The Southern Front Falls, Longyi City in Peril
A man like Jiang Ling, who stood at the pinnacle of the Underground Race, was brimming with vigor and possessed immense life energy. He had the vitality to live for thousands of years without succumbing to death or defeat.
He was only about two thousand years old. By his own estimate, he hadn't even lived half his life; he should have expected to reach at least five thousand.
But this wave of the Year Eater Skill had stripped away nearly three thousand years of his life. Even if he had expected to live five thousand years, after this, he was already a frail old man on the brink of death.
When the Year Eater Skill ended, all that remained of Jiang Ling was a decrepit body on the verge of death, liable to collapse at any moment. He was like a dying candle in a storm, ready to go out at the slightest gust.
It all felt like an unreal dream.
Since ancient times, every empire and ambition had eventually fallen to time. No one could remain undefeated forever in the river of years. But that was the river of years.
Now, the long passage of time had been skipped entirely. In a single thought, two or three thousand years seemed to flash past him in an instant. Cruelest of all, he had clearly felt that rapid disappearance. All his ambitions, his status and honor, his formidable strength—it had all been forcibly taken from him. In the span of a breath, everything was gone.
All that remained was his ruined, aged body.
There could be no crueler experience.
Jiang Ling still had some fighting spirit left, but his ruined body couldn't support it. At that moment, only one voice filled his heart,