Chapter 1 The Riverside Wind

The wind by the river was always strong.

Yingying sat on the hood of the car, gazing at her boss lying on the river's surface.

In that moment, she felt a philosopher's aura emanating from her boss.

Perhaps it was true that beauty was in the eye of the beholder. In Yingying's eyes, everything her boss did was good, excellent, and charming.

There wasn't a second man in this world more outstanding than her boss!

Yes,

Just so!

In the river,

Zhou Ze closed his eyes.

If "laziness" was a person's label, then Zhou Ze's body had no more room to be tagged.

But he understood some basic things.

For example,

No matter what happened, or what he had to face,

He could be finished,

But he had to be finished knowing what was happening.

Not waking up one morning to brush his teeth,

"Boom,"

The world was destroyed,

And on the eve of the world's destruction, his mouth would still be full of toothpaste foam.

Dreams were the best nexus; they could be a beginning or an end, but at least, in Zhou Ze's life, no dream had ever been aimless.

The river's surface beneath him began to stir.

Then,

A figure identical to his own appeared at his side.

Except,

He was made entirely of water.

Like a reflection from below that had turned itself over.

Zhou Ze opened his eyes, turned his head, and looked at his side.

Honestly, this feeling of lying side by side with a simpleton was really making him uncomfortable.

"Tsk..."

Boss Zhou didn't make any comment.

He didn't want this hard-won conversation to end quickly with "watch... dog..."

Otherwise, it would really spoil this wonderful scenery, this comfortable river wind,

And the gas money spent driving all the way from the bookstore here.

"Do you know what sword you dreamed about?"

Huh,

He wasn't stuttering?

So, this was a newly developed chat mode?

He probably didn't need to be on the river.

It could probably be done in the bathtub at home.

But the thought of lying in the bathtub,

With a simpleton lying next to him,

Hiss...

Boss Zhou suddenly felt goosebumps all over his body.

"A sword? The Xuanyuan Sword?"

"Surprisingly, you guessed right."

"Thank you for the compliment. Those are the only famous swords I know."

"That is the Yellow Emperor's sword."

"Yes, so, the Yellow Emperor is going to give me the Xuanyuan Sword?"

Zhou Ze opened his eyes,

Looking at the sky,

As if at any moment a peerless sword,

Would fall from the sky,

Into his hands,

And then the river would ripple,

And the East Sea would surge.

There were just too many similar, passionate movie scenes.

"Heh."

Ying Gou chuckled softly.

Clearly, this was a denial.

Because from this laughter, Zhou Ze heard a strong sense of mockery.

But Boss Zhou had always felt that pie could fall from the sky. Although he had died frustratingly in his previous life, he had been living a life of cheat codes in this one.

First, he sensed Ying Gou living in his soul, then Mount Tai delivered itself to his door.

While others were still working hard to level up, he could lie there early on, coasting and waiting to die, occasionally running to hell for a spring outing, and collecting the heads of a few Yama Kings to make into figurines.

So,

If another Lin sister fell from the sky...

Oh no,

If the Xuanyuan Sword fell from the sky,

What was so strange about that?

When he first met Gou Xin, the other party considered himself the chosen one,

But Boss Zhou compared himself to Gou Xin,

And no matter how he compared, he felt that Gou Xin was a little brother.

"I was wrong?" Zhou Ze asked.

"You're thinking too beautifully."

"Because I've always felt that life is more beautiful than not."

"The scabbard is knocking on your heart's door. What did you think of?"

"Huh?" Zhou Ze paused for a moment, and continued, "Simpleton, I really suspect you've started to believe in Buddhism.

You know, the monks in the temple who help interpret dreams and fortunes like to talk like this, so they can cheat people out of incense money."

"The scabbard is knocking on the door, which means that the person knocking on the door is holding a sheathed sword in the other hand."

It was a very ordinary conversation,

Although the water-made version of himself lying next to him was a bit out of place,

But as soon as Ying Gou finished speaking,

Zhou Ze suddenly felt a chill in his heart.

At this point,

Even Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva could indeed make Zhou Ze feel apprehensive, but as for being afraid, not really.

After all, farmer's three punches weren't for nothing.

But according to Ying Gou,

Someone was going to kill him with the Xuanyuan Sword. Who that person was was self-evident...

This pressure,

Was immense.

"Say, were you and your former superior on such bad terms?"

After asking this question,

Zhou Ze shook his head first,

And continued:

"Never mind, forget I asked."

With Ying Gou's temper, it would be a miracle if he could be on good terms with his superior.

It was a good thing that Ying Gou wasn't pedantic, and rebelled directly when he needed to, otherwise, his fate would probably be no different from that of Han Xin and other meritorious dogs throughout history.

"I will not submit to anyone."

"Why are you suddenly shouting slogans again? Sounds like 'Orcs will never be slaves'."

"He is a very great person."

This "he" was definitely referring to the Yellow Emperor.

Although Ying Gou eventually rebelled against the Yellow Emperor and became a king in hell, even the other generals under the Yellow Emperor who chased the remnants of the Jiuli tribe to hell were directly shouted back by Ying Gou with a "scram."

