Man Dies, Lamp Extinguished, Leaving Only a Wisp of Embers

"Just kill it like that?"

Ning Zheng, hiding in the grass on the mountainside like a sniper, took a while to recover.

Because it seemed too unbelievable.

The suddenly retreating defense of the manor had just sent back news of a great victory?

"I really worried about them for nothing."

Ning Zheng sighed, they were playing that thrillingly.

Frankly speaking, this move was indeed brilliant.

However, it was also because he had helped them lure out the Crow King.

Based on the previous situation, the Crow King wouldn't have needed to appear at all. Just by commanding the crow flock, it could have attacked every blind spot and broken through their tower defense, slowly wearing them down until they died.

Ning Zheng made no further moves, instead hiding on the mountainside and quietly observing the situation.

The subsequent development of the battle was also simple.

They blocked the gap in the tower defense that the Crow King had opened.

Outside, the headless Crow King dashed and flew about aimlessly, like a headless fly, driven only by its body's instincts.

Caw!~

Caw!~

Without a commander, the crows fought individually, in complete disarray.

They began to attack the windows of the various tower defenses again, densely packed like swarms of bees.

But without organization or discipline, they were like a mob of common soldiers, completely disorganized, unable to find the moving temporary blind spots.

The manor's defense towers shot arrows at each other for cover, and with that, they held the line.

The battle was going wonderfully!

However, that one Crow King was quite peculiar. After flying around headless for a while, it seemed to suddenly begin to weaken, its life force slowly dissipating.

A strong survival instinct caused the headless body to attack a passing crow nearby, literally ripping its head off with its claws.

Bowing its head, as if putting on a crown again.

Crack!

It attached the other crow's head to its own, and two dim green eyes slowly lit up again.

Inside the defense tower.

The blacksmiths watched, dumbfounded, clearly quite startled. "The boss has this move too? Grafting a duck... no, a crow's head?"

What kind of world view was this?

Before, the blacksmiths only felt it was a bit strange, but now, the more they looked, the more bizarre it became.

However, out of emergency self-preservation, the Crow King, with its new head, was obviously much more clumsy.

It could even be basically confirmed.

The Crow King's head had been replaced by another soul; it was no longer the original one.

Although cultivators in the Five Bodies Realm could survive decapitation, their souls ultimately resided in their heads.

It was difficult to live without a head.

It was understandable that the body, driven by survival instincts, would seek a new partner.

From this, it could be seen that this game was truly full of "green."

Whether it was the blacksmiths or the crows, it had only been a few days since the server launch, and one could easily be "cuckolded" with the slightest carelessness.

"What a pitiful boss."

"When I go outside, I'll make two reaction images, put a green hat on it, to commemorate its lost youth."

"Didn't you guys make it 'green'? Scum!"

"You guys only thought about the surface, but I thought deeper. A headless crow's body, driven by instinct, would seek a head? If a cultivator were also decapitated, would their body's instinct to survive lead them to search for a head everywhere?"

When everyone heard this, they thought the perspective was quite novel.

It actually seemed possible.

Searching for a head everywhere, wouldn't the original cultivator be "green"?

If there were such a good thing, please have that headless body come through the bustling city, through the crowds, to find me and rip my head off to attach to itself.

It wasn't a matter of becoming a "Cao thief."

It was mainly about coveting the other party's body. To gain a powerful body out of nowhere, wouldn't that be a heavenly opportunity?

"Stop thinking about making cultivators 'green'."

"Yeah, you're just wishful thinking."

They shook their heads, chatting as they continued to shoot arrows. The battle situation was excellent.

An arrow, an arrow, an arrow... they kept shooting for over half an hour. A pile of crow corpses lay on the ground, almost forming a mountain. Suddenly, a blacksmith noticed from the lookout window that a crow on the ground, clearly dead, was shakily standing up.

It was a soul.

And then, something bizarre happened.

This soul was like an empty bubble, and it began to devour the flesh and blood of the surrounding crows, filling itself up. The dense feathers from the nearby corpses flowed onto it like water.

Caw!

The crow came back to life.

"What the heck is that? A ghost?"

Everyone got goosebumps and quickly notified Su Yu Niang.

A few minutes later, Su Yu Niang climbed up the defense tower from a tunnel behind them. Hearing everyone's words, she was slightly taken aback. "It's just embers."

"What are embers?" everyone asked curiously.

"You can think of them as ghosts! The vengeful spirits in this world are physical ghouls. These [embers] can devour flesh and blood, attach themselves, and gain a physical form."

"Thousands of crows have died now, so it's normal for an ember to appear, right?"

Su Yu Niang had read about this. Such unclean things were most likely to appear on the battlefield!

This was common knowledge for ordinary people, very widespread.

It was just that they, the blacksmiths, hadn't grown up in this world, which was why they found it surprising.

Ghosts, ghouls, embers – multiple names for the same thing.

Humans were like candles; after burning out, they always left behind some lingering embers!

Ning Jiaojiao, and all the people in the spirit manor, were also [embers] after death, formed from lingering obsessions.

But those were created by demons using special magic.

And now, some of the elders and fellow villagers in the manor, having not been replenished with flesh and blood for too long, were left with only empty spiritual bodies.

Not everyone was like Ning Jiaojiao, who was fed and often ate meat, maintaining the appearance of a fair-skinned young girl from her living days.

For weak living beings like crows, the probability of generating [embers] was originally low.

Even if they did, they wouldn't last long and would quickly dissipate.

Ordinary folks were quite used to these things.

Some villagers even kept the [embers] of their deceased relatives at home, and after some time, their loved ones' obsessions would gradually disappear on their own.

Of course, if they were unhappy with a relative's [ember], they could hire cultivators to perform a ritual to eliminate it completely.

After hearing Su Yu Niang's explanation, everyone was somewhat amazed.

"This is the worldview from the outside, isn't it? The common folk are used to it."

"It's a shame we can't go down the mountain."

"So, how should we deal with this crow's ember?"

Hearing the lively discussion, Su Yu Niang thought for a moment and said, " [Embers] follow the logic of their previous actions but lack self-awareness. They don't even realize they're dead. Just ignore it, treat it like a normal crow, and counterattack normally. It will disappear in a few days."

Everyone found it interesting.

Embers.

A person's death is like a lamp going out, occasionally leaving behind the embers of its flame.

"They don't even realize they're dead themselves." A sense of dread arose in many hearts, yet it was inexplicably tinged with sadness.

Embers were merely the last hope of the lonely living beings in this world.

At this moment, a corner of the mysterious world's prelude was being revealed. Some people couldn't help but imagine what the magnificent towns outside the manor would look like.

In the wilderness, headless corpses traversed towns, searching everywhere for new heads.

In front of mourning halls, people wept while embracing the shadows of their deceased loved ones' embers.

Outside the towns, demonic cultivators secretly hunted cultivators, using their flesh, blood, and spiritual roots to reassemble the remains into demonic artifacts.

And this Sword Forging Manor, outside Pingchang City on their Xinyi Continent, would send its forged weapons to various towns, where they would, in people's hands, write all sorts of stories.

"The prelude to the game, the opening battle – this is already a tangible and solemn epic."

Someone whispered, "With the letter system, even though we are high up in the manor, isolated from the world, we can communicate with our clients down the mountain, forge weapons and armor for them, and intervene in their life journeys."

"What a pity."

"It is a pity that we cannot personally go out and see this world."