127: Chapter 127 Release My Friend!

"Think, hurry up!!!"

This roar seemed to squeeze all the air out of Jiang You's lungs, echoing over the deathly silent swamp.

Every gaze converged in that instant.

Over at Class A, Class Monitor Zhao Feilong shuddered in fear, almost dropping the sword in his hand. "Jiang... what is Jiang You doing? Is he tired of living?"

Lin Ya snapped her head up, her beautiful eyes wide, filled with shock and a hint of undisguised anxiety.

She had never seen Jiang You like this.

The ex-boyfriend who, in her memory, was always sleepy, couldn't get excited about anything, and even wanted to go to the cafeteria to grab a chicken leg when they broke up—how could he be showing such a struggling and painful expression right now?

The members of Class F were even more dumbfounded.

Lu Xingye's hand gripping his blade froze in mid-air, Gou Fugui's movement of pushing up his glasses stalled, and even Xiang Batian forgot to count the frequency of his muscle twitches.

"Brother Jiang... what's wrong with him?"

"Is he crazy? Or... has he awakened?"

In the center of the poisonous mist.

Bai Lan, whose consciousness was already blurred by the erosion and whose vision was beginning to blacken, struggled to open her eyelids just a crack.

She looked at the figure standing in the mud, clutching his head and roaring, and a glimmer of light inexplicably flashed through her previously dull eyes.

"Big... brother..."

In mid-air.

The Poison Python, who was just about to deal a lethal blow, was also stopped by this shout.

He turned his head, his vertical pupils examining Jiang You with interest, and a playful yet contemptuous sneer curled at the corner of his mouth:

"Oh?"

"It's you again, kid?"

"What? Still want to play the hero saving the beauty?"

The Poison Python was not in a rush to act; in his eyes, this was just an appetizer before a meal.

He hovered high in the air, mocking from above:

"I know you know this stupid fox, and perhaps she has even bestowed some favors upon you."

"However, to be a hero, you need strength."

"I admit you're a bit weird, kid, but how many more times can you use those methods of overdrawing your life or borrowing external power?"

"Once? Or twice?"

The demonic aura on the Poison Python surged, and a terrifying pressure washed over Jiang You like a tide:

"In the face of an absolute difference in realm, those little tricks of yours are nothing more than a mayfly trying to topple a tree!"

"Aren't you afraid... that I will crush you to death right now?"

Facing the death threat from the Tier 5 Great Demon and the thousands of eyes around him, some fearful and some expectant.

Jiang You did not show any abnormality.

He ignored the Poison Python's clamoring and didn't even glance at the arrogant demon king.

He just hung his head and let out a deep, long sigh.

"Sigh..."

This sigh contained too much helplessness.

He slowly raised his head, and those dead fish eyes, which were usually half-open and filled with sleepiness, were now unusually wide open.

Deep within those pupils, a complex light flickered, unprecedented.

It was the indifference and vicissitudes accumulated after living two lifetimes and seeing the cold and warmth of the world.

Ever since he was reborn into this high-martial world where spiritual energy had revived and demonic beasts ran rampant, he understood the rules of survival here better than anyone.

The weak are prey to the strong; only the fittest survive.

This is a cruel pyramid world.

Only the small handful of people standing at the top of the pyramid are qualified to talk about dignity, freedom, and protection.

And the remaining 99% of ordinary people can only struggle in the mud at the bottom, fighting and grinding for the slightest bit of resources to become stronger, until they exhaust their last drop of blood, becoming stepping stones for the strong to reach the top.

In his previous life, he had grinded, and he had been tired.

In this life...

Jiang You looked down at his palms.

No heaven-defying luck; he couldn't pick up divine artifacts just by stepping out the door.

No top-tier S-rank talent where one day of cultivation equals a year for others.

And certainly no privileged background with dozens of Grandmaster bodyguards standing behind him, wiping out entire families at the slightest disagreement.

"I don't have a protagonist's script..."

Jiang You said to himself silently in his heart.

Since he couldn't get that unique, dazzling protagonist script, why force himself to be the cannon fodder destined for a tragic end?

Seeking the high and failing to attain it is pain.

Being low and unwilling to accept it is torture.

Since he was destined not to become a god in this life, and destined not to stand at the pinnacle of the world, he might as well just be a quiet salted fish.

Don't fight, don't snatch, just do whatever is comfortable.

Following his own nature, even if it meant drifting through life waiting for death, even if people mocked him for having no ambition, at least... he would live easily, and live like himself.

This was Jiang You's survival philosophy.

A form of self-protection after seeing through the cruel nature of the world.

"Originally... that's what I thought."

His gaze fell on Bai Lan, who was trapped in the poison array, her flame of life about to be extinguished.

The silly girl who opened the door for him, invited him to drink porridge, and would blush and bristle because her "hairband" had been pinched.

Jiang You's fists slowly clenched.

His nails dug deep into his palms, bringing a heart-piercing stinging pain.

"I did want to lie flat."

"But I am also a human."

"Being human means having a heart, having blood, and having... a bottom line."

If today, for the sake of surviving, he watched that kind girl be devoured.

Then even if he survived, could he ever sleep peacefully for the rest of his life?

"Hoo..."

Jiang You exhaled a breath of turbid air once more.

The confusion and struggle in his eyes completely dissipated at this moment.

Replacing them was a touch of resoluteness.

It was a kind of foolish courage—to do what one knows cannot be done.

"Hey, long worm."

Jiang You finally spoke.

His voice was not loud; there was no roaring, no shouting. It was as flat as if he were asking a neighbor, "Have you eaten?"

But on this deathly silent battlefield, it reached everyone's ears clearly.

The Poison Python was stunned for a moment, his vertical pupils contracting slightly: "Are you calling me?"

Jiang You raised his head, looking directly at the high and mighty Tier 5 Great Demon.

He tugged at his ridiculous spongebob pajamas, but it did not affect the determination in his eyes at all.

"You beast, I'm talking to you!"

"Let my friend go!"

Before Jiang You's words had even finished falling, the air around them seemed to freeze at that moment.

He didn't know what kind of divine beings lived inside his body, nor did he know if he could return alive after saying these words.

From his perspective, he was just an ordinary student who liked to sleep, occasionally sleepwalked, and had no cultivation.

Facing a Tier 5 Great Demon, he was just an ant waiting to be slaughtered.

But he still stood up.

"Hoo..."

Jiang You looked at the black-robed man in front of him exuding a terrifying aura; there wasn't much fear in his heart, but rather a sense of relief, having looked past life and death.

"Someone who has already died once, what is there to be afraid of?"

"If I shrink back into the crowd like a coward today, watching that silly girl get eaten, watching the teacher get beaten to death... then even if I survive, my life would probably be wasted."

Jiang You straightened his back, his spongebob pajamas flapping in the wind, looking somewhat comical, yet radiating an unspeakable tragic heroism.

"You're courting death!"

The Poison Python's expression sank completely.

He, a dignified Tier 5 Great Demon, was actually being pointed at and called a beast by an ant?

"Since you are in such a hurry to be reincarnated, I will grant your wish!"