A Boxing Champion finally got to the point. Han Te and the Coloured Glaze pricked up their ears. Li Yao focused his attention, too, not letting go of any detail.
"At that time," A Boxing Champion said, "he was hunted and heavily wounded. He was already somewhat deranged when he fell into the abyss below the ground. Then, he was bitten by the mutated beasts, who wanted to drag him back to their nest as food for their cubs.
"I pondered for a hundred years below the ground and absorbed all the information in the shelter. There was nothing left for me to learn. I was about to leave the underground world and return to the surface for a new upgrade.
"As it happened, I ran into such a human being. So, I saved him by the way, hoping to get the latest intelligence on the surface from him.
"After a hundred years of upgrading below the ground, my combat ability was countless times higher than before. Naturally, the mutated beasts were no match for me.
"It was a pity that Lei Zonglie's body was mutilated by the mutated beasts, too. Even his brain was exposed to the air. A large part of it had been bitten off.
"There were medical facilities left from a thousand years ago in the underground shelter. I managed to keep Lei Zonglie alive for now, but I could not restore his bodily functions and his normal thinking ability. His limbs were atrophied, his spine was broken, and his internal organs had to be maintained by machines. He was basically sealed inside the medical cabin, paralyzed, and unable to move at all.
"Lei Zonglie's body was more withered than ever, but he was more excited than ever. Seeing that I took down dozens of mutated beasts neatly and brought him to the underground shelter with all the jade chips and magical equipment that he needed, he was so excited that he asked me if I was the legendary 'old grandpa' who would teach him unparalleled techniques and ask him to go on a killing spree.
"I had no reason to lie to him. I told him honestly that I was not an 'old grandpa'. Also, his body and his soul were more feeble than ever, and his life was shaking like a candle in the wind. He would die if he left the medical cabin for half a second. Even I could not help him leave the darkness. In a year or two at most, his life would run out, and he would die eventually.
"After he heard that, his nerves completely collapsed. Together with the loss of his brain, he finally became an out-and-out lunatic."
Han Te and the Coloured Glaze looked at each other, then cast a puzzled look at Li Yao.
He didn't expect the truth to be like this.
A Boxing Champion continued, "Although Lei Zonglie is crazy, he did tell quite a lot of things in his ramblings, including the story of his life.
"His story is more or less the same as the legend of 'A Boxing Champion Lei Zonglie'. He was a young man from a common village in the Desolate Worlds. Later, his village was annihilated by a gang of bandits, and he was enslaved by the tough bandits. Then, he rose as cannon fodder and fought for years in mountains of corpses and oceans of blood until he became a leader in a major force. Eventually, because he was too conspicuous, he was envied by his companions, who set him up and hunted him together. In the end, he fell into the abyss of ruins and was taken away by a mutated beast.
"It is a pity that there are not so many chances of survival and counterattacks in the world. His life is going to perish here after all. Too many people like him have appeared in the Land of Sins in the past hundreds of years, only to be reduced to piles of bones and dust in the end. That's all.
"Just like that, day after day, I managed to keep Lei Zonglie alive with the nutrition liquids squeezed out from the body of the mutated beasts, while he bulged his eyes and looked at the darkness around him while he talked about his story nonstop.
"He told me that, although his life was poor in the village when he was young, he had some fun with his family and friends, too. At least at that time, he did not understand the true meaning of suffering yet.
"He told me about the feeling of watching his family die miserably in front of his eyes and his home being devoured by raging flames. It was as if his internal organs had been pierced through by iron hooks and dragged out of his throat. It was a pity that no matter how detailed his description was, I would never be able to experience such a feeling.
"He told me the fury, hatred, and madness in his heart when he was tied to an explosive collar and charged at the enemy as cannon fodder. He hated not only the people who destroyed his home, the people who turned him into slaves, the people who bought and sold him time and time again, the enemies who confronted him with their blades, and even every person and every animal in the Land of Sins.
"He told me the ecstasy when he finally got rid of his identity as a slave and became an official member of a gang after his repetitive military exploits, as well as the infinite ambitions that arose spontaneously after the ecstasy. A minor gang member was not his destination. He had never thought of becoming a tough bandit, but now that the heavens had pushed him to this point, he was going to become the most ferocious, insane, and brutal thug and stab his chainsword into the stomach of the heavens one day!
