Being born into the Yi lineage and having a physique that had a great affinity towards martial arts, Shen Yi Gu was winning the lottery of life. From the time he started to remember things, all he could recall were good memories.
Various family members treated him like their own child. Not only that, even the head of the Yi lineage took him as his disciple and personally taught him whenever he had free time.
"You are the pride of our Yi lineage."
"It was heaven's gift to our Yi lineage to have you."
"You will surely be able to increase the strength of our Yi lineage in the future."
Various expectations and praises were thrown at him, but they seemed to have lost their meaning.
However, the weird thing was that Shen Yi Gu never showed any arrogant traits as he grew older. He remained obedient and trained hard, perhaps due to his innate quality that allowed him to discern the hidden meanings behind everyone's words.
As he tried his best to utilize his healing technique, he was unable to do anything since when he split his attention, his head would roll.
Niu Chang then started to walk towards him, and each step he took felt like a heavy hammer striking Shen Yi Gu's heart. It was the second time he felt fear in his life. The first time was when he met a young genius from the core of the Shen clan. Not only was he beaten up in a martial battle, but it was also the first time he realized his status was lower than a servant in front of the core lineage of the Shen clan.
However, he was smart. He hid his sharp edge and swallowed the humiliation from that time to use it as his motivation. When he came back to Shenyi City, he spent a week in silence in his training room before Shen Yi called him over.
He didn't spend much time inside or talk about many things, but when he came out, his heavy mood no longer existed. He began to smile once again, but the determination in his heart had already become a sword directed at the core lineage of the Shen clan.
While holding onto his life, he knew his time had come. In a dejected feeling, he asked, "Are you truly the envoy of heaven?"
Niu Chang walked towards him. "Yes."
"Are you truly going to eradicate the whole Shen clan?"
There was no fear, only the willingness to die here before he could achieve his goal.
"Yes."
Niu Chang stopped not far from Shen Yi Gu.
He had a unique hobby of peering into someone's eyes to determine their qualities as a living being. With his enhanced senses, intuition from the Impossible Idea, and super computing ability from the second brain, he was able to tell with great accuracy.
'Hatred, but not directed at me. It seems he already accepted his death. The heart is pure… not hypocritical at least, but also fully painted with white that only understands half the truth of the world, maybe due to his background as someone born into the Yi lineage. The obsession is deep but not wide enough to contain the world, a meaningless life goal. The martial heart is painted with black and red, naturally he still needs to experience the world more.'
As he judged Shen Yi Gu from a simple glance, Niu Chang found this person rather interesting. At least for his plan, Shen Yi Gu… the present self was not enough to be anywhere close to him, but since he was a living being, naturally, he could grow and eventually become no different from a truth seeker, someone who only put the transcendent in his eyes.
But that chance was slim.
Shen Yi Gu, who was very perceptive since he was a kid, was able to feel that Niu Chang's short glance was judging his whole life.
But seeing there was no reaction from Niu Chang, he felt somewhat sad. 'Hahaha. It seems I am no different than other people. It's just that I was born into a good family and have better perception than others, but this luck ends here.'
"The heaven is vast," Niu Chang said without changing his expression. "I was tasked to eradicate the Shen clan, but…"
Shen Yi Gu was confused at first, but with his exceptional perceptiveness, he was able to glimpse a little of the truth behind Niu Chang's words.
"It was I who did it, so the whole process is also up to me. Mortal," Niu Chang said as he once again stared right into Shen Yi Gu.
"The heaven is impartial and perfect, but I'm different. I am Tian Zi. Not the heaven, thus I have my own imperfection as such human nature. You can say I have the heart of a living being."
"I do not care about your background nor your feelings, but since you already accepted the fate given to you by heaven, I will give you a chance to pursue your life goal. However, whether you are able to complete it will depend on yourself, and your time will be limited until I finish my task."
Without waiting for any response, the white line on Shen Yi Gu's neck disappeared, and he no longer felt the oppressive feeling of death on his body.
When he sighed in relief and wanted to thank Niu Chang, he found no one was around. He was alone in the sky now.
He was at a loss for a moment, before finally making up his mind. His aura was no longer the same as the teenage body he used; it started to grow together with his mentality.
He wore a quite loose robe, so his newly adjusted mature body didn't break the clothes he was wearing. As he looked around the city beneath him, he realized how small his previous world was.
Countless headless bodies were lying on the ground, and there was no difference at all. Whether they were martial artists or mere mortals, all of them had the same end.
"Tian Zi," Shen Yi Gu recalled the name that Niu Chang gave. "I don't know who you truly are, but since you already gave me a second chance, then I will take full advantage of it."
With a hardened expression, Shen Yi Gu flew out of the city.
The major event had passed, and many were still confused.
Ordinary mortals were talking to themselves, but many chose to be silent as they didn't know what to do.
Various people started to move around, and it was more evident among those who worked under organizations.
Among the four major business houses, the Night Secret Association was responsible for information. It expanded its power throughout the entire Southern Region and dominated the information market.
Naturally, the other three and even other major organizations also had their own information networks, but they didn't match the Night Secret Association.
On the top floor of a well-known brothel, a branch of Hundred Flower Pavilion in Shenyi City was busy with the higher-ups talking and discussing the major event.
"What do we do, manager?"
"Do it accordingly, don't make any mistakes, and report everything in detail."
In another place, a decorated building simply served as a public place for the Night Secret Association for regular customers to handle information exchange.
In a more secretive place, the higher-ups also started to handle the situation effectively.
"Do not make any mistakes!" he shouted in a low tone. "The value of information is strictly determined by its timing, so we need to report this immediately to the other branches."
As to why the leader didn't tell them to send it to the base, naturally his position was too low to know where the base was.
...
Niu Chang was flying in a concealed state, and no one should be able to capture his movement now.
He flew at full speed for about four hours before finally stopping in an empty forest. It was far from a medium city or even a small city.
As he landed easily, the system kept giving him notifications of new karmic bonds. Various people showed clear animosity towards him, but they were too weak for Niu Chang to care about.
Most of them bore the surname Shen, which was expected.
However, there were also some people without the Shen surname at the golden core level who formed karmic bonds with him.
'All of them are still golden cores.' He shook his head as he casually waved his hand, and various qi followed his command to make arrangements with his surroundings.
After learning about the world from Mo Qi's memories, he found it rather boring for only that level. He wanted more, a deeper knowledge about the world.
If the world, the continent, was akin to a lake, then the small fish would swim near the surface while the bigger fish swam deeper.
Naturally, Niu Chang could just fish and wait until his bait captured a fish that suited his taste, but that would be too time-consuming and boring, just like playing chess with the world.
So he asked his system to create a better, enjoyable plan. Thus, he chose to throw a big rock into the lake to stir the water and see if any middle-sized or large-sized fish would show themselves.
Naturally, he needed to be cautious. If he attracted a fish that was too big for him to handle, he would be in deep trouble. So he chose to use second-tier Shenyi City as his starting point. It was not that big nor important, but it should be enough to attract the attention of medium-sized fish.