HI Chapter 190

Yan Mingguang was the embodiment of kindness that Yan Wei had carved out from the consciousness born within the Tower World using the Moon Wheel.

This consciousness had been tempered by the emotions of countless players in various instances, condensed from the seven emotions and six desires, greed, anger, delusion, evil, compassion, and mercy. It had just emerged, naive and indistinct.

Back then, how could he not have been brimming with ambition, daring to do anything?

He even dared to sit down and do the impossible with ease.

Although this consciousness was indistinct, when Yan Wei pieced together fragments of a Legendary Item to form the Moon Wheel, he had inadvertently touched upon a fragment of the Tower World’s rules and sensed the existence of this consciousness. However, at that time, he was still inexperienced and didn’t act rashly.

Later, at Lin Qing’s request, he used the Moon Wheel for the first time to manipulate his soul.

That experiment completely solidified his confidence in using the Moon Wheel to carve out higher-level entities. After using the Moon Wheel to navigate one or two more instances, his goals became increasingly clear, and suddenly, a seemingly impossible idea emerged in his mind.

This consciousness was born rapidly, existing within the Tower World without a trace, yet still bound by its rules. It stood above all NPCs and players within the instances. Yan Wei intended to destroy this world, and when this consciousness matured, it would undoubtedly become a significant obstacle to his goal.

If this consciousness, which had absorbed the wisdom, compassion, and emotions of countless players, grew stronger, it would possess everything and could do anything. Even he would inevitably be unable to oppose it.

So he thought—if he couldn’t stop the formation of this consciousness, could he at least carve out the good parts from it, rendering it incapable of becoming a formidable force?

He thought it, and he did it.

However, that time truly challenged the highest rules. Within the instance, he used the Moon Wheel for an entire day, eventually collapsing from exhaustion. When he woke up, it was the first time he met Yan Mingguang.

At that time, he didn’t know that he had already succeeded. All the goodness, intelligence, and compassion within the consciousness had been carved out by him, with nowhere to go, eventually falling into the instance where Yan Wei was. Based on Yan Wei’s thoughts, desires, and affections, it transformed into one of the countless players struggling on the edge of life and death, meeting Yan Wei during a midnight chase with Ghosts.

For some reason, Yan Mingguang didn’t like appearing in front of others, so Yan Wei only traveled with him within the instances. V’s records repeatedly broke the Tower World’s records, but Yan Mingguang always remained in the shadows, never stepping into the sight of others.

It was as if the whole world was filled with ambition in Yan Wei’s eyes, while Yan Mingguang’s eyes were only on Yan Wei.

Trust and closeness came unexpectedly, yet logically.

Yan Mingguang was born from Yan Wei’s thoughts, desires, and affections, embodying all the beauty of the Tower World, and created by Yan Wei himself. To Yan Wei, he possessed the qualities Yan Wei most desired but could hardly attain, as well as a nearly unparalleled kindness within the Tower World. To Yan Mingguang, Yan Wei was the one who had given him life.

Even though Yan Mingguang couldn’t speak of the past, even though he clearly had secrets that Yan Wei could vaguely guess.

They walked through instance after instance together, until finally, on the haunted hot spring mountain, at the moment when Yan Wei wanted to save Ding Xiao but couldn’t make it in time, he finally realized in a haze—that his reckless act of defying the heavens had created Yan Mingguang.

At that moment, Ding Xiao was being chased by ferocious Ghosts, and Yan Wei wanted to save her but couldn’t make it in time.

The man beside him slowly raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Everything in the instance froze at that moment. The rampaging Ghosts seemed to be frozen in place, and the little girl being chased by the Ghosts remained in her fleeing posture on the road. Time and space were delicately suspended, with only Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang seemingly standing outside the instance, looking down at everything.

Yan Wei finally confirmed it completely—this person had never seen the beauty of the world outside the Tower, had never experienced the long life of mundane struggles, and would never develop the evil that comes with life.

He was the embodiment of kindness that Yan Wei had carved out from the consciousness formed by countless emotions within the Tower.

