Chapter 876: Nine Kills (2)

Death God's Eye, Delta. Third Form.

“What a nuisance,” Li Xiaofei muttered.

Once again, he let go of his efforts to calm the Blood-Drinking Sword.

Whoosh.

Sword light surged. The Blood-Drinking Sword, dragging Li Xiaofei with it, lunged straight toward Delta’s third form.

The battle resumed. This time, Delta’s rebirth brought another surge in strength. More crucially, the reinforcement of his physical body had clearly surpassed the limits of the Seven Transformation Realm. He now emanated a terrifying aura akin to that of a primordial beast.

His combat instincts had sharpened several times over. Li Xiaofei allowed the Blood-Drinking Sword to control the fight completely. Ironically, in this kind of battle that required no conscious thought from him, he found the rare opportunity to observe and think carefully.

Delta’s three resurrections all followed a distinct pattern. Every rebirth shifted him further from a humanoid form and deeper into a beast-like one. Every regeneration seemed to enhance the beast aspect within Delta. That transformation drastically amplified the physical strength of his body at a rate far beyond what his base energy level should have allowed.

Three minutes later, the battle ended once again. Delta, now in his deeply beastified form, was slain once more by the Blood-Drinking Sword. His essence, vital energy, spirit, and soul, was completely absorbed by the sword.

Li Xiaofei gripped the Blood-Drinking Sword with both hands, feeling the surging Immortal Force flooding into him from within. His whole body felt like an overinflated balloon, swelling uncontrollably as the energy poured in.

The sword, after devouring the enemy’s blood, essence, and soul, refined everything into the purest form of energy and returned it to its master. This was the most miraculous aspect of the Blood-Drinking Sword, proving its identity as an Emperor’s Weapon.

As expected, Delta resurrected once again, transforming to his fourth form. But this time, he had become fully beastified. His scales pulsed like flowing blood. There wasn’t the slightest trace of humanity left on his body. His physical strength had reached an indescribable level. He was utterly monstrous.

Li Xiaofei could feel it clearly. In this current state, Delta’s physical body alone could likely kill a typical Seven Transformation Realm cultivator in less than three moves. Fortunately, he wasn’t some ordinary Seventh Transformation cultivator. His cultivation realm might be far inferior, but he had a cheat.

The Blood-Drinking Sword surged forward once again, out of his control, initiating another assault on its own. This battle lasted a full four minutes. As blood rained down from the skies, the inevitable happened again.

Delta was slain. His fifth form life force, spirit, and energy were mercilessly devoured by the Blood-Drinking Sword. Even more refined, terrifying Immortal Force surged from the sword and flooded into Li Xiaofei’s body. His hands and arms began to swell, visibly bulging as if inflated. This time, the swelling wasn’t just a metaphor. It was real.

If this keeps up, I’m going to be wrecked...

Li Xiaofei felt a chill run down his spine.

And, as expected, the unexpected happened again. Delta resurrected once again. Again and again and again. At this point, he was even more persistent than an unkillable cockroach or a Saint Seika protagonist.

This time, Delta’s form had grown even more twisted, as he was completely and utterly beastified. It had reached the point where he had lost all semblance of rational thought. No longer a sentient being, he was now a berserk creature consumed by violent frenzy and madness. Of course, his physical body had also become even more horrifying.

“Why does it feel like every time he resurrects, he’s sprinting backwards along the evolutionary chain?”

Li Xiaofei found it increasingly absurd. Logically, evolution should progress from weak to strong, from simple to complex. If Delta’s original humanoid-lizard form was his most evolved state, then it should have been his strongest. Yet now, the further he devolved, the more terrifying he became.

Could it be that the Reapers evolved in reverse? They started strong, and became weaker as they became more intelligent?

When the battle reignited once more, it lasted nearly six minutes. Once again, the outcome was no surprise. The might of an Emperor’s Weapon was something no ordinary lifeform could comprehend.

More than that, the Blood-Drinking Sword’s unique ability directly countered Delta’s resurrection-based growth. Rather than weakening over time, both the sword and Li Xiaofei grew stronger with every battle, to the point they were almost being overfed.

With the sword pouring torrents of Immortal Force into his body like a force-fed duck, Li Xiaofei had swelled up like a balloon. His arms, shoulders, waist, thighs, and even his face had puffed up.

At this point, he looked less like a seasoned cultivator and more like a three-hundred-pound couch potato, one beyond the help of any liposuction surgery.

“Stop fucking resurrecting already!” Li Xiaofei was genuinely terrified now.

He couldn’t even loosen his grip on the Blood-Drinking Sword. It was as if the blade had fused with his palms, holding him in place like a leech feeding off his soul.

Every resurrection of Delta was energizing the Blood-Drinking Sword even more. It was forcefully flooding his body with absurd amounts of pure Immortal Force, as though spiritual essence was free for the taking. Even abalone over rice would make you vomit if you ate too much of it.

Li Xiaofei seriously feared he was going to burst. Yet, Delta’s eighth resurrection was already in motion, like a train on an unstoppable track.

At that moment, Wei Xiaotian finally spoke, “Delta is the heir of the Death God’s Eye bloodline within the Reaper faction. In their world, this lineage is also known as the Ninefold Undying God-Eye. Which means he can be resurrected a total of nine times.

“If you manage to kill him nine times, he will finally stay dead.”

Wei Xiaotian’s tone remained calm and almost casual, like a friend offering helpful tips during a sparring match.

“In the Reaper world, the Wisdom Faction actually evolved backwards from the Wild Faction. Since they could never defeat humanity in prolonged warfare, their society fractured...

“The intelligent Reapers believed that by evolving along the same path as humans, they could eventually attain the ability to practice cultivation and master martial techniques.”

“You’ve likely noticed it by now,” he continued. “Delta’s only true ability is his innate divine skill, the Death God Ray. Beyond that, he doesn’t use any techniques or martial arts. His combat style relies entirely on instinct, speed and brute strength.

“They believe the cultivation paths created by humans represent a superior evolutionary direction, one that surpasses their natural biology. That’s why the humanoid-lizard form is the desired goal of Delta’s bloodline. Their ultimate dream is to evolve into something indistinguishable from humans, so they can finally begin cultivating.

“So every time he dies, he regresses a step, becoming more beast-like. Stronger, but less intelligent. After the ninth death, Delta will fully devolve and revert to his primal ancestor form.”

“Be careful. The final strike from the Ninefold Undying God-Eye will be unimaginably dangerous.”

He spoke like a bystander, calmly delivering commentary.

But what was Li Xiaofei supposed to do with that? How could he be careful, when it was the Blood-Drinking Sword doing all the work? At this point, he wasn’t even a participant in the battle anymore, he was just the human-shaped keychain dangling off the sword's hilt.

At last, with a roar that sounded as if it had come from the depths of a primordial, prehistoric age, Delta’s ninth and final resurrection arrived.

This time, there was no longer a beastified lizard body. There was no bony tail or indestructible scales. All that remained was a single, massive crimson eye, suspended in midair. The eye spanned a full hundred meters in diameter, and the blood-hued radiance swirling around it twisted and writhed like tendrils or ethereal limbs.

A vertical slit pupil yawned open like a bottomless abyss, black and infinite. Its pitiless iris pulsed with a chilling sense of mockery of all life itself.

Zzzzzt!

A strange, sizzling sound rang out once more. A searing beam of blood-red death energy erupted from the Crimson Demon Eye, aimed directly at Li Xiaofei. It engulfed him instantly.

The Ninefold Undying God-Eye’s Death God Ray. This was the final, most primitive form of the Death God's Eye bloodline within the Reaper faction, and also, its innate, strongest form.

Li Xiaofei could feel the immense pressure being transmitted through the Blood-Drinking Sword, like the crushing weight of the entire world collapsing upon him. In that moment, he believed, even the Emperor’s Weapon was under strain. But only for a moment.

After three... perhaps five seconds, the Blood-Drinking Sword let out a long, crisp cry. It was sharp and resonant, like a child provoked into fury. Beneath the clear tone, there seemed to be the distant roar of divine and demonic beings from across the heavens.

Pffft!

The Death God Ray, a beam of energy that should have been intangible, was split cleanly in half. Yes. That formless pillar of deadly light was cleaved as though it were a tangible object, cut down the middle by a single impossible sword strike.

The Blood-Drinking Sword, dragging Li Xiaofei in its wake, surged upstream, straight into the heart of destruction.

Pffft!

The Blood-Drinking Sword pierced directly into the massive eye. For a brief, surreal moment, time itself seemed to freeze. Then, a shrill, piercing wail burst from within the enormous crimson eyeball, so loud and tormented that it felt as though thousands of vengeful souls were screaming all at once.

Li Xiaofei felt like his eardrums were going to rupture from the sheer agony. And then came the flood. Brilliant red flames of light poured from the shattering eye, like a dam breaking and releasing endless torrents of burning energy.

The Blood-Drinking Sword let out an excited, high-pitched cry that resonated with a triumphant frenzy. In the very next instant, Li Xiaofei was overwhelmed by an unstoppable wave of pure Immortal Force, surging out from the sword like a tsunami and flooding into his body without restraint.

“Enough—enough! I’m gonna burst!” Li Xiaofei panicked and shouted in desperation.

But it was no use. His body began to swell like an inflated balloon, growing larger and larger by the second. In the end, he expanded into a gigantic sphere of flesh, nearly a hundred meters in diameter. His skin glowed like polished jade, glistening and radiant, as his entire bloated form floated uncontrollably in midair.

“Hahaha! As expected of the young man I had my eye on!” Wei Xiaotian burst into laughter. “You finally killed Delta! Hahaha! Hall Master Li, I must thank you sincerely for this!”