I died young at the start, but I'm reincarnated with unlimited skill points!

"It's dawn."

The three words fell calmly from Su Yu's mouth, as light as a feather.

But to the dozen or so core members in the secret room, those three words carried more weight than the sky falling.

Li Xiaotian was the first to react.

His body reacted before his brain did.

He bent his knees and knelt heavily on the ground.

"Your subordinate obeys!"

His voice trembled slightly from extreme excitement, but his tone was lower than usual.

The dozen or so key members behind him knelt down in unison.

No one shed tears, and no one cheered.

They simply knelt, staring intently at the sheepskin map that covered the entire wall behind Su Yu.

The map, covered with countless ink dots, resembled a silent starry sky under the dim light.

Every star is a group of people ready to die.

Starting today, these stars will be lit up one by one.

"Get up, all of you."

Su Yu's voice remained calm, without any extra emotion.

"According to the plan, messages will be sent out simultaneously from four directions. Li Xiaotian will personally oversee the northern border, the southern border will use the secret caravan route, the eastern sea will use the fishermen's route, and the western region will use the old camel caravan route."

"Nodes that receive the signal should determine the detonation time independently. They do not need to wait for my second command."

Su Yu paused for a moment.

"Because there will be no second order."

Everyone understands the meaning of this sentence.

From the moment the order for full activation was issued, this network no longer needed a central hub.

Each node is independent.

Every ordinary person knows when and where they should risk their life for that blue sky.

Su Yu simply lit the fire.

Once the fire started, it had nothing to do with him anymore.

"Go."

Su Yu waved his hand.

A dozen or so key members stood up, bowed deeply to Su Yu, and turned to walk towards the four secret passages deep within the secret room.

Each secret passage leads in one direction.

At the end of each direction lie thousands of nodes throughout the entire Dali region and even further afield.

Li Xiaotian was the last to leave.

He stopped abruptly when he reached the entrance to the secret passage.

"Immortal Master."

Su Yu looked up at him.

Li Xiaotian opened his mouth as if he had something to say, but in the end he just grinned.

"It's dawn, that's good."

……

……

Three days later.

In the northern border of Dali, in Qing Shi City.

The city is not large; including the villages and towns on the outskirts, it has a population of only about 100,000.

But like all the towns within the Great Li territory, it has an existence that cannot be ignored.

The black iron spire in the center of the city.

Two late-stage Qi Refining demons and dozens of mid-stage Qi Refining demon slaves reside in the tower year-round.

They are the true masters of this city.

The city garrison commander, the county magistrate, and the garrison troops were all just their lackeys.

For the past three years, the person in charge of the Qing Shi Cheng node has been Sun Daniu.

Forty-two years old, the owner of the blacksmith shop.

His hands, which had been forging iron for twenty years, were covered with calluses and burn scars.

His wife was chosen during the blood tribute levy six years ago.

At that time, he knelt on the official road and cried as he chased after them for ten miles, only to be kicked into a ditch by the soldiers escorting him.

He stopped crying later.

Later, the rebels found him and taught him the incantation for the self-mutilation method of mortals.

He was told that this incantation would kill him the moment it was detonated, but it could purify the demonic energy within a radius of several feet.

Ask him if he's willing.

He said he was willing.

Then the rebels said that one person's detonation could only purify a few feet.

However, if hundreds or thousands of people detonate together, it can create a spiritual energy storm that reverses all the demonic energy above the entire city.

Those evil spirits that fall into the spiritual energy like rats into boiling water will be burned alive.

When he heard the words "burn the demons," his calloused hands gripped the hammer tightly.

"it is good."

Just one word.

Then he spent three years.

Using the blacksmith shop as a cover, and taking advantage of the convenience of blacksmithing and delivery, the secret formula was passed on from person to person.

When he passed it, he didn't secretly slip a note inside.

He looked the other person in the eye and spoke clearly and explicitly.

"This incantation can slay demons. The price is your life. Are you willing?"

Some people refused on the spot.

He didn't complain.

He respects the fear of death, as it is a human instinct.

But most people, after a moment of silence, nodded.

Some people's eyes reddened when they nodded, while others smiled when they nodded.

After listening to him, an old woman asked, "What about my grandson? If I die, who will take care of him?"

Sun Daniu said, "When you die, the evil spirits will also die. Your grandson will be able to grow up in a world without evil spirits."

The old lady thought about it for a long time.

Then he said, "Teach me."

