Chapter 1

In an ordinary day of the Primordial Wilderness demon calendar year 365, epoch 7, period 2, in the southern sea area of the East Sea, the Demon Court's subordinate second‑rank sea tribe—the Golden Flood Dragon Clan—had its queen and a flood dragon egg.

In the southern sea area of the East Sea in the Primordial Wilderness, the Demon Court's subordinate second‑rank sea tribe, the Golden Flood Dragon Clan, had its queen and a flood dragon egg.

A flood dragon, the father king, and the mother queen.

Zhao Si, an unemployed youth, looked at his cheap rental house, instant‑noodle bowl, and phone screen.

"Damn! Could this damn game have stolen my personal data to target me precisely?"

Zhao Si, a left‑behind child, thought of Duke Zhuang of Zheng and Zheng Wusheng.

And this little game was something he casually downloaded while waiting for his instant noodles, intending to kill boredom, but instead it dealt him a telling blow.

"Fine, fine, fine! I want to see what's fun about your simulator; if you can't impress me, you can get lost from my phone right away!"

Nervous, Zhao Si swallowed saliva, then planned to open the door and flee, but desperately, the rental's door lock seemed to have suddenly been welded shut, refusing to turn no matter how he twisted it……

Zhao Si didn't even think and decisively chose B.

"If I can't oppose the slaughter, then I'll start slaughtering!"

Zhao Si exclaimed in shock, realizing that the simulator game could not be uninstalled and even the exit button was missing—clearly it was infected.

Under the patronage of the sages, the human race, having cultivated its strength for years, noticed a weakness in the Heavenly Court's high‑level forces and, with the sages' open or covert support, launched a vengeful war, slaughtering demon tribes everywhere.

You are dead; your wrong choice led to a bad outcome—or maybe not, because you know that regardless of whether you once supported the order to slaughter humans, you cannot escape the wrath of the blood‑red‑eyed humans who will implicate you, so you regret it—you should have killed more humans back then.

Zhao Si stared wide‑eyed, having barely eaten a few bites of his instant noodles, when his character suddenly died.

"Trash game!"

Perhaps heaven took pity on you; your aptitude is not bad, and in just a few days you reached the first stage of the Hongjun Immortal Way—the True Immortal, which is inherently immortal. You can't tell whether it's the cultivation method that's excellent or the Primordial Wilderness's innate spiritual energy that's just too high‑end.

Zhao Si felt a sudden jolt in his chest and finally realized he had probably encountered some supernatural event.

Born as a worthless three‑hundred‑something flood‑dragon prince, your value is no greater than that of the many sons of Prince Jing of Zhongshan; your parents didn't even bother to give you a name, at family gatherings you're just a go‑between among your older siblings, merely making up the numbers, and you grew up with the solitary, withdrawn personality of a left‑behind child, able to talk only with a few equally obscure brothers and sisters, leaving you nothing but cultivation.

Gurgle.

"Nonsense, I'm part of the human race—of course I oppose the slaughter!"

"Infected with a virus? Holy shit!"

He had just looked it up on Baidu and knew that one yuan equals twelve hui, one hui equals thirty yun, one yun equals twelve shi, and one shi equals thirty years, so one yuan is 129,600 years; he noted that these large time units—yuan, hui, yun—are impractical for humans but fit perfectly for the immortals roaming the Primordial Wilderness.

"Whether to speak or not, this is actually a Primordial Wilderness‑style simulator that uses the yuan‑hui‑yun time units instead of years, months, and days."

Zhao Si was so angry he clicked uninstall right away, but then something strange happened:

He couldn't uninstall it.

One day, purple qi came from the east for ninety thousand li, the Heavenly Dao manifested its boundless power, heavenly flowers fell and earth lotuses sprang up; as you stood bewildered, a goddess's voice echoed through heaven and earth: "I am Nüwa, I now create humanity, and my merit has made me a sage."

Your life faces a directional choice: A—defy heaven and follow the Heavenly Court's edict to slaughter; B—go with the flow and oppose the killing of humans. Which do you choose?

