My Core is the Boss

The young man stared at Chen Fan, his face stripped of all composure. "Y-you're Luo Bufan?"

The village chief, still possessed by the Sea God, wore an equally startled expression.

Luo Bufan, slumped on the ground, looked up at Chen Fan's face. He was momentarily at a loss.

An Qiao's eyes went wide. Then she let out a dry, rueful laugh. "So, captain is the real protagonist of this mission all along..."

She didn’t call the Mission World a “parallel world” for nothing. After all, this world seemed to mirror past events. It was as though they were sent back in time, but in an alternate timeline for the sake of the mission.

As a result, over the years, they had encountered parallel versions of many historical figures. They had also come to know countless individuals who had never left a single mark in any historical record. History was vast and heavy. Every small life within it was smaller still.

The man in black stared at Chen Fan. "So the captain went through the same thing Luo Bufan went through..."

There was a new edge of wariness in his eyes. If a man could kill his own kin, what else wouldn’t he do?

An Qiao said fiercely, "No, I refuse to believe it! Captain is not that kind of person! There must be more to the story!"

Every pair of eyes on the beach turned to Chen Fan.

Chen Fan firmly gazed at Luo Bufan. His voice was hoarse yet unwavering, tinged with a hint of sorrow. "I am another you. A version of you from another world. Once, I faced the same thing you are facing now. I was in agony. I blamed myself. I regretted everything. I even thought about dying. But... I made it through.

"If I had died, wouldn’t my family have died in vain? Luo Bufan, think about what stands behind you. Think about the hundreds of thousands of lives in Yunyan County! Are you going to watch this great demon drown the whole county beneath the sea?"

He had lived through this once. Ultimately, he had survived it and sealed the demon away. Coming to this world had unlocked memories long buried. Though he appeared calm and composed, each word he spoke drained him dry, as though tearing open the past like a fresh wound.

Chen Fan's voice rose into a cry. "Luo Bufan! Today, will you fight alongside me and unleash the Luo Clan's ultimate technique, the Destiny Palm?!"

Their enemy was stronger and more cunning than the one he had faced years ago, but the technique remained unchanged.

The last lingering doubt in Luo Bufan's eyes vanished.

The Destiny Palm was his clan’s secret heirloom technique, passed down only to the next head of the family. It could not be cultivated by anyone outside the bloodline. Only Luo Bufan and his father knew of its existence.

Chen Fan was telling the truth.

Luo Bufan cast one final glance at Chen Xinlian's corpse. His gaze held nothing but bottomless guilt and grief. At last, resolve hardened in his gaze. "Fine."

The name of the technique said everything. There was no surviving it once it was used.

Luo Bufan and Chen Fan chose the same path. Family, loved ones, fiancée—the faces of everyone who had died in agony came flooding through Luo Bufan's mind. The blood he was about to shed was not his own, but theirs.

The two bellowed, "Destiny Palm!"

Without hesitation, they hurled themselves forward, charging straight at the avatar the Sea God inhabited. Blood-red handprints filled the air in every direction, swirling like maple leaves falling through an autumn forest.

Long ago, the Luo Clan’s ancestor created the Destiny Palm in a maple forest and died there after perfecting it. From that day on, the ultimate art was passed down in the Luo Clan. In all the generations since, not one descendant had ever used it. Today, Luo Bufan brought it back.

The Jade Blood-surpassing martial technique erupted, unleashing terrifying destructive power. The force was unstoppable, like leaves in their inevitable descent. The move faintly resembled an Origin Divine Technique.

The Sea God cried furiously, "Nooo!"

Trapped between the two palms, he could not move an inch. His defensive power seemed to lose all meaning. Even his greatest pride, his illusory techniques, were rendered useless. Two blood-red handprints crashed down squarely onto him.

Boom.

The village chief's body was obliterated. The blow did not just destroy the Sea God’s avatar, but also struck his soul.

"No!"

