Chapter 151

So, does this count as clearing it?

Just as Jiao Ming was puzzled, Zhao Si, seeing this, couldn't help but have a huge question mark appear in his eyes:

"Jiao Ming's fate is linked with the myriad spirits that were supposed to be sacrificed; theoretically, as the game's protagonist, his fundamental mission should be to avoid sacrifice."

So the question is, has he completed his mission now?

"Among the Three Precious Items, the eldest brother and strategist, Zu Qilin, has already been sent off early!"

"The remaining two, Zu Long, as the plot dictates, has begun to awaken his spirit, and the Dragon Clan's fire of civilization has been lit—but…… Zu Feng has laid back."

"Zu Feng's laying back caused the Phoenix Clan, originally part of the Three Clans, to vanish outright; correspondingly, she won't follow the original plan to help Zu Long slaughter his way to the Dao."

"Doing this left the ambitious Zu Long utterly bewildered……"

"No, if things keep going this way, the era of the Three Clans will instantly become a monopoly of the Dragon Clan, with no one to challenge its hegemony over the Primordial Wilderness—this is fantastic for the Dragon Clan!"

"Winning without a fight—who else could claim the title of Primordial Hegemon but me?"

"But the problem is, Zu Long's personal interests don't align with those of the vast Dragon Clan; the more hegemonic and prosperous the Dragon Clan becomes, the further Zu Long is from achieving the Dao……"

"Then what's the point of it enlightening the Dragon Clan?!"

"To be honest, Zu Long probably wishes he could drag Zu Feng over and slap her ears right now:"

"Bai Zi! Get up, old man! You damn actor!"

"However, Zu Feng remained paralyzed; no matter how desperately Zu Long roared, she just said two words:"

"Lay back."

"Next, she brought her gang of lackeys to relocate to Jade Capital Mountain, which made Zu Long's scalp go numb."

"The two terrorists lurking on Jade Capital Mountain were originally Zu Long's biggest headache; his urgency to improve stemmed precisely from wanting to eliminate Jiao Ming and Hongjun as soon as possible."

"Now it's even worse—Bai Zi's comrades have defected wholesale to the enemy camp, making things even harder."

"Zu Long doesn't even dare to go to Jade Capital Mountain voluntarily, for fear of being ganged up on three-to-one and ending up like the old ox and horse……"

"In short, this bizarre development left both Zu Long and Jiao Ming bewildered, as he suddenly realized he seemed to have achieved the set goal in a bizarre way:"

"Zu Qilin is dead, Zu Feng has laid back, Zu Long stands there numb, having enlightened a bunch of Dragon Clan slaves—all for nothing."

"... Then is there still a need to carry out the original ambitious plan to slay the Three Ancestors and save the myriad spirits?"

"Zhao Si empathized deeply with Jiao Ming's confusion, because he himself was feeling a bit dazed:"

""Zu Feng doesn't want to achieve the Dao, and Zu Long can't slaughter himself…… So does that mean no one will be sacrificed?""

""System, why not just settle things early for me?""

【……】

"Even the game system doesn't quite know what to say about this bizarre development."

"But after careful calculation and deduction, the system still gave a negative answer:"

"【Ding! System determination: player has not yet resolved all fundamental contradictions, cannot settle temporarily; please continue playing!】"

"Zhao Si scratched his head:"

""You mean…… there's still some tough work to do?""

"【Yes.】"

"Having received such an unexpected answer, Zhao Si began to reconsider:"

""The game system won't feed me false info on this—no clear means no clear…… So where does the remaining fundamental contradiction lie?""

"Tracing Jiao Ming's entire plot, Zhao Si could directly see the fundamental contradiction: only the Three Ancestors, desiring to achieve the Dao and rule the Primordial Wilderness, thus slaughtering each other."

"Other contradiction points, such as Luo Hu's slaughter of the Primordial Wilderness and the Dao Demon War, are essentially indirect contradictions stemming from this fundamental one; to resolve Luo Hu and the Dao Demon War, one need only resolve the War of the Three Clans."

"As long as the Three Clans don't keep farming kills, Hongjun won't think of fighting killing with killing, so in this round Luo Hu simply won't appear, and Hongjun couldn't land a slash even if he tried."

"Without Luo Hu, there is no Dao Demon War, thus no Heavenly Dao, and therefore no Hongjun becoming a sage or the subsequent plot!"

"That way, all future contradictions would be ended…… but the game still hasn't finished."

""So where exactly is the problem?""

……

"【Although the route is bizarre, no matter what, you have resolved the future's fundamental contradiction, thus you now live the dreamt-of free life.】"

"【On this world line, no one will be sacrificed; everyone has a bright future!】"

Apart from the ancestral qilin... you silently mourned it for a second.

Of course, you don't need to kill yourself and restart for it; using this precious item as an offering to exchange for the boundless peace and tranquility of the wilderness is simply awesome!

Old beast of burden, you died well!

