Chapter 1 Living

{ "translation": "March, early spring.\nIn a corner of the eastern part of Nanhuang Continent.\nThe sky was overcast, a dark gray, heavy with oppression, as if someone had spilled ink on rice paper, dyeing the heavens and blurring the clouds.\nThe clouds piled high, intertwining, releasing streaks of crimson lightning, accompanied by the rumble of thunder.\nIt was like the roar of a deity echoing in the mortal realm.\nBlood-colored rain fell, bringing sorrow to the world.\nThe earth was hazy, and a city that resembled a ruin lay silent in the dim red blood rain, devoid of life.\nWithin the city, broken walls and decaying remnants were everywhere, with numerous bluish-black corpses littering the ground, like shattered autumn leaves, silently wilting.\nThe once bustling streets were now desolate.\nThe sandy roads that used to be filled with people were now silent.\nOnly the blood-soaked mud mingled with scraps of flesh, dust, and paper, indistinguishable from one another, a shocking sight.\nNot far away, a broken cart was deeply sunk in the mud, a discarded rabbit doll hung from the yoke, swaying in the wind.\nThe coarse white burlap had long been soaked red, eerie and strange.\nIts murky eyes seemed to harbor a trace of resentment, staring forlornly at the mottled stones ahead.\nThere, a figure lay crouched.\nIt was a boy of about thirteen or fourteen, dressed in tattered clothes, covered in dirt, with a worn leather bag tied to his waist.\nThe boy squinted, motionless, as the biting cold wind seeped through his ragged outer garment, chilling him to the bone, gradually sapping his warmth.\nYet even as the rain fell on his face, his eyes remained unblinking, coldly fixed on the distance like a hawk.\nFollowing his gaze, at a distance of seven or eight zhang, a gaunt vulture was pecking at a wild dog's carcass, occasionally glancing around vigilantly.\nIn this perilous ruin, it seemed that the slightest rustle of wind would send it soaring into the sky.\nAnd the boy, like a hunter, patiently awaited his opportunity.\nAfter a long while, the opportunity arrived; the greedy vulture finally buried its head entirely in the wild dog's belly.\nIn an instant, the boy’s squinted eyes gleamed with cold light.\nHis body shot out like an arrow released from a bow, darting towards the vulture, as he swiftly drew a black iron rod from his leather bag.\nThe tip of the iron rod glimmered with a sharp, cold light.\nPerhaps sensing the killing intent, the vulture immediately noticed as the boy lunged forward; startled, it flapped its wings to take off.\nBut it was too late.\nThe black iron rod, propelled by the boy's emotionless force, transformed into a black streak, shooting out.\nPfft!\nThe sharp rod instantly pierced the vulture's head, shattering its skull, killing it on the spot.\nThe tremendous impact sent its body tilting down, landing with a thud on the nearby cart.\nThe blood-soaked doll beside it swayed even more violently due to the cart's tremors.\nThe boy's expression remained calm, his speed never faltering as he approached, grabbing hold of the vulture's corpse along with the iron rod.\nThe force was so great that it lifted a small chunk of the cart where the iron rod had impaled it.\nAfter completing these actions, he did not look back and sped away along the edge of the street.\nAt that moment, the wind seemed to grow even stronger, and the blood-soaked doll on the cart swayed as if watching the boy's departure.\nHe moved farther and farther away.\nThe wind indeed grew stronger, bringing with it the cold of the rain, brushing against the boy's thin garment.\nHe couldn't help but shiver, his brows slightly furrowing as he huddled into his collar, inhaling sharply.\nHe hated the cold.\nAnd the way to resist the cold was to find a sheltered place to rest, but at this moment, the boy running on the street showed no sign of slowing down, as dilapidated shops flashed by his eyes.\nHe had little time left.\nBecause hunting the vulture had taken too long, today, he still had one place left to go.\n\"It shouldn't be far now,\" the boy murmured to himself as he sped along the street.\nOn his way, corpses of bluish-black were scattered everywhere, their hopeless faces contorted in grimace, seemingly transformed into an aura of despair, trying to infect the boy's spirit.\nBut the boy had grown accustomed to it, not sparing them a glance.\nAs time passed, he occasionally glanced at the sky, a hint of anxiety flickering across his face, as for him, the change in daylight was more terrifying than those corpses.