Above The Sky

Chapter 2143 - 58: The Silent Lamb (Part 2)

"The porridge at home has gotten cold. You must be hungry, right? Go home early and eat."

"It’s Elf Sweet Potato Porridge!"

His younger brother cheerfully replied, having eaten two lollipops while waiting and not worried at all about his brother: "Today, brother does the chores!"

"I’ll do them for the next week."

The young man slightly raised his head, and his mother’s profile wasn’t angry, only a sense of reassurance. The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes seemed a bit moist.

Mother was always worried.

Their father had followed the Dragon God’s Emissary from a very early time and sacrificed himself in battle against foreign invaders. As a martyr’s children, the family moved to the Silverpeak Domain, and later to Harrison Port for his studies.

Money was tight. They had enough to live, but for better studies, for books, alchemy tools, and various materials, it was never enough. To provide the best conditions for the young man, his mother worked three jobs, doing household chores for others, assembling terminals in a factory, and occasionally doing manual labor.

Mother was very beautiful; she used to be the most beautiful flower in the mountains, but to pay for his tuition and his brother’s, she visibly grew weary.

"Mom... I just wanted to say..."

He said, taking out a Spirit Crystal from his pocket, a pale green, shiny Spirit Crystal: "I earned some money! Although you didn’t go to today’s public lecture, I did very well, and the professor rewarded me with this!"

He was very smart, but the young man didn’t really understand the meaning of many things outside school. He just wanted to help his mother however he could: "Afterwards, at the parent-teacher meeting, the professor learned about our family’s situation and said he wanted to provide me with some extra lessons..."

"Some textbooks are quite expensive, but the professor said he could give me a scholarship. This way, I won’t have much free time after school and might come home late in the future, but this way I won’t trouble Mom..."

"This is... Oh God, by the Dragon God..."

The mother stared blankly at the Spirit Crystal in the child’s hand. She understood its value far more than anyone else, instantly losing her voice: "No! This isn’t money, it’s your honor! Put it away quickly!"

"And what do you mean by ’not trouble me’? Did you think you’ve been troubling me all along?!"

The young man suddenly felt the hand holding his own tighten, painfully so.

He looked up in shock, seeing his mother glaring at him almost fiercely, an unprecedented anger that made him feel as though he was about to be hit by a storm, instinctively lowering his head.

—I’m sorry.

That’s what he wanted to say.

—Retreat.

That’s what he wanted to do.

But for some reason, the blue Spirit Crystal in his hand gently shimmered, and an inexplicable premonition arose, guiding him to see everything before him clearly.

He looked up again, at his mother, and was momentarily dazed.

Yes, his mother did look at him almost fiercely, but those eyes, full of tears, were not anger, but rather...

Fear.

—Do you think you trouble me? Do you think what I’ve done for you is a bother to me? Why would you think that?

—I have nothing left... don’t... don’t...

Don’t leave me...

"Mom." As fragments of the past flowed, the young man finally understood, understood what he should say.

He lunged forward, hugging his mother tightly: "No way... I love you! I just want to help you!"

"Besides, you aren’t alone at all—Mom, you have us!"

On the other side, without needing his brother’s reminder, the younger child, who had shrunk back due to the serious atmosphere between mother and brother, noticed the change and quickly hugged his mother’s waist: "Love you, Mom—"

Being tightly embraced by two children, to be honest, the woman found it a bit hard to breathe, and indeed, these two kids were really well-fed by her, mighty and strong. Like their father, a hug could make her breathless.

But perhaps due to some kind of love or a mother’s strength, she stretched out her hands, embracing the two children, feeling no heaviness at all.

Her empty heart finally filled with something.

She had once lost everything and regained everything.

In the warmth of the embrace, she finally had the strength to cry painfully.

She could cry out loud.

She cried in her heart, wailing, screaming; the scarred lamb finally fell silent because of love.

Let the lamb be silent.

That is the only way to make the world a better place.

The will within the Aether withdrew its gaze.

Love.

Love is giving up the freedom of will, binding oneself to something other than oneself, abandoning complete freedom.

Then, receiving the full love of another.

This is what the Duke of Steep Ridge couldn’t achieve, but Ian did, he split himself, destroyed himself, bound himself, but didn’t love himself, didn’t love [the other self].

Immortality is the greatest love for one’s own Dao.

A truly free person chooses to love their Dao, giving up all freedoms outside this path, and thus, is loved by infinite selves, infinite Dao.

Love can be replaced with any word—persistence, perseverance, dreams, obsession. Its essence doesn’t change.

This is love, a kind of faith, a kind of fate. It makes a person give up their mundane nature, transcending and becoming a new infinite self.

So, because of love, fate launches this attack to shatter freedom, ensuring that all universes, all existences, will inevitably give birth to intelligent life.

This is the Star God’s Dao, the Star God’s love.

So, freedom...

The will within the Aether raised its eyes, looking toward the darkness beyond the cradle.

So this is where the fragments of freedom reside.

—If one says the Star God chose the future with the power of fate, making the world inevitably give birth to life, then would the world itself yearn for freedom, crave beyond fate, for a thorough silence and an end?

"The End—are you simply dusk, or the freedom desired by the universe?"

The will within the Aether murmured, the love between mother and child in the human world, and the infinite love among the Cosmic Starry Sky are indeed one, allowing him to glimpse another layer of truth: "If a singular universe is so, then what about the universe beyond the universe I see within the Great Aether Sea, the endless multiverse..."

Screaming lambs... the true spirit of the universe... the Abyssal Tree of The End... without wisdom, without a self ’ending.’

When will you stop crying?

Withdraw your gaze.

Ian knew, the truth of the universe and the truth beyond the universe, while important, is a matter for later.

As if saying the lamenting heart of humanity might be lambs, the freedom desired by the universe is The End.

Then, the roar in the hearts of the mighty are the tides that overturn heaven and earth, the deities and beasts powerful enough to destroy the world.

Their inner roar is not a cry, but a storm capable of destroying the world, a chisel to reshape the world.

That is why Terra has been standing still.

So, it is time.

The eyes gazing at Terra slowly moved, focusing on Gantreignum in the northwest of the Terra Continent, and beneath it, the Azure Sky Royal Court.

There, a storm is gathering, one that could sweep the world, a roar directed at him is about to be birthed.

But he is unafraid.

Because Ian has long prepared, ready to present them with the gift he has prepared, so that everyone in the Whole Terra, all powerful beings, can have a future and a distant future.

This gift is called...

[Great Tranquility]