You're Absolutely Right

After three years of Journey Survival, Zhu Jiusi had learned one thing.

Don't hold a grudge!

Either get your revenge on the spot. Never let it wait overnight. Otherwise, your enemy might die at any moment—or seize an opportunity and soar to the heavens.

Or truly let go of the grudge. If you couldn't afford to offend someone, then swallow your pride, admit defeat, pay tribute...

As long as you survived, there was no shame in it.

If you couldn't get past that hurdle in your heart, then fight to the death and take your enemy down with you.

Daring neither to fight back nor to surrender, while being too weak to win—that was the stupidest choice.

Zhu Jiusi stepped out of the Mountain God Temple. The nest he had left inside had long since fused with the temple and couldn't be removed.

This time, he had to earn enough resources no matter what. At the very least, he needed to complete one upgrade, or he'd be taking a huge loss.

Heart Without Darkness... damn it!

Night blanketed the land. Zhu Jiusi crept forward. A one-humped camel lay on the path ahead.

Savage whip marks scarred the camel's body.

A bald man in a prison uniform leaned against it, absorbed in a Scroll.

He was busy cursing someone. "Even Master of Cloud Stack Cave knows he was wrong. Why won't you people let it go? Are you lining up to get scammed?"

White Beard's Fist: "Go to hell! Whether I sell my materials is none of your damn business! It's been four days, and I haven't gotten a single piece of food. If I don't sell materials, I'll starve to death! You're the one who won't shut up!"

Heart Without Darkness was furious, but his civilized persona wouldn't let him curse. He just kept whipping his camel, again and again.

He hadn't noticed that his surroundings had completely changed.

The road now had a forest on its left and an endless desert on its right.

When they discussed the Dao and merged their paths, the road took on features of both. Heart Without Darkness had a lonely desert track, while Zhu Jiusi had a mountain trail. Now the two paths faced each other, fused together.

Zhu Jiusi crept closer. He was already within ten meters before Heart Without Darkness finally noticed him.

He stared, dumbfounded, at the sudden forest and wild boar. Before he could figure out what was happening, the boar charged.

Boom!

Like a tank barreling forward, it slammed into his chest and sent him flying.

Heart Without Darkness hit the ground and bounced. A mouthful of blood sprayed out, and his face twisted into a knot.

A monster?

He hadn't opened his Gourd!

He had already clashed with Master of Cloud Stack Cave in the chat. He'd even tried several times to get Master of Cloud Stack Cave to show his inventory in public.

He'd kept the Gourd hanging from the camel for the past two days. He hadn't opened it at all!

Wait!

A flicker of confusion passed through Heart Without Darkness's mind. Then his eyes widened. The wild boar opposite him wasn't hiding its name. Several bright characters hovered above its head: Master of Cloud Stack Cave!

Not a monster. A Path Seeker!

Once he understood what was happening, Heart Without Darkness's expression changed in an instant.

"Why can you come here?!" he snarled, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Hadn't he repeatedly gone after someone who'd been named in two announcements, all because he was sure the other man couldn't reach through the internet and hit him?

Why was he here?!!

The Dao Discussion Card!

Heart Without Darkness immediately realized what had made it possible.

He'd just been wondering what Dao Discussion Card Master of Cloud Stack Cave wanted to collect. He'd even tried to persuade everyone not to sell theirs!

Now he knew.

Zhu Jiusi sent him flying with a charge, then immediately switched to the Blockhead title. Without the slightest hesitation, he charged again.

"No! I give up!" Heart Without Darkness shouted, shaking his head desperately, his face full of terror, as if he were already scared out of his wits.

But the boar seemed not to hear him at all. After landing a hit, it backed up a few steps and charged again.

Heart Without Darkness had only just gotten up when the boar knocked him flying once more.

Something dropped from behind him with a dull thud. It was a Golden Melon Hammer.

