Chapter 1028 — Community

"Have you considered that even if I cannot swallow all of Typhon, I still have many other options?" He raised his head and looked into Luo Yan's eyes. "For instance, I could dismember your empire, or install a puppet regime in Aldnan. I could also blockade and partition Typhon's economic circulation. That would be far simpler than occupying a nation..."

He did not explain in detail what he would do, only naming one general concept after another. And as Luo Yan sank into serious thought, Bei Yila — who had kept silent since a moment ago — suddenly could not help speaking up: "So there are actually that many methods?! I never imagined..."

Luo Yan instinctively glanced at Bei Yila, his expression somewhat peculiar: "You are, after all, one of the ancestors of the Augustan family, no matter what Rong says..."

Bei Yila's expression was grave, and he sighed in a tone of one who had seen through everything: "That is all in the past."

Luo Yan forced his gaze away from Bei Yila and back to Gao Yang. He looked into the other's eyes: "The things you mention — I doubt they are meant as threats or warnings. That would be far too shallow for you."

"Exactly. I merely wish to make one thing clear — the future could become very bad, and none of us wish to head in that direction," Gao Yan nodded. "The methods I just mentioned, viewed from Cecil's standpoint, could all bring great benefit. Yet the cost would be an overall loss for all humanity — between Cecil and Typhon there would remain only enduring hostility and conflict; many generations would pass their lives in suspicion and mutual discrimination, and the damage wrought by such a relationship might never be repaired. The overall progress of mortals would be slowed, because one of the nations with the greatest potential would have had its wings clipped, and the other nations... might all begin to feel insecure..."

"And one more very important point," Luo Yan suddenly spoke, cutting Gao Song off. "The order you have been actively promoting abroad, the one you have worked so hard to bring about — a community of mortal destiny — would be bankrupted by Cecil's actual conduct in the real world."

Gao Yang was taken aback for a moment, then slowly began to smile — no longer a courteous smile, but one of heartfelt delight.

"Exactly. If I did that, I fear no one in the world would ever again believe in the concept that 'the fate of mortals is one whole,'" he said with a smile. "And you? Do you endorse my philosophy?"

"...It seems you truly do wish to build such an order," Luo Yan said after a moment of silence, his tone solemn. "An order that regards all humanity as one whole..."

"First, not merely all humanity, but all mortals — including every race on the Loren Continent, and even those intelligent beings beyond the continent," Gao Yang corrected with a grave expression. "Second, it is not that I wish to build this order — rather, it is itself a natural fact, a natural law of this world."

As he spoke slowly, a breeze suddenly rose between the vast, empty water and sky, ruffling the water's surface — and beneath that gently rippling expanse of water, scene after scene abruptly emerged —

It was the battlefield seen from the air, the scarred Winterhold defense line after the war. A shocking rift, covered in lava and black-crystal scorched earth, spread from the plains all the way to Winterhold's main peak; smoke rose everywhere across the vast land, and farther off in the scene lay cities and villages, and quiet winter woodlands and snow-covered farmland...

The image was drawn back continuously, pulled farther and farther until the details of individual nations could no longer be distinguished, and still it kept receding. At last it came to a stop, resting on a viewpoint shrouded in cloud, with a vast, boundless earth below.

Luo Yan stood up and instinctively gazed at the earth reflected in the water beneath his feet. By instinct he felt this viewpoint should be able to go even wider — yet it had stopped at this distance, so that even the Gondor Wastes could only be half seen.

"This is the land we live on — when you look down on it from the air, you find that all the cities and villages have vanished, and the borders between nations are beyond mention," Gao Song's voice came from beside him, startling Luo Yan out of his thoughts. "Of course, we still need the concept of nations, we need the concept of the individual, but on that foundation, all of us... are merely inhabitants of this land.

"We face a common world, and we face all the blessings and all the challenges of this world. We face the gods, and we face the tide of demons that may return at any unknown hour, and those threats as yet unknown. If I had said this before today, it might still have seemed vague and insubstantial to you — but today... the shockwave from the God of War's disintegration has only just swept across the rooftops of Winterhold.

"And you should know that what we must face... is not only the God of War.

"We have many other gods — many gods who once sheltered us, and who still shelter us even now. They cover the whole world, influencing not only the nations of humanity but also the elves, the dwarves, the fey, the orcs...

"Today we succeeded in defeating one god, but you have seen the cost with your own eyes — how many nations in the world are there that could accomplish something similar to what Typhon and Cecil have done? That... you should know very well.

"So it is that I say all mortals are a community of destiny when facing 'world crises' such as the gods and the tide of demons — this is not something I decided. It is something this world decided, a link in the natural order of the entire world."

Gao Yang stopped, and the breeze blowing through this space gradually stilled as well. The image reflected beneath the water's surface faded bit by bit, returning to an endless expanse of blue. Luo Yan at last let out a soft breath, then glanced at Gao Cen: "Thinking of your identity as the 'Vagrant Beyond the World,' what I feel now is growing stranger and stranger... You care about this world even more than its own inhabitants do."

"That is precisely why I say we should set aside, for now, any thought of these 'Vagrants Beyond the Realm'—it is not because I find this world amusing that I have chosen to linger in it," Gao Rong said with a shake of his head. "Besides, what I said just now was not meant to persuade anyone of anything, nor to display to you my 'concern' for this world. As I said at the outset, this is simply a 'contact'—we needed such a private contact, not at a negotiating table, not in a formal setting, but merely an informal 'chat' that need never be made public. I am telling you a few of my own thoughts here; as for how much you can understand, or rather how much you are willing to understand... that is your affair."