The human race, less than a thousand years old, was utterly unable to resist the Heavenly Court's myriad demons, natives of the Primordial Wilderness who had existed for billions of yuan‑hui cycles; under the Demon Court's led massacre, their numbers plummeted, and wails and wandering spirits filled the Primordial Wilderness.

【The newly born human race, less than a thousand years old, was utterly powerless against the Heavenly Court's myriad demons—the hundreds of millions of indigenous of the primordial wilderness—and under the Demon Court‑led massacre their numbers plummeted, leaving the primordial wilderness filled with wails and wandering souls.】

You chose A, deciding to defy heaven and abuse humanity, going along with the Heavenly Court's tide, and began the slaughter.

So no matter what, Zhao Si would definitely choose B.

Life is determined by directional choices; your option was wrong, so you died before reaching a thousand years old, and by the dragon race's coming‑of‑age cycle you were still an immature dragon.

Soon after, Taiqing, Yuqing, Shangqing, and the Western sages Jieyin and Zhunti successively established their teachings, attained the Dao and became sages, so that all six sages of the Primordial Wilderness had achieved sagehood.

The next moment, the story branch generated by that wrong option vanished as if it had never existed, and the two choices reappeared on the screen.

Your life faces a directional choice: A—follow the Heavenly Court's edict to slaughter; B—oppose the killing of humans. Which do you choose?

The Wu‑Yao war broke out at Mount Buzhou; the Twelve Ancestral Wu perished, the Heavenly Emperor Donghuang fell, the heavenly pillar snapped and the earth's cords severed, whereupon Nüwa stepped forward to mend the heavens.

After many more years, Di Jun suddenly issued an abnormal order to all the races of the Primordial Wilderness to launch a bloody crackdown and slaughter on the humans created by Nüwa, and the Golden Flood Dragon Clan also took part in obedience to the imperial command.

In the final years of the Demon Court, the Twelve Ancestral Wu, formed from Pangu's essence blood, dissatisfied with the Demon Court's upper‑class oppression and discrimination of the broad middle and lower classes, used the Demon Court's unwarranted slaughter of humans as a pretext, officially led their people to break away from the demon race, established themselves as the Wu Clan, created Wu script, instituted Wu law, set up the Wu Court, openly allied with the human race, and together rose up against heaven—infuriating the Demon Court and bringing war to the brink.

The humans' extreme‑revenge methods were brutal: they slaughtered any demon who had ever taken part in the order to kill humans, regardless of age or innocence—one demon killing a human would bring vengeance on its whole family, a clan leader killing a human would see the entire clan exterminated, the death toll was incalculable, and the myriad beings of the Primordial Wilderness were reduced by over seventy percent; without the sages' intervention, the Primordial Wilderness would have been utterly exterminated.

【The extremist vengeful means of humanity are brutal, often sparing neither old nor young, right or wrong; any demon race that had participated in the slaughter-of-humans order was exterminated—one demon killing a human would bring vengeance upon his family, a clan chief killing a human would see the whole clan cut down, the number slain beyond count, and the myriad races of the primordial wilderness saw their numbers drop by more than seventy percent; were it not for the sages intervening, they would truly have been utterly wiped out.】

"What the hell, I just died?!"

The heaven‑ordained protagonist was about to die; the Heavenly Dao flew into a rage, unleashing boundless calamities upon the demon race, while the human race's fortune surged, heavenly prodigies kept appearing in dire straits, and with the sages' protection the clan's lineage remained unbroken, its foundations gradually accumulating.

Soon you were brought before the Heavenly Judge, who publicly sentenced you for treason against your clan, collusion with demons, disloyalty, filial impiety, defiance of orders, and consorting with humans—multiple crimes piled up, heinous and unforgivable; the authorities ordered your execution, stripped you of your demon registration and all demon rights, and immediately dragged you to the demon execution platform for the lawful punishment.

