Chapter 63: Living Like Wild Grass

Ren Jie pounded against the barrier wall with one hand, roaring in anxious fury:
"Go! Just go! Go!"

However, Wei Pingsheng had already roared and rushed forward, charging into the pack of ogres single-handedly.

That ogre, standing over three meters tall, opened its blood-smeared maw and lunged fiercely at Wei Pingsheng.

Wei Pingsheng glared, slamming his riot shield hard to the side.
With a resounding boom, he crashed into the ogre's head, knocking it askew, and leveraged the momentum to pin it down. The fire axe in his other hand whistled through the air, bringing it down viciously upon the creature's neck.

With a sickening crunch, he cleanly lopped off its head, splattering Wei Pingsheng with fresh blood.

Whirling around, he brought the axe down again, severing the claws of another ogre.

An ogre's tail whipped toward him. Wei Pingsheng raised his shield, caught the tail sideways, clamped it tightly, and brought the axe blade down to hack it straight off.

At this moment, Wei Pingsheng—one man, one shield, and one axe—engaged in a ferocious battle against the horde of ogres.

Dodging, parrying, rolling, and maneuvering nimbly amidst the monsters, he looked like a bloodthirsty butcher.

Wei Pingsheng’s offense was simple, unpretentious, and even crude. There were no flashy techniques, only thirty years of tempered tactical experience, combat skills, countless days and nights of rigorous training, and buckets of sweat.
Yet, bearing the title of a Security Officer, he stood his ground and fought the demons head-on.

Nuo Yan felt her scalp tingle. Was this uncle just an ordinary human?
He was merely a martial artist with slightly enhanced physical fitness.
Yet his physical resilience was at least comparable to that of a second-tier peak genetic warrior.
It was her first time encountering someone like this; how on earth did he pull it off?

Still, at this rate, Wei Pingsheng wouldn't last much longer. His attacks could not inflict fatal damage on the demons; even if he severed an ogre's head, they regenerated almost instantly.

Blood had already dyed his uniform crimson. Clearly, he was injured...

Another ogre lunged at Wei Pingsheng, tearing three bone-deep gashes across his back.

Wei Pingsheng moved to raise his shield for defense, but it was seized by an ogre that bit down hard and yanked it away, sending him spinning through the air.

Instantly, a tail whipped across Wei Pingsheng's chest, blasting him away like a cannonball. He rolled two or three times across the ground before slamming heavily into a slab of concrete.

Wang Feng wore a grinning sneer, his eyes filled with mockery:
"Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! A mere mortal, yet attempting to slaughter demons? Delusional!"
"Crushing you to death is as easy as squashing a rat, but I don't want to kill you off just yet..."
"I want to see how long you can last before my little darlings eat you up. Heh heh heh~ Playing with an ant is such an immensely pleasurable pastime."

Wei Pingsheng half-leaned against the boulder, coughing up mouthfuls of blood. His chest was completely caved in, and his axe was nowhere to be found.
Yet, he still struggled to his feet, tilting his head to spit out a glob of bloody saliva.
With a sharp tug, he ripped off his tattered top, exposing a torso riddled with countless scars and soaked in blood, and cracked his neck.

"An ant? Heh~ You certainly talk big, little knowing that in the eyes of others, you are nothing more than ant-like trash!"

Ren Jie’s heart was bleeding:
"Uncle Wei! Don't get up anymore! Enough! That's enough! Run, I'm begging you!"

Yet Wei Pingsheng turned a deaf ear. Reaching into his waist, he pulled out an entire stash of Frenzy Blood Boosters—a full five vials.
He plunged all of them into his body at once, an amount that would be fatal to an ordinary human.

Wei Pingsheng’s face contorted in agony. His heart hammered wildly, frantically squeezing the very last drop of potential from his body.
His skin turned flushed red, and his muscles bulged, expanding his frame by a full circle.
He felt as though every drop of blood in his body had been ignited, his internal organs scorched as if his very life was burning away.

