When he saw the muzzle of Wang Lu’s cannon turned slightly, Black was in a daze, and fragments of what happened in the past appeared in his mind.
Then, he suddenly remembered a sentence.
Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re going to get.
This sentence was first spread in the port cities of Nine Regions. At that time, chocolate from Western Continent had just begun to become popular in the Nine Regions. The specious production method made the quality of the chocolate very unstable. Similarly, a box of chocolate could have tens of thousands of flavors, so there were some good people who used this as a metaphor for life, but it was appropriate.
When Black was young, he had heard this sentence.
At that time, he was an ordinary cultivator in a port city. At a narrow island, he paid respect and joined an immortal cultivation sect who made their living relying on the sea. A Foundation Establishment Master and a seventh-eighth level Qi Gathering disciple went fishing and cultivating all day long. Life was plain and dull, but there was no lack of fun.
The Master was very kind. Although the face looked ferocious, the temperament was the most gentle. He was originally a fisherman who made his living relying on the sea. One day, when he saw a sunrise by the sea, his heart was moved and he stepped into the threshold of immortal cultivation. After that, while he went fishing, he also pondered some skills of immortal cultivation. He had no Master, no resources, relying purely on insight and a bit of interest. It took him twenty years to reach the Foundation Establishment and had some magical abilities. Many nearby fishermen’s children saw this and entangled him to teach them, so he taught them everything that he knew. For the immortal path’s cultivation, he only had a bit of interest. What he really loved was fishing with the small boat at the sea.
It was indeed a dream time for immortal cultivators. A fisherman with ordinary qualifications could get the immortal fate in his daily life and opened the road to immortality. Which was something that was impossible to happen now. And this ordinary fisherman changed the life of Black and subsequently the history of the immortal cultivation world.
Black followed the fisherman for several years, and his outstanding qualifications quickly allowed him to become more superior than his Master. Thus many times, he was asked to be the Master instead of the disciple. But in this very small sect, the Master and the disciple didn’t care about it and just lived their lives happily.
A lot of times, Black thought that what would happen if that kind of life were to continue? Would he leave the island one day, bid farewell to his lovely Master and fellow disciples, and go to a larger, wider world alone?
Black himself could not give an answer to that, because he really couldn’t remember all the details of what happened more than ten thousand years ago.
All that he could remember was one day, a great storm suddenly broke out on the sea. A huge wave of hundreds of feet high was set off on the sea surface, which had always been calm. The dark clouds covered the sky as if there was no more time on earth left. Between the clouds, lightning snaked around wildly, shining their surroundings brightly.
The fisherman, who had lived on the sea for decades, had never seen such a spectacle. However, the cultivator’s intuition told him that this was not a natural phenomenon. Only a cultivator could cause such a change to the surroundings. And for such a storm to appear at the offshore area clearly meant that the caster completely disregarded the life and death of the port city. For everyone else here, it was a disaster. The fisherman then took his disciples to hide in a pirate cave and activated the island protection array, looking forward for the storm to pass.
Unfortunately, the fluctuation of the array had exposed their existence. The two famous demons who fought fiercely on the sea soon found the island. One of them waved his demon hand and flattened the island with a slap. When he made his move, the souls of the Master and the disciples on the island were between his fingers.
“Damn it, I thought it was a perfect supplement. I never thought the quality is so poor that it’s not even enough to fill the gap between my teeth!”
When he raised his hand and about to exterminate everyone, the demon was extremely discontented and spat out a few times before he swallowed the souls in his hand. It was just that, when he closed his bloody mouth, his arm trembled because of a magical attack and a soul escaped his grasp.
The fish that missed the net was Black.
What happened after that, Black couldn’t remember clearly. He only knew that, in the end, a righteous cultivator came and killed the two demons and the world was at peace. Nevertheless, the people were already dead and could not be brought back… As the sole survivor, Black was found by the cultivator and his soul was saved. Later on, by chance, he was given a body and thus everything was recovered as before.
After that, his immortal cultivation path entered a new stage. The righteous cultivator came from a big sect and possessed enormous resources unimaginable to the frontier port cultivator. Black followed him all the way from Jindan, Yuanying, Deity, up until the peak. In the following hundreds of years, what he achieved was truly unthinkable before.
However, he never again experienced simple happiness like what he had on the island. Whether Jindan or Deity, the growth of strength was just to achieve a simple goal: To survive.
Black could never forget the fear and trepidation of him and his Master on the island as they waited for the tsunami to end. He also could not forget the despair that he felt when the island, which had been operating for years, was destroyed by a mere palm. He never wanted to be so close to the death’s door anymore. As long as he could stay away from death, he would do anything.
And in this world, there was no better guarantee of survival than strong power. Doing good deeds and accumulating virtues were just jokes, while avoiding the world to far away places was just self deception. The only way was to continue to become stronger and stronger. It was just that, the cultivator’s qualifications were limited, not everyone could become stronger without restriction. So, what should he do? Of course it was to follow the strong. As long as it was strong, it was worth following. Regardless of good or bad, there was no right or wrong. On that island, the kind fisherman and his disciples could not resist the evil demon, so they were all destroyed. However, the demons couldn’t resist the righteous cultivator, and thus were killed.
