68: Freebie

This was the most vicious, the most sinister... conspiracy!

This was a true... Civilization War!

A dual assault on [Thought] and [Bloodline]! Erasing the future of an entire race from its roots!

Lin Chen's Divine Soul seemed to transform into the most loyal observer, forcibly dragged into that tragic epic sealed away for eternity. His perspective followed the Human Emperor depicted on the mural, a figure who stood tall against the heavens and whose aura devoured mountains and rivers, witnessing firsthand the catastrophe that swept across the entire world.

Above the firmament, there were no longer sun, moon, and stars, but endless, impossibly massive, and bottomless spatial rifts. These fissures were like hideous scars on the Azure Heaven, constantly weeping black-purple “pus and blood” that was Chaos, viscous, and radiated an ominous aura. Furthermore, an invisible, intangible, yet omnipresent “Curse,” like a plague, madly seeped out of those rifts.

That was a precise assassination targeting the “Yang” Laws.

The sky was no longer vast, and the earth was no longer solid. The spirituality of mountains and rivers dissipated in wails, and the masculine vigor of all living beings was rapidly stripped away and altered. The Heavenly Dao Laws, which originally formed the stable foundation of the world, were now being “polluted,” “tampered with,” and “overwritten” by a new set of Laws that were feminine, cunning, and filled with possessiveness and jealousy!

The Human Emperor stood atop the highest Divine Mountain in the center of the continent, watching with his own eyes as the “Sun Fire Essence Trees,” which required absorbing Supreme Yang Qi to grow, withered and died within mere breaths, eventually turning into “Supreme Yin Soul-Guiding Wood” radiating cold, Yin energy. He saw groups of majestic “Golden War Lions,” symbols of strength and courage, shed their manes and dissolve into flesh and blood under the erosion of the curse, finally becoming pools of foul-smelling black sludge.

But this was only the beginning.

The true horror occurred to the sentient beings.

The Ten Thousand Li Grand Pass, which once pierced the clouds and symbolized the unyielding backbone of the Human Race, was now reduced to ruins. Outside the pass were endless, bizarrely shaped Extraterrestrial Devils, shrieking shrilly and frantically assaulting the final line of defense. Inside the pass, the men who had survived the continuous bloody battles—whether they were Saints with heaven-reaching cultivation or newly adult youths—began to uncontrollably exhibit strange black markings on their bodies.

Their vitality, their cultivation, and their Divine Souls were being frantically devoured and dissolved by that invisible curse. One after another, the Iron-Blooded Warriors who could once fight ten thousand enemies turned into shriveled skeletons amidst mournful and unwilling screams, scattering with the wind.

Yang was dying out.

In contrast, the “Yin” was undergoing mutation.

The Human Emperor turned his head and looked at the women inside the Grand Pass—those who had luckily survived but whose eyes involuntarily began to show traces of “greed” and “calculation.” Their bodies did not collapse like the men's; instead, they seemed to have received some kind of “nourishment,” and their auras grew deeper and more sinister.

They looked at their dying husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers, their eyes devoid of sorrow and pain. Replacing it was an indifference, viewing them as “supplements” and “resources.” They subconsciously began fighting over the last wisp of Pure Yang Qi escaping from the dying men, even... fighting fiercely to seize a man who could still cling to life.

The former gentleness, virtue, kindness, and courage... all beautiful qualities were being replaced by a primal desire originating deep within their Bloodline. Jealousy, possessiveness, demandingness, selfishness... these dark thoughts grew wildly in their hearts like poisonous mushrooms after the rain.

[Thought] had been twisted, and [Bloodline] had been contaminated.

The Human Race, this once immensely glorious civilization, was beginning to crumble from within, heading toward extinction.

The Human Emperor watched all this, and two lines of desperate... bloody tears streamed from his tiger eyes, which should have been capable of seeing through all things and possessing the majesty of a prison. Those were not ordinary tears; they were the heart-wrenching pain he couldn't suppress even by burning his Origin Divine Soul, the ultimate agony of being the Emperor of a race yet having to watch his people and his civilization sink into Hell.

