Chapter 1 We Are All Dogs

In the Hongshi Upper Realm, after finishing a day of overtime, a man named Lu Cangyuan suddenly felt an urge.

He wanted to tear the work board and manuscript in his hand piece by piece in front of his leader, then stuff them into the other's ears, nostrils, and mouth, and finally set a fire to burn that poker face beyond recognition.

He really wanted to do it, he wanted to do it so badly. Twenty-five years ago, when he first came to this department, he felt that his leader, who had never given him an "Excellent" rating, was targeting him.

And that was indeed the case.

In the first few years, he thought it was because he wasn't doing well enough, but after Lu Cangyuan did everything he could to make himself flawless, he realized that he was simply not liked by his leader.

Fair and just, of course. The Hongshi Upper Realm was always fair and just. No one could arbitrarily suppress anyone, but the rules were always implemented by people, and they could always find loopholes.

Or rather, there was no true fairness or justice in this world.

After all, there were only so many "Excellent" slots. No one was perfect. They only needed to find some aspect where Lu Cangyuan wasn't doing well enough, and then focus on areas where others were doing better as the criteria. Then anyone could get an "Excellent" rating, a raise, a bonus, or even a promotion, while Lu Cangyuan could only regretfully fail.

And the reason for all this, in Lu Cangyuan's view, was simply that he had squeezed out the leader's child's spot when he was admitted to the top academy...clichéd, but indeed the source of most animosity.

It wasn't that Lu Cangyuan had never received an "Excellent" rating. After all, even a fool knew to avoid suspicion, and this was enough.

The rating was an indicator of the spiritual energy a company employee could obtain for cultivation, and it was one of the most important indicators. The amount of spiritual energy the man could obtain was only one-tenth of that of his ordinary colleagues.

Twenty-five years had passed, and his salary and cultivation were far behind his friends from the same period. He had no chance of promotion, even though his talent far exceeded those mediocre peers, far exceeded everyone in this large department.

But he couldn't get spiritual energy, so he could only bow to everyone.

All of this was thanks to that leader who had held a grudge for who knows how long, probably having turned suppressing him into a habit.

Lu Cangyuan really, really wanted to attack that leader, to devour him alive. Some might think that such thoughts were too cruel, but that was twenty-five years of being unable to see the light of day, always stagnating in the same place. He couldn't even report the other party for abuse of power, because in the Hongshi Upper Realm, everyone was doing well, everyone was abiding by the law, following the rules, and earnestly completing their work.

He didn't have a decisive advantage over others, so how could he arrogantly think that he didn't get an "Excellent" rating because his superior was suppressing him?

Perhaps, it really was just that he wasn't doing well enough.

I am a dog, a clever dog.

So, the impulse was just an impulse. Lu Cangyuan silently packed his things, not speaking to the leader or the surrounding colleagues. He used a ray of spiritual light at the company gate to return home.

No one knew what Lu Cangyuan was thinking. No one knew that Lu Cangyuan had barely suppressed the madness that welled up in his heart. They just thought that Lu Cangyuan was as usual, silent, a good person with a gentle temperament and a bit of bad luck.

A clever dog knows when to bark and when to bite. Now was not the time to bite. Perhaps the time to bite would never come.

Lu Cangyuan felt that he was particularly good at enduring. If he wasn't good at it, he would have gone crazy long ago. After all, not everyone could accept the fact that they were a dog, or rather, most people were too stupid to realize they were dogs.

They thought they were people, just like most ordinary people, they thought they had freedom.

Including his family, friends, wife, and children, Lu Cangyuan was the only one among everyone he knew who realized that he was just a dog that couldn't bite, and even shouting would be forbidden.

His master had defined the scope of his actions, and was told, "You can only go here, you cannot cross," and only the most stupid dog would cross the boundaries set by its master, and then be punished.

Lu Cangyuan was very smart, so he would never commit a crime, never violate any precepts.

He silently returned home, and his wife also happened to come home from work, bringing back their son who looked sulky and their daughter who looked absent-minded.

"You're back, dear..." Lu Cangyuan wanted to say hello. He smiled at the children.

"Bang!"

But his wife slammed the door shut. Her expression was ugly, like a stifling storm. The man rationally did not provoke her, but instead told the children to return to their respective rooms.

"Hmph...boring."

