April 1, 2018

Facing the gentle warm breeze, Wang Jiu stood atop the peaks south of Shen City, the White Sword in his hand emitting a low hum.

Then, the Sword Spirit’s true form walked forward on a thick carpet made of blood, flesh, and bones, feeling the rich scent of blood in the air. Wang Jiu once again confirmed his judgment about the Chaos was not mistaken.

The power of the Chaos is weakening, not only in quantity but also in the essence.

This time, he delved into the mountains once more and slew over three thousand demonized creatures. By comparing the results with the previous time, he preliminarily concluded this.

Chaos is weakening, albeit at an imperceptible speed, but this process might have been ongoing for ten thousand years.

As early as the Jiuzhou Era, cultivators conducted in-depth research on the "Chaos" beyond civilization’s borders. Although they never fully unraveled its mysteries, through this research, they mastered theories like virtual-real conversion and Chaos unification, which greatly facilitated human expansion. In this process, people clearly recognized that, on the one hand, the expansion of civilization required the weakening of Chaos in both quality and quantity; the weaker the Chaos, the stronger the civilization. However, on the other hand, excessive weakening of Chaos would expose the Jiuzhou Continent to unknown risks as the boundless Chaos encasing the Jiuzhou Continent also served as a protective wall, isolating the Jiuzhou people’s view of the outside and vice versa.

However, at that time, the Immortal Cultivation Civilization on the Jiuzhou Continent was at its peak. According to the Myriad Immortals Alliance’s annual report on Jiuzhou, the construction progress of worldly paradises on the Jiuzhou Continent was 62% complete, and the ultimate ideal of everyone attaining immortality was within reach. Therefore, Jiuzhou people were assertively advancing in expanding territory and eliminating Chaos, throwing all kinds of wondrous Immortal Techniques and Immortal Treasures into the fray, stirring up great waves in the infinite Chaos. Those forbidden techniques, untestable on the Jiuzhou Continent, seemed to have found a natural testing ground.

Although some scholars expressed concern, suggesting that such aggressive stimulation could trigger a chain reaction leading to unpredictable changes in the surrounding Chaos of the entire Jiuzhou Continent, this assertion was quickly dismissed as sensationalist and did not gain attention.

Later, the Demon Race descended, utterly destroying human pride in just a few months, making everyone realize there are always stronger opponents. Simultaneously, as the Immortal Demon War broke out completely, the Jiuzhou Continent fractured, laws were twisted, and civilization began rapidly integrating with Chaos. Like bait being thrown in, Chaos power surged, during which the Jiuzhou Continent was riddled with Chaos Battlefields, and the nature of Chaos changed drastically beyond human theoretical understanding. Many feared that even if they were lucky enough to win the Immortal Demon War, the surviving humans would be unable to withstand the Chaos backlash.

Fortunately, as per current observations, the most pessimistic predictions have not come true. After the Immortal Demon War ended, Chaos power entered a recession phase, allowing humanity to survive and preserve the spark of civilization amidst Chaos’s encirclement.

But to Wang Jiu, this process seems somewhat unreasonable. Before the final battle with the Great Demon God Emperor, the Jiu Immortal Venerables had led a team to project post-war reconstruction issues, with the rise of the Chaos tide being the foremost concern. Human’s prolonged reckless colonization had initially made Chaos prone to intensification, paired with the sudden weakening of civilization’s power, making Chaos’s power unstoppable.

The sole solution considered back then was, when the Chaos tide surged, to throw in the Celestial Divine Sword to reverse fate — this Divine Sword had already created a miracle in the Immortal Demon War, so it shouldn’t mind making another one.

Now, it seems a miracle indeed occurred, although not performed by Wang Jiu himself, Chaos undoubtedly is in decline... However, this raises another unresolved question, such as...

"Mr. Wang Jiu!"

The sudden voice of a young girl interrupted Wang Jiu’s thoughts.

Turning his gaze, he saw a familiar face running through the mountains several miles away.

"Good morning, Shen Ying."

"Wow, Mr. Wang Jiu, I’m impressed you could spot my location at a glance and remember my name! Just now, I chatted with Sister Wanqing, and the girl by her side, Chaolu, couldn’t remember me, haha."

This outstanding graduate of the Shen Family Outer Courtyard seemed greatly encouraged, hastening her steps like a girl running to a date, until she stepped into a thick, muddy patch of flesh and blood and let out a sharp cry.

"Whoa, what’s this!?"

——

A few minutes later, Shen Ying hovered in mid-air, her face pale as she sipped Clear Heart Tea in small sips to recover from the recent mental shock.

"...I had heard you came here to hunt Demons, but I truly didn’t expect you’d make the scene so... spectacular."

