Chapter 256: and translation of title

"An De Lu, do you think you deserve their kindness and loyalty?"

Ji Ming raised his hand as if to applaud, but he stopped before making a sound.

……This behavior is too much like a villain's.

Moreover, he didn't need to stage any kind of entrance; his very appearance was enough to leave the other side stunned.

An De Lu instinctively kept stepping back, wanting to convince himself that meeting Ji Ming here was a coincidence, but the smile on his face clearly meant otherwise.

"How strange, why am I here?"

Speaking, Ji Ming's right hand made a grasping motion, and a strange iron rod over two meters long appeared in his hand.

It was the deadly weapon that let the mountain folk's iron hammer lose horribly tonight; a light touch of the finger could cancel ten years of hard training—a devil.

Although An De Lu was in the wilderness, he was still half a noble and not lacking in vision; such a thing had never appeared elsewhere, only……

!!!

He widened his eyes, about to shout, but realized he didn't know when Ji Ming had grabbed his shoulder.

He stared into his own eyes, the brown-black pupils gradually dilating; before his consciousness was completely sucked in, the last thing An De Lu heard was.

"Come, An De Lu, count your sins."

Darkness, chaos, not knowing how long had passed, An De Lu pulled his thoughts back from the vortex.

He found himself lying on the ground, his nostrils filled with……the scent of burning agarwood?

Before he could turn his head to see where he was, he heard the familiar voice again.

"An De Lu, do you know how many chances I've given you?"

Ji Ming!

"Damn it, what the hell……"

He angrily climbed up from the ground, only to find this place seemed to be a small mound made of stone.

Ji Ming sat cross-legged to the side; in the strange brazier beside him stood several sticks of agarwood cut into rods, now quietly burning and giving off a faint blue smoke.

He heard An De Lu's somewhat awkward cursing and wasn't annoyed; instead he added another stick of incense to the brazier.

"If you had fled straight after provoking me, I might still have spared your life for the sake of the bigger picture, after all nobody's life is easy."

"But you insist on doing otherwise, jumping around in front of me again and again, constantly refreshing your sense of presence, especially……the things in Thus Place: Dixiaseng."

All that before could be understood, but when An De Lu heard those last few words, he sucked in a breath of cold air.

"You……"

"Yes, I did it."

Ji Ming immediately smiled slightly.

"And that's not all."

"Your stored supplies are what I stole."

"Your underground warehouse is what I burned."

"Your foolish Galami was framed by me."

"Everything you lost or went missing on the underground plains was behind my machinations."

"Including everything that happened tonight!"

"The Pioneers are a force of order I cultivated myself; their purpose is to kill scum like you down to lonely widows and widowers, so your camp location was also handed to them by me!"

!?

After suffering repeated setbacks in just a short month, Sheldon, Bals, Johnson…… An De Lu had actually suspected everyone around him.

He even suspected himself! Wondering if he had forgotten something, inadvertently provoked something, causing one or more experts to bear a grudge against him.

Yet he never suspected the divinely ordained order of holy light, which seemed never to hold grudges, never to get angry, refined and easygoing, with charm off the charts—Ji Ming, the Chosen of the Divine Light.

But the reality is, Ji Ming personally admitted everything; overwhelmed by the massive truth and unbelievable facts, he could only tremble with his tongue.

"But……"

"But? But everything about me is fake! You told everyone everything about me is a lie, because on that night I killed three people I had already prepared to blow up with you!"

"But I'm a good person; if I could, I wouldn't want to kill, so I restrained myself, tried to look at Sunshine City with my own eyes, to look at you lot, these named beasts, hoping to find even a sliver of a reason for you to survive."

"But guess what? I found only reasons to kill you! I copied, you lot each truly deserve to die! Truly deserve to die!"

Saying this, Ji Ming suddenly sprang to his feet and poured out from his spatial ring a heap of metal trinkets that looked painful just to behold.

"I've been waiting for this day a long time; I've read many history books, flipped through piles of data, and crafted many bizarre torture devices!"

"I will make you pay; I will seek justice for the innocents and children you tortured to death; I will carve your wails into every inch of your flesh and bone!"

The metal's cold gleam was like starlight snatched away by dark clouds, but the golden light that unintentionally flared in his eyes outshone the sun.

