When Ye Tianxuan was a child, in the dead of winter, a fortune teller sitting on the street stopped him and told his parents with a smile that he was the chosen one, destined for a smooth life, and perhaps able to become the salvation of many people in the darkest places. In times of war, he would surely be a great hero adored by countless people.
As he said this, Ye Tianxuan covered his mouth and coughed violently, still clutching the medicine he had just brought back from the hospital in his hand.
"If only life could be so smooth, at least I could live a little longer." Ye's mother sighed and patted little Ye Tianxuan's head. "When you grow up, don't become a liar who talks nonsense like this."
Anyone who saw this young but sickly child could not say that his life would be smooth sailing, so the fortune teller's words were deeply etched in Ye Tianxuan's memory.
He was the only one who described his future so brightly, and Ye Tianxuan had always hoped that he could become a leader for many people, as he said, instead of spending his life in a hospital bed.
Until he was sixteen, Ye Tianxuan was unable to leave the ward. He lay in bed all day, holding a textbook in his left hand and receiving an IV drip in his right. He had just gone out to play with his friends for a while before being carried back.
The doctor said that he would live to be at most twenty years old, and that would require a lot of medication to maintain his life until then. Without someone to take care of him, his life would be even shorter.
The words spoken by the balding middle-aged man weighed heavily on his parents' hearts.
Ye Tianxuan himself didn't care, but everyone around him did. Everyone was looking at him with pity and sorrow, as if his life was about to come to an end, and could only end like this.
Ye Tianxuan responded with a silent smile, inwardly thinking that the fortune teller was indeed a fraud.
"Take your medicine on time today, and don't go out anymore," Ye's mother gently stroked his hair and instructed him.
As a mixed-race individual, Ye Tianxuan inherited his mother's family disease, which manifested across generations. His older brother did not have it, but Ye Tianxuan developed symptoms at a very young age, including a severe cough, weakness, fainting spells, and a perpetually pale complexion. His lack of sunlight exposure exacerbated his illness.
His family took extra care of him. His mother was very kind, his father was very kind, and his brother was very kind. Sometimes Ye Tianxuan even felt that they would be better off without him. They wouldn't have to worry about him all the time, or run to the hospital to visit him frequently, and they wouldn't have to keep an eye on his condition all the time.
There's no need to pay medical expenses, thus reducing the burden on the family.
But they always smiled and never said a word, wanting to pour more love into this poor child so that he could leave this world with love.
This love, without anyone noticing, became Ye Tianxuan's only source of pressure.
Without him, his beloved family would have an easier life than they do now.
He lived in the hospital, where he witnessed life and death most of the time.
The pregnant woman in the next ward had a wonderful mother, but she also gave birth with her mother's care. On the day she cried so loudly that the sound couldn't be stopped from echoing throughout the delivery room, only her mother was outside the door.
In the next ward, there was an elderly woman whose illness made her feel like she was dying, causing her unbearable pain. However, because the two days before she died were close to the Lunar New Year, her family planned to make sure she survived the New Year no matter what. So, they let her scream in pain until she died, even though no painkillers were effective.
It's truly tragic that sometimes people can't even choose how they die.
Ye Tianxuan did not want that day to come for him.
In the next ward, there was a child who had been abandoned at the hospital because there was no money for medical treatment. Ye Tianxuan had forgotten when he left, but he remembered that the child was very well-behaved and asked him, "If I disappear, will Mom like me a little more? Mom always says that I make her so tired."
He patted the child's head, unable to say anything, because he himself felt that his family would be more at ease if he were gone.
Because he grew up surrounded by love, he didn't want those who loved him to be exhausted because of him.
He envied everyone who walked through the hospital looking happy and content, because those people had plenty of time to improve themselves and many paths to choose from, while his path could only extend to twenty years old, and he could only spend it in this cramped hospital.
Rather than spending his life in a hospital bed, rather than exhausting those who love him, he had so many things he wanted to do, and he desperately wanted to find a second path besides dying in a hospital bed.
So, that night, he climbed out of the hospital window and, following the sound, got lost in the dark streets.
He encountered an unseen monster, who asked him: Can I stay here?
He replied: No, I want to use the time I have left to find a new life.
The monster made him leave.
Walking safely in this new and dangerous world was more difficult than Ye Tianxuan had imagined. The conversation skills he had learned in the hospital were useless here because the people here only cared about their own lives.
Having the strength to protect yourself and crush others is the most important thing here; otherwise, you don't even have the right to talk to others.
There are so many people here who want to live, just like those in the hospital. Everyone is desperately trying to survive, trying to find a way out besides dying here. They still have a long life ahead of them, and there are many other paths they can take when they return to the real world. They shouldn't all perish here.
Ye Tianxuan looked at the desolate town and at the people huddled in the corners, having lost all hope. It was as if he saw a second hospital, a second place where life and death coexisted.
He wasn't a doctor, so he couldn't save people who were about to die at the hospital.
But things are different here. Here, he can save these people. As long as he works hard enough, he can exchange his own life for the lives of many more.
At this moment, Ye Tianxuan's life, which had been filled with confusion for more than a decade, suddenly became bright. He found his direction in life, not to die in a hospital bed, but, as the fortune teller had said, to become a salvation for many people in the darkest places.
Once he sets a goal, he will run towards it with all his might. Even now, the idea of uniting the people of the town and turning those who compete with each other into those who help each other sounds like a fantasy, but Ye Tianxuan still feels there is hope.
Even when he encountered another extremely dangerous being in the instance, he felt that his chances of achieving his goal were greater.
Why would someone who is already on the verge of collapse want to help others?
The fact that someone rumored to be all coldness would ask him such a question suggests that the rumors about him aren't entirely reliable.
What he sees now is indeed a cold person, but at the same time, his body is empty. He needs love to fill his life, and coincidentally, Ye Tianxuan grew up in love and has a lot of love to give to this person.
The God of Slaughter had no friends, and coincidentally, he also had no friends.
He would become friends with the God of Slaughter and trick the most powerful person in the town into coming here, so that he could have a voice in the town, right?
Very good, everything is moving in a new direction, and he has escaped the life of a patient in the hospital ward.
Someday in the future, he may die somewhere, but right now he is using the time and life he has left to pull out those who shouldn't be stuck here, so that they can have more paths to take.