\nFortunately, not long after, when he spotted a pharmacy in the distance, the boy breathed a sigh of relief and dashed toward it.\nThe pharmacy was small, with many medicine cabinets scattered across the floor, giving off a musty smell, like a tomb that had been opened, filled with chaos.\nIn the corner lay the body of an old man, his entire body bluish-black, leaning against the wall, seemingly unable to close his eyes, staring vacantly at the outside world.\nThe boy stepped in and took a quick glance before beginning to rummage through the place.\nMost of the herbs here, like the corpses, had turned bluish-black, but only a few remained normal.\nAmong these normal herbs, the boy spent a long time carefully identifying.\nAs if recalling past experiences, he finally picked up a common herb known as Golden Wound Grass, took off his thin clothing, revealing a large wound on his chest.\nThe wound had not yet fully healed, with the edges already starting to blacken, and some blood seeping out.\nThe boy glanced down, crushed the herb, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and began to apply it to the wound.\nIn an instant, the pain surged like a tidal wave, crashing over him, causing his body to tremble uncontrollably, but he forced himself to endure, though the sweat on his forehead couldn’t be suppressed, falling drop by drop onto the dark ground.\nIt became a blurred ink.\nThe whole process lasted over ten breaths, until he had completely applied the herb to the wound, the boy seemed to suddenly lose all strength, leaning against a nearby medicine cabinet, taking a long while to catch his breath before slowly putting his clothes back on.\nLooking again at the sky outside, he pondered for a moment before taking out a tattered map from his leather bag and carefully unfolding it.\nThe map was simple, depicting this city.\nThe locations of the pharmacies had all been marked, and in the northeast direction, many areas had been crossed out by someone’s fingernail, leaving only two areas unmarked.\n\"After searching for these days, it should be in one of these two areas,\" the boy said hoarsely, mumbling to himself, putting the map away and preparing to leave.\nBut before he left, he glanced back at the old man’s corpse, his gaze falling on the clothing of the corpse.\nIt was a leather coat, perhaps due to its special material, the degree of decay was not great.\nThe boy thought for a moment, walked over, took the coat off the old man's body, and put it on himself.\nThe coat was a bit big, but after wrapping around his thin body, the boy finally felt a hint of warmth, so he lowered his head to look at the old man's open eyes, raised his hand gently to cover them, allowing them to close.\n\"Rest in peace,\" the boy said softly, tearing down the curtain in the shop to cover the old man's body before turning to leave the pharmacy.\nAs he stepped out, a glimmer of light reflected in front of him; the boy looked down to see a palm-sized shard of mirror in the blood-soaked mud.\nIn the mirror, he saw his own face.\nThe face reflected in the broken mirror, though covered in dirt, still faintly revealed a very handsome countenance.\nHowever, it lacked the youthful innocence befitting a boy of thirteen or fourteen, replaced instead by cold indifference.\nThe boy silently gazed at his reflection in the ground, and after a long while, he lifted his foot and stepped on it.\nWith a crack.\nCracks appeared.\nAfter shattering the mirror beneath his foot, his body swayed, and he darted away.\nOn the ground, although the broken mirror was covered in cracks, it still reflected the vast face of the heavens, as if shading the world, covering all beings, resembling the half of a vast human face, the remnant of a deity.\nThe remnant face closed its eyes coldly, high above, with only a few withered strands of hair hanging down.\nThat was a natural existence in this world, akin to the sun and moon.\nUnder it, all beings were like ants, and just like the awakening of spring, all things growing phenomena were influenced by it, compelled to change.\nAt this moment, the sky was gradually losing its light under this divine remnant.\nThe shadow of the setting sun was like black haze, spreading within the city's ruins, covering the earth, as if it were going to swallow everything.\nThe rain grew heavier.\nAs night gradually engulfed everything, the wind howled, sending sharp wails through the air.\nIt resembled the screams of vengeful spirits, awakening the eerie existence within the city, summoning a series of chilling sounds that seemed to snatch away one’s soul.