"Damn it, I'll make you break medical miracles! Damn it, I'll make you turn dung beetles into climbers right where you stand! Damn it, I'll make you……"

Having scolded to this point, Ji Ming suddenly stopped cursing because he couldn't help laughing.

"Dean An, why are you scared like a quail? I thought you'd come at me with the anger of being deceived and trade three hundred rounds of insults."

"I……"

An De Lu, already slumped on the ground, tremblingly lifted an arm, trying to gain a sense of safety in such a ridiculous way.

"Ji Ming, Chosen of the Divine Light, please don't kill me; I know I was wrong, I now know my past sins, I will definitely learn to be a good person, I……"

But before his tearful, rambling plea for mercy was finished, Ji Ming grabbed his wrist and cut him off; the words were sincere and urgent.

"Come on, Dean An, if you just give in like that, doesn't it mean the so-called birthright nobles are all paper tigers?"

"Please pull yourself together, or else I won't feel any sense of accomplishment when I kill them later!"

But An De Lu's psychological defenses had been completely shattered; he could only slump in place, babbling.

——Ji Ming's prepared heart‑piercing words hadn't even been spoken when he lost his chance to appear.

"Tsk."

So he could only sigh.

"All right, I'm just scaring you. I'm a good youth of the new era who lives under the red flag and grows up in the spring breeze. Even the deep-seated blood feud of our ancestors can be generously given a swift death to our mortal enemies. If I resort to these tactics, how am I any different from the barbarians?"

He kicked a box containing surgical blades down the hilltop, and Ji Ming looked around.

"Do you know where this is? This is one of the important turning points in my life. It's here that I gained the first trust from the Yangyue World, and also obtained…… well, a place of dragon prosperity."

"I felt back then that this place was practically a natural grand tomb, perfect for burying some big shots that make a lot of noise—like the final boss of a certain internal testing stage. Not burying them here would be a waste, so……"

He grabbed An De Lu's neck and dragged him to the large hole that Xi Er Wei Ya had previously made at the top.

"Are you ready, friend, to say goodbye to the world?"

"Wait, I……"

An De Lu wanted to struggle, but the side effects of the stacked magic and Ji Ming's forty-four points of strength left no doubt, allowing only a weak plea.

"I…… I can die, but you must remember…… them……"

"Don't let their sacrifice gather dust, don't let their reputation be stained?"

An De Lu didn't expect Ji Ming to answer so comprehensively, and quickly nodded.

"Yes! Yes!"

However, Ji Ming's face again regained that half-smile expression.

"But why should I help you do this?"

"Or rather, as a bunch of evildoers who finally die at the hands of the oppressed rising up, how can their deaths be called 'sacrifice,' and where does their 'reputation' come from? I seem unable to defend something that doesn't even exist."

Such a crisp denial left An De Lu speechless again, but just as he despaired, Ji Ming spoke once more.

"So I will plainly lay out your actions before the world for them to judge, whether your lives have been vile or noble."

It was only a few steps to the cave mouth, so Ji Ming soon set An De Lu down.

"Do you have any last words?"

An De Lu opened his mouth, then finally shook his head.

"Good, I do."

Saying this, Ji Ming leaned in and whispered to his ear.

"Kuilinna, I will personally report your death to her."

"What?"

An De Lu, who had lain limp like a rotten mass on the ground, was jolted as if by electricity and began a frenzied struggle.

"Ji Ming, I forbid you to go find my mother, damn it, you beast!"

All he got in return was Ji Ming's merciless kick, sending him straight into the dry grass and fire oil prepared in advance in the cave.

"Oh, you still know how to get angry then—feel this moment's state of mind to the fullest!"

He lit another stick of incense wood, and Ji Ming chuckled as he tossed it down.

Inside had already been filled with tinder by him; just a few sparks directly burst into intense flames.

"You beast, how could someone like you possibly be lawful good? You're clearly…… ah!"

Amid the roaring flames, An De Lu's curses gradually turned into wails, finally fading amidst the incessant crackling of burning wood.

Ji Ming watched for a while, and only after confirming that the other had turned into merit added to the "Righteous Qi Nurturing Body Technique" did he softly ask.

