The old man you see with your phone is highly suspicious.

"Hmm?" Xue Dinglu responded with a puzzled look.

"Isn't it great that children can learn more? Your world is truly peaceful, allowing all children to learn more, even forcing them to learn... I..." The old demon king suddenly paused, then said, "I can't even get the children of the empire to learn a few dozen everyday characters..."

Xue's Law: "..."

They are people with completely different values, and they don't even belong to the same world. Looking at the old demon king's three-meter height and his skin that looks like a combination of scales and an exoskeleton, even their convergence with the King of Kings is very primitive.

This is why Xue's Law has always said that their world is a primitive society. The races in their world are probably all of this kind of "half-human" type. They are not the kind that have horns or ears on their heads, but are just roughly human-shaped, but with various strange external organs.

However, Xue's Law thinks it's normal. The entire universe is just converging on the direction of the king. Basically, you can judge their level of evolution by how much a race resembles a "god".

Suddenly, he felt his thoughts wander again. Ever since he had seen and experienced more things, his thoughts had always been like this.

"Sigh, let's take it one step at a time. If I really fail too many courses, I'll just change the reality on the back end..." Xue Dinglu thought to himself as he chatted with the old devil about the issue of running the school.

The old demon king once considered setting up schools to eradicate illiteracy, because he had searched the entire world and only managed to gather a few hundred intellectuals. It could be said that in their world, intellectuals were even rarer than giant pandas.

Therefore, he thought that the next generation should be trained more, at least more people should be able to read and do basic arithmetic, so that they would not do something as outrageous as calculating the amount of grain in the national treasury ten times more.

However, even schools that only taught basic literacy and calculus were almost bankrupting their empire's finances, which foreshadowed the collapse of the Old Demon King's empire starting in 14 years.

Was setting up the school a mistake? Xue Law thinks it wasn't, but the problem was that the old devil was too impatient. He wanted to accomplish the work of a dozen generations in his own generation, which led to many things being done in the same way as setting up the school.

It doesn't seem like a big problem at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it's full of loopholes.

It can only be said that the old devil's disadvantage was that he had no history to refer to, so he could not learn any lessons. He was completely feeling his way forward, and he didn't even know that he had taken the wrong path.

This is also why Xue's Law tells him not to follow other people's paths, because many things can only be understood by exploring them on your own.

……

Just as Xue Dinglu was leaving the campus, he suddenly saw a strange figure.

With her brown hair, glasses, and white coat, she seemed to notice Xue Dinglu's gaze, then turned her head, and their eyes met.

Xue Dinglu immediately touched his face. Fortunately, he was wearing a mask that had been transformed from the Faceless One's mask. Even so, he only felt a headache. He immediately put on his hood and quietly blended into the crowd to leave the school.

How could it be her?

Xue Luding was immediately filled with question marks. He frantically tried to piece together the memories of Dr. Xue Luding in his mind, and then he was surprised to find that his parallel self had also met her at an academic exchange conference at the same university...

The two then went on to study at Boston University together.

However, in the parallel world, Xue's Law skipped three grades, and at 18 he was already a soon-to-be graduate, while he is now still a stupid college student who has just entered university.

"What's wrong? I just sensed your guilt and panic." The old demon king asked.

He never imagined that this child, who was so frantic in battle, would panic when he saw another ordinary person.

"No way... It's just that it's cold and the wind is making my hands tremble..." Xue Dinglu argued.

"You've spilled all the water in your hands."

"Oh...this water is too cold..." Xue Luding tried to get away with some nonsense.

The old demon king suddenly found it amusing. For the first time, he saw this person react like a normal child, which was quite interesting. He couldn't help but want to tease him. Watching the kitten hiss and puff out its fur was actually quite entertaining.

……

On the other side, Yu Xiaoniao was looking thoughtfully at the direction of the crowd in the distance.

"What's wrong, Yu-chan?" asked another girl speaking Japanese.

"No, maybe I'm seeing things." You Xiaoniao turned her head and walked towards the staff placement office of the medical department. This time, their school came to USTC for academic research and exchange on "Alzheimer's disease".

Many of their mentors' teams have come, and they may stay for several months or even more than half a year, so many people jokingly say that this trip is for "studying abroad".