A howl of agony resounded.

The Sea God’s soul drifted in the air, blazing with a frantic, furious light. "How dare you destroy my avatars! I won’t forgive you!”

Fury and devastation overcame him. He had spent years orchestrating an elaborate trap, weaving illusions to lure and consume Elder Kun, turning him into a powerful avatar. Yet the only way he could block those two blows of the Destiny Palm was by sacrificing Elder Kun’s avatar entirely. Losing such a Jade Blood avatar was a crippling blow.

Worse, several of its other avatars had ruptured in the blast. Over a hundred of the young and able-bodied men in Haishi Village died on the spot. As if that wasn’t enough, the Sea God had sustained serious injuries. That suicidal technique had ruined everything he had built over decades. Today, he had lost a wife and an army.

With bloodshot eyes, the Sea God roared, "Damn you all! Die! Die, every last one of you!"

The distant sea surface erupted into sky-shaking waves. Atop the surging wall of water, a massive, grotesque, and slimy creature opened his three eyes. Each was as large as a lantern and represented a technique.

White pupil: illusion arts. Red pupil: offensive power. Purple pupil: control. This was the Sea God's true form—the so-called Spirit Blood Child.

In truth, everything had been a lie. After devouring Elder Kun, the Sea God had spread word of the Spirit Blood Child, scheming to lure every demon in Yunyan County. But somewhere, something had gone wrong. All in all, he had lost nearly a third of his total combat power.

With his schemes undone and patience gone, he decided to stop hiding. He would sink Yunyan County into the bottom of the sea!

In fact, such was the catastrophe Luo Bufan had once received word of. Hence why he had been so desperate, running to the imperial court to plead for help.

Under the Sea God's command, the waters of the sea kept gathering, rising higher and higher. With each passing second, it grew more intense, threatening to swallow everything beneath the waves.

"What do we do? The Sea God isn't dead!"

"He’s enraged now! We're finished!"

"Captain!"

The three demon slayers rushed toward Chen Fan.

With an ashen face, Chen Fan gazed at the rising wall of water, grief flashing across his eyes. "I am afraid Yunyan County is done for."

Once, he had confronted a foe even more powerful and survived through the combined efforts of his allies. However, the county seemed destined to perish.

Luo Bufan stood with his hair hanging wild, watching the mountain of water growing taller and taller. His eyes were bloodshot. "I... failed. I cannot accept this..."

He had sacrificed everything to destroy this demon, yet it had all been for nothing. Bitterness and regret, as bottomless as the ocean, seemed to drown him. He stared and stared at the sea, looking like a man who would not die with his eyes closed.

Chen Fan coughed out blood.

An Qiao pressed her hands to Chen Fan's shoulders, her vision blurring with tears. "What is happening? The mission should be complete by now, so why can't we go back?"

More than fleeing from the Sea God, she wanted to get medicine to save Chen Fan. She still believed he could be saved.

Having lived for several hundred years, her captain knew what she was thinking. "I should have died long ago. I am beyond saving."

With a severed heart-pulse and a dry bloodline, he was just one step from death.

The corner of Chen Fan's mouth curved into a self-deprecating smile. "What a pity... Later generations called me Heaven's Chosen, but it seems that in every world, I am nothing but useless. I couldn't even protect the people closest to me."

The old wound was the deepest one. At least now, he would not have to carry it any longer. The water was still rising. Wave upon roaring wave built higher. The entire county was on the knife's edge. Yet curiously, few people seemed to be paying attention to that.

The Sea God sat atop the surging waters, utterly confident. He felt like a king who held dominion over all things.

Just then, Qi Yuan’s calm, unhurried voice cut through the thundering crash of waves, reaching everyone's ears with perfect clarity. "I knew it. I'm not the heroic protagonist who arrives at the climax to save the world. I'm more like the guy who swoops in when everyone's on low health and steals the kill. King of the Molisha Fish, old friend, we meet again.”