The Monster is Coming

Chapter 477 The Truth of the Return Journey (Part 1)

At the Primordial Altar, Qi Sheng withdrew his gaze from the Dream World.

The attention given to Tu Hu began even before he entered the Dream World.

However, the initial attention mainly came from the shadows in the Dream Weaver's Dreamland and the Cangxuan who left behind the legacy.

This is a character that even the guide greatly admires.

In a vast and complex database that records the rise and fall of countless worlds and the growth trajectories of powerful individuals, Cang Xuan is certainly worthy of being called a genius.

As for the Dreamweaver Civilization behind Cangxuan, it is undoubtedly the super overlord in the small world, but when it descends upon the vast and boundless stage of the monster world for a cross-world expedition, it is nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust.

The various development systems that rely on dream deduction, such as psychic energy, dream weaving, technology, and genes, have no advantage whatsoever in the face of the many powerful races and traditions in the monster world; in fact, they are all weaknesses.

But Cang Xuan, who came from the Dreamweaver Civilization, was different; he embarked on a path completely different from the mainstream.

They abandoned the seemingly efficient and convenient path of seeking knowledge outside their home world, stubbornly adhering to the "martial arts" that had been abandoned by the times.

In fact, martial arts is also an inefficient growth system.

Cang Xuan's extraordinary quality lies in the fact that he has forged a path of "momentum" based on martial arts.

After entering the monster world, he underwent a transformation comparable to a fish leaping over the dragon gate.

The energy level of the Dream World is much lower than that of the Monster World, and its world structure is also relatively simple.

Even if Cangxuan were a dragon, he could not provide energy to nourish it.

But the problem is completely different in the monster world.

Cang Xuan's deep affection for his homeland, his unwavering commitment to preserving civilization, and the profound emotions forged in long periods of solitude were all tempered and sublimated here.

This perfectly aligns with one of the strongest systems in the monster world: emotional momentum.

He underwent a transformation akin to a system upgrade.

Using one's own will as a guide and emotions as a fire, one forges the purest emotions in one's heart through countless trials, ultimately creating one's own "rules".

This is what Cangxuan later realized: My heart is the principle of heaven, my sword is the rule.

Parry, and you will be impervious to all attacks.

The sword strikes, and those struck die instantly.

It has achieved the ability to define the world from the inside out, and to attain the "law" where words become law.

For a weak civilization to give birth to such an existence that touches upon the essence of the rules is like the Lunar Eclipse civilization, which miraculously gave birth to a Star Network consciousness that covers the entire civilization before its own technology tree had even reached its peak.

The weak create gods.

This is a miracle even rarer than the phenomenon of the strong getting stronger.

Although they are all individuals within a civilization, the brilliance they radiate transcends the level of that civilization.

The protective aura that Tu Hu had accumulated over a thousand years was only able to be completed by relying on the foundation of Cang Xuan, thus forging its own unique path.

Without Cang Xuan, Tu Hu might have spent his entire life merely lingering outside the realm of the pressure system.

Even though he could accumulate a strong sense of conviction over the long years, he always lacked the most crucial key: the path to transform emotions into rules.

Cangxuan's swordsmanship inheritance was like a lighthouse in the darkness, pointing Tu Hu in the right direction and allowing him to condense the accumulation of more than a thousand years in the Dream World into the prototype of his own "Guardian Force".

Originally, obtaining Cangxuan's inheritance was already an immense opportunity.

But after obtaining this opportunity, Tu Hu made another decision: to take the Dream Weaver Crystal to the small world and complete the Shadow's request.

In Tu Hu's initial plan, since he had received a huge benefit from someone, he had to do a good job of handling the task assigned to him.

What bothers him most in his life is not paying back debts and not repaying kindness.

The old man passed on all his best skills to him, and he couldn't get over this karmic debt until it was resolved.

I always felt like there was a thorn stuck in my side, and my thoughts were not clear, so even grinding monsters became unpleasant.

He didn't care about grand principles like "weaving dreams of civilization" or "passing on the torch"; he only believed in the simplest truth: if you take a benefit, you have to do something.

It was this almost stubborn, genuine nature that drove Tu Hu to embark on his journey to the Dream World.

In Tu Hu's eyes, the only player faction that could help him accomplish this task was the Gold Coin Merchant Guild.

But the truth is, the Gold Coin Merchant Guild's team is also only half-baked.

Their technology for manufacturing conventional teleportation arrays has achieved a success rate of over 90% after more than two years of iterative optimization.

