Chapter 732: The Era

"This feeling is truly marvelous!"

When Shen Yu saw the woman's entire life, he seemed to hear a faint sigh in his ears; it was the voice that belonged to Mu Baiqing.

Only then was everything that happened back then finally laid out before him. It had originally been a misunderstanding, and the woman had not been one to covet power.

From beginning to end, the one she loved was the upright and kind Mu Baiqing, and she had merely let her relatives accompany her in putting on a show.

She had thought the two of them would be able to be together smoothly in the future, but she never expected they would part ways from then on.

Although the subsequent Mu Baiqing held a high position and great power, and was nearly invincible in the world, he was no longer the kind person he had been back then.

Therefore, she would rather live out her life in solitude than be with him again.

This regret was Mu Baiqing's, and how could it not also be the woman's? One of them lived out their life in solitude, and the other never married.

Even though Mu Baiqing eventually reached the pinnacle, he was always enveloped by loneliness.

At the same time, infinite power surged into Shen Yu's body; it was the power belonging to Mu Baiqing that had been captured by the "Floating World Record".

Because this power had just been captured, it had not dissipated much.

And after this power gathered in his body, Shen Yu's strength was undoubtedly taken to a higher level.

Leaving this place, as for how the young girl named Ning Shuang would be dealt with by her master, that was a matter for the two of them, and Shen Yu was in no mood to care.

He now had only one thought: to quickly find more old monsters and improve himself as soon as possible.

Ever since meeting Dong Yu, a sense of inexplicable urgency had begun to grow in his heart.

Who could have imagined that the so-called Spiritual Qi Surge was someone else's layout, and the so-called Great Contention Era was even more like Gu Raising, intended to select stronger people from among countless others.

Behind this, there was an invisible hand manipulating everything.

And with his current strength, he was undoubtedly far inferior compared to it, and he might not even have the power to protect himself.

It was just a pity that for several days in a row, he had not encountered any old monsters; instead, he had witnessed more and more places beginning to fall into chaos.

The Capital was sealed off and had almost lost contact with the outside world; even if the outside world had been slow to react, it had already realized what was happening.

Moreover, with the Spiritual Qi Surge, the martial power of Martial Artists everywhere was rising rapidly, and their inner ambitions were inevitably stirred up.

Added to this, as Dong Yu had said, this Spirit Qi indeed contained certain things that could subtly influence the human heart.

If those with low strength were not greatly affected, the stronger one was, and the more one needed enlightenment, the more they would be infected.

Martial Learning, in the end, was no longer as simple as tempering the body and nourishing the internal organs and meridians; it required perceiving heaven and earth and grasping one's own Dao of martial arts.

And the things contained in this Spirit Qi would precisely take effect during enlightenment, making it easier for evil thoughts to sprout in one's heart, thereby falling into infinite evil intentions.

Of course, there were also those who could guard their original heart and withstand these heavy trials, and instead, they could advance by leaps and bounds in such an environment.

The blades sharpened in this kind of environment—some broke, while others became sharper the more they were ground.

Those with extremely high natural talent could even break through several realms in a single day.

There were even those who could question their original heart amidst heavy trials and walk their own path among the infinite thorns, thereby soaring into the sky.

Such people were, without exception, Heavenly Prides with powerful temperaments.

After all, Heavenly Prides were few and far between in this world; most people were still ordinary, greedy, and lustful.

As their strength grew stronger and they absorbed more Spirit Qi, the desires of the vast majority of people would be constantly magnified.

Therefore, the fighting for power and profit, the mutual slaughter, and even the wanton killing of the innocent in the Jianghu were increasing, reaching a point where it could not be stopped.

For a time, the Jianghu world, which had originally been considered stable, now had a sense of being precarious.

If not for him traveling everywhere, applying thunderous means to such people, and fiercely curbing this trend, letting everyone know that there was still a sharp blade in this world.

As long as they dared to do evil, this blade would fall at any time.

It was precisely because of this that these people would show some restraint. Under the influence of the surging Spirit Qi, their evil thoughts had increased, but their nature of fearing death had also increased.

