Chapter 349
All Forms Are Not Forms! All forms are illusory!
Chapter 349 All Forms Are Not Forms! All forms are illusory!
Although she already knew this, An Xi still couldn't quite understand it when she heard Hui talk about the scope and size of this world again.
If this world is considered small, the Southern Wilderness alone is incredibly large. For an ordinary person, even with the aid of technology, it would take countless generations to traverse the Southern Wilderness at a normal pace.
The Southern Wilderness alone is already like this, not to mention the other eleven regions that are no smaller than the Southern Wilderness.
But to say that the world is big, it's not that big.
Perhaps for humans, for people in the Earth era, this world is already ridiculously large, but if you put it on the scale of the universe, this world is pitifully small.
Thinking of this, An Xi raised her head, looked at Captain Hui, then at everyone else, and expressed her thoughts.
Seeing that everyone was starting to ponder her words, An Xi looked at Captain Hui and asked, "So do you know why this is the case?"
"This world is vast, yet not that vast; Earth is completely integrated into it. But if Earth is integrated, then what about the Moon?"
"What about this universe?"
"According to your calculations, the size of this world is abnormal."
As a prospective college student, An Xi has a wealth of knowledge. In addition, in the internet age, you can find all sorts of things on short video platforms, so the questions she raised were quite insightful.
Upon hearing her words, Hui was taken aback, then frowned and began to ponder.
After a long silence, he shook his head. "I don't know."
"I might be able to figure out the answer to this problem, but it's not worth it. If I were to try to figure it out, I'd probably lose my life."
As he spoke, he pointed to the stray white hairs mixed in with the ends of his hair.
"Fang Hong should be able to ask about this, but if she can't get an answer, then there's nothing we can do."
Fang Hong, who was standing to the side, held the muzzle of the automatic rifle that Qingqing was swinging around and pointed it at the sky. Hearing his words, she thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "I'll give it a try, but we shouldn't have any hope for this kind of thing."
"I feel like fate won't tell me."
"And this doesn't seem to be in line with fate either."
Fate does know a lot; it knows and records everything that has happened, but this is still too much.
Perhaps fate knows the answer, or perhaps it doesn't know the answer to this question, but in any case, Fang Hong doesn't think fate will tell her the answer to this question.
"Qingqing, don't point a gun at people." Fang Hong tapped Qingqing on the head and warned, "It's dangerous and impolite, you know?"
"Oh," Qingqing said, hanging her head and throwing the rifle on the ground. Then she pulled a pistol out of her pocket.
At this point, Fang Hong could no longer control her. After giving Qingqing a warning, she began to pray.
Unlike her previous prayers, Fang Hong didn't come to her senses for more than twenty minutes this time.
"So? Did you get the answer?" Ah Xin asked expectantly from the side.
Upon hearing this, Fang Hong nodded, but then hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself. "You've got the answer."
"But fate only told me one thing."
"All forms are not forms; all forms are illusory."
At this point, she looked at everyone and said, "I don't quite understand this sentence. After fate told me this, I was immediately kicked out."
Does anyone understand this sentence?
“These are words from Buddhist scriptures.” Hui pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses, the lenses gleaming. “Words from the Diamond Sutra.”
"The complete statement should be: All forms are illusory. If one sees all forms as non-forms, then one sees the Tathagata."
"The meaning of the Diamond Sutra is that everything we see and feel, everything that has a form, is an illusion and is not real."
"We must see through these appearances to see the true nature of things. Because what we see are not real appearances, but illusory and unreal appearances, the Buddha tells us that only by seeing all appearances as non-appearances can we see the Tathagata, which is the true nature of things."
As Hui was speaking, Chu Sheng looked at him with a strange expression.
"How do you know this? You even research this?!"
Hui glanced at him, pushed up his glasses again, and said in a flat, emotionless voice, "Do you find it strange that I've studied Buddhist scriptures?"
“I have not only studied Buddhist scriptures, but also Taoist scriptures and traditional mythology.”
"I even know some of the techniques used in ancient crafts."