Looking at the blood and flesh carpet spanning several miles in front of her, Shen Ying felt that she really shouldn’t have come here looking for someone. She realized that for a long time to come, she shouldn’t count on eating anything peacefully, and with that thought, Shen Ying couldn’t help but sigh.

"I really admire you now."

Wang Jiu found this remark immediately grating. In the past during the Jiuzhou Era, even when he was still human, he often heard people express their respect this way. However, after such sentiments, it typically ended up in a big brawl, even forcing him into a killing spree. Later, through the explanation of the Jiu Immortal Venerables, he learned that human society often used a rhetorical device called irony—praise on the surface, but in essence, it was akin to swearing. When those people said they really admired him, it could be translated to something like fucking his whole family.

Wang Jiu felt profound regret over humanity’s obsession with such an inefficient mode of communication, but he understood the need to do as the Romans do. Since he lived in human society, he had to respect local customs. Since Shen Ying put it that way, Wang Jiu had no choice but to play along.

"You are also quite remarkable and worthy of admiration."

Shen Ying blinked in surprise. "Ah? Uh, thank you."

Wang Jiu suddenly understood—seems like there wasn’t going to be any swearing at his family here. According to the Jiu Immortal Venerables, if his response didn’t provoke outrage or cause quirky, sarcastic behavior, it meant normal communication was possible.

"What do you need from me?"

Shen Ying said, "It’s the City Lord’s Mansion that has something needing Mr. Wang’s attention, but when you’re at the Chaos Battlefield in the city’s south, magic couldn’t reach you, so they had to send a living person as a messenger. I was unfortunately caught by Sister Wanqing, and she lumped together my earlier truancy using the Void Clarity Body, so I had no choice but to make this trip... didn’t expect to witness such a magnificent sight."

As Shen Ying lamented with her back turned, she couldn’t help but recall in her mind the layer of thick, warm, blood and flesh wriggling like a living thing, and her stomach churned violently...

"Sorry, I’m really not feeling well—I’ll go on ahead, ugh ugh ugh..."

——

When Wang Jiu returned to Shen City, he was somewhat surprised to find that there was no reception party. He had no idea who from the City Lord’s Mansion wanted to see him and what for.

Just when Wang Jiu was contemplating whether to call the overworked Shen Qingming out for questioning, suddenly a young girl wearing a pale yellow dress hurried over from not far away. The girl had an average build and appearance, only displaying a hint of cuteness from youthful vibrancy, with a round badge on her chest bearing the large character "实" (intern), indicating her identity—a City Lord’s Mansion intern.

Since the comprehensive restoration of diplomatic relations between Shen City and QingCyan Cloud yun City in early March, the Shen City Lord’s Mansion had entered a tight overtime season. A massive amount of work piled up instantaneously, like an earthquake, daunting everyone, especially since the City Lord closed off entirely and the Deputy City Lord withdrew into seclusion, causing a significant drop in work efficiency, making everyone busy to death. Consequently, the visiting QingCyan team was reluctantly drafted into handling the relevant work.

The QingCyan people had no complaints, though. Being involved in this grand strategy affecting the future centennial strategic structure of the two cities gave them an advantage. Many commercial agreements, with just a percentage change, would mean millions of Spirit Stones gained or lost, and during this time, the QingCyan people certainly weren’t being polite.

However, despite all this, the workload was still unmanageable. After several work secretaries in Shen City ascended into Buddhas due to overtime, the QingCyan work group also began to experience unusual reactions. For instance, a young man named Li Xinyu, after many days of overtime, was mistakenly identified by the identity recognition array due to significant weight change as an unknown cultivator when clocking out from the City Lord’s Mansion, setting off alarms, and he was beaten senseless by the War Elephant Legion’s security warriors and thrown into a cell, only to be released two days later...

Left with no choice, the City Lord’s Mansion started recruiting interns, handing a large amount of basic work to vibrant social groups, and this girl in yellow was one of the interns hired by the City Lord’s Mansion.

"Mr. Wang Jiu? Finally got to you. I have a very important document here that needs your review and signature—please handle it as soon as possible." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

While speaking, she handed over a document.

Wang Jiu nodded to express understanding. He had done quite a bit of this recently. In this era of universal overtime, he got appointed various small team leader titles. Although he didn’t need to do anything, quite a number of documents required his signature. They say it’s so that if anything goes wrong, they could point fingers at him, but considering Wang Jiu’s formidable strength, no blame could truly stick to him, thus creating a perfect blame-shifting cycle where everyone wins.

Under normal circumstances, Wang Jiu wouldn’t care too much about the details of the documents, but with just one glance at this one, he looked up at the unfamiliar girl and said.

"There’s a problem with this document, Qian Yue."