Chapter 861: Long Live the Extremes

"I see you're getting more anxious every day." Jiang Ruoxue placed her hand on my shoulder. "When we first met, your eyes weren't so downcast."

"I don't know." I shook my head. "I just feel like I've stopped... Time is frozen in this place, but I know I hadn't stopped back then... But now... I feel like I've stopped too."

"Are you really that determined to achieve this goal?" she asked seriously again. "Even if it's incredibly tough... Even if it means paying a heavy price?"

I was familiar with this expression of hers. Whenever Jiang Ruoxue became serious, she always said things I never expected.

"I can help you," Jiang Ruoxue said suddenly.

"Haven't you been helping me all along?" I gave a bitter smile.

"No... This kind of 'help' is different." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. "Once I choose to help you from a higher level, it means I've completed my mission."

"What do you mean...?" I didn't quite understand her words. "Your 'mission'?"

"Do you remember...?" Jiang Ruoxue smiled and pinched my cheek. "The reason I could appear here for five years straight is because I sensed you needed me. Once I help you finish this, my task will be done, and you won't need me anymore. Then 'yin guo' won't bring us together."

"What...?" I was stunned.

"After that, if we want to see each other, it'll only be through real 'fate'." Jiang Ruoxue laughed. "We're born at opposite ends of this city, so it won't be easy to meet up."

"I'm a bit confused..." I frowned at her. "Ruoxue... You could have helped me directly in other ways, but you're willing to waste five years like this?"

"Waste...? No, no, no." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. "Zhichun, everything in this world follows 'yin guo'. If something doesn't follow 'yin guo', you can just trace back from the effect to the cause, and you'll still get the answer."

After five years together, I could roughly understand what Jiang Ruoxue meant.

"Are you saying... These five years are also part of 'yin guo'?"

"Of course." Jiang Ruoxue nodded. "These five years aren't a waste. My presence made you a bit more cheerful and happy, and now telling you this method will be much better than five years ago. The success rate of 'yin guo' will be higher. I believe you can complete this task even without me by your side. This is the 'yin guo' I follow, and it's the inevitable 'yin guo' for all things."

I understood, but I didn't want to.

"Are you saying that once you help me solve this, you won't be able to act with me anymore?" I asked again.

"It's not that absolute." Jiang Ruoxue gave a bitter smile and shook her head. "Zhichun, this city isn't small, and it's not easy to pinpoint someone in it. Once I remove the 'yin guo' that brought us together and use it to help you build the organization, our meetings will just become much harder, that's all."

After saying that, she seemed to notice I wasn't happy and teased with a mischievous smile: "After all, neither of us knows the other's phone number, so we can't stay in touch normally, right?"

I wasn't in the mood to joke with her and just asked with a lost expression: "So, what will you do then?"

"I'll help you from the other end of the city," Jiang Ruoxue replied. "You've said yourself that this organization doesn't need 'cooperation'—everyone operates independently. So, we can split up and recruit members at opposite ends of the city without any communication. Maybe one day, the organization will become incredibly powerful."

"But how can you help me?" I asked.

Jiang Ruoxue stepped forward, stood in front of me, took my hand, took a deep breath, and said slowly:

"Yan Zhichun, building an organization isn't hard; you just need to understand the logic behind it."

As soon as she finished that sentence, sweat beads formed on her forehead. After a pause of a few seconds, she continued:

"As long as you speak the truth sincerely, without any deception, the other party will believe everything you say."

I noticed something was off with Jiang Ruoxue. Just from saying a few words, large drops of sweat slid down her face, as if she were utterly exhausted.

After finishing, she quickly let go of my hand, bent over, took several deep breaths, wiped the sweat from her face, and said: "What a massive organization this must be... Why is it so tiring?"

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking at her with concern.

"Don't worry." She smiled at me weakly. "Zhichun, now you have the potential of a 'wang'. The rest will fall into place naturally."

"So, what exactly did you do...?"

"Nothing much, just told you about the inevitable 'yin guo'." After a few more deep breaths, she asked me, "So, what's this organization going to be called?"

"A name..."

"Yes." Jiang Ruoxue steadied her breathing and said to me, "We're partners now, and I need to recruit companions too, so how can I do that without knowing the name?"

At that moment, I lowered my head and thought about the organization we were going to build.

Next, we would take a completely different path—not just us, but every "participant" here seemed to have their own path.

Some could participate in the game peacefully, others built factions openly, some gambled their lives with "sheng xiao" in the game, and even more wore masks to become "sheng xiao" themselves.

There's a Roman proverb that says "all roads lead to Rome," but I don't like that saying. It's straightforward, but it lacks a certain depth.

I prefer the Daoist saying: "There are three thousand great paths, and each can lead to the divine."

We would abandon all other possibilities, deviate from the main path, and focus on just one. Not only that, we would take this single path to its ultimate extreme, making it an irreversible, radical route.

In Daoism, people who do this have a specific name—they are called—

"'Ji Dao'." I said.

"'Ji Dao'...?"

"That's right, our organization will be called 'Ji Dao'." I looked at Jiang Ruoxue and said, "Everyone who joins will be a 'Ji Dao' practitioner. The organization's goal is to 'protect the place of finality.' We need these people to make 'Ji Dao' their lifelong faith. Since we don't know each other, the secret code for recognition will be 'Ji Dao forever.'"

After that cycle, just as she had said, Jiang Ruoxue no longer appeared at my birthplace to wait for me.

Her role changed from a friend I could talk to about anything by my side to a distant partner who was hard to meet.