KABOOM! The ground shook, and qi exploded everywhere. Buildings, towers, and other large structures collapsed like dominoes from the waves of energy hitting them.

The thick, gray clouds in the sky suddenly swirled into a gigantic whirlwind like they were parting for the sun to shine through. One could even see the ripples from the sheer amount of qi in the air.

“Nascent Change cultivators are exchanging blows.” Gu Suihan narrowed his eyes. His clothes were flapping wildly from the whirlwind, making loud noises amidst the nothingness before him.

To people at this level, those thousands of cultivators and other living creatures were nothing. They could turn them to dust with just the wave of an arm. They didn’t care if these ants lived or died. They just didn’t have any energy to clean up the mess right now.

“I need to go faster,” thought Gu Suihan as he turned to move toward the north of the city. That was where the demons, the barbarians, and other strange creatures gathered. Perhaps he could find something interesting there.

If the souls, qi, and blood of cultivators at Foundation Establishment and Origin Core were slightly differently sized water droplets, then Gu Suihan was like an ocean that was close to drying up. And this was an ocean of dark, heavy water too.

The amount he needed to fill up the rest of the ocean couldn’t be fulfilled by gobbling up 10,000 cultivators. The quality of each person was too low, so the size of each droplet was simply too small.

Gurgle, gurgle. Gurgle, gurgle. The sound of water boiling suddenly resounded in this almost silent place. It was rather unsettling.

“Fengyuan Bordello..” Gu Suihan suddenly stopped in his footsteps and turned slowly to look at the three-story building a few kilometers away from him. Despite how the qi blasts from all the fighting nearby had destroyed all the buildings around it, this one remained standing.

“Wanna eat some?” an almost ethereal voice floated over. It was a horror-inducing voice, like hearing a ghost in the middle of the night.

“A barbarian..” Gu Suihan traveled across the rubble between himself and Fengyuan Bordello in less than a second and stood at the entrance as he stared indifferently at a large and muscular person seated on the floor. That person kept tapping on the huge cauldron that could fit a human and still have extra space left over.

The bubbles inside the cauldron kept bursting and giving off a fragrance that would make one salivate. The softened meat and bones cooking inside the cauldron gave off a milky color, and the large person still had a small mountain of other ingredients waiting to be cooked next to him.

“That’s right. My name is Chamu.” The large person raised his head and grinned at Gu Suihan. He scooped out a bowl for Gu Suihan and placed it on the floor.

“I’m Gu Suihan.” Gu Suihan smiled as he sat down across from Chamu and looked down at the thick, oily, meaty soup that smelled so appetizing. He retrieved a bottle of wine from his storage ring and passed it to Chamu.

“Thank you.” Chamu scratched his messy hair and smiled as he took the bottle from Gu Suihan. He swallowed a huge mouthful of wine before smacking his lips like he wished there was more, then let out a long, satisfied sigh.

“Someone else is here.”

Both of them raised an eyebrow as they exchanged glances, then smiled.

“This is a rare sight. It’s such a mess out there, but someone’s actually just happily cooking away, unafraid of death,” a voice said teasingly as a white apparition appeared in front of the other two.

“Do you want to eat some?” Chamu scooped out enough for another bowl and laughed as he held it out.

“If I didn’t want to eat, I wouldn’t be here.” The apparition slowly became more opaque, transforming into a young man in silver armor with a halberd in hand. He took the large bowl from Chamu and took several large bites of the meat without holding back.

“What meat is this? It smells really good, but it’s too oily, so I get a bit sick of the taste,” said the armored young man through bites as he finished the meat in his bowl within seconds and fished another piece directly out of the cauldron.

“It’s human meat.” Gu Suihan spoke calmly, but there was a cheeky smile on his face.

The young man’s face froze immediately before he turned to look at Chamu for confirmation. Chamu just kept his head down and chomped on the meat.

After Chamu finished his first bowl and got himself another, he finally looked back at the young man, furrowed his brows for a while, then said, “He’s..not wrong in saying that.”

“What do you mean by ‘he’s not wrong’?!” The young man’s lips twitched uncomfortably as he tried to stop his stomach from churning.

Chamu finally put his bowl down, drank the remainder of the wine from Gu Suihan, wiped his mouth, and said in a very serious manner, “This is meat from humans, not human meat.”

The young man was completely flummoxed. He stared at Chamu in confusion. “What in the..what? Isn’t meat from humans the same as human meat?”

