Thinking back to the records about the heroes, Chen Heng began to think.
He had thought that the world had already predetermined the hero and demon king.
However, from these records, this did not necessarily seem to be the case.
The records all talked about the hero passing a trial to obtain the hero's power, as well as the faith energy of the entire world.
Following this, with the world's people unifying their hearts and gathering their energy onto the hero, the hero would defeat the demon king and seal him.
It seemed like a fairy tale for children.
That was just how the records of this world were—they were not very structured and just gave an overall outline.
How did heroes pass the trial? How did they gather the faith energy of the entire world? These details were not brought up and were just skipped over.
Those record-keepers had an easy job, but it made it incredibly difficult for Chen Heng.
The hero passing a trial to become the hero was on multiple records.
If it was just a single case, then Chen Heng would have ignored it.
However, many records had this, and some even gave some details. This made it seem more realistic.
A single record might be wrong, but it was unlikely that so many records would be wrong on the same detail.
Chen Heng also discovered some smaller details from the records.
Firstly, heroes were not chosen from birth; rather, there were many hero candidates who competed and then went through a trial.
The victory of the trial would become the hero.
Moreover, even if the hero passed the trial, that did not mean they would be able to immediately defeat the demon king.
It seemed that in the past, the demon king's power had been quite great a few times, and he had accidentally killed the hero.
Following this, the demon king did not rampage through the land like everyone expected but went back to sleep.
This looked quite suspicious.
Since the demon king had won, why did he just go back to sleep?
From how people back then saw it, it was that even though the demon king had defeated the hero, he had used up too much of his strength and had fallen asleep after to regather his strength.
However, Chen Heng doubted this.
The hero and demon king represented the positive faith energy and negative faith energy of this world.
After the hero lost, the entire world had fallen into despair and become filled with negative emotions.
Under such circumstances, the demon king would only get stronger; why would he voluntarily go to sleep?
Even those who said that the demon king had fallen unconscious because of his injuries seemed a bit tenuous.
That was how Chen Heng saw it at least.
He guessed that there was another reason for this.
It either had to do with the challenger or that the demon king actually did not want to destroy this world.
After all, Chen Heng knew that this world was some kind of experiment.
If this world was an experiment, what were the demon king and hero?
Perhaps it was the creator who had set certain measures in place so that this world would not be destroyed.
Perhaps it was because of this that the demon king did not continue to rampage and stopped after killing the hero.
Perhaps no matter if it was the hero defeating the demon king or the demon king killing the hero, the trial would conclude and the demon beast catastrophe would conclude.
After all, if the demon king was still awake, the demon beast catastrophe would not conclude. If everyone in this world died, the world would be finished.
Of course, apart from the creator's rules, perhaps it could also be the demon king.
Chen Heng did not have any information and could only guess.
After standing in the room for a while, he shook his head and walked out.
The sunlight outside was perfect and shone on the ground, bringing with it warmth and making the scenery look quite beautiful.
Chen Heng walked through the courtyard.
On the way, people everywhere made way and bowed towards him, respectful looks in their eyes.
Chen Heng smiled and nodded at all of them as he passed by.
After leaving the courtyard, he walked about the town with some guards.
To be honest, there was not much to see in the town.
Before the demon beast catastrophe, this had been quite a good little town and the scenery had been quite good.
However, after the demon beast catastrophe, this region had become chaotic and many places had been destroyed or ruined.
Then again, no matter how good the scenery was, one would grow weary of it.
Chen Heng actually was not walking around for the scenery, but so the town's residents could see him and have more of an impression of him.
After all, faith energy required a specific target. If he just lay on his bed and gave orders, even if he could make life better for these people, he would not receive much faith energy.
If he wanted to obtain as much faith energy as possible, he had to appear as much as possible so the people would know who had brought about these changes.
This was why Chen Heng was doing these things.
Even though Chen Heng did not care too much for faith energy, in this world, faith energy was indeed quite important.
After all, this world had a creator who had created it to test faith energy.
This world's conflict was between positive faith energy and negative faith energy.
As such, the existence of faith energy was quite important in this world.
If that wasn't the case, even though Chen Heng would still obtain some for research, he would not spend so much effort on it.
Chen Heng walked through the center of the town and reached the boundary, and the scenery around the town appeared before him.
As the demon beast expedition had set out, the surrounding area had become safe again.
Chen Heng had re-settled some of the refugees in the areas they had taken back, and the somewhat-chaotic town had become calm again.
The town's hygiene and cleanliness had also been managed quite well.
This was one of the products of the refugees.
Chen Heng did not feed the refugees for free, for them to laze about—it was possible for them to make trouble that way.
As such, those who received food had to work, and most of the cleaning was left to these refugees.
It seemed that things had been going well for now, but Chen Heng did not know how other places were doing.
When he walked to a structure, he could hear laughter and cheering from within.
There was the sound of wine cups being touched together, and it seemed like the atmosphere was quite good.
Chen Heng looked inside and found that Ali and James were inside as well.
They were sitting with smiles, looking like they were quite close with the people inside. However, they did not drink any wine or participate in the gambling.
Seeing this, Chen Heng thought to himself and took a closer look.
After some time, Ali's Fortune was still the same, and it was still quickly developing.
However, his faith energy had become much denser.
