Episode 1: Among Them, I’m the Craziest

 

Most martial artists in the jianghu are insane.

After all, they’re the kind of people who spend day and night training to kill someone. They skip meals and hold in their crap just to meditate and build their inner energy.

You think I’m exaggerating?

Imagine a monkey swinging dual swords all day because it wants to murder other monkeys. Or another monkey sitting in full lotus position, not moving an inch, saying it’s not strong enough yet.

A sword-wielding psycho monkey.
A meditating, statue-like lunatic monkey.

That’s the essence of the jianghu.

Even the so-called righteous heroes or the proud leaders of the Martial Alliance aren’t much different. Whether they claim justice or not, they're all possessed by the same madness—an unrelenting desire to surpass everyone else in martial arts.

In that sense, martial arts is something that makes the crazy even crazier.

Just as there’s no end to learning, there’s no end to mastering martial arts.

The jianghu folks are sprinting down a never-ending path, obsessed with reaching a destination they can’t even see. That’s why they go mad faster than ordinary people.
And when both body and mind spiral into madness, we call it going into qi deviation.

Naturally, I’ve been there too.

The ancient sages once said, “Do not pass on teachings to the unworthy.”
But truth be told, martial arts should never be taught to people who aren’t even human.

What do you think happens when a lunatic gets their hands on powerful martial techniques?

They unleash their darkest desires without restraint.

You get sex-crazed perverts and bloodthirsty maniacs roaming like a plague. And then more people start training martial arts to kill those maniacs.
That’s what makes the jianghu what it is.

So when people say the morals of the jianghu have collapsed, they really mean there are more insane martial artists than sane ones.

And when there are too many crazies, even the so-called righteous heroes lose their minds trying to keep up.
That’s why the jianghu has always been, and still is, absolutely bonkers.

In that crazy world, I survived by beating lunatics to death.

Some were hiding in the righteous sects, more were out in the shadows, and the worst of them belonged to the demonic cults.

Those guys? They compete to see who’s the most deranged.
They literally have a pecking order based on who’s the craziest.

I didn’t care about affiliations. If someone deserved to die, I made sure they did.
Naturally, I made a lot of enemies. But even I hold the deepest grudge against the demonic path.

Among the righteous, there are at least some who try to live by moral values.
Even among the outlaws, you occasionally meet men who know when not to cross the line.

But the demonic ones? They’re like deranged monkeys.

They spew poison with their words, shoot lightning from their swords, vanish into shadows and reappear out of nowhere.
They even freeze people with some creepy internal energy technique.

These lunatic monkeys have taken over the jianghu.
We call it the Era of Demonic Rule—and that’s the age we’re living in.

I’ve used every method imaginable to kill these maniacs.

And yet… there are still too many monkeys around me.

.
.
.

I am the Mad Demon.