Chapter Thirty-Four: Burying the Past and Embracing a Brand-New Future (Please Vote for Monthly Tickets)
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The Star Luo army withdrew. Faced with Lu Chun, low-level Soul Masters had no power to resist and were defeated at once. The army’s officers could only look on helplessly.
War was not a matter of individual duels. High-level Soul Masters could influence a battle, but they could not determine the outcome of an entire war. The armies composed of low-level Soul Masters and ordinary people were the true key to victory or defeat.
Lu Chun had merely stood there, yet the entire situation had collapsed. The only choice left to them was retreat; otherwise, once the Dou Ling army charged forward, it would become a one-sided massacre.
From beginning to end, Lu Chun had not personally killed a single person. As for why, the Star Luo officers instinctively chose to ignore the matter. They were only left wondering when the Dou Ling Empire had produced such an existence. Once they returned home, they would report everything to the Star Luo Emperor.
It was easy to imagine that after this war, Lu Chun’s name and information would appear on the desks of countless factions. After all, the achievement of driving back an entire army alone was dazzling enough to be impossible for anyone to ignore.
The last time such a thing had happened was thousands of years ago, during the full-scale war between the Sun-Moon Continent and the Douluo Continent. That war had finally forced the great empires to acknowledge Shrek, an institution that called itself an academy but was, in truth, an empire.
Lu Chun knew nothing of the Star Luo officers’ thoughts. At that moment, he looked toward the Dou Ling camp, where not a single cry of anguish remained, and smiled.
A jet-black plant sprouted beside his feet. It soon blossomed and bore fruit, producing a black fruit that resembled an apple. The instant Lu Chun plucked it, the plant withered rapidly.
Holding the fruit between his fingers, he ate it without hesitation.
In the next moment, incomparable agony welled up within his body. Bloody wounds burst across him—slashes, burns, and even flesh that rotted and swarmed with maggots in an instant. Both his ears went deaf, and both his eyes went blind.
In the blink of an eye, not a single part of the beautiful figure remained unscathed.
His words had meant exactly what they said.
He would bear the suffering of every wounded person, and this was the price.
There was no absolute fairness in this world, but relative fairness did exist. Lu Chun had healed all their pain, yet that pain had come to rest upon his own body. That was the exchange.
Just as he had often said to the Dou Ling Emperor, the gifts of fate always came with a price marked in the unseen realm.
And this time, he had paid it.
“The people of this world ought to know of your benevolence.”
A fleeting figure appeared beside Lu Chun. Its voice reached into his heart. Feeling the immense vow contained within, the figure’s body and soul were shaken to their core.
“Kh—kh—”
Lu Chun tried to say something, but the moment he opened his mouth, half his tongue fell out, and a horrifying gash appeared across his throat.
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Yet he was still smiling. His inner voice rang out within the fleeting figure’s heart.
“If my suffering alone can fulfill the wishes of all living beings, then it is enough.”
“My god! None can know of your compassion, nor can any know of your suffering,” the fleeting figure said sorrowfully. “All living beings ought to praise you, ought to follow you, and ought to know your name!”
“My name?”
Within the fleeting figure’s heart, Lu Chun let out a gentle laugh.
“What name do I have? The Healer? Merely a borrowed title. The God of Abundance? Nothing more than a case of mistaken identity. My true name will be buried from this day onward.”
“Let it be as I wish. I will live as the person I envision, as the person all living beings hope for me to be. That, too, was my original prayer.”
At those words, admiration filled the fleeting figure’s hundreds of eyes. With deep reverence, it said, “No one can understand your compassion, but I will surely follow in your footsteps forever.”
“Very well. I will sleep for a while. By the time I awaken, most matters should be coming to an end.”
“I shall quietly await your awakening from the dream.”
…
Lu Chun’s deeds spread rapidly. After all, the miracle he had created had been witnessed by tens of thousands of people; it was impossible to conceal.
An entire army of tens of thousands of well-trained soldiers had been frightened away by one man. Anyone who heard such a thing would find it unbelievable, but the army that had returned ahead of schedule to the Star Luo Empire stood as undeniable proof. Everyone had no choice but to believe the truth.
The titles of the God of Abundance and the Healer became known among all the various factions. At the same time, the teachings of the Church of Abundance spread even farther, and believers in the God of Abundance began to appear within the Star Luo Empire itself.
Yet this trend was quickly suppressed by the authorities. The God of Abundance was branded an evil god, and the Dou Ling Empire was declared to have fallen under the control of that evil deity. What they were doing was not an invasion, they proclaimed, but a liberation.
They would send even more troops to liberate the Dou Ling Empire.
This contrived justification earned the contempt of every faction, yet they had no choice but to swallow their disgust and accept it.
Not long before, many factions that worshiped gods internally had received divine revelations. Every one of those revelations commanded them to march against the evil God of Abundance in the Dou Ling Empire. The news instantly caused an uproar.
Never before had such revelations appeared so suddenly. Everyone realized that something was wrong, but there was no time to ponder their meaning. Under the gods’ stern commands, they had no choice but to dispatch their finest Soul Masters in secret, infiltrate the Dou Ling Empire, and advance toward Dou Ling City.
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At this very moment, storms were gathering across the Dou Ling Empire.
The Star Luo army had originally intended to plunder the region before withdrawing. But when orders arrived from the rear instructing them to continue attacking cities and fortresses, they were stunned.
Was this supposed to become a protracted war?
They did not even have enough supplies to sustain one.
Their concerns were soon swept aside. The various factions entered the conflict one after another, and large numbers of high-level Soul Masters appeared. They immediately overwhelmed the Dou Ling armies, carving through one region of resistance after another with unstoppable force.
Within a mere seven days, half the cities and territories of the Dou Ling Empire had fallen beneath this assault. The remaining cities no longer possessed the will to resist. As soon as the allied forces of the Star Luo Empire and the various sects arrived, they opened their gates and welcomed them with smiling faces.
Every possible provision and supply had already been prepared for them.
It was not that there were no loyal ministers who still cared for the empire and attempted to resist. They sent messengers day and night toward Dou Ling City, hoping to persuade the Dou Ling Emperor to cross south into the rainforests, preserve his strength, and rebuild the Dou Ling Empire in the future.
Yet they soon discovered, to their alarm, that not one of the messengers they had sent returned with the emperor’s verbal decree. Even more terrifyingly, they realized that no one from Dou Ling City had appeared for a long time.
According to the enemy’s advance, large numbers of merchants and commoners who had received the news should have fled by now. Yet none had.
Not a single person from Dou Ling City.
It was as if Dou Ling City had vanished from the face of the world.
At last realizing that something was wrong, the loyal ministers panicked, utterly at a loss.
All they could do was grit their teeth and suppress their desire to serve the emperor and defend the nation. The truth would reveal itself once everything was over.
In truth, the situation in Dou Ling City at that moment was—
“Rumble!”
Violent winds and torrential rain swept through the city. Lightning flashed, illuminating the corpses sprawled within the houses, their eyes still wide with unfulfilled rage.
Rain poured from the heavens. Bloodwater flowed through the gaps beneath the city gates and spread for ten miles.
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