WTYTIAAN Chapter 20
by VolareA large swathe of trees was snapped by the Grimace Earthworm, the ground around the pond was pockmarked, and the area where it emerged left a huge pit. The earth had been frantically plowed, and next year more luxuriant bushes should grow there.
After a demon was killed, its corpse remained for a moment, and like the death of monsters in other games, it shattered like glass, turned into light particles, and disappeared without a trace.
Yan Yunqing supported his knees, gasping for breath. Although he had been using magic the whole time, he was actually being chased around by this huge earthworm, and had to attack while running, which consumed too much of his stamina.
He was still able to stand here steadily thanks to his strong willpower… and the stamina pills in his backpack. Otherwise, he would have collapsed halfway through the fight.
Yan Yunqing looked up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, sorrowfully: “This is probably the fate that the protagonist must bear, alas.”
Lillian slowly typed out a question mark.
Lillian felt that Yan Yunqing might be having another episode. She flew a little lower, observing the place where the Grimace Earthworm disappeared, and pondered: “There really are demons appearing here… Strange, I don’t remember any gods having fallen near here, could it be an unnamed minor god that wasn’t recorded?”
“You can even know which places have had gods die?” Yan Yunqing gave her a disbelieving look.
Over these past few days, Yan Yunqing had confirmed that this world was nearly two thousand years after the 《Demon King》 timeline, so Yan Yunqing himself was a witness to the War of the Gods.
… Or perhaps “participant” and “terminator” would be more appropriate?
As mentioned before, the background story of 《Demon King》 is about a young man who lost his homeland due to the War of the Gods, determined to rebuild his home. In this process, the young man gradually subdued different races, unified various regions, ended the war, became the Demon King, and led his people to a better tomorrow.
As the ‘Demon King’ himself, Yan Yunqing naturally fought his way in and out, and during the final decisive battle, he directly or indirectly killed several high-ranking gods, leaving only the Life Goddess who didn’t compete with the world.
Rather than saying that 《Demon King》 is a construction game, it was actually more like a strategy game in the early stages. In order to build the Demon King’s empire, Yan Yunqing also used a lot of brain cells, and even consulted many history books, referring to the unification experiences of emperors of the past, barely managing to complete the establishment of the empire.
In the process, he killed many gods. Some persecuted living beings, some were unwilling to submit, and all were killed by Yan Yunqing without discrimination, so much so that Yan Yunqing himself couldn’t remember the exact number.
As a joke, the title of Demon King actually came about because he was too decisive in killing those gods, so that his reputation was gradually demonized in the mouths of the gods’ believers, and the title ‘Demon King’ spread like wildfire.
How could Lillian, a newborn elf two thousand years later, know so much about the War of the Gods two thousand years ago?
Lillian was silent for a few seconds on this question before answering: “The elves have inherited memories. The inherited memory I awakened is related to the War of the Gods, so naturally I know a lot about these things.”
She glossed over it lightly, and Yan Yunqing was dubious.
These alien races do have the setting of inherited memories, but not every alien race can awaken them.
The conditions are quite metaphysical, and Yan Yunqing more often simply regards this condition as: awakened alien races are important NPCs in the game, related to certain subsequent tasks, and those who are not awakened are ordinary NPCs, which do not need to be paid much attention to.
Yan Yunqing was about to rest for a while, when he heard messy footsteps not far away. He looked back and saw a small team of NPCs walking from afar, cautiously holding weapons and walking towards this side. Several of the faces were familiar to Yan Yunqing, and were among the guards patrolling the village.
The group of NPCs saw the mess: the land that had been plowed several times by the big earthworm was full of potholes, thick tree trunks broken in half were scattered all over the ground, and bushes were buried in the dust in a mess. It could be described as a ruin, completely unrecognizable from its original appearance.
One of the patrol members looked in shock at Yan Yunqing standing in this ruin, and then looked at the broken and messy scene around him. “We just heard a lot of noise here, so we came to take a look. What happened?”
Yan Yunqing touched his nose, knowing that this was probably where the plot was coming. It seemed that this Grimace Earthworm didn’t suddenly pop out and give him a surprise because of his bad mouth, but was the preliminary plot before the start of some quest.
“A demon just appeared here.” Yan Yunqing said, “A level twelve Grimace Earthworm, but I’ve already killed it, so it’s temporarily safe.”
“What, a demon?!” One of the young men with curly hair and freckles exclaimed in shock, “Are you sure? It’s a demon?”