“No, it’s not.” Chamu seemed a little angry now and raised a hand to stop the young man from going on. He declared very earnestly, “There is a distinction between the two. Meat from ordinary humans is considered human meat. I’m cooking the meat of cultivators. This soup contains meat with qi. It contains extra nutrition.”

Gu Suihan chuckled as he continued eating his share slowly. He said quietly, “It’s just like how humans distinguish between different animal meat. Pork isn’t the same as dog meat. So, the concept of humans is also different from the human race. Get it now? The former refers to ordinary humans who don’t cultivate, while the latter refers to cultivate and does not include the pathetic type who don’t cultivate.”

“But why..”

The young man wanted to ask more, but the barbarian interrupted him, “Do you think the pathetic sort of humans he mentions are able to defend themselves if another race attacks them? They’d have to rely on cultivators to protect them, wouldn’t they? To put it simply, humans are just animals bred by you cultivators. They give you vow power, good fortune, and other benefits, plus the things they want out of life don’t really clash with what you cultivators want. It’s just like how humans rear animals. They could sell them for money, but they could eat the animals too.”

The young man stared at Gu Suihan in disbelief. Chamu was just a barbarian, after all. He wanted Gu Suihan to explain this. He wanted Gu Suihan to overturn this insane argument against their own race.

But when he saw that Gu Suihan had no intention of disagreeing with Chamu and continued to put piece after piece of meat into his mouth, he realized that Gu Suihan agreed with Chamu.

“The truth is often cruel, don’t you think?” Gu Suihan swallowed his last mouthful of soup, then took out more bottles of wine for everyone. He looked at the young man’s horrified expression and chuckled. “It’s just like how some ordinary folk prays for the protection of some god or Buddha. Actually, they’re no different from how the animals they keep at home try to gain their owner’s favor. It’s just that the humans don’t make it look so obvious.”

“The universe has no mercy. It sees everyone as dogs,” muttered the young man, as though he was reconsidering what this phrase really meant.

“The universe doesn’t have emotions. It views all creatures as equal and does not have any bias because all creatures are mere ants to it. Some are strong ants, and some are weak and tiny ants, but they’re all still ants. That’s why it wouldn’t give either side any preference.” Gu Suihan slowly explained this phrase that had been twisted by mankind as he saw the confusion in the young man’s eyes.

It was too bad that ordinary people were often dumb and foolish. They thought that the phrase meant that the universe had no mercy and treated everything in the world as its toys. That interpretation was garbage, but a large majority of people believed this was its true meaning.

That majority included the thousands of novels from Earth. Did they really understand what this phrase meant? Nah, they were just repeating what they heard from elsewhere.

The young man took a deep breath after understanding what Gu Suihan just said. He got up and bowed solemnly. “Hearing your explanation is like having a tub of ice-cold water poured on my head. I, Tang Xiaoyun, have learned much!”

“Hoho, it’s nothing, really.” Gu Suihan chuckled, then turned around as he sensed something. He looked out of the entrance and called out, “It’s a bit cold out there, my fellow cultivator. Why don’t you come in and chat with us?”

“Huh?” Chamu and Tang Xiaoyun were alarmed and readied themselves for a fight.

They hadn’t noticed that someone else had come so close to them at all. Who in the world was outside?

“Hoho, you’re very sharp. I was still listening intently to your explanation earlier.” A laughter like the tinkling of bells was heard as a young woman with pretty eyes, pink cheeks, petal-like lips, and a mesmerizing figure appeared in the doorway. She had no shoes, but she wore a red dress that made her look like a beautiful rose in bloom and her hair in two buns.

The breeze wasn’t strong, but it seemed especially chilly in this place, covered in rubble and filled with dead bodies. The young woman slowly made her way in, accompanied by the melodious sound of a bell. Her gaze was mysterious and exuded an aura that could make everyone fall head over heels in love with her. Her charm and gorgeousness were extremely attractive, yet it also seemed to keep others at a distance.

“Every rose has thorns,” remarked Gu Suihan with a chuckle before looking away and pouring himself another cup of wine. He swirled it in his hand as he glanced thoughtfully at the staircase landing of the second story.

Author’s note: Tang Xiaoyun, the character requested by the other reader, has made an appearance! This time, I’ll try to let the girl survive more chapters than the last few..otherwise, I’d have to think of yet another name, which is suchhhhh a headache

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