Blood-red light engulfed the entire screen.

In the background melody, the Martial God slowly closed his eyes.

The blood-red light turned out to be a close-up of his eyeballs. As his eyelids fell, the camera pulled back, and the crimson light gradually dissipated. Yet, blood-colored mist continued to seep from the Martial God’s eyes, resembling bloody tears floating in the air.

The camera continued to pull back.

The Martial God sat cross-legged opposite the chess table with his eyes tightly shut. His right hand gripped the demon sword planted into the ground, fresh blood trickling down the blade, coating the entire weapon in crimson.

On the chess table, black and white pieces remained in their final positions, now stained with blood.

The old monk still sat cross-legged opposite him with hands clasped together in prayer, but his aged head hung low, his kasaya robe and monk’s garments dyed red with blood. He had clearly passed away.

The entire scene became completely still, with only fiery red maple leaves continuing to fall gently.

This stillness persisted for several seconds.

Then, a crisp “ding-ling” sound broke the silence.

At first, it was barely perceptible, but soon a second ring sounded. This time the sound was much louder, as if right beside one’s ear.

Both the Martial God’s and the old monk’s bodies trembled simultaneously.

Nothing appeared above the old monk’s head because his three souls and seven spirits had already been destroyed by the demon sword. The fresh blood of the enlightened monk had bestowed upon the demon sword tremendous power to slay the ghost officials.

Above the Martial God’s head appeared a gently flickering soul fire—his three souls and seven spirits.

In his twilight years, the Martial God’s souls were no longer as strong as in his youth, resembling a candle in the wind, seemingly about to be taken away at any moment.

However, at this moment, the Martial God suddenly opened his eyes!

His demon sword abruptly released a tremendous demonic aura. As the blade swung, it brought forth a sky full of crimson blood and filthy black flames, slashing toward a certain spot in the courtyard!

Though the blade passed through the chess table, it didn’t cause any damage, as if passing through an illusion, seeming to exist in a different space-time.

As the overwhelming demonic aura swept through, two figures vaguely appeared in the courtyard.

One black, one white, with long protruding tongues, holding shackles in their left hands and soul-collecting sticks in their right.

The white tassels on the soul-collecting sticks fluttered, attempting to hook the wandering souls, while the bells on top of the sticks emitted another crisp ring.

Facing the two tall, eerie ghost officials, the Martial God gradually adapted to floating between the realms of yin and yang, his right hand gripping the demon sword tightly.

Then, he made a “please” gesture to initiate combat.

…

After this opening gesture, the game seamlessly transitioned into the actual battle scene.

The monk’s corpse, chess table, and other elements remained unchanged, except that the Black and White Impermanence now stood opposite.

Two extremely tall, intimidating bosses with two long boss health bars at the top of the screen.

The sudden battle caught Yan Qi completely off guard.

“Damn, it’s starting already?”

“Fighting Black and White Impermanence right from the beginning? This is too intense!”

Fortunately, Yan Qi already had the controller in his hands.

After suffering numerous times in “Turn Back to Shore,” he instinctively became tense and excited when playing this type of game, completely focused.

But even so, these two bosses gave him an unprecedented sense of pressure.

He had already fought Black and White Impermanence in “Turn Back to Shore,” but the ones he encountered now were clearly different.

In “Turn Back to Shore,” Black and White Impermanence were already in a rather frenzied state, having lost their sanity. They had completely forgotten their mission of guiding souls and wandered aimlessly as bosses in the game.

The Black and White Impermanence in “Turn Back to Shore” looked scarier, wearing tattered ghost official uniforms covered in bloodstains, their eyes a frenzied blood-red color. They couldn’t communicate, only howling unintelligible utterances, with attack patterns that seemed manic and chaotic.

The Black and White Impermanence in “Eternal Samsara” looked much more normal in appearance. Their ghost official uniforms were neat and tidy, and one could even clearly see the characters “Wealth Upon Sight” and “Peace Under Heaven” written on their official hats. Their movements appeared rational, without the intense desire to attack as in “Turn Back to Shore.”

Not only that, but they also had dialogue.

“The fierce ghost collects souls, Impermanence claims lives.”

“Insolent spirit! Surrender immediately to be locked in Fengdu, judged for your sins, life and death determined!”