He knew.

He was powerless to reverse the situation.

He could slay billions of Extraterrestrial Devils, shatter the sun, moon, and stars, and even temporarily repair parts of the Heavenly Dao Laws with supreme might. However, he could not purify the “Curse” that had penetrated deep into the Bloodline and Soul of every woman. He could not awaken the “compatriots” who had been completely dominated by desire.

This invisible war, he had lost.

He lost completely and utterly.

“Forget it...”

He let out a sigh filled with endless sorrow and unwillingness. This sigh seemed to drain his very last ounce of strength. He no longer looked at the Grand Pass, which had turned into a living Hell, nor did he listen to the sharp shrieks of his former lovers and relatives fighting over resources.

He lifted his proud head, which had never bowed, and for the last and only time, cast a look of reluctance and guilt toward the vast homeland behind him.

Immediately, holding the [human emperor seal]—which gathered the Luck of the Human Race for eternity and symbolized supreme imperial authority—he transformed into a stream of golden flames, charging resolutely toward the largest, darkest spatial rift in the firmament, which resembled the mouth of a giant beast!

He intended to use his final Divine Soul to Seal the... Origin that released the “Curse”!

He could not purify this world that had been “contaminated.”

He could only buy a sliver of time for this world, for the future of this race, allowing them to cling to life.

And then wait.

Wait for a... Game Breaker who might never appear.

That golden stream of light was like a sun moving against the current, resolute and tragic. In the final instant before crashing into the darkness, Lin Chen seemed to hear the Human Emperor's final roar echoing through heaven and earth, and saw the dazzling brilliance, powerful enough to illuminate the entire Universe, that erupted as his Divine Soul was completely burned away.

“Buzz...”

When the last mural completely dimmed, and all the carvings upon it turned into fine dust, rustling down.

Lin Chen's Divine Soul finally withdrew slowly from the boundless sorrow and shock. The feeling was like being abruptly pulled back to reality after watching a multi-hour, effects-heavy, emotionally intense IMAX epic tragedy film.

The surrounding air was cold and deathly silent.

He was still standing in the vast, ancient Hall of Heroes, which was steeped in the sense of time. On the tall pillars were carved bas-reliefs of countless sages and Saints of the past; every figure was lifelike, yet covered in a thick layer of silent dust.

There were no tears on his face.

Not even a trace of superfluous sadness.

This was not because Lin Chen was cold-blooded, but because that period of history was too grand and too distant—so distant that he, an “audience member” from another world, could not truly empathize. All he felt was a faint... sense of emotion, the kind one gets after watching an “epic movie” with decent production quality and tear-jerking music.

(Tsk tsk tsk...)

Lin Chen even had the leisure to “complain” in his heart, just like a professional film critic.

(The scene wasn't bad, the special effects, the atmosphere rendering—I'd give it a nine out of ten. But the ending... it was too tragic. A typical forced tragedy, just to trick the audience into crying. But then again, that final self-detonation by the Human Emperor brother was seriously cool.)

He slowly raised his head, his gaze falling upon the Human Emperor statue in the center of the hall, which was dozens of feet tall and had long lost all its divine luster. The statue's material was neither gold nor stone, displaying an ancient bronze color, covered in countless battle scars like those left by knives and axes, and endless marks of erosion left by time. The Human Emperor's posture was one of holding the great Seal, head held high, looking toward the sky, filled with defiance and resistance.

Unfortunately, in Lin Chen's eyes, he didn't see a shred of “lofty respect” that a descendant should have for an ancestor.

Only a complex gaze filled with “oddness” and “helplessness.”

(So, after all that...)

(It turns out that you, old man, in the name of “world peace,” ended up playing a real-life version of 'Interstellar' with your life, forcibly smashing open that 'World Rift,' and accidentally overdid it, dragging me, a completely unrelated bystander, from the comfortable and peaceful Blue Star to this damned place?)

