Only I Walk Alone

“Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, vividly a butterfly…”

Wu Ge softly read Zhuangzi’s “On the Equality of Things.” After the incident with the three ghostly sisters, Wu Ge resumed his cultivation. Reaching his current level, he began to understand the words in “Laozi,” “Zhuangzi,” and “Liezi.” These were words written by highly spiritually enlightened Daoist figures, representing their insights into the spiritual world.

Previously, Wu Ge had sought advice from Mei, one of the three sisters, on how to use psychic power, but unfortunately, Mei’s method of using psychic power was innate, and she herself did not understand how she came to possess such psychic skills.

Therefore, Wu Ge had to figure it out on his own. This was a path of cultivation only he could walk, so only he could help himself.

“Ha~” Wu Ge yawned, not knowing why, but he had been getting more and more sleepy lately, sometimes able to sleep for fifteen or sixteen hours, and he would have some strange dreams, but as soon as he woke up, he would forget the dreams he had.

That’s why Wu Ge picked up “Zhuangzi,” which he had flipped through a dozen times, to read again. When it comes to dreaming, Zhuangzi was a master.

Wu Ge closed the book, drank some water, then returned to bed, falling asleep as soon as he lay down, and this sleep lasted until noon the next day.

After waking up, Xiao Chao said, “Your daily routine has a serious imbalance, but after examination, your body is still on a healthy level.”

Wu Ge said, “I understand my own condition. There’s nothing wrong with my body.”

Wu Ge drank some water, seemingly intending to go back to sleep.

Xiao Chao asked, “You haven’t eaten for three days. Aren’t you hungry?”

Wu Ge said, “Not hungry, drinking water is fine.”

After drinking a large glass of water, Wu Ge fell back into a deep sleep.

Xiao Luo and Mei were worried about Wu Ge’s condition, but they didn’t understand the method of cultivating psychic power that Wu Ge practiced, so they didn’t dare to give unsolicited advice.

Xiao Chao said, “If the spirit is sufficient, one does not think of sleep; if the spirit is insufficient, one thinks of sleep. Wu Ge might have reached a bottleneck in his cultivation. Whether he can break through or not is up to him.”

Mei asked, “Has this happened before?”

Xiao Chao answered, “No.”

Mei said self-reproachfully, “Is it really because of me?”

Xiao Luo said, “Mei, it’s definitely not because of you, don’t blame yourself. Besides, the manned space program has already started. Let’s go orbit the Earth to take a break. Maybe when we come back, Wu Ge will have made a breakthrough?”

After decades of development, Xiao Chao finally built a warship dock in Earth’s orbit and began manufacturing warships, but these were unmanned warships, without human life support systems, focusing only on weapons and armor.

However, Xiao Chao’s progress in manned space technology was not significantly breakthrough. The technology level of manned and unmanned warships was vastly different. Although Xiao Chao had been manufacturing robot fleets for a while, Wu Ge and others had not had the chance to travel to space.

After all, using immature manned space technology was too dangerous. Wu Ge was the last human on Earth, and without 100% safety assurance, Xiao Chao would not allow Wu Ge to enter space.

Xiao Luo and Mei left, and Wu Ge continued to sleep deeply, with Xiao Chao watching over him, so there was no need to worry about any issues.

Under Wu Ge’s eyelids, his eyeballs were moving left and right, indicating that he had started dreaming.

Wu Ge slept for three days. After waking up, he picked up a cup of warm water, but just as he was about to bring the cup to his mouth, he suddenly felt weak and collapsed onto the floor, the cup also “clanging” onto the ground.

Being a high-tech cup, it did not crack, but all the water spilled out.

Wu Ge fell asleep again.

…

“Wake up! Wake up!”

Wu Ge groggily opened his eyes, and then saw a little girl.

She was a little girl with auburn long hair, wearing simple ancient clothes, and she had a fluffy tail behind her.

“Stinky brother, you promised to take me to Heishan today. Wake up already!”

“Bang!” The little girl delivered a karate chop directly to Wu Ge’s stomach.

“Ow~” Wu Ge clutched his stomach and rolled on the bed, his tail curling up.

A tail?

Wu Ge slowly came to his senses.

Right, I’m a fox living in Qingqiu Mountain.

Wu Ge was fully awake now, but he felt a bit heavy-headed. He said, “It feels like I had a dream.”

The little girl asked, “What dream?”

Wu Ge glared at her, “After you hit me, I forgot!”

The little girl stuck out her pink tongue, turned her back, and her fluffy tail swayed back and forth. She said, “You can’t blame me, it’s your fault for sleeping so soundly.”

Wu Ge got out of bed and rubbed his temples: “Strange, I seemed to have dreamt that I turned into a human.”

The little girl was startled. She said, “You’re talking about humans? The cruel and violent human race? The ones who are always fighting and killing? How could you dream about them?”

Wu Ge shook his head: “It’s just a dream, speaking of which, today we’re supposed to go to Heishan to chop wood. Xiao Li, don’t run around. You must follow me, understand? If you accidentally leave the barrier, it will be hard to come back.”

Xiao Li happily wagged her fox tail: “I understand, brother. Let’s go quickly!”

Wu Ge still found it strange. He picked up his axe and the rope for bundling wood, thinking blankly: “What exactly did I dream about?”

Xiao Li had already run out the door, shouting continuously: “Hurry up, hurry up!”

“Coming!” Wu Ge responded, then chased after her.

They left the small mountain village and set off on the road to Heishan. Heishan was a pitch-black mountain, covered in black trees as dark as charcoal. The black wood obtained from chopping down these black trees burned very well, so the foxes always came here for wood.

As for how these black trees came to be, Wu Ge did not ponder this question. He wasn’t surprised because it was common knowledge, just as it was common knowledge that humans were ferocious and cruel; it was not a question worth contemplating.

Did I really dream that I turned into a human? Why?

Wu Ge climbed Heishan with these doubts.

“Hey, how many times have I told you not to run off? If you run out of the barrier, you can’t come back!”

Wu Ge really had no way to deal with his sister. While keeping an eye on her, he chopped wood. As the eldest son in the family, he had to do what he could for the family, while his little sister only needed to grow up freely.

“Brother, I found a pitch-black cave!”

Wu Ge hurriedly shouted: “Don’t go in!”

“I’m going in!” Xiao Li had already jumped into the cave.