However, the home world of the Dream Weaver civilization is a special case.

That world had long since crumbled due to the Dreamweavers' overexploitation and subsequent disasters, its remains drifting aimlessly in the void.

During this process, the world's remains combine with a large amount of void matter, causing a change in the spacetime structure.

When the mutated world reformed, the internal time flow rate reached an exaggerated ratio of 1:13300 with that of the monster world.

In other words, one day in the Monster World is equivalent to 36.43 years in the Dream World.

This unique environment, created by the profound distortion of the world's fundamental rules by the power of the void, completely exceeded the technical limits of the Gold Coin Merchant Guild's spatial team.

So they explained the situation to Tu Hu in advance, expressing their willingness to take the order as practice and offering the lowest price.

However, the success rate cannot be guaranteed.

Tu Hu's choice was to let the Gold Coin Merchants give it a try.

Ultimately, the space teleportation array was successfully established, but its stability and security were not guaranteed.

The success rate was only 42.58%.

This number turns teleportation into a high-stakes gamble and leads Tu Hu on a unique journey.

Just as Tu Hu was on his way to the Dream World using the teleportation array, the spatial passage suddenly collapsed.

The raging spatial currents, like a runaway horse, swept him into the turbulent flow.

This is different from the Little Mage's "amnesia" situation.

Tu Hu's spiritual sea was shattered under the onslaught of the raging void matter, and his body was deeply corroded by the power of the void. This kind of injury can only be repaired by returning to Emperor's Tomb Village after death to rebuild his body.

Alternatively, one can use the power of the Qi-gathering rules to heal bodily injuries.

However, in order to pay for the journey, Tu Hu disassembled the Qi-Eating Soul and inlaid the Wind-Breaking Soul to improve the efficiency of clearing dungeons (related content is mentioned in Chapter 460).

Damage caused by void erosion cannot be healed through conventional means without the influence of rule-level power.

Without the blessing of Qi, Tu Hu completely lost the possibility of self-healing.

Originally, Tu Hu's journey was supposed to trigger an emergency return after he fell into the Dream World.

Back when the God King was imprisoned by the Earthly Bully, Qi Sheng realized that there were loopholes in the player return mechanism, and subsequently improved the return setting.

When a player encounters the extreme situation of losing consciousness but still having a physical body, the Challenger System will automatically activate Emergency Return.

If left unchecked, Tu Hu will most likely survive in the Dream World in a state of amnesia for a long time until he dies in an accident, at which point he will complete the reconstruction of his flesh and blood in Emperor's Tomb Village.

This would undoubtedly waste a lot of growth time; going straight back is the choice that maximizes benefits.

However, Qi Sheng, who was paying attention to Tu Hu, had the guide make a prediction about Tu Hu's future.

The life trajectory calculation, which requires a massive amount of sacrificial power to complete in the monster world, is a piece of cake for the guide in a small world like the Dream World.

Its computing power is sufficient to encompass all variables in the small world.

Including the withering and flourishing of plants, the rise and fall of races, the entanglement of cause and effect... all factors, after being deduced, transform into a clearly presented future scene.

The simulation results show that Tu Hu will obtain a great opportunity in this world.

This caused Qi Sheng to halt his forced return.

Therefore, more than a thousand years ago in the timeline of the Dream World, Qi Sheng had already foreseen Tu Hu's fate today through guided calculations.

His choice was to let Tu Hu's fate continue along the predetermined path.

Thus began the long story of Tu Hu accompanying the rise of the Rongling civilization as a protector.

Even in his amnesiac state, the protective force he inherited from Cangxuan continued to accumulate and improve through daily acts of watching over civilization.

From teaching metallurgy to establishing city-states, from defending against foreign enemies to expanding territory, he integrated his promises to old friends and his responsibilities to future generations into the protection of this nascent civilization.

This protective force has accompanied the Rongling civilization through hardships, growing stronger in every desperate situation.

Until finally, they became enemies of the entire world.

This war, which was originally destined to fail, drove the Rongling civilization to its end, and also brought the protective spirit that Tu Hu had accumulated over a thousand years to its ultimate sublimation.

Building upon the legacy of Cangxuan, we will embark on a new breakthrough.

The obsession with protecting Cangxuan and its heritage is transformed into the protection of the continuation of civilization.

The new rules, forged in the changing times, have become the "sword of civilization" unique to Tu Hu. Thus, this long-awaited opportunity that transcends time and space has finally come to fruition, yielding abundant results.