“For resisting ghost officials, you shall be cast into the Avici Hell, never to be reborn!”

The eerie, terrifying voices were even more frightening than when encountering Black and White Impermanence in “Turn Back to Shore.”

After all, in “Turn Back to Shore,” Black and White Impermanence were mid-game bosses. Players had to fight their way from the mass grave, defeat the crazed villagers in the starting town, step onto the Yellow Springs Road, and suffer countless times before encountering Black and White Impermanence.

By the time they appeared, players were already mentally prepared.

But “Eternal Samsara” was different—fighting two bosses right from the start, and they appeared to be at full strength. The pressure was overwhelming!

Yan Qi was bewildered.

“How am I supposed to fight this? I’m only level one with nothing!”

In “Turn Back to Shore,” at least players leveled up and obtained weapons and healing items before encountering boss battles. But now the protagonist had nothing—how could he possibly fight?

“Maybe in ‘Eternal Samsara,’ the protagonist is set to be far stronger than in ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ so they arranged for powerful enemies like Black and White Impermanence right from the start?”

“That makes sense. After all, he’s the Martial God wielding an impressively powerful demon sword, so slaying Black and White Impermanence shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Besides, I’m not a new player. I’ve already completed ‘Turn Back to Shore’!”

Thinking this, Yan Qi confidently charged forward.

Less than a minute later, Yan Qi watched helplessly as the so-called Martial God was beaten to the ground by Black and White Impermanence. Two soul-collecting sticks hammered him until he couldn’t rise, and iron chains pierced through his collarbone, locking him in place.

“…Damn, this isn’t right!”

“These bosses are ridiculously strong! Is this a scripted defeat?”

Yan Qi discovered that things had deviated greatly from his expectations.

He originally thought the Martial God wielding the demon sword would be formidable, but charging in revealed a completely different reality!

Black and White Impermanence’s attributes seemed to have been increased compared to “Turn Back to Shore”—more health, higher damage.

Although their desire to attack wasn’t as intense, their AI seemed smarter, making the 1v2 battle significantly more difficult!

From a design perspective, this made sense. After all, Black and White Impermanence were now in a normal, rational state at full strength, so increased attributes were understandable.

But the key issue was—what kind of Martial God was this? He shattered at the slightest touch!

Yan Qi had thought the demon sword would deal high damage, making the Black and White Impermanence’s health drop rapidly, but when he actually attacked, he found the damage was negligible!

Though it did cause some damage, grinding down Black and White Impermanence would require tremendous patience.

Moreover, the lack of healing items meant very little room for error in battle. Once knocked down by one of the Impermanence officials, the other would inevitably follow up with combo attacks. With such a small health bar, it would be depleted in seconds.

After being captured, the protagonist was taken to the underworld by Black and White Impermanence.

“Hmm… it looks like it’s indeed a scripted defeat, deliberately arranging characters that players simply can’t overcome.”

“The game’s real plot must begin from the Yellow Springs Road.”

Compared to “Turn Back to Shore,” “Eternal Samsara” skipped some initial game content, such as the starting village, town, and Ghost Gate, beginning directly at the Yellow Springs Road.

On the Yellow Springs Road were numerous bewildered ghosts being led toward the Three-Crossing River and Bridge of Helplessness by ghost officials. Black and White Impermanence dumped the protagonist there, handed him over to the guiding ghost officials, and left to capture other souls in the mortal world.

The protagonist broke free from his shackles again, and what followed was clearly going to be killing the ghost officials on the Yellow Springs Road to continue advancing.

Compared to the scenes in “Turn Back to Shore,” the scenes in “Eternal Samsara” were evidently closer to the normal state of the underworld.

Ghosts were being guided to the underworld by ghost officials in an orderly fashion, not crowding the Yellow Springs Road without direction as in “Turn Back to Shore,” and the ghost officials hadn’t gone insane.

Yan Qi quickly recovered from the frustration of the earlier “scripted defeat” and charged toward a ghost official ahead with his demon sword.

The first ordinary enemy encountered in the game—surely this one could be handled successfully?

However, half a minute later, looking at the screen showing the Martial God’s soul completely scattered, Yan Qi fell into contemplation.

Something felt off!

Development team, are you sure this thing is called a “Martial God”?