Severe pain! 剧烈的疼痛!
It felt as if ten thousand red-hot steel needles were simultaneously piercing his brain, and his soul was being forcibly ripped from his body by an irresistible force, dragged through a cold, chaotic tunnel.他觉得好像有一万根烧红的钢针同时刺穿了他的大脑,他的灵魂被一股不可抗拒的力量强行从他的身体里扯出来,拖着穿过一条冰冷,混乱的隧道.
Lin Xiuyuan suddenly opened his eyes at the peak of the excruciating pain.在剧痛的顶点,林秀远突然睁开了眼睛.
Before his eyes was not the familiar ceiling of his rental apartment, nor the line of fatal "System Updating..." on the computer screen.在他眼前的不是他所熟悉的出租公寓的天花板,也不是电脑屏幕上致命的一行"系统更新..."
What met his gaze were nine massive bone pillars over ten meters tall, each covered in intricate and bizarre runes, with eerie blue flames burning at their tips, illuminating the night like a ghostly realm.映入他眼帘的是九根十多米高的巨大的骨柱,每一根都覆盖着复杂而奇异的符文,顶端燃烧着可怕的蓝色火焰,像幽灵般的王国一样照亮了夜晚.
Naked, with his limbs stretched out, he floated in mid-air above a circular altar made of obsidian.他一丝不挂,四肢伸展,漂浮在半空中,在一个黑曜石制成的圆形祭坛上方.
Around the altar, hundreds of tribal members, dressed in animal skins and with tribal tattoos on their faces, knelt in devout reverence, shouting in an ancient language that he couldn't understand.在祭坛周围,数百名部落成员穿着兽皮,脸上有部落纹身,虔诚地跪在地上,用一种他听不懂的古老语言喊叫.
Though he couldn't comprehend the words, the fervent intent flooded his chaotic mind like a tidal wave—虽然他听不懂这些话,但热情的意图像潮水一样淹没了他混乱的头脑
"The savior of the world has arrived!""世界的救世主来了!"
Lin Xiuyuan's mind froze for three seconds, then a surge of inexplicable anger shot up to his forehead.
Again?
In his previous life, he had worked 996 hours a week at an internet giant, just to pay off his mortgage, living like an exhausted corporate slave. Eventually, after an all-nighter, his heart stopped, and he fell face-first onto his keyboard, dying at the young age of twenty-eight.
He had thought that death was the end, a release.
But it turned out that in this life, as soon as he opened his eyes, he was expected to be a tool again?
Even worse, to do something as daunting as saving the world, a job with a performance metric pressure that was off the charts!
"I bought a watch last year!" Lin Xiuyuan cursed inwardly.
Before he could react, a gentle force slowly lowered him from mid-air.
Several white-robed women, their expressions solemn, quickly approached and draped a large white robe over him, their movements gentle yet irresistible.
An elderly white-haired elder, leaning on a bone staff, his voice trembling with excitement, said: "Heromaster, you have finally arrived! Three hundred years after the fall of the Arcane Empire, the tide of darkness grows ever more rampant, and the vitality of the land has withered. Only you can lead our Qingqiu Tribe, and even the entire continent, out of this desperate darkness!"
Lin Xiuyuan was half-led, half-carried into a towering stone tower behind the altar. The elders' earnest voices still echoed in his ears: "Heromaster, this is the Tower of Tranquility. Please purify your soul and receive divine inspiration here immediately. In seven days, the tribe will spare no effort to assist you on your journey to eliminate the source of the dark tide in the north!"
With a "bang," the heavy stone door closed behind him.
The meditation room was spacious and cold, with only a narrow window letting in a few streaks of blue moonlight.
Leaning against the cold stone wall, Lin Xiuyuan slowly slid to the ground.
In his mind, the last memories of his previous life came rushing back—a four o'clock in the morning office, the bitter coffee spilled on the keyboard, sizzling.
A sharp pain came from his heart, his vision spinning, and finally, it stopped at the cold system prompt on the computer screen.
He clenched his fists, his nails deeply embedded in his palms.
"Hero? Savior?" Lin Xiuyuan sneered inwardly, "All you want is another ox or horse to work tirelessly for you."
