Chapter 168

Chapter 168

'Heavenly Dao's' disgust and annoyance in his tone were undisguised, as if he believed himself to be beyond reproach.

Rong Tang, however, turned pale, his body rigid with cold, as anger surged repeatedly in his heart, causing a dull ache in his chest.

He remained silent for a long time before finding his voice, which was hoarse and barely audible: “Why?”

'Heavenly Dao' chuckled softly, repeating, “Why?”

He said, “I, too, am curious. Why did you come down here in the first place?”

The old man sat in his place, a gentle smile on his face. With a slight lift of his hand, the surroundings began to shift, and Rong Tang hadn’t even reacted when he caught a glimpse of the floating objects around the old man.

His pupils constricted in a flash, and Rong Tang gripped the armrest, instinctively leaning forward.

"That's the system."

The system, which only appeared before him on the full moon each month, now floated silently beside 'Heavenly Dao,' completely still and mute.

Rong Tang hoarsely asked, "What have you done to it?"

"Don't worry," 'Heavenly Dao' replied, "I've merely returned it to its original state."

Rong Tang felt a sinking sensation in his heart.

The original state, as he had seen in his dream, where the system was just a small cluster in the vast clouds, made of vapor. A single rain could disperse it into the vast earth, leaving no trace.

'Heavenly Dao' asked, "Do you know why you came to this world?"

Rong Tang didn't answer, and the other party didn’t seem to insist on a response, but after a slight pause, explained, either kindly or maliciously, "It was all real in the beginning."

"The novel, the settings of the protagonist and the antagonist, from the very start, it was all real," he said gently, with the calm tone of a wise man who had experienced life.

Yet, this composure inherently carried a condescending premise, an invisible arrogance.

"The story was indeed as you first saw it. The protagonist, after enduring hardships, was about to become the emperor, but at the last moment, his fate was stolen by the antagonist, altering the course and ending of the story."

He spoke indifferently, but Rong Tang couldn’t bear to listen anymore, and retorted sarcastically, "You live in your own world?"

The other party chuckled softly, "This world is indeed mine, so your words are not entirely false."

Rong Tang fell silent, his gaze occasionally drifting to the system, contemplating how to rescue the naive entity.

As for what 'Heavenly Dao' was saying, it seemed far-fetched.

"It's so absurd I feel like my ears are being soiled just listening to it."

Yet, the person continued, "You liked this novel, died unexpectedly in another world, and coincidentally, when this world was locked without further progress, you traversed into it by chance. Your duty was supposed to maintain the smooth operation of this microcosm, ensuring the author's envisioned ending comes to fruition. But why did you change?"

He seemed puzzled, "The protagonist's success and the antagonist's demise at the hands of the righteous – isn't that what the readers in your world most desire to see? Why did you make illogical changes?"

It appeared he genuinely couldn't comprehend Rong Tang's actions, his eyes losing that hint of desire, replaced entirely by a desperate need for answers, yet tinged with an inexplicable madness.

He was 'Heavenly Dao', his role being to uphold Sheng Chengli's protagonist status, ensuring he would become the supreme ruler no matter what.

Now, due to Rong Tang's interference, not only was Sheng Chengli's chance of becoming emperor diminishing, but even the original plot of the grand antagonist's successful rebellion and the destruction of Da Yu seemed increasingly unlikely.

Rong Tang, as a reader of the novel, now in this world, had not done a single good deed in the eyes of 'Heavenly Dao'.

It was hard for him not to despise this person.

But hearing this, Rong Tang lowered his head, observing the bloodstains he had pinched into his palm.

After a moment of silence, he softly said, "I find it very interesting."

'Heavenly Dao' paused, looking at him curiously, waiting for further explanation, seeking an answer.

Rong Tang: "I've always wondered, I never taught Sheng Chengli to speak nothing but lies, to twist facts, to sow discord. Neither did Mr. Mu or Ke Hongxue. Where did he learn to speak in such a manner, always standing on a pedestal, believing he's the most righteous, owing nothing to the world, shamelessly spouting those disgusting falsehoods without a trace of guilt?"

He spoke slowly, his demeanor so graceful it could be captured in a timeless painting.

"Now I think about it, he must have learned it from you," Rong Tang said softly, composed, his tone gentle, without a single harsh word or hint of anger, his eyes lifting with a natural authority.

'Heavenly Dao' frowned displeasedly at him after a brief pause.

Rong Tang added, "I didn't pay much attention to what you said, nor do I care to correct each of your mistakes. After all, I'm not your teacher, nor do I have the obligation to gradually guide you to be a better person."

"But first, this world is not yours."

Declaring that the world wasn't his in front of 'Heavenly Dao' was like throwing a bomb. As soon as Rong Tang finished speaking, the man’s expression changed several times, finally settling on something indiscernible between irony and anger, and he coldly asked, "Are you suggesting it's yours?"

Rong Tang chuckled softly, realizing how unnecessary his previous caution had been.

He shook his head, "Naturally, it’s not mine either. But thank you for confirming my speculation."

Provoking 'Heavenly Dao' to straightforwardly question, 'Is this world yours?', whether as a retort or inquiry, was enough to confirm that Rong Tang, upon entering this book, was not merely as the Crown Prince of Ning Xuan Wang.

He said, "I’ve just figured out some things, perhaps I can answer your doubts."

'Heavenly Dao' claimed everything was real, but Rong Tang pondered, if it was all real, then why and on whose behalf had he traversed into this world?

He asked, "When were you born?"

'Heavenly Dao' naturally replied, "At the very beginning of the world."