This was the truth of the immortal cultivation world, which had nothing to do with good or evil.
In addition, it was also important to occupy the moral high ground. Those righteous cultivators spat out their righteousness at every turn, but were all of their deeds equally righteous? For hundreds of years, Black had seen many of the so-called righteous cultivators who did despicable things in the name of righteousness. They did things even more heinous than evil cultivators and demons, but because they occupied the moral high ground, they were never disadvantaged at. In Nine Regions, the evil path and demons had never been able to defeat the righteous path. In the final analysis, it was due to the lack of moral high ground.
Therefore, even if one did despicable things, one must do it in the name of righteousness.
Black never thought that his ideas were wrong. Thus, when Sun Buping, a brilliant man, began to form a group, he actively joined in. And when Sun Buping exposed the truth and told everyone that the future enemy would be the Fallen Immortals, Black then did not hesitate to abandon his companion. As the saying goes, a good bird chooses a good tree to live on, and might is right. Since the Fallen Immortals were more powerful than anyone in Nine Regions, then of course, they were more righteous than anyone else.
Black didn’t just follow the Fallen Immortal but also always be there at their beck and call. These were far more righteous than being a rebel force. There was no doubt in Black’s mind that following the Fallen Immortals was the most righteous thing to do.
This belief supported Black for more than ten thousand years, until an ant named Luo Xiao ruined it all. After making the unforgivable mistake, Black was sure that the master who he had followed all these years would surely abandon him. Therefore, the so-called great righteousness that had been the basis of his belief for more than ten thousand years had also been fragmented.
What Fallen Immortal? What Upper Realm? All could go to hell! As long as he could survive, he could do whatever it took. Even if he betrayed again, so what? Perhaps in the future, the Fallen Immortals would come to Nine Regions and turn everything into ashes, but as long as he could live for another quarter of an hour, it was also worth it.
The only problem was Luo Xiao. He had never trusted him, and he still had the power of life and death over him. If this kind of power was not eliminated, his betrayal would be meaningless. It was still as precarious, living on a thread, as before. The other party was likely to kick himself out after he lost his value, just like the Fallen Immortals.
Therefore, he must find a way to kill Luo Xiao. The bald man was cunning and cautious, so the common method was not feasible. Setting traps at Netherworld Mountain was the best opportunity for him, since only he was familiar with the rules there. He could take advantage of the terrain to eradicate Canglan and Luo Xiao at the same time, and thus could solely claim the great merit. In this way, the previous murders committed in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals could also be pardoned.
Unfortunately, although his scheme was good, it failed. Luo Xiao was really a powerful character. He used the terrain in Netherworld Mountain immortal trap great array to defeat him, but he failed to really suppress him. Later on, when Luo Xiao gradually understood the situation and recovered, his series of performances did not leave any room for Black to fight back. Thus, the person who made a huge contribution turned into a spy and his life came into a dead end. How ironic was that!
When he thought about it carefully, he himself did deserve this. He had betrayed everyone, and in the end betrayed by everyone, was this ending not the most appropriate?
It was just that, he was really unwilling!
He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to end like this. There were too many things that he wanted to do, so how could he stop here!
“I…”
Facing Wang Lu’s muzzle, Black’s body trembled slightly, and wanted to say his last words. However, at this time, the muzzle suddenly moved away and he saw the brilliant smile on the face of the giant Divine Weapon.
“Hahaha, congratulations, you have successfully passed our final round of interview with this rich expression on your face!”
“!!?”
“You don’t understand? The reason is, in fact, actually very simple. For repeat traitors like you, we must be very careful when we take you in. Although a lot of what Luo Xiao said just now was just a circumvention to you, as a hypothesis, we can’t find any reason to refute it. Perhaps you are really executing the ‘injuring oneself to deceive the opponent plan.’ Perhaps, Canglan is really taking the opportunity to recuperate in Netherworld Mountain. We can’t make a definite judgment, so we have to complicate the situation a bit.”
At this time, Black’s thinking ability gradually recovered.
“So, you cooperate with Luo Xiao to test my reaction?”
“And the obtained results are quite satisfactory for the time being… Leaving alone everything else, when I bombarded the Netherworld Mountain, you didn’t even cast a single glance at it. If you are a warrior who adheres to lofty ideals, this display is a bit unreasonable.”
Luo Xiao also sneered, “Up to the last moment, all he thinks about is his own life and death. In a sense, such a person is more reliable. As long as we control his life and death, we can ensure his loyalty.”
Black was silent for a long time. “So, does this mean I passed the test?”
“Yes, you have passed the test. Welcome to join the warm family of the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals. But, in view of your previous performances, we can’t give you the treatment of a normal member.”
Luo Xiao stretched out his hand and said, “He used to be my dog, so I recommend that he start as a dog. I will take the full responsibility as his owner, how about it?”
“I’m afraid no one but you is interested in keeping this dog.” After that, Wang Lu looked around and said, “Hey, what’s with your expressions guys? Several Supremes, after listening to us for so long, do you guys still don’t understand what happened here? It seems that the understanding here is a bit too low.”
Several Supremes looked at each other. A moment later, Zhuri sighed and said, “Kuqin that guy left ahead of time, it was indeed a wise choice.”