Following the direction pointed out by the mole, Little Red Horse walked for half an hour and finally arrived at the cave. The cave entrance was small, only allowing one horse to pass through. After dismounting, they walked several dozen steps before it opened up. Alice discovered that deep inside the cave was an extremely vast and empty palace.

The palace was brightly lit, without a single guard. Sitting on the throne in the middle was a person dressed in purple. His hair and beard were black, and his face was gaunt, with prominent cheekbones, eye sockets, and brow ridges. At first glance, one could only remember his eyebrows. When he saw Alice enter the palace, he stood up and asked, "Who are you? Where do you come from?" His voice echoed in the hall.

"I am Alice, from the Fairy Tale Kingdom. And who are you? Which country's king are you?"

"I am the King of Qin, Ying Zheng. Have you come here to seek the elixir of immortality?"

"No, we have come to ask what 'self' is." Alice shook her head. "But I would be interested to hear about the secret to immortality." 

Upon hearing this, Qin Shi Huang called his two servants and introduced them, saying, "This is my two servants, one named Puniu Ma and the other named 19260817."

"So how did they achieve immortality?"

"Hahaha!" Qin Shi Huang burst into laughter. "Before you understand my theory, let me have 19260817 sing a hymn to praise the mighty Qin Empire that once swept across the land. I will accompany him on the drum."

After Emperor Qin finished speaking, the servant in green beside him stepped forward. He walked slowly and gracefully, standing at the steps of the grand hall, facing the front hall with a dignified expression. After about ten breaths, he suddenly opened his eyes wide. His pitch-black pupils appeared particularly brilliant as he began to sing:

Waves flow, vast and boundless;

Overcoming enemies, overcoming enemies, oh, mighty and strong!

The universe has its limits, but longevity knows no bounds.

I am fortunate to come, basking in its brilliance.

Its brilliance, never to be forgotten.

Different places, different places, oh, grand hall!

Grand hall, filled with joy, ah,

Alas, I return, alas, I accompany, basking in its brilliance!

Alice couldn't understand what he was singing. As the song went on, the servant in green seemed to grow tired himself, singing faster and faster. To Alice, it all sounded like this:

Ah woo woo, woo woo woo,

Love woo woo, woo woo ah woo!

...

Like the receding tide, the green-clad servant's song finally came to an end. Emperor Qin, feeling satisfied, stood up and began to speak:

"To understand my theory of immortality, you must first know an important axiom: the soul is an intangible thing. You must also know two important conditions: first, all divisible things are destructible; second, only things that can change are composite. From these two conditions, we can deduce that intangible things are indestructible. Therefore, the soul can live forever."

"So why can 19260817 live forever?"

"19260817 is a prime number. Prime numbers are intangible things; you cannot destroy a prime number, so he is immortal."

"Hmm, let me think." Alice sat on the ground, supporting her head like a hamster, and began to ponder. After thinking for a while, she seemed to have come to a conclusion, but she didn't know how to express it. So Alice patted Kang Kang and asked him to ask a question first. Alice had already noticed that Kang Kang had been sneering at the king.

Kang Kang stood up and jumped onto a candlestick, raising himself to the same height as Emperor Qin. Then he asked, "Majestic King, how did you come to know about the existence of the soul? Did you deduce it from experience, reason, or did your ministers help you verify it?"

Emperor Qin sat majestically and said, "Let me ask you, can you imagine something that exists and doesn't exist at the same time?"

Kang Kang began to ponder, and Alice quickly said, "I can think of one. I once met a Cheshire Cat whose body gradually disappeared, and the last thing to disappear was its smile. Does this mean that when the Cheshire Cat's smile exists, the Cheshire Cat has disappeared? What does this imply?"

Qin Shi Huang said, "No, you're wrong. I can be certain that when you mentioned the Cheshire Cat's smile, you were still thinking about its whiskers and eyes. So you still can't imagine a Cheshire Cat's smile without its body. Why? Because a smile cannot exist without a body, but your soul can. You can imagine a soul without a body because the soul is not the same as your body."