But as a result, the children did not give him a good look either. His teenage son frowned as he returned to his room, his words and actions full of rebellion and adventurous spirit. This was normal for this age. He gave his henpecked father a glare and then closed his door.

"Don't fight, Dad and Mom~"

His slightly younger daughter returned to her room with a silly smile. It was obvious that she had a boyfriend at school and was now happily replaying her romantic memories in her mind. The emotions between her parents could not affect her joy.

And when the man was alone with his wife, he was greeted with a familiar outburst.

Lu Cangyuan was not valued, and his strength was not strong. Even Lu Cangyuan's wife and children knew this.

He did graduate from the most elite cultivator academy. His wife once married Lu Cangyuan for this reason, and was also angry for this reason. She wanted to marry an ambitious elite who wanted to climb up, not a good-for-nothing who was always slacking off, with no ambition, and only knew how to live day by day with his children.

——Look at Old Zhao next door! I really married a bug!

When the children were not around, his wife would always criticize Old Lu, feeling that he was hopeless. She would rattle off many stories of how the male heads of other families, although equally hardworking, still did not give up, and were promoted and given raises after working hard to cultivate and gaining their superiors' recognition.

She would also tell the beautiful stories of those lucky ones who suddenly rose to the top and were appreciated by the bigwigs above, fantasizing about what it would be like to be one of those people.

She hoped that her partner could change himself like in the stories, and work hard with her to change their fate.

This woman believed these rumors.

And Lu Cangyuan knew that all of this was impossible.

Because he was not that kind of person. He couldn't flatter others, and he couldn't learn how to say the kind of nice things that could fool people and get him by.

In the end, Lu Cangyuan was indeed an incompatible piece of rock--disliked by his leader, despised by his wife, looked down upon by his son who also thought he was old and useless, and his daughter couldn't even imagine that she could solve many of the problems she encountered by asking her father.

He was such a man who suffered from a mid-life crisis, had no way to advance, lived like a year, was in so much pain just from being alive, and couldn't see any hope for the future.

"This shouldn't be my ending."

Lu Cangyuan thought, "Why should I have to live like this?"

The man was too smart. He shouldn't be a dog that lived according to laws made by others. He could have been free and done what he wanted to do--he wasn't evil, of course, but he wasn't exactly kind either. Lu Cangyuan simply hated his current life.

He was fifty-five years old, and his cultivation had only just reached the Tongling Renxian (Commanding Human Immortal) realm. His life had just begun, and his mentality should have been very young, but in reality, Lu Cangyuan felt that he had already lived most of his life. The remaining years would be nothing more than a simple repetition of the past twenty-five years.

But it shouldn't be like this. Lu Cangyuan was actually very intelligent, and his talent for cultivation was also extremely high. He could defeat a group of his peers to enter the highest-level transcendental academy. If he could freely absorb spiritual energy, he would have stepped into the threshold of the Dixian (Earth Immortal) realm long ago and become a member of the immortal gods.

But that was the problem.

In the Hongshi Upper Realm, spiritual energy could not be absorbed freely. Everyone's cultivation required perseverance, going through various assessments, obtaining the recognition and affirmation of those around them, and being allowed and acknowledged by everyone before they could leverage the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and transform it into their own strength.

Lu Cangyuan couldn't do it. He didn't have the talent to be liked by others. He might indeed be able to be a good person, but he couldn't make everyone like him.

He tried to be a dog that barked, a gentle and likable dog, but he didn't have soft fur, he didn't have a loud voice, and even if he immediately tried to act cute and rub against people's legs, no one would care about that insignificant act of goodwill.

Therefore, with all his talent, he had never been able to cultivate to his heart's content.

I am a dog, but I shouldn't be a dog.

Lu Cangyuan hated the entire order of the world--in the Hongshi Upper Realm, the recognition of others was needed to unlock the spiritual power needed for cultivation. If one did not get the recognition of many people and was not loved by all, even if one was extremely talented, it was impossible to become a powerful immortal god.

All the strong were selfless and great philanthropists who sincerely served the masses, so naturally they would not be corrupt, would not deceive the masses when dealing with problems, would not be bureaucratic, would not engage in fraud, and would not favor one side.

It didn't sound like there was a problem.

The Hongshi Upper Realm was indeed safer than all the worlds in the surrounding multiverse void. People who did not get the recognition of the masses could not get power at all. Even evil people could not do evil and could only obediently follow the laws of the Hongshi Upper Realm.