Thinking of this, Lin Chen felt a pang of toothache.

His arrival in this world was purely accidental. Yet, the source of this accident, tracing back to its roots, turned out to be the tragic hero before him, the one who “ushered in peace for ten thousand generations.” Where was he supposed to find justice?

Should he kneel and kowtow to the “chief culprit” who trapped him in this world? Should he be eternally grateful?

What kind of international joke is that?!

Not spitting on the statue and kicking it a couple of times right now only proved that Lin Chen had a good temper and understood how to respect the elderly and cherish the young!

(And what's this about 'saving the world'...)

Lin Chen curled his lip, his heart filled with continuous internal complaints, his desire to grumble like an unending river.

(Does this messed-up situation have anything to do with me?)

(I'm a Law-abiding, peace-loving, Blue Star Model Citizen who helps old ladies cross the road every day. Why should I clean up the mess in your world? Do I owe you? If your world's Laws are contaminated, what does that have to do with my Universe? This is cross-dimensional forced trade, an outright act of kidnapping!)

(Besides...)

Images of delicate, vibrant, and charming faces involuntarily surfaced in Lin Chen's mind.

There was Lin Xiaoya, gentle as water, looking at him with her adoring gaze; there was Lin Ziyan, cold as snow, yet only revealing a hint of girlish charm before him with her ethereal beauty; there were the queenly figures of Luo Bingli and the Blood Moon Wolf Queen, two vastly different styles, yet both equally enchanting and radiating full aura; and, within the Purple Cloud Holy Land, the thousands of beautiful women, each quite stunning, who were filled with “covetous” desires for him... Thinking of all this, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curved into an extremely “lewd” and smug grin.

(To be honest...)

(This world, which has become “many women, few men” due to the “Curse,” and where Yin is overwhelmingly dominant over Yang...)

(For me, the Chosen One who possesses the [many sons, many blessings] System...)

(It's actually quite... no, it's damnably, extremely, tremendously... enjoyable.)

Make him change this world?

Make him restore the so-called “Yin and Yang balance”? Make the world return to the “normal” state where men are everywhere, and you need to buy a house, a car, and pay a bride price to marry a wife?

Is he crazy?! Is he insane?!

Give up this paradise-like “Kingdom of Women,” where he is surrounded by countless beauties every day, living a happy life like an emperor, only to run off and risk his life fighting those “Extraterrestrial Devils” who look like ugly freaks and popped out of nowhere?

Lin Chen's brain hadn't been kicked by a donkey! He wasn't that 'great'! His ideal was just a warm bed with his wife and children, and by the way... a few more wives and children, and a bigger bed.

And just as Lin Chen was frantically complaining in his heart, having completely made up his mind to stay far away from all these 'messy affairs,' treating it like watching a free movie and then leaving when it was over...

A sudden change occurred!

The stone statue, which had been dead silent for tens of thousands of years, without a trace of spirituality, slowly lit up with an extremely faint, yet incomparably pure... golden light in its empty, lifeless eyes.

That light was like a candle in the wind, as if it could be extinguished at any moment, yet it stubbornly burned, containing a persistence and anticipation that spanned across eons.

Immediately after, an ancient Divine Thought, full of weariness, relief, and endless anticipation, like an old bell tolling across the river of time, slowly resounded in Lin Chen's Sea of Consciousness.

"Descendant..."

"The outsider... who bears Chaos without being 'corrupted'...

"You have finally... arrived."

This voice carried a sense of predestination, full of the fatalism of 'Heaven's will.'

Hearing this call, full of the flavor of a 'classic script.'

Lin Chen's lewd smile instantly froze.

The ominous premonition in his heart grew stronger, like dark clouds pressing down.

(No way... Officer...)

