Lin Chuan’s laughter echoed in the cave, and the whole place shuddered.
Stones continued falling on Meng Chao and Qin Hu’s heads, hitting them, but the laughter was what filled their hearts with disappointment and sadness.
Lu Siya’s strength was sapped by the laughter, and she lay limp on the ground. “Then, after you came back, why did you say that you want to take revenge for Lu Silian and cried while you fought? You even became the Weeping Reaper because of it.”
“It’s just for show,” Lin Chuan said with a smile. “The entire squad died, but I survived. If I didn’t make it seem like I’m filled with sorrow and look as if I’m suffering from PTSD, what would Lu Silian’s father and the leaders of the Lu family have thought? Would they blame me for not taking care of her like the dog that I am? Her father could destroy my future with a single finger, so how can I not take revenge for Lu Silian?
“Even if I was really crying, not a single drop of my tears would have been for the Crystalline Nine-headed Dragons. I only cry for myself, Whitey, and my real kindred, because we’re deceived, enslaved, and suppressed by you. My heart aches and cries for us.”
“…” Lu Siya was silent for a while before she suddenly sucked in a sharp breath and said in disbelief, “But you joined a few squads later on to chase after the White Spirit, and your whole teams were nearly wiped out because of it. You only ever saved one or two people. Were those all acts put up by you and the White Spirit?”
“That’s right,” Lin Chuan said coldly. “Ever since I gained my epiphany, I swore that I will control my own fate. I will not let anyone step on me. I will become stronger, and I will do everything to become stronger!
“But compared to all of you lucky people who are born in rich families and have all sorts of cultivation resources within your reach, the cultivation resources I have in my hands are just too few. Shen Yulong was right. Compared to the expensive resources, talent is nothing!
“No matter how hard I train, my foundation is too weak, and gradually, my strength can’t match up to my ambitions. This was very obvious during my university years. If it continued, the distance between me and the rich people would just continue widening.
“So, I tricked some of the rich people to come into the wild with me and worked together with Whitey to get rid of them. Then, Whitey ate them while I took their weapons, medicine, treasures, and all the valuable resources.
“Of course, I didn’t do that every time. Sometimes, Whitey used its wisdom to lure a large group of monsters into my trap. There were even a few times when she pretended to be severely injured by me in front of witnesses so it would look as if she could be killed with just one more blow.
“Like that, with Whitey’s help, I obtained a lot of resources, and my strength grew by leaps and bounds. My fame rose, and as my character as the Weeping Reaper was set, more connections, forces of power, and resources came to my doorstep on their own.
“And with my help, Whitey broke through the shackles of the Illusion Wolves. She evolved into a Hell Beast and turned into an infamous middle-grade superbeast in Shattered Starlake and Graveyard Forest.
“Do you understand now, Siya? Whitey and I are comrades who fight together. It’s impossible for you to sow discord between us.”
“Lin Chuan, I didn’t expect for you to turn out like this.” Lu Siya’s voice quivered. “How could you cast away your humanity and act without boundaries?!”
“You’re wrong, I do set boundaries,” Lin Chuan said seriously. “First, I always choose my targets carefully. I only pick those rich people who treat themselves as superior. After all, they’re not the same type of people as I am. When I kill them, it’s no different from them killing monsters. I’ve never hurt a single normal person.
“Second, every time before I take action, I conduct a test. I use a treasure like the blue agate-like crystal and work together with Whitey to stir up the selfishness, greed, and bloodlust and the other dark sides of humanity lurking in their hearts.
“Did you know, none of the rich people ever managed to pass the test? There were a few times they even ambushed me to steal the ‘treasure’ from my hands. Hahaha! That ugliness definitely makes you wonder what is the difference between humans and monsters after you see it. Perhaps humans are just monsters and there is no difference between us!”
Lu Siya lowered her head and used her messy hair to hide her face. Her shoulders trembled as she spoke in a choked up voice. “I get it now. The clash between Shen Yulong’s team and my team was a test.”
“That’s right, you saw it too. How many people died in Whitey and my hands, exactly? Most of the people died because of their own greed, selfishness, and fear,” Lin Chuan said coldly. “Because of their greed, they became selfish, and because of their selfishness, they became fearful.
“They wanted to kill others, so they thought that others wanted to kill them too. They were ready to do anything to get the Red Radiance Jade mine, and because of it, they thought that others would do the same.
“Siya, I thought that you would be different from Lu Silian, but in his mission, aside from the way you treat me, you’re the same. You follow the rules of the Crystalline Nine-headed Dragons and care only about your own interests.
“Heh. Honestly, my junior brother warned all of you about it, didn’t he?
