Chapter 1 The Screen of Blood

The screen was filled with a sky-high spray of blood.

In the background music, the Martial God's eyes slowly closed.

The sky-high spray of blood was actually a close-up of his two eyeballs. As his eyelids fell, the camera zoomed out, and the blood gradually dissipated. However, bloody mist still billowed from the Martial God's eyes, like blood tears floating in the air.

The camera continued to zoom out.

The Martial God sat cross-legged opposite the chessboard with his eyes tightly closed. His right hand gripped the demon sword, which was planted on the ground. Dripping blood flowed down the blade, completely coating the demon sword in blood red.

On the chessboard, the black and white pieces remained in their final positions, but they were now stained with blood.

The old monk still sat cross-legged with his hands clasped together, but his aged head was drooping. His kasaya and monk's robes were stained red with blood, indicating that he had already passed away peacefully.

The entire scene was frozen in place, with only the fiery red maple leaves still falling slowly.

This silence lasted for a few seconds.

Then, a crisp "ding-ling" sound broke the silence.

It was originally just a subtle sound, but soon a second sound rang out. This time the sound was much louder, as if it were right next to his ear.

The Martial God's body, and the old monk's body, both shook slightly.

Nothing appeared above the old monk's head, because his three souls and seven spirits had already been extinguished by the demon sword. The blood of an enlightened monk had granted the demon sword the powerful ability to kill ghost messengers.

Above the Martial God's head, however, a flickering spiritual fire appeared, which was his three souls and seven spirits.

The Martial God's three souls and seven spirits in his twilight years were no longer as strong as they were in his youth. They were like a candle in the wind, as if they would be taken away in the next second.

But at this moment, the Martial God suddenly opened his eyes!

The demon sword in his hand suddenly released a monstrous demonic energy. As the blade flashed, it brought with it a sky-high spray of crimson blood and filthy black flames, slashing towards a certain spot in the courtyard!

Although the blade passed through the chessboard, it did not cause any damage to it. Instead, it was as if it had passed through a phantom, as if it was already in a different space-time.

As the monstrous demonic energy swept across, two figures vaguely appeared in the courtyard.

One black and one white, with long tongues hanging out, left hands holding shackles, and right hands holding mourning sticks.

The white tassels on the mourning sticks fluttered, trying to hook the wandering souls, and the bells at the top of the mourning sticks emitted another crisp sound.

In front of the two tall, eerie ghost messengers, the Martial God gradually adapted to the state of being between the yin and yang realms, and gripped the demon sword tightly in his right hand.

Then, he made a "please" gesture.

...

After this starting gesture, the game seamlessly transitioned into real combat footage.

The old monk's corpse, the chessboard, and other elements remained unchanged, but Black and White Impermanence had appeared as opponents.

Two extremely tall, imposing bosses, with two long boss health bars above the screen.

The sudden battle caught Yan Qi a little off guard.

"Crap, it's starting already?"

"Fighting Black and White Impermanence right from the start? This is too exciting!"

Fortunately, Yan Qi already had the controller in his hand.

After all, he had already suffered many times in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), and he subconsciously became nervous and excited when playing this kind of game, not daring to be distracted at all.

But even so, these two bosses gave him a huge sense of oppression he had never felt before.

He had already fought Black and White Impermanence in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), but the Black and White Impermanence he encountered this time were clearly different from those in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*).

In *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), Black and White Impermanence were actually in a relatively crazy state, having lost their minds. They had completely forgotten their mission of guiding souls, and wandered aimlessly as bosses in the game.

The Black and White Impermanence in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*) looked scarier, with their ghost messenger robes torn and bloodstained. Their eyes were a frantic blood red, unable to communicate with people. They could only roar some meaningless interjections, and their attack methods were even more insane and chaotic.

The Black and White Impermanence in *永堕轮回* (Yong Duo Lunhui) (*Eternal Reincarnation*) looked much more normal in appearance. Their ghost messenger robes were neat and tidy, and you could even clearly see the four characters "一见生财" (yi jian sheng cai) (*Seeing You Brings Wealth*) and "天下太平" (tian xia tai ping) (*Peace Under Heaven*) written on their official hats. Their movements looked very rational, and they didn't seem to have as strong of a desire to attack as they did in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*).

Not only that, but they also had lines.

"Fierce ghosts hook souls, Impermanence claims lives."

"Impudent souls! Surrender quickly and be captured, locked up in Fengdu, judged for your sins, and tried in the underworld!"

"Resist the ghost messengers, and you will be cast into the Avici Hell, never to be reincarnated!"