“I’m sure.” Yan Yunqing showed the skin on his arm that was left after being burned by the blood of the Grimace Earthworm. “That thing’s blood is also corrosive, but I pulled away in time and switched to magic attacks, so I didn’t suffer too serious injuries.”
The patrol NPCs looked at each other, and all read the horror in each other’s faces.
“You, no, you’re actually a noble magician?” Lyne, the older man, saw the simple magic wand in Yan Yunqing’s hand, and couldn’t help but reveal a bit of awe on his face.
Yan Yunqing had only shown his magician skills in front of Yuri. His audience was Yuri, who didn’t understand these twists and turns and only knew that Brother Yan was a very powerful person, and didn’t know anything else.
The others in the village only knew that Yan Yunqing was a very kind-hearted foreign traveler who often helped everyone with chores when he lived in the village, and had no idea that Yan Yunqing knew magic.
“Since you are a noble magician, you can indeed solve terrifying demons.” Lyne barely maintained his composure in front of people. “I will tell the village chief about this as soon as possible.”
Yan Yunqing nodded, and told everything that happened after the appearance of the demon, and how he solved the demon.
“This, this… should we report it to the people above?” Keith, the youngest of the guards, trembled after listening. “Perhaps we should ask the big shots in the army for help? What if another terrible demon pops up here, what about what happened six years ago?”
“But we have no evidence… those big shots may not pay attention to us! And now the demon has been solved, hasn’t it? There won’t be any more terrible demons!”
“You can’t ensure that there will be absolutely no demons, can you? What if other demons really appear? Do you want the tragedy of six years ago to happen again?”
Just hearing Yan Yunqing say that a demon had appeared, without seeing it with their own eyes, these NPCs were already arguing about the demon, and the scene once lost control. It seemed that everyone’s eyes reappeared the bloody night six years ago.
Yan Yunqing quietly watched this cutscene. After everyone finished arguing and calmed down again, he suggested: “Why don’t we go back to the village first? Ask the village chief for his opinion?”
…
Yan Yunqing held a cup of hot water and sat in the corner of the village chief’s yard with Lillian on his head, watching the guards report the appearance of the demon in Sunset Forest to the village chief.
The elderly village chief, leaning on a cane, almost staggered and fell when he heard the news. “What did you say? Another demon appeared? Tell me the details.”
“Yes.” Lyne smiled wryly. “It’s just that we didn’t encounter it, but this… Mr. Yan Yunqing did.”
Lyne pointed to Yan Yunqing, who was sitting in the corner preparing to continue watching the cutscene. Everyone looked at Yan Yunqing in unison.
Yan Yunqing tilted his head: Ah?
Oh, it’s his turn again.
Yan Yunqing neatly recounted what happened, trying to ensure that there were no exaggerated descriptions. “… That’s it. That Grimace Earthworm is really disgusting, I can’t even eat dinner tonight just by looking at it! Yue.”
The old village chief frowned tightly after listening to a bunch of embellished descriptions, and paced back and forth in the room with his cane.
“A demon actually appeared in Sunset Forest again, how could this happen? Six years ago was just an accident…” The old village chief muttered to himself, his gray eyebrows almost twisted into a line.
“Could it be…”
Yan Yunqing pricked up his ears, wanting to listen carefully to what was after “could it be”. He had a hunch that this was a large quest. He had just reached level ten, and the ordinary daily quests in the village couldn’t give him much experience. He had planned to leave here in a while to find a wild leveling area with more experience to fight monsters and level up.
As a result, an event that looked like a preliminary plot for a large quest suddenly appeared, making it difficult for Yan Yunqing not to think too much.
Perhaps this was his next main quest?
In any case, the rewards for large quests must be considerable. Since he could accept quests, Yan Yunqing didn’t need to specifically find a leveling area to fight monsters and level up.
The old village chief closed his eyes and pondered for a long time. The entire yard was quiet, the sun on the horizon set, leaving only a ray of afterglow hanging on the horizon, burning half the sky red.
The old village chief pondered for a long time, but didn’t say any key information. After thinking for a long time, he seemed to have made some decision, and sighed a long sigh.
Opening his eyes, the old village chief looked at the uneasy members of the patrol team. “Lyne, it’s getting late. Take these children back first. Tomorrow, I’ll have to trouble you to go to the capital to report this to the royal army.”