(Can this 'Heaven-sent hero, turning the tide' savior script really be forced upon me?! Do I look like that kind of great hero who would sacrifice himself for others?! Don't you do background checks when you cast roles?!)

That ancient Divine Thought, full of the meaning of 'Heaven's will,' slowly echoed in Lin Chen's Sea of Consciousness, carrying an undeniable affirmation.

Lin Chen's face instantly collapsed, his features almost squeezed together.

He looked at the broken stone statue in front of him, still emitting a faint golden light, his expression exactly like someone on the street being forcibly stopped by 'startup youths' holding a pile of flyers and QR codes, insisting on making you 'learn more,' full of undisguised... disdain and impatience.

"Stop."

He was even too lazy to mobilize his Divine Thought for any 'high-end' communication, directly and crudely raising his palm and making a 'STOP' gesture towards the statue, interrupting the tragic speech that had been brewing for tens of thousands of years, about to begin, of 'recalling the past, turbulent years.'

"Senior,"

His voice was full of extreme perfunctoriness, a 'respect' that was clearly insincere.

"I know you're in a hurry. But, don't be in a hurry yet."

"I know what you want to say, I can even read your lines for you."

"It's nothing more than, 'You are the only anomaly in eons unaffected by the curse,' or 'Your appearance is the last hope of the Human Race,' or 'Child, the future of the Human Race depends on you,' or 'Please be sure to inherit my Legacy and fix this riddled world'...

As he spoke, he vividly imitated that 'epic' ancient tone, sometimes pausing, sometimes rising, his expression sorrowful, his eyes tragic, his acting so exaggerated that any professional actor would feel ashamed.

That 'comical' appearance instantly destroyed the last trace of sorrow and solemnity that still lingered in the entire Hall of Heroes.

“...”

That ancient Divine Thought, which had been full of 'relief,' 'excitement,' and 'anticipation,' completely stalled at this moment.

Clearly, this remnant Soul of the Human Emperor, who had slept for tens of thousands of years and whose will was as tough as divine iron, had never imagined that the 'breaker of the deadlock' he had waited for countless years, exhausting his last Luck, would turn out to be such a glib, unconventional, and utterly 'unreliable'... rogue?

"Um..."

Lin Chen looked at the silent statue, whose golden light had begun to flicker unsteadily, and showed a smile full of 'sincerity' and 'apology,' looking harmless.

"Senior, let's just be frank."

"First, bringing me to this world was not my intention. It was your desperate collision back then that caused the spacetime accident. So, strictly speaking, you are the 'culprit.' Therefore, I owe nothing to you or to this world. I have no obligation to clean up your mess."

"Second, that grand undertaking of 'saving the world' you mentioned, to be honest, I... have no interest in it whatsoever."

"You see, I don't have much ambition. After all, I'm just an ordinary man who simply wants to live out his 'happy' life peacefully. Fighting and killing are too dangerous and too tiring, they don't suit me."

"Third, and most importantly."

His smile grew even more 'innocent,' his eyes as clear as a child's.

"To tell you a truth you might not like to hear."

"Your set of 'drawing big pictures,' 'talking about feelings,' and 'moral blackmail' rhetoric is useless to today's young people."

"You want me to help, it's very simple, and it's possible."

"—You have to pay more."

Freeloading!

This was blatant shamelessness, demanding benefits right in front of the spirits of the 'Human Race ancestors'!

Such an act, if placed in any epic story, would absolutely be a capital offense, deserving of being struck by heavenly lightning and turned into charcoal!

"You...!"

That ancient Divine Thought was clearly infuriated by Lin Chen's shocking and unorthodox 'shameless' remarks!

The faint golden light that had barely lit up on the stone statue began to flicker violently, dimming and brightening, as if it could be angered to the point of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering on the spot due to soaring blood pressure!

He had seen countless heroes and countless treacherous villains, but someone like Lin Chen, who spoke of 'shamelessness' with such righteousness and fresh elegance, was absolutely the first in all of eons!