After explaining to Chu Sheng, he continued, "Since fate has said this to you, it must be saying that what we see may not be the truth. In other words, what I calculated may be correct, but I did not calculate the essence."
"Our understanding of this world is still insufficient."
As he spoke, he lowered his head and began to think.
Seeing his expression, Zhu Qing waved her hand and said, "Forget it, let's put this matter aside for now."
"If we're still alive, we'll naturally find out. But if we die someday, it's no use knowing now."
"Why don't you just tell me which way we're going?"
"That's what we need to consider right now."
Zhu Qing was very pragmatic and had no intention of thinking about such mysterious things.
“Let’s keep heading north,” Anxi suggested from the side. “After all, we’ve been heading in this direction, originally to find the grasslands, but now we probably don’t even know where they are.”
“But we’ve been heading in this direction for so long, it’s not impossible to continue heading in this direction.”
"Besides returning the way we came, the direction we go is unknown. Since that's the case, we might as well stick to the direction we've always been going."
"What do you all think?" An Xi asked, looking at everyone.
Zhu Qing waved her hand, "I'm fine with anything, it doesn't matter to me."
Old Li shook his head. "I don't care about any of that. You guys decide. I'll just be responsible for farming. You can handle the rest."
He didn't have that many thoughts at all; ever since the floating island was created, he had focused his mind on farming.
His farming is a way to improve his rank, and his abilities are only suitable for farming. If he encounters danger, he can only provide some extraordinary plants to give him a little buff. He can't do anything else, so he doesn't plan to get involved in these things.
Fang Hong, Zhuo Wu, Lu Guan, and the others standing to the side also had no objections.
As Anxi said, it doesn't matter which way you go.
(The previous chapter was wrong, it has been corrected. The main characters are heading north. They were previously in the south, heading towards the grasslands, so the direction was north. They did not change their direction later.)
“In that case, let’s continue heading north.” Hui snapped out of his thoughts and addressed the group: “There is a city about 40,000 kilometers to the north.”
"It appears to be part of Tokyo before the apocalypse."
“We can go and take a look. There should be something strange in the city. With our current strength, we should be able to try to go and explore the city.”
As he spoke, he glanced at Chu Sheng.
Chu Sheng was also looking at him. The two exchanged a glance, and then looked away from each other.
"We can now basically achieve self-sufficiency in food, but we are still lacking in many things."
"For example, tools, clothing, and so on." Chu Sheng said, glancing at the farmland not far away. "After all, we can't expect them to use sacrificial crops to grow crops, can we?"
As soon as he said that, Zhuo Wu couldn't help but laugh.
"I suddenly remembered a joke."
"Just like an emperor using a golden hoe to till the land, if things can stabilize in the future and the population increases significantly, the proportion of people with sequence ability will definitely decrease dramatically."
"Furthermore, this is the end of the world. It's okay when our generation is alive, but if our generation is gone, or only a small number are left, plus the civilization break in the apocalypse."
"Will people start to think that those with Sequence Ability are using sacrificial offerings to farm?"
As he spoke, he imitated an imagined survivor, saying in a sighing tone, "Those sequence ability users must have it so easy! They probably use sacrificial hoes to hoe the fields."
“It’s possible.” Old Li took a wine bottle from his waist and said, “You’re young and don’t know what happened before.”
"People in the past were never as shrewd as people are now."
“Especially my grandfather’s generation, they never went to school and never went out. They spent their whole lives around the village. The farthest they ever went was to the county town, and they only went there a few times.”
"They really couldn't understand the emperor's life, or even the lives of those who held official positions."
“When I was seventeen or eighteen, my grandmother told me that my grandfather used to think that the county magistrate was the same as the landlord in the village.”
"People in the future will not have books, will not have compulsory education, will know nothing, and for some strange reason, they may not be able to go far and will only be able to live their whole lives in one place."
"If you encounter some heartless rulers, the things you described could actually happen."
Old Man Li's words sounded like both a sigh and a prophecy.
Upon hearing his words, Zhuo Wu's previously smiling face lost its smile.