Kang Kang raised his head and said, "Your Majesty, I have a friend, a baboon named Freud. Perhaps an example he gave me is different from what you just said. In summer, there is the Kunwu bird, and in business, there is the Wu Xian shaman. Your Majesty should also know something about celestial phenomena. You can see the Morning Star and the Evening Star every day. May I ask, can I imagine the Morning Star existing while the Evening Star does not? Can I imagine the Evening Star appearing while the Morning Star does not? However, dear Majesty, these two stars refer to the same star."

Qin Shi Huang said, "No, you're wrong again. When you mentioned that you can imagine the Morning Star existing while the Evening Star does not, you weren't really imagining two stars. You were thinking of Venus..."

"Well then," Kang Kang interrupted Qin Shi Huang, "isn't the existence of the soul that we can imagine, while the body does not exist, the same problem you pointed out earlier?"

"No, you're wrong again. These two things are..."

While Alice was listening attentively to their debate, the mole quietly approached and tugged at Alice's clothes. He whispered in her ear, "Little Red Horse told me to tell both of you to leave quickly. I've already told Kang Kang. When Little Red Horse sweeps its tail, both of you should mount it, and we'll escape from the back mountain."

Alice was startled, thinking that a dangerous situation had occurred, and no longer dared to listen seriously to what Kang Kang was saying. She glanced at the little red horse out of the corner of her eye. Strangely, Kang Kang didn't seem to be afraid at all now. His tone was calm, his eyes determined, but he occasionally glanced at Alice and the little red horse. Alice couldn't help but feel surprised and admiring of Kang Kang's composure. She herself was not so nervous anymore. Looking at Emperor Qin, she noticed a hint of anger on his face.

Just then, Alice caught a glimpse of the little red horse sitting down. Her sixth sense told her that it was time to leave. In an instant, the little red horse flicked its tail, Kang Kang jumped onto its back, and pulled Alice up. The mole jumped into the horse's ear. These actions were swift as lightning. Emperor Qin felt as if in the blink of an eye, there was only a lingering image of a red lightning bolt before his eyes.

Emperor Qin was furious. He drew his sword from his back and slashed it on the ground. A huge crack appeared on the marble floor of the palace, and the crack chased after the fleeing little red horse.

The ground shook violently, and the palace hidden in the cave began to collapse. On the horse's back, the mole squealed in panic, shouting, "Go straight ahead, quickly go backward!" Alice held onto the horse's neck tightly with one hand and held onto the mole with the other hand, afraid it would fall off. Kang Kang held Alice's waist and whispered, "We can make it, we can make it." But Alice knew he was extremely scared; she could feel his heartbeat behind her was much faster than her own. Drops of sweat dripped from the horse's belly. He asked, "Alice, calm the mole down and ask how we can get out of the back mountain. The path behind seems to be getting more and more winding." The mole seemed to hear this and became anxious, unable to speak, just shouting, "Stone door! Keep going back! Only the stone door!" Alice also knew that she couldn't ask anything more now, she could only hold the mole to her chest while riding on the bumpy horse.

The ground trembled more and more intensely. There was a whistling wind in Alice's ears, along with the sound of the ground collapsing and rocks falling behind her. Above her head and in the distance, there were rumbling noises. The mountains around her seemed to be toppling over, the path winding and changing direction, colorful flowers blooming from strange rocks by the roadside. In the mountain stream below, there seemed to be the roar of a bear, causing the spring water in the cliff to tremble and the leaves in the forest to shiver. The distant clouds were dark and heavy, as if a storm was approaching. The smoke in the sky was vast, lightning streaked across the sky, and a thunderous sound echoed, as if the mountains couldn't withstand the pressure of the dark clouds and began to crumble and collapse.

