Chapter 1801

In the misty mountain range, a blood river slowly flowed out, dyeing the nearby land red.

“Human Sovereign…” The soldiers stationed outside the blood river spontaneously saluted when they saw Zhou Wen.

“Call me Zhou Wen.” Zhou Wen looked at the soldiers and couldn’t help but frown slightly. Their exposed skin had many abscesses.

There were even people whose faces were covered in burst boils, making them look abnormally disgusting and hideous.

“What’s going on?” Zhou Wen stared at the officer beside him and asked.

The officer said with a bitter smile, “Young Master Wen, this blood river looks harmless, but if you stay here for extended periods, your body will develop such abscesses. The longer you stay, the worse the rot. We haven’t discovered a way to treat it, nor can we bandage it. The more we bandage it, the worse it becomes.”

“Why didn’t you retreat?” asked Zhou Wen.

“We don’t dare leave without orders, nor can we leave. There’s people behind us so we have no choice but to guard this area,” the officer said firmly.

Zhou Wen was somewhat moved. Who wasn’t afraid of death? However, these soldiers still held on despite knowing that they were facing death. It was difficult to imagine how they had withstood the pressure to stay behind.

…

“Take off your shirt,” Zhou Wen said to the officer.

“That’s not appropriate, right?” The officer hurriedly rejected.

“If he’s unwilling, are you willing?” Zhou Wen asked the soldier beside him.

The soldier wore an odd expression as though he was torn, but in the end, he shook his head.

Zhou Wen didn’t say another word as he walked in front of the soldier and reached out to grab his clothes.

The soldier wanted to retreat, but he was held back by Zhou Wen. After some hesitation, he stopped struggling as Zhou Wen lifted his shirt.

It was a shocking sight. His chest and back were mostly covered in bloody boils. Many of them had ruptured as pus and blood slowly seeped out.

“Aren’t you afraid of death?” Zhou Wen asked the soldier.

“Yes,” the soldier answered after a long while.

“Then why aren’t you leaving?” Zhou Wen asked again.

“Where can I go? Every additional day I persist means one more day for my family to live a good life. Even if it’s an hour or a minute, I don’t wish for the same thing to happen to my family,” the soldier said as he held back his tears.

One could hear the helpless despair in his words.

As more and more dimensional zones broke out, the living space of humans was reduced and compressed.

Ordinary people could still live peacefully at home because someone was paying the price in blood, tears, and even their lives.

“Live well. There will be a day of reunion.” Zhou Wen reached out and patted the soldier on the shoulder.

The abscesses on the soldier’s body immediately healed at a visible speed.

It wasn’t just one soldier. The abscesses on all the soldiers guarding the blood river rapidly subsided.

These abscesses weren’t injuries or poison, nor were they ordinary bacterial infections. Instead, their bloodlines had been contaminated.

Therefore, ordinary strength couldn’t heal him at all. Even the Calamity-grade Holy Light of Healing couldn’t treat such injuries.

The entire An family was helpless against this. Only Zhou Wen, who had the power of the Demon God Bloodline Catalog, could cleanse their tainted bloodline.

In modern terms, there was something wrong with their genes. There was no way to treat them, and the condition could even be inherited.

Moments later, the abscesses on everyone’s bodies vanished as the soldiers and officers recovered.

“Young Master Wen…” The officers and soldiers were extremely excited.

Zhou Wen stopped the officer from speaking as he swept his gaze across the soldiers. “No matter how difficult it is, you have to survive. Your family is waiting for you to return.”

With that said, he turned around and charged into the blood river with the other two.

The officers and soldiers saluted in the direction of Zhou Wen’s departure. Even when the figure completely vanished into the blood mist, they were still unwilling to lower their hands.

“This is the present era-survival of the fittest. This is the law of nature. No one can change it,” Jing Daoxian said indifferently.

“Nature doesn’t have rules determining who dies,” Zhou Wen retorted.

“Hehe, have you ever thought that even if you can change their fate and let them live, them living is equivalent to depriving the lives of others? If a person who should have died survives, he will take up a spot of someone that didn’t need to die. Is this really mercy?” Jing Daoxian sneered.

“You trying to say that humans are the original sin of this world, right?” Zhou Wen said indifferently, “Perhaps what you said is right, but to me, it doesn’t matter if humans are good or bad. I only want the people I care about to live. I don’t know anything about mercy, nor am I a saint, nor do I have great foresight. I just want the people in front of me to live well.”

“Hehe, I’m starting to like you. Then I’ll give you another piece of news for free.” Jing Daoxian paused before continuing, “Wang Mingyuan once entered Chess Mountain, and he wasn’t the only one.”

“Who else?” Zhou Wen asked with a frown because he had roughly guessed who Jing Daoxian was talking about.

“Ouyang Ting,” Jing Daoxian said slowly as he stared at Zhou Wen.

“Oh.” Zhou Wen wasn’t surprised because he had already thought of this possibility.

“Aren’t you curious about what they did inside Chess Mountain?” Jing Daoxian said enticingly.

“I’m afraid you don’t know either,” Zhou Wen said indifferently.

“This kind of goading is still useful against young people. An old man like me doesn’t have that much of a temper.” Although Jing Daoxian said that, he continued, “However, I can tell you that I also entered back then. Furthermore, other than the three of us, there’s another person. You will definitely be interested in this person.”

“Who?” Zhou Wen was somewhat surprised. This time, he really couldn’t guess who it was.

“Your father, Zhou Lingfeng.” Jing Daoxian’s words left Zhou Wen taken aback.

He remembered that Zhou Lingfeng had told him that he had never entered Chess Mountain. He had only retreated after approaching Chess Mountain because of Prisoner’s anomaly.

Now, Jing Daoxian was suddenly telling him that Zhou Lingfeng had also entered Chess Mountain with Jing Daoxian, Wang Mingyuan, and Ouyang Ting, Zhou Wen was momentarily unsure if he should believe Jing Daoxian.

“I know you don’t believe me, but I’m afraid you won’t believe what I’m about to say.” Jing Daoxian’s smile was very strange, making Zhou Wen shudder.

“What are you trying to get at?” Zhou Wen said coldly.

Jing Daoxian didn’t answer directly and asked, “Have you seen your mother?”

“I…” Zhou Wen opened his mouth and suddenly realized that everything his knew about his mother came from Zhou Lingfeng. He really didn’t seem to have seen his mother before. He didn’t even have any memories of her appearance.

However, Zhou Wen didn’t remember what Zhou Lingfeng had told him about his mother.

“What do you mean?” Zhou Wen stopped and stared at Jing Daoxian.

“When Zhou Lingfeng came out of Chess Mountain, he was carrying a baby.” Jing Daoxian’s words were like an earthquake, shocking Zhou Wen speechless.