Beacon Fires Connect to the Heavens, the War Never Ends

Ren Suo had seriously considered why he chose Cross My Corpse.

He knew that the games on the Little World Game Console were extraordinary. Before playing, he could only get a rough idea of the game content from the description alone – which was basically useless.

In this situation, Ren Suo had to choose another metric to help him evaluate the differences between games.

For Assassin's Bloodstained Banquet, he received an 'Extraordinary' rating of 80 points and was rewarded with 15 Merit Points.

For If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters, he also received an 'Extraordinary' rating of 80 points and was rewarded with 24 Merit Points.

If he ignored the difference in game genres, with the same score, rating, and star difficulty, If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters indeed earned more Merit Points than Assassin's Bloodstained Banquet. At the same time, Ren Suo clearly felt that the former was more difficult than the latter.

Thus, Ren Suo arrived at an unverified conclusion: within the same star rating, the higher the maximum Merit Point reward, the greater the difficulty of the game.

Therefore, the difficulty of Lurk: Chapter One, with a maximum reward of 100 Merit Points, was higher than that of Cross My Corpse: Chapter One, with a maximum reward of 80 Merit Points, even though both were 2-star difficulty games.

Excluding Slaughter Dungeon, which Ren Suo directly gave up on due to its extremely low cost-effectiveness, the relatively easier Cross My Corpse should be the best stepping stone for him to try 2-star games.

Otherwise, if Ren Suo chose a game that was too difficult to clear, it would mean he would lose this month's free game. Without earning Merit Points, even if there was a discount next time, Ren Suo might not be able to afford it.

Since obtaining the key consumed 1 point, Ren Suo now only had 25 Merit Points. He didn't think this amount could buy any game – last month's games were already 50% off, yet Ren Suo still couldn't afford them, only being able to buy small games like If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters.

Even if there were further discounts, they might not be greater than 50% OFF. If it was 10% or 20%, Ren Suo might only be able to watch longingly and miss out, having to wait until the free games refreshed next month to find a way to clear them and earn Merit Points.

Slaughter Dungeon was the safest but had the lowest cost-effectiveness; Lurk: Chapter One was the most adventurous but had the highest benefit.

As a true Xuan Country person, whose bones were steeped in the doctrine of the mean, Ren Suo chose the middle ground, Cross My Corpse.

What, Ren Suo was too cowardly like this, not looking like a protagonist?

...Ren Suo still wanted to be a civil servant after getting the Little World Game Console, which showed he had no great ambitions.

Although his family wasn't extremely wealthy, they were ordinary people, free from illness and pain; although he wasn't a popular figure in class while growing up, because he always attended good high schools, he never encountered school bullying; he also never encountered a girlfriend breaking up with him because he was poor and choosing a rich second generation – he had to have a girlfriend first.

However, Ren Suo didn't think he was cowardly at all, but cautious – well, it meant the same thing.

"Choose, Cross My Corpse!"

"Player has chosen the free chapter. This month's free chapter for Cross My Corpse is 'Chapter One: History', game difficulty: 2 stars."

"The difficulty of this free chapter is 2 stars, and the exclusive reward is 'Strong Heart Technique'."

"The playtime for this game chapter ends at 23:59:59 on April 31st. After the time ends, this game will be automatically deleted."

Upon entering the game, Ren Suo immediately felt the prestige of a game with multiple Merit Point rewards and divided chapters: like Assassin, it had an opening CG.

"In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs held power, the empress's relatives were in charge, and aristocratic families dominated various regions, leaving the people of the world in misery..."

"In 184 AD, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, shaking the capital..."

"This four-year war not only depleted the last bit of the Han imperial family's foundation but also led to warlords carving up territories..."

"In 189 AD, Emperor Shao Liu Bian ascended the throne, and the battle between the empress's relatives and the eunuchs entered a white-hot stage. General-in-Chief He Jin died in the imperial palace. The Dong Zhuo army, summoned before his death, entered Luoyang and controlled the court. In the same year, Dong Zhuo deposed Liu Bian, installed Liu Xie as a puppet emperor, appointed himself Chancellor, and monopolized court affairs."

"In 190 AD, the eighteen lords formed the Guandong Allied Army and fiercely fought the Dong Zhuo army at Hulao Pass, with no clear victor. The Dong Zhuo army moved its base to Chang'an. The lords, each with their own ambitions and differing opinions, broke camp and scattered."

Ren Suo looked at the ink painting of the large armies clashing on the screen and nodded secretly: "Could this game be a strategy game? Like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where you choose a lord to rule the world?"

