Ark Undead

Li Qing, I can't remember.

He even felt that it wouldn't be bad to just accept everything and embrace that bottomless abyss.

The old general's leg bones were deformed, and the joints gradually enlarged, tearing apart the withered skin and dried flesh to reveal the blackened bone joints.

But he continued walking forward, toward the other end of the passage.

His mind was already tangled in countless knots, and Li Qing wanted to use his brain. Then, a desire that arose from the depths of his heart spread throughout his body.

Tell him to eat and drink. Let him feast on his own flesh and blood.

The time to feast has come; there is no need for doubt or hesitation. Simply indulge in your most primal desires.

But he vaguely remembered that he was like this when he was a child.

Back then, because of long marches and the fact that the children were growing, we would often get extremely hungry halfway through the journey.

The soldiers accompanying him always looked at him with smiles, but because of his father's orders, they were not allowed to ask the logistics department for a portion of rations on the way.

So, poor little Li Qing's older brothers and sisters secretly gave him the fruit and dried meat they had left over.

At that time, Li Qing only knew how to take. After taking everything, he would smile and return to the queue to keep up with the pace. At most, he would use his meager words to say thank you to the seniors who had taken care of him.

It wasn't until he grew up that he understood that the dried meat and fruit were the last rations the soldiers stored up to deal with emergencies.

But the father never stopped him from doing so.

His mother died in childbirth, and his father always kept Li Qing by his side. In fact, Li Qing was not an exception, even though he was the son of a general.

And if other children lost their homes at a young age and went to the army for training, the army would always allocate resources to them.

Satisfy their most basic desires, feed and drink them to their heart's content.

This is not about indulging them, but about making them remember every little thing they've experienced.

Children are always wonderful; they are the buds of the future left in reality, just waiting to quietly bloom at some point.

But before it blooms, it must be cultivated in the best soil and irrigated with high-quality water.

For the people of Da Yan, satisfying their desires is always something to be praised.

Because their birth, their origin, stems from a most primal desire.

live.

They spend their entire lives fulfilling their desires and ideals, striving to live the life they aspire to.

At that time, Li Qing always complained that his father didn't spend time with him or care about his studies.

But deep down, he genuinely longed for his father, who aged much earlier than his peers.

Because his father was the one who satisfied his own desires, he dedicated everything to his ideal: to protect the Great Yan and die for it.

After understanding his father's thoughts, Li Qing's desires and ideals were ignited by his hidden dream of heroism, completely destroying his childhood self and leading him to emerge as a completely new person from the flames.

At that time, he abandoned his childhood dreams and threw himself into an ideal with no end in sight, letting reality grind him down time and time again. But he still refused to lower his proud head.

That wasn't just his own desire; it was the future that countless people of the Great Yan Dynasty had sung their way towards over millions of years.

Therefore, when Li Qing received the military tally from his father and watched his father's hunched figure walk into the Ten Thousand Demon Cave, Li Qing did not feel that his father was particularly pitiful or lowly.

His figure once again rose to a height in Li Qing's eyes, reaching a level that was incomparable to anything before.

After relinquishing all burdens and responsibilities, the father turned to embrace his desires, his ultimate goal, which was the highest form of realizing his ideals.

Now, it's my turn.

Walking on the path of our ancestors, on the path our father walked, heading towards their shared destination.

What drives him forward is the sin that humans are born with and the desires that they cannot escape.

The essence of an ideal is desire that is pure to the extreme.

Isn't this exactly my ideal?

His desires and his ideals are right before his eyes, so how could they be controlled by base appetites and tyranny?

Even though it was the aura of countless demons, even though it was the evil thoughts of tens of thousands of soldiers before their deaths, Li Qing still retained a sliver of clarity.

It was his father's voice, whispering in his ear.

"Qing'er, come here."

Then, his eyes lit up again, and Li Qing ran toward the only light.

Ideals have never abandoned those who uphold them.

Right behind Li Qing, many soldiers who had followed him their entire lives pulled out a jar from their backpacks, which were noticeably larger than the others'.

what is this?

The immortal didn't know what was inside. Just as he still didn't know many of the customs of the Great Yan.

Ongstan led his Great Yan army to surround the entire True Fire, forming a defensive line to ensure that the demons attacking from all directions could not stop General Li Qing from holding the fire-worshiping ceremony.

Those soldiers who had remained hidden in the ranks, not actually participating in the battle, clutched their jars and, like Li Qing, followed him toward the real fire.

"Do you remember what I told you before? The bodies of the border generals throughout the ages house the souls of those fallen soldiers?"

Ling arrived at the immortal's side at the right time and answered his questions.

