Chapter 573: Absolute Goodness
"Chu Tianqiu... you..."
Doctor Zhao's lips moved slightly. He knew the other man was wildly insane, but he felt he couldn't contend with him at all.
"So have you two decided?" Chu Tianqiu turned his head, his expression cold and dangerous. He gave a slight smile, licked his lips, and said, "If you can't catch the wings of this mad eagle of mine, how are you supposed to soar through the sky to witness with your own eyes the eye of 'God' up above?"
"You..."
The two of them stared at Chu Tianqiu, whose demeanor had completely transformed, unable to utter a single word.
A 'mad eagle'—this description suited Chu Tianqiu's current state perfectly.
His gaze was exceptionally sharp, and his body exuded an overwhelming aura of bloodshed.
This 'mad eagle' had bombs and gunpowder hanging from its wings. It didn't hunt for prey; instead, it flew straight toward the most dangerous sun in the sky.
Either destroy the sun, or become the sun.
The two behind Chu Tianqiu swallowed in unison. Doctor Zhao spoke first:
"You said you need our help. So what do you want us to... do?"
"Hunt 'Echoers'," Chu Tianqiu said. "I need a large number of Echoers."
Doctor Zhao frowned upon hearing this. "Chu Tianqiu... you... you need their corpses? To keep in your basement and gnaw on?"
This startled Han Yimo. "Wh-what? Gnaw on corpses?!"
"Ha..." Chu Tianqiu revealed a trace of a smile. He glanced at Doctor Zhao, then shifted his gaze to Han Yimo. "Han Yimo, do you think a person who gnaws on corpses counts as a 'good person' or a 'bad person'?"
"How could they count as goo—"
Before Han Yimo could finish, Chu Tianqiu pulled a gold ingot from his pocket.
The ingot was saddle-shaped, with rounded ends and a narrow waist in the middle, now radiating a brilliant golden light in Chu Tianqiu's hand.
"Han Yimo, in your novel, what kind of person can obtain this gold ingot?" Chu Tianqiu asked.
Han Yimo's eyes widened slowly as he reached out and took the gold ingot, examining it carefully. Then he muttered to himself:
"Those judged as 'good' are rewarded with one tael and seven qian of silver; those judged as 'evil' are pierced through the dantian by the 'Seven Blades'... The wandering swordsman Chu Qi, wielding the 'Seven Black Sword', rewarded good and punished evil countless times in his life, but only once did he give someone a gold ingot."
"Which time was that?" Chu Tianqiu asked.
"The other person had a pure heart, like unpolished jade and unrefined gold, had done countless good deeds in life, and had never committed any wrong." Han Yimo said with some disbelief. "A person like this... a person like this shouldn't exist in reality..."
"So would the 'Seven Black Sword' lie?" Chu Tianqiu pressed on. "It deemed me worthy of this gold ingot. Could it be a misjudgment?"
"No..." Han Yimo frowned as he replied. "After Chu Qi died, the 'Seven Black Sword', carrying Chu Qi's soul, soared through the martial world. It could see a person's past and discern the good and evil of their soul... So it should be..."
"So I count as a 'good person'." Chu Tianqiu said, his eyes slightly bloodshot. "I have also done countless good deeds in my life, helping anyone I could to the best of my ability. But so far, I have received no reward, and I am already covered in wounds."
"You..." Han Yimo seemed somewhat unconvinced by Chu Tianqiu's words, but he found the gold ingot in his hand extremely real, clearly originating from the story of the 'Seven Black Sword'.
Could Chu Tianqiu really be a good person?
Even he himself had said that there were no good people in this world, just varying degrees of badness.
Could it be that the person who said that had never done anything wrong in his entire life?
"So you are a sinless person...?" Doctor Zhao was slightly stunned. "That can't be right... Chu Tianqiu, if you've never done anything wrong in your life, why are you here?"
"Heh..." Chu Tianqiu looked at Doctor Zhao, his facial expression becoming increasingly twisted, then he spat out a few words heavily, "I want to know too..."
"What..."
"I really want to ask them too!!" Chu Tianqiu suddenly shouted. "I have more questions than any of you!! What crime did I commit that made me endlessly reincarnate in this kind of hell?! Is this the 'fruit of goodness' I cultivated from a life of doing good deeds?! Is this the retribution for my selflessness?! I have helped countless people in my life, and even here, I persist in helping everyone in difficulty find hope... But where is my hope?! Where is the 'path' left for me here?!"
Chu Tianqiu kept roaring. A few strands of his blood-caked hair had fallen loose onto his forehead, making him look even more manic.
"Why?! Why are there so many hardships waiting for me on the path of my life? Is this what I deserve?!" Chu Tianqiu clenched his fists, his whole body trembling. "Twenty-eight years of doing good, and just as my life was about to begin, a tumor was found in my brain. I thought this place would be where I could 'redeem' myself... But everything I insisted on is just a joke here. The person I loved turned into a monster here. My 'goodness' is worthless here! The tumor has been hurting all along, never giving me a moment's peace...!!"
"A tumor...?" Doctor Zhao found it a bit strange. He had previously dissected Qi Xia's corpse for Chu Tianqiu, and Qi Xia's brain also had a malignant tumor.
A 'tumor'? Was that a coincidence?
But according to the tumor's condition, if Chu Tianqiu had the same illness as Qi Xia, the two of them would have at most six months to live.
"No wonder you don't want to 'escape', but rather want to 'become a god'..." Doctor Zhao nodded after hearing this. "Because escaping from here means 'death'."
"I've done enough..." Chu Tianqiu said. "I've been a 'lighthouse' here, illuminating everyone for a long time... Now I want to do something for myself..."
"So what you want to do is collect their corpses..."
"No." Chu Tianqiu shook his head and resumed a cold expression. "I no longer need corpses. I need their eyes."
"Eyes...?"
The two of them simultaneously looked at the necklace of eyeballs hanging around Chu Tianqiu's neck.
"I need a large number of eyes." Chu Tianqiu said with a hint of sadness. "As long as you can help me collect the eyeballs of 'Echoers', I won't treat you poorly. But if you can't bring me ten eyes every day... then I will no longer need you."
"Ten eyes...?" The two exchanged glances. "That means... we have to kill at least five people every day... and five 'Echoers' at that..."
"That's right. You can rest assured, as long as you meet the requirements, I will give you a large number of rewards every day." Chu Tianqiu smiled. "Whether it's food or other resources, as long as I have them, I can give them to you."