Fucked up beyond repairs
"...I can't believe you guys are also here." Xiao Qiangwei muttered before gulping down the entire glass of beer in a single sip. He sighed and raised his gaze from the table, facing the three former God Emperors.
"I'm not complaining." Nan Wansheng replied while he was looking around for more girls to tease. "I am really annoyed at the fact that I lost my Profound Strength, yes, but I have a new life to live, and that's already a great result we got from our war, isn't it?
Let's admit, guys, we would certainly go to hell with everything we did in our lives. Besides, the only thing I wanted is the World-Defying Heaven Manual, but now that I don't have any Profound Strength, it is useless to me."
Qianye Fantian sighed and sipped on his wine. "I also joined the war to get the World-Defying Heaven Manual, but now I don't even have the Brahma Soul Bell to reach the Divine Master Realm once again, and the Profound Energy around us is practically non-existent, so we can't even hope to cultivate our way to the peak once again."
"..." Long Bai still kept glaring at Xiao Qiangwei, who sighed and said.
"Look, I couldn't leave a weakness flying around just like that. If I ever had a sibling or a lover with the capability to slaughter dragons, I am sure you would also think like me, so I am not going to apologize."
Long Bai slammed his hands on the table, breaking it in half with his sheer strength. He gritted his teeth and looked at Xiao Qiangwei as if he was trying to murder him with his gaze alone. "SHEN XI WAS INNOCENT!! THERE IS NO REASON FOR YOU TO KILL HER!! HOW WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO HARM YOU IF SHE CAN'T EVEN GET OUT FROM THE FORBIDDEN LAND OF SAMSARA?!"
Everyone in the guild suddenly turned towards him in surprise at the sudden disturbance.
Xiao Qiangwei needed a second to understand what Long Bai just said before he asked. "Come again?"
"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL HER!! EVEN IF YOU LEFT HER ALONE, THERE IS NO WAY SHE CAN HARM YOU!! SHE WAS SEALED IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND OF SAMSARA!!"
"...Sealed in the Forbidden Land of Samsara…" Xiao Qiangwei muttered with a tone filled with surprise before a memory of more than a dozen of years ago resurfaced in his mind.
…
In front of Xiao Qiangwei, there was darkness, only pitch-black darkness covering every single spot around him, except for a place in front of him, where two large reptilian eyes were looking down on him.
"I will give you everything I have… My bone marrow and my soul, only if you can do a favor for me."
"What is this favor you speak of, Dragon God." Xiao Qiangwei respectfully asked.
"You are at the peak of the Divine Master Realm, and you also have the Heretic God's Divine Veins, so you should be the strongest existence out there at the moment. If that's the case, then I hope that you will be able to find a sword."
"A sword…?"
"Yes, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword. I know that despite you are really ambitious, you will never fall low enough to use other people for your objectives, so I want to trust you with the task of finding the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword."
Xiao Qiangwei remained silent due to his surprise, but he asked anyway. "...For what reason?"
"Because…. Because my daughter is sealed within the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword! Her body and her spirit are both sealed within that sword! After the demise of the gods, the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword never appeared again.
I wish for it to be found, yet I am frightened that it may be found. Because if it is never found, my daughter will forever be sealed within that sword, suffering endless darkness and loneliness. However, if that sword is found…
If the person who obtains the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword is greedy and evil, after he unseals the sword, my daughter will become that person's tool… After all, my daughter has the pure lineage of the Dragon God! The only thing I wish for is that you can free my daughter from the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword; after that, you are free to do whatever you want with the sword itself since my daughter isn't the spirit of the treasure."
"I see…" If he remembers correctly, the last news about the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword was about it being lost in the Well of Transmigration that is currently placed in the Forbidden Land of Samsara. And since then, no one still went inside to look for it.
"Very well, once I have done with my findings here, I'll try to look for the sword and the World-Defying Heaven Manual." Xiao Qiangwei promised the Dragon God.
If he could get his hands on the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword, that would be great for him. As long as he can unseal the Dragon God's daughter in the sword, he is free to use it as he wishes.
…
"Holy shit! I fucked up beyond repair!" Xiao Qiangwei suddenly panicked and grasped his head. "I killed the Dragon God's daughter!"
As soon as he uttered those words, Long Bai's angry expression shifted into a surprised one, together with Nan Wansheng and Qianye Fantian.
"...The Dragon God's daughter?" Long Bai asked.
"Guh…" Xiao Qiangwei was angry at himself for not seeing such an obvious thing and replied. "The Primordial Dragon God tasked me with finding her daughter that was sealed in the Heaven Punishing Ancestral Sword… But I forgot about it with time, and then I focused on the Dragon Queen because she was holding Light Profound Energy.
There should be no one else in the Forbidden Land of Samsara, and Shen Xi should be sealed there. So there is only one possibility…"
All of a sudden, Long Bai lost all of his anger when he realized who he fell in love with, and his face was covered in a shame that was never seen before in the face of a God-Emperor.
"Umm… Excuse me." The same red-haired waitress that welcomed Xiao Qiangwei approached the group of four, making all four of them look at her. "...You have to pay for the table you broke."
