Thanks to [Huan Guang Lei of Southwest State] for the Great God Certification x2!
Thanks to [Astonishing World Wisdom Master of Great Techniques] for the Great God Certification!
...
[At the beginning of Amber Era 2158, the Interstellar Peace Corporation proudly announced:
The renowned scholar of the Genius Society, Ms. Herta, has officially committed to a long-term friendly cooperative alliance with the Corporation.
This marks the third time an Erudition genius has joined hands with the Corporation to collectively provide Preservation for the Amber Lord's universe, following #22 Lirta and #56 Elias Salas.
This broadcast concludes here. Please tune in to the next cycle of the Interstellar Peace Broadcast at the designated time. Goodbye.]
Qi Zhimu turned off the news and bit into a fruit slice that Herta had fed him from her own small mouth.
Then, a head leaned against his left shoulder.
"Aren't you going to ask me anything?" Herta smiled.
"You have your reasons. I have no grudge against the Corporation, so I'll just support you. No need to ask." Qi Zhimu wrapped his arm around Herta's waist.
She was no longer the young girl carrying heavy responsibilities; she now possessed an influence that even the Corporation could not ignore, capable of handling anything herself.
"Just like before..." Herta showed a gentle smile reserved only for Qi Zhimu.
"Before?"
"When we were kids. You always supported me quietly, never making decisions for me."
Even if the path might be wrong, he would only choose to silently provide a safety net rather than stopping her from the start.
"It's still a bit different," Qi Zhimu chuckled.
"How is it different?"
"Back then, no matter what you did, I supported you quietly because I was confident I could handle the consequences. Now, I can't do that anymore."
Speaking of this, Qi Zhimu's tone took on a hint of sentimentality.
"Like you said before, our roles have swapped. Not only can you handle the consequences of your own choices, but you can even clean up the messes I cause. Thinking about it... I seem to have become a Pretty boy, haha..."
Hearing Qi Zhimu's self-deprecating tone, Herta rolled her eyes and flipped over to sit astride his lap.
She reached forward with both hands, wrapping them around his neck as their eyes met.
"Isn't this exactly what you hoped for?"
Herta suddenly snapped her fingers, and a mirror emerged to serve as a screen, beginning to play a certain memory.
[My little Herta will surely become the most... no, even looking at the entire universe, a truly remarkable and great person on the Azure Star.]
The man in the mirror was smiling, but his words made the young girl's pupils tremble violently.
Just as the girl was about to speak, Herta snapped her fingers again to put away the mirror.
Qi Zhimu felt a slight sense of nostalgia as his gaze returned to her.
"You didn't store all those experiences in this way, did you?"
"Store them?"
Herta extended her index finger and wagged it back and forth, smiling brightly:
"The Second Mirror has many uses, and memory projection is but one in ten thousand. My unforgettable experiences with you have been in my mind for years, never fading."
"Now that those parting words have become reality, what does Brother Zhimu think?"
"I didn't say those things with the intention of becoming a Pretty boy living off a woman..."
"Hmph, others wouldn't even have the right if they wanted to. I am..."
As she spoke, Herta suddenly stopped.
Noticing her smile fade, Qi Zhimu was slightly startled: "What's wrong?"
The former remained silent, lowering her head to rest her chin on Qi Zhimu's shoulder.
"After you dissipated... for a long time, your words kept replaying in my head..."
"That was the spiritual pillar that supported me, the guiding light for my journey. I worked so hard back then. Except for necessary rest, I spent all my time moving forward."
"Constantly, constantly moving forward... just to find the ability to change the past and bring you back, to truly complete my redemption."
"But I couldn't do it. Even if I mastered local time reversal and could achieve rejuvenation, I still couldn't overcome the Causal Paradox."
"If the Virtual Substance Lifeform human-species Magician Qi Zhimu did not die, there would be no Herta in the future, nor would there be an Azure Star."
"And the Original Human Qi Zhimu... sigh..."
Herta let out a rare long sigh and stopped talking.
Magician Qi Zhimu was born because Original Human Qi Zhimu died. If Original Human Qi Zhimu didn't die, there could only be one reason—
He didn't hear the young Herta's call, or he didn't respond to it.
In that case, he could have survived, even using a space-time spacecraft to defect and search for a new civilization.
But the consequence would likewise be the death of the young Herta.
The Azure Star would never receive the correct spatial coordinates and would eventually vanish into the fog of remembrance, becoming insignificant dust in the universe.
Layers of causality are interlinked; without any single link from the past, there would be no present, and naturally, no distant future.
...To be precise, a future without Herta.
Qi Zhimu could reincarnate again, but he would never see Herta again; that memory would be buried forever, and that would be all.
"Lord Zhimu, in your previous life, did you know you could reincarnate after death?"
"I didn't."
Qi Zhimu was not lying.
One only learns this upon death when reviewing their life in the system's soul domain. This is to ensure one isn't influenced by past lives and can become a different self in a brand new cycle.
Herta breathed a sigh of relief.
She wouldn't doubt Qi Zhimu.
Because whether it was Brother Zhimu or Mr. Magician, they would never lie to little Herta.
Having received the answer, the trace of fear in her heart vanished, replaced by a sense of guilt.
She had been afraid—afraid that Qi Zhimu had said those things just so he could enter the next cycle as quickly as possible...
The guilt came from being unable to stop thinking that if Qi Zhimu knew he could reincarnate, he wouldn't value life or death as much and could give his life for her without hesitation.
In fact, it wasn't Herta's fault for overthinking.
Even Qi Zhimu himself was unaware of one fact:
After dying in his first life and awakening his past memories in the second, he had the system block his knowledge that death leads to reincarnation.
He didn't want to become indifferent to life and death because of this fact, thinking he could mess around however he wanted since he wouldn't truly die anyway.
If that were the case, what would be the point of reincarnation?
From the second life in the Star Skiff until this fourth life, he had lived with the understanding that once life ends, it cannot be restarted.
Only with such an understanding do choices have meaning and death possess an indescribable weight.
Shortly after realizing this, Herta suddenly realized she had been overthinking again.
Even if Qi Zhimu knew he would have a next life, so what?
His death might be insignificant to him, but his sacrifice for her was real, and he would forever lose the life of this current cycle in its true sense.
It was like the Vidyadhara in the Xianzhou Alliance.
One cannot negate the merits established by a Vidyadhara hero in his past life just because he hatched and was reborn.
Once such a mindset takes hold, merit is no longer merit, and sin can no longer be sin.
The reason the Vidyadhara do not concern themselves with the love and hatred of their past lives after hatching is that they have lost the ability to reproduce; every death is a permanent loss.
The prerequisite for the hatching cycle is being alive to perform the relevant ritual.
While Herta was lost in thought, Qi Zhimu's phone rang.
"Doctor Lord Zhimu, save me!"
As soon as the call connected, the aggrieved voice of the humanoid walking Stelle came through.
"...Stelle? What's wrong?" Qi Zhimu was puzzled.
"I've been... restricted. I don't know if you can understand, but when I try to act on what I want to do, it turns into completely unrelated actions."
"Where are you?"
"The Medical Cabin..."
Qi Zhimu had the speakerphone on, and when Herta heard this, her slender brows couldn't help but furrow.
Didn't Stelle go to see Ruan Mei? Why did this sound like she had been hit by that woman's Anti-truth serum?
...
Tomorrow, Old Mu and Old Ruan can finally meet.
I'm dying from climbing eight mountains for ancestor worship. Since Hajihuan is adding chapters while typing on a phone during a high-speed journey, please click the Power of Love button!
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