Chapter 505 - 502: Empathy

Chapter 505: Chapter 502: Empathy

For some reason, as the voice spoke its calm words, Zhou Dynasty could sense a trace of helplessness and dejection.

It wasn’t directed at him, but was more of a sigh about the current situation.

Zhou Dynasty froze. Just as the voice had said, he had always been on guard against these specks of light and the voice itself. He always thought in terms of factions, always needing to distinguish friend from foe. He couldn’t bring himself to fully trust the light specks enveloping him.

And, of course, he couldn’t bring himself to let down the barriers in his heart.

"You can listen closely to everyone’s worries. You don’t need to feel their pain, nor do you need to shoulder their burdens. You just need to listen."

After speaking, the voice fell silent.

The starlight pressed closer. As his consciousness, encased in a glass-like shell, trembled, Zhou Dynasty suddenly realized that he had never tried to truly understand these specks of light.

’These specks of light are individual consciousnesses... perhaps they were once living beings, too. Why have they all gathered here?’

Zhou Dynasty’s resolve wavered slightly, and because of it, he was able to perceive a memory.

The memory came from a tiny speck of light nearby. The speck’s consciousness was pure and simple, completely unguarded, making it easy to perceive everything about it.

...

Activated Soil was the most common type of Activated Being on this Sky Island.

And this memory came from a clump of Activated Soil.

That speck of light was the consciousness of a clump of Activated Soil.

Just as the voice had said, every consciousness has its worries, and the Activated Soil was certainly no exception.

It was born in a forest ravaged by war, its daily life a constant battle against all sorts of other Activated Beings.

Activated Trees would rip soil from the earth, Activated Air would gather into tornadoes that swept up everything on the ground, and other, more terrifying Activated Beings would silently erode them.

Activated Light, Activated Darkness, Activated Corruption...

From the moment of their birth, Activated Beings were locked in endless conflict. Their vibrant consciousnesses demanded an outlet, compelling them to destroy other "living things" in an attempt to understand the source of their own "activation."

It was like an infant touching a mirror for the first time. They would see the "living thing" in the reflection, not knowing what it was. Stimulated by the identical resonance, their consciousness would come to understand the concept of "self."

Activated Beings attacked other living things merely to find themselves.

They could not comprehend their own existence. They did not know what they were.

But they had no mirrors. They could only extend their clumsy hands in curiosity toward other things that also "moved."

They didn’t know their own strength, nor the difference between a "touch" and "destruction."

Thus, the war began, and it never ceased.

The Activated Soil was miserable. It didn’t know why it had to fight or what meaning could be found in the endless daily slaughter.

And so, it continuously searched for a way to end the war.

Until it arrived at the Starlight Forest.

It wriggled its form, wandering through the starlight and allowing the specks of light to land upon it. Its consciousness followed the irresistibly alluring starlight into an ocean of awareness.

It was there that it met the other specks of light. Only then did it realize—they were all the same.

Regardless of their physical shells, be they Activated Soil or Activated Trees, their inner essence was just a fragment of consciousness.

Cat and mouse, bird and worm—they were all merely cages for consciousness.

Their bodies fought out of biological instinct and destroyed one another in the confusion of their own activation, but their consciousnesses held no hatred.

If one could truly feel what another feels, how could any hatred exist?

When two specks of light merged, a new consciousness was born. They were like indistinguishable twins, embracing one another. The very same thoughts would arise simultaneously within different specks of light.

Acting with one will at the same instant... when they shed their physical forms, the specks of consciousness would merge into a river of stars. Star would link hand-in-hand with star, forming a dazzling galaxy. In such a state, what war could possibly exist?

The Activated Soil abandoned its body immediately.

It buried its physical form beneath the starlight, right under the roots of its former nemesis, an Activated Tree.

The former nemeses joined hands and drifted into the river of stars.

And their bodies, which had once fought to the death, now rested peacefully side-by-side, bathed in the starlight.

Those bodies were like clothes, wearable by anyone. The consciousnesses floated above the river of stars, sharing their worries among the countless others and scattering their desires to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. By doing so, they could remain eternally at peace, free of all wants and desires.

Now, it was no longer Activated Soil.

It was one of the stars, a speck of conscious light, a single part of that brilliant, stellar river.

No enemies, no war, no worries...

...

The thoughts and feelings of the light speck crashed against Zhou Dynasty’s mind.

’Why bother with factions, with the distinction between you and me? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to become stars together?’

He could sense that this wasn’t a deception, but the genuine experience and thoughts of the light speck.

It shared its memories selflessly with Zhou Dynasty, not to persuade or entice him, but simply to state:

’This is what I believe.’

True empathy was no simple thing. The speck of light didn’t force Zhou Dynasty to accept its way of thinking, but he was inevitably struck by its thoughts nonetheless.

This sharing of emotions made Zhou Dynasty unnaturally calm. But this calmness wasn’t a good thing; he could feel his guard against danger lowering.

He had almost let down the barriers in his mind to embrace a deeper resonance, but thankfully, he stopped himself just in time.

’When emotions are shared like this, thinking becomes sluggish. Many ideas are distributed among the light specks the moment they arise, before I even have a chance to process them.’

’My ability to think independently is being affected,’ Zhou Dynasty realized with perfect clarity.

’The burden of war is what drives one to think about how to end it.’

’The torment of hunger is what drives one to think about how to find food.’

’Hardship gives rise to thought, and thought gives birth to consciousness.’

’But by sharing all burdens, the light specks dull the consciousness’s response to any stimulus. All this does is weaken the ability for independent thought, bit by bit.’

After coming to this realization, Zhou Dynasty’s mental defenses tightened even further.

’This is too dangerous.’

’A moment ago, I almost let go of my barriers completely and merged with those other consciousnesses...’

Zhou Dynasty felt a wave of retroactive fear. He no longer dared to probe the other specks of light and sealed himself off completely.

Just then, the voice spoke again, sounding deeply dejected.

"You... you’ve chosen to remain closed off?"

Zhou Dynasty did not answer. He no longer trusted anything the voice said.

"But why?" the voice pressed.

Zhou Dynasty still refused to answer.

Before long, however, the voice seemed to sense Zhou Dynasty’s thoughts. It sighed. "I see. You desire an independent will?"

"I once thought the same way. I believed that each star existed as an individual..."

The voice muttered, beginning to utter even more baffling things.