Family, State of Mind

"Second Uncle?"

Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar contact name on the communicator, Qin Ming was stunned for a moment.

Although the original owner's parents had both died in a Beast Tide, he was not without relatives.

This Second Uncle was the person closest to him.

The original owner's parents had three brothers. The three of them had enlisted one after another and fought against the Beast Tides.

The era they had lived in was known in textbooks as the Great Nirvana!

To fight the Beast Tides, countless people had died, and the number of soldiers who had sacrificed themselves was beyond measure.

Of the three brothers, only Second Uncle, Qin Yi, had lived to retirement.

Even then, he had retired due to injury. During a Beast Tide interception, snake Monster venom had invaded his body. He had spent more than half a month undergoing emergency treatment in the hospital before surviving.

Although he had survived, his body had been badly damaged. He had been bedridden for half a year before he could get up and move around, and from then on, he could no longer do heavy labor.

The Military had not mistreated their family. After retirement, the entire family had lived in the military dependents' compound. Their lives were not lavish, but they were still fairly comfortable.

In fact, that was one of the Military's main draws.

Many Martial Warriors chose to join the Military for that reason as well.

Perhaps they could not offer the very best benefits, such as villas and money, but their treatment in every other aspect was the best.

For example, joining a martial arts school could indeed get one assigned a villa, and one's family could live there too.

But what if the Martial Warrior died in battle?

The villa did not belong to the Martial Warrior. The Martial Warrior was merely staying there temporarily.

Once the Martial Warrior died, the villa would naturally be reclaimed.

Everything would return to how it had been for the family. There would be no compensation, no care, and certainly no special treatment.

Otherwise, where would the Limit Martial Arts School get so many villas to hand out?

Even in the original story, after Luo Feng became the Invincible War God and entered Ruins No. 9, going missing, even the Fighter Jet Luo Feng had paid for was reclaimed by the Limit Martial Arts School.

Luo Feng had paid for that in full. It had been worth over two hundred billion Huaxia Currency!

All the Luo Family received was the wealth Luo Feng had originally possessed.

Other than that, they received nothing!

And Luo Feng had entered Ruins No. 9 under the Limit Martial Arts School's arrangements.

They made it sound good, saying it was to prevent others from coveting his wealth.

But if Hong had simply said a word, who would have dared covet it?

Hong had valued Luo Feng greatly, that was true, but when Luo Feng's death was announced, the Limit Martial Arts School had never intervened in Li Yao's open and covert bullying.

Then, Luo Feng's mother had been beaten.

When Luo Feng emerged from the Ruins a year later, he found his father bedridden after a car accident.

The Luo Family had relied entirely on Luo Feng's younger brother, Luo Hua, to hold things together.

If Luo Hua had not been clever enough to use the resources Luo Feng left behind, decisive enough to become the eighth-largest shareholder of the Huaxia Industrial and Commercial Bank, and able to mobilize Huaxia Country's special departments to protect his family—

Their fate would inevitably have been the destruction of their family.

Ridiculous, wasn't it?

The Limit Martial Arts School's Invincible War God, the Jiangnan Base City's Inspector, an absolute titan—yet after falling, he could not even protect his own family.

They still had to rely on the power of the country.

Even Luo Feng had ended up like that. What about the ordinary Martial Warriors from the other martial arts schools?

What would happen to their families?

That was the price of freedom!

What if it had been the Military instead?

Forget Martial Warriors—even ordinary soldiers who died in service would receive preferential treatment, let alone Martial Warriors.

And the benefits were often even better than when they had been alive!

The family being bullied?

And they were the family of a Military leader on Li Dawei's level, being bullied...

Just thinking about it was unbelievable.

Did they think the Military was dead?!

Members of the Huashan Organization would appear immediately, and Jia Yi would personally take notice.

If the Military failed to handle it promptly, all kinds of reports would likely appear very soon.

<Who made heroes bleed, shed tears, and leave nothing behind!>

The enemy is within us

If such matters were not handled properly, a collapse in military morale would be the least of the consequences.

"Hoo—"

Letting out a long breath, Qin Ming steadied himself.

Ever since coming to this world, he had subconsciously avoided all of the original owner's relatives. He had no familiar friends in the army either, so he had integrated easily enough.

But now, seeing a call from family, a strange feeling rose in his heart.

His body instinctively felt uncomfortable, and an inexplicable sourness welled up within him.

"Second Uncle."

Qin Ming answered the call.

"Xiao Ming, you've become a Martial Warrior?"

A somewhat hoarse voice came through.

"Yes. I awakened the power of a Spiritual Force User and successfully joined the Huashan Organization..."

Qin Ming did not hide anything and roughly explained what had happened.

"The Huashan Organization..."

The other end of the call fell silent for a moment. As a soldier, Second Uncle Qin Yi naturally knew what that meant. Only then did he slowly say, "You've made something of yourself. Our Qin Family has produced a member of the Huashan Organization!

If your father knew, he'd definitely be happy."

"It's a good thing, but you must pay attention to your safety too. When carrying out missions, do your best to keep yourself safe."

"Second Uncle, I know."

Qin Ming answered heavily.

"Hahaha, that's good. No wonder the higher-ups suddenly came looking for me. They wanted to transfer us to another residential district and send me to the Cadre Sanatorium.

These are just old ailments. There's no need to waste the country's resources on me.

We've lived here for decades, and everyone knows each other. I'm too lazy to move."

Second Uncle Qin Yi's hearty laughter came through as he roughly explained some matters at home.

"Second Uncle, you should still go. I'll be back after a while. The problems with your body aren't anything major. They can all be cured."

Qin Ming let out a breath. Although many years had passed, the injuries Second Uncle had suffered back then had never fully healed. They still acted up from time to time, and in rainy weather, the pain was especially unbearable.

In the Devouring world, there was nothing that could not be treated.

As long as one had money.

No matter how serious the injuries were, a vial of Life Water or a Spirit of Plants and Trees could completely heal them.

And his Blood Essence was definitely far more effective than either of those.

After chatting with Second Uncle for a while, Qin Ming ended the call. Looking at the distant ruins, thoughts churned in his heart.

A thought surfaced. Perhaps he could do more.

He was not alone in this world either.

He had comrades and brothers. He had family.

The Military had indeed treated him well too.

"Better increase my strength first! Hmm, play it safe. I'll raise my strength to Intermediate War General first, then go trouble that Lord Level Monster."

After reining in his emotions, Qin Ming felt much calmer.

Even the madness and irritability caused by the Monster souls constantly crashing about inside the Myriad Souls Banner subsided.

With his current strength, although he had the Black God Suit and five High-Level Beast General Flesh Puppets accompanying him, there was still a certain amount of risk in trying to kill a Lord Level Monster.

Lord Level Monsters were often surrounded by enormous numbers of Monsters and could easily mobilize tens of thousands of Monsters to guard themselves.

He had been somewhat impulsive earlier.

It was only a matter of waiting a few days.

Once his strength reached Intermediate War General or Elementary War God, and he collected a few more High-Level Beast General puppets, it would be much safer.

Whoosh!

Qin Ming leaped down, Breaking Army Halberd in hand, and charged into the city ruins below, landing before a Monster.

Kill!