In the blink of an eye.
Zhu Zhengwei is already sixty.
The first batch of classmates from the "Bamboo Scenic Village Alumni Group" server, completely facing the destiny of life's end.
Zhu Zhengwei couldn't help walking down the mountain, heading to Bamboo Scenic Village, "Continuing isolation is useless, it's time to go down the mountain and take a walk."
Whoosh.
A motorcycle sped past, and the cool girls nearby all glanced over.
In this era of civilizational decline, having a motorcycle on the street was already an extremely awe-inspiring thing.
"The first batch of servers is going to dissipate, the babies born at the same time as me, are sixty now and are basically starting to die of old age one by one."
At night, Zhu Zhengwei walked down the street.
"After their death, their computing power is no longer concentrated on individuals but is distributed between heaven and earth, truly becoming cloud servers."
In the year of sixty, Zhu Zhengwei felt that many obscure things in his eyes became clear, accumulated knowledge finally reached a high-speed explosion period, and his research on Qi Eating Skill made rapid progress!
Many thoughts come to mind and instantly make sense, hitting the mark with a light touch!
Walking across this land, pondering what kind of future this world with only a few towns as a local network would develop into.
After days of touring, he came to a remote farmhouse and saw several playful teenage girls frolicking in the streets.
"Them?"
Zhu Zhengwei smiled.
He suddenly had a feeling, squinting at a figure next to him, then took out money and asked the owner if he could stay for the night?
The farmhouse owner was an honest farmer, startled by the visitor, who carried a warm and elegant aura, extraordinary in temperament, leading him to silently ponder that he must be a person of very high status, undoubtedly of significant background, so he said: "Of course."
Nightfall.
Three in the morning.
Suddenly some strange noises arose.
Zhu Zhengwei stood up, following the sound to the front room, finding two girls tied up with their mouths gagged, whimpering, and their parents knocked unconscious in the room.
"Where did you come from, mind your own business." The tattooed man was the leader, sitting in a three-wheeled vehicle blocking the door.
Zhu Zhengwei showed an understanding expression, "Human traffickers?"
Incidents like this in later generations were very rare, considered an occurrence unique to this era.
Just as he expected.
This place was also the root dream of the young girls, with their own parents and neighbors.
Although everyone's "birth residence" was like pieces of dream puzzles, floating on the land like a battle royale map.
However, returning to their childhood birth, some people's past life tragedies still didn't change.
"Where do you want to take them?"
Zhu Zhengwei asked, although combining the situation of the young girls in later years, he had an inkling.
The tall thin man looked at Zhu Zhengwei and chuckled, "Today you're staying at this household, I had a feeling you discovered us brothers, but if you pretend not to see it's fine, instead you're looking for death."
Zhu Zhengwei looked at the contemptuous villain, silent for a few seconds, suddenly burst into laughter!
"What are you laughing at?"
The villain hadn't finished speaking.
Zhu Zhengwei suddenly drew a dart from his waist and fiercely threw it.
Splash!
The dart grazed perfectly across the man's cheek, leaving a line of blood.
"Who are you?" The villain spoke in a trembling voice, covering his bleeding face, panic-stricken.
"Look at my right eye." Zhu Zhengwei said.
The villain instinctively looked into Zhu Zhengwei's right eye.
It was a very beautiful eye, with a tear mole at the corner.
"What's so interesting about it?"
The villain sneered, quickly came to his senses, immediately drew a knife from the tricycle, "Guys, he's tough, let's get him!"
Soon, several villains, adept with long knives, surrounded and attacked Zhu Zhengwei.
Bang bang bang!
After a blood-soaked battle, the fight was filled with flashes of swords and shadows, earth-shattering.
Ultimately slightly inferior, the villains had to take two hostages, saying: "Let us go, or we'll kill them!"
Zhu Zhengwei said sternly: "You've all gone astray but after several encounters I know your reasons, release the girls, and I'll let you go."
"Chivalrous! I trust your honor."
The villain clasped fists, took the two female hostages back a distance to release them, then drove into the night on the tricycle.
The tricycle drove through the night.
The villain leader bandaged his wound, healing the bone without a cry of pain, couldn't help but admire: "In this world, there are such high people! Unfortunately, we are on different paths, not meant to work together! Men, let's go!"
...
The night was serene.
"Turns out that's how they sleep."
"I seem to understand the principle of the time."
Zhu Zhengwei sat leisurely on a chair, closed the book in his hand, with a smile on his lips, watched with interest as several villains slept on the ground.
Beside him, the two girls were terrified, "What about them??"
Don't look,
at that time you also slept like that.
When these human traffickers saw their right eye had already been hypnotized by themselves, what happened next were all scenes from their dreams.
"Another heroic dream similar to those of these young ladies, this time, with the wuxia style of Jin Yong from this era, speaking of heroism, and the clash of blades."
The experiment was repeated before their eyes once more.
The reason why the young ladies acted that way before is now very clear.