Over the course of three years, more than 30,000 mortals inside and outside Qing Shi City have memorized the incantation and are willing to die for it.

Thirty thousand people were scattered throughout the city, in every street, every shop, and every household.

They eat, work, and sleep just like everyone else.

The only difference was that they had an extra incantation in their minds, and a secret code they had been waiting for for three years.

This afternoon.

A porter driving a donkey cart passed through Qing Shi City and stopped in front of Sun Daniu's blacksmith shop.

I bought a wood-chopping knife.

As he was leaving, the porter said something that seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Manager Sun, it's dawn."

Sun Daniu's hand stopped on the anvil.

The hand holding the hammer trembled slightly.

It only shook once.

Then he put the hammer down.

Put it down very, very gently, as if afraid of waking someone.

He took something out of a hidden compartment at the back of the shop.

A bronze gong.

This gong was prepared three years ago and has been hidden in a secret compartment under the counter.

Thirty thousand people know this.

When the gong sounds, it is the moment they face their death.

Sun Daniu was not in a hurry.

He first extinguished the charcoal fire in the stove, then put the shop's door panels back together one by one, and then went to the water vat in the backyard to wash his face.

He looked at his reflection in the water and suddenly smiled.

"Old woman, wait for me."

Then he carried the gong, walked out of the shop, and went to the widest street in Qing Shi City.

Sun Daniu faced the direction of the black iron spire in the center of the city and took a deep breath.

"clang--!!!"

The sound of the gong resounded throughout the entire Qing Shi City like an explosion.

One gong.

In the tofu shop in the east of the city, Old Zhang put down the millstone in his hand.

Two gongs.

At the back gate of the cloth shop in the west of the city, a shop assistant wiped the water off his hands and said to the young apprentice beside him, "Live well."

Three gongs.

At the entrance of an alley in the south of the city, a group of elderly people came out of their homes.

They glanced at each other, and without saying a word, they walked together toward the center of the city.

After three gong strikes.

In the streets and alleys of Qing Shi City, more and more people began to walk in the same direction.

They walked slowly, but with great determination.

Some people held their spouses' hands, some patted their neighbors on the shoulder, and some said nothing, just walked forward with their heads down.

Their destination was singular: the black iron spire in the center of the city.

The evil spirits are there.

If I'm going to die, I want to die in the face of evil.

Inside the spire.

The two demons at the late stage of Qi Refining were the first to notice the anomaly.

Through the spying array on the tower wall, they saw the mortals flowing endlessly towards the spire in the streets and alleys.

"What are these ants doing?"

One of the demons frowned, a hint of disdain flashing in its vertical pupils.

"Aren't they aware of the ban on killing groups of three or more?"

Another demon sneered.

"It doesn't matter, let the city guards handle it. Kill a few ringleaders, and the rest will naturally disperse."

They didn't care at all.

Such small-scale gatherings were all too common during the tens of thousands of years of demonic rule.

Kill a bunch of them and they'll settle down; that's always been the case.

But soon.

The two demons' expressions changed.

Because the number of people rushing to the spire was not in the dozens, not in the hundreds.

Instead, there are thousands.

Thousands.

It's still increasing.

The city's garrison attempted to intercept them, but there were simply too many mortals.

The soldiers of the garrison were only human, and many of them couldn't move their legs once they saw their relatives and neighbors in the crowd.

Some soldiers who had already memorized the incantation threw their spears to the ground and turned to join the crowd heading towards the spire.

At this moment, the two demons, both at the late stage of Qi Refining, finally realized something was wrong.

That's seriously wrong.

Because they saw an extremely unfamiliar expression on the faces of these mortals.

It's not fear.

It's not numbness.

Rather, it is a tranquility that completely disregards life and death.

That was the expression of someone facing death.

They had heard the term "mortal self-mutilation" in the emergency announcements from the capital.

I've also heard about what happened in the capital.

But they don't believe it.

Or rather, they are unwilling to believe it.

It was only at this moment that they realized the seriousness of the situation.

"not good!"

One of the demons finally reacted, its vertical pupils suddenly shrinking to the size of a pinhead.

"They're going to detonate here! Get out of here!!"

Too late.

Sun Daniu stood at the front of the crowd, facing the black iron spire, and threw the gong on the ground.

He looked at the dark iron tower that symbolized the rule of evil and grinned.

That smile contained resentment, relief, and a sense of exhilaration that came after waiting for six years.

"Old woman, I've come to keep you company."

He sat down cross-legged.

