There's a kind of game called a "meta-game."
That is, a game woven through with a great many meta elements, giving the player the uncanny illusion of breaking the fourth wall — as though the character on the screen truly knew they were being played by someone.
For instance, some games remember the choice a player made the last time they saved, so that after reloading, the character says something like, "Haven't you already chosen once before?" Others will suddenly address the player by their own real name, or solemnly announce, "Put down your controller and go get some rest." Some go so far as to pull certain information straight from the player's own computer and have the character recite it back through their own mouth, word for word — enough to send a cold sweat down anyone's spine.
Gu Chengming had run into no shortage of such tricks back when he used to play games, and every time he encountered one, he'd found it novel and delightful.
The problem was, he was quite certain that before he'd crossed over, he had never given this particular game access to his ID number.
And yet here was this Sect Head of Penglai, calmly and openly divining it out of thin air.
The shock of that divination forced Gu Chengming to finally confront a question he'd been unconsciously avoiding all along.
— What, exactly, was the true nature of his crossing over?
The usual explanation for crossing into a game world went something like "dimensional descent" — the notion that the game world was inherently a lower tier of existence, and that his own soul, of a higher order, had fallen into it, giving rise to this whole strange turn of events.
But this string of ID digits made it plain that this was clearly not a world he had merely "descended" into.
If this Sect Head of Penglai could precisely divine information that existed only in his original world, it meant that this so-called "game world" stood on equal footing with the world he'd come from — the two were genuinely, causally linked to one another.
Then perhaps this was the legendary "projection theory"?
That the game he'd played back then had never been some fictional product conjured out of nothing by a studio, but rather a "projection" — this real, actually-existing world, cast onto the one he'd originally lived in?
But if that were truly the case, how was he supposed to explain the mods he'd made with his own hands back then — that whole system turning cultivation techniques into romanceable targets?
Those had plainly come from his own hands. How could they possibly...
Countless thoughts collided wildly in Gu Chengming's mind. Every question he'd deliberately set aside since crossing over came flooding back at once, dredged up by that single string of digits, throwing his thoughts into chaos.
And Penglai's Sect Head, seated at the head of the hall, seemed to sharply notice this lapse in his composure.
"It seems what I've divined really is something quite important to you, young friend."
A smile touched her lips, a faint light seeming to swirl in her languid eyes. "Though I still can't quite see clearly where you truly come from, young friend, I imagine that reading just now was proof enough of what I said earlier."
Watching Gu Chengming's shaken state, the understanding in her eyes deepened further.
That she could divine such private information — information even she herself couldn't make sense of — already proved that this young friend carried some unspeakable regret weighing on his heart. And that was precisely the sort of thing she was most skilled at exploiting.
"So, young friend." She leaned forward slightly, her tone gentle. "Would you be willing to join my Penglai?"
"Whatever regret you carry in your heart, my Penglai can make it whole again."
Only then did Gu Chengming register it — there seemed to be some mind-guiding power woven into her words, one that had him unconsciously beginning to wonder what regret of his own might exist.
As for Gu Chengming's past life, it had truly been a rather unremarkable one.
He'd been an orphan.
For as long as he could remember, he'd had no concept of a "home." Children came and went constantly at the welfare institution, but few of them stuck in his memory by name.
He never cried, never made a fuss, never cared for crowds. While the other children fought over scraps of candy or toys, he'd usually be curled up alone in a corner, quietly reading.
The staff at the institution all said he was a sensible, easy child. But "sensible," stripped down to its truth, just meant a child no one loved had learned early on not to trouble anyone else.
He studied hard, not out of any lofty ambition, but simply because he felt that studying was one of the few things a person as unmoored as himself could actually hold onto with his own two hands.
Later, through sheer stubborn persistence and some government assistance, he stumbled his way into a fairly decent university.
Through four years of college, he remained the same solitary sort.