Upon meeting, he made people fall asleep, and once they were asleep, they would reasonably continue the story of their encounter based on various factors.
This ability is indeed quite interesting!
Zhu Zhengwei stood up and left directly, leaving only a sentence, "Fallen asleep, how to deal with them, wait until your parents wake up to decide."
Behind him, the two girls didn't dare make a sound.
They could only feel that this mysterious and elegant man was truly unfathomable.
Especially those eyes, very sinister.
At the same time, a shiver of fear ran through them. If they had been kidnapped this night, they did not know what kind of tragic fate awaited them.
"May I ask the name of my benefactor?" The two shouted as they watched the receding figure.
Zhu Zhengwei did not stop, walking further and further away.
He could only change the restart of their lives, allowing them to live out the lives they desired here, but he could not change the tragic events that had already occurred in their reality.
The two stared blankly at the figure walking away.
Those eyes seemed vaguely familiar, as if they carried a sense of déjà vu from a past life.
That person had a tear mole.
...
...
On the other side.
In Bamboo Scenic Village.
The eldest brother has been dead for several years, and the third brother, Zhang Zhi, is thoroughly old, over fifty years of age.
"Peers are also leaving one after another." Like Zhu Zhengwei, he silently and knowingly went out for a walk, to see old friends from the past.
Before him, he is bidding farewell to an old friend.
This was a friend three years his senior, Zhang Xia, also one of the co-founders of his school, knowledgeable, sharp, and born in the same year as the second brother.
At this moment, the old man was critically ill, making final arrangements, with family members wailing in distress.
Yet, some people still could not help but respectfully say:
"Mr. Zhang."
"Mr. Zhang, you have arrived."
Zhang Zhi waved his hand to indicate there was no need for formality.
He went in to look at the old man lying on the sickbed, life visibly ebbing away from him, Zhang Xia's mouth barely moving, making arrangements with his children, seemingly without the strength to even speak.
Zhang Zhi sat down and exchanged a few simple words with him, then, taking a student, he walked out of the room, standing in the distance gazing at the scenery.
He knew that these final moments should be spent with his family seeing him off.
Watching yet another familiar old friend pass on, Zhang Zhi's heart was full of mixed emotions, he could empathize deeply.
"Life's sorrows only add regrets, watching the world like clouds and smoke with a smile."
Zhang Zhi looked towards the room, suddenly smiling wryly, "I remember our struggles founding the school together, truly marvelous, but without the god-like second brother healing his leg by Swallowing Wind and Eating Qi, there wouldn't be stories afterward."
Indeed, this old friend's thoughts were incredibly whimsical.
Occasionally coming up with phrases in conversation that not even he understood, such as "Dancing on graves", "This game is toxic", "I love rich women"...
Perhaps people indeed have past lives.
This world indeed harbors too many mysteries.
In twilight years of reflection, looking back over a lifetime, Zhang Zhi suddenly remembered the mysterious child who always sat cross-legged in the courtyard during his childhood.
"Second brother, what are you doing?"
"Practicing Qi Eating Skill."
Qi Eating, an exceedingly simple and ancient name.
Yet, it was the lifelong pursuit unattainable by the two brothers, himself and the eldest brother.
He looked out the window at the clear blue sky, suddenly recalling that moment before his eldest brother's death, was it not just like what lay before him?
Lying on a bamboo bed, discussing final matters.
His eldest brother, until his dying breath, lay on the sickbed, instructing the children, and he still could not forget the eldest brother's last frightful gaze, the hopeful prayer-like expression clutching his hand tightly, repeatedly recounting that scene a thousand times over, "In heaven and on earth, I alone reign supreme", an impression seared in his heart from his brother's childhood, and also marked at life's end.
Mundane people consume grains, heavenly people eat qi.
That was a realm unexplored and mystical, it was also the Heart Demon of the eldest brother. If he had not seen it, there would be no disappointment, but with the descent of their family's Divine Spirit into the mortal world, a singular and pure yearning for long life emerged within.
"Old man has passed to the west!"
With a mournful wail echoing through the entire house, those shriveled, dark hands fell.
"Another old friend has passed, let's go."
Zhang Zhi, leaning on a cane, dressed in a black cloak, brim lowered, slowly turned around, leaving behind the sobbing sounds.
Suddenly, he seemed to feel something and a spark of excitement appeared.
Looking back sharply at the old man's corpse, there were thread-like unseen energies dissipating, extremely excited, "Is that qi, qi dissipating? Drifting in the world?"
It was indeed the mechanism, the first-generation server, NPC Zhang Xia was dissipating.
"Teacher, you?" The proud student Zheng Linshou was full of confusion.
"Xiaqi."
Zhang Zhi was stunned, gazing foolishly at the sky, "I can cultivate the Qi Eating Skill..."
Over the years, he had seen and sent off many departed souls, yet it was his first time witnessing such a dazzling and miraculous death phenomenon, the setting sun, yet like the spreading colors of a rising dawn, beauty beyond the realm of mortals.