Chapter 885: Myriad Saints Immortal Sect (1)

"This place was near the Reapers' military war zone. It was in a state of complete anarchy and had long been treated as grazing land. It was repeatedly ravaged and occupied by lower-tier Reaper clans. So, this desolation and chaos were to be expected," Liu Shaji said.

As he spoke, a large shadow descended overhead. Looking up, they saw an enormous fleshy bird soaring above them. It resembled a black mountain moving through the sky, casting a vast shadow over the land.

"So big," Li Xiaofei exclaimed in awe.

A line from ancient literature surfaced in his mind,

In the northern seas, there is a fish, and its name is Kun...

When the Kun transforms, it becomes a bird named Peng. Its wings were said to stretch across the heavens like hanging clouds.

"This thing... could it be the legendary Kun Peng?" Li Xiaofei asked.

Liu Shaji shot him a disdainful glare, as if looking at a country bumpkin, and scoffed. "Ignorant brat. That’s a Zhong, a type of Reaper creature. It’s massive, and capable of traveling through the vacuum of space. It's often used as a troop transport vessel. But in truth, it’s one of the rare, gentle species among the Reapers. It doesn't have a strong attack instinct and bears no particular hatred toward humans. On the contrary, it could be considered a benevolent bird."

"Zhong?" Li Xiaofei repeated. "If that’s the case, should we kill it or not?"

"Of course not," Liu Shaji replied. "I'm not some bird-killing maniac. To be honest, aside from occasionally helping the Reapers transport troops, it’s actually quite virtuous. I rather like the creature..."

But before the words had even left his mouth, a massive black hole suddenly opened at the rear end of the enormous fleshy bird, the Zhong. The flesh around its edge writhed grotesquely, and in the next instant, a massive blob of thick, mud-like sludge dropped out of it.

Splat.

Like a mountain of sludge, it crashed to the ground nearly a kilometer ahead of Li Xiaofei and Liu Shaji. An indescribably foul stench instantly spread across the entire planet.

Li Xiaofei immediately sealed off the space around them and stared in disbelief. He said, “Holy shit, Chicken Bro[1]... did that thing just crap on us?”

Liu Shaji said nothing. He simply summoned a three-point-eight-meter-long sword.

Whoosh.

A single, silver-white sword light shot forth like a lotus blooming in the night sky. It was brilliant, cold, and blinding. The sword light tore through the void and mercilessly blasted the retreating giant Zhong into a tremendous cloud of crimson mist. It burst like a brilliant red firework in the vastness of space.

“I’ve always hated those Zhong creatures the most,” Liu Shaji said coldly as he sheathed the massive sword. “They help the Reapers transport troops. Aiding evil is a grave sin, it’s unforgivable. Whenever I see one, I kill it.”

Li Xiaofei was shocked and speechless at his words.

What the actual hell... Chicken Bro, are you part dog or something? That face-turn was faster than flipping a page, I genuinely bow to your skills.

The two of them fled the planet at once; it simply stank far too much. Shortly after returning to space, Liu Shaji summoned a small spaceship. It was a trophy he had seized in his past life and perfect for travel through Fallen Zones. At the very least, it was far quicker than traversing by themselves.

The appearance, model, and power source of the ship were all based on Reaper tech. Even mid- to high-tier Reapers wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from a real one.

“Haha! Bet you didn’t see that coming! I told you, your Chicken Bro is famous for being both brave and clever,” Liu Shaji boasted as he gave a casual wave of his hand. “Let’s go. Time to get out of here first.”

The two of them boarded the small starship and departed from that sector of space together.

“What now?” Li Xiaofei asked after they had fled several million kilometers away.

Liu Shaji was seated in the command cabin, leisurely pouring himself a glass of wine. He took a slow, indulgent sip before speaking with absolute confidence, “First, we find a populated area and get a read on the situation in this region. At the very least, we need to understand the general state of the Reaper faction. Sure, we came to the Fallen Zones to fight, but we can’t just throw ourselves into random battles. You’ve got to learn from me. I’m brave, yes, but always strategic. Only move once the plan is clear.”

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Li Xiaofei rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Although they hadn’t spent much time together, from every possible angle, this so-called bravery and wisdom... didn’t exactly seem to apply to Chicken Bro.

Still, Li Xiaofei could agree with finding human settlements first. From the information they had gathered earlier, there were indeed many humans living within the Fallen Zones.

