The Demon Slaying Alliance's headquarters was hidden deep away; only the Martial Masters of each village knew its location. You passed through an area wreathed in vines, then crossed a valley. Strange vines grew along the cliffs on both sides, their flowers blooming brilliantly, until at last you arrived before a waterfall thirty zhang wide.
The waterfall plunged nearly a hundred meters. For ordinary people, standing beneath it would have been suicide, but you did not need to care much. Following Martial Master Li Tianbing's instructions, you soon leaped through a certain section of the waterfall's curtain—and found another world within.
"Holy Flower-Fruit Mountain Paradise, Water Curtain Cave..." Your old impish nature stirred, and you muttered in amazement. Gathering Force Qi, you leaped inside.
Beyond the waterfall curtain truly lay a hidden mountain cavern. It had not been carved by human hands, but formed naturally. Inside, ten-thousand-year stalactites hung down like a forest. Sadly, under this world's rules, stalactites were not spiritual medicine.
Not long after entering the cavern, the Martial Masters from every village gathered together. Centered around a Grandmaster from the Ning Kingdom, they formed one faction. The other side... had only three people.
One was a boy of fifteen or sixteen, his edge utterly exposed. Sword Qi around his body had nearly become tangible. At first sight of him, you actually found him dazzling, pain stabbing into your eyes like needles.
Beast! you roared inwardly. What kind of monster was this? His Martial Cultivation was absolutely at the Martial Master level—and he was a peak Martial Master nearing Grandmaster rank, one who had already condensed his own Martial Will!
Other than that future cheat user—the main body using the Simulator—in your more than sixty years of life, you had never imagined that the words "youth" and "Martial Master" could be used together. And soon enough, it would be "youth" and "Grandmaster."
Yun Shou: "..."
He had no fucking words.
Four simulated lives, spanning more than a century.
Yet he had encountered a talent monster, a fifteen-year-old peak Martial Master, powerful as a monster and impossible to defeat.
Wrong. Not impossible!
The other two consisted of a cool and aloof woman around twenty. Her First-Rate Martial Cultivation was equally astonishing, but compared to that boy, she was not worth a single hair.
The third was a small old man with a cheeky grin. You could not sense any martial cultivation from him, so he was probably a Grandmaster, a powerhouse whose aura could be withdrawn and released at will.
When you first met the three, you had thought the boy was some peerless genius secretly cultivated by the Demon Slaying Alliance. Yet the strange atmosphere made you realize that was not the case.
When the three spoke, they called for all powerful warriors of the Demon Slaying Alliance to leave this forest and join the Resistance Army they belonged to. Stop being rats hiding their heads and showing their tails; fight the Demon Country.
You all thought this was complete bullshit.
Us, fight the Demon Country? Was that for real?
The three-person group was led by the boy. He explained his plan in detail: to raise uprisings in every city and Breeding Farm controlled by the Demon Country, letting the great tide of humanity drown the Alien Demons.
After you once again voiced your refusal, he began berating you in grief and fury. He said you were nothing but a pack of cowards, hiding away in these deep mountains and ancient forests, living ten carefree, happy years—yet utterly unaware of the kind of hell outside!
It was a desperate, miserable age unlike anything in human history. Men, women, old, and young stood naked in cages. After years upon years of taming, their personalities had been worn away, and with vacant eyes, they waited for the Blood Demons outside to select them for food.
Yet no matter how hopeless things became, they still had not abandoned hope. In the cities, lowly Human Slaves secretly defied orders to practice martial arts; within pens where they lived like pigs and sheep, fire flickered in the eyes of those crawling upon the ground...
You all fell silent, unable to say a word for a time. The boy was right. You truly were a pack of cowards.
Though you claimed that you were preserving humanity's final spark, most people were really just afraid of death.
Being afraid of death was not a crime, but now there was a comparison.
Amid the crowd, an ordinary Martial Master like you did not stand out. You clenched your fist, then slowly released it. Your joints cracked explosively against one another, yet this did not make you exceptional, because the same sounds came from more than one place.
The crackling of clenched fists, the grinding of gritted teeth...
The boy left in anger. Just as he was about to walk out of the cave, the Grandmaster on your side asked his name. Only then did you realize that from beginning to end, none of you knew who these three were or what they were called.
The boy walked away, and only one sentence drifted back from afar.
"Cowards do not deserve to know my name. I do not wish to live in the mouths of rats dwelling in holes!"
Yun Shou took a deep breath. It was clearly only a brief line in the simulation, and he had clearly never experienced that era, yet a sentence from several decades in the future struck him squarely between the brows.
Hot-blooded recklessness, a youth's daring... Was he not a youth himself, in the full bloom of his years, at the height of high spirits?
No matter what his simulated self did, he would not resent it.
"Fuck it, I can't take this!"
There were still more than thirty years until Demonfall Day for the main body. You had twelve thousand worthless lives to throw away—so what if you gave up this one?
Ignoring the gazes of the companions and warriors around you, you strode forward and followed after the three youths.
You believed the main body outside the Simulator would not blame you for being reckless this time. A short-lived assassin who dared raise his sword against an emperor was absolutely greater than some useless breed that survived a hundred years by being another's dog!
Perhaps you had let your blood rush to your head this time, but you... had no regrets!
In the year 315 of Da Qing, you met Bei Chenguang, Jiang Yueli, and Chu Heshang.
Since that battle three years ago, your Foundation had been almost completely ruined. Your Martial Cultivation had not advanced an inch in three years, but now, you felt that your state of mind seemed somewhat different.
In the same year, you crossed the border and traveled a thousand li, killing an unknown number of patrolling Demonized Soldiers along the way.
Using certain special methods, you entered Baixian City. Disguised as slave laborers returning from mining outside, you lurked within Baixian City and waited for the right moment.
Besides the four of you, Baixian City held even more resisters who had already been hiding there for years. You would act together and be the first to kindle a spark upon this land.
Under the plans of old man Chu Heshang—though you yourself were also a little old man—you carried out one secret operation after another.
Among them were speeches to your fellow slave laborers. You had thought that, like Xi'er, you could give one shout and have everyone answer in response.
But they had all become numb. Ten years was enough to let an ignorant child grow into a youth, learn reason, understand language, and grasp order.
It could also grind a human with a sound mind and normal values into a numb beast of burden, leaving only obedience in their head... After your speech, some people even secretly ran off to inform the Blood Demons. Fortunately, others stopped them.
Until that day, the city lord who called himself a Holy Envoy—a Blood Demon—stood upon a high platform and preached. Ever since being transformed, its thoughts and values had gradually aligned with its master, the Alien Demon.
Its sermon was titled, "The Time Has Come Once More to Offer Blood Food to the Holy King." What it loved most was seeing the gratitude mixed with terror on the faces of those Human Slaves below: the blood food was generally chosen from the Breeding Farms, and these slave laborers were rarely selected.
Under the bright blue sky, demonic might reigned supreme.
Rainbow Piercing the World, Demon Stab and Slash!
You vaguely saw a phantom. It was the fleeting spectacle that appeared only at the instant one's Martial Will condensed beyond all limits and one advanced into a Grandmaster.
Before more than ten thousand Human Slaves, Bei Chenguang executed the Blood Demon. Amid its screams, he sliced away its flesh and picked its bones clean. At last, its head rolled rattling into the crowd.
(This chapter was written while listening to BGM. Got a little carried away.)
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