Just as the boulders rolled and everyone's hearts pounded, in the midst of the chaos, a huge stone door faintly appeared in the smoke and clouds, standing between heaven and earth. With a loud bang, it opened in the middle, revealing specks of starlight inside. The little red horse took a few steps and leaped towards the stone door.

In the instant they crossed the stone door, everything suddenly became quiet. The little red horse floated in mid-air, with the sun and moon shining, reflecting the golden palaces and pavilions in the clouds. Looking down, it was dark, clear, and vast, with no bottom in sight. Vaguely in the clouds, it seemed that immortals dressed in neon-colored robes were descending with the gentle breeze, riding on the wind, white jade wheels rolling over dewdrops, turning into a moon again. Under the moonlight, a shallow pool of seawater poured out as if from a cup. Surprisingly, a tiger was playing the zither, a group of phoenixes pulling a chariot, and the fragrance of osmanthus filled the air as celestial maidens jingled their ornaments.

The four souls trembled, their minds shaken. It seemed that the joy of the world, like the haze before them, was unreal. Was the world's sorrow as elusive as the recent chaos?

A solitary wild goose flew from the southeast, brushing against the full moon, and landed on the cliff that stretched towards the southeast. Alice followed the lonely goose's gaze and saw it fold its wings and land under a pine tree. To her astonishment, it had turned into the silver fox hamster. The hamster sat under the pine tree on the cliff, looking up at Alice and the others floating in the air. Alice was wondering why the hamster appeared there when it extended a paw and made a "shh" gesture. It then pulled out a huge plaque from behind, on which was a string of Greek letters, written:

Η ζωγραφική είναι ποίηση που σωπαίνει και η ποίηση είναι ζωγραφική που μιλάει.

There was also a crooked translation in German:

Ear

Stand

Up

You

Alice closed her eyes and perked up her ears. She realized that amidst the surrounding noise, there were some different sounds, faint yet clear in the night sky. It seemed like a symphony of all living things. The notes floated like feathers above the clamor, dissolving it if one paid a little attention. Gradually, Alice noticed that the moon's radiance also swayed with the music, and the waves of the sea rose and fell with the notes. The entire universe was participating in this grand performance. The four figures flickered in the gentle moonlight, as if plucking the strings of the universe, playing the main melody.

Alice gradually immersed her whole being in the music. At this moment, the melody's softness gradually transformed into a powerful and resounding rhythm. The sound of wind, waves, springs, and tiger roars all merged together, like a giant wheel battling against the wind and waves, surging forward relentlessly. But soon, the resounding sound disappeared, as if the mountain peaks collapsed under the weight of the dark clouds, leaving only the sound of the rustling wind as a mournful background. Before long, a sound like that of a cello emerged from the desolate background, echoing in the empty hall. The sound gradually became gentle and moving, like a mother's hand caressing her hair.

The melody soared and rose, away from the ocean, as the fleet sailed into the distance. Gradually, the giant wheel turned into a speck of dust on the crest of a wave. Before long, the sea also disappeared like a speck of dust, the entire earth vanished like a speck of dust, and the moon disappeared like a speck of dust, leaving only the sun radiating fire and light like a glass ball. With the sound of a broken string, the sun also disappeared into the vast sea of the universe, merging into the boundless brilliant dust and foam. The symphony was reaching its climax, and Alice began to contemplate along with the music. What comes after the peak? At this moment, Alice heard a piano-like sound, jumping like beads, gradually fading away, disappearing with its light.

