Chapter 62: One's Own Choice

Taking a deep breath, Ye Yang stopped speaking. He knew that the old man had perceived something, which was hardly surprising—even Yao Jun could detect the subtle signs, let alone a Level 5 super powerhouse.

"Sit down!" The old man smiled and pointed to a chair nearby. Ye Yang sat down in silence, and the two remained quiet for a long time, neither speaking a word.

"Ah..." Finally, Pope Felix let out a sigh, gazing affectionately at Ye Yang's already furrowed brow. "Little fellow, you are in a truly dangerous position."

"I... know." Ye Yang pressed his lips together. "Did you see all of it?"

"Heh, I am a perception-type, so I could basically see the whole picture. Your right hand... it is very troublesome."

"Then... can you tell me what I should do? I am truly troubled," Ye Yang urged anxiously.

The old man gave a bitter, helpless smile and shook his head. "I can only say that your future is extremely complex—so complex that even I cannot see through it. As for how it will end? Perhaps only the gods can foresee that."

"Forgive me, but I do not believe in gods!" Ye Yang shook his head. "That is not meant as disrespect, but... I simply wish for my future to be controlled by my own hands."

"In your own hands?" The old man nodded, still smiling bitterly. "That is difficult, little fellow. There are simply too many uncertain factors within you."

Another period of silence followed, lasting even longer than the last. After struggling with his thoughts for a long time, Ye Yang asked, "Then what do you think I should do? Abandon this gamble? Abandon the rest of my life?"

"A gamble? Well said," the old man nodded with a smile. "Since you have already decided to gamble, why ask me? Even if I told you, would you listen?"

"But..." Ye Yang tried to argue, but the old man waved a hand to stop him.

"This is the gamble you chose. In this game, there is only you; everyone else is merely an onlooker, unable to intervene."

"You do not need to ask me the outcome of this gamble, nor can I tell you anything. Whether you should gamble or not is entirely up to you. The only thing I can ask is: after this gamble is over, will you still be yourself? Do you believe you will still be human? If not... then what will you be?"

"I know what you are thinking. Win, and you are invincible; lose, and you merely forfeit your life. But... is there truly a winning and losing? To lose is to end it all, but will the you who wins still be you?"

Looking at Pope Felix, Ye Yang was completely stunned. He had barely ever considered these questions, or rather, he had been unwilling to let himself think about them, too afraid to contemplate them. But now that the old man had spoken them aloud, how could he avoid thinking about them any longer?

"Should I give up, then?" Ye Yang asked bitterly.

The old man shook his head and sighed. "Little fellow, I have already said, this is your own gamble, and everything is decided by you. What I said just now was merely to offer a hint, not to make the decision for you. If I said anything wrong, I apologize..."

"But... but what if I cease to be myself? What if I turn into a fiend? What if I become..." Ye Yang suddenly began to tremble all over. If that truly happened, how could he ever accept it?

When Yao Jun had discussed things with him in detail, he had also touched upon this issue, but because Yao Jun wanted to help Wang Feng, he had trivialized the outcome, guiding Ye Yang not to think too deeply into it. Pope Felix, however, had laid the problem directly out on the table.

"Little fellow, let me ask you a question first: are you... still yourself right now?" The old man suddenly smiled with a strange, eerie amusement and leisurely continued, "Are those people outside still themselves? Even as for me, am I still the person I used to be?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ye Yang was completely bewildered.

The old man laughed heartily. "I once met a person who asked me a question—a question that troubled me for a very long time. He asked me whether he was still himself. He was a hunter, but can a hunter still be considered human?"

"We received evolutionary cells from another dimension, becoming ultra-powerful beings possessing supernatural abilities and peerless fiend-like strength. But are we still human?"

Gazing blankly at the old man, Ye Yang could not say a single word. That's right! This question... he had never thought about it before! Are hunters truly considered human? Or should they be regarded as superhumans? In truth, compared to ordinary humans, hunters were probably much closer to being fiends, weren't they?

"He could not explain this problem, and at the time, neither could I answer it. I pondered this question for a very long time, and only recently did I find the answer. If I were to meet him again, I would be able to answer him."

"What is the answer?" Ye Yang felt as though his heart were being scratched by a hundred claws. He desperately hated the old man's habit of stopping just short of the point—just say it already!!

"If you believe you are, then you are! If you believe you are not, then you are not!" The old man suddenly burst out laughing as he gave the answer. "Little fellow, remember my words. No matter how your final gamble turns out, do you believe you are still human? Everything depends entirely on yourself!"

With that, the Pope stood up and walked toward the exit. "Come, let us go watch the upcoming matches. Would you like to spar? Hmm... I will arrange something for you, though the opponent... will be rather special."

The old Pope slowly walked away, but Ye Yang remained seated, completely motionless. He paid no attention to the sparring matches the Pope had mentioned; his mind was entirely overwhelmed by the words he had just heard.

Are we still human? Everything is decided by us! The world has already changed, and not just the environment, but also the people living within it. Through evolutionary cells, hunters have grown—at the very end, can they still be counted as human?

What about Ye Yang himself? Is he? Does all of this... really come down to our own decision? But how on earth is one supposed to decide?

Suddenly, Ye Yang understood what the old man meant. The so-called decision was not a choice to be made, but an article of faith. No matter what you eventually transformed into, as long as you possessed a human heart, you remained human; if you lost that, even if you did not mutate into a monster, you would be nothing more than a walking corpse.

"Thank you..." Ye Yang uttered these words of gratitude with absolute sincerity. Although the old Pope had not told him what specific course of action to take, nor had he resolved his current distress, he had successfully paved the road ahead.

Armed with this conviction, the path Ye Yang would walk from now on would surely be filled with resolute determination. Once a choice was made, he would follow through with it. Success or failure did not matter; the final outcome did not matter. The only thing that mattered was the conviction burning within his heart!