The late Eastern Han Dynasty was divided into three kingdoms, with beacon fires connecting to the heavens and the war never ending. Ren Suo had not only played related games but also watched many TV dramas and comics, so he was naturally familiar with it.

However, the next second, the visual style shifted from a sense of heavy history to a terrifying ghost realm: "However, when Dong Zhuo led the Western Liang Army away from Chang'an, he not only forced the common people to leave and set fire to the city, causing countless casualties, but also robbed tombs and destroyed all the Han imperial mausoleums!"

"Emperor Guangwu of Han, using his world-shaking techniques, summoned meteors from beyond the heavens to destroy all demons and ghosts. After regaining the Han dynasty's territory, he further adjusted the Central Plains Dragon Vein, using the Great Han Imperial Mausoleum as the core of the formation and the Dragon Vein as the formation's pulse. With the help of the will of heaven, the pulse of the earth, and the great power of humanity, he completely sealed the spiritual pulse of the Central Plains, eradicating the birth of all demons from the source."

"Now that the imperial mausoleums are destroyed, the Dragon Vein is in chaos, the great formation has failed, and the spiritual pulse has reappeared in the Central Plains. The revival of demons is imminent, and heroes of the world will also benefit from the spiritual pulse. From now on, the world will turn into the dark ages of the Yin and Shang, Qin and Han dynasties. Demons will rely on their magic power to bring chaos to the world, and heroes will rely on their great power to contend for the common people..."

"But Emperor Guangwu of Han had foreseen this long ago and had already laid out a countermeasure."

"At the beginning of the restoration of the Han dynasty, in order to prolong the dynasty and the imperial lineage, Emperor Guangwu formed the Yuntai Pavilion and sent twenty-eight generals to collect the cultivation methods that had been destroyed throughout the world. As the spiritual pulse was suppressed, cultivation in the world turned into that of mortals, and cultivation methods also became absurd content of myths and legends, gradually scattering. The cultivation system of cultivators and demons directly collapsed."

"If the spiritual pulse revives, it means the imperial mausoleums are damaged, the Dragon Vein is in chaos, and the Han dynasty is in great turmoil. For this reason, Emperor Guangwu of Han found the descendants of the Champion Marquis Huo Family and sealed the cultivation methods of the Yuntai Pavilion within their bloodline, and placed three locks on their bloodline:

First, swear to defend the Han dynasty with their lives and not interfere with political power;

Second, without violating the first rule, swear to eliminate demons with their lives;

Third, without violating the first two rules, continue the family line.

Violating any one of these will trigger the curse of the Champion bloodline, and the locks will be further strengthened!"

"Now, the descendants of the Huo family, who have been living in anonymity, have awakened the talent and mission hidden deep within their bloodline as the spiritual pulse revives."

The game CG ended here, followed by a pop-up input box:

"Please enter the family surname: Huo."

It's defaulted to the Huo family... Ren Suo thought for a moment and naturally changed the surname to 'Ren'.

"Please enter the given name of the first generation family head: **"

Based on the wuxia novels Ren Suo had read before, he entered 'Wo Xing', because this was indeed the most domineering name he had heard for the Ren family... When he was in the third grade of elementary school, he once thought of changing his name to Ren Wo Xing. Then his dad picked up a feather duster and said to him, "You're called Ren Wo Xing? Then your old man will be called Ren Wo Da."

Ren Wo Xing was beaten into submission by Ren Wo Da, and the name change plan was aborted.

The screen changed, showing a green mountain with over a dozen tombs on it. Three young men were kneeling in front of the tombs, burning paper money.

The handsome and strong young man kneeling in the middle, named 'Ren Wo Xing', said, "Second brother, third brother, stop crying. Now only we are left in the Ren family. We must take responsibility and fulfill our mission."

"Mission... mission?!" The third brother, Ren Fei Fan, wiped his snot and cried, "Fulfill the mission, fine, but why did Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, uncles, and aunts have to die so tragically!?"

"Third brother, recall the inherited knowledge," the second brother, Ren Chang Sheng, sobbed and slowly calmed down. "This is the curse of the Champion bloodline. Those with the Champion bloodline are born with powerful cultivation talent and are pure bodies. In the era of spiritual pulse revival, they can quickly become powerful Qi Refiners."

"However, a true pure body is almost 'aligned with the Dao'. We are only close to a pure body. When we exceed twenty-four years old, the pure body is achieved. The moment we come into contact with spiritual energy, our bodies will be torn apart by the spiritual energy... Not even an inch of flesh and bone will be left, only a pool of blood."

"The Champion bloodline is both favored by heaven and earth and cursed by fate."

Ren Fei Fan burst into tears again.