, I don't know. But her—" he looked at Lin Xiaohé—"she was cut, also not in any timeline. Whether Thousand Eyes can see her, I don't know either."

"Then how do we wait?" Chen Mo asked.

Lao He was silent for a moment.

"Wait for it to come," he said. "It will always come. This world needs uncertainty, the gods need energy. As long as people live, as long as choices are made, Thousand Eyes will come."

He looked outside the cave.

"Maybe tomorrow. Maybe ten years from now. Maybe you'll die before it comes."

"Then we'll wait until we die," Shen Yue said.

Lao He glanced at him, said nothing, and walked into the darkness.

——

They stayed in the cave.

One day, two days, three. A week, two weeks.

Thousand Eyes didn't come.

Shen Yue sat at the cave entrance every day, watching the sky. Lin Xiaohé drifted beside him, sometimes silent, sometimes asking strange questions—why are clouds white, why do birds fly, do fish get cold in the water.

Shen Yue couldn't answer those questions. He'd lived three hundred lifetimes, but never wondered if fish got cold in the water.

Chen Mo studied the records every day, volume by volume, page by page. He sought more clues, found the method Lao Gui had used to climb, found anything usable.

Lao He sat behind his stone table every day, not speaking, just sitting. Sometimes Shen Yue wondered if he'd died, but approaching, saw his eyes still open, occasionally moving in their cloudiness.

A month passed.

Two months.

Still no Thousand Eyes.

Shen Yue began to wonder if it would ever come. If because they weren't in any timeline, Thousand Eyes simply couldn't see them. If they'd wait in this cave until they died, until they reincarnated, until that blind spot mark faded.

On a certain day in the third month, Lin Xiaohé suddenly stood up.

"It's coming," she said.

Shen Yue looked up at her.

"What?"

"That thing," she pointed outside the cave. "That thing with many eyes."

Shen Yue ran to the entrance, looked out.

The sky was the same—blue, with clouds. But behind the clouds, something moved. Huge, covering half the sky. Not bird-shaped, another shape, indistinct, but felt.

Those eyes.

Countless eyes, opening behind the clouds, gazing at this world.

Shen Yue turned and shouted: "Chen Mo! Lao He!"

They came running.

Lao He looked at the sky, his face expressionless.

"It's here," he said. "The wait is over."

Thousand Eyes had descended.