Upon seeing this, Lu Mingran realized something: the male protagonist left behind a substitute to die in his place, intending to use this opportunity to find the ultimate truth.
"System," Lu Mingran called out, "Let's discuss what to do now?"
Before Lu Mingran could finish speaking, he suddenly found himself in a corridor of the school. He saw Tao Chen's staggering figure, and before he could do anything, Tao Chen bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood.
After the blood mist cleared, Tao Chen raised his hand and drew a talisman in the air, then took a step forward.
...The person just disappeared so suddenly.
“He went into the bamboo forest,” the system said. “He’s already at the bronze gate.”
Lu Mingran was stunned: "No, he just left like that?"
"Yes, it's the male lead's superpower, spatial teleportation."
After saying that, the system finally realized the problem: the gatekeeper was still watching the show, but the person looking for the gatekeeper had already arrived at their doorstep.
Lu Mingran immediately said, "Quickly, you should also quickly create a spell like that so I can get there. If that doesn't work, the bus will do."
But that wouldn't work; the system said it didn't have that method, and then tentatively asked Lu Mingran, "How's your stamina?"
Lu Mingran blinked in confusion.
The system then said awkwardly, "Actually, there's something I didn't tell you: the gatekeeper is a bird in disguise. Now that you're wearing the cloak, shake your arms ten times, and your arms will turn into wings."
"If all else fails, how about we fly over?"
Lu Mingran never expected that he, a perfectly normal person, would turn into a bird.
Later, he did indeed fly there, but by plane. As Tao Chen lingered in awe before the gate, the gatekeeper had just gotten off the plane and was struggling up the mountain, having borrowed a donkey cart from a local villager.
One day, my gatekeeper will come to see me in a donkey cart.
——————
This is the fourth day.
Tao Chen stopped hesitating and made up his mind, placing his hand on the bronze door on the mountain wall.
To his surprise, the door opened.
The doorway was completely white, as if stepping inside would lead him into a void.
Before coming, he had wondered many times what lay behind the door—Buddha, paradise, or hell? But he hadn't expected that there would be nothing behind the door.
Tao Chen took a step back, his eyes shining with reverence beneath his blood-stained eyelids:
"I understand now, behind this door lies the elusive and uncertain destiny!"
Then he heard heavy breathing.
Tao Chen turned around at the sound and saw a person wearing a white cloak walking from elsewhere. He seemed to have traveled for a long time and had a clear goal, barging directly into the doorway.
Not only did he barge in, but he also pushed the bewildered Tao Chen out and closed the door.
Tao Chen stood outside the door, completely unaware of what had just happened.
The moment he entered, Lu Mingran's arms automatically transformed into wings, the kind that constantly shed feathers. He didn't care about that anymore and shouted loudly outside:
"One more time!"
Huh? One more time?
Amidst endless bewilderment, Tao Chen slowly pressed his hand down again as Lu Mingran had requested.
So this time there was no emptiness behind the door. Tao Chen could clearly see that in the white world, there stood a... birdman.
It turns out that behind the door lies not only fate, poetry, and distant places, but also possibly a birdman.
Chapter 75 Want to study philosophy? No way (2)
At this moment, in Tao Chen's eyes, there stood a bird-man wearing a white cloak in this white world.
What just happened? And who is this bird-like man?
Tao Chen cautiously asked, "May I ask who you are...?"
The birdman said simply, "Gatekeeper."
Perhaps fearing Tao Chen wouldn't believe him, the birdman said:
"I just went out for a meal and came back."
Lu Mingran thought to herself that her reasoning was reasonable. There was nothing behind the bronze door. Some people said that Xiao Ge in the Tomb Raider series grew and ate mushrooms behind the door, but there were no mushrooms here. Couldn't people go out and hunt for wild food?
After explaining her reasons, Lu Mingran stared at Tao Chen and saw his furrowed brows gradually relax, revealing a convinced smile.
However, Tao Chen did not believe his explanation about buying groceries.
Tao Chen recalled the ancient book left to him by Villain #2. Only a few characters on it could be deciphered, making it difficult to understand. What he couldn't forget was that on the first and last pages of the book, there was a picture of a black bird with flames burning on its wings and its head held high.
And there was that archaeology professor who sacrificed his life in the ancient tomb. He said that the totem of that mysterious family that lived in seclusion in the mountains was this, the sacred bird.
Tao Chen understood. Everything before him matched the clues he had obtained earlier. This was the sacred bird that guarded the ultimate.
Thus, in Tao Chen's eyes, the birdman's wings suddenly shone with a holy light, and every falling feather held endless profound meaning.
At the same time, Tao Chen became wary. He knew that a gatekeeper like this wouldn't have a good temper.
Sure enough, the birdman remained silent for a very long time.