To hell with purifying the soul, to hell with saving the world!
I'm done!
He didn't even look at the so-called "cultivation manual" placed on the stone bed, tearing it in half and throwing it on the ground. He then threw himself onto the cold stone bed, covering his head with the white robe, mumbling indistinctly:
"No matter how big the matter is, I'll deal with it after sleeping eight hours."
Outside the high tower, the moonlight was like water.
Su Wanqing, dressed in a light blue dress, gracefully landed in front of the tower.
As the personal disciple of the High Priestess, she was ordered to inspect the hero's condition daily to ensure the purification ceremony went without a hitch.
She pushed open the half-closed stone door, and a steady and long breath came from inside.
By the moonlight, she saw the "savior of the world," wrapped in a white robe, curled up on the stone bed like a cocoon, sleeping deeply.
Su Wanqing's eyebrows furrowed.
Didn't the elders say that when the hero arrived, it would be accompanied by divine inspiration, and the most important thing to do now was to meditate and resonate with the elements? Why was he... sleeping so defenselessly?
Was he too exhausted, or was he expressing dissatisfaction in this way?
She hesitated for a moment, slowly walked to the bedside, and her white fingers gathered a soft glow, gently tapping Lin Xiuyuan's forehead.
"Soul Illumination Technique."
This was the lowest-level divination spell, only able to sense the surface state of the soul.
However, the moment the spell touched Lin Xiuyuan's soul, Su Wanqing's expression suddenly changed.
What she "saw" was not a powerful, complete, radiant hero's soul.
Instead, it was a shattered, chaotic, and filled with countless incomprehensible information soul fragments!
The soul's root aura was completely out of place in this world, as if it had been forcibly torn from another world, with traces of imminent collapse still lingering at its edges.
Even more terrifying was that his soul flame was dim to the extreme, like a flickering candle in a storm.
"He... is not pretending to be lazy; he is really disoriented, and his soul is at the brink of collapse," Su Wanqing whispered to herself, quickly retracting her fingers.
In such a state, let alone purifying the soul, even the slightest strong mental stimulation could make him disintegrate.
A moment later, she turned and walked out of the meditation room, and outside the door, wrote on the record scroll with elegant handwriting: "The hero's spirit is exhausted and needs to rest quietly; do not disturb."
Just as she put down the pen, a cold and hard voice came from behind her.
"Hasn't he started meditating yet?"
The person who came was Zhao Wuxie, the strongest of the tribe's younger generation and another disciple of the High Priestess, responsible for guarding the high tower.
Tall and stern-faced, he looked at the tower inside with a gaze filled with unhidden scrutiny and suspicion.
"The hero has just arrived, his soul is unstable, and he needs rest," Su Wanqing replied calmly.
Zhao Wuxie's eyes narrowed, a hint of impatience in his voice: "The dark tide won't wait. The elders gave him seven days, not for sleeping. Tell him that if he cannot start cultivating within three days, I will personally use the 'Divine Punishment Shackles' to help him 'awaken' his divinity!"
After saying this, he let out a cold snort and turned to leave, his patrol steps sounding particularly piercing in the silent night.
Su Wanqing watched his departing back, her brows furrowed even tighter.
Late at night, at midnight.
Lin Xiuyuan slept so deeply, as if trying to make up for all the sleep he owed from his previous life.
Just as he turned over, preparing to continue sleeping, a crisp, emotionless electronic voice suddenly rang in his mind:
[Ding! Detected the host has completed the first "Slacker Achievement."]
[Achievement Requirements: Continuous sleep time ≥ 8 hours, during which no active cultivation was performed.]
[Reward Distribution: Bronze Knight Sword (Enchantment: +5% Fire Resistance)]
Lin Xiuyuan woke up with a start, sitting up on the stone bed, completely awake.
"Who? Who is talking?"
He looked around alertly, but the empty meditation room contained no one else.
However, just as he was puzzled, the air beside his pillow distorted slightly, and an ancient single-handed short sword appeared out of nowhere, landing on the stone bed with a "clank."
The sword was about two feet long, with a bronze-colored body, and seemed to have a faint reddish pattern on it.
