Chapter 166: A tiny life, striving with all its might!

"Jiaoming, his dream has come true……"

"Having finished reading, Zhao Si felt inexplicably moved:"

"The dream of the primordial era's first fierce god was merely to lay eggs with his first love, just like an ordinary bird……"

"No, he was originally just an ordinary little bird."

"Jiaoming is not an innately wise, born divine being, nor has he ever considered himself superior to all beings."

"He was just a bird orphaned from childhood, thus craving friendship, but…… who let him be born with a true spirit not belonging to ordinary creatures?"

"Born with spiritual intellect, he was destined not to play with his foolish, savage kin."

"But born ordinary, he was also destined never to fit into the circle of the innately divine."

"On neither side are they his friends……"

"After birth, coinciding with the hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix, he attracted the attention of the Primordial Phoenix due to his unique spiritual intellect; the Primordial Phoenix, intending to raise consumable material, granted him phoenix bloodline, thereafter he joined the phoenix clan and became a true slave consumable."

"Upon entering the phoenix clan, he had expected true friends and the peaceful freedom of his dreams, but instead he first became a slave master, enslaving the local beings, and then was sent to the battlefield of the War of the Three Clans."

"But he neither wanted to enslave others nor to be forced into war; his long wartime life showed him the oppression and death he most dreaded, gradually shaping his extreme aversion to war, which even affected him across three lifetimes, spanning hundreds of aeons……"

"At this moment, Hongjun's appearance gave him hope:"

"This person seems quite formidable; perhaps he can truly stop the war?"

"Thus he chose to believe in Hongjun!"

"Thus Hongjun and he relied on each other……"

"Upon rebirth and return, he could only reject Hongjun, then take the lead in slacking off on the battlefield."

"But slacking off is a crime, so when the War of the Three Clans reached its later stage, the Primordial Phoenix decisively placed him, now useless, in a deadly situation……"

"In his second life, he by chance discovered he could also awaken spirits for all beings; thus, to stop the War of the Three Clans, he began recklessly awakening spirits!"

"This effect was excellent; he successfully suppressed the three clans to an extremely weak degree, their power far less than in his previous life; had the three progenitors not seen the situation turn bad and hurriedly seized the initiative, he could almost have won from the start."

"But the three progenitors were not stupid; they quickly found a good countermeasure: since he did not want to fight, they would force him to fight!"

"Finally, seeing the three progenitors about to break through to the quasi-sage, and after being lectured by Hongjun, the broken-minded Jiaoming could only choose to sacrifice his lineage to gain enough power, hoping to pull history back onto the right track."

"He succeeded, and history returned to the right track."

"But he also failed, for those who should not have died still died; he gave it his all, yet the number of deaths did not decrease at all, amounting to no change……"

"Thus came his third life."

"But when he slew the Primordial Dragon and Primordial Qilin with the most formidable means, and caused the Primordial Phoenix to slack off, he had thought everything would be fine, yet he instead became the focal point of contradictions!"

"The great sage who guarded all spirits, yet became an old obstinate obstacle to the development of the era."

"If so many do not die, the Primordial Wasteland has no future."

"If so many die, it again amounts to no change."

"In such a dilemma, the transcendent order from Zhao Si once again became the last straw that broke his back:"

"Real? Fake?"

"He, inside the game, and Zhao Si, outside the game, again saw their differing cognitions clash."

"The result of the conflict was that Jiaoming abandoned the perfect ending and the next reincarnation, from then on completely spiraling out of control!"

"Your three lives are those of an ordinary little bird, yet they are absolutely not those of a qualified protagonist!"

"Zhao Si sighed:"

"Compared to the far-beyond-ordinary Jin Bing, who possesses great wisdom and courage, the ordinary Jiaoming is undoubtedly shown to be worthless."

"This worthlessness manifests both in his ability to advance the plot, in his cooperation with Zhao Si the player, and even more in his personal ability and mindset."

"Through three lifetimes of accumulation, Jin Bing gradually transformed from a simple-minded little flood dragon into a golden sun; when the sun rises above the Eastern Sea, the infinite radiance of the Golden Heavenly Emperor will dispel all darkness and chill."

"The golden sun always brings hope to all beings, always unites the forces of all factions, ultimately forming them into an unstoppable great trend, and riding this trend, it crushes all decay and obstruction!"

"He is the true sun, as radiant and warm as the sun in the heavens!"

"In contrast, Jiaoming, after using the True Fire of the Golden Crow, may resemble a sun, but he can only bring death and terror, being the genuine primordial era's first fierce god."

"Hope? Warmth? Light?"

