Chapter 167

The worthless Jiao Ming is utterly worthless in both behavior and mindset.

"Clearly, in the next round you have a chance to achieve a perfect ending; if you can't this round, try the next—after thousands, tens of thousands of rounds, you'll surely succeed, yet you insist on keeping your life in this third round!"

Zhao Si angrily cursed this worthless waste.

He is nothing like the Golden Heaven Emperor, and cannot take a macroscopic view to regard the simulation.

But Zhao Si also understands this worthless waste's mindset:

Because for Jiao Ming, there has never been any simulation; only one real life after another.

Zhao Si let him indulge in slaughter, hoping to achieve perfection in the next life, but he couldn't do it.

This is like a person receiving 'divine guidance,' with the god telling him that slaughtering mankind can exchange for peace and tranquility in the next life.

Even if what the god says is true, how could this person wield a knife on the streets and slaughter indiscriminately without any psychological burden?

That is somewhat a psychological disorder.

The next life will naturally be real, but this life is not fake either; rather than saying the two are 'past life' and 'future life,' it's better to say they are related as parallel worlds:

Do you want to slaughter this world to exchange for the perfection of that parallel world?

If so, the people of that parallel world will naturally be grateful for your boundless merit, but how will you face this world that you have slaughtered, made into a sacrifice?

To a transcendent being, aside from the final perfect world, all previous worlds are meaningless; even that perfect world is 'fake,' because He does not live in any game world—everything is merely a game.

But Jiao Ming is a living person; he lives with clear awareness, he cannot sacrifice this life for the perfection of the next; if he must sacrifice, he would choose to give up his life.

In the second life, Jiao Ming gave up his life, but his true spirit was reborn again; to him, he felt he had deceived everyone in the second life.

So, when in the third life he again sacrificed others, the now world-weary Jiao Ming decided to deceive no one, not even himself, and resolutely walked toward true death, thereby ending this so-called reincarnation filled with sacrifice and self-numbing……

"Your self-sacrifice fundamentally does not resolve the contradiction; at best it merely means fewer people die than before."

"Using your immortal true spirit to exchange for fewer ordinary deaths…… you've made a losing deal, big time!"

Zhao Si angrily protested his lack of contention.

【Using his ordinary self to exchange for the survival of more ordinary people…… to him, it's actually a good deal, because he never considered himself noble.】

【And look, you've again separated Jiao Ming from ordinary people……】

"I……"

Having him say that, Zhao Si found himself at a loss for words.

After a long while, he quietly asked:

"So…… is his true spirit enough? What if it's less than the Ancestral Dragon……"

【Not only enough, but even exceeds it by quite a bit…… he, who always regarded himself as ordinary, has underestimated himself again this time.】

"……"

Zhao Si took a deep breath and could only helplessly look at the screen:

"Well…… then let's wait for him to set off……"

In order to resolve an unsolvable contradiction, Jiao Ming made the simplest choice:

Since he is the protagonist and everything revolves around him, if he dies, the future reincarnation worlds will cease to exist, and there will be no further sacrifices in the next life or the life after that.

The best and simplest way to resolve an unsolvable contradiction is for the very subject of the contradiction not to exist from the start……

"Since everything began with him, let everything end with him; this final imperfect world is actually more perfect than any previous one…… at least, far fewer people have died."

"System, does Jiao Ming's reincarnation storyline really have no solution?"

Zhao Si couldn't help but ask:

"Is sacrifice perhaps inevitable?"

【Yes, under the current conditions, no matter how Jiao Ming micro-manipulates, he can never resolve the inevitability of sacrifice.】

【Jiao Ming lacks this ability, and the player lacks it as well……】

Seeing the officially certified Zhao Si, he could only hang his head in dejection.

"Just……"

Suddenly, Zhao Si thought of something:

"If he dies, what about his marriage to the Ancestral Phoenix?"

"……"

"Have you considered what she will do?!"

On Jade Capital Mountain, facing the soon-to-be-married Jiao Ming, Hongjun likewise couldn't help but ask.

Jiao Ming's notion of sacrifice is not hard to guess for this intelligent person.

The usually timid Jiao Ming suddenly grew bold enough to want to marry the Ancestral Phoenix—this at once looks problematic!

And there's that line: '【Fellow Daoist, you will surely attain sainthood.】'

Attain sainthood? How? You're still missing an entire Ancestral Dragon from the formation of the Heavenly Dao!

The Ancestral Dragon, as one of the three major inheritors of Pangu's true spirit, a single dragon's true spirit equals a hundred billion ordinary true spirits; such a massive demand gap—how could Jiao Ming possibly fill it?

Without a doubt, it can only be done with his own true spirit!

Fellow Daoist, is my true spirit enough?

Jiao Ming did not answer Hongjun's question; he merely fell silent for a moment, then turned the question back on him.

