Chapter 192: Immortal, you can perish!

【Ding! You again feel overwhelming remorse for killing people, so you choose: (?)】

【A: Self-destruct, just go for it! B: Continue the slaughter, but it's advised you first follow the process!】

Zhao Si: ……

"You little brat, you've truly become a genius!"

Faced with Xue Xiaohei once again going through the process, Zhao Si was already numb:

This kid, ever since he decided to use suicide to escape guilt and express his support for life equality, has been pulling this stunt all the time.

Actually, to be honest, Zhao Si feels there's absolutely no need to go through this forced process, because that bunch of worthless scum aren't worth dying for—each cultivates immortality by eating people, using mortal lives as stepping stones for their own ascension and longevity; no matter how you look at it, they shouldn't be seen as human anymore!

And how could life equality be meant for this bunch of worthless scum to use?

Just slaughter them all, destroy them!

But helplessly, this kid is obstinate; even though the other side is obviously no longer human, he still insists on following the process—after killing a certain number, he self-detonates to pay with his life, then restarts and continues killing.

Could it be that he truly believes in life equality?

Zhao Si somewhat dares not believe it, after all Xue Xiaohei has always considered himself an extremist—how could such an extremist believe in life equality, believe in a life for a life…

To be frank, Zhao Si doesn't believe it.

"For him, a life for a life may no longer be a decision made out of belief in life equality; rather, it's more like… a kind of persistence."

A strange persistence—clearly he is the protagonist, the world revolves around him, and he deeply knows he and others are not equal…

Yet he still persists in a life for a life, and has turned it into a process, a necessary process.

"Perhaps you're trying to remind yourself to never set foot on the wicked path of despising others' lives…"

Evil is evil, demon is demon.

Xue Xiaohei admits he is a demon, but refuses to think he is evil; in his eyes, the true evil path is actually the Orthodox and Demonic Paths!

Placing life above others, he recklessly uses people as provisions and consumables.

Is this immortality? Is this demonhood?

Xue Xiaohei is willing to call it only evil!

"Evil corresponds to 'oblique'; immortality twisted into evil means the immortal way has gone askew, become crooked, turned into the evil path… this is the primordial heaven and earth of an evil path."

The immortal way has ceased, the evil way flourishes; faced with such a filthy world, what is Xue Xiaohei's answer?

Answer: Destroy, utterly destroy!

So he is neither an immortal of the orthodox way nor an evil of the crooked way.

But rather… an obsessive, extreme demon!

"Since immortality has taken the evil path, let's use demonhood to destroy it!"

"Choose A."

【You chose option A, self-destruct, just go for it!】

【You chose self-destruct amid myriad remorse, using life to repay life…】

【You died, the wrong choice led to a wrong ending… genius! Come on!】

【Should time be rewound, returning to the previous life node?】

"Yes!"

【Time has already been rewound…】

【……You again feel overwhelming remorse for killing people, so you choose: (?)】

【A: Self-destruct, just go for it! B: Continue the slaughter, but it's advised you first follow the process!】

"Choose B!"

【You chose option B, continue the slaughter, but it's advised you first follow the process!】

【Faced with yet another cave-heaven blessed land whose entire clan has been slaughtered, you return from the reset and sigh: truly, I don't know when this slaughter will ever end…】

【You are thirty years old now; up to this point, you have already passed through over a hundred countries; upon entering each, you replicate your hometown's operation: first slaughter all orthodox and demonic cultivators of the nation, then raze every cave-heaven blessed land.】

【Finally, you slaughter the corrupt officials and emperors of the mortal world like dogs, replace them with a somewhat capable new emperor, and let him govern the nation well.】

【With this routine, the more you play, the more adept you become; speed increases, while patience dwindles.】

【In your home country, you spent a full eight years, because besides needing to slaughter everywhere, you also had to cultivate daily, often even bringing clouds and rain for the people and driving away floods!】

【But after going abroad, your patience ran out, for you are not here to be the sun, but to be thunder—thunder needs not bring light and hope to the world, only to use the harshest means to strike down all heaven-defying scum!】

【So the more you do, the faster you get: the first country took eight years, yet in the following fourteen years you actually cleared over a hundred countries…】

【Of course, aside from your duties, you never neglected cultivation—after attaining True Immortality in just three days at age eight, you, now thirty, are only a step away from Heavenly Immortality!】

【This is an astonishing speed—even the Golden Heaven Emperor of old needed a full 360,000 years to first attain Heavenly Immortality, whereas you, in the Age of Dharma Decline, have merely taken a little over twenty years to touch its threshold…】

【Such speed, even placed in the Mythic Age, would be remarkably explosive!】

【You don't know much about the difficulty involved, merely attributing the cause to primordial power, believing it is primordial power that makes your cultivation speed extremely fast.】

【Hmm, very reasonable!】

【At least you've convinced yourself…】

【Feeling sentimental, you strike this corpse-strewn cave-heaven immortal realm with a palm, instantly flattening the fine mountains and waters that have survived since the Mythic Age.】

【You've done this sort of thing hundreds or even thousands of times already; everything is long since second nature.】

【"What a pity…"】

【Suddenly hearing a sigh, you startled, turned your head, and saw a Daoist.】

【The Daoist had a face like polished jade, a light and agile build, his plain Daoist robe adding an ethereal grace, bearing an immortal sword on his back, a ruyi at his waist, drifting about like a true immortal…】

【No! He is a true immortal!】

【You, who have been bullying weaklings all the time, suddenly encounter a fellow true immortal of equal rank, making your heart tighten instantly; you can clearly sense his formidable aura.】

【Yet seeing you nervous, the Daoist laughed heartily: "You, who have slaughtered tens of millions of orthodox and demonic cultivators and razed thousands of cave-heavens, an absolute supreme demon—would you even be afraid?"】

Hearing him say that, your eyes widened: this person knows quite a bit about you; it seems they've been following you for a long time...