In the frozen moment, he took the hand of the young Ding Xiao. When the freeze was lifted, Yan Mingguang pulled him, and he pulled Ding Xiao, and they all jumped into the hot spring free of Ghosts.

In the warm spring water, the man’s equally warm hand held him, and his lips brushed the corner of Yan Wei’s mouth.

On the shore, Ghosts ran rampant, but in the water, the scenery was just right.

At that time, Yan Wei thought that Yan Mingguang was already a player, and that the destruction of the Tower had nothing to do with him—Yan Mingguang had said as much. Out of trust in Yan Mingguang, Yan Wei never doubted it.

But he could still vaguely sense Yan Mingguang’s secrets.

So before entering the top layer, he made preparations, instructing Lin Qing and preparing a memory-copying Item.

In the top layer instance, the remnant of evil he had left behind transformed into Yan Mingguang’s appearance, nearly deceiving him. It wasn’t that Yan Wei couldn’t recognize him, but the evil remnant was of the same origin as Yan Mingguang.

Just like Lin Qing and Lin Zhen, they were the same person, so how could they be distinguished?

He was confused several times, and finally, when he no longer made mistakes, the evil remnant told him maliciously that if the Tower was destroyed, everything would disappear. The evil remnant would be annihilated, and the embodiment of kindness would also perish.

From beginning to end, Yan Mingguang never told him any of this, not wanting to burden him with the choice.

In the end, they successfully cleared the instance, and when Yan Wei obtained Pandora’s Box, he paused.

“You know,” Yan Mingguang sighed.

Yan Wei laughed angrily, “What if I didn’t know? Just wished for everything to end, became a hero in everyone’s eyes, happily returned to the world outside the Tower, and let you turn to dust with everything else?”

Yan Mingguang looked at him, his deep black eyes like an endless night sky, filled with starlight, dark yet bright.

He rarely smiled, but now he curled his lips slightly and said, “I would erase your memories of me.”

Let everything stop at the moment Yan Wei made his wish. Whether it was the life-and-death struggles they had gone through, the fleeting encounters they had had, or the bond that had carried them to the end, it would all become just a dream.

Yan Wei wouldn’t be sad, because he wouldn’t remember.

“Yan Mingguang,” he said, word by word, “To me, that would be worse than death.”

Yan Mingguang was silent.

But Yan Wei could see the unspoken words in his expression—if what he had always insisted on was just given up like this, wouldn’t it have been a life wasted?

The life-and-death struggles in one instance after another hadn’t defeated him, the foolish evil remnant hadn’t taken his life, he had reached the final step, but was defeated by his own hand.

He slowly leaned close to Yan Mingguang’s ear and whispered, “Ice block, let’s make a bet. I can’t do it, you can’t bear to let me stay with you, so let’s choose again.”

Together, start over.

Choose again.

“I’ll store this part of my memory about the embodiment of kindness and evil, and this Pandora’s Box, all in a coin. The rest, in another coin. Since you can temporarily control time and space within the instance, you should be able to let us start over together, right?”

“Once again, you can hide everything about you from me. If you can really keep it from me until the end, let me muddle through and destroy the Tower, forget you, and leave, then you win. If I still find out, then I win, and we’ll find a way together—either leave together, or stay… together.”

Yan Mingguang looked at him deeply.

For a long time.

“Alright.”

The next moment, all of Yan Wei’s memories of ascending the Tower over the years, except for the truth about the embodiment of kindness and evil, were stored in a coin. That coin, carrying most of his memories and data, transformed into an instance, flowing into the Tower World, waiting for him to enter during his next ascent.

The other coin, carrying their bet, quietly hid the biggest secret, accompanying him as he started over.

Round and round, until this moment, the coin opened, and the truth returned to Yan Wei’s memory.

The Pandora’s Box, which countless players in the Tower coveted and struggled to obtain, had actually been silently carried with him from the very beginning.

The evil remnant had never defeated him, the top layer instance had never blocked his path. It was all just a setup he and Yan Mingguang had made for this bet, going in circles, returning to where they should have been.

