Change in Mentality

Black night, a slender crescent moon hung high in the sky, its hazy light blanketing the boundless Wildlands.

Gu Sheng and Chu Xin were perched on the branch of a thick tree. This was the Serpent Pool canyon on the shady side of Iron Arm Ape Mountain, perpetually shrouded in miasma. It was the place the Iron-Arm Apes liked least.

"Phew~"

Gu Sheng glanced behind him with lingering fear, exhaling a long breath as he said, "Finally shook off those persistent dead monkeys. We ran for almost half a day, circling Iron Arm Ape Mountain, from the sunny side to the shady side."

"The Iron-Arm Apes don't know the direction we fled in, and they shouldn't have seen us. The possibility of them chasing us to Serpent Pool is very small. We should be safe!"

The little girl Chu Xin also breathed a sigh of relief, finally relaxing completely.

Around the two of them, countless venomous snakes and giant pythons were intertwined, forming clusters. Serpent Pool was located on the shady side of Iron Arm Ape Mountain. Because the surrounding mountains blocked the sunlight, it was perpetually cold and damp, filled with miasma, and teeming with poisonous creatures. The overlord of this place was another demonic beast clan of Iron Arm Ape Mountain—the snake clan.

In the Wildlands, most of the profitable groups were like the Iron-Arm Apes, demonic beasts of the same family and genus huddling together to resist external enemies and grow stronger. Snake clans like this were rare. It was less accurate to call them a clan and more accurate to say they were a type of creature attracted to living together by the environment.

The biggest difference between the Iron-Arm Ape group and the snake clan was in how they treated their companions. After the Iron-Arm Apes died, their kin would bring them back to their lairs for burial. Or rather, most intelligent demonic beasts would not prey on the corpses of their companions.

However, the snake clan was like a community of enemies gathered for mutual benefit. Most snakes only resembled each other in appearance and could not be considered the same species. Mutual devouring was their daily routine. Not to mention different kinds of snakes, even snakes of the same kind would prey on their relatives.

Of course, this only applied to ordinary venomous snakes and wild pythons, or demonic beasts with low intelligence. Highly intelligent giant pythons, like the Verdant Python, already had the concept of a clan, and were very united with each other.

"Gu Sheng, what we did wasn't very good, was it!"

Chu Xin glanced at Iron Arm Ape Mountain, where she could still hear noises even at midnight, and carefully said to Gu Sheng, "We stole so much of the Iron-Arm Apes' Vermillion Fruit wine. Wasn't that a bit too much!"

This little girl was interesting. Before, when she saw Gu Sheng scheming to kill the Iron-Arm Apes, blasting open the mountain to steal the Vermillion Fruit wine, she was very cooperative, even excited, eagerly participating in it. Now that it was over, the excitement had passed, and she was suddenly overflowing with 'kindness'.

"Xin'er!"

Gu Sheng reached out and stroked Chu Xin's head, pulling her closer to him. He said solemnly, "From the Iron-Arm Apes' perspective, what we did was not just bad, it was simply insane.

But you need to know how the Iron-Arm Apes' Vermillion Fruit wine came to be. Vermillion Fruit is a divine object bestowed by heaven, and the Iron-Arm Apes relied on their strength to seize them. What we stole was only a part, what they occupy is all of it.

Moreover, now they are searching everywhere in Iron Arm Ape Mountain to retrieve the Vermillion Fruit wine, wreaking havoc. Who do you think is the most insane, to the demonic beasts in this mountain."

"Is that so!"

Chu Xin nodded blankly. Although she felt like something was strange, she subconsciously believed Gu Sheng's words and didn't dwell on it anymore.

Gu Sheng's words were actually a round of high-sounding sophistry. The Iron-Arm Apes occupying the Vermillion Fruit was the result of battles, subduing all the demonic beasts, and sacrificing countless apes. His act of scheming and stealing was even worse than pulling a white wolf out of thin air, it was simply plundering.

However, even with this plundering, Gu Sheng didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt, and even less sympathy for the Iron-Arm Apes' plight.

The Wildlands was not the Nine Provinces with its rules and laws. This was a lawless land where the strong preyed on the weak. Wandering around here while rigidly adhering to the rules of the Nine Provinces would result in becoming food for ferocious beasts in less than two days.

The most crucial rule in the Wildlands was only one: the strong prey on the weak. Do everything possible to defeat your enemies and survive. Chu Xin's previous sympathy for the Iron-Arm Apes was actually the most ridiculous thing.

Any adult Iron-Arm Ape had strength comparable to a high-ranking individual on the Nine Provinces Earth Ranking. They were completely above most demonic beasts and wild beasts, at the top of the Iron Arm Ape Mountain food chain.

Chu Xin alone was not even as strong as a ten-foot-long Verdant Python. Facing an Iron-Arm Ape, she probably wouldn't be able to hold out for long. Such a weakling, feeling sorry for the strong after using a trick to screw them over, feeling that what she did was too much.

How laughable was that kind of thinking!

Gu Sheng persuaded Chu Xin, but felt a little strange in his heart. Some things, after decades of experience, were already engraved in his bones as rules.

Living in the real Hua Country, unlike foreign countries that often reported war attacks and terrorist activities, Hua Country, although there were various injustices in many places, the overall environment was still very safe.

Most people who grew up normally in that kind of environment in Hua Country were law-abiding and reasonable people. Gu Sheng could deceive Chu Xin with words, but he couldn't deceive himself. What he did to the Iron-Arm Apes was indeed excessive.

However, he didn't regret it. From the first day he entered the Lord God Space, he knew that he would eventually become like this, would change, would be altered, would violate his heart, would break the rules.

In a place like the Lord God Space, no one could really stay true to their original aspirations and never change.

Saintly figures with rotten good intentions, standing on the moral high ground as keyboard warriors, demanding that others risk their lives to do this and that. If these people came to the Lord God Space, unless they were the main characters, they wouldn't survive past ten chapters.

Because, showing kindness randomly when you couldn't help yourself was not only irresponsible to yourself, but also irresponsible to your teammates. The most likely outcome for these people was to turn evil after tragedy befell them, and then be killed.

Getting off track! Gu Sheng was naturally not that kind of person. He didn't think he would have such good luck, would be a main character with destiny on his side. He could only abandon useless 'brainless saintly kindness' and be a real self, a selfish self, living and planning for himself.

And the first step was to temper his 'heart of stone', not to make himself become ruthless, but to make himself get used to killing, ignore killing, and stay calm in the world of the Sovereign.

All the changes started from his ruthless actions against the Iron-Arm Apes. Gu Sheng wanted to make himself become calm, to no longer have a heart of pity for his enemies. For Gu Sheng, the Iron-Arm Apes' greatest original sin was that they blocked his path.

In the Sovereign's Space, Gu Sheng had no other path to take. He could only move forward. He didn't want to die, so he had to clear away the stumbling blocks on the road.