It wasn't that he didn't want friends — it was that a distance carved into his bones since childhood kept him from ever truly folding into anyone else's warmth.
His classmates gathered in little groups for meals, trips, one lively romance after another, while he remained, for the most part, alone.
And then he got hooked on Galgames.
It happened one night — bored out of his mind, he downloaded a game that had been recommended to him over and over, meaning only to kill some time.
But when the girl in that game smiled warmly at him through the screen, murmuring soft words like "You worked hard today too" and "I'm here for you," something stirred in this young man — who had never once, in all his life, been treated with such gentleness — an emotion he'd never felt before, rising up as if pulled from nowhere.
He knew it was fake.
Just a string of cold code, a device a studio used to tug at players' feelings — every gentle word that girl spoke had been scripted in advance.
But even knowing it was fake, the feeling of being needed, of being treated with tenderness, felt so real — real enough to soothe a heart that had steeped in loneliness for years.
So he sank into it.
Within those paper-thin worlds built of code, he tasted bonds and warmth he had never truly possessed in reality.
He wept alongside those girls, laughed alongside them, ached over their partings and reunions, as though doing so might finally give his solitary heart somewhere to rest.
Truthfully, if there had been even one person in reality worth loving, who was willing to love him back, would he ever have sunk so deeply into Galgames in the first place?
Gu Chengming's thoughts returned to the present.
As for regret?
He turned it over for a moment, and found himself almost laughing at the absurdity of it.
His past life, in truth, held nothing much to regret at all.
Those days had certainly been lonely, certainly been bare and hard — but that was simply the life he had genuinely lived through. There might be regret in it, but nothing close to real resentment.
An orphan who'd finished his schooling on his own two feet, never straying off the path, never wallowing in self-pity, walking steadily along until the moment he crossed over.
Looking back, that life had been as plain as water — but clean, and honest, with nothing to be ashamed of before his own conscience.
So —
What he needed to do, now that he'd crossed over here, had never been to make up for regrets from a past life already settled and sealed.
All he needed to do was make sure this life left no regrets behind.
In this life, he was no longer alone.
He had Yu Wenqiu, who'd written hundreds of thousands of words of fan fiction for him and stayed up until her eyes went bloodshot on his behalf. He had the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign, willing to entrust him with a thousand years of secrets and her own true name. He had that unruly crowd of techniques, always stirring up trouble yet utterly devoted to him. He had teachers and elders willing to stake their very lives to keep him safe...
In this world he had once mistaken for a game, he had found people worth protecting with everything he had.
"So, Senior — please, go back."
"All I want is for the people I treasure to be happy, to live smoothly, safely, joyfully."
"That wish, I can bring to life bit by bit, with my own two hands, in this real and living world. I don't need any false patchwork of a remedy — still less a 'Penglai' that pays for itself with devoured lives, one that should have vanished into the ages long ago."
"So, if this 'Penglai' would truly destroy everything I want to protect—"
"Then..." Gu Chengming met her gaze, biting off each word. "I will do everything in my power to send this Penglai — which should already be buried in history — back into its grave."
It seemed she truly hadn't expected such a resolute answer from him. Penglai's Sect Head froze for a moment, a flicker of surprise crossing her languid eyes, before she laughed, helpless.
"What a shame, truly."
She shook her head lightly, a note of regret in her voice. "I'd thought someone as clear-sighted as you, young friend, would be exactly the sort to see the merits of my Penglai."
"Whatever merits you speak of, Senior, are nothing but a flower in the mirror, a moon in the water, to me. A Penglai built on devouring the lives of the world — no matter how blissful or unfettered it claims to be — is still a Penglai that eats people."
"Eats people?"
Penglai's Sect Head's lips curved, as though she'd heard something amusing. "That's rather unfair of you, young friend. Every single person who enters my Penglai comes willingly, smiling, their long-cherished wish fulfilled. Where's the 'eating' in that?"
