128: Chapter 128: We're already dead, you haven't realized it yet.

At this moment, the living room was dead silent.

Xiao Yu stared blankly at Jiang Zhe, her expression a mix of realization and bewilderment; her brother's perspective was too grand and too subversive.

When a free will no longer experiences more of the world's seven emotions and six desires, then that individual's life will also come to an end.

After a brief silence from the millions of netizens, a surge of quiet and peaceful emotions arose spontaneously, as if they had reached a state of enlightenment or sudden realization.

"I think... I understand!"

"So we live not for ourselves, but for the Earth?"

"Those who left early, is it because their life experiences were already complete?"

"Damn, tonight is different from before. Before, the more I thought about it, the more terrified I became, but tonight I feel very peaceful, as if I've understood the true meaning of living: to experience!!!"

"Why do I feel a bit sad?"

"Earth has no good or evil; it is simply reading us."

...

In Kyoto, inside Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming was silent for a long time. The arrogance of his past rebuttals had vanished, and he finally uttered only two words: "Heavenly Dao!"

Then he changed the subject, "But! The truth is not like this. I admit what he said tonight was indeed good, but it deviates from the essence of science. In essence, he is using philosophy and science to mislead people!!!"

"It indeed deviates from the science he advocates." Daoist Wang Chongyang also closed his eyes and sighed softly. "However, this is just the mysterious wonders of creation, nothing more."

Enlightenment flickered in Celestial Master Zhang's eyes. "All things are used by the Dao; all joys, angers, sorrows, and pleasures of all things are the rhymes of the Dao."

Doctor Zhou Ming took off his glasses and shook his head somewhat helplessly, wanting to use materialism to refute Jiang Zhe's words...

But, he couldn't refute it!!!

Unless he could provide a more fitting source for the soul than Jiang Zhe, or even deny the existence of the soul.

Unfortunately, he couldn't do it!

On the other side, in the lounge of Huaqing University.

Li Mo and Professor Guan Jingming looked at each other, both seeing the relief and shock on the other's face.

"If this is true, then all the irrational things happening to humans nowadays can be explained."

Dr. Li Mo couldn't help but ask, "Professor, is this still science?"

Professor Guan shook his head gently. "It is science, and also the philosophy of life!"

...

In the Principal's office.

Principal Fu let out a long breath of turbid air.

Old Wang looked at Jiang Zhe's face with a complex gaze, while Xiao Wang, who was beside him, said, "Perhaps I know now. What we need to teach students is perhaps not knowledge, but the ability to experience the world?"

Principal Fu rolled his eyes at him. "The ability to experience the world? Let the students get into university first; they can experience whatever they want in university."

"Ahem!" Teacher Xiao Wang coughed awkwardly.

...

On the other side, at the Kyoto Family Quarters.

Professors Liu, Chen, and Qian were speechless for a long time, all caught in the lingering impact of Jiang Zhe's words.

Only Professor Wang Shouren's eyes were shining.

"This is phenomenology..."

"No, more than that; the existentialist question of [existence precedes essence] is inverted here—it is the Earth's consciousness that first created humans and gave them a task: [to experience]!"

Old Wang typed a few words on his laptop.

Teleological cosmology, panpsychist variant; experiential materialism...

"He treats consciousness and soul as the primary reality, while the Earth is the macroscopic subject and humans are the derived microscopic experience units. This is neither idealism nor materialism; it is a kind of experiential ontology."

"Hiss~~~"

"Freedom is the tool for experience; good and evil are the dimensions of experience; life and death are the start and end of experience."

"All human values are evaluated within this framework."

Old Wang took a deep breath, ignored his three old friends, and cast his gaze into the night outside the window.

"He has connected ethics, philosophy of mind, ecological philosophy, and even cosmology all at once with a simple [experience, recycle] model."

"He isn't just explaining consciousness and the soul, but..."

Speaking of this, Old Wang's eyes were somewhat excited. "He is providing an ultimate answer for this world: Why do humans live!!!"

"Gibberish." Old Liu couldn't help but roll his eyes at Old Wang. "What are you talking about?"

Wang Shouren ignored Old Liu. "You wouldn't understand anyway. You just need to know that Xiaoyu's brother is stronger and has a broader range of knowledge than any of us here!"

Old Liu's face darkened. "You just realized that?"

...

In the living room.

Xiao Yu recovered from the long shock, her eyes gradually becoming clear.

"So that's how it is!"

"Good people and bad people make no difference in the eyes of the Earth; it doesn't even distinguish between good and evil. It is simply giving us the opportunity to experience, thereby reading our lives."

"Whoever can provide a richer and deeper experience will have a longer life script!"

"In this way..."

Xiao Yu's beautiful eyes shone for some reason. "This can even explain the world after death and the sights after death. Could the fields of flowers, heaven, and everything else that near-death people see... be content within the Earth's great consciousness?"

"But doesn't this contradict the akashic records and the zero-point field?"

"That's right, one can indeed experience that the sights after death are not the end, but a return!" Jiang Zhe nodded with satisfaction and then shook his head. "It doesn't contradict them; after all, when the Earth eventually perishes, it will also return to the ubiquitous akashic records in the universe!"

He stood up and stretched his somewhat stiff neck.

"Alright, tonight's tutoring session ends here."

"Wait, brother."

"Is there anything else?"

"What are you going to talk about tomorrow night?"

Jiang Zhe thought for a moment and showed a subtle smile. "What do you want to hear?"

Xiao Yu was liking learning more and more, which was exactly what he wanted.

"The universe's first observer..." Xiao Yu shook her head halfway through. "This is too grand; it definitely can't be finished in one go. What the universe is like... No, no, I, Steel Rain, am not interested in these yet." Xiao Yu rested her chin on her hand, her eyes unconsciously drifting to the deep night outside the window.

She was reviewing the piled-up questions from tonight, those fragments of information about the soul, experience, Earth, and manipulation.

Suddenly, her expression froze, and she asked a more fundamental question:

"Brother, how can we be sure that everything we feel now, including the messy thoughts in my head, are real experiences and not something set by the Earth's consciousness..."

"No, no, what I want to ask is: If what you said is correct, Brother—then the Earth's consciousness gave us the fragments, so is it possible that it fundamentally created all our perceptions?"

"I feel like my life, my path, and my choices are all predetermined now; it's exactly like that feeling of [fate is destined] that you mentioned before, Brother."

"I feel like life is like a dream or an illusion right now."

When this question was posed, the hands of countless netizens in the livestream room, who were ready to type "goodnight", suddenly stopped.

Jiang Zhe didn't answer immediately. Instead, he walked to the refrigerator, opened the door, took out a bottle of chilled sparkling soda, and pulled the tab.

He took a sip, leaned against the refrigerator, and his gaze fell on Xiao Yu's uneasy and somewhat dejected face.

Then...

A smile quietly appeared at the corner of Jiang Zhe's mouth, a smile that made Xiao Yu's heart tighten and her expression freeze.

"Xiao Yu." He shook his head gently, denying Xiao Yu's statement. "Actually, you're wrong."

"Huh? Where am I wrong?" Xiao Yu pressed.

Jiang Zhe looked at her, his expression suddenly solemn, and said word for word:

"Actually, we are already dead."

"It's just that you haven't realized it yet."