He was just joking, but now, hearing what Old Man Li said, he suddenly realized that what he was joking about might actually become reality, and it suddenly stopped being funny.
If he lacked compassion and empathy, he might have genuinely taken it as a joke and continued to laugh, but he doesn't.
He was able to protect a group of people single-handedly from the start of the apocalypse, and even a year after the apocalypse, he was still protecting these survivors. Even when some of them were sick, he did not abandon anyone.
This is enough to prove his true feelings.
"Books, textbooks," Zhuo Wu murmured, his eyes, which had lost some of their luster because of Old Man Li's words, regaining their resolve.
"I want to compile teaching materials. Forgetting means there is no inheritance. Even if people live on, the civilization we created will not be passed on."
"And so we have become a civilization that is both real and unreal."
He never knew what he wanted to do or what he was capable of doing. Even when he sheltered a group of people at the very beginning of the apocalypse, it was only because of his conscience and inner feelings that he made the decision.
He still doesn't know what he wants to do.
But now he knows.
He wants to pass on the civilization from before the end of the world!
Even if he was a hoodlum and a spirited young man before the apocalypse.
But after studying the Daoist canon for a year during the apocalypse and bearing the life and death of the entire team, he became more composed.
inherited!
These two words have never been something that can be easily defined for the people of China.
The passing down of incense, the passing down of will, the passing down of the flame—these are things engraved in our very bones.
This does not shift or disappear with identity.
Looking at Zhuo Wu, Chu Sheng always felt that he was shining brightly. He couldn't understand it, but that didn't stop him from respecting him.
Zhuo Wu wanted to compile teaching materials to educate the next generation born in the apocalypse, and he was actually quite supportive of this.
He will support it as long as it doesn't interfere with him.
"If you're thinking about this, you can go and talk to those survivors," Hui said from the side.
"Although the apocalypse has been over for a while, people's memories are still quite strong."
"Ask the survivors; that should make it easier to find teaching materials, though the more advanced ones will be harder."
The compilation of teaching materials is actually quite simple, after all, everything should be kept simple in the apocalypse.
There are basically no problems with textbooks for early childhood education, primary school, and junior high school.
However, it gets more difficult in high school.
After all, many people have forgotten the correct way to solve a linear equation in two variables. The answer may be calculated, but it is definitely not a proper algorithm.
The concept of a linear equation in two variables is actually taught in junior high school.
The reason why textbooks below the high school level are easy to compile is entirely due to the existence of Anxi and Xingzi.
One was a freshman in college, and the other was a soon-to-be college student who had just graduated from high school; they were at the stage where their memories of these things were most vivid.
In addition, both of them are sequence ability users, so it's hard for them to forget these things.
It's hard to say for sure about Xingzi, but given Anxi's personality, she'll almost certainly help.
While Kyoko's situation is uncertain, given that she possesses the Flame of Civilization, she is unlikely to refuse to help compile the teaching materials.
Hui glanced at Chu Sheng without making a sound, then walked over and sent a mental message into Chu Sheng's mind.
Aren't you going to help?
Chu Sheng glanced at him and replied telepathically, "What help am I supposed to offer? I don't even remember those textbooks."
"History," Hui continued telepathically, "doesn't your history book record all of human history since its inception?"
"If you replicate it slightly, you won't even need to verify it in history textbooks; it will become a complete and authentic history of humankind."
"Let's talk about it later," Chu Sheng said noncommittally.
He can help with this, or he can choose not to, and no one will know.
The main reason was that he didn't want to lend out the history book for Zhuo Wu and the others to copy, and he felt it would be too much trouble to copy it himself.
So I simply stopped talking.
Seeing him like this, Hui didn't say anything.
Chu Sheng didn't speak. He couldn't possibly reveal Chu Sheng's sacrificial offerings; otherwise, he wouldn't be the captain, he would be an enemy.
No one can accept someone revealing their information to others, even if those people are teammates.
He has always done it this way.
Chu Sheng did just that; he crafted almost all the sacrificial offerings for the team, but he never revealed any information about them to anyone.
(End of this chapter)