Makarov drove down the stairs, bypassed the flower beds, and entered the courtyard.

Dense bamboo trees stand in two rows along the path, and the green bamboo leaves gradually close at the top, forming a round-arched "roof"

The strong sunlight is thus cut off, and no matter where you go to the park, you can never see the landscape 10 meters in front of the road.

And the boy followed him to his side, as if he had returned to the days of Paradise Island.

They enter the meditation room, located deep in the bamboo forest house.

After taking his seat, William opened the delicate bamboo drawer in the stone table, took out the charcoal in the silk pouch, swept away the bamboo leaves that fell from the stove next to him, and lit it.

This charcoal is quite valuable, and the prototype is the incense charcoal used by the Manchu emperor:

The raw material is made of lamb shin bone charcoal with crisp percussion sound, fruit wood firing, and smokeless smell when burning, and ground into toner.

Then use gauze to filter the crushed carbon powder to separate the very fine toner, and add agarwood powder in a ratio of two to one. After mixing the prepared powder into the glutinous rice dough, kneading it into a dough with ambergris and adding water, and then drying it and qualitatively using a mold to obtain royal charcoal.

William added fresh wheat flour to the second step to add a taste of harvest to the incense.

Makarov took a deep breath of fragrant air, and a cup of bitter bamboo leaf tea fell into his stomach, and he felt that the fatigue of being busy with intrigue disappeared in an instant.

"I've had similar news on my side, and I'd thought of it as a lame science hoax. I didn't expect it to be true, it's ridiculous!" William Jr. said as he made himself a cup of bamboo leaf tea.

"Is the news spreading badly?"

"That's right, everyone who is qualified in high society knows it, but you don't know." Makarov did not forget to say a word to William Jr.

"What about the others?" William Jr. poured a sip of tea, and he glanced at Makarov, who was looking at him, meaning that he wanted to drink tea and do it himself.

Makarov knew that William was asking about New Eden's classmates, and he thought for a while: "The little angel must know about it, maybe she will be the captain of the joint exploration team, and the other side will not say it well, but there is a high probability that she also knows." Those lone wolves probably didn't know. ”

"We can pull them to our side with our information superiority, but I don't believe they really have a team."

"Of course it's impossible, although the document says that it is joint development, but whoever believes in this is imbecile. Everyone will definitely organize their own teams in private. ”

"Ha, it's worthy of you, you see the problem to the point."

Makarov smirked, and then asked a surprise question: "Is there really a god in the world?" ”

"God, what kind of god are you referring to?"

"Let's talk about it."

"If it were the powerful, physical gods of Greek mythology, then they did exist.

If it were the omniscient and all-powerful God of the Bible, then I could neither prove that He existed, nor could I prove that He did not exist—in fact the existence of God is unprovable.

If it were the rigid dogmas and traditional morality that proclaimed to be 'supreme,' 'unquestionable,' and self-proclaimed 'God,' it once existed, but now it's dead. ”

William Jr. motioned for Makarov to look at a painting called "God Is Dead" in the bamboo grove behind him.

This is his newly finished work.

The majestic and unquestionable God of the starry sky overlooks the earth, and the ignorant people fall to their knees and pray aloud.

And a giant hand, composed of the wrinkled hands of countless old people, the delicate hands of babies, the calloused hands of laborers, the strong, slender hands of men and women, and the white and clean hands of teenagers and girls......

It held a high-tech sword with the word "Technology" engraved on it, piercing God's chest......

Instead of fuchsia wine, the filthy and foul-smelling mud flowed from the divine body that was surrounded by holy light.

Makarov understood, and William was telling him that the main god space was created by the first gods.

William Xiao analyzed unhurriedly: "Now that we know that the main god will screen high-quality individuals to enter the main god space, there must be a standard for this process, and judging from the situation mentioned in the document, this standard is 'death'. ”

"No, how to explain the human body that disappeared in sleep, according to this, the living will also be chosen." Makarov retorted.

"The key is not in the body, but in the will, and the body is the appearance of the will."

"Didn't you think maybe the Lord God had made some changes to our definition?"

"Then 'our definition' becomes the definition of the Lord God."

He asked the intelligent butler to send the "Dream Interpretation" and the reality augmenter in the study, and from the book he shook out a translucent electroencephalogram, and pulled out a roll from it, spread it flat on the table, and covered the volume of Makarov.

"If you look closely, the peaks and valleys of the two pictures coincide at a high level, which means they are having similar dreams," William Jr. said, gesturing to the EEG that Makarov had pulled out.

"And this one of mine ..... It is an electroencephalogram when a person has a nightmare. ”

William turned on the augmented reality and showed a film that Makarov watched as if it were a movie, and the film was nothing more than some experience of death.

"The film is the content of nightmares, and the owners of the dreams are all 'killed' in the dreams without exception, and then they wake up."

Makarov understood, and he was very satisfied: "Now that we have figured out the definition of death by the main god, I know how to enter the space of the main god, find an electric straight cranial stimulator, and create a terrifying fantasy in my mind, so that there is a high probability of being chosen by the main god, of course, this is very dangerous." ”

William Jr. reminded Makarov: "What should you do if you do your job, don't lose your basic plate when you don't care about it." ”

"How can an investment be risk-free, but it has an investment that returns hundredfold, or even tens of thousands. Triple profits can make people commit all crimes, what about 10,000 times profits? Makarov laughed heartily: "The danger is because of the unknown, I will go to the person who came back to find out the situation." ”

"I vaguely guessed that the two worlds don't have the same speed of time."

Little William also smiled: "Count me in then?" Find a few accomplices, and a few more cannon fodder? ”

"Those new Eden's lone wolves can be pulled in, and I'm one of the few people who can convince them. Ordinary people forget it, I'm afraid they can't even be cannon fodder. ”

"Wait for the good news." William nodded.

The next day, in the morning mist of the Alps, sixteen-year-old Wilhelm and thirty-year-old Makarov stood side by side on a boulder on the edge of a waterfall cliff, watching the pure melting snow of the Alps turn into a stream rushing into a cold pool, and the morning sun slowly rose from the peaks of the morning light, illuminating the valley for a quiet night.

The flame of knowledge is once again burning on the horizon! The Serpent of Eternity cowers in the shadows!

At the foot of the mountain is the city that never sleeps in 2084.

God has returned!