However.

He could do nothing about Lin Chen!

Because he was just a wisp of a remnant Soul about to dissipate! A persistent thought attached to the statue! He had no bargaining chips with Lin Chen! He couldn't even move a finger!

Moreover... with his wisdom, having witnessed the hearts of countless people throughout eons, he could tell.

This glib Kid, what he said... was actually all... sincere!

He really didn't want to deal with this mess! He genuinely found his current life enjoyable!

Finally.

After a long silence, full of humiliation and feel oppressed.

That ancient Divine Thought, full of 'weariness,' 'weakness,' and 'helplessness,' could only, like a desperate old man cornered, squeeze out the words that brought him endless shame, one by one, through gritted teeth:

"...What do you want?"

"That's more like it."

Lin Chen's face instantly broke into a brilliant smile, like a shrewd merchant who had successfully negotiated a deal, radiating with the warmth of spring.

A moment later.

Lin Chen stood up, satisfied, from in front of the stone statue, whose light had completely dimmed, and whose surface even began to show subtle cracks.

In his hand, there was a small golden Seal, no bigger than a palm, made entirely of unknown divine metal, ancient yet filled with supreme Divine Might. At the bottom of the Seal were carved four ancient divine characters, full of charm, as if they could suppress all heavens throughout eons—【Human Emperor Suppresses the World】. It was precisely that legendary human emperor seal! Although its luster appeared dim, and there was a terrifying crack on its body that almost split it in two, the Imperial Dragon Qi emanating from it, which had absolute power over all evil demons and heretics, still made Lin Chen feel deeply shocked.

—【human emperor seal】 (Damaged)!

And in his Sea of Consciousness, there appeared a vast, boundless, and exquisite supreme divine technique, filled with the most Pure Yang Qi, domineering and unparalleled! Countless golden ancient characters converged in his Sea of Consciousness to form a roaring Divine Dragon, evolving scenes of the Human Race's ancient emperors suppressing Hell and sweeping across the Universe, invincible!

—【Human Emperor's Hell Suppressing Art】!

"Hmm, not bad, not bad. Senior is indeed a straightforward person."

Lin Chen weighed the not-light human emperor seal in his hand, which was almost the weight of a small planet, and showed a satisfied smile like that of a bountiful harvest.

And that ancient Divine Thought, so weak it seemed it could dissipate at any moment, used its last bit of strength to make its final, and most humble, 'request' to him:

"Descendant... now..."

"You have taken my Legacy... and inherited my Karma..."

"You, surely... should fulfill your promise, right...?"

However.

Lin Chen simply waved his hand, like shooing away a fly, interrupting him again.

"Oh, don't be so anxious."

He looked at the statue that was about to completely turn into ordinary stone, his face showing an expression full of 'righteousness' and 'sense of mission,' and patted his chest, guaranteeing.

"Don't worry!"

"As the saying goes, take people's money, and help them resolve their troubles. I've eaten yours, I've taken yours, so I've accepted this 'savior' job! From today on, I am the hope of the Human Race, the future of the world, and the Incarnation of light!"

"But..."

His tone suddenly shifted, and his expression returned to its usual cynical and frivolous look.

"As for when I'll start working."

"Whether I go tomorrow, or wait a thousand or eight hundred years."

"And whether I'll really save the world, or just take the title and casually go through the motions."

"That, will depend on when I... feel like it."

With that said.

Under the complex gaze of that ancient Divine Thought, filled with endless 'regret,' 'frustration,' 'anger,' and 'despair'.

Humming a popular tune from Blue Star, full of 'freedom' and 'uninhibited' spirit, he walked out of this Hall of Heroes, which carried the last hope of the Human Race, with confident and carefree steps, without looking back.

Leaving behind only a completely weathered stone statue, turning into dust in the breeze.

And a final sigh, full of endless resentment and unwillingness, dissipating into the dead silent air.

"My... the future of my Human Race... is over..."