But in Ying Gou's heart,

Even when the heavens changed back then,

And those hands fell from the sky,

He still stood there and severed his ten fingers.

That was the kind of person Ying Gou was. Putting aside all other relationships, biases, arrogance, and other factors,

His evaluation of the Yellow Emperor,

Was still "great."

Of course, as someone who had received nine years of compulsory education, Boss Zhou naturally didn't need anyone to popularize how great the Yellow Emperor was.

After all, we are all descendants of Yan and Huang.

But if the Yellow Emperor was still alive...

Suddenly,

He felt at a disadvantage.

"The battle in ancient times seemed to be a battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chi You, a war between two civilizations, and a struggle for the position of human ruler;

In reality,

It was also a struggle for the Mandate of Heaven.

We were fighting in the mortal realm,

While those high and mighty immortals,

Were helping both sides,

People were being killed and blood was flowing all over the mortal realm,

But they were happily harvesting luck.

The mortal realm,

To them,

Is just a farm. All they need to do is come down and harvest from time to time, harvest, and harvest again."

Boss Zhou felt like he was sitting by a campfire, listening to his grandfather telling stories about the past.

"We won, in the end."

"Mm."

"He became the human ruler."

"Mm."

"Haven't you ever wondered why I'm still alive, why Hanba is still alive, but the Yellow Emperor is dead?"

"He's dead?"

Boss Zhou obviously didn't grasp the point Ying Gou was trying to make,

He was just surprised that since the Yellow Emperor was dead, who exactly was holding the scabbard of the Xuanyuan Sword and knocking on his "heart's door?"

"He is dead."

That was confirmed.

"And then?"

"On the day he died, he was received by the immortals in the heavens. The immortals wanted him to be listed among the immortals. As the human ruler of the mortal realm, he had the qualifications."

"Sounds pretty good, like being transferred from the grassroots to the central government."

Of course, whether this was good or bad was really a matter of opinion. Many people might feel that it was more comfortable to live in a place where the emperor was far away and the heavens were high, and they would feel uncomfortable being promoted to a large yamen.

Just look at how rich and comfortable the lives of many village chiefs are now, and you'll understand.

"That day, he went up, and slashed with his sword;

After that slash, there were no more immortals in the world."

"Mm..."

"He had many faults."

"You can say that. I'll just listen. It's not really convenient for me to say."

"He was proud, he was arrogant, he had a strong desire for power, he was intoxicated by the glory and praise of being a human ruler, he wanted to be admired for generations."

"Mm..."

"But what he wanted most was to be a person."

"That request seems a bit low."

"People, the long-lived ones live for a hundred years, a hundred and twenty years at most;

They must experience birth, old age, sickness, and death, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. In this vastness, a person's life is really like a fleeting moment.

But he still wants to be a person."

"I... I think I understand a little."

"Therefore, he cut off the immortals, so that from that day on, there would no longer be another group of people above the heads of humans."

"And then?"

"But immortals cannot be completely eliminated. Even if they are all dead, they are still waiting for the opportunity to return in the dark."

"So, the reason you fell back then was..."

"That time, I stopped it."

It was a bit like the reactionaries trying to make a comeback, and then being pushed back by Ying Gou, who replaced the Yellow Emperor, who had long since passed away into humanity.

Of course, Ying Gou also paid a great price for this.

"But this time..."

Obviously, Ying Gou didn't stop the changes in hell a year ago, or rather, he had already stopped it once, and was too lazy to do it a second time. After all, not being in the position, he wouldn't plan the affairs.

In theory,

The changes a year ago,

Should have been borne by the last Mansion Lord, but the old Taoist saw that the situation was wrong in his previous life, and directly swept away his family property and ran away. He would rather abandon his foundation than play any "the emperor guards the country's gate and the monarch dies for the nation" drama.

Moreover,

Even though the immortals were long gone,

There were still people like Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva who yearned for and longed for immortals, and these people were endless.

Not everyone wants to be a person.

However, Zhou Ze was also a little strange.

It was rare,

That the simpleton suddenly said so much to him all at once,

And without stuttering.

"That's not right." Zhou Ze suddenly thought of a problem, "Shouldn't the scabbard of the Xuanyuan Sword go to that Bodhisattva to knock on his door? Why did it come to me?"

"I once defeated the Jiuli and killed Chi You with the Yellow Emperor."

"Uh, why are you suddenly starting to reminisce about the glorious years of the past?"

"I once stopped the changing of the heavens in hell."

"Yes, yes, I know, I know, but what I'm asking is..."

"I've lived from ancient times to the present, I've helped the Yellow Emperor slay immortals, I've stopped immortals from returning myself;

But,

I've lived from ancient times to the present, always alive, never dead, and unwilling to die.

So..."

"So?"

Zhou Ze saw the water-made version of himself at his side begin to slowly dissolve,

Which meant that the conversation was about to end,

But what about the answer?

"So what?" Zhou Ze asked.

"So... I... have... become... an... immortal..."