I Thank Myself

After resting for a while, Old Song launched into his account of the human race's battles against the other demon races, his tone and expressions shifting with every turn. He told it with such passion and vivid detail that his audience hung on his every word.

The listeners around him were by turns fired up, filled with righteous fury, and then sent home disappointed.

Lu Mingyuan had seen Old Song stir people's emotions like this before, but he still couldn't help admiring him. What a natural!

If this had been his previous life, Old Song could've taught motivational success seminars and fooled every last person in the room.

As for Old Song's descriptions of the battles and their finer details, Lu Mingyuan didn't believe a single word.

In his view, Old Song had probably inferred most of it from the outcome of the war, then added a bit of artistic flourish to arrive at the story he was telling now.

But the outcome of the war itself was highly credible. Old Song wouldn't dare—or want—to make anything up about that.

Jing Zhi's father had told him Old Song had served in the military for a few years and been stationed at the border. That was how he'd been able to make those deductions.

By then, Old Song had reached the end of his tale.

"This time, our human race declared war on twenty-five demon races at once. We won twenty-one battles outright, including those against the Starlight Lions, Golden Toads, Moon Rabbits, Nether Butterflies, Wind-Splitting Cranes, Explosive Sky Bulls..."

"We won, but gained little from our victories against four races: the Nine-Tailed Sky Foxes, Tear-Eyed Monkeys, Flood Dragons, and Cloud-Piercing Phoenixes."

"So our human race won a great victory at the border—a victory without precedent!"

When Old Song finished, a middle-aged man sprang to his feet, trembling with excitement. "It really was a victory without precedent! Ever since the demon races came into existence, I've never heard of anyone winning a war without a single casualty. This is the first time!"

"I haven't heard of it either! We usually go back and forth with them, but this time we had no casualties. It really was a victory without precedent."

"We killed over two hundred thousand enemies. I hear even the lowest-ranked cultivators on the border battlefield are Three-Star Cultivators. So, for every one we killed, we got at least a thousand Earth Luck Points. That means we earned over two hundred million Earth Luck Points in this one war alone. Over two hundred million!"

Everyone there knew what Earth Luck was worth. Hearing that they'd gained over two hundred million points was truly shocking, and most of them looked at Old Song with longing.

Just then, a scholar in blue robes mused aloud, "Two hundred million points... If they all went to me, wouldn't I be invincible?"

As soon as he finished, the young master in green robes beside him scoffed. "Earth Luck can't raise your cultivation. How would you be invincible? At most, you could learn all the rare and powerful divine abilities. But your cultivation would still be low, and you'd have limited spiritual qi. You wouldn't even be able to use those abilities. How could you be invincible then?"

Unimpressed by his friend's jab, the scholar in blue robes retorted, "Do you think I'm stupid? Earth Luck can be traded. I could pay someone to tutor me, and maybe I'd even become a Grandmaster-level expert. Then I'd definitely be invincible in Changfeng City."

"You..."

This time, the young master in green robes had no answer. He gave his longtime companion a surprised look. Since when had this guy gotten so clever?

He'd never been like this before.

After a long pause, he managed, "You? A Grandmaster-level expert?"

The scholar in blue robes was just about to fire back when someone else spoke up. "If only we could earn Earth Luck on the battlefield too. A thousand points for every foreign race member we killed!"

"Come on, do you really think it's that easy to earn? Most of the time, they can barely kill anyone. After paying taxes, they still have to split it among ten thousand people. There's hardly anything left. When I was a soldier on the battlefield, I averaged only one or two points a day—and I had expenses to cover, so I couldn't save a thing."

Judging by the sound of it, this speaker was speaking from experience.

A man dressed like a martial artist sighed. "Sigh, things were better in the old days. Everyone fought one-on-one, and we still had a chance. Ever since the Combined Forces divine ability appeared a hundred years ago, the battlefields have been full of Grandmaster-level experts formed from ten-thousand-man formations. We couldn't even withstand the shockwaves if we went there, much less do anything else."

As he spoke, the man shook his head, as if wishing he could return to the days when Earth Luck Points were easy to earn.