【Soon, you were tried by the Celestial Judge of Justice, publicly pronounced guilty of "treason against the race", "consorting with demons", "disloyalty", "filial impiety", "defiance of orders", "colluding with humans"…—multiple offenses combined, heinous beyond measure, unforgivable! The authorities sentenced you to beheading, stripped you of your demon registration, deprived you of all demon rights, and immediately escorted you to the Demon‑Slaying Platform for open execution!】

"What choice do I have?"

The Primordial Wilderness never counts years; you were lost in the thrill of your cultivation rising, and in a single yun of time, when you opened your eyes you had already reached the second stage of the Hongjun Immortal Way—the Celestial Immortal—a level so common in the Primordial Wilderness that it's not worth boasting about.

Moreover, if he's read Primordial Wilderness novels well, the Demon Court's slaughter of humans is itself a heaven‑defying evil that directly caused the demon race to lose the protagonist's fortune, allowing humans to take over.

Moreover, if his reading of the primordial wilderness novels is any indication, the Demon Court's slaughter of humans is itself a heaven‑defying atrocity, directly causing the demon race to lose its protagonist's fortune and thus be supplanted by humanity.

Yes.

Zhao Si steeled himself and chose option A, this rather extreme choice:

As for you, you had long ago perished together with the old and young of the East Sea Golden Flood Dragon Clan at the hands of mighty humans, becoming a mere historical footnote; in your final moments your eyes held only a resentful young Daoist stranger and the ancient scroll in his hand, suffused with chaotic qi, on which two playful little fish—one black, one white—could be seen chasing each other.

【As for you, you had long since perished together with the entire clan of the East Sea Golden Flood Dragon at the hands of a mighty human expert, becoming a historical footnote; in your final moments, your eyes held only a resentful‑looking unfamiliar young Daoist, and in his hand an ancient scroll suffused with Chaos‑tinged qi, on which could be faintly seen two small fish chasing each other happily, one black and one white.】

Zhao Si angrily opened the lid of his instant noodles, ate them while playing the game, and muttered:

And so you continued your cultivation…

After a brief mental preparation, the indignant Zhao Si had no choice but to sit back at the small table and examine his phone closely.

【After this slaughter, myriad races lost their courage, and humanity formally took the position of protagonist of heaven and earth; yet the slaughter was excessive, and myriad spirits bore grudges—any demonic cultivator who achieved success, even if merely a herbivorous animal or a plant that had become a spirit, would have to devour a person each day, called "avenging ancestral enmity"; all spirits came to regard such beings as demons, sharing enmity toward humanity, and the accumulated resentment of demons and humans would affect countless generations, adding endless suffering……】

At the moment when the Golden Flood Dragon Clan eagerly answered the Heavenly Court's edict to slaughter, you, of royal blood, denounced it as a chaotic command, urged refusal to obey, and pressed your father to side with humanity, proclaiming that humans are the heaven‑mandated protagonists, whose protection brings great merit; you advised treating humans as dogs, sparing no cost, and together raising an army to topple the false emperor of the Demon Court.

Attempted to power off and restart, but it simply could not be turned off; Zhao Si took out a steel needle, pressed the power-off hidden hole, then tried to remove the battery, but that also had no effect.

【In the moment when the Golden Flood Dragon clan actively responded to the Heavenly Court's slaughter edict, as a royal bloodline you, however, denounced this as a chaotic order, should refuse to obey the edict, and earnestly advise your father king to turn toward the human race, proclaiming that humans are the protagonists of Heaven's Mandate, protecting them will bring great merit, suggest clearly taking the role of a dog to the humans, sparing no cost, jointly raise troops to slay the false emperor of the Monster Court!】

"Not bad, the production team is quite cultured…"

Fingertip lightly fell on the screen, and the story, following the master's will, steered into that branch:

【You chose B, decided to follow heaven and answer to the people, opposing slaughter.】

【Humanity this kind of heinous genetically modified cloned species, how come it hasn't been slaughtered clean? Slaughtering it clean would be great, the Heavenly Emperor is right! In the instant before being obliterated by the chaotic qi flow, you resentfully think……】

……

(End of chapter)