The town"s attacks on demon beasts were very successful, and this was not surprising.
Even though the demon beasts were powerful, that was only to ordinary people. Even though they had great destructive power, they were not unstoppable for armies.
When it came to a true Sorcerer like Chen Heng, these demon beasts were not a big deal at all. Apart from some particularly powerful demon beasts, the rest of them could be easily dealt with.
This was especially so given that the town also had Ali and Jacdo.
Ali was a hero candidate and would most likely become the future hero. He represented this world"s positive faith energy, and apart from the demon king, no one could rival him.
Even though he had not gone through the trial to become the hero yet, his power was incredibly great. It was very difficult to find another being that could rival him in this world.
As for Jacdo, he was the demon king, the ruler of the demon beasts.
If the hero did not appear, no one in this world would be a match for him.
With these two monsters here, the demon beasts could not resist at all.
As such, Chen Heng did not put much mind on the demon beast attacks and felt that nothing would go wrong.
Right now, his attention was elsewhere.
"The hero"s legacy…"
Within the quiet room, Chen Heng held a large pile of doc.u.ments as he did his best to read through them.
Over the past half a year, he had bought some materials through his connections.
He had collected all useful records, but there were simply too many of them. He naturally could not read all of them, so he tried to pick out the useful ones.
After chatting with Jacdo and understanding some things, Chen Heng decided to turn his focus from the battle between the hero and demon king to the hero"s trial.
Over the past few days, he had gone through large amounts of information, and he had found some useful things.
This world"s heroes were not determined at birth and needed to go through a trial.
Only by pa.s.sing the hero"s trial and inheriting the legacy of heroes could one become a true hero.
It was essentially what Jacdo had said. It seemed that he had not lied about this.
What about the other things?
Chen Heng fell silent.
Chen Heng"s previous plan had been to just follow behind the hero and observe him defeating the demon king, then finding an opportunity to leave.
However, from what Jacdo had said, this would not be viable.
Not only would he not be able to just follow behind the hero, he himself had to partic.i.p.ate in the hero"s trial and become the true hero. Then, after defeating the demon king, would he be able to leave this world.
Otherwise, even if he followed behind the hero and witnessed all of this, he still would not be able to leave.
"If I want to leave this world, I need to have the power of a hero…" Chen Heng frowned, "If I want the power of a hero, I need to partic.i.p.ate in the trial and compete against Ali and others."
Partic.i.p.ating in this world"s hero"s trial had not been part of his original plan.
But this…
Thinking back to Ali"s Fortune, Chen Heng could not help but shake his head.
Regarding the so-called hero"s trial, even though it was supposedly a compet.i.tion, Chen Heng felt that the outcome was already determined.
Based on Ali"s Fortune, it seemed that he was destined to become the hero.
If nothing unexpected happened, with Ali"s dense Fortune, he would definitely be able to pa.s.s the trial and become this age"s hero.
Competing against such a person for the position of hero would be incredibly, incredibly difficult.
Even Chen Heng felt quite troubled when thinking about this.
At the same time, he was closely examining what Jacdo had said.
"If I do as he said, will I create any opportunities for him?" Chen Heng thought to himself as he sat on an ornate wooden chair.
It was not good to just look at the surface; one had to consider what the other side"s motives and goals were.
After thinking for a long time, Chen Heng could not come to a conclusion.
From what he knew, whether he went to partic.i.p.ate in the hero"s trial or not, it would not change much.
He would either succeed or fail.
If he failed, then everything would be like before, and he would just follow behind Ali.
If he succeeded, he would replace Ali to become this world"s hero, and to Jacdo, this would be the same.
From what Chen Heng knew, if he pa.s.sed the trial and became this world"s hero, he would be able to receive the legacy of past heroes and truly bear this world"s positive faith energy.
The hero was just a vessel. No matter if it was Ali or Chen Heng, it did not make a big difference.
In fact, if Chen Heng received the hero"s legacy, he might be able to unleash even greater power.
After all, even though the power was the same, the vessel"s own power was different.
Ali was just an ordinary person—he was not a Knight or a Sorcerer. He was just an outstanding warrior.
On the other hand, Chen Heng was a true Sorcerer; the difference in foundation was incredibly vast.
If Chen Heng received the hero"s legacy and could unleash more power than Ali, this would not necessarily be a good thing for Jacdo.
From this perspective, there was no need for Jacdo to lie to Chen Heng.
This was as long as Jacdo was not hiding anything.
Sitting on the wooden chair, Chen Heng continuously thought, and he silently made a decision.
He was going to partic.i.p.ate in the hero"s trial.
Apart from what Jacdo had said, there was another reason for Chen Heng making this decision.
"If the creator of this world just wanted us to watch the story of the hero and demon king, what need was there to make such a big deal out of it?"
Chen Heng thought to himself.
From what he knew, this little world was created by a powerful existence to do some kind of experiment, as well as nurture someone who could receive the hero"s legacy.
Since that was the case, there must be a reason why that existence took in people from outside.
Otherwise, why would they spend so much effort to do so?
This world looked like a world of the hero and demon king, but in actuality, the outsider was the core.
Only when an outsider entered would the story of the hero and demon king begin and the demon king would reawaken.