Yet his eyes blazed with excitement!
He had touched it; he had crossed that threshold! The path of the martial artist had been pushed forward another step by his own hands, and he felt his body surging with explosive power.
His current physical strength was easily a match for a third-tier genetic warrior.

His weapon was gone? Then he would use his fists!
At this moment, Wei Pingsheng slowly clenched his fists, the twilight in his eyes burning bright!

"Xiao Jie, your Uncle Wei hasn't made a name for himself in this life, nor has he achieved any grand accomplishments. But I refuse to accept this fate!"
"I've said it before: a person cannot pass through this life in vain. We must live either brilliantly or stirringly!"
"Life is both long and short, and everyone's life has its brightest, most splendid moment—a moment worth being remembered by all!"
"Xiao Jie... I feel like the most splendid moment of my life is right now..."

Facing the charging ogres, Wei Pingsheng cast all caution to the wind. Bare-chested, he let out a furious roar and unleashed an uppercut, slamming it viciously into the ogre's jaw.

The deafening boom of the sonic shockwave echoed sharply.
The blow sent the ogre flipping backward through the air, its jaw completely shattered.

"Come on! I've been dying to beat the crap out of you bastards for a long time!"
"Come at me!!!"

An ogre's tail lashed toward Wei Pingsheng like a whip. He raised his hands to catch it, his boots sliding back across the ground from the force, but he locked his arms around the tail.
Roaring, he swung the heavy beast around in a full circle and slammed it heavily into the ground.

At this moment, Wei Pingsheng didn't care about his injuries at all; he only wanted to fight with every fiber of his being.

Ren Jie clung to the barrier wall, large tears streaming down his face before his limbs went limp and he collapsed onto the ground...
"Uncle Wei... Please go, don't die here, please..."
"I already watched Ye Yue leave with my own eyes... I don't want you to leave too..."

Beside him, Nuo Yan watched the scene unfold in silence, biting her lower lip hard...
Sometimes, the world was simply this cruel.

Wang Feng had grown utterly impatient.
"You're just an ordinary human, what's with all the pathetic barking? I can kill you whenever I want!"
"Do you think you've survived this long because you're strong enough? No! It's because of my mercy!"
"You're just a mortal abandoned by fate! Do you really think you're someone special? Your struggling, ugly posture makes me sick to my stomach!"

Yet, covered in blood, Wei Pingsheng ripped off his own arm—which had been clamped in the jaws of an ogre—and smashed his remaining fist down hard upon the creature's head.

At this moment, Wei Pingsheng's eyes shone with radiant light as he laughed wildly:
"Hahahahaha! You're scared! I'm just an ordinary human, yet you, a lofty Demon Bound, still haven't managed to kill me! The useless one is you!"
"So what if I'm an ordinary human? I have never cursed the unfairness of fate!"
"We are born like wild grass, unyielding and untamed!"
"We rise from the humblest origins, yet our ambitions soar higher than the heavens!"
"I give everything I have, solely for that single flash of brilliance! It's enough! It's more than enough!"

Veins bulged on Wang Feng's forehead: "You want to die? I'll grant your wish right now!"
His muscles instantly coiled and surged, and he shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, his body blurring into a phantom!
In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance to Wei Pingsheng, his hand shaped into a blade, and pierced straight through Wei Pingsheng's chest.

Hot, boiling blood splattered across the night sky...
His body was carried dozens of meters away by Wang Feng, coughing up mouthfuls of thick blood.

Ren Jie's pupils contracted violently at the sight, a deafening ringing filling his ears...
"Uncle Wei!"
Nuo Yan's heart shuddered fiercely as well.

Wang Feng leaned in close to Wei Pingsheng's ear, whispering softly:
"See that? You still achieved nothing..."
"You couldn't hurt me, you couldn't even kill a single demon. This is the gap between an ordinary human and the chosen ones. All your efforts were completely in vain!"
"Useless trash!"