She slowly closed her eyes. For some reason, she had been having a strange dream lately, a dream that was blurry and unreal...

The main problem is that she actually saw "Ultraman" in her dream, which made her feel very strange every time she woke up. She watched a tokusatsu show more than ten years ago, so it's impossible that she still has the same dream every day now.

The girl next to him, however, said carefree, "What are we having for dinner? I heard there's a really popular snack shop outside the school run by foreigners. Want to try it?"

"Uh-huh."

……

When Xue Dinglu returned home, he smelled the aroma of food the moment he entered the house.

He was suddenly stunned, and then he realized that he was no longer the only one living in the house; his aunt also lived there.

After a moment of stunned silence, I felt I should say something.

He lost his family at a very young age and was raised by the world; he had never encountered anything like this before. Therefore, Xue's Law could only resort to a greeting phrase he had seen somewhere, saying,

“I’m back,” he said.

"Oh, then I should say welcome back... Okay, the food is on the table. Just leave it on the table after you finish eating. I'll take care of it when I wake up..." Aunt's weak voice came through.

Xue Daolu saw that she still looked like she hadn't woken up yet. She had been sleeping for the past two days. Xue Daolu didn't know if this was a normal phenomenon for the immortal race or something else. After speaking, his aunt tugged at her messy hair and went back to her room to turn on the TV.

In the living room, Xue Dinglu saw women's clothes and socks carelessly thrown around, but his own clothes from yesterday were washed clean and hung out to dry on the balcony, which left him speechless.

"Are you related to anyone?" the old demon king asked.

"Well, I'd say half of it." Xue Dinglu walked to the dining table and looked at the dinner.

Potatoes, green beans, and soybeans—a very ordinary home-cooked meal—but he suddenly felt a little heartwarming. These were all dishes he loved to eat, and his aunt knew what he liked to eat without even asking him.

"Isn't she very old?" the old demon king suddenly asked again.

“Right, it’s quite big…” Xue Dinglu suddenly fell silent.

"Her life is like a candle flickering in the wind, about to burn out. Cherish every day. Even though she is an immortal being, she seems to have reached the end of her lifespan. Now she lives mostly by instinct and faith." The old demon king's sudden words startled Xue Dinglu.

"How is that possible?" Xue Dinglu said casually.

My aunt has lived for about 3500 years, but in my memories in the parallel world, she has always been the same. Sometimes she is very serious, and sometimes she is confused, as if the time perception of long-lived and short-lived species is different.

Just like how short-lived species are satisfied with sleeping 8 hours a day, while long-lived species need to sleep for about 7 days before waking up.

"Although your combat power has reached the level of a demigod, your perception is still at the level of an ordinary legendary." The old demon king also interrupted Xue Dinglu's prepared nonsense without any politeness. "In my perception, her life flame has become as weak as a small flame. Perhaps in a few years, it will be completely burned out. No matter how powerful the immortal species is, it cannot withstand the erosion of time."

The old demon king spoke with great certainty.

Xue Dinglu suddenly fell silent. He took a bite of rice and suddenly understood why someone like Brinton had pursued Zijella so madly in the previous world.

Because Brinton is over 100 years old.

Listening to the sound of the television in his aunt's room, Xue Luding thought that he would think of a way to help her. Although it would be a bit troublesome, it wasn't entirely out of his control if his aunt was willing.

"Your world is so wonderful... For me, this is already a perfect world..." the Demon King suddenly exclaimed again.

Xue Dinglu was taken aback, not understanding what he was sighing about again.

"You know, even an old man like this can live safely and with conviction. In my world, there's no one over 100 years old except me." The old demon king continued, "Even though people in our land generally live to be 200 years old after the myths came to be, there are no people over 100 years old. Do you know why?"

"Why?" Xue asked.

"They're all dead. Mythical beings, fighting with their last ounce of strength before their physical functions fail, striving to secure enough benefits for their race... not to mention the old wounds from their battles in their youth..." the old demon king suddenly said, sighing.

"Before I unified the world, there were no elderly people..."

Chapter 214 The Demon Emperor After the Fact

Xue Dinglu was stunned for a moment.

Is it possible that none of the mythical figures in the entire world live past 100?

This data is absolutely insane. Xue's Law closed his eyes and said that the theoretical lifespan of a legendary-level human is over 150 years. And that's just for short-lived humans. Mythical-level humans, on the other hand, have lifespans of several hundred years.

However, their world doesn't have a single mythical figure over a hundred years old...

Based on human lifespan, their world is equivalent to having no one over 30 years old.

He suddenly realized that what he took for granted might already be a miracle that many in the world could only dream of.

"But, a mythical-level being's combat power shouldn't decline until at least 200 years old, right?" Xue Dinglu thought of the Great Sage. Although the Great Sage was a demon, he was also a short-lived being. When he was over three hundred years old, he could play a support role and was second to none in all of Greece except for Zeus.

"Do you think my family would let them live until their combat power declines?" the old demon king retorted sarcastically. His tone was very impolite, but Xue Lude no longer found his words offensive, because this was already the most polite person in that war-crazed world.

"Do you know that in our world, all races have evolved the ability to recover from injuries extremely quickly, but the price is a reduction in lifespan?" the old demon king said. "Because we are all squeezing out our life force in exchange for short-term combat power."

"Starting at 90, cells begin to divide slowly and no longer have the recovery ability of young people who can heal in a few days after an injury. People your age either die in battle or are too old to hold weapons because of old injuries, and become the object of ridicule for other young people."

"At 100 years old, the old wounds buried since childhood will make you wish you were dead every winter. The fighting power gained from long-term stimulation of cells will backfire at this time. You will become old and blind, and your hands will always tremble. Young soldiers who could be your grandsons can even laugh and throw you into the cesspool."

"Do you think they would rather risk their last bit of energy in their 90s to fight for a future, or wait until they are over 100 years old, slurring their words and wearing diapers, only able to wait to be fed by others?" the old devil said slowly.

He spoke very quickly, and only looked at Xue Dinglu after he had finished speaking.

Xue Dinglu remained silent. He had never imagined that there really was a race that would recklessly stimulate their bodies in their youth, resulting in injuries and illnesses before their lifespan was even half of their theoretical lifespan, and that they would even have to choose their own death at the age when they were at their strongest.

The cruelty of that world, Xue's Law, had only been heard from the old demon king from beginning to end, but now that he was here, he was finally beginning to truly understand it.

On Earth, that would be a race that would risk their lives to secure a future by the age of 30.

Even if the future they risked only resulted in dying together with a mythical-level enemy a few years younger than themselves, or other even younger warriors, it would still be a profitable choice for their race.

He recalled the old demon king's experiences: at the age of six, he went to the battlefield and fought against a group of adults, wielding a weapon longer than his own body and risking his life in sub-zero temperatures.

His sister, brother, sister, and parents all died before his eyes. As they died, they didn't tell him to live well, but to avenge him and kill all the enemies...

“Military-oriented…” Xue Dinglu uttered a term.

"No, a world even more cruel and extreme than the cruelest systems and ideologies in your world... Even all races, who may originally be peace-loving, are forced to become more extreme and more insane than others in that environment..."

"Because if you don't go crazy, you'll die!"

The old devil's words made Xue Lude speed up his cooking.

Without any preaching or inspirational rhetoric, Xue Dinglu simply recounted everything about their world in a straightforward manner, yet he still felt a suffocating sense of oppression.

Just like he learned that in the world of the old demon king there was a group of originally peace-loving races called the "Spirit Race". They were somewhat like elemental spirits in nature, but in that high-pressure environment, each of them learned how to unleash all their magic power.

They treat themselves like a bomb, charging forward and self-destructing during wartime.

Of course, this race was later wiped out, by the demon race to which the old demon king belonged.

……

For a long time afterward, the old demon king continued his intense absorbing of knowledge through binge-watching TV series, while Xue Law lay in front of the computer, idly watching everything on the screen.

In such a world, there's nothing he can do. Xue's laws don't have mind control abilities, so he can't change everyone's minds. He naively believes that once everyone's material needs are met, they won't want war... That's impossible.

Just like the old demon king had basically ensured that everyone had enough to eat and wear, but ironically, the very confidants he originally led were the first to betray him.