Chapter 992: Kill

The so-called ancient powerhouse of the Ruò Iron Tribe was, of course, an impersonation by Li Xiaofei. He had read every recorded text within the ancestral fortress of the Ruò Iron Tribe, and his knowledge of their ancestors was nothing short of thorough. Moreover, he had personally seen all the dead of the Ruò Iron Tribe.

Those powerful warriors who had perished to Oblivion, before they were reanimated into undead husks by electrical stimulation, were nearly perfectly preserved, their appearances lifelike and unmarred. Li Xiaofei remembered every single one.

The identity he had assumed now was based on one such perfectly preserved corpse, an exceptionally powerful individual. According to the fortress’s texts and records, that person had once held the position of High Priest within the Ruò Iron Tribe.

Back then, the tribe had split into two factions over whether to follow the Ancestor of Wisdom and abandon the Evolution Temple.

One was the Patriarch’s Faction, which emphasized the continuation of the bloodline and thus advocated departing to ensure the tribe’s survival.

The other was the High Priest’s Faction, which believed in unwavering faith in the ancestral path of evolution and insisted on remaining. This faction was fighting to overcome the evolutionary shackle and repel the beasts of Oblivion by transcending their current limits.

Thus, the role Li Xiaofei played now was that of the High Priest’s successor. Theoretically, he was a devout priest through and through. With the Eight-Nine Mystical Arts he had learned from Zhu Zhixun and others, and with the actual corpse of the High Priest carried by his side, allowing him to perfectly mimic the priest’s aura, Li Xiaofei could replicate the man flawlessly. His identity could not be exposed.

A knock came at the door.

“Enter,” Li Xiaofei said calmly.

The door opened. Led by Tie Ruo, Tie Shi and the other elders of the council entered the room.

“Greetings, Senior.”

Regardless of truth or illusion, everyone respectfully greeted him.

Li Xiaofei’s gaze swept across the group. The council members were indeed formidable, most of them were at level eleven. The leader, Tie Shi, had undergone an extremely high degree of anthropomorphization, and on the surface showed almost no visible flaws. His strength was likely around level twelve.

“You are the current members of the Ruò Iron Tribe?” Li Xiaofei asked coldly. “As expected, you’ve already forsaken the teachings of the ancestors and become degraded heretics.”

That remark had been utterly blunt, leaving no room for softness. Cold sweat broke out on Tie Shi and the others’ foreheads as a terrifying pressure filled the room. This pressure came not only from the overwhelming strength of the ancestor before them, but also from the natural suppression of bloodline dominance between members of the same race.

The Reapers were a species with a rigid and hierarchical structure. Ancestors suppressed descendants, and the strong dominated the weak. Such pressure was natural and absolute.

In that instant, Tie Shi was certain. The identity of the person before them was beyond doubt, he was a true ancient powerhouse of the Ruò Iron Tribe.

“May I ask for your esteemed name, Senior?” Tie Shi asked cautiously, making one final attempt to verify.

Li Xiaofei responded calmly, “I am Tie Wushuang.”

Tie Wushuang!

A name burst into Tie Shi’s mind like a bolt of lightning, pulling up a fragment of ancient memory. As the Grand Elder of the Ruò Iron Tribe, his knowledge of tribal history and confidential records far exceeded that of the Three Pearl King-ranked Tie Ruo. Naturally, he knew of the name Tie Wushuang.

According to ancient tribal records, Tie Wushuang had been the youngest direct disciple of the High Priest. He was considered the most gifted in cultivating Vital Qi. He had progressed at an extraordinary pace, and was once seen as the tribe’s greatest hope.

Many believed that this peerless genius would one day break through the shackles of evolution and lead the Ruò Iron Tribe out of their desperate circumstances. With that, the last trace of doubt in Tie Shi’s heart was completely erased.

“Greetings, High Priest Wushuang,” Tie Shi bowed once again with even greater reverence.

Though the times had changed, a High Priest remained a High Priest. His authority within the tribe was second only to the Patriarch, and he held dominion over matters of faith. The status of an ancient High Priest from the age of the ancestors was even more exceptional.