Little did he know, Lu Mingran was communicating with the system. The system said that since things had come to this point, they might as well reveal the ultimate secret, at least the ending of the book wouldn't be so mysterious anymore.
“But you have to make it clear to him,” the system said, “knowing the ultimate secret comes at a price, and I don’t know what that price is.”
Okay, now Lu Mingran is just waiting for Tao Chen to ask.
However, Tao Chen remained silent, standing still. During this time, the mysterious force behind the door continued to act on Tao Chen's body. When Tao Chen witnessed his wounds healing on their own, he dared not speak even more.
The bird thought to itself, "If I wait any longer, I'll lose all my feathers."
Lu Mingran cleared her throat and said in a deep voice, "What are you doing here?"
Hearing this, Tao Chen tensed up and replied, "I want to find an answer."
"Okay, let me ask you a question first."
Lu Mingran asked him, "Have you ever thought about what happens after a person dies?"
Most people would at least think for a moment after being asked this question, but Tao Chen smiled lightly, puffed out his chest, and said:
“I’ve been thinking about this question for many years, I’ve been thinking about it since I was three years old.”
Oh, three years old.
Lu Mingran glanced at Tao Chen's hairline, which wasn't actually that high: No wonder he's showing signs of going bald, you're just overthinking it...
So what answer did Tao Chen come up with? After thinking about it for so many years, all he came up with were those old clichés about hell and Yama.
Lu Mingran shook her head: "There are no ghosts in this world."
Tao Chen held his breath.
He knew that this sacred bird was a wise creature, and according to the ancient books, the ultimate secret was something that could not be explained even after a thousand years of explanation. He was prepared.
However, Lu Mingran was very considerate and told him in a straightforward manner, "There are many people in the world."
There are many worlds in the universe, one of which is the main world. In the main world, every person who dies is reincarnated into a world specifically created for them, and the level of civilization in this world is the same as that in the main world they lived in.
In the world that was created for him, he was the center of everything, yet he himself was unaware of this. When this person grows old and dies, or dies young, or dies in an accident, this world will collapse and disappear.
In those small worlds, those who have cultivated to a certain level often say that the world is not contained in the emperor's scepter, but may reside in a beggar on the roadside. If the beggar starves to death tomorrow, the world will perish with him.
Fortunately, Tao Chen's world is the main world, but precisely because of this, the so-called ghosts and spirits are all fake, just little tricks of the world.
The main villain in the original story comes from another world. In that world, he is an emperor's celestial master. When he finally achieves immortality, he discovers a secret of heaven: an old man in the capital is about to die, and the world will perish as a result.
In this way, his immortality would be meaningless.
Unwilling to give up, he ordered his men to do everything in their power to treat the old man, using all sorts of miraculous and secret methods to keep him alive. In the later stages, the old man's limbs ulcerated, and only his heart continued to beat weakly.
The old man waited in agony for the day of liberation. On that day, the Celestial Master, at the cost of over a million lives, defied the will of Heaven and entered the main world. Here, he could fulfill his obsession with immortality.
The Song family, who live in seclusion in the mountains, are the family that guards the ultimate secret. To them, this Celestial Master is a hidden danger to the world that needs to be eliminated.
This series of disputes began hundreds of years ago and continues to this day.
After Lu Mingran finished speaking, Tao Chen on the other end of the line fell silent.
Lu Mingran could understand; after all, things beyond one's comprehension require processing.
But that wasn't what Tao Chen cared about at all. He was thinking, "So the ultimate truth is so easy to say?"
As far as Tao Chen knew, the villains had spent years searching for the ultimate secret, but died without ever finding it. He'd heard that some had already made their way here, but the gatekeeper remained silent, and those who tried to force their way in met with terrible ends.
Is this still the gatekeeper he knows? He just said it so easily?
Lord Holy Bird, what happened to your noble and aloof persona?
Tao Chen looked at the birdman suspiciously, then he smiled wryly and said, "Lord Holy Bird, I know you don't want to tell me, but you don't need to lie to me."
For a moment, Lu Mingran didn't know whether to complain about the title "Lord Holy Bird" or the sentence that followed.
"I didn't lie to you."
"No, I don't believe you would say so easily that the Song family has paid with the lives of so many of its members to keep this secret!"
Tao Chen's eyes hardened: "You're lying to me."
Lu Mingran: "..."
After a moment of shock, Lu Mingran could only say, "Yes, that's how it is."
Tao Chen was satisfied: "I knew it wouldn't be that easy."
However, after he was satisfied, he continued:
"Please give me a hint: what is the ultimate truth? What is the Way of Heaven?"
"You can make things difficult for me or test me if you want to get this hint!"
Lu Mingran, who had already told him the truth about the world: ...What else can I say? This is the only ultimate secret I know.
So Lu Mingran had the system give him a pen and a piece of paper, which he then sincerely handed to Tao Chen: