Chapter 990: Ancient Tribesman

In the Ancestor Court galaxy, the hatred between the resistance and the Reapers was mortal and irreconcilable. There had never been any possibility of surrender or negotiation.

Thus, when Tie Ruo and the other remnants saw the white-robed human god of slaughter appear before them, despair rose in their hearts.

“Who... exactly are you?!” asked Tie Ruo as rage flickered in his eyes.

Who could have imagined that the grand and mighty Fifth Extermination Campaign would end in such a crushing defeat? The appearance of a single absolute powerhouse had caused the Reapers to suffer massive losses in both troops and generals.

The white-robed human man gave no answer. He raised his silver-white longsword in the cold emptiness of space, his expression indifferent and his eyes filled only with killing intent. In the blink of an eye, he crossed hundreds of kilometers.

Sword light flashed as one Ruò Iron Tribe warrior after another fell like grass beneath a scythe.

“Kill him! Fight with everything we have!” roared Tie Ruo as he decided to stop running.

As a Three Pearl King-ranked Reaper, the honor of his title made it intolerable to watch his clansmen fall one after another while he fled like a coward. Silver specks of light flickered across his entire body as Tie Ruo entered his peak combat state.

His arms transformed into pale purple scythe-like blades, resembling the claws of a mantis. His legs lengthened, and pale purple bone spurs grew from his knees. His streamlined, well-defined muscles tensed like drawn bowstrings, brimming with explosive power.

This was one of the Ruò Iron Tribe’s innate divine abilities: the Insect of the Starry Sky. The Winged Reaper. As a Three Pearl King-ranked Reaper, once Tie Ruo transformed into his Insect of the Starry Sky form, his lethality more than doubled, and his speed and reflexes increased drastically.

Whoosh.

Tie Ruo shot out like a streak of pale purple lightning. Wherever he passed, even the vacuum of space was slashed open. But swift as his attack was, his defeat came even faster. The absolute gap in strength was an unbridgeable chasm.

With just a faint flash of light from the white-robed man’s White Lotus Immortal Sword, a razor-sharp sword qi severed Tie Ruo’s forelimbs and carved a deep gash across his chest plate, one that sliced straight down to the bone.

Pfft.

Tie Ruo felt the sword qi inside him spreading like a wildfire, invading his body with ruthless force. He couldn't hold back and spewed a jet of blood from his mouth.

Despair began to take root.

Why is he this strong...?

Looking at the dwindling number of Ruò Iron Tribe warriors around him, Tie Ruo was overwhelmed with shock and rage, but above all, an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

The white-robed human man continued to fly forward. White lotus petals fluttered through the air like rain. The scene appeared ethereal and beautiful, but it was deadly. Those seemingly gentle, drifting white petals, once they landed on the bodies of Ruò Iron Tribe warriors, instantly turned into the sharpest blades in existence, reaping lives without mercy.

It was a one-sided massacre. The warriors at Tie Ruo’s side perished one by one, until barely any were left. Just then, the white-robed human abruptly stopped. He turned his head to look in another direction.

His expression grew solemn. Tie Ruo was confused and instinctively followed his gaze. In the distance, silver light flickered faintly within the void. The spatial elements around them began to tremble violently. Countless cracks appeared on the barrier of space, shimmering and leaping erratically.

Crack.

The void within tens of thousands of meters suddenly shattered as the glow of dark red subspace light emerged from the rupture.

A moment later, a figure over two meters tall burst forth from the gap. The instant Tie Ruo saw that figure, a tremor ran through his heart.

A human?

Another one?

Wait.

No.

Not a human...

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

But...

As Tie Ruo stared at the figure that had suddenly appeared amid the anomaly, a surge of overwhelming shock rose within his heart. That figure clearly bore the appearance of a Ruò Iron Tribesman. No, to be precise, it was the appearance of a Ruò Iron Tribesman from the ancient era.

As a Three Pearl King-ranked Reaper, Tie Ruo had lived a long life. He had already existed for over six thousand years. He had delved deeply into the history of his people throughout those millennia. He had thoroughly studied the period when his race had once struggled to survive within the Evolution Temple.

Therefore, the physical features and traits of the tribesmen from that era were etched clearly into his memory. And now, the figure before him, this being who had suddenly emerged, undoubtedly matched the appearance of those ancient Ruò Iron Tribesmen from the time of the Evolution Temple.