"A warrior profession near level thirty thrown into the furnace to burn—could it possibly yield elixirs in the end?"

……

"Asking you."

【Uh uh, how could I possibly know something like that? I'm not an encyclopedia; I'm just a pitiful world consciousness that wants to make some money in high dimensions and therefore must vigorously develop e-commerce.】

"Then when I just killed him, did you have the ability to stop me?"

……

"Speak."

【Definitely not.】

【The entire 'Fourth Heavenly Calamity' plan relies on your high-dimensional energy to proceed; the only thing that could stop the plan's operation, the 'System,' has been contaminated by your high-dimensional knowledge from the start, so I've lost control over the plan and can only spout empty talk……】

"In other words, if I choose to take some more extreme lines, such as using large-scale slaughter or other decrees to enforce my will by force, you also have no way at all?"

【……No.】

Thus Ji Ming nodded.

"That's why I will use force cautiously."

"Actually I've always regretted killing three people in a row that night, because killing is addictive; this simple, brutal solution quickly becomes a crutch, and once I get used to solving everything by killing, the 'Fourth Heavenly Calamity' will truly become a calamity, and I will truly be an executioner who's not considered a war criminal as long as I win."

"But the fact proves that not killing won't do; there are too many people in this world who won't shed tears until they see a coffin, and being soft-hearted only emboldens their arrogance—like many in Sunshine City—so killing An De Lu is my second killing, and it certainly won't be my last."

【I will support you.】

"Huh? How would you know what I want to ask?"

Yangyue: Because I've looked over all your browsing history and saved games.

【Because if you make a major decision mistake, perhaps many will die, but if you didn't exist…… everyone in the Yangyue World would already have entered a countdown to death.】

After a moment of silence, Ji Ming asked again.

"Then who is our enemy?"

【Look at the moon.】

This string of blue text made Ji Ming furrow his brow, gradually lift his head, and actually discover……

"What the hell, the moon already set!"

【Uh, indeed.】

【Well, it's a group of cosmic invaders from beyond the Yangyue Star, a group of mechanical lifeforms that will fight us to the death, determined to destroy the Yangyue civilization.】

……What is the Purity and Rectification Agreement? Turns out everyone really is playing Stellaris.

"Wait, if they really are mechanical lifeforms, then with their nonstop troop production, shouldn't they have already crushed you guys who can't even develop an extraterrestrial civilization?"

【Theory is indeed like that, but they simply lack that ability……】

Using some precious historical footage, Yangyue and Ji Ming gave a detailed explanation of Yangyue World's past.

Before the surface matters were settled, no civilization would have time to gaze at the stars; the Yangyue Star tens of thousands of years ago was no different.

But just as several magic empires were still fighting each other on the surface, a fleet of interstellar warships from outer space descended.

Yet this group of mechanical lifeforms possesses very high technological prowess, but their strategy and tactics are extremely foolish.

Destroying one nation right at the start was indeed fierce, but it also forced the Yangyue States to unite against the outside, essentially creating a strong enemy for themselves.

Moreover, what this so-called Extinction Child Machine brought was apparently not a complete expedition fleet—lacking a capital ship as the main damage dealer, and many warships suffered irreparable severe damage, losing many important functions.

Thus, the infantile Yangyue Civilization actually fought to a draw with this dying adult, an extremely tragic draw.

——Having lost the vast majority of its population, the Yangyue Civilization was beaten back to the Stone Age, and the Extinction Child Machine also lost all its warships, becoming adrift in the cosmos.

But the Yangyue Star also has a moon; the remaining extinction machines fell onto the moon, attempting to remodel it into their own stronghold.

In the time that followed, they repeatedly launched wars of destruction against the Yangyue Star, or, before being destroyed themselves, kicked the Yangyue Civilization back to the Stone Age.

And the awakened will of the Yangyue Star also began self-preservation efforts, from selecting heroes to summoning time travelers, even personally intervening to modify the planetary rules.

In the time that followed, it repeatedly led the civilization to defend against the Extinction Child Machine's attacks, or, once the civilization gained the ability to reach space, took the initiative to strike in hopes of a permanent solution.

But, nothing is that simple.

Wuhu, on the eve of New Year's, sent Director An off happily with effort.