"...How much is it?" Qianye Fantian asked with an exasperated expression on his face.
"10'000 Eris."
Qianye Fantian sighed and took out a gold coin from his satchel, before passing it to the waitress who walked away with it.
Xiao Qiangwei looked around and noticed that everyone was looking at their group, so he sat up from his seat and said. "Let's talk somewhere else."
Qianye Fantian and Nan Wansheng nodded, while Long Bai wordlessly stood up and followed the group outside the guild.
The four of them went inside a dark alley and lay against a wall. Then, Xiao Qiangwei asked a question that was on his mind some time ago.
"...You met with a Goddess, right?"
"Yes, the Goddess Aqua was the one who talked to me." Qianye Fantian confirmed.
Nan Wansheng sighed and replied. "I really wanted to bring her with me, but I think she would get angry if I picked her instead of a 'Cheat', as she calls it. You don't see such a beauty everyday…"
Long Bai remained silent for some seconds before he closed his eyes and gave out an exasperated sigh, due to the subject of Shen Xi being the daughter of his old ancestor. And then he begrudgingly replied. "Yes."
Of course, he would not forgive Xiao Qiangwei, since he killed her anyway. Nevermind killing the Dragon Queen, killing the daughter of the Primordial Azure Dragon was a much worse crime, but they weren't in the Primal Chaos Dimension anymore… And he didn't have the necessary power to suppress him.
If Xiao Qiangwei went through the same process as theirs, then he should still have the Heretic God's Divine Veins, Dragon God's Legacy, and the three supreme flames, water, and ice.
In short, Xiao Qiangwei is more durable than all three of them, even if they have the cheats that the Goddess Aqua gave them… No, it is because she gave those cheat to Xiao Qiangwei, too, that they need to be careful.
"...So, you all got a cheat, too, and I see that everyone is also an adventurer. What about teaming up?"
Surprisingly, the one who was this daring about that suggestion was Nan Wansheng, the former God-Emperor that was famous for holding his lust like it was his own life.
"""Teaming up?""" Xiao Qiangwei, Long Bai, and Qianye Fantian asked in surprise.
"Yes. Our objective is to kill the Demon King to get our wish, right? Even if the wish was granted to just one of us, he could just wish to give a wish for each one of us so we can do whatever we want with it.
We can return back to where we lived and try to gain our seats of God Emperors once again, or we can just continue our lives here. In the end, we have all two things in common: We stood at the apex of the Profound Way, and we have been reincarnated here to kill the Demon King.
If we team up, we can make things easier. Besides, it doesn't matter how much you all try to negate it, the ones who know each other the best are we."
"I see, that is a good reason…" Long Bai took that suggestion with seriousness and nodded. "Very well, we can team up. But I have one condition."
"Please speak up, Dragon Monarch." Nan Wansheng replied.
Long Bai shook his head. "Just call me Long Bai. I am not the Dragon Monarch anymore. Anyway, the condition I want everyone to agree on is simple; we must reveal our cheats and adventurer cards to each other."
Everyone agreed to those conditions since it was good to ease up the atmosphere between each other first. So everyone took out their own adventurer cards and introduced themselves one after another.
"I, Long Bai, am a Dragon Knight that greatly excels to everything except for Luck. My cheat is Herculean Strength, which increases my base Strength attribute 5 times its original value. Based on my attributes, I am an all-rounder."
"My real name is Qianye Wutian, not Fantian, so I wish for everyone else to call me as such. I am an Arch Wizard that holds common physical attributes and high Luck. My Magic and Intelligence are greatly increased due to my cheat, Sorcerer King, which grants me the possibility to cast spells without chanting, a massive amount of Mana, and increases my intelligence."
"I am Nan Wansheng, and my job is Ranger. My attributes are just a bit above average, except Intelligence and Luck, which are really high. My cheat is Jormungandr, a pet snake that can use any type of venom." He announced before a white snake with ruby-like eyes climbed out from his robe.
"I'm Xiao Qiangwei, and I am a Crusader. Except for Magic and Luck, all of my other attributes are really high. My cheat is Jack, the Whip Blade of Murder, which stops any type of healing ability to activate in the injuries I cause. Since I will take care of the defense, I will be good at the vanguard."
After introducing themselves, the four of them looked at each other, as if trying to catch what the other was thinking. Then Long Bai spoke.
"Now we must cultivate. This world lacks Profound Energy, but that doesn't mean we can't try to reach the very first level of the Mortal Way by turning our vitality in sparse Profound Energy. In the long run, that bit of Profound Energy is useless to us, but it won't hurt holding it since it will give us a small increase in our physical abilities."
"...I agree." Xiao Qiangwei surprisingly agreed with Long Bai and continued in his stead. "Then we shall see each other after a month from now. This will give us time to explore this new world and solve some heart problems between us." He said the last part while looking at Long Bai, who simply scoffed.
"I'll take my leave then since there is nothing else to do." Long Bai announced before he walked away from the dark alley. The other three looked at each other before they also walked away in different paths.