Chapter 49: The End of the Warring States Period

Late Warring States Period, Zhao State, Handan.

On a winter night in the first lunar month, a cold wind carrying fine snow lashed against the grey-blue brick walls of Handan City.

In a spacious courtyard within the city, a man dressed in fine attire paced anxiously back and forth, occasionally looking up at the tightly shut bedroom door ahead.

From behind the door, the intermittent moans and cries of pain of a woman could be heard.

Every cry of pain seemed to pierce his heart, causing him immense distress.

Until at one moment, the tense atmosphere inside and outside the courtyard was broken by the cry of an infant.

The man in fine clothes suddenly looked up and rushed through the door with a face full of ecstasy.

"Young Master, it's a baby boy!"

The midwife, her face full of smiles, handed over the swaddled infant.

Before he could even take hold, a strange odor mixed with the scent of blood rushed straight into his nostrils.

But Ying Zichu did not care at all, and still received him with full joy.

Zhao Ji, who had just given birth to the baby boy, weakly raised her head, also revealing a smile of joy.

"Young Master, have you thought of a name?"

"Of course, since he was born in the first lunar month, why not call him..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Ying Zichu suddenly froze, looking at the baby in his arms with some strangeness.

"Why isn't he crying?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the bedroom was stunned.

The next second, the wind and clouds over Handan changed color, and thick dark clouds rolled in from all directions, covering the sky and blocking out the sun.

"Boom—"

Lei Sheng roared, and everyone in Handan City stopped what they were doing, looking at the sky in terror and shock.

Only to see thick blue-white lightning flashing and leaping within the clouds, like thunder dragons rolling endlessly in the sea of clouds.

... Is this the Heavens showing their anger?

The people of Zhao in Handan City had never seen such violent lightning, and for a moment they were stunned on the spot, not knowing how to react.

Just at this moment, the lightning leaping in the clouds gathered rapidly, seemingly brewing an even more terrifying power.

"Boom!"

The next instant, accompanied by a deafening thunderclap, a deep purple bolt of lightning as thick as a house descended from the sky, striking down toward the courtyard in Handan City that was filled with the smell of blood.

For a moment, the entire Handan City could see that deep purple pillar of light connecting the sky and the earth.

Even so, Ying Zichu and the others in the courtyard remained completely unaware, having no idea that death was about to descend.

Until the deep purple lightning struck the eaves, the baby boy in Ying Zichu's arms suddenly opened his eyes.

What a pair of eyes they were!

Pitch-black as night, deep as an abyss, as if they could swallow everything in this world...

In fact, this was indeed the case. The moment the baby boy opened his eyes, an incomparably terrifying consciousness spread out from him, meeting the lightning striking down from the sky head-on, swallowing the entire deep purple pillar of light completely.

At the same time, arcs of purple electricity erupted from the baby boy's body.

Ying Zichu, who was holding the baby boy, was caught off guard and was struck squarely by the purple lightning, his entire body instantly turning into charcoal.

Not only that, the violent purple lightning continued to spread, striking everyone in the room into fly ash.

The entire house shattered with a bang in the purple lightning, turning into countless fragments of stone jumping with purple electric arcs, shooting out in all directions.

In just an instant, the entire courtyard was destroyed by the rampaging purple lightning.

Nearby unlucky passersby were also affected by the lightning, losing their lives in an instant.

Amidst the charred ruins, the petite baby boy's body radiated lightning, floating up as if he were a god.

Purple lightning jumped on the surface of his body, constantly washing his physique, causing his skin to gradually become plump and his body to gradually grow taller.

In just a few seconds, the baby boy who had just had his umbilical cord cut grew into a boy about 1.2 meters tall.

On that wrinkled little face, there finally appeared more clear and vivid expressions—

"Sigh..."

The boy sighed faintly, looking at the ruins beneath his feet with a depressed expression.

He just wanted to experience this trial properly; how did so many strange things happen right at the start?

Could it be that his original consciousness flooded into this world, thus causing the resistance of the world's consciousness?

This isn't right!

Does a mere virtual world have the qualifications to produce a world consciousness?

Thinking of this, the boy, or rather Lin Yu, looked up in surprise at the sky above, which was brewing lightning.

That's right, just as Lin Yu thought, this world does not truly exist.

As early as the beginning of his crossing, he discovered that all the people living in this world, whether it was his pair of cheap parents or those Zhao people outside with vivid expressions, were not true life forms.

