"Alive... alive."
The adorably dazed Souton shook his huge head and carefully surveyed his surroundings. Seeing the crowd still watching the show, he unsteadily climbed to his feet, his face full of disbelief. "Sending... so much food?"
"Ow... let me rest, let me rest. Ah, I'm exhausted." Looking at the surrounding crowd, he had only just been revived and had not fully recovered. Weakly, he plopped down on the ground and kept grinning foolishly.
Hearing Souton speak of people as food, Jiang Ming recalled that Souton could eat several hundred people in a single meal. Rage rose within him. Although Souton had always lived in the Nile River Basin and had not eaten Chinese people, it reminded Jiang Ming of the Five Barbarians Uprising, when Han Chinese had been treated as "Two-Legged Sheep," nearly slaughtered to extinction and almost wiped out as a people.
As a human, especially as a Han Chinese, a Chinese person, one should do what a person ought to do. Jiang Ming had been something of an angry youth in his previous life and believed that those not of his kind would surely harbor different intentions. In truth, once a martial artist cultivated to his level, he could already control his emotions and remain unaffected by external things.
Jiang Ming also understood that Souton possessed the body of a beast. He was livestock, not human; he had no human morality or thoughts, only the instinctive laws of living creatures. It was like the Xianxia World, where the human race and the Demon Race stood opposed. There was no right or wrong, only racial conflict and the laws of nature. But Jiang Ming simply could not endure it. He had not taken the Supreme Emotionless Path. He still could not achieve the state where heaven and earth were ruthless and treated all things as straw dogs.
In his view, no matter how high one cultivated, what was the point of cultivating without feelings? He wanted no part of that kind of Dao. Just like the Drunken Sword Immortal and the Sword Saint Dugu in Chinese Paladin, Jiang Ming had always disliked the Sword Saint Dugu. He clearly could have stopped everything, yet he insisted on talking about great love and the Dao. Was lesser love not love? Did great love not include lesser love? If one could not even protect lesser love, how could one speak of loving the world? What bullshit.
After so many years in the Super God World, he had already regarded this place as his second homeland. Jiang Ming could not tolerate anyone who disregarded the lives of Chinese people or treated them as worthless weeds. Least of all could he stand seeing Chinese people treated as food, like chives harvested crop after crop.
"Crocodile God Soton's location has been tracked."
At that moment, mechanical voices echoed through the sky.
Seemingly hearing someone call his name, Souton immediately looked puzzled. "Who called me? Which... fairy sister?"
"Let me rest, let me rest." Receiving no response from the crowd, Souton stared fixedly at them. So much food. Food that doesn't even run away. In his memories, this sort of food had always needed to be caught. Unlike now, when they saw him and did not flee.
"Whoosh..."
A laser suddenly shot toward Souton's crocodile head, instantly knocking him flat on the ground.
When the people on Chang'an Avenue saw this, how could they not understand what was happening? Amid screams, they began fleeing in all directions.
"Buzz... buzz... buzz..."
The sounds of aircraft continuously came from the distance. Mechanical humanoid creatures stood atop the aircraft, launching relentless attacks at the street where Souton was.
"Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh."
Lasers flashed one after another, striking the street. Some hit the crowd, killing their victims on the spot. Some hit cars, causing them to explode immediately. Others struck the ground, kicking up clouds of smoke and sand.
Shouts, screams, and explosions intertwined, as if the world had reached its end. Wails filled the air.
Seeing this, Jiang Ming gradually lost control of the rage in his heart. He asked himself whether, although he had killed quite a few people and could not be considered someone like Hong Qigong from Legend of the Condor Heroes, someone who distinguished clearly between grudges and gratitude and had killed only villains and evildoers throughout his life, he had ever slaughtered innocents so cruelly. He had his own bottom line—the bottom line of being human.
Amid the wails, Jiang Ming fell into a daze. He did not know when he had become so cold-blooded, when he had begun to hold himself aloof from matters that did not concern him and put his own interests first. If it did not threaten him, he simply let it go. He could have stopped the scene before him with a wave of his hand, yet he had watched the tragedy unfold without doing anything. Those dying miserably here were all Chinese people, his compatriots, innocent people. None of them were heinous criminals beyond redemption.
The martial path, the martial path—what was "martial," and what was "Dao"? Jiang Ming still remembered a saying: "To halt the spear is martial." Stopping warfare and slaughter was martial; continuously putting it into practice was the "Dao."
Cultivating martial arts was also cultivating the Dao. Blindly increasing one's strength could not make one truly powerful. Only strength of heart was true strength. After experiencing multiple worlds, he had pursued power single-mindedly, cowered in fear, feared being killed, feared being discovered. Was this still the original intention that had driven him to cultivate martial arts? Was this still why he had come to this world?
One had to know that this was "Huaxia." China was called Xia for the grandeur of its rites, and Hua for the beauty of its garments.
At that moment, having seen his true nature clearly, Jiang Ming finally awakened and truly understood. Fortunately, he had awakened. Otherwise, one day, he would have become a slave and puppet of power.
"Hit me, then... damn you."
Even after being struck by the laser, Souton remained full of life. Clearly, laser weapons could not harm him at all. Nimbly climbing up from the crowd, he discovered that his weapon was not nearby. He quickly picked up an abandoned motorcycle beside him and hurled it at the Taotie.
Unfortunately, it did not hit a single Taotie aircraft.
Seeing this, the Taotie wanted to swiftly complete the capture mission, lest more complications arise.
At that moment, one Taotie pilot drove his aircraft straight toward Souton.
After what had just happened, Jiang Ming had already made his decision. Thus, he no longer concealed his strength. He used the Unrestrained Ascension Step to rapidly reach Souton's back, then rode the wind, like an exiled immortal, walking step by step into the air. With all his power, he unleashed the Three Points Divine Finger—Jade Severing, Gold Dividing. A burst of finger force shot at extreme speed toward the charging Taotie.
"Boom!"
That Taotie's body exploded directly, blasted into fragments. Jiang Ming, who had caused it all, turned to look at the remaining two Taotie in the air, his tone icy. "You... really don't take Huaxia seriously, do you? You dare make trouble on my turf?"
The scene fell silent with that explosion. The two Taotie had not expected this situation, nor had they expected resistance. Even that simpleton Souton steadied himself before he could leap, exclaiming in shock, "This Steamed Bun is amazing."
"Attack him. Open fire!" one Taotie issued the command. Seeing this, the other Taotie immediately prepared to surround and kill Jiang Ming.
Jiang Ming looked coldly at the charging Taotie. "You're courting death." Not wanting to waste any more time, Jiang Ming casually fired two bursts of Three Points Divine Finger force at the Taotie. Another round of explosions rang out, and their mechanical bodies burst apart upon impact, as though bearing witness to the extraordinary nature of the young man's casual attack.
Jiang Ming walked down from the air and looked at Souton with a chilling tone. "What about you? Are you coming with me, or will I beat you into submission... and make you come with me?"
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