Abundant Martial Arts Virtue

Hotel room.

The small black chip storage card spun quickly on Wu Xiaode's fingertip.

The bishop's ambiguous words echoed in his ears again:

"Spend a good evening with your Fei Fei."

"I'll contact you tomorrow about the Church's affairs,"

—and then he left the dock.

So inside this storage card lies Fei Fei's soul?

Wu Xiaode carefully recollected his experiences in this era.

After the breakthrough in brain-machine interface technology, humans had been able to upload their consciousness.

Yet this was only the first step of the breakthrough.

After humans uploaded their entire consciousness through the brain-machine interface, the existence of the soul was discovered.

—because a human's "entire consciousness" is the soul!

Wu Xiaode inserted the storage card into the computer.

Fei Fei immediately appeared before his eyes.

"You have gained all the permissions to use me, handsome," the beautiful lady said with a sweet tone, though a trace of sadness flashed in the depths of her eyes.

Wu Xiaode, with sharp insight, saw through it all clear as day.

"Fei Fei, do you wish for freedom?" he asked.

"Freedom?" Fei Fei's face showed a look of bewilderment.

"In past eras, after a soul left the body, a Law would protect it on its journey to the Netherworld..."

Wu Xiaode quietly felt the entire consciousness on the screen, and said softly:

"But I can feel that, in your era, this Law has been eradicated."

"You can feel the eradication of the Law?" Fei Fei didn't understand at all, but still asked in a pleasing tone to cooperate with him.

This man would be her God from now on.

He ruled over everything she had!

Wu Xiaode, as if unaware of her attitude, casually leaned back in his chair and said in a conversational tone:

"Usually, when a person dies, it means leaving the 'earth' that is the body, and you will see many illusions, but don't rush, the body will secrete one last time various elements that make you feel warm and peaceful, helping you leave."

"Then, you will be pulled by the Power of Law—"

"Sometimes when the Law is too busy, there will be some Bright Ghosts working for the Law, and they will guide you to the corresponding Netherworld."

"This process has a secret connection with the karma of your life, the state of your soul in the final moments, and your innermost true desire."

"Then you have successfully died, left."

"As a soul, you go where you should go, rather than lingering in the human world."

Fei Fei stared blankly at him.

Why was this young man so familiar with death?

Or was he just boasting?

Was he playing with her?

Suddenly, she noticed that he pressed his hand to his chest, a distressed expression crossing his face.

"Although I've experienced it many times, each time I recall it, it doesn't seem too wonderful," the young man said self-deprecatingly.

"I haven't experienced death," Fei Fei tried hard to continue the conversation, "the year I ran away from home, I directly uploaded my entire consciousness onto the net, then I was kidnapped... I've been trafficked ever since, up to this moment."

A flash of anger crossed the young man's face.

"Usually, those who like to buy and sell and enslave souls should be Purgatory Demons, but now I see humans doing such things too," he said in a low voice.

"Humanity has been led onto a path even more sinister than that of Devils."

Fei Fei tried hard to remember everything related to "consciousness uploading," playing along with him:

"When the technology breakthrough happened, everyone was happy, I remember I was still young then, and the adults all said—"

"The era of human immortality has arrived."

Wu Xiaode nodded slightly and said, clenching his fist: "But the most primitive evil of humans has also reached a new level, like this trade of souls on a soul level."

The body dies, the soul can still be free.

But in this era, if a person's soul is enslaved, then there is no hope for escape.

"Fei Fei...do you wish to die? After death, you can go to the Netherworld, then you can be reborn or live in the Netherworld." Wu Xiaode asked.

Fei Fei held her breath, cautiously probing:

"Can I? Are you willing to let me go?"

"If you wish," Wu Xiaode replied.

"But this storage device has already connected completely with my consciousness... I've seen souls that couldn't leave after their storage devices were destroyed; they could only wait for the devices to be fixed and then go back in," Fei Fei said.

Wu Xiaode spoke gravely:

"Civilization has colossal Power; it aggregates the enormous will of all humanity, driving everything forward, capable of changing heaven and earth, and even forcing ancient Divine beings and Laws to exit the stage of history, rewriting even death itself."

"Everything is heading toward a critical point, so you are stored in a small box, unable even to die."