Lin Xiuyuan took the sword with trembling hands, feeling its weight as he saw two characters engraved on the hilt in an unknown script.
Strangely, he could understand them—"Flame Rest."
"Slacking off... there are rewards?" He held the sword, his mind not yet turning around.
At that moment, a thin, dark red beam from outside the window, like a poisoned flying insect, silently penetrated the window, aiming straight for his forehead!
It was Zhao Wuxie under the high tower. Unconvinced, he secretly used his strongest "Soul Burn Technique" to test the true strength of this so-called hero.
This technique was cruel and ruthless,Invisible and formless,specially burning the souls of others,even if he doesn't die,iIt will also cause excruciating pain,going insane.
However, just as the dark red beam was about to hit Lin Xiuyuan, the "Flame Rest Sword" in his hand suddenly emitted a faint red aura.
The dark red beam collided with the red aura and, like a drop of water on a hot iron plate, instantly "sizzled" and vanished without a trace, not even leaving a ripple.
Lin Xiuyuan was oblivious to this, only feeling something fly past the window. He scratched his head and muttered: "What a place, even mosquitoes shoot cold arrows at midnight?"
He yawned, put the "Flame Rest Sword" by his pillow, and fell back asleep.
Under the tower, Zhao Wuxie's face changed drastically.
His Soul Burn Technique... had it completely failed?
The next morning.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Rude banging on the door woke Lin Xiuyuan from his deep sleep.
"Heromaster! Please get up immediately! Zhao Wuxie大人 orders us to 'invite' you to the training ground for cultivation!"
With the rough command, the stone door was slammed open by a force, and three tribal guards with spears burst in, staring at him menacingly.
Lin Xiuyuan, who was already irritated by his morning temper, now felt a surge of anger at being interrupted from his rare good sleep.
With messy hair and bloodshot eyes, he stared at the three guards and, without saying a word, grabbed the "Flame Rest Sword" by his bedside and rushed out.
"I said, don't disturb my sleep!"
The lead guard, seeing him dare to resist, smirked and raised his spear to block.
Lin Xiuyuan knew nothing about swordsmanship; he just relied on his anger and used all his strength to sweep the sword horizontally out!
"Hum——"
The enchantment power on the sword was instantly activated by his violent action, and a visible wave of energy exploded outward from the sword!
The three guards felt a powerful force rush towards them, their spears flying out of their hands. They were all knocked back like being hit by a siege hammer, crashing into the stone wall behind them with a dull thud, lying on the ground in agony.
The entire scene fell silent.
Zhao Wuxie, who had just arrived, saw this shocking scene, his pupils shrinking abruptly.
Before he could react, the sleepy, crazy-looking "hero" had already rushed to him, the cold sword tip steadily pressing against his throat.
Lin Xiuyuan's voice, hoarse from just waking up, had a chilling coldness: "If you push me further, I don't mind making your Qingqiu Tribe's 'High Priestess' retire early."
In front of the high tower, the air seemed to freeze.
All eyes were focused on Lin Xiuyuan and Zhao Wuxie.
In the corner of the crowd, Su Wanqing's pupils shrank to the size of a pinhole.
She stared intently at the sword in Lin Xiuyuan's hand—no, that sword should not have such power!
His weak soul could not possibly activate any enchanted weapons!
Zhao Wuxie's face turned dark red, his Adam's apple struggling to move, feeling the bone-chilling cold from the sword tip, he gritted out a few words: "...Alright, very good."
He slowly raised his hands, indicating he meant no harm, but his eyes were dark as if they could drip water.
Lin Xiuyuan snorted coldly and withdrew the sword.
Zhao Wuxie looked at him deeply, his gaze intertwined with surprise, humiliation, and a deeper grudge.
Without a word, he turned sharply and, in the guards' terrified gazes, strode toward the elders' council hall at the center of the tribe.
His back was resolute and cold, each step seemingly treading on everyone's hearts.
Su Wanqing's heart tightened, a bad premonition arising.
He was going to... incite the council!
An uncontrollable, even threatening "hero" to the tribal elders would probably be more dangerous than the dark tide.