"Coming with a smile, and one's soul dissolving into nothing — the two aren't mutually exclusive." Gu Chengming didn't yield an inch. "You bait people in with that promise of an original 'belonging,' Senior. They may well walk into this Penglai with hearts full of joy. But most of them will never understand, even in death, that the 'belonging' they embraced was itself nothing but a void that never existed in this world."
As the exchange went back and forth, the mood in the hall grew quietly, sharply confrontational.
Penglai's Sect Head listened quietly, the smile on her face never once fading.
When Gu Chengming finished, she showed no anger, only propped her chin up unhurriedly — her languid posture radiating the composure of one who felt no need to rush.
"Well, well, never mind."
She gave a light laugh, as though unwilling to dwell any further on this war of words. "Just as I said at the very start — every single soul I invite into my Penglai comes entirely of their own free will. On that point, young friend, you needn't worry at all."
"Nor do I quite understand what you meant by 'destroy everything I want to protect.'" She raised her eyes to Gu Chengming, a knowing, teasing glint in her gaze. "If you ask me, young friend, you seem to have carried a deep prejudice against my Penglai from the very start."
Gu Chengming's brow furrowed, so faintly it was almost imperceptible.
He could tell easily enough — this was her retreating in order to advance.
"In that case..." Penglai's Sect Head suddenly changed tack, a note of real interest flickering in her languid eyes. "Why don't we make a wager?"
"A wager?"
"Mm."
She nodded, laughing softly. "I promise you, young friend — I will never use any method whatsoever against the people you treasure. No enticement, no coaxing, not even that mind-guiding divination art. None of it."
"I'll simply leave this Penglai open, there for the taking, and let them choose for themselves."
"If those people you treasure were truly seized against their will by some scheme of mine, then of course that would count as the 'destroying' you speak of." She said it slowly. "But if they see this Penglai, feel a longing for it in their hearts, and step into it of their own accord to lay their long-tangled wishes to rest — that's their own choice, isn't it? Where's the 'destroying' in that?"
Gu Chengming's heart sank, slowly.
She had no need whatsoever for any forceful method — simply laying out that "bliss" within Penglai, capable of fulfilling every living being's deepest wish, was temptation enough to cut straight to the heart. How many people in this world could truly stand unmoved before the wish that haunted their every dream?
"And if, when that time comes, they all willingly enter my Penglai, and ascend to bliss alongside you," Penglai's Sect Head said, smiling as she laid down her final stake, "then you can reconsider joining my Penglai yourself. What do you say?"
This was, quite plainly, a wager staked on the true hearts of everyone Gu Chengming treasured.
Before Gu Chengming could reply, Penglai's Sect Head had already smiled knowingly and given a light flick of her slender fingers.
"Then, I'll await your good news, young friend."
The instant those words faded, the scene before Gu Chengming's eyes rippled like water — the peaceful Penglai Immortal Sect, the languid Sect Head, the hall brimming with spiritual qi, all dissolved into streaming light and vanished in an instant.
When his surroundings solidified once more, he and Arnold found themselves standing back in the courtyard of the Wenjian Sect.
In the courtyard, the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign, Mo Wu, and Master Ren Wencai and Sect Head Shen Ganqiu — who had rushed over at the news — were all staring at the two of them in unison, every gaze brimming with worry that couldn't be hidden.
Clearly, in the time the two of them had spent probing the Moon Within Dream, everyone outside had been genuinely on edge for them.
Gu Chengming opened his mouth, but found himself at a loss for where to even begin, and could only lift his eyes to the sky instead.
The two bright moons still hung side by side overhead.
One glowed with pure, clear light — the moon that rightfully belonged in the sky. The other radiated that familiar, chilling coldness, looking down over everyone in the courtyard.
Gazing at that Moon Within Dream, Gu Chengming felt something strange stir within him.
So this time, it wasn't just his turn to pass a "resolve" trial — his teammates had to pass one too?
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