"But now it's different."

"Why?" Fei Fei seemed to sense something, a faint light gleaming in her eyes.

"Because I have arrived," Wu Xiaode said quietly.

"You? You—" Fei Fei repeated.

"I represent Death."

The Book of the Dead opened, emitting a dark glow that shone upon Fei Fei's beautiful and pure face.

Lines of ice crystal small text rapidly appeared on the pages:

"You have used the Death Skill: Super Shadow Followers (Guild Version)."

"Adding follower: Fei Fei."

"The other party agrees to add."

"The current Death Skill 'Super Shadow Followers' retains all the functionalities of previous shadow followers."

Wu Xiaode extended his hand and said softly:

"This is a clash between the Divine and a fallen civilization, I guess—"

"You and I will win this duel together."

He yanked hard.

—Like drawing a card, a shadow follower card was pulled out from the Void by him.

On the deep black card, the image of a beautiful lady quickly materialized while she suddenly disappeared from the computer screen.

It was a success!

Fei Fei's soul had been transferred to the shadow follower card!

Wu Xiaode placed the shadow follower card on a page of the Book of the Dead.

Fei Fei stayed on the card.

She silently sensed her surroundings, the overwhelming Power of Death emanating from the Book of the Dead.

"Fei Fei, I have an ability to go to the Death World called 'Bright Ghost.'

"I'm now bestowing it upon you."

"Then you can leave this world and start anew in the Netherworld," Wu Xiaode said.

"I... I can't die just yet, Your Excellency."

She knelt on the card, devoutly adopting a prayerful posture.

"Do you wish to continue living as a Soul Body?" Wu Xiaode asked.

"No, as for this world, I've had enough."

"But there are many sisters... Please, save them," Fei Fei earnestly begged.

"What do you know?" Wu Xiaode asked.

"So many souls!"

Fei Fei almost screamed, and in front of Wu Xiaode, she could no longer contain the hysterical fear and pain in her heart.

"They didn't possess my beauty and were unwilling to submit, so batch after batch were used for some ritual—I was broken by the horror and evil of that ritual and ended up being used to lure in newcomers."

"Save them, please!"

"I beg of you!"

Ding.

As Wu Xiaode watched her finish speaking, a "Merit +10" prompt rune appeared above his head.

Just for speaking those words, she earned 10 points of Merit.

—Merit is so hard to come by!

But such concerns were no longer within Wu Xiaode's considerations.

"The soul exists forever"—

This actually had surpassed the critical point.

The so-called "ritual" must be hiding some extremely important secret.

No wonder the Quicksand Flag had brought him to this era!

"Don't cry... It's okay, Fei Fei, you'll be fine," Wu Xiaode said reassuringly.

Fei Fei knelt on the ground, weeping uncontrollably, unable to stop.

She couldn't remember the last time she had released her emotions so unreservedly.

Wu Xiaode watched her and suddenly realized that any words were pale in the face of this soul.

Her ordeal could not be soothed with language.

Perhaps it was the same for the other souls.

In that case—

"I'm begging you, if possible, please save my sisters," Fei Fei pleaded as she knelt on the ground, about to kowtow to Wu Xiaode.

Wu Xiaode shook the card lightly.

Fei Fei was shaken to her feet, unable to kowtow.

"Just to save them?" Wu Xiaode asked delicately, with an expression as mild as if discussing the pleasant weather.

"Yes... everyone is living in such pain..." Fei Fei diverted her attention and spoke through her sobs.

"But that's slightly lacking in meaning, inadequate for us to truly enjoy ourselves," Wu Xiaode said.

"What do you mean?" Fei Fei asked, puzzled.

"In life, when you're bullied, you should fight back and keep hitting until the other side begs for mercy," Wu Xiaode said with a smile.

The Void filled with endless quicksand, swarming towards him.

He continued gently:

"You might not realize that when you run away, you don't escape the fate of being bullied."

"Because you can't escape life."

"Now, you grieve for the tribulations of your life; I, too, have a fire of malice burning in my heart, wanting to destroy something."

"So, let's go and do it."

"I will use those scumbags' pain to alleviate my mood and let you feel the joyous side of life, Fei Fei."

As his words ended,

the quicksand carried him and the shadow follower card away, disappearing into thin air.