“This is more complicated to explain than I imagined…” Earth Snake rubbed his smooth, white head after hearing it. “Where should I start?”
Qi Xia paused briefly before replying, “Start with yourself.”
Earth Snake nodded. “Right… If I start with myself, what I’m about to tell you is the initial problem, the second direction of my teacher’s research—how to make a person acquire multiple ‘immortal arts’ at once.”
Qi Xia gave a slight nod.
“If I had to explain it…” Earth Snake’s eyes flickered uncertainly. “Because my body already carries an ‘immortal art,’ it’s difficult to accommodate others. But some people here are different. They became ‘Zodiacs’ as ‘ordinary people.’ To put it simply, they are blank sheets of paper—my teacher could paint any color on them. But I’m a sheet of deep blue paper; many colors won’t even show up on me.”
Aside from Qi Xia, the others began to ponder this.
Qi Xia sighed. “Since you’re being open… there’s no need to lie now, is there?”
“Me… lie?”
“According to you, ‘Celestial Snake’ found that the survival rate of eyeballs transplanted onto you was extremely low, so he tried many times and eventually uncovered your weakness.” Qi Xia said. “That’s the logical sequence, right?”
“Yes,” Earth Snake nodded. “Is there something wrong with that?”
Qi Xia sighed again but remained silent, simply staring at Earth Snake.
“Dang it!” Qiao Jiajin suddenly seemed to realize something. “That doesn’t add up! If that Celestial Snake guy wanted to know your ‘weakness,’ would he really need to go through all that trouble?”
“Ah, I see. You think he could’ve just read my mind directly.” Earth Snake nodded. “Qi Xia, the ‘logic’ is correct, but the ‘timing’ is wrong.”
“Oh?”
“If my teacher hadn’t found the perfect method to break through me, how could he have gained the ability to ‘read minds’?”
“So their abilities came later…”
Qi Xia slowly narrowed his eyes, sensing a crucial missing piece in this reasoning.
“Exactly. It was only because of contributions from freaks like me… that my teacher could obtain the abilities he desired.” Earth Snake shook his head. “No, not just my teacher—all the upper echelons here are the same.”
“Then, in theory…” Qi Xia pondered for a moment before continuing, “You also possess two abilities?”
“Strangely enough, yes.” Earth Snake said. “Originally, my ‘Mourning’ wasn’t this powerful. I had to maintain contact for a long time before someone would feel sorrow. But my teacher somehow found the previous owner of ‘Mourning,’ who had already turned into a ‘native.’ During an experiment on me, he happened to transfer that person’s eye to me. And that eye ended my inhuman suffering.”
Qi Xia let out a cold chuckle upon hearing this, having nearly pieced together the truth.
“Previous owner?” Qiao Jiajin frowned. “Is this thing hereditary or something?”
“‘Hereditary’ isn’t quite accurate.” Earth Snake shook his head. “Although ‘wish fulfillment’ was split into countless fragments, my teacher conducted research and found that the maximum number of ‘immortal arts’ that can exist at any given time is just over three thousand.”
“Immortal arts… over three thousand types…” Qi Xia muttered the words.
“Yes. And the way ‘immortal arts’ are obtained is different from what most people imagine.”
“How so?” Chen Junnan asked.
“You think ‘immortal arts’ are hidden within your body, waiting for some ‘trigger’ to manifest, right?” Earth Snake questioned.
Qi Xia averted his gaze without responding, while Chen Junnan nodded. “That’s how it’s always been. What’s wrong with that?”
“The outcome may seem similar, but the actual mechanism is different.” Earth Snake explained. “All ‘immortal arts’ aren’t hidden inside people, waiting to be discovered—they’re more like birds in the sky.”
Chen Junnan clearly didn’t grasp the metaphor. “Birds in the sky? What does that mean?”
“Let me put it this way: Suppose the ‘trigger’ for your ‘immortal art’ is ‘despair.’ But at the same time, many people here are feeling ‘despair.’ At that moment, the ‘immortal art’ is like a bird circling above—it picks and flies to the person it favors most. From then on, that person possesses the ‘immortal art’ born from despair. Understand? It resides within you, and ‘despair’ becomes its fuel. It activates by feeding on your ‘despair.'”
Earth Snake’s explanation clearly took them by surprise, but upon reflection, it didn’t seem entirely absurd.
“As for the remaining ‘despairing ones,’ they become the bird’s ‘candidates.'” Earth Snake continued. “If its chosen owner becomes a ‘native,’ abandons it to become a ‘Zodiac,’ or vanishes for any reason, the bird will fly to a ‘candidate,’ making them the new ‘inheritor.’ But remember, everyone interprets ‘immortal arts’ differently, so a ‘candidate’ doesn’t mean they’re weak.”
After listening, Qi Xia gave a slight nod. “All this was discovered by your teacher?”
“Yes, with my help.” Earth Snake nodded. “After all, I oversee the largest bookstore here, making it easier to gather information and knowledge.”
“So…” Qi Xia glanced at Earth Snake’s body. “You’re saying this eye managed to survive in you precisely because your innate ability was ‘Mourning,’ and the only surviving eye happened to come from the previous owner of ‘Mourning.’ As a result, you gained an even stronger version of ‘Mourning,’ where now, just a brief touch from you makes people overwhelmed with sorrow.”
“Oh! You put it much more succinctly.” Earth Snake nodded. “But I don’t quite follow. Those people’s sorrow comes from the heartbreaking stories they tell themselves.”
“Fine, I’ll take that as confirmation.” Qi Xia said. “Let’s assume this was an extremely coincidental case. After all, your teacher wasn’t exactly normal—we can consider it a natural occurrence.”
“It *was* natural.” Earth Snake said irritably. “If he’d known this eye would survive in me, he wouldn’t have implanted it. He wanted to experiment with more possibilities.”
“That makes sense.” Qi Xia nodded. “Now for the most critical question.”
“What? After all this… there’s still a ‘most critical’ question?”
“Of course.” Qi Xia nodded. “Tell me—where are the ‘eyes’ on their bodies?”
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