\nThe boy, running faster, moved with greater urgency, weaving through the streets amidst the impending darkness.\nUntil, when he passed by a collapsed house and was about to leap away with a push, his pupils suddenly constricted.\nOut of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone among the ruins not far away.\nFrom a distance, this person appeared well-dressed, seemingly uninjured, sitting there against the wall.\nMost importantly, the skin exposed from this person's body was of normal color, not bluish-black!\nSuch a figure, in this city, unless alive, could not possibly appear!\nAnd the living... the boy had not encountered a second one in these days, aside from himself.\nThis scene jolted his spirit, and he quickly seemed to recall something, his breath becoming slightly hurried.\nHe wanted to approach, but the black night behind him was already closing in like a fog.\nThe boy hesitated, memorizing the position, and hurriedly left.\nHe raced back, finally reaching his temporary dwelling in this city before the night caught up with him.\nIt was a burrow, small and filled with bird feathers.\nThe gap at the entrance was small, too small for an adult to squeeze through, but the boy could barely fit inside.\nOnce inside, he skillfully blocked the entrance with stones and books found in the burrow.\nAt the moment he filled it completely, the black night swiftly covered everything outside.\nThe boy did not let his guard down, gripping the iron rod tightly in his hand, holding his breath, squatting there and listening for a long time.\nGradually, the howls of strange beasts and shrill cries came through, occasionally mixed with eerie laughter.\nUntil a clearer howl echoed, and amidst the boy's tension, the sound seemed to pass by, gradually fading; only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and sit down.\nThe burrow was pitch black, and the boy silently sat there, time seemingly stopping at that moment.\nHe sat in a daze for a while, calming his frayed nerves from the entire day, then grabbed a water bottle nearby and took a few sips, ignoring the sounds outside, taking out the vulture from his pocket.\nIn the darkness, he bit down on it, piece by piece.\nA fishy and bitter taste surged in his throat, but he calmly swallowed it down slowly, forcing the food into his stomach.\nAnd at this moment, his stomach was also working hard, trying to digest and relieve the hunger.\nSoon, he had consumed an entire vulture, and the boy took a deep breath, waves of fatigue washing over him, his eyes slowly closing.\nBut in his hand, he gripped that black iron rod tightly, like a feigning-sleeping lone wolf.\nIt seemed that any anomaly would cause him to instantly open his eyes.\nAt this moment, outside the burrow, the night hung like a curtain, covering the city, the earth, and this vast sky.\nThe world beneath the sky was extraordinarily vast, with the Nanhuang Continent merely a part of it.\nFew knew the true extent of the entire world; only the commanding remnant face in the sky, exuding a strong intimidation, could be seen by all when they looked up.\nThe exact time this remnant face arrived was lost to history.\nPeople only knew from fragments in some ancient texts that a long, long time ago, this world, filled with the essence of immortals, was prosperous and vibrant, until... this enormous remnant face, from the depths of distant voids, brought destruction and drew near.\nIn the process of its approach, the beings of this world exhausted every means to stop it, but all failed; ultimately, only a few ancient emperors, abandoning all beings, chose to migrate with some of their kin.\nNot long after, the remnant face arrived, hovering in the sky, and from then on, nightmares descended.\nThe aura from it spread throughout the entire world, infecting mountains, seas, all things, and beings, even including the spiritual energy that cultivators relied on for their practice.\nAll things withered, beings perished, and only one in a hundred survived.\nFrom then on, those who managed to survive this catastrophe referred to this half of a human face as... the deity.\nThey called this world the End Soil, and the place where the ancient emperors migrated was known as the Holy Land.\nSuch titles have been passed down through multiple epochs, generation after generation.\nAnd the disasters brought by the deity were not limited to these; its majesty constantly suppressed all beings, because...\nEvery few years, or even decades or hundreds of years, it would randomly open its eyes once, for a brief moment.