If not for this, the flames of war would have long since risen everywhere, and corpses would be scattered across the ground.

Although the traces of old monsters were hard to find for a time, killing these villains could also bring him some benefits.

As someone who had received nine years of education and had not experienced much of society's harsh beatings, his temperament was still well-maintained, coupled with the influence of the vast righteous energy in his heart.

Therefore, when he saw those innocent people dying unjustly, and saw those scenes that challenged the bottom line of morality, he always felt unbearable.

While gaining from killing villains, he could not help but sigh at the hardships of the world, as too many innocent commoners had died under the so-called Great Contention Era.

He did not know what the Spiritual Qi Surge had actually brought about.

Another month or two passed, and Shen Yu successively finished off several awakened old monsters.

This might have been the most miserable experience for these old monsters; before they could even start jumping around, someone came knocking at their door and chopped them down with a single sword.

In normal times, the number of top experts who could survive this era was very few, and the greatest possibility was that they had all been killed by the old monsters who had awakened earlier.

Of course, the old monsters who had just awakened earlier certainly had risks; after all, there were still some perversely strong figures in an era.

But the Spiritual Qi Surge had already been going on for quite some time, and those top experts should have basically been killed off.

By the time they awakened, it should have been their time to frolic. Even if there were threats, they would not be too great.

The people before them had eaten the fat meat, and they were left to gnaw on the bones. Those who awakened last, who were also the most numerous, could only drink the soup.

It was safe, but what was the point of drinking soup? Did they not know that wealth is sought in danger?

It stood to reason that when they emerged, it would be their time to show their skills and reap the harvest.

But who could have imagined that just as they opened their eyes, before they could do anything, a young man suddenly showed up at their door.

Before they could even say a word, they were directly killed by him. The bitterness in their hearts was so great that they almost cried on the spot.

What had happened to this world? How could there be such a perverted young man!

And Shen Yu, who had killed them, was not in a very good mood; no one would be in a good mood seeing blood, slaughter, and corpses everywhere day after day.

The originally peaceful world had become increasingly chaotic, as if it would not give a way for those ordinary people living their lives peacefully to survive.

On the streets, one could see people dying on the roadside at any time due to Jianghu feuds or being caught in the crossfire of experts.

He had also thought about restraining the local government offices in his own name and using them as a foundation to carry out large-scale rectification.

But unfortunately, people's hearts were in chaos, and ambitious people in local government offices were emerging one after another; too many people could not recognize the situation after their strength surged, and some even thought they could wrestle with him.

There are too many such people, so many that they can never be killed off completely.

The absolute self-confidence brought about by a sudden surge in strength had long since left them lost; if they cannot truly see the massive gap in strength, their ambitions will never be extinguished.

And for Shen Yu, it was fundamentally impossible to go and have heart-to-hearts with them one by one, and even more impossible to pick them off house by house all by himself.

Troublesome!

"Mother, wake up, Mother!"

Walking along the roadside, a helpless voice reached Shen Yu's ears; it was a little girl pushing a woman who was on the verge of death.

The woman was nothing but skin and bones, her breathing intermittent; she clearly could not hold on much longer.

When Shen Yu appeared, the little girl immediately began kowtowing to him vigorously, and in just a moment or two, bloodstains had already appeared on her forehead.

"Great hero, I beg you, please save my mother. As long as you can save my mother, I am willing to be your beast of burden!"

"Little girl, get up first!" Helping the little girl up, Shen Yu stepped forward to take a look.

The person before him was merely suffering from extreme physical weakness due to hunger, compounded by having accidentally ingested something, resulting in mild poisoning.

Under this double blow, she had fallen bedridden, but it was nothing major.

"Rest assured, your mother will be fine!" Stroking the little girl's head, Shen Yu could not help but sigh at how fickle the world is.

Looking at the hands of this woman and the little girl, one could tell they were not people who did manual labor. In this day and age, even families like theirs had been reduced to such a state.

One wonders how many white bones were used to build this so-called best of eras that those fanatical Martial Artists speak of.