Chapter 226: Cycle |
The evening of the twenty-fifth day.
Xiao Wei reverted from her doll form back into her human shape. As the sky gradually darkened, Bai Mu decided against leading the group on the move during the night. Under the cover of darkness, his field of vision would narrow significantly, making it difficult to detect approaching danger. Because of this, he had found a barren cave to take shelter in before nightfall.
He tried his best to choose resting spots devoid of vegetation. Staying in the woods or near water sources severely increased the probability of being attacked, while traveling across bare, rocky terrain offered far more safety.
However, this also made it incredibly difficult for them to find additional food and water.
After resting in the cave for the entire night, dawn finally broke. Bai Mu, who had been taking a light nap while leaning against the cave entrance, suddenly jolted awake.
[You have killed a Mountain Evil God—Resentful Bear.]
He had received the notification. On the morning of the twenty-sixth day, the system prompt finally arrived.
That black bear, which he had buried in the dirt until it was completely immobilized, was finally dead.
Stepping out to the mouth of the cave, he gazed into the distance. The giant had advanced even further. It appeared even more massive now, continuing to corrupt and devour the mountain peaks one by one.
The rest of the landscape was entirely consumed by the color of decay. The mountain peaks that the giant had trampled over were stained in a dead, suffocating black.
Those people who had stolen the horses and food on the twentieth day and fled the group—if they hadn't made it to this area, they had undoubtedly died in some unknown, godforsaken corner.
They could not even handle a single, ordinary Mountain Evil God. Trying to fight such monsters with mere swords and blades was a completely suicidal endeavor, an exercise in sheer futility.
Judging by the outcome, they had simply outsmarted themselves.
That notification bell proved Bai Mu's hypothesis correct. No matter how deep into the mountains one hid, these Mountain Evil Gods would eventually come knocking. Aside from a handful of beasts that harbored extreme resentment toward humans after being gunned down by musketeers, the rest of the Mountain Evil Gods did not act out of a specific desire to kill anyone in particular. Their behavior was driven by a primal instinct akin to feeding. For a person to live, they needed to eat meat, consume food, and hunt. These creatures also needed to hunt to survive, but their diet was far less restrictive. Any living thing could become their prey.
Even if people hid deep in the mountains, the monsters would follow, because they needed to constantly drain life force and compete with their own kind. That endlessly spreading withered color was not a curse, but rather the physical trail of their movements.
These creatures spread out into the outside world like a plague of locusts. Once they stopped feeding, their lives would become as fleeting as a moth's, and they would die within mere days.
Bai Mu suddenly understood why there were people in this world who knew the method to kill a "God." This entire phenomenon was like a grand cycle. The events he was witnessing right now had happened in this world more than once.
Many years ago, there had also been people who greedily lusted after the power of "God." That phenomenon known as "God" was originally something that simply existed within the forest, bringing prosperity and lush growth to nature, allowing the beasts and trees there to grow even taller and stronger.
But desiring everything in the world was human nature. When certain individuals laid eyes upon that anomalous entity which seemingly commanded life and death, greed took root in their hearts.
They attempted to kill "God," relentlessly launching attacks against it, believing that if they could obtain "God's Head," they would possess the same power over life and death, as well as true immortality.
Perhaps, after countless attempts, they succeeded. They found God's weakness, but ultimately, it only heralded the arrival of destruction. In that era, the world must have become as withered and dark as it was at this very moment.
The earth was conquered by death, but this state was not eternal. Once the Mountain Evil Gods devoured all life, they would also destroy themselves, turning into rotting dust and returning to the earth, giving back everything they had consumed in another form.
The Mountain Evil Gods, born from mutated beasts, harbored vengeful resentment. But "God" possessed neither resentment nor pity. When everything finally quieted down, it too would melt away into the fabric of the world.
Nature and life were not such fragile things. Seeds would still sprout from the dirt, and trees and grass would still blanket the earth. Eventually, birds and beasts would reappear across the land, and "God" would awaken once more to bless the forest with prosperity and flourishing growth. This was merely a fixed, inescapable cycle. Those who had been destroyed many years ago had passed down the method to kill "God," ensuring that the ancient legend of "God" survived through the ages.
Perhaps they had even left behind warnings, cautioning their descendants not to offend God, telling them to curb their greed to avoid annihilation. Yet, everything would inevitably march toward that same cycle. When a man wielding absolute authority faced death and the ravages of old age, and a wildly tempting option was placed before him, even if it might summon the apocalypse, he was already a dying man. How could he possibly resist acting on his own greed? This was fate. History was locked in an endless cycle.
And at this moment, Bai Mu found himself standing right in the middle of this cycle—or rather, at the very end of one.
To this vast and boundless world, humanity was nothing more than an insignificant speck.
Humans were indeed tiny. Bai Mu understood this truth better than anyone. Back in the apocalypse, facing that colossal, lonely world, he had felt his own insignificance more times than he could count. He could do nothing, he could change nothing. Just surviving required him to exhaust every single ounce of his strength.
In the end, he hadn't managed to pull through. His ultimate fate had simply been detonating the bombs inside his armored vehicle, taking a horde of Zombies down with him.
That hadn't been an epic, glorious ending, but he had never once given up on survival. Heaven and earth were ruthless, treating all living things as mere straw dogs. The world offered him no pity, but he also never pinned his hopes on some vague concept of cosmic justice. He only ever believed in himself. And the people standing behind him had also relied on their own two feet to walk to this point, step by exhausting step.
That black bear had been buried in the earth only because they had dug through dirt and solid rock, one brutal shovelful at a time.
He called over all the girls who knew how to ride deer. Taking out his mineral water and compressed biscuits, he distributed them evenly among everyone. He also handed over all of his remaining Health Potions to them.
Adai, Nuosu... the nine girls who had previously followed him to slaughter the wolves, and even Ashi, who rarely hunted, mounted the backs of the deer.
Bai Mu's Ancient Language Mastery had reached Level 3, so he could now communicate with them using simple words.
He handed a fire starter to every girl. They were fire tubes crafted from bamboo and grass fluff. Along with them, he distributed animal fat. He had discarded his weapons earlier, but he had held onto this fat the entire time.
The girls listened to his commands, took the food, fat, and fire starters, and rode off on their deer one after another.
Bai Mu had told them that they might die. The task they were undertaking was solely to give those who were still alive a slightly better chance at survival. They might encounter Mountain Evil Gods; they might die entirely alone in some desolate place. Yet, not a single one of them hesitated. They simply bowed their heads, gently kissed the earth at Bai Mu's feet, and then rode off gracefully on their deer.