In the player faction, the first demigod-level powerhouse was born, who was also the first player to create his own rules.

Qi Sheng's gaze then fell upon what the players had mentioned: the "little dark room".

……

At this moment, Tu Hu's consciousness had awakened in the darkness.

All player-related information has resurfaced.

This includes a series of features such as forums, trading platforms, and star pulses.

Only then did he realize that everything he had experienced was like a dream.

The starting point of the dream was actually his own seemingly simple obsession: if you take a benefit, you have to do something.

It was this simple promise that led him on his journey to the Dream World, where he encountered spatial turbulence and ultimately accompanied a civilization from its infancy to its glory while suffering from amnesia.

Over a thousand years of protection, the rise and fall of eras, have ultimately transformed into a protective sword in his hand, bearing the weight of civilization.

Recalling the voice in his mind, Tu Hu shouted in the darkness:
"Guide, are you there?"

【exist. 】

"Was that you just now? According to the game's settings, that memory... should have been erased of emotion, right?" As he said this, Tu Hu could feel that his memories of the Rongling civilization were as if they had been sealed by some kind of special seal.

The memory remains, but the color has faded.

He can only empathize from a third-person perspective, but cannot truly feel what the other person feels from a first-person perspective.

It's like a long movie; he remembers every scene, but he can no longer feel what emotions he had at the time.

"Yes." The guiding voice remained calm and unwavering.

The rise and fall of civilization in 1738, and the life and death separations of 17 generations of Rongling people, are too weighty. Your original memories are too thin in the face of this history. After merging, it is only a brief corner. If it were fully unlocked, you would be lost in it, unable to distinguish whether you are a hardened player or a guardian of the Rongling civilization.

Tu Hu fell silent.

He understood the meaning of the guidance.

It's like a river flowing into the ocean, where the result is seawater, not the other way around.

River water cannot dilute the ocean, and his consciousness cannot bear the joys and sorrows of a civilization spanning a thousand years.

If all the suppressed emotions were to surge forth, they would be enough to completely overwhelm his true self.

This reminded him of memory editing technology in the real world. It was clear that the Lunar Eclipse Clan had applied this technology to the game, allowing him to experience a small world journey as a guardian of civilization.

But deep down, he still longed to preserve all of that memory.

The years he spent with the Rongling tribe and the promise of sharing life and death seemed to have long become an inseparable part of him.

Thinking of this, Tu Hu suddenly realized something:
"Why can I still feel some emotions, though they are very faint... It seems that the emotions have not been completely erased?"

In response to the inquiry, the indifferent voice rang out again:

[Your sword of civilization is fueled by emotions. If memories completely fade, those emotions will lose their foundation, and all you will gain will be incomplete opportunities. While these opportunities may solidify your power, they will also halt your progress, and your sword of civilization will lose the possibility of further refinement.]

This should have been the starting point of your self-created path of rules, but it will also become the end point after memories fade.

Now, you have three choices.

The guiding voice continued to echo in Tu Hu's mind, outlining three completely different paths:
[Choose option one: erase emotions, then consume three million sacrificial power to solidify the existing rules and power. Afterwards, the power of the "Sword of Civilization" will be permanently fixed, but all related memories will completely lose their emotional color. You can only bear this memory from a third-person perspective. The price is: the rules are solidified, and this path has come to an end.]

[Option Two: Emotional Sealing. This preserves the emotional core of the memory, but seals it deep within. In normal circumstances, you can only perceive a very small portion of the emotional fluctuations. However, when you activate the "Sword of Civilization," you can temporarily unseal the corresponding memory and enter a state of peak emotional engagement. This option allows you to continue evolving along the path of creating your own rules.]

[However, you will have to pay a price of 3500 million sacrificial energy. Given your special circumstances, this debt can be paid on credit, with monthly repayments of 100 million. If the deadline is exceeded, your life soul, vehicle, and even other growth systems will be automatically decomposed to repay the debt.]

[Option Three: Complete Embrace. You can choose to forcibly contain all memories and emotions, obtaining the most complete memories even under normal circumstances. However, the price is that your true self will be submerged by a thousand years of memories. At that time, the memories of the civilization's guardians will become the dominant memories.]

Tu Hu fell silent.

The three paths provided each point to a completely different future.

Forgetting is the easiest thing to do, yet it is also the most painful.

If those days and nights spent fighting alongside the Rongling tribe, the warmth of supporting each other in dire straits, were all recorded as cold, lifeless records, then this journey through the small world would lose its color, like watching a highly immersive movie.