You came from the immortal realm?

In the stalemate, you furrowed your brows and asked, your first reaction being "hit the junior, the senior comes," thinking he was an old ancestor from some cave-heaven in the immortal realm, sensing the severance of the Dao lineage, and had come specially from the immortal realm to take revenge...

But, you guessed wrong.

No, I am a true immortal of the mortal realm.

His answer surprised you: aren't cultivators here supposed to go to the immortal realm after becoming true immortals? How can there be true immortals in the mortal realm?

He laughed heartily: aren't you also a true immortal who stays in the mortal realm?

Fellow Daoist, may we sit and discuss the Dao?

The Daoist sincerely requested a Dao discussion with you; you hesitated a bit, after all, in theory he is also one of your slaughter targets, an enemy, and for these filthy enemies who cultivate by eating people, you don't want to say much to them.

Besides, what if it's a trick?

You pondered for a moment, and your gaze fell again on the seven-colored little bird perched on your arm...

Good.

With the primordial force providing you confidence, you calmly accepted the other's Dao discussion request.

Thus, the two sat opposite each other in this ruined cave-heaven blessed land, and you also, for the first time, communicated with a true immortal on equal footing...

In the ruins, the two sat facing each other; the surrounding dilapidation did not affect their communication.

I am called Jingxin Daoren; how should I address you, fellow Daoist?

The white-robed true immortal asked with a smile.

……

Xue Xiaohei furrowed his brows upon hearing that; it wasn't that he looked down on the other, but rather he had no Daoist title, being a pure wild cultivator, his name not even fit for refined halls...

But he still opened his mouth and said:

"Xue Xiaohei."

"... Xue... Xiaohei."

Jingxin Daoren's mouth twitched:

"The Great Dao is simplest…… fellow Daoist, your comprehension is extraordinary……"

Feeling embarrassed, Xue Xiaohei didn't want to continue on this issue, and only seriously asked:

"No need for small talk; what exactly do you want?"

Hearing this, Jingxin Daoren also couldn't help but become solemn:

"Fellow Daoist… I have noticed you for over ten years; these many years, I've seen you slaughter one cave-heaven blessed land after another, and in the mortal realm you've helped establish a new order—what do you intend to do… I think I already understand."

"You cannot bear to see cultivators using mortals as nourishment, so you wish to slaughter a bright and vast universe, don't you?"

Xue Xiaohei stared at this person in surprise; that someone was actually observing him, and what they observed was correct, which made him quite novel:

I originally thought they were all heaven-defying treasures, but now it seems there are also enlightened people—at least someone feels that eating people is wrong…

"Yes."

Xue Xiaohei had nothing to hide:

"The immortal way twisted into the evil way; cultivators take mortals as material, refined cannibalism is the righteous path, wanton cannibalism is the demonic path—but since both involve eating people, righteous and demonic are essentially the same."

"Such a cultivation world is entirely built upon mortal lives as its foundation; I naturally ought to exterminate it altogether!"

"Fine ambition!"

Jingxin Daoren immediately applauded and praised, but then shifted the topic:

"But now is the degenerate age; heavenly and earthly spiritual energy has long been depleted. If you truly overturn the universe, wouldn't the immortal way in the world be cut off?"

Xue Xiaohei hesitated not at all:

"Such an immortal way harmful to all beings—even if it is severed, what of it?"

"You…"

Jingxin Daoren's pupils contracted; shocked, he was speechless for a long while, but still said:

"This is an ancient Dao lineage passed down from the Dao Ancestor…… you sever it like this—aren't you afraid the Dao Ancestor will send down the Purple Heaven Divine Thunder?"

"What's the Purple Heaven Divine Thunder to me?"

Xue Xiaohei said disdainfully:

"At worst it's just death! Moreover, the Dao Ancestor had best not know the current state of the immortal way; if he knows that immortals cultivate by eating people and remains indifferent, that is condoning it, which only proves the Dao Ancestor also deserves to die!"

"You!"

Jingxin Daoren was completely terrified by this madman:

"Even daring to scold the Dao Ancestor—truly a lunatic!"

"A lunatic is a lunatic, but at least He shows up to express an attitude."

Xue Xiaohei didn't care:

"I'm not afraid of death; I only fear that He pretends to be dead! The world has come to this point, yet the Dao Ancestor ignores it, the Six Saints are like blind men, and Jin Bing and Xuan Du are even more oblivious to life or death…"

"Since they don't care, I'll take charge—starting from the mortal realm, governing in my own way!"

Upon these words, Jingxin Daoren's body and mind trembled!

He wasn't afraid; he was excited:

"Finally… finally someone is willing to step up and say no to this fucked-up world!!!"

……

(End of chapter)