"Who was that person who asked you this question?" Ye Yang suddenly asked another question. To be able to pose such a tangled, agonizing problem, the person must have been quite a speechless character.

"Him? Heh, he is also an Easterner, named Su Moxuan. If possible... help me carry that answer back to him. Tell him that the old man looks forward to meeting him again," the Pope said softly, his eyes filled with anticipation.

"Su Moxuan?" Ye Yang frowned. The name sounded so familiar. Could it be...

Suddenly, he remembered something—or to be precise, he remembered a single phrase: If you are not Su Moxuan, never attempt to challenge a Level 5!

Returning to the arena, the old Pope had resumed his solemn and dignified demeanor, though when Ye Yang walked in, the old man gave him a sly, mischievous wink.

The matches were still ongoing in the arena, with the only difference being that individual combat had evolved into team battles. At this moment, Tang Xiaobao, Lin Xiaotian, Gao Ting, and Lin Muyang were fighting against four hunters from the Roman Curia.

Ye Yang did not look closely at the combat—to be precise, he lacked the heart to watch it. He was still lost in thought over the old Pope's earlier question: Was he himself still human? If possessing a human heart meant one was human, what about the fiends? Did they possess such hearts?

In truth, Ye Yang understood everything the old Pope had said, yet it had only spawned more questions, leaving him deeply conflicted. He realized that after this conversation, his entire worldview was on the verge of a complete transformation.

Fiends had once been human as well, but they had been infected and consumed by extra-dimensional creatures, and their consciousness was no longer human, which was why they were not counted as human. Hunters, on the other hand, had also been infected through evolutionary cells and undergone mutations, but their primary consciousness remained human, and they still possessed human hearts—so were they human?

This explanation seemed correct, yet it also felt incomplete... Ye Yang was deeply trapped in these thoughts. He desperately wanted to ask Pope Felix further, but he knew the old man would not give him a more definitive answer.

Perhaps the old man himself could not clearly define it either, or perhaps... just as he had said, in one's own gamble, there was only oneself; everyone else could only be an onlooker, unable to intervene. And his own questions could only be answered by himself.

"Ah!" Jiang Jing's exclamation of surprise startled Ye Yang. He hastily raised his head and saw that the situation in the arena had suddenly undergone a drastic change.

Tang Xiaobao and Lin Xiaotian were being suppressed by a continuous chain of attacks, barely able to catch their breath. Lin Muyang was also panting heavily, while Gao Ting was desperately holding on. She was truly strong, with skills and rhythm control superior even to Lin Muyang's, but she could not succeed single-handedly.

All four opponents were Level 3 hunters, and their individual strength was perhaps slightly inferior to theirs, yet through seamless cooperation, they had completely suppressed Gao Ting and the others.

"Take a look... Ah, this is the purpose of our trip to Milan. In team combat, we are not even one-percent as good as them!" Ling Fengyan sighed with deep emotion.

Ye Yang nodded repeatedly and began to watch the battle with intense focus. Just as Ling Fengyan had said, their goal this time had always been to learn and cultivate the growth of their strength. As for that ultimate question regarding the end of the evolutionary path... he would just have to slowly grope his way forward along the road of evolution.

The battle ended quickly. The allied forces of the Chinese Alliance and the Capital of Yanhuang suffered a crushing defeat without any suspense, which made the previously grim expressions of the Roman Curia look slightly better. Although their individual strength was lacking, the team combat they valued so much was clearly superior.

Watching the four dejected youths walk back to the platform, Ling Fengyan and Su Yi exchanged a smile and said, "Don't be discouraged. This trip was never meant for you to show off. If we only won and never lost, what would be the point of us coming to Milan?"

"But... we lost so miserably," Tang Xiaobao muttered, plopping down onto the ground in dejection. His eye was swollen black—and that was only because the opponents had held back.

"If you lose, figure out a way to win. If you can't beat them, search for the root of the problem. Only through such exploration will your strength gradually improve. Do you think they were born knowing how to cooperate?" Ling Fengyan said in a deep voice.

Su Yi also nodded. "Today is just a beginning. Tonight, everyone discuss amongst yourselves, study their strengths, and continue tomorrow. Losing once is nothing, as long as you don't lose all the way to the end. We still have six days! Show me your true potential!"

"Understood!" everyone answered in unison. Six days was not a long time, and perhaps they still wouldn't be able to grow to the level of the Roman Curia, but as long as they were growing, that was all that mattered. As long as there was growth, there was a future!

"Brother Ye, what did that old man say to you just now?" Sang Shi walked over with a puzzled look on his face. Everyone had been discussing the fact that the Pope had called Ye Yang inside for quite some time without coming up with any theories.

"Heh, could it be that he's taken a fancy to Brother Ye?" The wretched-looking Tang Xiaobao also strolled over. Lin Xiaotian laughed and added, "Yeah, Brother Ye really appeals to all ages and genders! I am truly in awe!"

"Damn it! Get lost!" Ye Yang lashed out with a kick. Someone very cooperatively let out an "Ouch!" and fell to the ground, prompting hearty laughter from the rest of the group.

"Ye Yang..." A sweet voice called out to Ye Yang just as he was preparing to leave with the main group. Greir walked over with a beaming smile.

"What is it?" Ye Yang smiled slightly. This girl... surely she didn't want special services again, did she? Wasn't last night enough?

Seeming to catch the strange look in Ye Yang's eyes, Greir glared at him slightly. "Don't let your imagination run wild. Pope Felix asked me to find you. He wants to know if you would like to accompany him to a football match."

"Huh? Accompany him to a football match?" Ye Yang was dumbfounded. This old man... surely he hadn't actually taken a fancy to him, had he?