Chapter 1197: Elder Shui's Explanation, He Wants to Win, He Wants to Win at the Smallest Cost!

"It was all wiped out."

"That kind of success, that is not the kind of success I wanted!!!"

Elder Shui said this, even getting so emotional that he stood up.

Lu Ding quickly tried to soothe him, "It's alright, it's alright, it's okay Elder Shui, whatever it is, you can tell me."

Only then did he slowly sit back down and look at Lu Ding, "You don't blame me?"

Lu Ding, "Then you'll have to tell me the real situation, I need to think about it."

Elder Shui gathered his thoughts, "Ever since I stepped onto the path of cultivation, I've had an extraordinary talent. I can remain unchanged in the present moment and experience many things that come after."

"When I was in the Third Circle, I watched the mountains and rivers crumble, watched the people of our nation weep in sorrow. I sought out many methods and changes, from exhausting every last ounce of my strength at the very beginning, to barely scraping by with victories, to overwhelming triumphs. I found a way to break through the deadlock."

"As long as I followed the predetermined course, I could save many compatriots who were supposed to die in the war."

"Later, I led everyone, fighting our way up to the Second Circle, all the way up here. I thought that, with such a special ability at my disposal, I could accomplish anything."

"But the facts proved that I couldn't."

"There were just too many things that came with variables. Take, for example, the elite Expeditionary Force I personally led, they were trapped deep within the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation."

"I tried countless methods, trying to change their fate, but in the end, I couldn't do it."

"It wasn't that I couldn't find a way to change things for them, it was that after I changed things, their fate would be even more tragic."

"At least within the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, they still had the opportunity to make greater contributions to the Great Han. In the future, there was still a chance for them to reappear in the world, and it would leave the Great Han with one more path to choose. But if I had changed it..."

"Then the Great Han would lose the path of the Hundred-Year Ten Thousand Immortals Plan. Facing the blockades from the many nations before, we would have no choice but to fight a bloody war, fighting our way out by sheer force. Countless people would die. Truly, countless people would die."

"And even after fighting our way out, because there would be no Hundred-Year Ten Thousand Immortals Plan, it would still be incredibly difficult. Glory is not eternal. I want the Great Han to do well, I want the Great Han to do even better!"

"I don't want them to die in a bloody war like that!!!"

"So I could only let the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation and the Hundred-Year Ten Thousand Immortals Plan develop as they did."

As Elder Shui spoke, his entire demeanor instantly sank into dejection. When forced to choose between two evils, one must pick the lesser. But even the lesser evil meant his personally led elite Expeditionary Force, trapped deep within the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation.

Otherwise, without the path of the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, what awaited the Great Han was a bitter war after fighting their way out, surrounded and besieged on all sides.

Because the Great Han's way of governance and its social structure had a fundamental conflict with the feudal nations of the Second Circle.

A nation where the people are the masters, where imperial authority is discarded. Once such a nation grew strong, the royal houses of those feudal nations would face the most bottom-tier backlash.

No one would ever allow such a thing to happen.

So the only option was to keep the Expeditionary Force within the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation as a trump card, and then pull out the Hundred-Year Ten Thousand Immortals Plan, a plan with the potential to flatten the entire Second Circle.

It was a case of "succeed or die trying," there was no middle ground.

Elder Shui raised his head and looked at Lu Ding again, "But even with the Hundred-Year Ten Thousand Immortals Plan, the final outcome would still be tragic."

"Hundreds of nations from the Second Circle would join forces to besiege the Great Han."

"Although we would still ultimately win in the end, it would be such a tragic victory. Across the entire Great Han, from top to bottom, more than half of the young and able-bodied would die. Those faces you know well, those faces I recognize, they would all be dead."

"Xiao Lu, think about it, if you had such an ability, would you want a result like that?"

Before Lu Ding could answer, Elder Shui asked and answered himself, "I don't want it. I know I have the ability to change things. I want a great victory. I need a crushing, overwhelming victory!"

"I want to control the sacrifices and bloodshed of the Great Han within an acceptable range."

"So for all these years, I've been constantly simulating the subsequent developments."

"Until... until about ten or twenty years ago, when you were born, when you appeared."

"The Great Han finally had the possibility of change. I saw you, like a meteor streaking across the sky, growing with such speed and brilliance!!"

"You are the future of the Great Han!!"

"Amidst all the changes, I tried many ways to help you. But the moment I set foot on a point in time where you were growing naturally, something uncontrollable would happen, and even I myself would die!"

"I'm not afraid of death, but I don't want to die too early. The Great Han still needs me. The Great Han still needs me to radiate my light and heat."

"Later, I began to search for the point in time where we were supposed to meet. Eventually, I found it, it was when you came up to the Second Circle."

"But even then, I still couldn't intervene in your affairs too much. If I intervened too much, everything would collapse."

Half of Elder Shui's face was smiling, but the other half was filled with sorrow and grief, "I know that right now, you're thinking, you feel that I've been too good to you, that it's abnormal."

"But, Xiao Lu, I need to tell you, in my perception, you and I have fought side by side, back and forth, for nearly twenty years."

"I have died in front of you more times than I can count, hundreds, thousands of times."

"Between you and me, in my perception, we are comrades-in-arms. I feel that I am an elder who holds nothing back from you. Forgive my poor choice of words, but that's just how I see it."

"So tell me, when I meet you in reality, how could I not be good to you!?"

"Xiao Lu, forgive me for hiding this from you before. I really didn't know how to say it. Things like this sound a bit unbelievable."

Lu Ding didn't mind at all. He could understand. Elder Shui knew of his existence and waited for him, just like how he himself knew of the Golden Finger's existence and waited nineteen years for it.

But the day the Golden Finger activated, the day it absorbed the Nanshan Stubborn Stone, Lu Ding had been ecstatic.

So he could understand Elder Shui.

As for what Elder Shui said about the simulations twenty years ago not including Lu Ding's participation, Lu Ding could understand that too.

He possessed the Golden Finger, which was inherently a variable. If he could be so easily planned for, plotted out before he was even born, then his Golden Finger would be far too low-class.

Lu Ding asked, "Elder Shui, in your perception, what kind of person will I become later on?"

Elder Shui said with great seriousness, "Terrifying!"

"On the battlefield of the Hundred Nation Alliance, in the Hundred Nation War, you are the undisputed Demon King."

"And the Great Han, because of you, alongside you, has earned the title of the Demon King's Guardian."

"And those prodigies, shining like stars in the sky, they are the invincible demons under your blade, conquering everything wherever your sword points."

"When demons pound on the gates and a nation is on the brink of destruction, the name of the Demon King will echo throughout those nations reduced to scorched earth."

"To others, it is cruel. But to the Great Han, you are an irreplaceable hero!!!"

"However, in the later parts of my simulations, you are mentioned very, very rarely. Every passage only has a few scattered words to describe you. You are very mysterious, as if some kind of miraculous power is shrouding you."

"But whenever you appear, victory always follows."