"Unfortunately, Jiaoming brings none of these; indeed, he himself is the most lacking in hope, warmth, and light throughout the Primordial Wasteland……"

"A kind-hearted, benevolent little bird, yet can only become a terrifying primordial fierce god—this cannot but be called a great irony."

"As for riding the tide of the era?"

"That's even more absurd, for Jiaoming not only failed to ride the era's tide, but unknowingly stood against it, letting the tide sweep him away……"

"His cooperation with Zhao Si is just as terrible:"

"Not often asking questions is bad enough, yet he even dared to rebel, achieving what even the Golden Heavenly Emperor would not dare: directly opposing the player's orders, giving Zhao Si full intensity!"

"Jiaoming is hardly a truly capable protagonist; he is more like an……ordinary person accidentally chosen as the protagonist."

"His identity is that of the protagonist, but his ability cannot keep up; everything is like forcing ducks onto the shelves, imposed upon him; if he could manage it well, that would prove he is the protagonist, yet he cannot manage it……"

"When everything is sliding toward the worst ending, the only thing he can do is sacrifice his life, a life not worth much."

"Hmm…… perhaps it's worth a bit of money."

"【Fellow Daoist, you will surely become a sage.】"

"Obviously, Jiaoming intends to sacrifice himself."

"From Jiaoming's brief sentence, Zhao Si immediately knows what he intends to do:"

"He can only sacrifice himself."

"Previously, his true spirit was entrusted to the system, so upon death he would restart, leaving no true spirit in the original world."

"But now Jiaoming has rebelled against the system, reclaimed his true spirit, so once he dies, he will not restart again, and his true spirit will remain in the Primordial Wasteland, becoming……an offering for the birth of the Heavenly Dao."

"Zhao Si suddenly realized:"

System, did Jiao Ming intend from the start to give up restarting and choose to leave the true spirit behind?

【Yes, from the moment he knew that the wilderness must have a Dao-attainer, he had this idea, though he still hoped you could give him a win-win solution.】

Zhao Si's heart jolted.

Because he himself had not given him a usable good solution, but instead wanted him to abandon this life and choose the next, which left him utterly desperate…

「Then why didn't he oppose me from the beginning, instead waiting until Heaven and Earth Yin Yang had already slaughtered most living beings before opposing? 」

Zhao Si was puzzled; the most abstract part of Jiao Ming's actions this time lies here:

The slaughter had already claimed most, and only then did he begin to oppose…

【Because he……had compromised.】

「What does that mean? 」

Zhao Si stared, bewildered: "What do you mean by 'compromised'?"

【Simply put, he knew that forming the Heavenly Dao was the optimal solution, but sacrificing others pained him, so he moderated it a bit……】

【The result of this moderation was: the Heavenly Dao must be born, but the number of sacrifices cannot be so great; thus Jiao Ming deliberately followed your order to indulge the slaughter, but when he estimated that it fell just short of the required standard, he again opposed the order.】

【He could not achieve a better ending; all he could do was to minimize casualties as much as possible……using his own true spirit to fill the remaining gap.】

Zhao Si stared blankly:

「You mean he actually already made the best choice? 」

【For him in this life, there is no better choice……】

Jiao Ming knew he could not make this life perfect; no matter how hard he tried, he could only have one choice:

Agree to the slaughter, forge the Heavenly Dao!

Without sacrifice, without forging the Heavenly Dao, it would only lead to utter opposition to the era, causing an even more tragic outcome.

But Jiao Ming could not indulge in the slaughter without psychological burden.

So he chose to use his own true spirit to replace that part, thereby reducing the number of sacrifices, gaining his own peace of mind, and making due compensation to the victims:

He could not compensate with anything else; he only had his own life, only a single true spirit that should be relatively valuable.

He, did his best…

「A problem he could never solve, yet you insist he solve it—then……there can only be one outcome……」

Zhao Si felt numb all over:

This is not a perfect ending, but it is Jiao Ming's utmost effort after staking his life…

「Why! 」

Zhao Si couldn't help but curse:

「Trash! Don't die! Live for me!! 」

「Live for me and achieve a perfect ending!! 」

At this moment, it is exactly like that time then.

Just as the myriad schemes of Hongjun of the Second Era could not retain Jiao Ming's life…

In reality, Zhao Si likewise could not retain the life of Jiao Ming of the Third Era.

Because this is a desperate old man, after his dreams were shattered, he made the most desperate choice!

No one can stop a person whose heart is dead…

Hongjun cannot, Zhao Si also cannot.

Neither games nor reality can.

Having made all decisions, Jiao Ming only wishes to hold the grandest wedding with his first love who finally came to fruition, at the final moment of his life, to realize his most original, small, ordinary wish:

Marry, have children.

Then, face death.

……

(End of chapter)