Seeing that the old village chief had finally made a decision, Lyne had no objection to the task given to him by the old village chief, and nodded. “I understand, I will go there tomorrow.”
The other members of the patrol team breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, with fear still on their faces. But this sentence seemed to inject them with a shot in the arm, and everyone cheered up again.
It was as if making such a decision would prevent anything from happening to their village again.
Seeing all the patrol team members gradually leave, Yan Yunqing also wanted to leave. After submitting the village chief’s hunting quest, he still had a lot of Lulu pig meat left in his backpack. He had to hurry back and give the pork to Yuri so that Yuri could make them a delicious barbecue.
“Mr. Yan, please wait a moment.” The old village chief called Yan Yunqing to a halt.
Yan Yunqing paused and immediately turned back to the old village chief. “Village chief, do you need me to do anything?”
This kind of behavior of privately calling a player was most likely to give the player some kind of quest.
The old village chief had a hesitant look on his face, still struggling with something. Seeing Yan Yunqing’s face full of expectation, he could only sigh in the end. “How much do you know about what happened in the village six years ago?”
Eh, was this to test his plot collection ability?
Yan Yunqing thought for a while, and simply shook his head. “I don’t know much, I only know that a demon with a level exceeding thirty attacked the village six years ago, and many guards in the village gave their lives to hold back the demon until reinforcements arrived.”
He pursed his lips and added, “Also, in the blacksmith shop where I live, Old Jason’s son, and Yuri’s parents all died in that battle.”
Hearing what Yan Yunqing said, the old village chief murmured: “More than that, Annie, Jeffrey, Toby, Dean, Lacy…”
Many names were read out one by one by the old village chief. His tone didn’t have much fluctuation, but it revealed a bit of remembrance and pain.
“Those were all very good, very kind children in the village, they all died… they all died in that battle six years ago.” The old village chief shook his head weakly, and the cane in his hand forcefully knocked on the stone slab on the ground. “I watched them rush up one by one, just to hold back the demon for a few seconds.”
“I still can’t forget the scenes that happened that night.”
The scene of that night seemed to reappear in front of the old village chief. “They held weapons and stood in front of the demon, but with the demon’s light claw, a big hole was torn in their stomachs, and those intestines, organs, all fell to the ground.”
“Those were also extremely young children to me, a few of them had mischievously stolen the eggs from my house the day before, but the next day, they stood firmly at the front to protect their families behind them.”
–“Their heads were bitten to pieces”
–“Their hearts fell on the ground”
–“Their blood soaked the entire land”
In a daze, it seemed that the scene of that night really appeared in front of Yan Yunqing, slowly unfolding in front of him in the old village chief’s description.
“Before they died, they were still thinking that as long as they persisted a little longer, the royal reinforcements would arrive.”
“That’s what I thought at that time, after all, our village is so close to Bato Vita.” The old village chief shook his head bitterly. “However, the reinforcing army didn’t arrive until a day and a night later.”
“Many children died before dawn.”
This was a story that made the speaker weep and the listener sad.
It wasn’t very long, but it still made Yan Yunqing’s heart tighten, as if someone had grabbed it hard with their hand, making it a little difficult to breathe.
The rich expression on Lillian’s face disappeared, and she remained silent with Yan Yunqing.
Time seemed to return to that night six years ago, countless wails and cries filled the village, and a strong smell of blood permeated the air. Countless figures of different heights, sizes, and weights bravely and fearlessly stepped on the corpses of their predecessors, calmly welcomed death, and used their bodies to block in front of their descendants…
Perhaps they were also afraid of death, but for the sake of their families behind them, no one chose to retreat.
Humanity is so wonderful.
While the drunken and bewildered nobles in the capital exchanged cups, the small village less than a thousand miles away was struggling in the choice between life and death.
In the end, the old village chief’s voice became a bit hoarse. “Sorry… I accidentally said so much.”
“It’s okay.” Yan Yunqing said softly. “I’m happy to listen… to such a past.”
“Alas–” The old village chief shook his head and said to Yan Yunqing, “I’m keeping you here not for anything else. It was like this six years ago, and today, six years later, those nobles in the capital may not care about the names of civilians.”
“You–you are a magician, right?” The old village chief looked at Yan Yunqing and then turned his gaze to Lillian. “This is Miss Elf.”
“I have a request, if Lyne fails to bring back military support, can I ask you and your partner to help?”
“I think, you should be a Sky Descender.”