Seeing Jiao Ming deliberately change the subject, Hongjun was furious, yet he patiently told him:

"The three ancestors inherited the main portion of Pangu's true spirit, and their most direct manifestation is that each can awaken a type of living being."

"Although I don't know how strong your true spirit is, since you say you can also awaken living beings, and the types you can awaken far exceed the single type of the three ancestors, that shows your true spirit is strong—at least not inferior to the Ancestral Dragon."

Jiao Ming smiled upon hearing that:

"Then I can rest easy……"

"You can rest easy my ass!"

The irate Hongjun finally seized his collar and burst out cursing:

"You want to die again, huh! You want to just give up like in your past life, huh! I want you to live!!"

Hongjun finally understood, with his whole heart, just how devastated his past self was:

This guy, whose mindset is so fragile it's unimaginable, actually keeps seeking death just because some wild grass died!

Damn it, who's born with such a divine mindset like this broken one?!

Even ordinary beings don't have someone like you!

Jiao Ming shook their head:

"Can't live..."

"You!!"

Jiao Ming suddenly said:

"Fellow cultivator, you've always wanted to know my true secret, right? Since you told me the secret of Pangu's residual thought, I'll tell you my secret."

No matter how Hongjun raged, Jiao Ming merely slowly revealed the secret they had kept for three lifetimes to him:

From three lifetimes of reincarnation, to the innate mission they bear, to that transcendent existence's "another self"……

Hongjun originally didn't want to listen, but as he listened, he gradually froze, and his gaze toward Jiao Ming became extremely complex.

After a moment's thought, Hongjun still couldn't believe it and asked:

"Is your reincarnation really to solve the problem of sacrifice?"

"Yes."

"Is there really a transcendent existence that's been giving you orders?"

"Indeed."

Hongjun looked bewildered:

"Then why don't you listen to him? He can make you reincarnate three times, which shows he can truly let you perfectly solve everything—so why don't you go achieve perfection?"

Hongjun didn't understand; since that transcendent existence wants Jiao Ming to achieve perfection, for public and private reasons he should go—after all, one shouldn't cling to the broken and deficient!

After a rough estimate, Hongjun thought that if the chosen one were himself, he wouldn't need three lifetimes—he could directly achieve a perfect ending.

Anyway, all responsibility lies with the transcendent existence issuing the orders; it has infinite chances to bear those responsibilities, while I'm just a errand‑running tool person who doesn't need to carry anything—so why not just cling to its thigh?

The more he thought, the more Hongjun felt Jiao Ming……was a waste!

How could they choose such a waste of a person to be the protagonist?

But Jiao Ming looked at him seriously:

"Do you also think I should give up this life and seek perfection in the next?"

Hongjun didn't understand:

"What else would it be? It'll definitely be perfect!"

"Perfect?"

Jiao Ming snorted:

"Even if my next life is perfect, what does that have to do with you?"

"Do you really think the next life's Hongjun is still this Hongjun? The next life's Zu Feng is still her Zu Feng? The next life's All Spirits is still the All Spirits truly living in this world?"

Jiao Ming's series of questions left Hongjun dazed; upon careful thought, he was shocked:

Exactly, why should my worldview follow the transcendent existence?

It doesn't care whether the two primordial wildernesses before and after are the same; to it, before the final perfect primordial wilderness arrives, all primordial wildernesses are just the same, with no difference.

Anyway, the names are still those names, the actions are still those actions, the plot is still that plot.

But for the beings truly living in this primordial wilderness, it's completely another matter:

I am just me—not the previous "me," not the next "me"; every "me" is a separate, independent individual.

So, what does striving for a perfect ending for the next "me" have to do with this "me"?

Everyone is essentially different people, merely regarded as the same thing by the transcendent existence because they share the same plot and name!

Sacrifice me to save "me"?

What's the difference between killing the original and then helping the clone stand in, letting it take over the original's identity?

This isn't just a bit abstract—it's overly abstract……

After realizing this terrifyingly meticulous logic, the previously indifferent Hongjun couldn't help breaking out in a sweat:

Indeed, what gives me the right to share the same worldview as that transcendent existence?!

As the protagonist, Jiao Ming naturally doesn't need to worry about others' life and death in each lifetime, since it's not him who dies.

But when viewed from the perspective of a bystander in this lifetime, a sense of horror arises:

The protagonist wants to kill their true forms, then go and laugh and play with another group of clones……

The key is, if Jiao Ming really did that, he wouldn't need to pay any actual cost.

And in a choice that originally could have been cost‑free, he chose to refuse……

Not only did he refuse perfection, he even willingly gave up his life and halo as a "born protagonist," thereafter living as an utterly ordinary person and silently dying in this final imperfect reincarnation.

That is truly a great love!

No matter how merciful and compassionate a sage, none could love humanity more than he does!

Hongjun gazed at the ever‑calm Jiao Ming, his feelings growing ever more complex……

Waste?

Fortunately he's a waste.

……

(End of chapter)