Rong Tang nodded, "The beginning of the world, that is when the author first conceived the outline of this story."

"What are you trying to say?" He sensed an unsettling premonition.

Rong Tang said, "When a novel is born in the real world, this world gains self-awareness, which sounds quite reasonable."

'Heavenly Dao' didn't speak, just looked at him.

Rong Tang then questioned, "But this makes my transmigration into this world seem illogical."

Every word spoken has a trace, there are no words or meanings created without reason.

This triple transmigration was a deception, but if we go back to the beginning of the first life, the information Rong Tang received was this: [The plotline severely collapsed, the emperor is intolerable to Heavenly Dao, the world teeters on the brink, urgent correction needed. However, as the world's consciousness has just formed, it lacks the power to directly eliminate the villain, so it lets him protect Sheng Chengli, ensuring his successful ascension to the throne.]

Based on this premise, Rong Tang was pulled over from another world.

It seemed flawless, but Rong Tang asked, "Do you know what 'correction' means?"

'Heavenly Dao' remained silent, as if anticipating something incomprehensible he was about to say.

Rong Tang spoke deliberately, "My several transmigrations resemble playing a game with the option to reload a save. I was wondering why this mechanism exists, and now I finally understand."

'Heavenly Dao's' gaze flickered slightly.

Rong Tang said, "In the era I come from, there is something called computer code."

"Be it a game or a program, fundamentally, they are written with code. When there's an issue with the code, after identifying the problem, maintaining and reinforcing it to prevent an immediate crash is called patching; but correction is about going back to the root, returning to the very line where the fault began, deleting the code, and rewriting it."

"This task is enormous, but only this way can we avoid a situation where more patches are applied over time, fixing one issue only for another error to arise."

Rong Tang said with a half-smile, "Doesn't this sound familiar?"

'Heavenly Dao' spoke in a deep voice, "Stop beating around the bush."

Rong Tang: "Assuming the world consciousness finds that Su Huaijing's ascension leads to world destruction, a non-reversible consequence caused by a code error, then the optimal solution would be to send the tasker, which is me, to before Su Huaijing was born, eradicating him from the source, that's what correction means."

"But on one hand, I'm not given the task to kill Su Huaijing, and on the other, I'm supposed to protect Sheng Chengli. No matter how you look at it, this seems like a case of incomplete learning, self-interpretation, and ultimately leading to a comical process akin to 'drawing a tiger but ending up with a dog'."

'Tian Dao' looked as if he had been slapped in the face, his previously self-righteous expression gone, replaced by a more evident emotion of annoyed embarrassment.

Rong Tang closed his eyes, then reopened them to continue, "In that case, I have to doubt the one who assigned me this task, knowing in advance about other tasks and their patterns, but due to limited capability and incomplete learning, tried to overwrite the original task but was confined by the existing premises, finally giving me a task to 'protect the male lead from being killed by the antagonist.'"

"I keep having a dream lately where I am still a transmigrator, but my transmigration isn’t into a specific person, and my task is never to protect Sheng Chengli. On the contrary, the clearest voice in the dream is: 'Stop everything from happening.'"

Rong Tang smiled, alone with him in the hall. His eyes, devoid of mirth, revealed a complex intertwining of indescribable vicissitudes and irony: "Isn't it the true essence of 'correction' to prevent something before it happens?"

'Tian Dao' darkened in expression and asked in a deep voice, "What exactly are you trying to say?"

Rong Tang pinched the bridge of his nose, "You always pretend to know or not know, making everything so annoying."

He said, "You claim that everything is real, and that might be believable. But tell me, why would a complete, self-aware world, instead of maintaining its own operation and following its instincts, bring someone from another world into it?"

Rong Tang looked up at Him and asked, "Every person brought into this world doesn't belong here and could potentially lead to an uncontrollable and unpredictable catastrophe. Why would it take such a risk?"

'Tian Dao' frowned deeply, staring intently at Rong Tang.

Rong Tang met His gaze with a cold indifference, speaking softly yet firmly, "Because it's trying to save itself."

"The cause of the world's collapse has never been Su Huaijing, but you and your so-called male protagonist."

The most urgent and pressing instinct of anything newly born in this world is the will to survive.

'World Consciousness' is like this, and so is 'Tian Dao'.

'World Consciousness' realized that if things were to follow the original plot, Su Huaijing’s eventual usurpation and the ensuing chaos and suffering were inevitable, leading to its demise.

So, it had to pull people in to prevent all this from happening.

But 'Tian Dao' found that if this prevention succeeded, His and His male protagonist’s existence from the very beginning would be meaningless, like bugs needing erasure and repair.

Thus, He manipulated the initial logical principles, embellishing and fabricating them, reassigning the task with a mix of deception and truth, crafting a seemingly reasonable lie, attempting to legitimize Himself and usurp the authority of the World Consciousness.

"You lied," Rong Tang said softly, without sorrow or joy, without any accusation, yet it sent an involuntary shiver down the spine of the listener, stirring a fear from deep within.

"It wasn’t you who was born at the beginning of the world, but the World Consciousness. Your existence should be dated from when Sheng Xuyan plotted his rebellion."

Sheng Xuyan’s plotting, the birth of Sheng Chengli, the sorcerer's divination of his fate - these are the beginnings of the story of 'Emperor's Conquest'.

This person claiming to be 'Tian Dao' originated from this.

Rong Tang sighed, like a person who had suffered from amnesia for a very long time and finally remembered all the truths in an instant: "I came here to stop you."

This is the true essence of 'correction'.