Lord Shenxiu

"So terrifying, so terrifying!"

Xu Sheng watched the TV and saw the director, who had always been a big figure, being taken down, his whole body trembling.

He was a public beta player who had just logged in and was recruited by the Special Review Bureau as a member of the basic labor force.

Most of the experience gained in the Xuanming Sky was exchanged for Elixir Pills, which he had to hand over; a small part he used for his own cultivation while cooperating with various missions of the Daxia Alliance, becoming a proud member of the Black Tiger Army.

Then, he personally participated in the battle of Cangyuan County City, witnessing the establishment of the Freedom Wings Guild.

Watching the scene on TV where Shen Mo was taken down, he just felt politics were terribly frightening.

Beep beep!

Beep beep!

Just then, his phone kept ringing non-stop.

Xu Sheng casually opened it, only to find it was the price offer from the Freedom Wings Guild, sent by a friend of his.

His friend was also a public beta player who, right after the establishment of the Freedom Wings Guild, had immediately left the Special Review Bureau to join the opposition.

Now, he was constantly helping to recruit:

"Xu Sheng, listen to me, the treatment here is really good... and with the cabinet's guarantee, we're still Daxia People, not breaking any laws, and the guild will even protect our families."

"Once you register, you immediately get 5 million, plus a villa, and they promise never to force us to sell our Elixir Pills or force us to work, we're free to come and go..."

"Aren't you going to stand with us rather than with the powerful?"

...

One message and voice note after another flashed.

Xu Sheng watched for a while and had to admit, he was tempted.

After all, the other side made a good point.

But... being basic labor meant having a civil servant's benefits.

And for someone without ambition content to endure overtime, life in the Special Review Bureau wasn't too bad—it was at least stable, peaceful. He could even dream of retiring at a ripe old age...

Xu Sheng had no great ambitions; he just wanted to carefully avoid any whirlpool and live peacefully.

He pondered for a while, didn't reply, but started playing with his phone.

After all... if the Freedom Wings Guild truly claimed freedom to come and go, then... he could delay for a while and see how the wind blows.

Xu Sheng opened Weibo and began browsing the news:

Weibo hot search number one: Incident at the Special Review Bureau.

Weibo hot search number two: Freedom Wings.

Weibo hot search number three: Nible coup.

Weibo hot search number four: Valkyrie battle of the Star Ring Federation.

...

"The world elsewhere isn't calm either... I heard that sects worshiping the game's god have sprung up everywhere."

This was normal development.

Foreigners believe in all sorts of fabricated, miscellaneous non-existent deities, so a being capable of guiding ordinary people to transcend realms and acquire extraordinary powers naturally gains worship.

Even within Daxia, sects existed.

However, the official stance was very ambiguous, neither supportive nor oppressive.

Alas... no Pope had ever truly received an oracle, despite their million repetitions of the deities' revered names.

Therefore, within the sects that worship the Lord of the Game, many factions emerged, then operating on the principle that heretics are more detestable than the unfaithful, they often beat each other's brains out first... literally!

Because within such sects, there must be several players who were considered Popes, Saint Heirs, Holy Daughters, Prophets, otherwise, they wouldn't dare say they had received divine oracles or grace.

Unprecedented faith, unprecedented chaos, unprecedented karma...

But Zhong Shenxiu felt nothing.

He already somewhat understood the True God's mindset: common people worship me, what does it have to do with me?

And common people dying or causing chaos for it... also didn't merit a single bit of karmic flow.

He was truly a sublime existence!

...

Because the Special Review Bureau was chaotic, the staff was specially given a vacation, especially those players.

Xu Sheng thus rarely had a holiday and spent a day doing nothing in his room.

In the evening, he prepared to go out to buy some food and snacks at the small supermarket downstairs, which was only a few steps away.

Hmm, he was barely fifth rank in the game; in reality, he was even more miserable with an eighth rank cultivation and was still in a state where he would starve if he didn't eat.

He stepped out of the building and saw that it was already dusk outside, the street lights were just coming on, and the billboards were coated in a golden glow.

"Huanan Martial Arts School, players teaching!"

"Inner Strength training courses, genuine Internal Cultivation Methods, guaranteed to learn!"

...

Ever since the advent of the supernatural, Daxia had experienced a martial arts craze, and countless swindlers took the opportunity to make their debut, harshly reaping the IQ tax.

Xu Sheng arrived at the small supermarket downstairs and grabbed a few packs of instant noodles, then headed to the cashier.

In front of him, there was a mother and son.

"Mom, I've decided, I want to apply to a martial arts school for the college entrance exam!"

A tall and sturdy young man shouted.

"Ah… How many times have I told you, fighting and killing are so dangerous?"

The middle-aged woman said exasperatedly, "And... haven't you seen on TV, all those are fake…"

"The training classes and those fake martial arts schools are indeed fake, but I heard… the empire is really planning to establish several Martial Arts high schools, teaching the ultimate skills from the game, to cultivate talents for the future!"

The young man's eyes were filled with longing, "Even if I don't become a player, as long as there are resources, I can still transcend!"

"Ah… Today's youth, each one of them wants to ascend to heaven in a single step."

An old man beside sighed, "That game, it's just a source of trouble. Since it came out, how many issues has it caused in foreign countries? Constantly at war, only here in Daxia do we have the best public order!"

"Yes, yes."

The middle-aged woman agreed vehemently.

Xu Sheng thought for a moment but said nothing.

He had always kept a low profile, and no one knew that he was a 'player'.

And having entered the game himself, he knew that Jianghu was far from the beautiful imagination of youth.

Worldly affairs surged like tides, people were like water, only to lament: "How many return from the rivers and lakes..." was indeed the best portrayal.

Even as a player who had been to Xuanming Sky and conducted field research, he would sigh at the suffering of the grassroots civilians.

Martial Arts was handed down through classes, solidifying the social strata, and even if a civilian genius emerged, they might not receive the teaching of ultimate skills and would ultimately fade into the crowd.

And as sects stood firm, ruling over regions and waging wars everywhere, they inevitably squeezed their people, imposing countless taxes and levies.

Even the players themselves had become a catalyst.

The establishment of various guilds directly led to greater strife in Daqian Nine Provinces...

As he pondered, Xu Sheng suddenly felt a shudder of hair standing on end, and with the long-ingrained instincts of a martial artist, he instinctively dived to the side.

Boom!

The next moment, two figures who were fighting whisked by, the stray energy from their fight accidentally injuring a large crowd nearby.

The two figures were too fast; during their chase, only blurry afterimages could be seen, and they vanished in the blink of an eye.

The small supermarket, after being impacted, collapsed partially, and blood slowly seeped out from the rubble.

Xu Sheng brushed off the dust and debris from himself and stepped onto the street, looking at the crowd with faces covered in blood and eyes filled with bewilderment.

Some were fathers or mothers, some were sons or daughters, and there were white-collar workers, freelancers, bosses, internet celebrities, students…

But at this moment, in the face of a super-level disaster, they had only one identity—ordinary people!

...

Zhong Shenxiu watched this scene after scene, suddenly pondering: "Is order just temporary, and chaos eternal?"

"The more one knows, the more one realizes their ignorance!"

"Like the universe, what mankind can comprehend is just the most trivial part, not even one-thousandth, one ten-thousandth…"

"Or like the mysterious system, is rationality only temporary, ultimately leading to madness?"

At this moment, he suddenly felt that his understanding of the sole divinity had advanced a great step.