His surrender was a lie. He'd been trying to take advantage of the moment to launch a sneak attack.

While he was sprawled on the ground, Zhu Jiusi pressed in. He lowered his head and thrust, his tusks stabbing like daggers into the man's shoulder blade. Hooking it, he flung him from the left side of the road to the right.

Crack!

Heart Without Darkness's left arm was completely ruined, and his right leg had broken too.

"Have mercy! I won't do it again!" Heart Without Darkness screamed.

The boar planted a hoof on his chest, then lowered its head to look down at him.

"Inventory. Open it!"

An inventory was private property. Even if you killed a Path Seeker, you could only hope to get a certain amount of their belongings as loot. Unless the owner chose to show it, nobody else could see inside.

"I don't have anything. I haven't opened my Gourd..."

"Crack!" Zhu Jiusi pressed down with his hoof and broke two of the man's ribs.

"I'll open it, I'll open it!" Heart Without Darkness screamed in panic.

He immediately opened his inventory and dumped everything inside onto the ground. The inventory showed as empty.

Zhu Jiusi stepped off his chest.

Heart Without Darkness let out a breath of relief. "You can have everything. I—"

Before he could finish, the boar suddenly lowered its head and tossed him into the air. Then it charged, smashing him straight into the mist beyond the forest.

Kill +1

The Scroll glowed one last time.

[Name: Liu Huaicai]

[Daoist title: Heart Without Darkness]

[Identity: Pyramid scheme operator, con artist]

The Scroll flickered, then shattered and vanished.

Zhu Jiusi's own Scroll began to glow. "Stolen vehicle: camel. Dismantle?"

Heart Without Darkness's vehicle wasn't a car. It was a camel.

Zhu Jiusi bit down on the Gourd's vine and tore the Gourd from where it was tied to the camel. Then he said, "Dismantle!"

Leather ×6

And... that was it!

The huge camel's flesh and bones had all disappeared, and all he'd gotten was six pieces of leather.

Zhou Bapi!

Zhu Jiusi glanced at the floating Scroll.

Then he looked at the materials on the ground.

Metal ×35

Wood ×20

Stone ×25

Steamed buns ×3

Drinking water ×3

Golden Melon Hammer ×1

Horse Whip ×1

The man hadn't been rich, but he still had eighteen Gourds.

That was a tidy little haul.

He gathered everything up and glanced around.

The roads on both sides had returned to an unbroken forest.

As he headed toward the Mountain God Temple, he opened the chat.

The chat channel had turned into a boiling pot of curses.

One side was Daoist Number 323 and his people, a little over a dozen or perhaps twenty. The other side was Orchid Pavilion Scholar and the rest of them.

When Zhu Jiusi opened the chat, someone had just tagged him.

Daoist Number 323: "@Master of Cloud Stack Cave, he already admitted he was wrong. He's no longer using the opportunity to suppress ordinary people and exchange for supplies. You're still cursing him? Are you shameless? If he wasn't wrong, would he not even dare to say anything?"

Just then, several pictures appeared in the chat one after another.

Master of Cloud Stack Cave: "Image—bald head, prison uniform."

Master of Cloud Stack Cave: "Image—Scroll, identity."

Master of Cloud Stack Cave: "Image—Heart Without Darkness's blacked-out avatar."

A blacked-out avatar meant someone had died.

The chatroom fell silent in an instant. Prison uniform, pyramid scheme operator, con artist...

Master of Cloud Stack Cave: "Thanks to good old Darkness for sponsoring eighteen Gourds and a bunch of basic resources."

"He was absolutely right. Everyone needs resources right now. I can't take advantage of the situation to loot people."

Master of Cloud Stack Cave: "@Daoist Number 323, you're absolutely right too!"

Master of Cloud Stack Cave: "@Everyone, buying Dao Discussion Cards."

The chat channel, which had been a riot of arguments, fell silent in an instant. You could hear a pin drop.