Alice felt that the entire world within her sight was no longer as open and spacious as before. It seemed to shrink into a ball and press down on her. Only the melody remained vast and ethereal. Alice felt incredibly congested and stuffy in this place, wishing her body could turn into a speck of dust and fall into a deep sleep, allowing her soul to follow the music, echoing and resonating among the galaxies. Only in her subconscious mind was there a voice telling her not to close her eyes. It seemed that something irreparable would happen if she did. What important thing was it? Alice thought hard, but her head throbbed, and she couldn't remember. Her consciousness gradually became blurred, and in a daze, she subconsciously looked in the direction of the hamster. The hamster, squatting on the cliff, seemed to be waiting for her. It pulled out a very large gong from behind, stood in mid-air, and held up a wooden mallet. It then jumped off the cliff and smashed the gong with all its might. The sound was earth-shattering, shocking Alice, causing her legs to go weak, and she fell off the horse. Suddenly, Alice's soul trembled, and she was startled to find herself surrounded by her friends sitting under a cliff in the moonlight.

"Where are we now? Has Emperor Qin caught up? When did I fall asleep?" Alice asked.

The mole hopped over and said, "I remember you fell asleep after listening to the chanting of 'Oh Yo Song' in 19260817. You were so tired that you slept in Emperor Qin's palace first. Later, I smelled the scent of candles near the candlestick and was also very tired, so I fell asleep in your soft clothes. When I woke up, we were already here."

Kang Kang scratched his cheek and said, "Strange, I remember you two were sitting on the magic carpet from India that 19260817 brought when Kang Kang and Emperor Qin were discussing immortality. You guys fell asleep on the carpet. I think there's something wrong with this carpet. I turned around to look at you two and got hit on the head, then I don't remember anything. I remember Mr. Horse standing alertly beside us, he should remember what happened next, right?"

The little red horse said, "When people start arguing, they fall into an emotional trap of opposition. They only want to win the argument, which is useless. So, I told you to leave instead of causing trouble there. It's better to go to the next place."

Alice asked again, "Why did Mr. Horse tell the mole to call us to leave when Kang Kang and Emperor Qin were just starting to debate? When did you realize the danger?"

The little red horse said, "I realized the danger as soon as people started arguing. They were already trapped in an emotional confrontation, and there was no point in arguing. So, I told you to leave. Instead of causing trouble, it's better to go to the next place."

Alice shook her head in confusion and said, "I dreamt of a grand symphony, but why did I keep mentioning 'Wuyou Grass'? I don't know what Wuyou Grass is. It's something important that my mother told me about. I would recognize it if I saw it, but I've never seen it before. I think it's probably some kind of talisman... By the way, are we safe now?"

The mole stood up and waved its paw, saying, "I think it's extremely dangerous. Emperor Qin has millions of troops from the Sweet Kingdom. He definitely won't give up easily. If he were to catch up with us, what should we do?"

The little red horse said, "Don't worry, he's already far away from us. He won't be able to catch up for now. I'm much faster than him."

Alice asked again, "Why did Mr. Horse tell the mole to call us to leave when Kang Kang and Emperor Qin were just starting to debate? When did you realize the danger?"

The little red horse said, "When people start arguing, they fall into an emotional trap of opposition. They only want to win the argument, which is useless. So, I told you to leave instead of causing trouble there. It's better to go to the next place."

"Where should we go next? I always feel that Emperor Qin will catch up soon," the mole said, sitting on a rock.

The little red horse said, "I plan to go to the Salt Kingdom to continue searching for the Universal Light. How about this, I'll lead Emperor Qin's troops away, and Alice, you and the others can go back to the school we were just at. I know the librarian there, and he can protect you. You can also check the 'Hundred Family Names of Plants' in the library. Maybe you'll find the Wuyou Grass you're looking for."

Looking at the worried expressions of the others, the little red horse wagged its tail and added, "Don't worry about me, no one can catch up with me."

Alice said, "Be careful on the way, and I wish you success in finding what you're looking for."

The mole said, "If all else fails, surrender to Emperor Qin. He's a person who cares about face. If you apologize, he'll forgive you."

Kang Kang said, "On the path of truth, we will meet again. Good luck!"

Under the night sky, the four of them went their separate ways. The little red horse carried the moon on its back and headed west, towards the roaring blue sea. Kang Kang and the others headed east, towards the Yellow Earth where the great river flowed.