Who Will Save Us

"Father!" A childish cry rang out.

Then came a wet pfft, and the crying abruptly stopped.

"No! Aaaah! Northern Barbarians! I'll fight... fight you to the death..." The sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh rang out.

The farmer did not look at the spear stabbed through his chest. Instead, his bloodshot eyes remained fixed stubbornly ahead.

A Golden Court warrior, expressionless and with eyes devoid of all emotion, as cold as a machine, indifferently pulled the spear from the father's chest.

Then, with one hand, he lifted the farmer and tossed him into a massive machine. A grinding sound followed.

The farmer was reunited with his child—in death.

Inside the valley, the clamor never ceased, though most of it was weeping and wailing. Some, overwhelmed by despair, merely muttered under their breaths without knowing what they were saying.

The Golden Court warriors watched the densely packed civilians before them without emotion. Every face was numb, while the fear that occasionally flickered in their eyes was the only color left within them.

Among those civilians were northerners of the Xuan Shang Empire, as well as herdsmen from the northern Golden Court.

Here, the common people of both nations were finally treated equally, because before death, all living beings were equal.

Every Golden Court warrior stood beside a strange mechanical contraption.

Then, as though picking up chicks, they lifted the civilians and tossed them into those mechanical creations without hesitation.

A grinding noise that made one's entire body tremble rose up, accompanied by the relentless cracking of flesh and bone. The cold mechanical creation seemed to be chewing flesh, eerie and chilling.

The stench of blood grew ever stronger.

No one could see what became of those inside the machines, but the outcome spoke for itself.

It was not as though no one had resisted, but how could ordinary people possibly stand against an army of martial warriors?

Everyone, like pigs and sheep in a slaughterhouse, stood in line to receive death.

The stench of blood spread through the air. Even the sun overhead brought not the slightest warmth; looking up, it seemed as though the sun itself bore a faint tint of blood.

The Golden Court warriors remained expressionless, tossing civilian after civilian, like pigs and sheep, into the mechanical creations.

Until, at last, someone erupted.

"You beasts! I'll fight you to the death!" It was a youth whose eyes had already turned red. He had watched helplessly as his parents, brothers, and sisters were thrown into the machines one after another. The bloody stench made him want to vomit uncontrollably.

Yet hatred forcibly suppressed that physical urge.

Usually mild-tempered, he erupted. His childish fist swung at the enemy before him.

The Golden Court warrior looked upon the youth with indifference. He raised his spear, then lowered it again. With a single slap, he knocked the youth's fist aside, and a horrifying crack of breaking bone rang out.

The youth let out a muffled groan, but then his neck was seized.

His feet dangled in the air. Enduring the excruciating pain, the youth opened his eyes and saw beneath his feet the mechanical entrance, like the maw of a giant beast.

Blood had long since stained the mechanism a vivid crimson.

Suffocation...

His consciousness gradually blurred...

Who will... save us...

The youth screamed in despair within his heart.

Then, suddenly, a series of chaotic yet orderly footsteps came from the distance.

The Golden Court warrior instinctively looked up.

Beyond the valley, figure after figure appeared in his field of vision, standing like a forest.

The next instant, a long spear was hurled over like a meteor.

Pfft

It violently nailed the Golden Court warrior to the ground.

The youth was flung away by the force as well, but only rolled across the ground a few times and was not seriously hurt.

He gasped for breath, staring blankly into the distance.

Soldiers clad in black profound armor marched over from afar in perfect formation. Their military banners fluttered, the Black Bird embroidered upon them seeming ready to take flight.

The Black Profound Army! The Empire's army.

Hope appeared in the youth's eyes.

Then, in the next instant, a figure wearing the same black armor leaped fiercely from the crowd like a war god, smashing his fist into the nearest mechanical creation.

That person was Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan could feel the stifled knot of resentment in his heart.

He knew this was only a simulated life, but now that the massacre which had existed only in rumor stood before his very eyes, Jiang Yuan still could not calm himself.

He strode forward fiercely, his qi and blood erupting with all his strength.

Sha Qi gathered around him. Jiang Yuan instinctively used the Sha Qi ability of a general star. All the strength in his body condensed into one stream; the phantom silhouette of an Army Soul, invisible to ordinary people, appeared around him, while his immense qi and blood burst outward.

The next instant

"Bang!"

The enormous mechanical construct shattered beneath Jiang Yuan's full-force strike. What sprayed outward was not only debris, but fragments of flesh and blood.

Jiang Yuan tilted his head slightly, avoiding the flesh flying toward his face. He stared fixedly at the clump of flesh that had appeared at the very bottom of the mechanical construct.

That clump of flesh looked very familiar. It resembled the demons Jiang Yuan had encountered many times in this world.

Though they looked vastly different, the auras emanating from them were strikingly similar, as if they had sprung from the same source.

The anger on Jiang Yuan's face faded, yet the fury in his heart did not diminish in the slightest. He let out a roar.

"Black Profound Army, heed my command! Kill the enemy! Save the people!"

Though Jiang Yuan was not from the Xuan Shang Empire, and this was merely a simulated life, at this moment, he somehow regarded himself as one of the Xuan Shang Empire's people.

Or rather, at this moment, he was a common soldier of the Xuan Shang Empire's Black Profound Army.

As a soldier of the Xuan Shang Empire, Jiang Yuan could not stand by and watch the Empire's civilians be slaughtered and abused by enemy bandits.

Only now did Jiang Yuan realize that the roles simulated within the simulator could influence him as well. At this moment, his life was that man's life.

At this moment, Jiang Yuan was a soldier of the Xuan Shang Empire.

These thoughts flashed through Jiang Yuan's mind in an instant.

He had already charged ahead alone. His spear had been thrown earlier, and now his peerless iron fists became lethal weapons.

Not a single Golden Court warrior was a match for him.

The Black Profound Army soldiers behind him also charged forward in fury, splitting up to fight on their own, surrounding and slaughtering the Golden Court warriors while protecting the civilians.

All the civilians looked blankly at the Black Profound Army around them, light returning to their eyes.

Jiang Yuan now held a military saber he had just seized, and the roar of a tiger rang out.

Jiang Yuan was like an enraged tiger, roaring in wrath.

The Tiger Roar Saber Technique, perfected to great mastery, was fully unleashed in Jiang Yuan's hands.

A murderous aura faintly gathered around the Tiger Roar Saber Technique, increasing its power by another thirty percent.

Jiang Yuan slaughtered madly, as though he had gone utterly berserk.

The clash of military sabers and weapons rang out without end, scattering sparks with every collision.

No one could withstand more than two moves from Jiang Yuan.

When the military saber in his hand shattered, Jiang Yuan casually snatched an enemy's weapon and continued fighting.

The Black Profound Army held the numerical advantage within the valley, and the Golden Court soldiers were swiftly slaughtered to the last man.

Jiang Yuan panted heavily as he looked around. The battle just now had wiped out every Golden Court warrior.

Just as Jiang Yuan was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a figure came flying backward from afar.