Someone immediately disagreed. "I don't envy those days at all. You don't know what it was like a hundred years ago. Dozens of races fought in a massive melee, and tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—died every day. How could that possibly be safer than things are now?"

"Fair point!"

The martial artist thought of the mountains of corpses and seas of bones described in history books, and shuddered. He didn't want to live through those bloody, uncertain days again.

As the saying went, "Better to be a dog in times of peace than a man in times of chaos."

Besides, his life was good now. He didn't want to go back.

"By the way, Old Wang, if you're so eager to earn Earth Luck Points, why don't you enlist?"

Old Wang—the martial artist—sighed and replied, "Enlist? I'd like to. But these days, you can only survive on the battlefield as part of a ten-thousand-man formation. You know that once you use the Combined Forces divine ability to form a giant, every person in the formation has to know the same divine ability before the giant can use it.

"I don't have any Earth Luck. If I learned a few more divine abilities that aren't much use in everyday life, I'd be done for. Unless you expect me to be a soldier for the rest of my life."

"True! We don't have much Human Luck to begin with. We can't afford to waste it."

The divine abilities required for ten-thousand-man formations were usually obscure, or simply unsuited to the general public. They weren't good for lone cultivators, either—they were useful only on the battlefield. So if you left the army, you'd be stuck with a pile of useless divine abilities.

Just then, Old Wang seemed to remember something. He turned to the storyteller, who was sipping tea, and called out, "Old Song, had enough rest yet? You still haven't explained why the demon races stopped their advance."

"Exactly! That's the important part. You haven't told us."

"Old Song, you promised you'd tell us today. Don't go back on your word. If you do, I'll go buy some razor blades."

"Right! I think the blades from Old Li next door are pretty good. They're sharp. Old Song's sure to like them."

Old Song had been listening to everyone's idle chatter with keen interest. But when he heard them threatening to buy him razor blades, the hand holding his teacup shook. It looked like he couldn't take a break after all. He'd better keep his patrons happy.

Otherwise, someone might actually come back with a pack of blades.

At that thought, Old Song suddenly coughed. The noisy crowd fell silent at once.

"Before I tell you the name of the divine ability, I want to thank someone. His name is 'Anonymous.' He created a phantom-realm divine ability that can be used in battle, and that's what made this great victory possible."

"Of course, we mustn't overlook the soldiers' contributions."

Hearing Old Song mention "a phantom-realm divine ability that can be used in battle," many in the crowd suddenly understood. If such a divine ability really existed, then it could indeed produce the results Old Song had described on the battlefield.

They trusted Old Song's character. He wouldn't make a joke out of something like this.

It looked like the story was true, after all.

And given that more than twenty ten-thousand-man formations had used it, the divine ability probably wasn't expensive. It likely cost no more than a thousand points.

That meant they could learn it too.

At the thought, some were overwhelmed with joy, while others could hardly contain their excitement. They all hoped Old Song would hurry up and name the divine ability so they could go try it out.

Of course, there was one catch: the divine ability had to be available for purchase on the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network.

If it could only be taught and passed down in private, then ordinary people like them had no hope. The military wouldn't let anyone else get their hands on such a powerful weapon.

Just then, Old Song continued, "For all these reasons, I believe this 'Anonymous' absolutely deserves to be called a hero of our human race. Don't you agree?"

"If everything you've said is true, then he certainly deserves the title."

"I agree."

A moment later, Old Song looked at the sea of people below, all in agreement, and cried out excitedly, "Then let us thank the hero of our human race—Anonymous! He gave us the chance to win this great victory."

"Thank you, hero of our human race—Anonymous!"

"Hero of our human race—Anonymous!"

In an instant, the crowd erupted, swept up in the fervent atmosphere.

Not far away, Lu Mingyuan was caught up in the mood at the teahouse, too. He took the opportunity to shout a few times, thanking the hero of the human race—Anonymous.

It wasn't that he wanted to shout. But if he didn't, he'd stick out, and that wouldn't do.

Still, thanking himself?

It was the first time he'd ever done something like that, and the feeling was rather strange.

Afterward, Lu Mingyuan cast a peculiar glance at Old Song in the middle of the crowd.

Honestly, if he hadn't known Old Song so poorly, he'd have thought the man was putting on a show for himself.