“Where is our tribe’s current settlement?” Li Xiaofei asked.

Tie Shi replied, “It is on Ruò Iron Star, a life-bearing planet personally bestowed upon us by His Excellency the Ancestor of Wisdom. Its scale ranks among the top ten across the entire Ancestor Court galaxy.”

There was unmistakable pride in his tone.

Li Xiaofei fell into deep thought. After emerging from the Evolution Temple, he had heard about the Fifth Extermination Campaign at the port and immediately contacted Zhu Zhixun and the others to formulate a plan. It was yet another classic infiltration operation, his old specialty.

With the Eight-Nine Mystical Arts, the skin of the Mother of All Beasts, and the information he had acquired from the Evolution Temple, impersonating an ancient Ruò Iron powerhouse had been a task well within his capabilities.

The next phase of the plan was to enter the Ancestor Court. On one hand, he could secretly assist the resistance. On the other, he could investigate the whereabouts of Si Kongxue and her daughter. To accomplish either goal, he had to penetrate the Reapers’ upper tiers of power.

“High Priest, would you be willing to return with us to the ancestral star?” asked Tie Shi as he and the others could hardly wait.

Li Xiaofei gave a solemn nod and replied, “Very well, I shall take a look.”

His expression remained grave, a frown lingering between his brows. It was the look of a loyal adherent of the old order, filled with disdain for those who had surrendered to the new one. That displeasure appeared perfectly natural through the shared bloodline of his kind.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

***

Half a month later, Ruò Iron Ancestral Star.

Li Xiaofei’s arrival was met with a secret, high-level welcome involving over a hundred top-tier experts of the Ruò Iron Tribe, including the current Patriarch himself. The entire affair was conducted in utmost secrecy. This was because Patriarch Tie Qinlong had yet to decide how to handle this ancient clansman from a bygone era. Even within the upper council, opinions were divided.

One camp proposed officially appointing Tie Wushuang as the new High Priest of the Ruò Iron Tribe, granting him the matching authority and status. After all, he possessed direct access to the tribe’s lost ancient knowledge such as cultivation techniques, secrets, and resources from millennia ago. Such knowledge would have been meaningless to them before the tribe’s full-scale anthropomorphization.

But now, the upper echelon of the Ruò Iron Tribe had nearly perfected the transformation into human form. As a result, they had begun attempting to cultivate various human secret arts and techniques, but their results had been consistently disappointing.

Some of the tribe’s great scholars had even proposed a new path. Given their current human-like state, they might achieve an evolutionary breakthrough by reverting to their roots and cultivating the Vital Qi path once upheld by their original ancestors.

Unfortunately, the Evolution Temple was notoriously hard to access. Even if they managed to enter, there was no guarantee they could locate their ancestral fortress. And even if they found it, recovering the ancient texts and cultivation methods might still prove impossible. Worse, it could trigger the Oblivions and bring about another evolutionary disaster. But now, was the sudden appearance of Tie Wushuang not a gift from the heavens?

The opposing faction, however, argued that this ancient clansman was unfit to adapt to modern life. He should be treated with basic respect but barred from participating in current tribal affairs.

More extreme voices even called for a full investigation into Tie Wushuang, to interrogate him and extract every secret he carried. On the surface, Patriarch Tie Qinlong appeared deeply conflicted. But in truth, he had already made up his mind.

***

Tie Qinlong was the human name of the Ruò Iron Tribe’s current patriarch. In this era of Anthropomorphization, heavily promoted by the Ancestor of Wisdom, it had become fashionable among many high-stage nobles to adopt human names. It was seen as a mark of status.

“All of you here are my most trusted kin,” Tie Qinlong said calmly. “Let’s hear it, how should we receive this ancient predecessor who has appeared so suddenly?”

Seated at his lower right, a level twelve powerhouse of the Ruò Iron Tribe named Tie Ling stood up without hesitation. He spat out a single word, “Kill.”

The room fell into complete silence.