It was the first time Quinn Shepherd had ever seen the Village Chief so helpless, so utterly despairing. As Quinn held him, the old man clung to him like a drowning man grasping a lifeline, pleading for Quinn to take him home—to Oldridge Village, back to his self-sealed little world.
Quinn could hardly imagine that this terrified, despairing old man was the very master who had taught and guided him. He had never expected someone as strong as the Village Chief to be felled so easily.
The Village Chief often claimed he was too powerful, yet now, the old man who spoke those words had seen all his beliefs collapse and crumble to dust.
The Village Chief had already been defeated once before. Last time, after his fall, he went to Oldridge Village and became a crippled elder, broken in both body and spirit. If Grandpa Mark, Apothecary, Mute Smith and the others hadn’t arrived later, Quinn couldn’t imagine what would have become of him.
Quinn still remembered the time when Apothecary and the others had all left the village, leaving only the Village Chief behind.
The Village Chief, slumped and desolate, sat at the village entrance, unmoving. He let the wind and rain batter him, let the darkness creep in, let his beard grow wild—too dispirited to even shift his seat.
He neglected his appearance, refused food and drink, as if he were content to simply rot away there.
But when the Village Chief was first struck down, his despair was even deeper than that. Back then, he was a complete and utter failure—his hopes extinguished, his spirit broken, nothing left but a walking corpse.
Yet now, what had crushed the Village Chief wasn’t his own failure, but the defeat of all the Human Emperors throughout history—even the founder of the Human Emperor Hall, the very first Human Emperor.
He felt the first Human Emperor’s despair as if it were his own. Now, he was like a frightened child, longing to flee back into his own world, curl up, lick his wounds—or simply let himself decay and die.
Anyone who hadn’t experienced this kind of defeat could hardly fathom what the Village Chief was feeling now.
Sage Nicholas Tranquil watched from the side, a look of pity on his face, and sighed. He hadn’t meant to break this old Human Emperor; his real target was Quinn Shepherd, the new Human Emperor. He wanted to give this brash, naive youth a heavy lesson, to show him that all his pursuits and responsibilities were nothing but a trivial joke—a hollow dream, an illusion!
But instead of crushing Quinn, he had devastated his old friend, leaving him utterly broken.
He and the Village Chief had known each other for many years, their paths crossing in the past.
Back then, when the Village Chief invited him down from the mountain, he agreed and did descend. But so what? In the end, he returned to Little Jade Capital battered and scarred, both in body and in heart.
Ever since then, his passion had faded; all his youthful fervor was gone.
Over the years, he had studied every record in Little Jade Capital. The deeper his understanding of history, the more all his early ambitions evaporated.
When Quinn came to see him, bringing a Divine Bridge–repair method that could make him a god, for a moment his blood did stir, his long-stilled passion flaring up again.
But it quickly cooled.
So what?
Even if he repaired the Divine Bridge, could he ever surpass the immortals who founded this place?
Even if the old Human Emperor restored his Divine Bridge, so what? Could he ever be greater than the Human Emperor who founded the Human Emperor Hall?
Even if Quinn Shepherd became a god, so what? Could he ever surpass the Woodcutter Sage of the Cult of the Heavenly Saint?
So what?
Sage Nicholas Tranquil paused, hearing Quinn Shepherd’s voice. Quinn repeated himself, smiling at the utterly shattered Village Chief: “So what? Grandpa Village Chief, so what if they failed?”
"Child."
Sage Nicholas Tranquil couldn’t help but laugh, shaking his head with a touch of melancholy. "The current Human Emperor is still just a kid who likes to play in the water. Back in my day, I was just like him—my blood boiled with youthful passion. I was just a child then…"
Quinn smiled. "They lost, and every Human Emperor before lost, Grandpa Village Chief—you lost too. But so what? If the first Human Emperor failed, wasn’t there a second? If the second failed, wasn’t there a third? Village Chief, you lost, but isn’t there still me?"
The Village Chief stared blankly, his white hair trembling, shaking his head again and again.
"I don’t want you to end up like me…" he choked out, his voice thick with tears.
Now, he was just an ordinary old man—not the storm-commanding Human Emperor, not the sword-god who questioned the dao, but a crippled elder who only wished his child wouldn’t follow in his footsteps.
"I’m an Overlord Body, remember?"
Quinn smiled. "The only Overlord Body. You raised me yourselves—doesn’t that count for something?"
"Overlord Body?"
Village Chief laughed and cried at once. "Overlord Body! Heh, I brought this on myself… Shepherd, let’s go home, please!"
Quinn’s vital energy surged out, lifting the old man in his arms. He grinned, bright as early spring sunlight—like he could banish the gloom from anyone’s heart, bringing warmth and hope.
"An Overlord Body never admits defeat, never says die!"
Quinn’s voice carried an inexplicable force, his back straight, radiating confidence and conviction. "I’ll surpass you all—I refuse to be second-best forever! I’ll surpass you in swordsmanship, become the sword-god, the supreme master of sword-dao! I’ll surpass Grandpa Apothecary in medicine, Grandpa Lame in speed, Grandpa Mute Smith in forging, Grandpa Deaf in painting, Grandpa Mark in boxing, Grandpa Butcher in sabers, Grandpa Blindeye in divine sight, and Granny Si in magic! I’ll be number one in the world!"