Every day, you sit under the old tree on Mount Yujing, gazing at the rising sun in the east, your mood completely relaxed: this is the life you wanted, huh...

The Great Luo is the limit of cultivation; anyway, no one can reach a higher realm now, not even the Second Ancestor, not you, and certainly not anyone else.

The path ahead is cut off, but you feel no loss at all, for just as the ancestral qilin's fantasy before death, the best way to eliminate disputes is that no one can obtain that supreme benefit.

If there is nothing to contend over, then there will be no contention...

By sacrificing the future as the price, the wilderness heaven and earth have welcomed peace and harmony; how could you be dissatisfied? Besides, there's no need for anything else, a Great Luo Golden Immortal is enough.

You are very satisfied, and the ancestral phoenix is also very satisfied, because after she completely let go, she suddenly felt that life is truly wonderful!

She has a bunch of lackeys to command, a fairy mountain for her to dwell in, an easy life for her to enjoy, and even you can be her close friend...

Since it's like this, why bother scheming? Effort doesn't guarantee success, but letting go is really comfortable.

She began to adapt to this life, discussing the Dao with you, playing with the three little golden crows, and from time to time she would take them all and secretly fly out of the mountain, in your helpless gaze, flying to various places in the wilderness to play.

Grilling fish and watching the sunrise in the Eastern Sea, soaking in the molten lava of the Southern Wasteland volcano, skipping stones in the cesspit of the Sea of Blood in the Western Wasteland; during this, unintentionally knocking over a local red-clothed native, the native, in anger, just got angry for a moment...

Experiencing the might of the giant god's legacy on the Heaven-Supporting Divine Mountain in Central State, plucking stars for fun in the starry sky, seeking the end of the wilderness at the edge of the sky and sea...

She is very happy, and the three little golden crows are also very excited; after a while, their relationship becomes exceedingly good, shouting every day, 'Chief is mighty!' 'There is no second sun in the sky; in my heart there is only the chief as the sun!' and so on.

The foster father won't let us play, the foster father is bad!

The clan chief always takes us out to play, the clan chief is great!

As for this, you originally didn't accept it, fearing that raising the three little guys would ruin them, but after thinking it over: anyway, there's no need to fight the Ancestor Dragon and Ancestor Phoenix in the future, the three little guys' upbringing plan doesn't need to be so rushed, there's plenty of time, so let them play if they want to……

Perhaps the only person in the Primordial Wasteland who frowns all day is that old dragon in the East Sea.

In order to achieve the Dao, it killed its elder brother, but this only made its own attainment of the Dao distant and uncertain.

The Ancestor Phoenix does not slaughter the dragon clan, and it cannot find anyone else to slaughter; its own slaves are of Dragon Jun Immortal cultivation, basically immortal, and to gather the needed true spirits it can only stir up internal strife among the dragon clan……

But you had long guarded against this move; with the Ancestor Dragon isolated and helpless, you brought the Ancestor Phoenix straight to its door to threaten: no internal strife, govern the state well!

Not only do you forbid internal strife, you even don't allow it to tolerate slavery, forcing this "Long Aotian" to stubbornly suppress its hegemonic power……

Damn it, don't underestimate the power of hegemony!

Infuriated, the Ancestor Dragon officially started to lie flat.

Striving to govern, to rule the state well? Beat it! I, Dragon Someone, have awakened the myriad-spirit slaves, not to be their wise ruler and holy lord, but I damn am slave master! Their hegemon! Got it?

Thus, the Ancestor Dragon also lay flat……

If you won't let me practice slavery, then I'll be the Son of Heaven of Zhou…… all the princes enfeoffed, damn it, all enfeoffed!

Every second-generation dragon offspring, bewildered yet delighted, received a plot of land, then each went their own way; the Primordial Wasteland shattered politically into pieces, yet strangely became very peaceful……

Under your fine control, the Primordial Wasteland embarked on a path never imagined; the bloody war of the three clans vanished outright, the Ancestor Dragon and Ancestor Phoenix incarnated as pawns, and across the vast Primordial Wasteland, in this calm and natural way, they ignited the gentle flame of civilization.

But there is one thing that has always been on your mind: Hongjun.

Since Hongjun left back then on the pretext of seeking the opportunity to behead corpses, you have never seen him again……

You really want to bring him back and tell him: no need to strive anymore, everything has been peacefully resolved!

But no matter how you search, you cannot find where Hongjun is; it's as if he had vanished directly from the human realm.

If you weren't so certain that no super-powerful expert on the Primordial Wasteland could kill him, you'd probably think he had already died out there……

Where exactly did Hongjun go?

Whenever you happily play with Ancestor Phoenix and Di Jun on Jade Capital Mountain, this doubt arises, and you then feel puzzled about this seemingly perfect outcome of the Primordial Wasteland.

Did all the tragedies really end just like that? Did my three-lifetime reincarnation achieve victory?

You don't know; you always feel that something is off about all this, but you can't pinpoint exactly what……

Times are peaceful and good—will they really last forever?

……

(Chapter End)