It seemed that while Chen Heng had been busy, Ali had not been slacking off either and had gained much.
However, this was good.
Even though they had not known each other for long, since Ali and James had come here, Chen Heng had been closely observing them.
Ali had a unique charisma that made people want to trust him and rely on him.
This charisma was innate to him.
Sometimes, just by standing there, he could draw other people's attention.
With this charisma and his simple and honest personality, anyone would be able to trust him. As such, him receiving a lot of faith energy was not surprising.
Thinking to there, Chen Heng inwardly shook his head.
The difference between people was quite great.
He had thought that he had done quite well, no matter if it was his acting or his methods. Even though they were not perfect, they were still quite outstanding.
However, despite such a convincing performance, he had only obtained so much faith energy.
On the other hand, Ali had just mingled with the people for a while and obtained such a result.
"I wonder if I can buy similar talents or passive abilities in the simulator." Chen Heng wondered to himself.
Since he did not have it naturally, he would use cheats to make up for it.
The simulator had many talents that one could choose, but Chen Heng had not chosen many because he was poor.
Now, he could give it a try.
Sometimes, having good talents could save a lot of trouble.
For Ali, having such a talent, no matter if it was getting others to trust him or obtaining faith energy, both were very easy.
It might not be very useful to others, but for someone like Chen Heng who relied on his performance, it would be quite useful.
He just wondered how many Points it would cost.
Chen Heng thought to himself before leaving and continuing onwards.
The instant that Chen Heng left, Ali seemed to sense something and looked in the direction that Chen Heng had left in.
"What is it?" James looked a bit confused as he asked.
"It's nothing," Ali said as he shook his head and said softly, "I have something that I need to take care of; I'm going out for a bit."
"Alright."
Even though James was confused, looking at his friend like that, he did not say much and nodded, "Go, but be careful."
Ali nodded before walking out.
Outside, Chen Heng had walked past the tavern and came to the boundary of the town.
Because the town was close to forests, there used to be many merchant groups that would come to trade various goods.
Because of the demon beast catastrophe, almost no merchant groups came anymore. However, the paths they travelled were still there.
After coming to the town's boundary, Chen Heng was about to leave when his body paused.
Not too far away, there seemed to be a figure walking over.
Chen Heng's expression was calm as he looked out, and he inwardly frowned.
An unusual aura came from the distance, and the moment it appeared, it caused goosebumps to appear over his body.
However, soon, that strange feeling disappeared.
A figure appeared in the distance.
It was a young man dressed in black robes. He was quite tall and gave off a unique feeling.
His looks were incredibly handsome and beautiful, and he was definitely the best-looking person Chen Heng had ever seen. Even Ali could not compare to him.
Currently, he was walking over from a distance.
Even though the path was quite dangerous for ordinary people, that person seemed like he was just casually strolling, as if there was no danger at all.
It had to be known that after the demon beast catastrophe, the paths around the town were no longer safe. Demon beasts would often appear near them, making them quite dangerous.
If one was not strong enough, it would be quite difficult to walk those paths.
The last people who had come back from outside were Ali and the mercenaries.
Who was this person?
Chen Heng narrowed his eyes as he looked at this person.
When that person came closer, Chen Heng realized that it was not just one person; there were some people following that person as well.
However, those people looked quite strange—they all wore black robes and all looked like bad people.
Chen Heng did not do much, but the soldiers by his side became alert and looked out seriously.
Many mercenaries had come here, and there were naturally many savage-looking people.
However, most people looked somewhat normal.
It was quite rare to see a group of people who all looked like they were up to no good.
They instinctively became wary and some people even drew their swords.
"Who are you?" a soldier asked, a suspicious look on his face.
"Aiya… we've been discovered."
The young man walked in front of Chen Heng and smiled, "Looks like I found the right place."
He looked at Chen Heng and said, "Aren't you hiring mercenary soldiers right now? My subordinates and I heard about this and felt that it was quite good, so we decided to come over and have a look. However, it doesn't seem like you're very welcoming."
Evidently, it seemed like he knew who was the boss here.
"We welcome all those who are willing to help us."
Chen Heng remained silent for a few moments before smiling, "However, can you please introduce yourself first?"
"Of course, of course," the young man nodded before laughing, "My name is… Jacdo. Mm, yes, Jacdo. I came to travel and have a look at the scenery, but if you need our help, I will consider helping."
Chen Heng's mouth twitched. It was evident just how flippant this person was being.
Moreover, Jacdo was evidently a made-up name.
Chen Heng thought to himself but his expression did not reflect his thoughts. Instead, he looked delighted as he said, "So it's like that. Our town welcomes anyone with strength to join it. Now, come with me."
"It looks quite good," the young man named Jacdo smiled before looking at Chen Heng deeply.
Through his vision, he could see that Chen Heng's body had large amounts of pure-white faith energy.
Even though it could not be compared to the people he had seen in the past, it was already quite good.
It had reached a passable standard.
It seemed that the challenger this time was much more interesting than the ones in the past.
As he thought to himself, he continued to smile as he chatted with Chen Heng.
Behind him, the black-robed people continued to follow behind him, but none of them said anything.
In order to prevent them from running their mouths and giving anything away, he had sealed their ability to talk.
Otherwise, if he was talking with someone and those idiots revealed his identity as the demon king, wouldn't that be incredibly awkward?
