Dust

I sat quietly in the library, the blocks' warmth lingering in my heart, unable to cool.

I wanted to find more answers. There was a notebook written by an elderly emigrant before ascension. He and his wife died in a car accident; the notebook was for his surviving daughter. Unfortunately, his wife underwent the second death, leaving him alone.

"I think, when I emigrate to the upper layer, passing through theVoid, burning my attachments, all my emotions will turn to dust, like my wife's dissipation upon her second death here, becoming fragments between the bricks and tiles of the next layer world. I also believe occasionally incompletely decomposed attachments escape, becoming meteors streaking the night sky – that's when the living occasionally dream of deceased relatives. Both parents are gone; your mom can't accompany me in this world anymore. I'm lonely, hope you dream of us, of reunion, dear daughter."

Flipping to the notebook's last page, the old man's handwriting became scribbled, probably hastily written before ascension:

"They won't let me go downward. Won't let me meet my wife... But I can't wait until the second death. I want to fall to find my wife. I can't bear this pain. Rather than carrying attachments, better let me forget everything and start anew. Sorry."

So that's it. The death world isn't just our layer and the ascension layer; there are deeper layers below. The Void only accepts downward offerings. Regarding balance, ascenders leave warm fragments; those who fall – second death, dissipation, carrying attachments, become the next layer's dust.

Perhaps the lower world is more fragile than ours. A soul falling with attachments, wandering with no destination or purpose.

The thought that followed reminds me: If even our layer relies on attachments to sustain, what must the lowest layer be like, such despair?

I borrowed this notebook. While registering, I saw the man from the waiting ritual.

"It's you?" So he was the librarian. The guy who told me the waiting rituals are scams.

"Yes. Borrowing this notebook? His writing is quite interesting. Other predecessors' notebooks are good as well. Some of my thoughts on the waiting ritual come from those."

I swallowed. After discussing with Zhu, I didn't think all his views were correct. "These notebooks really give you so much insight?"

"Of course, idle in this world... Their reflections help me understand this world's operating logic."

"Then do you know what the next layer world is like?"

"Souls undergoing second death turn to dust, form new souls, carrying past life attachments ready for reincarnation."

"So precise?"

"Not from books. An old lady told me."

"Old lady?"

"No illness here; second death can only be from old age or accident, right?"

"I know that."

"That old lady failed her second death."

"Ah?" My hands trembled, heart suddenly tightened. Second death can fail?

The man told me the old lady was assigned to mend clothes burned from the human world into new ones, then exchange them back via our coupons. Her second death wasn't from old age but an accident – while squatting for materials, a subordinate slipped, a cutting knife slashed her neck. Before second death, turning to dust, there's a period of time. During this time, she was resuscitated by death world medical staff. She experienced the consciousness of second death during that time but woke up.

The next layer's time runs faster. The resuscitation took under 3 minutes, but the old lady experienced 6 hours in the next layer. She shared with the man that she had no physical body, saw her dust form a sphere, other souls too. The bottom world had a large gate. When matched with a fully purified physical body, they could combine and reincarnate – that gate leads to the human world.

I understand.

The bottom world is where the dust of second death gathers. They carry unforgotten memories and attachments from past lives, becoming a collective soul, waiting for those at the top who actively forgot the past – emigrants, ascending souls – when fully purified, to combine and reincarnate into the next life.

And our layer works for subsequent deceased, transitions for the purification and dust of upper and lower layers.

There will always be those who choose to abandon attachments, always those who choose to bear the burden. The balance of the Void and the death world's dust stabilize the number of world's living beings.