12: Rebirth of Laozi Gu Yanci Returns from Hell

Dead.

All dead.

Jiang Ruoxue is dead.

Lin Moyan is dead.

Su Qingyuan is dead.

All of humanity is dead!

Hahahahaha.

But why… am I still alive?

Amidst the city's ruins, countless foreign armies stood.

Undead, orcs, elves, vampires… The dense horde of monsters was like an ocean of sand.

They crowded together, awaiting the arrival of the Era of Foreign Races.

The aged Gu Yanci, as the Last Human, was cruelly disemboweled and had his eyes gouged out by the foreign races. His limbs were connected to his torso by thick threads.

He was tied to a cross, laughing maniacally.

His last drops of blood streamed from his eye sockets, ear canals, and nostrils.

He was like a madman, mumbling one name after another.

When the new blood moon rose, he would die in this celebratory feast.

And when Gu Jianghan revived, opening his "eyes" to find that a hundred years had passed in the Blue Star World.

The scene before his "eyes" told him that humanity had lost.

He hadn't even expected that merely searching for his future self's power would cause him to miss so many stories.

It turned out this was a closed loop of reincarnation.

Gu Jianghan certainly had the ability to rewind everything to before the tragedy occurred.

However.

Given this world's capacity.

Including the previous death by car accident.

It could only be rewound one more time at most.

Any more, and this world would exhaust its origin, returning to nothingness.

After rewinding.

Besides observing, Gu Jianghan couldn't use many of his powerful techniques.

Don't be fooled by his previous ability to raise the rank of Perfect World and achieve some super-standard attack methods.

Firstly.

Perfect World itself had a 10th-rank foundation, capable of withstanding Gu Jianghan's grand manipulations.

Secondly.

Such an act of forcing growth could not be without a price.

As time passed, that world would eventually fall from 11th-rank to 10th-rank, and even 9th or 8th-rank.

But the Blue Star World was different; it was very special.

Although there were 8th-rank beings, its world rank was only 3rd-rank in total, which was very absurd.

(Without transcendent beings, no matter how strong, they cannot break the world barrier.)

No wonder the Multiverse Chat Group only noticed Gu Yanci after his car accident death, failing to issue a rescue mission in time.

If the Blue Star World's rank were to fall further, lightly speaking.

It would return to chaos, and after trillions of years, light would be born.

Seriously, along with the remaining high-dimensional information, it would cease to exist conceptually.

At that time.

Even if he were in other worlds, memories of the Blue Star World would vanish.

By then, even Gu Jianghan would not be able to find Blue Star's timeline.

Because nothing is nothing, not having is not having, not existing is not existing.

From the horizon, Gu Jianghan, with complex emotions, called out his name.

"Gu Yanci…"

"Group Leader… is that you?"

A century later.

Gu Yanci, hearing Gu Jianghan's call again.

He regained some sanity, shedding excited "tears."

"Do you choose to come again, to return to a hundred years ago? Remember, no matter the outcome, there will be no second chance," Gu Jianghan said indifferently.

Death, for Gu Yanci at this moment.

Perhaps it was a release.

Bearing a century of heavy pain.

Even with memories of rebirth, the chances of success remained slim, and he would have to experience the emotions of life and death separation once more.

How sorrowful!

As the last afterglow of the setting sun faded.

At the end of his life, Gu Yanci smiled with the gentlest face of his existence, nodding heavily.

So be it, then… as you wish.

The laws of time were no longer sufficient to describe this infinite power that reversed the world.

Information units from a higher dimension began to intervene in the Blue Star World's structure.

If described in words: it was a regression, from the future to the present.

Scene after scene of human epics, scene after scene of bloody wars.

One hero after another, who for the survival of humanity, cried out "Humanity is immortal!", appeared in Gu Jianghan's "vision."

On the sea of corpses and blood, there was a man, a middle-aged Gu Yanci.

He used that rusty Human Emperor Sword to single-handedly block a million foreign races, protecting the now empty Blue Star behind him.

As the timeline moved further and further back.

The woman named Jiang Ruoxue caught Gu Jianghan's attention.

She used herself as bait, carrying humanity's last nuclear bomb, flying fearlessly towards the foreign king.

As the brilliant fireworks erupted, they blasted out humanity's last pure land.

When the smoke cleared, without a doubt, she met a fate of utter annihilation, body and soul scattered.

Her spirit beast, a black cat a hundred zhang tall, wailed, fighting alongside its master for humanity until death.

"Humanity is immortal!"

"Humanity endures!"