They were more like projections from another world, NPCs possessing false consciousness.

If it weren't for this, Lin Yu would not have chosen to go head-to-head with the lightning descending from the sky, but would have adopted a safer method, such as moving everyone in this courtyard to another location...

Of course, even knowing that this was a virtual space similar to a real illusion, Lin Yu had no intention of flipping the table right from the start.

The reason why such a thing happened was mainly because he didn't expect that after the lightning was swallowed by his consciousness, it could actually emerge from his body!

This shows that the body he is currently in is not real flesh and blood, but spirit-side matter that can be influenced by consciousness.

This point has already been verified when Lin Yu tried to temper his body with lightning.

"Boom—"

Accompanied by a deafening roar, the dark clouds in the sky continued to brew lightning, with no intention of giving up at all.

Lin Yu frowned, pondering why this situation was happening.

First of all, this is a trial, and the world consciousness should be considered the invigilator.

So now the question arises, what kind of behavior must a candidate perform to cause such intense targeting by the invigilator?

The answer is undoubtedly—cheating!

Thinking of this, Lin Yu's consciousness spread out, instantly covering the land of Huaxia, discovering that all NPCs in the entire world were ordinary people, and there was no such thing as extraordinary power at all.

So... is it that his consciousness is too strong, strong enough to easily interfere with the entire world, and thus was regarded as cheating by the invigilator?

Lin Yu's face darkened, and he immediately landed on the ground, restraining his consciousness, and looked at the sky.

Sure enough, the lightning brewing in the dark clouds weakened a bit, but it still didn't disappear.

Lin Yu pondered for a moment, feeling that it must be because he used lightning to temper his body, which was already difficult to reverse.

"So there's no room for negotiation then..."

Lin Yu sighed and said.

The next instant, a deep purple bolt of lightning as thick as a house struck down with a bang.

Lin Yu's consciousness swept over, instantly swallowing the lightning, and glared at the sky, saying: "You were the one who wanted to pull my original consciousness over just now, and now you're the one who thinks my original consciousness is cheating—what, can't afford to play?!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The dark clouds did not speak, only blindly striking down lightning.

Lin Yu laughed out of extreme anger, and while facing the lightning striking down from above, he said:

"Fine, fine, fine, you won't let me play, right?"

"Then nobody plays!"

Before the words had even faded, Lin Yu's body radiated lightning, and he shot into the sky. A terrifying consciousness spread out from him like a tide, sweeping across the sky for a hundred miles in an instant.

In just an instant, all the dark clouds were swept away, the deep purple lightning was annihilated inch by inch, and even space itself seemed unable to withstand Lin Yu's consciousness impact, cracking into pitch-black and narrow fissures.

This was just the beginning, because Lin Yu had no intention of stopping at all.

Thus, the sky collapsed and tore apart in his gaze, and the earth trembled and roared under his will.

The entire world seemed to have fallen into hell, with scenes of doomsday disasters everywhere.

"Boom—!!"

Accompanied by a deafening roar, the earth cracked into huge fissures like canyons.

Looking down from above, the entire land of Huaxia was covered with pitch-black abysses like spider webs, and the spatial fissures spread rapidly in all directions with the sky over Handan as the center, swallowing everything like a hot knife through butter.

Palaces shattered, houses collapsed, rivers stopped flowing, and mountains crumbled.

All the NPCs living on this land, before they could react to what had happened, had their false bodies wiped out by that terrifying consciousness fluctuation, returning to nothingness once again.

In just three minutes, the entire world was completely destroyed under Lin Yu's consciousness impact.

All matter disappeared completely, leaving only an empty, dead, and pitch-black void in its place...

Lin Yu floated quietly in this void, looking at the pop-up window that had disappeared from his mind and sighed.

Just when he thought this trial had completely failed, a brand-new pop-up window suddenly jumped out from the chat box—

"Obtained stage achievement 【Defeat Zhao State】 【Defeat Wei State】 【Defeat Yan State】..."

"Obtained clearance achievement 【Unify the World】 【Four Seas Become One】..."

"Obtained special achievement 【Standardize Tracks】 【Standardize Script】 【Standardize Ethics】..."

"Obtained ultimate Easter egg achievement 【Dominate the Universe】!"

【Detected that clearance conditions have been met, rating SSS】

【Congratulations to group member 'Lin Yu' for being promoted to Administrator!】

(End of chapter)