Immortal Dao is dead, I am the mastermind behind it all.

The second chapter, section three of the *Shan Hai Si Ming Zhi* contains the following:

There are nine heavens and nine abysses in this world, between which lie mountains and seas, and also the human world.

After Afan resigned from his post, people saw the rising sun being cut into pieces by the black tide, and a blue-faced child sitting on the crest of the wave.

Those were water spirits driven by the dragon's relatives, chanting prayers for the soul's salvation in their tender childish voices.

They have come to avenge that evil dragon.

But Afan knew that revenge was just an excuse.

The demon race, an excuse for sacrifice.

Then, the rivers across the entire continent swelled simultaneously, and the floodwaters, like ferocious beasts finally breaking free of their chains, surged towards the land from every valley.

Afan descended from the clouds and came to earth.

He saw the dikes he had built for flood control crumble like toy building blocks.

The mortals were huddled together, and large swathes of houses were swept away by the flood like withered leaves.

"Cause and effect, cycle..."

"Fine, since I started this, I'll deal with it."

Avan whispered.

Transform into a human, slay demons.

The feathered robe was no longer adorned with soft wisps of cloud, but with sharp, piercing wind blades.

He beheaded the wicked blue-faced water demon and used its face as a model to make a mask for himself.

The mask was bluish-green.

He called it Azure Sky.

Wearing it on one's face allows one to conceal their magical aura by using the water spirit's demonic energy, thus hiding their origins as a quail.

The battle lasted for nine days and nine nights.

Afan's feathered robe was soaked in dragon blood, turning from azure to jet black.

Every time he slayed a dragon, he would take its reverse scale and stick it to his chest, transforming it into a feathered armor.

During the battle, he sensed a powerful aura emanating from the human territory.

But those people all live in the distant mountains and never come down.

Despite the raging floodwaters, those cultivators didn't even cast a glance at it.

"They're human too? No..."

"Immortals, they are immortals."

After a moment's thought, Afan separated the two similar-looking Ying insects.

After all, no race in this world would sit idly by and watch their own kind perish.

…………

The battle dragged on for longer and longer, and Avan's armor covered his entire body.

But gradually, he felt somewhat powerless.

Not only dragons, but also harmful monsters such as Fei Yi, Fei, Qiong Qi, Gu Diao, and Jiu Ying have appeared.

Left with no other choice, Afan had to withdraw from the battle.

He left a magical clone to attract attention, while his main body went to recover its magical power and heal its injuries, and also went to check on the situation behind the human race.

……

Behind the human race, floods engulfed cities, and people floated like straw.

In the recent small town, Afan slew a wreaking havoc dragon.

"Strange, why is there a demon behind us?"

In the waves created by the dragon's corpse, he saw a little girl in purple clinging to a door panel being pushed into a whirlpool by the waves.

When he pulled the child out of the water, he noticed that she had a straw rope tied around her waist.

The other end of the rope was connected to the already stiff mother.

The woman's ten fingers were covered in blood and flesh; before she died, she gritted her teeth and tore her clothes to make this life-saving rope.

Afan frowned, his magical power flowing, and he evaporated all the raging floodwaters.

As the water level dropped, a dilapidated temple was revealed.

Afan was stunned as he looked at the statues in the temple.

"Is this my...temple?"

Over the past three years of fighting, the mortals on this continent have come to worship Afan, who is fighting on the front lines, as a god.

He hurriedly dispersed his spiritual consciousness, looked at the entire human world, and reviewed the time that had passed over the past three years.

Despite being blocked at the pass, many lesser demons still managed to cross his defenses.

Even a few minor demons who had just survived a few tribulations had turned this human world into a living hell.

Afan withdrew his spiritual consciousness, his pupils widening in shock.

"Foolish! Foolish!"

"Why...why would such a foolish race exist in the world of mountains and seas?"

His mind was stunned by the sight before him, and he murmured repeatedly.

…………

"Humans cannot defeat those demons..."

The soldiers huddled inside the city gate.

"You bastard! How could you say such discouraging things!"

The general, clad in heavy armor, was furious.

"This wave is over, what should we do about the next one?"

"Where's the support?"

"..."

"General, let's retreat. Yu'e City is beyond saving. If we continue to hold out, the flood will come."

"Staying in this defensive posture is completely pointless!"

"What does it mean? I don't understand at all!"

"A monster is coming!"

"Form ranks!"

The soldiers formed ranks, gazing at the dark, overwhelming tide of low-level beasts in the distance, their expressions varied.

"They're here! They're here!"

"We're doomed, we're doomed..."

"May the Azure Netherworld God protect us..."

As the battle began, the general at the forefront glanced at a young soldier in the vanguard and casually asked:

"I remember you were a scholar, why did you come to the front lines to die?"