At that time, the surviving humans shouted slogans, tears flowing uncontrollably… Great Xia Country, Yunlai City.

Inside a simple rental room, on the bed.

Gu Yanci opened his bloodshot eyes, a century of memories washing over his disposition.

He propped himself up and stood.

He punched and shattered the mirror reflecting his disheveled appearance, blood seeping from his knuckles.

He shouted in a hoarse, demon-like, sharp tone.

"I, Gu Yanci, have returned from hell!!!"

Just as Gu Yanci, in the rental room.

Let out that roar of a century of blood, tears, and hatred.

In a higher dimension, imperceptible to "all" group members.

— The core system of the Multiverse Chat Group.

Was performing a cold and ruthless karmic settlement.

“[Detected large-scale joint mission "Elegy of the Era of Dharma Decline" timeline has reached its end…]

[Beginning final mission settlement…]

[Judgment Condition 1: Is Blue Star civilization still existing? — No.]

[Judgment Condition 2: Is mission core character 'Gu Yanci' still alive? — No.]

[Judgment Condition 3: Has the foreign invasion been repelled? — No.]

[…]

[Overall Judgment: Mission failure rate 100%. Generating failure penalty…]

A cold mechanical voice echoed in the void.

As if the next second.

All group members who participated in or paid attention to this mission.

Would receive the bad news of mission failure and have corresponding points deducted.

However.

Just as the system was about to finalize that ultimate judgment.

A power that could not be understood, could not be analyzed, and could not even be defined.

Like an invisible giant hand, it roughly grabbed the entire Blue Star plane's timeline!

“[Warning! Warning! Detected unknown high-dimensional information flow forcefully intervening! Causality has been tampered with! Time axis has been reset in reverse!]

The system's core code.

Was instantly flooded with a massive amount of red "ERROR" messages.

Countless logical judgments fell into an infinite loop.

“[Logical Conflict! Mission settlement target 'deceased', actual observation result 'alive'!]

[Logical Conflict! Plane status 'destroyed', actual observation result 'existing'!]

[Causality judgment module crashed! Initiating emergency correction protocol…]

For this supreme creation, operating by absolute rules.

It could not comprehend the existence of "Gu Jianghan."

It could only attribute this power, which transcended its understanding.

To a fatal, unforeseen bug within itself.

After a moment of dead silence.

A golden system announcement, full of apology.

Rang out simultaneously in the minds of all group members.

“[System Announcement: Due to an unknown system error, a severe deviation occurred in the causality judgment for the large-scale joint mission "Elegy of the Era of Dharma Decline."]

[To compensate for the impact of this error on all group members, the system will issue compensation to all members.]

[Ding! All 114514 members of the chat group will receive system compensation: 10000 points.]

"Holy crap? How many zeros, ones, tens, hundreds, thousands… Ten thousand points?! Hiss~ So many zeros, I've only seen them in Chengdu."

Shi Hao looked at the long string of numbers that suddenly appeared in his point balance.

He was completely dumbfounded, thinking the system had broken down.

And Lin Moyan and Su Qingyuan, after a brief moment of stunned silence, almost at the same time.

They showed smiles mixed with fanaticism and adoration.

System error?

No, this was not an error… this was a miracle!

It was a symbol that the Group Leader's power had already surpassed the chat group!

Even the system itself could only humbly interpret His great power as its own 'error'!

Lin Moyan trembled with excitement.

This, more than any direct display of power, demonstrated the terrifying rank of the Group Leader!

He could not only reverse life and death but also overturn rules, even making the rules themselves "apologize"!

Meanwhile, in the rental room on Blue Star.

Gu Yanci glanced at the virtual panel.

The notification of points credited.

A century of combat experience had already made his heart as still as water.

Facing the points that appeared out of thin air.

He merely said "Oh."

Believing his chances of victory had increased by one point, nothing more.

He closed the chat group, walked to the window, and the city's neon lights reflected in his eyes.

A century of memories surged in his mind, transforming into meticulous and cruel blueprints for revenge.

Gu Yanci raised his right hand, fingers together.

The power, condensed from humanity's destiny and the souls of countless unwilling, surged from his palm.

The vibrant potted plant instantly withered and died.

That was the Law of Death he had comprehended in his previous life, after all humans except him had perished, through years of solitude.

[Blood Qi +1, +1, +1, +1]

[Ding dong~ The original "Supreme Praiser - Gu Yanci"]

[Now, after the system's re-evaluation of information, modified to "Last Human Emperor - Gu Yanci"]

Very good.

In this life, I will not only win.

But also make those scumbags… taste a despair ten thousand times deeper than hell!