#136 - Chapter 136: Life

Having ended your life as the Supreme Emperor, when you awaken again, you find yourself in a gray, hazy space. Before you stands a completely red stone, emitting a vast sound. The sound is, 'Are you Lin Changqing or the Supreme Emperor?' The red stone's voice seems to be questioning your identity.

Then you realize that this red stone is the Stone of Inquiries, a trial of illusion. After each life trial, the Stone of Inquiries will appear, questioning whether the inheritor can still adhere to their original heart.

For example, right now, the Stone of Inquiries gives you two choices: one is your original identity, Lin Changqing, and the other is your identity in the illusion trial, the Supreme Emperor. If you choose Lin Changqing, it means you still know your true self, which means you have passed. But if you choose the Supreme Emperor, it means you are lost in the identity of the illusion, representing your failure and early exit from this level.

The illusion trial of the third level is indeed powerful. Just now, as the Supreme Emperor, you experienced a lifetime, and you unknowingly became immersed in it. But this is a simulator, and the you outside the simulator is not affected by the illusion.

Therefore, at this moment, facing the Stone of Inquiries' question, you unhesitatingly choose the identity of Lin Changqing.

"I am Lin Changqing. Everything just now was merely an illusion. At any time, I am myself!"

Lin Changqing replied with firm eyes. As soon as his words fell, the red light in front of the Stone of Inquiries suddenly shone brightly.

This indicates that Lin Changqing has passed the first life illusion trial.

"Inheritor, I am very surprised. You are the first person I have seen in so many years who is not affected by the illusion. I observed that you chose your identity without hesitation. You seem to have not been affected by that illusion at all."

It was the black, withered old man who appeared and said. He looked at Lin Changqing's face with shock. Over the years, even some people with strong minds would be somewhat confused by the illusion after just completing a life of illusion. Facing the Stone of Inquiries' question, they would not answer so quickly.

But he saw that as soon as Lin Changqing came out, he immediately firmly chose his original heart, seemingly not affected by the environment at all.

Facing the black, withered old man's inquiry, you didn't explain much, only saying that you could start the second life trial. The black old man nodded after listening. He could only admit in his heart that perhaps you are an unprecedented genius, not only achieving a perfect score of ten in speed and strength, but also possibly achieving a perfect score in the illusion test. This is unprecedented since the establishment of the Mountain and Sea Sect.

The second life trial begins. In this life, you become the son of a farmer. You grow up in a poor family. From the ages of one to seven, you can't even get enough to eat. At the age of twelve, you have become a young boy. As the saying goes, a growing boy can eat anything. Your father in this life can't support you at all, so you are sent to the blacksmith's house in town to learn a craft as an apprentice.

In the year you turned twelve, you officially became a blacksmith's apprentice in town. Thinking about the last time, as the son of a king, you were still a first-class expert in the martial world at the age of twelve, commanding wind and rain. But now you are just a blacksmith's apprentice, barely able to get enough to eat, but every meal is just some white paste, and you can't even eat steamed buns.

Three years passed, and you are fifteen years old. You work hard as an apprentice in the blacksmith's house, but your talent is not very good. People who became blacksmith's apprentices at the same time as you perform better than you. You can only be considered average.

In the year you turned sixteen, the master of the blacksmith shop laid you off. You failed the blacksmith's apprentice exam, so you could only go home dejectedly.

When your father saw you come home, he sighed and said that since you don't have the talent for blacksmithing, then just suffer and farm with me. So you started working in the fields every day.

In the year you turned seventeen, you had been working in the fields with your father every day for a year. Your skin was tanned black. You found that the life of a farmer was really hard. Even if you worked hard all year round, you still couldn't get enough to eat, because there was also a landlord in the village called Er Laizi, who did all kinds of evil. Every year, you had to hand over 10% of your harvest to him, and above that, every year in September, there was also the autumn tax, which had to be handed over to the imperial court. Calculated in this way, even if you worked hard in the fields all year round, you and your father still couldn't get enough to eat.

You became increasingly dissatisfied with your current life as a farmer. You wanted to have enough to eat, and you wanted your father to have a comfortable old age, without having to work in the fields under the scorching sun like you at the age of fifty or sixty. But looking around, you found that you had no way to change your current life.

You looked at the other people in the village, Er Gouzi's family, and San Huzi's family, who were all the same as you. Their fathers also worked hard from a young age to an old age, and were still working hard in the fields at the age of fifty or sixty. It seemed that the identity of a farmer had already restricted you for the rest of your life.

In the year you turned eighteen, you ushered in a turning point. This year, there was a great drought in the world. In normal, favorable weather, you worked hard in the fields and still couldn't get enough to eat, let alone in this time of great drought. The sun was scorching hot, and the farmland had no harvest at all. But even so, the village landlord Er Laizi still strongly demanded that each of you hand over your harvest to him.

One day, on March 20th, Er Laizi beat Er Gouzi's father to death. It is said that Er Laizi wanted Er Gouzi's family to hand over their harvest, but Er Gouzi's father really couldn't hand it over, so he begged for mercy. But Er Laizi was very tyrannical, saying that if he couldn't hand it over, he would beat him to death, directly beating Er Gouzi's father to death, and telling everyone in the village that if they couldn't hand over the grain, they would suffer the same fate as Er Gouzi's father.

When everyone in the village learned of this news, they were both angry and terrified. They were angry at Er Gouzi's tyranny, saying that he was not letting people live. They were terrified that Er Gouzi's father had been beaten to death. Facing the bully-like Er Laizi, what could these honest farmers do?

That night, you were alone in the dark house, thinking a lot in front of the candlelight. You thought about your father's face full of ravines and worries, and you thought about Er Laizi's tyrannical face during the day, and you thought about your unwillingness to live your life as a farmer.

"Damn it, if you don't let me live, I won't let you live either." In the dim room, Lin Changqing's face was fierce. He was wearing coarse linen clothes. Then, with a bang, he got up and walked to the courtyard, picking up an iron shovel, which he usually used for farming, but now he was going to use it to kill people.

You carried the iron shovel out of your house, and in the middle of the night, you walked along the muddy path in the village to Er Laizi's house.

Er Laizi was drinking at home with his younger brothers and several beautiful women. You kicked Er Laizi's house with a bang. Er Laizi was furious. No one in the entire village dared to kick like that. Then, when he saw you coming with an iron shovel, he and the younger brothers next to him all scolded you, asking what you were going to do?

You didn't waste any words and directly slapped him with the iron shovel, directly killing Er Laizi. Seeing this scene, his younger brothers were all scared to death, one by one in horror. They were just following Er Laizi to oppress the people, where had they seen murder?