No one quite knew how those humans managed to survive in a place as hellish as this Asura-like war zone. But one thing was certain; they would know a lot about the local situation, and likely had insight into how the Fallen Zones had evolved over the past hundred years. If they wanted to find people like Si Kongxue, those humans might hold the key.

The small spacecraft crept stealthily through the starry void. Its speed... wasn’t exactly impressive. But it had one great advantage, and that was safety.

Along the way, Li Xiaofei’s eyes were opened to countless bizarre sights. The Primal Faction Reapers came in all kinds of grotesque and surreal forms. It made him wonder if their creator had been lazy, and just flung lumps of mud around until something vaguely creature-like came together.

In truth, most of the Reapers traveling across space in their physical bodies were mid to high tier members of the Primal Faction. They were enormous in size and often traveled in groups, much like swarms of locusts flying through wheat fields, sweeping over planets and devouring everything in sight.

They looked as if they were eternally starving. At times, they even ate stone. Li Xiaofei personally witnessed several star-sized planets that were comparable to the sun in scale being slowly gnawed and devoured by these monstrous beings. The Reapers frequently waged wars, not just between different factions, but even within their own species to compete for food. It was a true world of survival of the fittest.

There were also ultra-high-tier beasts whose sheer size dwarfed most planets. Some lay dormant across the cosmos, while others continuously devoured everything around them. They were forever hungry, never satisfied...

“They all seem hungry,” Li Xiaofei murmured thoughtfully.

Liu Shaji nodded firmly and replied, “The desire to feed is the most powerful driving force behind the actions of the Primal Faction Reapers.”

“What about the Wisdom Faction Reapers?” Li Xiaofei asked.

Liu Shaji smiled faintly and said, “For them, it’s the desire to evolve.”

Li Xiaofei felt that his understanding of the Reaper race was gradually deepening, bit by bit.

Along the way, Li Xiaofei witnessed scenes that shattered the limits of his imagination. He saw a colossal red beast, shaped like a giant caterpillar, its size beyond comprehension. It crawled slowly through space, devouring every planet it encountered along the way, swallowing them whole into its massive belly...

He also saw a monstrous creature with the head of a deer and the body of a fish. It was just as enormous, and its entire form was engulfed in flames. Twelve blazing stars orbited its body like chained weapons, manipulated by its command over cosmic laws.

Then there was the corpse of a long-dead beast, floating endlessly through the cosmos. Even stars appeared as insignificant as dust before its corpse. Their small starship had taken an entire month just to fly from the creature’s head to the tip of its tail...

This was a fantastical universe. It was chaotic and lawless, as if it were a divine and demonic hunting ground. It was filled with death and destruction. The Primal Faction was eternally starving, while the Wisdom Faction was endlessly greedy.

What disappointed Li Xiaofei most was that after two full months of travel, they still hadn’t encountered a single warship from Wisdom Faction Reapers. There was not even a patrol unit.

The Primal Faction Reapers were little more than mindless beasts. Communication was nearly impossible. Even if they managed to capture one, extracting any meaningful information would be a fool’s errand.

But the Wisdom Faction could be reasoned with. If they could just capture a Reaper like Delta, the Death God’s Eye, they might obtain valuable intel.

“Sigh... I was wrong. I really was wrong,” Liu Shaji muttered. “I shouldn’t have killed that Zhong... If I hadn’t killed it, I could’ve ridden it...Maybe by now, we would’ve already found a life-bearing planet. We wouldn’t be drifting around like this...

“Sigh... I was so stupid. Truly.”

Liu Shaji sat blankly in the command cabin, rambling on and on in regret. He had never imagined that the small spaceship he had acquired in his previous life would be so thoroughly outdated.

Its level of technology was completely incompatible with the world several centuries later. The navigation system and other light core systems were entirely non-functional in this region of the universe.

The ship’s communication system couldn’t even connect to the public channels used by the Wisdom Faction Reapers. It was impossible to retrieve even the slightest bit of useful information. To put it simply, they were lost.

Li Xiaofei didn’t even know where to begin venting his frustration.

Is this what you call being brave and clever? Is this what you mean by acting only after careful planning?

I’m a first-timer in the Fallen Zones. I don’t know anything about the Reapers, so making mistakes is understandable.