The 30,000 people behind him sat down almost simultaneously.

There were no slogans, no battle songs.

Thirty thousand people simply sat there quietly, with their eyes closed.

Thirty thousand hearts sank into the deepest recesses of the soul in the same instant.

Thirty thousand strands of primordial pure energy were ignited simultaneously.

"Buzz—!!!"

Thirty thousand white beams of light shot into the sky simultaneously from all sides of the black iron spire!

The beams of light converge, collide, and merge.

Quantitative change leads to qualitative change!

A miniature version of a spiritual energy storm exploded in the center of Qing Shi City!

The pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth was like boiling water, instantly tearing apart, crushing, and completely reversing the demonic energy within a radius of several miles!

Under the onslaught of the spiritual energy storm, the magical runes on the black iron spire crackled and shattered, making the entire tower resemble an ice sculpture doused with boiling oil, emitting a hissing sound.

The two late-stage Qi Refining demons inside the tower didn't even have time to escape.

Pure spiritual energy poured into their demonic bodies, just like sulfuric acid was poured into their blood vessels.

"ah--!!!"

A heart-wrenching scream emanated from the spire.

The demon's core shattered instantly, its meridians burst, and black demonic blood gushed from its seven orifices. It struggled for less than three breaths before turning into a pool of pus emitting black smoke.

Another demon desperately channeled all its magic power in an attempt to break through, but before it had even reached ten feet from the spire, it was swallowed up by the even more intense storm of spiritual energy outside.

Its demonic body melted in the pure white spiritual energy, like a piece of black ice thrown into a furnace.

From head to toe, within five breaths, he turned to ashes.

After the spiritual energy storm.

Above Qing Shi City, a small patch of sky revealed its azure color.

The demonic energy within a radius of several miles has been permanently reduced by 70%.

And the place where those 30,000 mortals sat.

All that was left were shoes and clothes scattered on the ground.

The ordinary people in the city who did not participate in the detonation, the children, the young people entrusted with the future, and the descendants of the node members who risked their lives to stay.

They walked to the open space and looked up at the small patch of blue sky.

Someone cried.

Someone knelt down.

Some people did nothing but stand there, breathing in the first breath of clean air of their lives.

……

Qing Shi City is not an isolated case.

the same day.

Iron Lock Town, Gray Gorge City, and Old Crow Ridge in the northern border of Dali.

The barbarian villages in southern Xinjiang and the three villages at the mouth of the miasma valley.

The fishing village wharf and saltworks town of Dali East China Sea.

Camel City and Shahe Fort in the Western Regions of Dali.

Hundreds of towns witnessed the exact same scene as Bluestone City on the same day.

Ordinary people gathered in front of the black iron spire where the local evil spirits were entrenched.

Thousands of people sat down.

Close your eyes.

Detonate.

A storm of spiritual energy erupted.

The demonic energy reversed.

The demon met a gruesome end.

The blue sky appeared.

The size of each town varied, and the number of ordinary people affected ranged from several thousand to tens of thousands.

But the results were surprisingly consistent.

Almost none of the local evil spirits escaped.

Because mortals have always been drawn to evil from the very beginning.

We'll sit around you, then die together.

I'll drag you down with me.

This is the true application of the mortal self-mutilation technique.

There's no point in hiding in a corner and secretly self-destructing.

Instead, you walk up to the evil spirit, surrounded by tens of thousands of people, who tell you this to your face.

We are not afraid of you.

We couldn't beat you when we were alive.

But we can afford to die.

But you can't afford to die.

……

Greatly out of the northern border.

In the secret chamber of the abandoned mine, Su Yu opened his eyes.

Within the range of his spiritual awareness, fluctuations of spiritual energy emanating from all over Dali rose and fell.

Each fluctuation signifies the purification of a town.

This also means that tens of thousands of ordinary people have turned themselves into the last rain.

Su Yu neither sighed nor expressed any emotion.

Because he knew better than anyone that these people weren't thinking of hatred when they chose to die.

It is hope.

They knew their deaths were not in vain.

Their deaths allow their children and grandchildren to see a truly blue sky.

This is enough.

Where leaves dance in the air, fire burns eternally.

The old tree burned itself out, turning to ashes and returning to the soil.

But next spring, new leaves will sprout again.

Those who sit with their eyes closed in front of the black iron spire are the old trees.

Those children standing under the blue sky, breathing deeply, are like new leaves.

This is the torch that ordinary people ignite.

An inextinguishable flame.