Wei Pingsheng's eyes rapidly dimmed as Wang Feng tossed him aside casually, leaving him sprawled amidst a pile of rubble.

Wang Feng looked triumphantly toward Ren Jie:
"Ah~ I forgot, you two knew each other, didn't you? So sorry about that, killing him right in front of your eyes..."
"I did it on purpose~ Hahahahaha! Does it hurt? Does it break your heart? Good!"

Wang Feng laughed maniacally, staring at Ren Jie with a lunatic's grin.

Ren Jie simply stared at Wei Pingsheng, who lay on the ground coughing up blood continuously—staring without blinking!

Throughout the entire ordeal, Huansha remained a bystander, refusing to intervene as she felt not the slightest bit of interest.

Just then, a series of deafening sonic booms tore through the sky.
A massive pitch-black spear plummeted from the heavens, slamming directly into the box-like structures of District 69 and shattering the barrier wall instantly. The giant spear drove deep into the earth, blasting out a crater resembling a meteorite impact.
The spheres atop the four pillars exploded simultaneously, and the ground quaked violently...

The corners of Huansha's lips curved upward:
"Has the Demon Lord made his move?"
"Kid, you're mine!"

Before Ren Jie could move, Nuo Yan, who could no longer contain herself, dashed out first, her aura radiating the peak of the fourth-tier Hidden Realm.
She cursed fiercely at Huansha:
"Stinking bitch, I've had my eyes on you for a long time. Want to capture him? I'll take you down first!"

With that, purple light flared in her eyes, and a streak of fine silk flashed through the air. The largest ogre abruptly turned around and lunged at Wang Feng, knocking him flying and launching into a frenzied assault of biting and tearing.
Meanwhile, Nuo Yan herself closed in on Huansha.

With the walls shattered, Ren Jie went out of his mind. Disregarding everything, he rushed toward Wei Pingsheng, scooped him into his arms, and pressed his hand against the hole in the chest, trying desperately to stem the gushing blood, but it continued to pour out unstoppably.
"Uncle Wei... It's going to be fine, everything's going to be fine, don't move around..."

As he spoke, heavy tears dropped one by one onto Wei Pingsheng's chest. With a puncture wound this severe, how could he possibly be saved?

Wei Pingsheng turned his head with great effort. Seeing that the crowd had successfully evacuated and the gates of the civil defense project were firmly shut, he finally felt at ease, though blood kept bubbling from his mouth.
He shook his head and rasped:
"Brat... stop crying, will you? In this world... tears are the cheapest thing of all..."
"I've reached the end of the line, no regrets... A person's life is probably just about a single fleeting moment..."

With trembling fingers, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a blood-stained cigarette, and clamped it between his lips.
"I... only had this one little vice..."

He fumbled to find a light, but Ren Jie’s thumb already sparked to life with flame, held out steadily right in front of Wei Pingsheng.

Wei Pingsheng froze, a smile blooming across his face...
The cigarette was lit by the flame, casting a reddish glow in the chilly night, though it quickly sputtered out...
Before Wei Pingsheng could take even a single drag, his life, much like the extinguished cigarette, faded away into a wisp of lingering smoke...

Ren Jie sat kneeling on the ground in silence.
Wei Pingsheng's body slumped to the side, his hand slipping from his trouser pocket. Clutched tightly in his palm was a kerosene lighter...
Inscribed upon the metal casing of the lighter were sixteen characters carved with fierce, sweeping strokes:
*Born like wild grass,*
*Unyielding and untamed.*
*Rising from the humblest origins,*
*Ambitions higher than the heavens.*

At this moment, those sixteen characters on the lighter burned searingly bright, piercing straight into Ren Jie's soul.

Ren Jie picked up the lighter, tucked it into his pocket, and slowly stood up. His gaze turned utterly chilling...
The look in his eyes as he stared at Wang Feng burned with monstrous hatred!