Chapter 33: The Day the Firmament Fell
Wei Ji was seriously injured.
He remained unconscious for most of the day.
He dreamt of many past events.
Wei Ji was born in the first year of Jianning. His parents were diligent farmers. He had two older brothers and one older sister.
Although the family was not wealthy and life was full of hardships, they could occasionally have a full meal, which was already better than how most people lived.
At the age of three, his father was conscripted by the court and went to suppress the Western Qiang under General Duan Jiong.
Since then, there had been no news of him. It was unknown whether he had died on the battlefield or on the journey.
Fortunately, his eldest brother grew up strong and robust and was barely able to continue farming and paying the land rent, managing to sustain their livelihood.
At the age of seven, because the emperor wanted to build a summer palace, his elder brother was forced to leave their widowed mother and young siblings to serve in corvée labor.
During service, he broke both his legs, returned as nothing but skin and bones, and passed away in pain half a month later.
At nine years old, that year, most people in the village fell ill. His sister unfortunately died in the epidemic.
Nearly half of the few laborers in the village were lost, and they also encountered a rare severe drought. Many lands yielded no harvest.
Not only did the court not distribute relief grain, but it even spread the news of building a monument of virtue.
Using this as an excuse, the landlord increased the land rent by thirty percent and, fearing that they could not collect it later, demanded advance payment. It was completely forcing people into a dead end!
His second brother knelt before the landlord and begged for more time, but he was beaten to death as an example and hung at the village entrance, forbidding the villagers from retrieving the body to intimidate others.
That year.
Nine out of ten households in the village were deserted!
Their old mother starved to death in misery!
Wei Ji, in order to survive, had no choice but to flee and become a refugee.
In the process, he witnessed too many human tragedies. He realized that when people were starving to the extreme, they really could eat anything. And while hovering between life and death in the cold and hunger, he could not help but wonder:
Were the diligent common folk asking too much just to eat a full meal?
Why did his parents and brothers, who were honest and kind, end up with such tragic fates?
Did justice truly exist in this world?
Wei Ji only felt that the human world was unbearably bitter.
Perhaps after death, he could reunite with his parents and brothers!
Wei Ji did not die because, at the brink of death, he met the person who would change his life forever.
A man used half a piece of bread and half a jug of water to save him from the edge of death, then asked him a question:
"Do you want to live a different life?"
"I do!"
"Then follow me!"
"Will I be able to have enough food?"
"Of course. We must not only eat our fill but also ensure everyone eats their fill."
"That's impossible."
"Haha, ordinary folks like you and me naturally can't accomplish it. But I know someone who can definitely make it happen. Let's go and join him together!"
"Alright!"
Wei Ji had no other choice.
He could only trust the man before him.
In the end, the two of them went to seek refuge with a Taoist priest in yellow robes.
It was none other than the later-renowned Great Virtuous Master, Zhang Jiao.
As for the man, he was named Ma Yuanyi. He was not only Wei Ji's savior but, from then on, his sworn elder brother in life-and-death bonds.
Not long after, Wei Ji was lucky enough to become one of Zhang Jiao’s disciples. Ma Yuanyi, during the process of spreading teachings and protecting the Dao, repeatedly made great contributions, greatly aiding the development of the Way of Great Peace, and earned the Great Virtuous Master’s deep trust.
Over the years, Wei Ji had stayed by the sides of the Great Virtuous Master and Brother Ma.
Although the two did not disclose much to him, Wei Ji could vaguely sense that they were planning something magnificent and earth-shattering. It was something extremely dangerous, a mission of nine deaths and one life, yet it carried the hope of completely changing the world!
Wei Ji was not afraid.
On the contrary, he was incredibly excited and full of anticipation.
He was willing to die for Brother Ma's ideals.
He was willing to give everything for the Great Virtuous Master’s beliefs!
……
The scene in his dream shifted.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion was accidentally exposed.
Ma Yuanyi was captured and suffered cruel tortures but never revealed any information about the Yellow Turban Army.
When he was about to be executed by being torn apart at the execution ground, he used all his strength to shout in a mournful voice:
"Heaven has perished, the Yellow Heaven shall rise!"
That day.
Ma Yuanyi, the great leader of the Yellow Turban faction, was torn apart.
Along with him, thousands of Yellow Turban followers were also executed.
Heads rolled across the Luoshui Execution Ground!
The riverbanks were dyed red with blood!
Wei Ji was among the last batch of Yellow Turban rebels to be escorted for beheading. Although he was terrified, he had no regrets—only regret that he could not witness the overthrow of the fatuous emperor and the corrupt court by the righteous army.
But just as he closed his eyes and awaited death.
The heavens and earth changed dramatically.
The ground shook and the mountains trembled.
"What is happening?"
Wei Ji looked up at the sky.
He could not describe what he saw.
No amount of words.
No amount of writing.
Could precisely depict or describe it.
It seemed as if the sky had been torn open by an abyss-like rift, packed densely with billions of malicious eyes of varying sizes.
An enormous amount of darkness, thicker than the night, oozed from the abyss, like tens of thousands of wriggling tentacles, eroding, tearing, and devouring everything in the world. Even the sun had become distorted, growing grotesque, jagged claws.
"Heaven has perished, the Yellow Heaven shall rise!"
Ma Yuanyi’s voice once again echoed in Wei Ji’s ears.
That voice was still mournful but now filled with resentment and malice!
Yet Brother Ma had clearly already been martyred, his dismembered corpse still lying on the ground—how could he still speak?
"Heaven has perished, the Yellow Heaven shall rise!"
Ma Yuanyi's voice once more roared across the Luoshui Execution Ground!
The roar grew increasingly mad, terrifying, and chaotic, seemingly mixed with the voices of thousands of Yellow Turban vengeful spirits.
They were like invisible, filthy tentacles trying to drag everyone's sanity into a bottomless abyss.
That day.
The Firmament fell.
The Abyss descended.
Ma Yuanyi became the first being at the Luoshui Execution Ground to be corrupted by the Abyss and fall into evil.
————
"No!"
Wei Ji suddenly woke up.
He gasped heavily.
It took a long time for him to realize that he had merely had a nightmare again.
Although twenty years had passed, it still felt as vivid as yesterday.
Every time he saw Brother Ma’s dismembered body drenched in blood at the execution ground, his heart ached like it was being stabbed, and he was overwhelmed with sorrow.
Whenever he recalled the feeling of the unknowable forbidden existence beyond the endless void peering at this land through the torn firmament, fear and despair were inescapable. Since then, the entire world had become different.
"My leg…"
Wei Ji noticed his broken leg.
Finally, he remembered why he was here.
Today, a group of outsiders with unknown origins attacked Hexi Village.
Neither he nor Li Niu was a match for the enemy leader. Yet, not only did the opponents not kill them, they even treated his wounds.
Why?
Who exactly were these people?
Wei Ji closed his eyes to sense, and his face grew even paler. The protective aura barrier of Hexi Village had disappeared.
This meant that Hexi Village could no longer isolate or resist the pollution from the Abyss.
In other words.
Hexi Village was on the brink of doom.
Just at that moment, the door was pushed open.
Hang Yu entered, led by the villagers. He was accompanied by five or six Players, including Chimera Wraith, Black-Eyed Rui Ge, Chenxi, Little Bell, and others.
"Who exactly are you?"
Facing this mysterious stranger of unknown origin, Wei Ji was full of wariness. He knew all too well that after the descent of the Abyss, this world was filled with countless eerie things. Sometimes, knowing too much was not a good thing.
But now, he had nothing left to lose.