Chapter 105: The Fate of Humanity

In the shadows, the corpse puppet possessed by Xu Yuan coldly studied Gao Tian with bloodshot eyes. "Before I answer your question, I want to tell a little story, starting from my childhood.

"It might run a bit long. I hope Mr. Memory Ghost doesn't mind?"

Gao Tian said, "Please, take your time."

Xu Yuan continued, "That was a long time ago. So long ago it feels like a past life.

"When I was very young, I displayed an extraordinary supernatural talent. I had a pair of Ghost Eyes that could see things ordinary people couldn't. I was ostracized by my peers, who considered me an omen of misfortune—"

"That was until I met my teacher, an expert in the supernatural. He taught me the basics of the supernatural and how to control my Ghost Eyes. He showed me that not only was I not a jinx, but I was also a genius—

"Under intense training, my Ghost Eyes unlocked even greater abilities. Not only could I see the invisible ghosts around me, but I could also see the future—countless fragments of it—"

Gao Tian listened quietly, not interrupting.

He already knew all this.

"Later, something happened," Xu Yuan said. "My teacher was forced to painfully gouge out those eyes that could see the future. Do you know why?"

Gao Tian froze. "How is that possible?

"Are you saying you've already lost those eyes?"

Besides, Xu Yuan hadn't gone blind afterward.

The red-eyed corpse puppet smiled faintly. "My teacher did it for my own good, of course. Gouging out my eyes was a last resort. It was because I saw something I shouldn't have seen."

He elaborated, "I saw the future of humanity.

"Fifty years in the future, the true finale that civilization on this world would face."

This was also Xu Yuan's fourth condition for Gao Tian back at the Jinhai Building.

To think it was also tied to young Xu Yuan's future-seeing eyes.

Xu Yuan summed it up simply in one word: "Hell."

He said, "Actually, ever since the supernatural revival began, both of us should know exactly what our planet will turn into.

"We just don't want to admit it.

"When people die, they turn into ghosts. And ghosts never die. Their numbers will only increase, never decrease.

"It's a simple, one-way addition that even an elementary school student could understand. The number of ghosts keeps growing, and sooner or later, they will outnumber the living on Earth. Think about how many people must be killed to birth a single ghost. By the time ghosts outnumber humans—or even before that day, once a tipping point is reached—what do you think will happen to human society?"

The question was so simple it didn't even need an answer.

It meant the instant extinction of all humanity.

From then on, only eternal, mindless Fierce Ghosts would wander aimlessly across a dead, silent Earth.

Such an ending was the most despair-inducing future, even for 'ability users' like them who had been granted new life by the Divine Tree.

If there were no living people left, where would they get the lifespans of the living to maintain their current sanity?

Xu Yuan gave Gao Tian a moment to think before continuing. "Unfortunately, my abilities when I was young were too powerful. By accident, I saw an Earth overrun by Fierce Ghosts fifty years in the future.

"By then, humanity was already gone. Only ruins remained—cities, hospitals, shopping malls. Across the entire planet, there wasn't a single living creature left, let alone humans.

"The earth was covered in either corpses or ghosts.

"If it had only been that, it wouldn't have been enough for my teacher to resolve himself to do something so cruel.

"I had nightmares for a month before I finally recovered. My teacher stayed by my bedside that entire time, only to tell me something even worse.

"Through that distant glance, I saw the countless Fierce Ghosts roaming the future Earth. Among them was a male corpse that wore a constant smile. Even though its entire body was rotting and its facial features had melted beyond recognition, it still maintained a twisted smile.

"I called that strange thing the Smiling Man. Surprisingly, it possessed the ability to perceive space and time.

"It sensed that fifty years in the past, a living person had looked at it from afar across the river of time.

"That filthy thing, the Smiling Man, could potentially follow my gaze, trace it back here, pollute history, and even descend upon the world fifty years early.

"Although the possibility was very small, even if it was just one percent, once it happened, our world would perish prematurely. Decades earlier than prophesied."

At this point, Xu Yuan briefly closed his blood-red eyes.

"To prevent this, I had to willingly give up my eyes and forget all memories related to them.

"I asked over and over if there was any other way. There had to be.

"My teacher just told me, very gently but firmly, that it was the only way. I had to consider the perspective of all humanity and sacrifice myself for the greater good.

"The greater good, the greater good, always the greater good. I thoroughly despise those words."

Xu Yuan's fists slowly clenched together, letting out the terrifying sound of cracking bones. Gao Tian had no doubt about how horrifying a punch from him in this enraged state would be.

"The surgery took place as scheduled. Under the effects of anesthesia, my Ghost Eyes were removed, and what left with them weren't just my former abilities. My teacher activated a special Supernatural Item that also stripped away most of my memories related to the Ghost Eyes. This was to prevent that unimaginable, filthy thing from the future from finding the source of that gaze from fifty years ago and tracing it upstream to arrive in the past ahead of time."

No wonder.

The young Xu Yuan had seen the future Gao Tian, as well as his own future self.

But the adult Xu Yuan couldn't remember the Gao Tian holding the Ghost Transformation Spear at all, nor his own childhood self.

That was because most of those memories had been taken away by his teacher.

Besides that, there was even worse news.

According to Xu Yuan, the young Xu Yuan seeing the 'world fifty years in the future' had happened over twenty years ago.

In other words, from now until the supernatural revival completely took over and all humanity went extinct, there were only about twenty years left.

Xu Yuan's story wasn't finished. "It was only after I grew up that I spent a long time gradually remembering that I once possessed a pair of future-seeing eyes.

"Of course, I only have the concepts in my head—the Smiling Man, the hellish scenery. Trying to recall their specific appearances is impossible. This was to sever the channel for the Smiling Man to chase into the past.

"As for the other trivial matters seen by those future-seeing eyes, I've long forgotten them. I never remembered them again."

Gao Tian said, "But your eyes were fine later—"

Xu Yuan said mildly, "To compensate me, my teacher dug out a ghost's eyes and filled my eye sockets with them.

"Those Ghost Eyes also possess a certain amount of supernatural power. However, they are far inferior to my original Ghost Eyes.

"Forget it, these things are all in the past. They aren't important at all."

He stepped out of the darkness. Above his suit was a half-mutilated, indescribably hideous man's face. "Don't you want to hear what happened next?

"How I planned to break this destined dead end and bring an end to this supernatural era where Fierce Ghosts run rampant and never die?

"I thought about it for a long time before coming up with such an ingenious method.

"In this world, I'm afraid that other than me, there is no second person who could think of and have the perseverance to execute this plan."

Gao Tian said, "I'm all ears."