After countless years, the present-day Ruò Iron Tribe now looked drastically different from their ancestors. It was partly because of the living environment of the Ancestor Court galaxy, but it was largely due to the Anthropomorphization Movement promoted by the Ancestor of Wisdom.

For a brief moment, Tie Ruo couldn’t comprehend where this ancient figure had come from. He chose to observe.

“Where is this place?” The ancient Ruò Iron ancestor rose to his feet in the vacuum of space, his entire body radiating powerful fluctuations of Vital Qi. Silver light flowed across the surface of his tall, slender body, flickering with life.

“Reaper... must die.” The white-robed human man, however, had no intention of holding back.

The moment he confirmed the newly appeared figure as a Reaper, his blade moved without mercy. Moreover, sensing the threatening aura emanating from the opponent, the white-robed man unleashed one of his most powerful combat techniques.

White Lotus Falls. The Sword of Death Rises. In an instant, the space around the ancient Ruò Iron ancestor was filled with softly falling white lotus petals, as if a death warrant had descended from the Western Heavens. Crisscrossing streaks of silver sword light wove into a dense and intricate web.

Ding!

A spark burst forth.

Ding ding ding ding...

Countless fine bursts of light exploded in rapid succession. Each explosion released residual energy waves so intense that even the Three Pearl King-ranked Reaper Tie Ruo felt his heart tremble.

But what shook Tie Ruo even more was the energy aura radiating from that ancient tribesman’s body. It was unmistakably the Vital Qi cultivated by the Ruò Iron Tribe in ancient times.

This type of energy was both familiar and foreign to Tie Ruo. It was familiar because he had once cultivated and encountered it himself. It was foreign because, under the guidance of the Ancestor of Wisdom, the current Ruò Iron Tribe had completely altered their evolutionary path. They had long abandoned the cultivation of Vital Qi in favor of developing powerful physical bodies and innate divine abilities.

Thus, no member of the tribe in this era cultivated Vital Qi anymore. This evolutionary path, created and perfected by their ancestors, had already been proven to be a dead end back during the Evolution Temple era.

And yet now, this ancient tribesman was displaying a terrifying level of combat strength. He wielded a silver longsword and unleashed combat techniques that only humans were believed capable of cultivating. Shockingly, he fought the white-robed human man to a standstill.

Even with all of Tie Ruo’s long years of experience, he had never witnessed this kind of terrifying battle scene before.

“In the ancient era, our people grew strong by cultivating Vital Qi, allowing them to perform all manner of battle techniques... This is exactly as the historical records described.

“Could he truly be a tribesman who walked out from the pages of history?”

Tie Ruo couldn’t make sense of it.

According to the records, there had been an internal debate among the Ruò Iron Tribe during the time of the Evolution Temple on whether to follow the Ancestor of Wisdom and leave or not. Ultimately, the tribe had split into two factions. One followed the Ancestor and departed, while the other chose to remain.

But it was said that those who remained had all perished in the disaster of evolution. Those who had left with the Ancestor of Wisdom and migrated to the Ancestor Court galaxy had later attempted to return to the Evolution Temple, hoping to find that lost branch of their people, but every attempt had ended in failure.

One reason was that entering the Evolution Temple required approval from both the Ancestor Court and the Ancestor of Wisdom. Another was that the disaster of evolution had polluted their ancestral lands. Anyone who entered would trigger that disaster again, which was a karmic consequence too heavy for anyone to bear.

Even the current chieftain of the Ruò Iron Tribe and other top-tier powerhouses dared not confront the evolutionary catastrophe head-on. In fact, it wasn’t just the Ruò Iron Tribe, none of the great clans that had once left the Evolution Temple dared to return to their ancestral strongholds.

The horrors of the evolutionary disaster were widely known. It was said that if Oblivion were disturbed, the dead would resurrect as terrifying ghosts and living corpses, and turn on their own kin.

Thus, the fate of that ancient branch which had chosen to stay behind remained unknown to Tie Ruo. No records had ever described their ending. The prevailing belief was that they had all died.

But now, it seemed... someone had survived?

A chilling possibility began to form in Tie Ruo’s heart. And at that moment, the distant battle finally reached its conclusion.