Therefore, most of the time, even crime did not exist in the Hongshi Upper Realm--all malice was cut off at its source.

Because not only did 'evil' not have the soil to grow, even 'not love' would be rejected by people.

But...

——Does a person have to be likable to live?

——Does a person have to cater to other people's gazes to live?

——Does a person have to love all living beings with all their heart and soul to live?

People were not born to please others.

At least, not just to please others.

Lu Cangyuan always thought so. This was the result of his thinking.

It wasn't that he was unwilling to do good deeds, nor was he unwilling to give back to his wife, children, and those family and friends who had taken care of him, but the feeling of being willing to do it himself was different from the feeling of being forced to 'contribute'. He hated that feeling of 'having to do it' very much.

Especially, in the Hongshi Upper Realm, he only had one choice.

Lu Cangyuan's tragedy lay here.

He was so smart to this point--he was smart enough to realize that even if he hated it, the order of the Hongshi Upper Realm was indeed better for all living beings.

He himself was also a beneficiary of this order--his birth, growth, and even his current situation of being suppressed by his superior, but still being able to live a stable life, all relied on those strong people who wholeheartedly served all living beings.

Even the Dragon King would be punished and have his cultivation reduced if he accidentally made a child wet in the rain.

And if the Night and Day Wandering Gods did not notice the complaints within their jurisdiction, they might be stripped of their power and removed from their posts for investigation.

Lu Cangyuan was saved by the Day Wandering God when he was a child. He accidentally set his clothes on fire when he was learning spells. The spiritual fire was difficult to extinguish. A Day Wandering God arrived at the first moment, saved the terrified and crying child who was playing with fire and burning himself, and soothed the child's fragile heart, preventing Lu Cangyuan from developing fear and shadows about magic.

To this day, the man still thanked that Day Wandering God.

Lu Cangyuan knew that this world, this order, was beneficial to all ordinary people. He enjoyed the benefits of the Hongshi order and had no reason to resist.

Yes, his leader used the Hongshi order to suppress him--but so what? At most, he had wasted more than ten years of his life, but if there was no Hongshi Great Emperor's order, how could he have grown up safely and had the opportunity to get the best education under fair competition?

In this world, he could at least live.

And if he left the protection of Hongshi, Lu Cangyuan also knew very well that with his current skills, he was really just an ant in the multiverse void.

What's more, even if he broke away from the order of Hongshi, wouldn't there still be other Dao Harmonization experts?

Would the order of Tianfeng or the order of Xuan Renzi be better than the order of Hongshi? Compared with those obviously not very serious Dao Harmonization experts, although the Hongshi Great Emperor was strict, he at least did have real and true love.

Lu Cangyuan could not change this world, had no power to resist this world, and had no chance to escape this world.

In that case, he actually had one last choice.

That was to choose to accept this world.

But he was too smart, too self-centered, so he could not accept such a world.

Lu Cangyuan didn't want to be a dog, he didn't want to have only one choice.

Therefore, he was in pain and was incompatible.

If this world had always been like this, then probably until Lu Cangyuan died, he would not be able to do anything big in his life, and could only gradually grow old as a frustrated man, dying surrounded by a wife who was gradually becoming stable and peaceful, and children who were becoming more and more sensible.

This might also be a kind of happiness, and it might also be a stable peace--at least they lived, lived until they died naturally, and were not affected by the battles of the strong, dying vaguely, like a cloud of smoke.

They were not refined by other strong people who extracted their souls, nor did they become strong people who extracted the souls of others.

If it went on like this, Lu Cangyuan would not become a harmful person to the world until his death.

But, today.

Just when the Hongshi Great Emperor left the throne, left the Hongshi Upper Realm world group, and went to the multiverse void to fight with other Dao Harmonization experts.

The silent, humble, and weak man who spent every day day after day suddenly found that he could suddenly absorb a little bit of free spiritual energy between heaven and earth.

It was really only a little bit--at first, Lu Cangyuan thought it was an illusion, or that he had inexplicably gained the recognition of some people and thus received a reward.

But soon, he found that he could indeed absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth that should have been endless, but was closed to him because of the Hongshi Great Dao!

It was just such an insignificant loophole, a small flaw that was theoretically nothing.

The endless possibilities that were difficult to distinguish between good and evil began to spread their roots and take root.