“If you had preserved a bit of your naivety, kindness, and true humanity like Meng Chao and believed that humans should not kill each other, everyone would not have needed to die.
“But a pity, Siya, you didn’t listen to Meng Chao’s warning. You killed them, and then they killed themselves!”
While Qin Hu listened to the conversation as he leaned against the wall, he cast Meng Chao a glance. There was puzzlement on his ugly face.
Meng Chao shrugged at him. “That’s what everyone says. I’m famous for being naive and kind. What can I do about it?”
Meanwhile, Lu Siya spoke in despair on the cliff. “So, I didn’t pass the test and I can only end up as food for the White Spirit?”
A conflicted look appeared on Lin Chuan’s face.
“Siya, you can choose not to believe in me, but among all the rich people, you’re the only one I can’t bear to hurt,” he mumbled. “No matter what you treat me as, I’ve always regarded you as my friend.”
“Before today, I’ve always treated you as a friend as well.” Lu Siya gritted her teeth. “And that’s the greatest mistake in my life!”
“I know that I’m a demon that wears the skin of a human in your eyes right now, but I hope that you can believe me when I say that unless there was no other choice, I wouldn’t have wanted to drag you into this.
“Why were you so ambitious and decided to run underground in search of the Red Radiance Jade mine? You don’t know just how important it is to my dream!” Lin Chuan said in anguish.
Lu Siya was stunned. “Your dream?”
“I told you about it when we were discussing our wages.”
Lu Siya’s eyes went wide, and she said, “The matter about expanding and upgrading Blessed Happiness Street Elementary School? Are you sick, Lin Chuan?! If that’s your dream, you could have built the best elementary school with the profit you’d get from the right to mine Red Radiance Jade and my help! Your neighborhood children would have all enjoyed the best education. There was no need for you to do all these things!”
“You’re right. If I were just aiming to upgrade Blessed Happiness Street Elementary School, the pay from this mission and the money I saved over the years would have naturally been enough. At most, I would just need to beg for help from you and your father,” Lin Chuan said gloomily.
“But how many schools like Blessed Happiness Street Elementary School are in the slums of Dragon City? They’re all worn down and don’t have enough teachers and resources. They can’t even provide two nutritional meals filled with spirit energy every day.
“Blessed Happiness Street Elementary School produced a Weeping Reaper and received donations from bigshots like you, so it has become brand new. But what sort of education would the children of normal households in other areas can enjoy? How are they supposed to compete against the rich children who are born on podiums in the race for their lives in the future?
“Siya, you said that after this mission, you would help me rebuild Blessed Happiness Street Elementary School, and one day, after you got a major position in Sky Pillar Corporation, you would even invest and buy over Blessed Happiness Street Elementary School and invite the elites from Sky Pillar Corporation to teach there. I have full confidence that you would do it, and I’m grateful to you for it.
“But could you rebuild one hundred or one thousand schools with the highest specifications and provide them with the richest resources so that all the normal children in Dragon City would be able to enjoy cultivation resources at the level of rich children? Could you? Would you dare to? Would you even be willing to?”
Lu Siya was dumbfounded. She remained stunned for a long time before she murmured, “Those normal people have nothing to do with you. You’re already at Heaven Realm!”
Lin Chuan laughed, shook his head, and said, “That’s why I said that we can only be friends, but never kindred. You will never be able to walk the path I want to tread. You can’t even see it.”
As he spoke, he spread his arms and activated his spirit energy magnetic field and used maglev to rise into the air.
Red drops of blood surrounded him, and with a holy look that appeared as his mind filled with self-sacrifice and delusions which he indulged in, he looked incredibly out of place.
“I didn’t kill so many people and cause so much trouble for myself. I did it for the millions of children who are born in poor families and have the same dream as I do and want to fight as well as become successful. They are the hope of Dragon City!
“I long for the day when there will no longer be a difference between the rich and the poor, the noble and the common among the children. Regardless of whether they have the blood of powerful fighters flowing through their bodies or the blood of the weak, they can enjoy the same resources in the same school and obtain meticulous instructions from peerless fighters who treat all of them the same way. At that time, they can unleash all their potential, and even if they have to compete, everyone will start at the same base line.
“I long for the day when the rich children will no longer be haughty and treat it as a natural fact that they are superior to others. I long for the day when they will stop wilfully bullying the poor because there are just so few laws that will judge them.
“I long for the day when the accommodation and food the poorest normal people in Dragon City eat will not be too different compared to that of the most powerful elites. At the very least, when the peerless fighters see the shacks normal people live in and step into their glorious palaces, they should feel their hearts ache for them.
“I long for the day when all humans can truly become kindred and human civilization’s glorious light will be enjoyed unconditionally by everyone!”