Sage Nicholas Tranquil burst out laughing. "The Human Emperor’s ambition is admirable—but can you surpass these stone statues? Can you surpass the ones in the Great Ruins? And even if you can, could you ever surpass the Pioneer Emperor?"
His tone grew harsher, like scolding a child: "You’re just a spirited kid who’s never faced real setbacks or hardship. Go play in the water! Live an ordinary life—wouldn’t that be best? The adult world is something you can’t possibly understand!"
Quinn looked up at the stone statues, his expression calm. "If I don’t strive, don’t fight, of course I’ll never surpass the first Human Emperor. But if I give it my all, there’s a chance—there’s hope. If you never try, never fight, and only think of failure, you won’t get a damn thing!"
He glanced at Sage Nicholas Tranquil. "Sage Nicholas, since you’re an immortal, can you die?"
Sage Nicholas Tranquil shook his head. "No immortal lives forever."
"What can you leave behind?" Quinn asked.
Sage Nicholas said, "You’re born with nothing, and you die with nothing."
Quinn smiled. "But the immortals who founded Little Jade Capital left behind stone statues. The first Human Emperor left behind a statue. The Woodcutter Sage left behind a statue. Are those statues truly dead? On a night in the Great Ruins, I saw the Heavenly King’s statue ride a dragon qilin to slay a divine dragon; I saw statues awaken, come alive again, and continue fighting. I even saw the statues in the Great Ruins shine with divine light at night, protecting the abandoned people and giving them shelter. After you die, what will you leave behind?"
He didn’t wait for Sage Nicholas to answer, replying for him: "Not a damn thing!"
Sage Nicholas Tranquil grew angry, shaking his head with a wry smile. "You’re still just a child—all talk, no sense of danger. You’ll run headlong into disaster, get battered and broken, wounded in body and heart, just like me and the Human Emperor. In the end, you’ll lose everything—home, people, left all alone with not even a child to send you off. Only then will you realize how precious my advice was."
Quinn looked up at those stone statues again, his face calm. "They’ll come alive again. When hope returns to this world, they’ll rise and fight once more. But when that day comes, will Sage Nicholas be able to rise and fight? No—you’ll already be dead."
Sage Nicholas Tranquil, furious, stepped forward—his robes billowing, hair flying. He bellowed, "You may be Human Emperor, but what real ability do you have?"
Quinn glanced at him. "I’m an Overlord Body."
"There’s no such thing as an Overlord Body in this world!"
Sage Nicholas roared, his voice thunderous: "What damn Overlord Body? That kind of constitution doesn’t even exist! Who are you trying to fool?"
"There is such a thing as an Overlord Body in this world."
The Village Chief suddenly spoke. Sage Nicholas paused, looking over. The Village Chief broke free from Quinn’s vital energy and floated up, his face solemn. "There is an Overlord Body in this world—one that comes from Wuyou Township!"
Sage Nicholas was shaken, quickly looking to Quinn. "You mean…"
"His surname is Qin—the same Qin as the Pioneer Emperor."
The Village Chief seemed to shake off his earlier despair, though his tone was still weary. Yet he spoke with solemn conviction: "The Qin from Wuyou Township—the Qin who swept across the Eight Desolations and united the Six Directions. He is the Overlord Body, the peerless Overlord Body!"
"Wuyou Township?"
Sage Nicholas Tranquil grew flustered but steadied himself. "Qin from Wuyou Township? Qin of the Pioneer Emperor? That Golden Scripture Scroll came from Wuyou Township? There’s still a Qin clan in Wuyou Township?"
The Village Chief nodded. "We couldn’t do it—but the Qin clan can."
Sage Nicholas Tranquil’s face lit up, but he quickly calmed, chuckling. "Old friend, you don’t know enough about the Pioneer Era. What difference does it make if they’re Qin? They’re all just a bunch of failures, aren’t they? Wuyou Township is nothing but a band of sneaks scraping by. How’s that any different from us in Little Jade Capital? Truth is, you don’t even believe it yourself."
The Village Chief fell silent, then suddenly spoke: "But as long as there’s hope—even a sliver of it."
Sage Nicholas Tranquil’s face turned cold. "Don’t try to use Wuyou Township to pressure me. There’s no Overlord Body in Wuyou Township either. That kind of constitution simply doesn’t exist in this world."
"Shepherd can prove it to you."
The Village Chief said solemnly, "Prove that he’s the one and only Overlord Body!"
Sage Nicholas Tranquil laughed, shaking his head. "Old friend, is lying all you have left? Overlord Body, ha… Overlord Body…"
Suddenly, his voice boomed across Little Jade Capital: "Disciples of Little Jade Capital, come here!"
Quinn was taken aback.
Sage Nicholas’s face turned stern, glaring fiercely at him, his sleeves trembling. "Prove it to me! Little Jade Capital has only ever trained three disciples—defeat them, and I’ll go down the mountain with you!"
Quinn stretched, grinned, and arched his brows. "Sage Nicholas, you should’ve said so sooner! Three’s too few—why not have all the immortals of Little Jade Capital seal their cultivation and join in? Even the Dao Master could join!"
His aura exploded, and he roared, "I’ll beat you all!"