But you, Chicken Bro, are supposed to be a seasoned martial world veteran. You knew full well that the giant flesh-bird Zhong was experienced in navigating this region, could perform short-range spatial jumps, and was even rideable by humans. So why the hell did you kill it?

Staring out at the endless void, Li Xiaofei fell into deep thought. Meanwhile, Chicken Bro was downing cup after cup of wine. He didn’t appear anxious, just bored out of his mind.

After being dead for so many years, his soul had been trapped in a graveyard with no chance of leaving. Now that he had finally come back to life, a moment of carelessness had left him confined to this tiny spaceship. It was no different from being imprisoned. Worst of all, he had to endure being laughed at by Li Xiaofei. It was unbearable.

Just as the two hidden dragons and crouching phoenixes sat in awkward silence, a sudden series of beep-beep-beep alerts came from the spaceship's monitor.

The heads of both men immediately snapped up as their bodies stiffened slightly. They could clearly see something unusual unfolding tens of thousands of kilometers away through the viewport of the ship’s command cabin.

A massive green landmass was floating in the cosmic void. Three stars revolved around it, radiating light and heat. At the same time, tens of thousands of metallic satellites, large and small, orbited the landmass in outer space. They resembled countless all-seeing, prying eyes that were constantly monitoring everything that happened on the surface below.

“What is that place?” Li Xiaofei turned his head, his face full of shock, and asked.

Liu Shaji was just as stunned. He shook his head slowly and said, “I have no idea.”

He truly didn’t. Despite all his experiences in his past life, even having ventured deep into Reaper-controlled territory, he had never seen a place like this before.

“Let’s go. We have to check it out.” Liu Shaji's excitement flared.

The small starship sped toward the green landmass. However, when they were still about three thousand kilometers away, several stealthed warships suddenly uncloaked and blocked their path.

They didn’t open fire immediately, instead, they flashed signal lights and transmitted a coded message.

“It’s an outer patrol ship of the Death God’s Eye legion,” Liu Shaji translated. “They’re asking where we’re from and why we’re approaching the Testing Grounds.”

He had some knowledge of the intelligent Reapers’ language.

Testing Grounds? That vast green continent... Was it some kind of experimental field?

Just hearing the name gave Li Xiaofei a bad feeling. It didn’t sound like a friendly place. But it also made him suddenly feel certain that this could very well be where Si Kongxue and her daughter were being held.

“Try to bluff them,” Li Xiaofei said. “See if we can sneak inside. We need to take a look.”

“No problem. Leave it to me,” Liu Shaji replied with absolute confidence.

Ten minutes later.

Boom!

The small spaceship exploded after being hit. Its fragmented hull was scattered through space before disintegrating completely into cosmic dust.

“Didn’t you say this would be no problem?!”

“It was no problem, we only lost an outdated piece of junk. Neither of us died. Isn’t that still a win?”

“I swear to—@#￥... What now?!”

“What else? We charge in, of course.”

“Charge in? Seriously?”

“Unless you’ve got a better plan?”

Two battered figures, now exposed in open space, fled while being chased down by the patrol ships. They were cursing every step of the way.

It was like a hornet’s nest had been kicked. In an instant, countless warships jumped into view from all directions, forming a blockade to intercept them.

“Little Li, this is it! The main event’s here, get ready to throw down!” said Liu Shaji as he trembled in excitement.

With a wild roar, he summoned twenty long swords, each one at the level of Immortal Artifacts. They spiraled into the shape of a blossoming white lotus of swords and dove straight toward the green landmass below.

At that moment, his peak-level power in the Seven Transformation Realm exploded in full. The brilliant white sword-light skewered any high-tech Reaper warships that tried to intercept him like candied hawthorns. They erupted into fiery blasts one after another. It was like the most dazzling fireworks igniting in the vacuum of space.

“Damn it! Could you at least try to protect me?!” Li Xiaofei shouted in frustration.

He was just a pitiful little cultivator at the Five Dragons Realm, a complete lightweight in this battlefield. But Liu Shaji didn’t spare him a second glance.

Tch.

With no choice, Li Xiaofei summoned the Blood-Drinking Sword. He gripped it tightly in both hands as golden and silver sword intents flared open behind him. His entire body transformed into a singular, unstoppable beam of sword-light, and he followed Liu Shaji straight toward the green continent.

1. The ‘Ji’ in Liu Shaji’s name means chicken. ☜