A part of Alex kept telling him to try and not offend the senior, but the part that was controlling him right now couldn't help but get annoyed and angry at the reasoning behind the senior's action.
He could understand the motive behind his action. He had wanted to go back home, not be stuck in a world that was not his.
If Alex was in the same situation, he would definitely be desperate as well and look towards using similar means to reach his goal.
However, disrupting and tearing apart the lives and relationships of millions of mortals would never be the way he could ever choose. That was simply immoral and unethical.
"I still don't understand," he said. "What's wrong with taking the normal way back? Is it that difficult?"
"It is," the senior replied. "The act in itself isn't any difficult at all. I simply have to ask one of them to lend me their teleportation token so I could go back to a higher world."
"However, doing so would send me to a predesignated inter-realm teleportation formation, which would have people looking after it. If they find me there, I would be dead too," he said. "I had to use a method where no one could find me. I had to go along with a newly ascended Immortal."
Alex frowned even more. "If that's the case, why did you have to use everyone? You just needed a single person. Couldn't you have just found a single person to help you? You didn't need to destroy the lives of so many for your selfish intentions."
"I did," the man said. "I did start with one, long ago. However, that boy died just a few decades after he started on his cultivation journey."
"Hao Ya here is the second disciple I took in this place. I had thought of doing the same with her, but I was worried that she would die too. Even if she died, there would be so many others that could help me, but I didn't want to go through the same loss as I did with Jian'er."
"Besides, with her alone, I would have to start over if she died. As they say, I couldn't put all my eggs in one basket," the man said.
"Then why not find a few more to help you? You didn't have to go after everyone, right?" Alex asked.
"That was the difficult part," the man said. "I did think of that, but searching through so many humans would take me forever, especially since I wanted people with good body constitutions, spiritual roots, and talents."
"With tens of millions of you around, and with the lack of Qi in this place, searching through each of you was pretty much an impossible option. That was why… I decided to test everyone at once."
"I would have to spend give up on a lot of my remaining Divine spirit stones, but if I could get everyone out there somehow then I could test them all at once," the man said. "That was what I did by establishing the game. I sent everyone out there so I could see who was the one that could help me. As you said, I disrupted the lives of so many people, but that was the only way I could get what I needed."
"My original plan was to let everyone play for a few years where they would adjust to the world slowly. I did not expect many to just go ahead carelessly and lose their life because they really thought they were playing a game," the man said.
"You made our clones control us. We weren't even in control at all the entire time," Alex nearly screamed at the man.
"I know," the man said. "Since I couldn't bring anyone back after sending them out there, I needed a way to make them think they were still in the game. The only way I could think of doing so was to actually have someone here to control someone out there."
"I couldn't get real people to control others, so I had to make clones for them. It was also in some ways my atonement for what I knew is my wrongdoing. I hoped I could make up for the bad I had done by at least giving people a life to live in here," the man said.
"I was planning on letting the clone control the real bodies for a few years wherein they would either be bored with the game or leave. Then, I would let the real soul take the body back with all the experience the clone soul had gotten for it."
"That way, I could let someone live a normal life inside here, while also having them not be shocked about being out there."
"After a certain amount of time, I was going to reveal to them all what was happening, wherein I would give them the option to return back if they wished to," the man said. "However, all those plans went out the window when you ate the Nine Yang Divine fruit."
"The connections I was keeping established with everyone was using a person's soul connection as a medium so that the Qi wouldn't be disrupted by the intent in here. The moment your clone decided to eat the fruit out there, the Yang energy in that fruit flowed toward your clone."
"Your clone would've died out here had it only been your soul connection. However, since the massive formations I had set up for everything to work were stronger, it attracted the energy that was coming in, and ended up being burned by the Yang energy."
"I had to spend hours stopping the violent Yang energy and barely managed to save a few things. With my last ditch effort, I gave back control of every soul out there, back to their original bodies."
The man looked at Alex who was clearly trying to hide his anger. "Get angry, I won't blame you," he said. "I know what I did was wrong. I simply couldn't see any other way at the time. In fact, I still don't see how differently I could've done things, to be honest."
"If I had to do it all over, I would probably go the same route," the man said. "Maybe I would write more stories about cultivation so more people would know what to do. I only wrote a few and hoped people's imaginations would help with the rest."
"Maybe I would write a guide to help everyone through the world. Sigh, regretting is not going to be of any help now, is it?" the man asked.
"I'm trying to fix what I broke," the man said. "I'm trying to bring back everyone who has been lost outside for far too long and giving them their home back."
"It won't suddenly make everything better, but if I can help at least one person out there who I've screwed over, I could leave this realm feeling a little bit less guilty than I already am," the man said.
Alex listened to him speak and sighed. He was still feeling angry, but anger wasn't fix anything.
"While I can't forgive what you did, I can see that you are at least trying to make amends," Alex said. "Since I was part of the reason behind all of this, I will definitely help you fix it as much as possible."