"But the soul that remains in the general's body. Even among all the warriors, there are souls that have been completely devoured by the abyss, leaving only a few remnants."

"Only a minority of soldiers are actually able to recover the bodies and identify them. Countless other soldiers died, their bodies devoured by demons. When they were recovered, all that remained were armor and weapons, and a few pieces of flesh and blood."

"The soldiers who guard the border have a long-standing tradition that their ashes after cremation are divided into two portions of varying sizes."

"The extra portion will be sent back to one's hometown to be buried with one's ancestors, while the smaller portion will be mixed with the ashes of one's comrades and fellow soldiers."

"After the ashes were mixed, some were scattered by the general himself on the border, buried in the green mountains and deserts, to guard the northern border of our Great Yan together with the soldiers who came after him."

"The last small portion will be preserved; the ashes of the soldiers who die each year will fill an entire jar."

"More than 30 years have passed since the last fire-worship ceremony."

There were thirty-eight soldiers behind Li Qing, and these thirty-eight soldiers opened the jars in their hands.

Inside the jar, the grayish-white ashes were stirred up by the shouts and the cold wind brought by the weapons used in the battle inside the cave.

Just as Li Qing arrived at the real fire and stepped into the abyss, the soldiers turned the jars in their hands upside down.

Instantly, dust poured down, crashing onto the ground and mixing with the viscous abyss gushing from the Well of the Abyss, further increasing the viscosity of the deep black liquid.

Li Qing stared at the real fire in front of him.

The clear light dispelled the confusion and unease in his eyes, igniting everything that was murky, and also igniting the desires within him.

Right before his eyes, the flames that had protected the Great Yan for millions of years burned and danced, as if soothing his soul that was about to return to the earth.

At this moment, Li Qing's mind was perfectly clear. He could clearly feel every inch of his body, his body that had been transformed into insects and beasts, and his flesh and blood that had been corroded by the abyss.

And, without anyone noticing, Li Qing raised his hand to touch the real fire, and the flames began to burn on his flesh along his arm, along with the pain caused by the burning.

Li Qing knew that his desires and his obsessions were neither great nor noble.

In the eyes of the god, perhaps even he was fragile and could not compare to the many warriors he had encountered.

His life was so short that, as a general, he did not enjoy wealth and honor, and he aged prematurely at only seventy years old, far below the average age of natural aging and death.

But he is not alone now.

He could feel the howling of the demonic auras hidden within him, causing him pain, emanating from every part of his body.

He could also hear the gleeful laughter of his comrades who had died before his eyes.

They shouted, paying homage to the real fire before them.

At this moment, all the past events, all the figures from these short seventy years, overlapped before his eyes.

"Father, why are you leaving? Can't you stay with me?"

"Wow, this picture book about the god shooting stars is so beautiful, how was it drawn?"

"I'm not going to paint anymore. Father, I want to learn martial arts."

"I have memorized all the key points of the Li family spear technique, but no matter how I use it, I can't feel the so-called smooth and flowing feeling."

"Yes, Li Qing will live up to the general's trust and guard the border of our Great Yan, preventing demons from entering our Great Yan territory even half a step."

"Fellow soldiers, follow me to slay the demons and protect our land!"

From an ordinary, innocent child to receiving the military command under his father's guidance and bearing all the evil thoughts on the battlefield.

In his entire life, Li Qing was merely following in his father's footsteps and the footsteps left by his ancestors.

The people of Da Yan never regret their destined deaths.

That is their destiny, and also their innate desire.

Li Qing was engulfed in flames, and the abyssal aura emanating from him was boiling, yearning to escape.

But Li Qing, with his clear will, imprisoned these sins and mysteries within his body.

Thirty-eight years of reserves, thirty-eight years of deaths and injuries, are now offered up to the flames that have protected the Great Yan for countless years.

This is the fire-worshiping ceremony.

I offer my body to the fire, to prolong my great flame for thousands of generations.

Li Qing did not feel any regret because of this.

Because he knew that he wasn't the only one with this ideal.

It was in his body, in the soldiers behind him, and in the entire Great Yan.

There are countless others like himself, and millions of other Great Yan people who share the same desires as him.

They will dedicate everything to the country that gave them birth and nurtured them, just like they would.

The flames that gathered above the well of the abyss expanded continuously on this pure and solid firewood.

The flames seemed to possess their own emotions and consciousness; every leaping spark made the abyss sea, huddled beneath the primordial fire and constantly overflowing, even more fearful.

That was a pain etched deep into the soul, the humiliation brought about by thousands of years of suppression.

And it didn't even know that this was not just the power left behind by the Lord of Flames.

How ridiculous is the so-called curse in the eyes of mortals who keep living and dying?