\nEvery time it opened its eyes toward an area, that place would be instantly polluted by its potent aura.\nLife would be reduced to ashes, becoming an eternal forbidden zone.\nOver multiple epochs, the number of forbidden zones in this world has been increasing, while the habitable areas have been dwindling.\nAnd nine days ago, the deity opened its eyes once again, and the area it gazed upon was precisely where the boy was situated.\nWithin that area, all species and the dozen human city-states were instantaneously polluted, whether in the city or the slums outside; they became life-restricted zones.\nUnder this terrifying pollution, some beings directly decomposed into blood mist, some mutated into mindless beasts, while others had their souls scattered, leaving behind polluted bluish-black corpses.\nOnly a very few humans and beasts managed to survive.\nThe boy was one of them.\nAt this moment, outside the pitch-black burrow, with a shrill sound approaching from afar, the sleeping boy swiftly opened his eyes.\nThe iron rod in his hand instinctively lifted, warily looking toward the blocked entrance gap.\nUntil that shrill sound circled nearby and gradually faded away, the boy finally breathed a sigh of relief.\nAwake now, he touched his leather bag and took out a bamboo slip.\nIn the darkness, he felt the characters on the bamboo slip, a glimmer of light appearing in his eyes, then straightened his posture, closed his eyes, and adjusted his breathing.\nThe boy's name was Xu Qing, who had lived a hard life alone in the slums outside this city since childhood.\nIn the sudden catastrophe nine days ago, he hid in a crevice, and unlike other terrified and crazed people, he calmly watched the deity open its eyes in the sky, observing the peculiar cross pupils in the deity's gaze, seemingly devoid of fear.\nUntil he saw a purple light descend from the heavens, landing in the northeastern area of the city.\nIn the next moment, he fainted.\nUpon waking, he became the only survivor within and outside the city.\nBut he did not leave immediately.\nBecause he knew that the forbidden zone formed by the deity opening its eyes would initially be shrouded in blood rain, turning into a barrier.\nThose inside could not escape, nor could those outside enter, unless the forbidden zone was fully formed.\nAnd the sign of its formation was when the blood rain stopped.\nTo Xu Qing, growing up in the slums, this catastrophe seemed insignificant.\nBecause in the slums, whether it was a variety of vagabonds, wild dogs, or a disease, even a cold night, could lead to losing one’s life at any moment, making survival a difficult struggle.\nAnd as long as one was alive, everything else seemed trivial.\nOf course, amidst the slums' brutality, there were occasional glimpses of warmth.\nFor instance, some down-and-out scholars would teach a group of children to read and write for a living, and occasionally draw some biological totems for them, some from the land, some from the sea. Besides that, there were memories of family.\nHowever, in Xu Qing's mind, the memories of his family had gradually blurred with the passage of time, even though he tried hard to recall, fearing he might forget, it still became more and more indistinct.\nBut he knew he was not an orphan; he had family, just long lost.\nSo his ideal was simply to survive.\nIf he could live a little better, and have a chance to see his family, that would be even better.\nThus, he, who had narrowly escaped death, chose to enter the city.\nHe wanted to go to the residences of the lords in the upper city, searching for the rumored methods that could make him stronger, and he also sought the purple light that fell into the city.\nThe path to becoming stronger was a long-standing tradition in the slums, desired by all, referred to as cultivation, and those who mastered the methods of cultivation were called cultivators.\nThus, becoming a cultivator was Xu Qing's greatest wish, aside from the memories of his family.\nCultivators were not uncommon; Xu Qing had seen such people enter the city from a distance in the slums over the years.\nTheir typical feature was that when stared at, one would instinctively feel a shiver.\nXu Qing even heard someone say that the city lord was a cultivator, and the guards around him were also cultivators.\nSo after searching within the city for a long time, five days ago, he finally found this bamboo slip on a corpse within the city lord's mansion.\nIt was very dangerous there; the wound on his chest was left from that time.\nThe bamboo slip recorded the cultivation methods he