Chapter 9 - 09 - Trash

Based on King’s attitude, Iris guessed that the system had just advised him not to go looking for death.

"I think you should listen to the system’s advice. Who knows, maybe I’ll feel better and consider not killing you?"

The suggestion seemed reasonable, but Iris’s expression as she tried to hold back her laughter directly destroyed all reason. The more she laughed, the angrier King became.

"Are you not happy enough already? Just look at the corner of your mouth. You only held back your laughter for a few seconds, and it’s already trembling."

King rolled his eyes at her. She was just a character in a novel, so how dare she tease a reader like him?

The number of female protagonists in the novels King had read in his life was at least in the thousands. Even if Iris was a female protagonist, he still didn’t take her seriously.

"Quite the tough mouth, huh? Do you know there’s a punishment called ’lingchi’ that was used in ancient times?"

Iris’s expression suddenly turned cold while she was laughing. She held her sword and gently touched the tip of the blade to his chest. An extremely gentle movement, yet it made King’s heart start beating wildly.

King’s pupils trembled. The beautiful woman in front of him was transforming into a terrifying monster standing atop a mountain of corpses and looking down at him.

Was this killing intent? Or was it some kind of special aura possessed by ’monsters’ like her who had crawled through mountains of corpses and seas of blood to grow stronger?

King had no idea what it was, but this was the first time he had truly felt afraid of her. Even though Iris was still just a character in a novel in his heart, this suffocating pressure was far too real.

"What... is this?"

Even though sweat had appeared on his forehead at some point, King still wouldn’t show any fear.

At least on the outside, he tried his best to act tough because he had always believed that a reader wouldn’t be afraid of characters in a novel.

Iris’s terrifying aura suddenly disappeared, replaced by her bright smile, as if everything that had just happened had only been King’s hallucination.

"Your senses are pretty good. Not everyone can ’see’ things this clearly."

" What do you mean?"

King could understand that Iris was praising him, but he didn’t understand why she was praising him. Could it be that very few people could ’see’ what he had just seen?

"The system must have told you about corruption, right?"

Seeing King immediately nod in confirmation, Iris continued.

"Then you should know that cultivation is actually absorbing dark qi from monsters, right? Corruption gives me power but also wears away my humanity if I don’t take purification pills.

That terrifying thing you saw just now was probably close to what I would look like if I were completely corrupted and turned into a monster."

King looked at her in surprise. He had originally thought that her killing intent was so powerful that it had caused him to hallucinate, but it turned out that this was the ’monster’ she was trying to imprison.

"What do ordinary people do if they get corrupted? Where do they get purification pills?"

"You’re pretty kind, huh? I only mentioned corruption, and you were already thinking about ordinary people."

Iris blinked at King. Her surprise was so obvious that anyone could tell without her even saying anything.

"Hmph, I’m not. I just want to understand this world better."

Seeing King stubbornly argue for the sake of arguing, Iris burst out laughing. Although that moment had been unintentional, she could confirm that despite King being extremely arrogant, there was kindness hidden deep inside him.

Perhaps King was the true hope of humanity in an era when ’evil’ was slowly destroying humanity while humanity had no way to actively fight back.

"So you don’t know. Ordinary people can also become corrupted, but the process is very slow because they don’t actively absorb dark qi.

Cultivators are the ones who become corrupted faster if they aren’t careful. Purification pills are very expensive, but they aren’t too rare. The supply is steadily increasing, so for now, things remain stable."

Ordinary people had an easier time surviving than cultivators. But ordinary people weren’t strong enough to enter the tower and obtain leaves from the holy tree. That meant someone had to become a cultivator to save human civilization.

Cultivators have extremely long lifespans. Although they can’t become younger, as long as they break through, they will maintain their appearance forever. If they break through while they’re still young, they will stay young until the day they die.

But the paradox is that although their theoretical lifespan is ridiculously long, cultivators are also the ’profession’ with the highest death rate.

Conflicts between cultivators, death. Fighting monsters inside the tower, death. Absorbing dark qi, death. Dealing with corrupted cultivators or humans, death.

For now, these are the four main reasons. Who knows what other damn things will appear in the future?

It makes sense that fighting so much would naturally lead to a higher death rate. Everyone only sees the glory of cultivators but forgets that if they choose to become a cultivator, they shouldn’t expect to live long in this era.

"It’s been ten years. Have you come up with a way to deal with the tower yet?"

After hearing her explanation, King immediately thought of the source of all this trouble. But he didn’t expect Iris’s cheerful expression to completely disappear right after he asked.

"No."

Just one extremely simple word, yet King could feel the complete helplessness of this arrogant strongest cultivator of humanity.

"The tower... If we can’t even touch it, how are we supposed to destroy it? We also thought about attacking it from the inside, but we still can’t defeat the boss on the first floor even now, so how can we talk about destroying the tower?"

Just a moment ago, she had still been full of energy, yet now Iris let out a weary sigh. Compared to the seemingly peaceful and prosperous society on the outside, someone at the very top like her could clearly see the pressure humanity was facing.

Iris’s current mood made King frown in extreme annoyance. He didn’t yell or scold her, but simply gave his judgment calmly.

"Trash."

"What?"

Iris’s beautiful eyes blinked a few times. As absurd as it sounded, she felt like she must have hallucinated just now.

"Are you deaf? I said you’re trash."