In this world, there are only 'emperors' who die of old age, no 'emperors' who die in battle.

Su Ji held his wine bowl, the honest and simple smile on his face striking the perfect balance. It carried a hint of flattery, yet also held just the right amount of thirst for knowledge.

He lowered his voice as the smell of alcohol mixed with the aroma of roasted meat wafted over.

"Brother Zhang, I've had a knot in my heart for a while now, but I don't know if I should ask about it."

Zhang Kui was right in the middle of enjoying his drink. Hearing this, he waved his large hand dismissively.

"Speak your mind!"

"Why do they take the ascended geniuses from the lower realms and turn them into mine slaves?"

Su Ji's voice was filled with deep confusion.

"Logically speaking, anyone who can carve a bloody path out of billions of living beings and ascend must be an individual with top-tier intellect, perseverance, and talent, right?"

"If they were nurtured properly and invested in, their future achievements would be limitless. No matter how you look at it, it has to be better than making them mine slaves, right?"

This question was like a basin of cold water that instantly extinguished more than half of Zhang Kui's drunkenness.

The smile on his face froze, and his somewhat blurry eyes gradually darkened.

The surrounding noise seemed to be completely isolated in this moment.

Zhang Kui did not answer immediately. He just silently picked up his wine jug, brought it to his mouth, and took three massive gulps—glug, glug, glug.

The strong liquor slid down his rugged throat. He slammed the wine jug heavily onto the stone table, producing a muffled thud.

Su Ji did not rush him; he merely waited quietly.

Just as he thought Zhang Kui was going to go back on his word, Zhang Kui's muffled voice sounded once more.

"When I first got here, I thought the exact same thing."

He let out another long sigh, grabbed the wine jug, and took two more big gulps.

"Of course, what I'm about to say might not be entirely correct."

"Some of it I pieced together from rumors after staying in this hellhole for hundreds of years, and some... are my own guesses."

Zhang Kui wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth. His bloodshot eyes flickered with a complex light under the glow of the fire.

He suddenly asked a question in return.

"Kid, do you know what an ascended being means to this upper realm?"

Su Ji shook his head.

He couldn't be bothered to guess.

Zhang Kui seemed to find it boring as well and couldn't be bothered to play the riddler anymore, continuing on his own.

"To the high and mighty big shots of the upper realm, ascended beings are too damn arrogant and incompetent."

"In the lower realms, they enjoyed the resources of an entire world and were absolute rulers whose words were law."

"Those who submitted prospered, and those who resisted perished. They suppressed all directions, acting so majestic!"

"You want that kind of person to be your subordinate?"

Zhang Kui sneered, his laughter full of self-deprecation.

"Even if you give them the best resources, they will subconsciously compare it to their past days of summoning the wind and rain. Then they'll feel that what you offer is nothing special, and might even think you're being stingy."

"It's hard to go from luxury to frugality, kid!"

At this point, Zhang Kui suddenly stretched out his large hand and heavily punched Su Ji's chest.

"Moreover, these guys all hide things in their hearts. Not a single one of them is easy to deal with."

"If you do them a favor today, they might remember it, but that's as far as it goes."

"Out of those who managed to slaughter their way up from the lower realms, which one of them is willing to submit to others?"

Zhang Kui's bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at Su Ji.

"If there is one, it's someone like you—faking it."

"In your heart, you're already scheming about how to run away, how to flip the table, right?"

Su Ji's heart skipped a beat, but his face still maintained that honest and simple smile: "Brother, you've had too much to drink."

Zhang Kui seemed to have just said it casually. He shook his head and took another big gulp of wine.

"Of course, these reasons aren't enough to reduce all ascended beings to mine slaves."

"The most important reason is..."

Zhang Kui's voice was kept extremely low, as if afraid of disturbing something.

"In this world, the one thing we absolutely don't fucking lack is geniuses."

Hearing this, Su Ji finally interjected.

"So, the talent of an ascended being isn't important?"

"Exactly the opposite."

Zhang Kui shook his head. In his somewhat cloudy eyes, an emotion bordering on fear surfaced for the first time.

"It's precisely because there is no lack of geniuses here that the talent of you ascended beings from the lower realms is so crucial."

"That is why you must be captured and made into mine slaves."

"Because this world does not need that many geniuses."

Zhang Kui's words plunged Su Ji into a long silence.

"You're from the lower realm, so you don't understand."

Zhang Kui's voice became somewhat ethereal, as if he had fallen into some distant memory.

"If you want to become a True Immortal..."

"You must engrave your 'Dao' into this heaven and earth."

"But this heaven, this earth... the 'Dao' it can bear is limited."

"There are three thousand Great Daos."

"The number of living True Immortals cannot exceed three thousand."

Zhang Kui laughed self-deprecatingly.

"Those three thousand seats have long been filled by ancient sects and immortal families that have been passed down for eons."

"The geniuses within their own clans fight so hard over a single seat that they beat each other bloody, bashing each other's brains out."

"How could there be any room left for outsiders like us?"

"What's more..."

Zhang Kui's voice suddenly turned chilling. The coldness seeping from his bones seemed to make the surrounding firelight dim a bit.

"What's more, over a hundred thousand years ago, a massive incident occurred."

He looked at Su Ji, pausing after every word.

"There was an Immortal Venerable Fallen Dragon who started as a mere mortal. In an unheard-of small sect in the lower realm, step by step, he forcefully slaughtered his way up to this heaven and earth."

"From start to finish, it took him no more than a thousand years."

"A thousand years!"

Zhang Kui's eyes shot out a complex light interwoven with fanaticism and fear.

"He climbed all the way to the position of an Immortal Venerable."

"And even, he almost..."

"He almost crushed the only reigning 'Immortal Emperor' of the current era to death!"

"As everyone knows, in this world, there are only 'Emperors' who die of old age, never 'Emperors' who die in battle."

Zhang Kui's voice was trembling.

"Once someone proves their Dao and claims the throne of the Immortal Emperor, it means a hundred thousand years of being unparalleled, a hundred thousand years of invincibility!"

"But on that day..."

Zhang Kui's breathing grew heavy, as if he had witnessed that apocalyptic scene with his own eyes.

"That man slaughtered until the sun and moon hung in the sky simultaneously!"

"Slaughtered until the sky turned blood-red!"

"Slaughtered until the mountains and rivers inverted!"

"Slaughtered until the three thousand True Immortals were silenced, and no one dared to step forward!"

"If not... if not for the fact that at the most critical moment, he was backstabbed by his most trusted close friends and family..."

"Perhaps, he would have been the first and only miracle in millions of years to slaughter his way to forcing an 'Immortal Emperor' into an early 'abdication'..."

At this point, Zhang Kui could no longer continue speaking. He just grabbed the wine jug and frantically poured it into his mouth.

The strong liquor spilled onto his chest, but he did not care in the slightest.

After a long time, he heavily smashed the empty wine jug onto the ground, producing a crisp shattering sound.

He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes staring deathly at Su Ji.

"And that monster..."

"He, as coincidence would have it..."

"Was also an ascended being."

"Ever since then, the already lowly status of ascended beings..."

Zhang Kui let out a burst of dry laughter of unclear meaning.

"Heh heh..."

"Heh heh heh heh..."