If he fully embodies emotions and makes a thousand years of memories the main focus, then what is he now?
It may just be a ripple in the long river of memories, eventually to be swallowed up by the surging torrent of emotions.

He wanted to cherish this heavy, intense memory, but he didn't want to be completely defined by it.

Having thought this through, Tu Hu understood what he wanted.

"I choose the second option: this feeling can be sealed away, but it cannot be forgotten."

As you wish, the first installment of 100 million will be deducted from your account.

"Where would I get 100 million sacrificial power?"

[You've done quite a bit of killing in the small world, especially after you took control of the Sword of Civilization. Every kill you committed during the process of crushing the world's will yielded sacrificial power. Your current balance is: 238283 points.]

After he finished speaking, ripples stirred deep within Tu Hu's memory.

Vivid memories begin to fade rapidly, and once unforgettable promises and commitments seem to be separated by a barrier.

He still remembers every detail after entering the small world, every conversation, and even every life-or-death moment of the Rongling civilization... but that burning emotion is being drawn away and sealed away, gradually turning into rational observation and cognition.

But unlike being completely sealed away, he can still feel some emotions when he recalls them.

The emotions are still there, but he needs to actively "touch" them with his consciousness to retrieve them.

This state is quite peculiar.

He remains the player Tu Hu, yet he can, at any moment, temporarily become the guardian of that civilization that has endured thousands of years of vicissitudes, with just a thought.

It's like having two identities that you can switch between at any time.

The key to switching is in his own hands.

At this moment, the guiding voice sounded again:

[Going forward, as your primal memories grow, this sealed emotional memory will gradually integrate into your consciousness and become a true part of you, provided that your will and the total amount of your memories are sufficient to bear the weight of this experience.]

Tu Hu understood.

It's like adding ink to a glass of water; it instantly changes the color of the water.

But if you pour ink into a river, it will only become a dark stain in the flowing water.

Right now, he's just like that glass of water.

At that moment, a question suddenly occurred to him:
"Brother Guidance, something's not right. My lifespan is short. I'm afraid I won't be able to bear this memory in this lifetime, right?"

When asked, the guidelines did not provide any answers.

Realizing that the guide had left, Tu Hu did not pursue the matter further.

He then brought up the Star Pulse interface.

The soul that was originally embedded in the slot that cost me 250 million has turned into pure gold, and the evolution of civilization can be vaguely seen inside.

[Unnamed (Custom-created Soul)]:
Soul Level: Demigod Realm (Level 503)
Introduction to the Soul: Originating from a thousand-year-old will to protect, tempered by the rise and fall of civilizations, based on the Cangxuan Sword Dao, and forged with the fire and blood of civilization as its blade, it transforms the obsession of tiny beings to live towards death into rules, and finally becomes this Soul. Only the thought of the survival of civilization can activate it. Wherever the sword points, all laws within the domain bow down.

……

Sensing the immense power emanating from the scattered soul, Tu Hu's consciousness gradually resonated with it.

Instantly, a scroll of memories of the rise and fall of civilizations slowly unfolded in his mind, and the insights gained from more than a thousand years of protection flowed into his heart like a gentle stream, along with all the memories and emotions of the era of the guardians of civilization.

As the guide said, when he uses this power, the sealed memories and emotions will surface.

Just as Tu Hu was completely immersed in the fusion of memories, a hurried shout suddenly came from the long-silent team channel, interrupting his use of this power:
"Brother Hard, you're finally back!"

"Forty-six whole days! No matter how we called you in the team channel, you didn't respond. The live stream was so fast that we couldn't see anything at all. We only found out that you, like Little Mage, had lost your memory because of the teleportation when we watched it from the first-person perspective. But the story was too long, so we skipped through it... Anyway, welcome back, Bang Bang."

"Bangbang, look at the leaderboard! You're so awesome right now, it's amazing, hahaha."

Teammates rushed over with concerned calls.

Tu Hu was slightly taken aback, only then realizing that the more than a thousand years of vicissitudes he had experienced in the Dream World were merely a month or so in the Monster World.

"Brothers, I'm back."

He spoke softly on the channel, his words carrying a sense of感慨 that transcended time.

After speaking, he curiously clicked on the leaderboard option on the function panel.

To his astonishment, he discovered that the number one player on the overall Soul Ranking was none other than his game ID: HardBangBang.

"Holy crap, I'm awesome!"

(End of this chapter)