The eerie and terrifying voices were even scarier than seeing Black and White Impermanence in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*).

After all, Black and White Impermanence were mid-game bosses in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*). Players had to fight their way out of the mass burial grounds, defeat the crazed townspeople in the initial town, and embark on the road to the Yellow Springs, suffering countless times before they could encounter Black and White Impermanence.

By the time they saw them, they were already mentally prepared.

But *永堕轮回* (Yong Duo Lunhui) (*Eternal Reincarnation*) was different. Right from the start, you had to fight two bosses, and they seemed to be at their peak. The pressure was overwhelming!

Yan Qi was a little dumbfounded.

"How am I supposed to fight this? I'm only level one, and I don't have anything!"

In *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), you would at least level up and get weapons and healing items before encountering a boss fight, but now the protagonist didn't have anything. What was he supposed to fight with?

"Could it be that the protagonist of *永堕轮回* (Yong Duo Lunhui) (*Eternal Reincarnation*) is set to be much stronger than the one in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), so they arranged such powerful enemies like Black and White Impermanence right from the start?"

"Well, that makes sense. After all, the setting is a Martial God, and he's holding a demon sword with an off-the-charts cool factor. It shouldn't be too difficult to chop down Black and White Impermanence."

"Besides, I'm not a new player. I've already beaten *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*)!"

Thinking of this, Yan Qi confidently charged forward.

Less than a minute later, Yan Qi watched helplessly as the so-called Martial God was beaten to the ground by Black and White Impermanence. Two mourning sticks directly hammered him until he couldn't get up, and chains pierced through his collarbones, locking him up.

"... Damn it, something's not right here?"

"These two bosses are ridiculously strong. Is this a scripted kill?"

Yan Qi realized that things were very different from what he had expected.

He originally thought that the Martial God wielding the demon sword would be very powerful, but after charging up, he realized that it wasn't the case at all!

Black and White Impermanence's stats seemed to be higher than in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*). They had more health and dealt more damage.

Although their desire to attack was no longer as strong, their AI seemed to have become smarter, making the difficulty of a 1v2 fight increase exponentially!

From a setting perspective, this made sense. After all, Black and White Impermanence were now in a normal state of rationality, at their peak, so it was understandable that their stats would be higher.

But the key was, this Martial God was no Martial God at all! He was basically paper-thin!

Yan Qi originally thought that the damage of this demon sword would be very high, causing Black and White Impermanence to lose a lot of health with each hit. However, when he actually slashed at them, he found that the damage wasn't high at all!

Although they lost health, it would take a lot of perseverance to wear down Black and White Impermanence to death.

Moreover, the lack of healing items made the margin for error in battle extremely low. Once one of the Impermanence knocked you down, the other would definitely follow up with a combo. With so little health, it was not enough to withstand it, and it would be wiped out in minutes.

After being captured, the protagonist was taken to the underworld by Black and White Impermanence.

"Well... it looks like it's really a scripted kill, deliberately arranging characters that the player can't beat at all."

"The real plot of the game should start from the Road to the Yellow Springs."

Compared to *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), *永堕轮回* (Yong Duo Lunhui) (*Eternal Reincarnation*) skipped some of the game content, such as the initial small village, town, and Ghost Gate Pass, and started directly from the Road to the Yellow Springs.

On the Road to the Yellow Springs, there were a large number of ghosts mindlessly walking towards the River of Three Crossings and Naihe Bridge under the guidance of ghost messengers. Black and White Impermanence left the protagonist here, handed him over to the ghost messenger who was guiding the way, and went back to the world to capture other ghosts.

The protagonist then broke free from his shackles again, and next, he would obviously have to kill the ghost messengers on the Road to the Yellow Springs and continue forward.

Compared to the scenes in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), the scenes in *永堕轮回* (Yong Duo Lunhui) (*Eternal Reincarnation*) were clearly closer to the normal state of the underworld.

The ghosts were heading to the underworld under the guidance of ghost messengers, in an orderly manner, without being piled up on the Road to the Yellow Springs and without guidance like in *回头是岸* (Huitou Shi An) (*Turn Back is the Shore*), and the ghost messengers hadn't gone crazy.

Yan Qi quickly broke free from the frustration of the "scripted kill" and charged towards a ghost messenger in front of him with his demon sword.

The first ordinary small monster encountered in the game, he should be able to solve this smoothly, right?

However, half a minute later, Yan Qi fell into deep thought as he looked at the Martial God whose soul had flown away and scattered on the screen.

Something doesn't feel right!

Developers, are you sure this thing is called "Martial God"?