It seemed that the truly important thing was the outsiders.
Since the outsiders were so important, then they definitely were not here just to follow behind the hero and watch.
They definitely needed to actually partic.i.p.ate in this story. Otherwise, there would be no other way to explain all of this.
As such, Chen Heng made that decision.
If he just followed behind Ali, then he would not have actually done anything. If he just sat by and watched Ali kill the demon king, what would the point of that be?
Only by partic.i.p.ating in the hero"s trial and taking in this world"s faith energy, as well as becoming a key part of this world, would he be able to fulfil the requirements to leave.
Moreover, Jacdo had said that this world had been created to pick out those with talent and could take in the hero"s legacy.
This was the sole purpose of the world.
........
According to what Jacdo had said, only by receiving the hero"s legacy and taking in this world"s faith energy would he have the right to leave.
Since it was like that, Chen Heng had to give it a try, no matter what.
Thinking to there, Chen Heng"s gaze became calm.
...
Time pa.s.sed peacefully.
Within the forest, Ali swung out his sword, cutting a tall demon beast in half.
Behind him, the mercenaries all cried out in shock.
Even though they were mercenaries, most of them were ordinary people, and very few of them were special. They were just strong enough to fight with ordinary demon beasts, and they could not easily kill demon beasts like Ali.
Those powerful demon beasts were like bugs in front of Ali; he could easily crush them.
No matter when it was, powerful people were always eye-catching.
Within this mercenary group, Ali was very welcomed and received many people"s attention.
"Not bad at all."
By the side, Jacdo led his apostles to walk to the front.
He wore clean black robes and looked quite stately; he did not look like someone who had come to fight, and he instead looked like a gentlemanly scholar.
However, the apostles behind him all looked incredibly ferocious, and they were quite powerful too.
Whenever demon beasts dared to rush at them, they would be dealt with easily; they were not a match for them at all.
However, different from Ali, Jacdo and the others were respected but feared by the others.
After all, they did not look like good people and instead looked quite terrifying.
Apart from Jacdo, who looked somewhat normal, those demon king apostles all looked like evildoers.
Of course, they were indeed evildoers.
If it wasn"t for Jacdo restricting them, they would have rampaged about this place the instant they had arrived.
Within the mercenary group, apart from Ali, some others could also sense faith energy, and they felt quite wary towards the negative faith energy that the demon king and apostles gave off.
Of course, even if they did not sense that faith energy, just looking at what the apostles looked like, they could tell they were not good people.
As such, even though Jacdo and his people were quite powerful, people were not willing to go near them.
Of course, Jacdo himself did not care, and the apostles cared even less.
"So powerful…"
Standing by the side, Jacdo"s clothes fluttered as he looked at Ali with a look of respect, "He"s one of the strongest hero candidates I"ve seen."
As the demon king, Jacdo had seen much.
He had personally seen the heroes of the legends and not just one.
Accurately speaking, he had seen every single hero from the past.
After all, their goal had always been to defeat him, the demon king.
From his memories, there were very few hero candidates who could compare to Ali.
After Ali obtained the hero"s legacy, he would be without a doubt one of the most powerful heroes to appear.
However, the outsider this time was also quite exceptional.
Who knew what would happen when these two people clashed?
Jacdo felt quite eager to see this; that scene would definitely be very interesting.
As Jacdo thought about that, his smile became wider.
"What is that evildoer plotting now?" sensing Jacdo"s gaze and seeing his smile, Ali inwardly frowned and thought to himself.
After talking with Chen Heng that day, he had put aside thoughts of getting rid of them, and he instead began to keep a close eye on them to see if they did anything.
However, what surprised him was that Jacdo and his people acted very calmly and normally, and they were just like other mercenaries: They fought when asked to and received their pay when it was given.
It was as if they really were here to help the town get rid of demon beasts.
But how was that possible?
He knew what the personalities of these evildoers were like.
In the past, Ali had seen many evildoers.
Those people all had common characteristics, which were that they were vile and loved to make trouble.
If some evildoers like this went into a peaceful village, it would immediately look different afterwards.
In the past, Ali only saw individual evildoers by themselves.
This time, it was not an individual but a whole group.
This implied that they were going to do something big; there was no way that they were going to behave so obediently.
This was not a special place and was just an ordinary town; surely these evildoers weren"t truly here to help.
Because of this, over the past few days, Ali had remained alert and had kept an eye on Jacdo and his followers" actions. He hoped to find some evidence of them harboring evil intentions and get rid of them.
However, they were very well-behaved and did not reveal any openings.
Nevertheless, the more they acted like this, the more he felt suspicious towards them.
Standing there and sensing Ali"s suspicious gaze, Jacdo only smiled and did not pay him much mind; he just felt that it was quite amusing.
Watching this hero candidate desperately wanting to attack him and yet holding himself back was very amusing.
In the past, whenever heroes had seen Jacdo, they had immediately attacked.
For Ali to hold out for so long, his patience was quite good.
Sensing Ali"s gaze, the demon king apostles became savage and their eyes were filled with killing intent.
The demon king apostles actually were not simple; they all had negative faith energy, and they were cursed and hated by many people.
People like them were also very sensitive to faith energy, and they had long since felt that Ali had a mountain-like amount of positive faith energy.