Chapter 861: Hail the Ultimate Path
"I can see you getting more anxious every day." Jiang Ruoxue reached out and placed her hand on my shoulder. "When we first met, your eyes weren't so lost yet."
"I don't know." I shook my head. "I just feel like I've stopped... Time has frozen in this place, but I knew I hadn't. But now... I feel like I've stopped too."
"Do you really want to achieve this goal?" She asked me seriously once again. "Even if it's hard... even if it costs a lot, it's still okay?"
I was familiar with this expression. Whenever Jiang Ruoxue got serious, she could always say something I never expected.
"I can help you." Jiang Ruoxue said coldly again.
"Haven't you been helping me all along?" I let out a bitter laugh.
"No... This kind of 'help' has a different meaning." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. "Once I choose to help you from a higher level, it means I have completed my mission."
"What do you mean...?" I didn't quite understand her words. "Your 'mission'?"
"Remember...?" Jiang Ruoxue smiled and pinched my cheek. "The reason I've been able to appear here for five consecutive years is because I felt you needed me. Once I help you accomplish this matter, my mission will be complete, and you won't need me anymore. 'Karma' will no longer bring us together."
"What...?" I was stunned.
"When the time comes, meeting each other will only depend on true 'fate'." Jiang Ruoxue laughed. "Our birth points are far apart, almost on opposite ends of this city. Meeting won't be so easy anymore."
"I don't quite understand..." I frowned at her. "Ruoxue... You could have helped me in other ways directly, but you chose to waste five years instead?"
"Waste...? No, no, no." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. "Zhichun, everything in this world follows 'karma'. If something cannot follow karma, then by 'deducing the cause from the effect', you can still arrive at the answer."
After five years together, I could roughly understand what Jiang Ruoxue meant.
"Are you saying... these five years also count within 'karma'?"
"Of course." Jiang Ruoxue nodded. "These five years aren't a waste of time. My presence has made you more cheerful and happy. Telling you this method now will be much better than five years ago. The success rate of 'karma' will be higher. I believe you can complete this task even without my company. This is the 'karma' I follow, and also the inevitable 'karma' of all things."
Even though I understood, I didn't want to.
"Are you saying that once this matter is resolved... you won't be able to act together with me anymore?" I asked again.
"It's not that absolute." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head with a bitter smile. "Zhichun, this city isn't small. Finding a specific person within it isn't an easy task. Once I remove the 'karma' that brings us together and use it to help you build the organization, our meetings will become much harder. That's all."
After saying this, she seemed to sense my unhappiness, grinned mischievously, and added, "After all, neither of us knows the other's phone number, so we can't contact each other normally, right?"
I wasn't in the mood for her joke. With a look of disappointment, I asked, "Then what will you do... from now on?"
"I'll help you from the other end of the city." Jiang Ruoxue replied. "You said it yourself—this organization doesn't require 'cooperation'. Everyone operates as a lone soldier. Since that's the case... we'll work separately and recruit members from our own ends of the city, with no need to communicate at all. Maybe one day this organization will become incredibly powerful."
"But how... can you help me?" I asked.
Jiang Ruoxue stepped forward and stood in front of me, then took my hand, took a deep breath, and slowly said:
"Yan Zhichun, building an organization isn't difficult. You just need to understand the logic behind it."
As soon as she finished the sentence, beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. She paused for a few seconds before continuing:
"From now on, as long as you speak the truth with sincerity, without any deception, the other party will believe everything you say."
I felt something was off. Just from saying a few sentences, sweat the size of beans rolled down her face, as if she was completely exhausted.
After she finished, she quickly let go of my hand, bent over, took a few deep breaths, wiped the sweat off her face, and said, "What kind of huge organization is this... Why is it so exhausting?"
"Are you okay?" I looked at her with concern.
"Don't worry." She smiled weakly at me. "Zhichun, now that you have the potential of a 'King', everything else will fall into place naturally."
"So what exactly did you do...?"
"Nothing much. I just told you the 'karma' that will inevitably happen." After taking a few more deep breaths, she asked me, "So, what will this organization be called?"
"A name...?"
"Yes." Jiang Ruoxue steadied her breath and said to me, "We're partners now. I need to go recruit companions too. How can I do that without a name?"
At that moment, I lowered my head and pondered the organization we were about to build.
We were about to walk a completely different path. In fact, it wasn't just us—every 'participant' here seemed to have their own path.
Some could peacefully participate in the games, others grandly established factions, some gambled their lives against the 'Zodiacs', and some even put on masks and became 'Zodiacs' themselves.
There's a Roman saying: 'All roads lead to Rome.' But I don't like that saying. Though simple and straightforward, it lacks a certain depth.
I prefer the Daoist saying: 'Three thousand great paths, each one can lead to divinity.'
We were going to abandon all other possibilities, deviate from the main road, and cultivate only one. Not only that, but we would also push this single path to its absolute peak. This was destined to be an extreme path with no turning back.
Practitioners of this method also had a specific name in Daoism—they were called—
"'Ultimate Path'." I said.
"'Ultimate Path'...?"
"That's right. Our organization will be called 'Ultimate Path'." I looked at Jiang Ruoxue. "Everyone who joins the organization will be an 'Ultimate Path Practitioner'. The organization's goal is to 'protect the Land of the End'. We need these people to take the 'Ultimate Path' as a lifelong belief. Since no one knows each other, the recognition code will be: 'Hail the Ultimate Path'."
After that cycle ended, just as Jiang Ruoxue had said, she never appeared at my birth point waiting for me again.
Her identity changed from a close friend I could talk to about anything, into a distant partner on the other side of the city, someone hard to meet.