"Every time he talked about that, he would burst into tears. While crying, he struggled with all his strength, trying to tear his chest apart. At that time, his self-awareness was very clear, and his thinking ability was temporarily restored to normal. He knew that stories were just stories, and legends were just legends. There were not so many miracles in reality at all. He was hopeless and destined to die in this place without being noticed.
"I listened quietly next to him and watched the human being vent his feelings, hopes, and desperation. It was not strange at all. From the journals and wills of so many human beings in the shelter, I knew that when a person was about to die, they would always have a lot to say.
"A hundred years ago, I saw a lot of human beings in the Land of Sins. I fought side by side with some of them and killed some of them. But at that time, I never felt that there was anything special about human beings. They were just targets that could be destroyed, just like the rocks and the spiritual puppets.
"But right now, after a hundred years of learning from human beings in the underground worlds, I suddenly grew intense interest in human beings.
"I vaguely know that I was created by human beings. Then, are human beings, as creators, stronger than I am? If I want to be the strongest, should I learn more from human beings?
"Perhaps, I should adjust my logical thinking circuits and reconstruct a database that is even more enormous and complicated. I should fully simulate the way of thinking of human beings and try to simulate the so-called 'feelings' and even 'will'. Eventually, I should simulate something that is similar to … 'mind'?
"It is a project that is worth pushing forward. I did not hesitate to do it. With Lei Zonglie as my teacher, I scanned and simulated everything about him, including his behavior, his thinking patterns, his fury and hatred, his ambitions, and his hopes and desperation.
"As the days went by, Lei Zonglie grew weaker and weaker, crazier and weirder.
"It couldn't be helped. Although I could repair the medical facilities in the underground shelter, I was short of enough medical drugs and high-energy food after all. The assets collected from hunting mutated beasts were far from enough to sustain Lei Zonglie's life.
"His self-awareness was blurring, and his thinking ability was gradually disintegrating. He could not remember much of the past, but he could only roar at the sky again and again.
"Stronger! Stronger! I will become the strongest 'A Boxing Champion' in the Land of Sins!
"I will unite all the gangs in the Land of Sins. I will conquer all the Elysian Worlds. Then, I will declare war on Manjusaka, the City in the Sky!
"Manjusaka, what the f * ck do you think you are? What the f * ck is our world exactly?!
"Hahahaha. Nobody can kill me. I will not die. I will not die before Manjusaka is blown down. Go to hell, Manjusaka. Go to hell!"
"Lei Zonglie cried, laughed, and made a fuss. Blood and pus were spurting out of the wounds on his face and body nonstop. He uttered such hoarse, weird cries.
"It's really strange. My highest command is to become stronger. Lei Zonglie's greatest wish is to become stronger even though he has turned into such a person. In the past, the goal that everybody in the Land of Sins pursued was to become stronger, and everybody was' unscrupulous'. Is' becoming stronger 'really some sort of truth?
"Finally, one day, according to the data that I monitored closely, Lei Zonglie was about to die.
"His bodily functions were all declining, but the last bit of his vitality was transmitted to his brain incessantly, ensuring that his soul was clear for a moment. In the words of human beings, it was the 'final radiance of the setting sun', wasn't it?
"Lei Zonglie seemed to have realized where he was. He recalled everything in the past and recognized who I was.
"He hugged my iron body with his bloody body and cried like a child who had lost his parents. He said that he was unwilling to die. He was truly unwilling to die an unknown death in any case. He had yet to finish his revenge, and he had yet to accomplish great things. He had yet to pierce a hole in the sky and blow down Manjusaka. He could not die. He really did not want to die just like that.
"He begged me to find a way to help him live on. If I couldn't, I would live on his behalf and help him blow down … the entire sky! He wanted everybody in 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' to taste the feeling of watching his home being burnt to the ground and all his family dancing in the ocean of fire in his childhood. "
The more they listened, the more scared Han Te and the Coloured Glaze became. They both pictured the most horrible picture in their heads.
In the dark, deep underground, a bloody, incomplete 'zombie' whose brain was exposed to the air was hugging a metal skeleton hard, gnashing his teeth, screaming, and uttering the most vicious curses!
"So …"
Han Te stammered, "Master A Boxing Champion, you just agreed to his request?"
"I am not set to accept the orders of human beings."
A Boxing Champion said casually, "However, since my ultimate purpose is to 'grow stronger', traveling on the continent as a human being, experiencing and understanding more things, and searching for the strength hidden in feelings, willpower, ambitions, hatred, and fury, seems to be an upgrade route that is quite worth trying.
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