The beginning of this ascent was something he had foreseen before formatting. Even if his memories were temporarily lost later, and he remembered nothing, the dilemma brought by the first ascent had sunk into his mind, subconsciously convincing him—to make a selfish choice.

So he always liked to emphasize that he was a cold-blooded person, so every choice he made told himself to protect what was in front of him.

But some instincts are engraved in the bones, no matter how much you deceive yourself on the surface, he still ended up walking the same path as the previous round.

Wasn’t Yan Mingguang the same?

This person had been so restrained back then, wasn’t it because he thought that since they didn’t know each other anymore, it would be better to cut off their feelings at the root? If Yan Wei hadn’t regained his memories, Yan Mingguang had no intention of telling him much about their past together.

But in the end, Yan Wei couldn’t be cold-blooded, and Yan Mingguang couldn’t be heartless.

The Moon Wheel turned, slowly closing the cracked coin. The black box and the coin lay in Yan Wei’s palm, cold to the touch, reflecting a faint light in the moonlight.

Yan Wei’s expression shifted as he heard someone standing at his door but not knocking.

He blinked, his long eyelashes catching the moonlight.

He put away the coin and the small box, stood up, and walked slowly to the door, opening it under the moonlight.

Yan Mingguang stood before him, backlit by the moonlight, casting a long shadow. In the night, Yan Wei couldn’t quite see his expression, but he could feel the man’s gaze on him, softer than the moonlight on his body.

One stood outside the door, the other inside, quietly looking at each other.

Outside the eaves, snowflakes fluttered in the air.

Yan Mingguang finally spoke, “I lost the bet.”

Yan Wei smiled.

They didn’t need to say anything more.

He reached out and gently pushed Yan Mingguang’s shoulder, watching the warm breath he exhaled as he spoke, and said, “Teacher Yan, do you know what people do in the outside world when it snows?”

Yan Mingguang was clearly taken aback.

But he still replied, “Stay warm?”

Yan Wei: “…”

He said, “Come on.”

He led the way, walking through the snow-covered path in the academy, bringing Yan Mingguang to a rather spacious area. Beside the path, the usual grassy ground was now covered in a thick layer of snow. Yan Wei bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, presenting it to Yan Mingguang.

Yan Mingguang: “?”

“Take it.”

The man reached out and took the cold snow from his palm.

Yan Wei said, “Roll it into a ball, then roll it in the snow until it’s half a person’s size, then stop.”

In the dim night, the distant lights filtered through the falling snow, faintly illuminating the snowy ground beneath their feet. Yan Wei looked up and saw Yan Mingguang’s lips curve into a smile.

This man rarely smiled, but when he did, it was like snowflakes hanging on peach petals, winter falling into spring.

“After two ascents, you’ve regained all your memories,” Yan Mingguang said softly, “becoming more cunning than before.”

“I didn’t get angry this time, only because my heart ached more than my anger.”

Yan Mingguang’s smile paused.

“I thought of someone who, having come into this world for once, had never truly seen the beauty of the world, never climbed a high mountain to watch the sunrise, never stood by the sea to gaze at the moon, never rolled a snowball in the snow, yet wanted me, who had experienced these things, to go back and see them again, to live happily…”

“Are you thinking about what I’ll do now that I’ve won our bet? What my plans are?”

Yan Mingguang rolled the snowball in his hands, but his gaze paused slightly, “Yes.”

“I haven’t thought of anything, just want to take him and build a snowman together in this snowy ground. Because he really doesn’t know that a peaceful life, going out together to build a snowman on a snowy day, is a thousand times, ten thousand times better than this life of constant struggle and survival in the Tower World. I’ll take him to try it, and maybe he won’t be so foolish as to try to deceive me, to let me walk to the end alone, twice.”

In the eerie Guanyin Town, under this snowy night that could change at any moment, the entire Guanyin Academy was lifeless due to the recent deaths.

But Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang stood together in the thick snow, the snowball in their hands gradually growing larger.

The crescent moon drifted westward, and the dawn approached from the east.