"We cannot retreat! Behind Yu'e City lies the light of countless homes in our world. I cannot abandon the city and flee into the abyss!"

The young striker's voice was powerful and resonant.

"Well said!"

"Well done!"

The young striker's inspiring words slightly straightened the chests of the trembling soldiers.

"Demon! Come on!"

Swish.

The next moment, the young striker was trampled into the ground by a hoof that came down from the sky.

It was a young pheasant, its hooves bigger than millstones.

His jagged back was covered with the tattered armor of soldiers, and the breath he exhaled from his throat melted the iron spears instantly.

As the young pheasant departed, its hooves lifted, the young striker remained stuck to its feet for a while before finally landing.

The soldiers swarmed towards the baby pheasant's toes like locusts, hacking away at the calluses on its ankle with their blunted blades.

Before some were trampled into mincemeat, they still tried to insert their spears into the gaps between the scales.

"No... I need to stand up... My family is waiting for me behind me!"

With unwavering willpower, the young vanguard soldier tried to prop up his broken body.

click!

A Gu eagle descended from the sky and swallowed him whole.

"Chok that beast to death!"

"Gunpowder! Where's the gunpowder?"

"Blow it up!"

The soldiers, armed with muskets, charged toward the Gu Diao.

Some even took poison, using their bodies as poison, only to be swallowed by the Gu Diao.

They attempted to achieve victory through the most brutal means.

The moment the claws tore open the soldiers' chests, poisonous blood splattered into the monster's eyes.

Amidst the smoke of battle, the monstrous Gu Diao, writhing and tumbling, crushed half of the arrow tower, swallowing the gruesome remains of poisoned soldiers and suffering unbearable agony.

All that remained of the soldiers were their mangled remains and blood clots piled up on the scorched earth.

As night fell, the horde of monsters temporarily retreated.

The survivors pulled out their still-breathing companions from the pile of corpses and carried them away using long spear shafts as stretchers.

"Where are the generals?"

"He was trampled to death."

How many people are left?

"Two million before the war, now... less than two thousand."

The centurion and another ordinary soldier sat on the scorched earth, chatting about nothing in particular.

"What's the striker's name?"

"have no idea."

Such wars occur in every corner of the world.

The story of an unknown nobody is nothing new.

But misfortune never comes singly.

The flood destroyed the grain silos.

Famine has arrived.

"The supplies are not coming."

An old soldier smiled as he opened an empty grain sack, revealing a simple map drawn in charcoal on the lining.

The human cities marked on the map are covered with countless arrows.

"We won't survive the next wave of beasts."

"I will die, you will die, we will all die."

"When this thought completely occupied my mind, I subconsciously wanted to know the meaning of my life in this moment."

In the ruined temple in the city, beside the campfire, the centurion addressed his soldiers.

"I've made up my mind, I'm going to die in this city."

"No matter what, we cannot allow the monsters to cross this city before the flood arrives."

"This is my meaning."

"So..." the centurion changed the subject.

He snatched a crying baby girl from a woman in the city and pursed his dry lips.

The military knife in his hand wavered uncertainly.

"Anyway, she's just dying a few days before us," the centurion hypnotized himself.

"The meat will be distributed among everyone, ensuring we have the strength to slaughter those animals later..."

"Chief!"

Beside him, by the campfire, stood an ordinary, gaunt young soldier.

"You can't eat people! Eating people is wrong!"

The young soldier shouted, his gaunt face still showing signs of immaturity.

The other soldiers stopped, including the centurion; perhaps out of a lingering conscience, they listened quietly.

"I will not eat human flesh."

"If we eat living people, how are we any different from monsters?"

"But if you do that, you'll fall on the eve of the monsters' arrival. Are you willing to accept that?" the centurion asked helplessly.

The plague left by that pheasant has not yet dissipated, and almost all the soldiers have been infected. If they don't eat something to warm themselves up, they won't survive until tomorrow.

"It doesn't matter. I've been to this world, I've fought, I have no regrets, and after I die..."

The gaunt young man's eyes shone brightly.

"My soul will ascend to the heavens and become a star!"

The young man pointed to the sky, and everyone followed his gaze to see the sky full of stars.

"Above the nine heavens, there are celestial palaces and immortals!"

"After becoming a star, I will shine brightly and look down on the human world, where there will be no more worries or pain."

"If you eat a person, you'll only be sent to the Nine Abyss! That's the deepest, darkest depths of the earth, with molten iron and ghosts that rip out tongues. You'll suffer endless torment, never to come out again!"

The atmosphere fell silent.

Only the campfire flickered.

Inside the temple, the corners of the eyes of the Azure God statue were cracked.