This was Tan Qingying’s first time launching an attack against the Mother of All Beasts. And it was a highly effective one. The success filled her with exhilaration. She had helped Little Aunt, and also aided Li Xiaofei.
For the first time, she no longer felt like a burden. She now felt like a comrade who could stand side by side with her dear Brother Xiaofei on the most dangerous battlefields.
At the same time, Black Emperor let out a low growl. Its fighting spirit had awakened. Its sleek, black body leaned forward, all four legs churning rapidly like spinning wheels. It accelerated in an instant and transformed into a streak of black light too fast for the naked eye to track, rushing straight toward the Mother of All Beasts.
Yes, Black Emperor had evolved as well. Extreme speed combined with its razor-sharp claws and fangs had turned it into a machine of slaughter. Now, its attacks could finally break through the enemy’s defenses, leaving faint marks upon the Mother of All Beasts’ hide. Though it couldn’t confront the beast directly, it could at least serve as a meaningful distraction.
Finally, overcome with wild fury, Black Emperor unleashed its Gluttonous Maw Divine Art against the Mother of All Beasts, biting down hard on its hind leg like a vicious ornament. No matter how frantically the beast thrashed, it couldn’t shake the Black Emperor loose. However, to the Mother of All Beasts, the true and unrelenting threat remained the Blood-Drinking Sword.
This demonic blade was growing increasingly powerful as it consumed more and more of the beast’s blood.
The sword light tore through the air. It effortlessly carved new wounds into the body of the Mother of All Beasts with each streaking slash. Those wounds grew longer and deeper until the blood flowing from them could no longer be controlled.
The Mother of All Beasts roared in rage again and again. After its earlier self-detonation, the oppressive force it radiated had dropped by at least half compared to when it had just broken free from its seal.
Its desperate explosion had failed to shatter the Eight Trigrams Heaven Array, and now the situation had completely deteriorated. As one of the highest-ranking creatures in the Reaper’s Primal Faction, the Mother of All Beasts felt the approach of death’s footsteps for the very first time. It was fast and merciless.
Its three-hundred-year imprisonment had already drained nearly half its energy. Forcibly breaking the seal had cost it even more of its life force. Now, it was the weakest it had ever been in its entire existence.
Every life-preserving technique it used to stay alive was futile under the combined assault of the Blood-Drinking Sword, the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and Tan Qingying’s mysterious art. Every countermeasure met suppression from the Heaven Array, and every trick was undone by the demonic blade.
Splitting, phasing, concealment, high-speed escape... All of them were restrained by the Heaven Array Formation, then pierced through by the Blood-Drinking Sword.
It was being cornered like a dog in a cage. In the end, the Mother of All Beasts shrank to less than fifty kilometers in length. Its now insect-like body was covered in gashes.
One gaping wound, like a canyon torn open across its hide, no longer bled. Instead, it oozed a disturbing shade of dark red tinged faintly with pale white. At this point, it had completely lost the power to resist. It had become a beast trapped in a jar with its fate sealed.
The wind stilled, the clouds halted, and the world fell into utter silence. Li Xiaofei stood completely unscathed. He held the Blood-Drinking Sword, now crimson as blood, and stood high in the heavens.
His body was as straight as a javelin, unmoving like a mountain, serene yet imposing. He said nothing. Not because he wanted to appear aloof or impressive. But because he didn’t dare to speak. Updates are released by 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝗂𝗋𝖾⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥
In truth, he felt utterly nauseated. He was afraid that if he so much as opened his mouth, he’d throw up. After all, being forcibly dragged back and forth at light speed tens of thousands of times by the Blood-Drinking Sword, while his cultivation realm was still unqualified, felt even worse than being force-fed an entire truckload of Red Star Erguotou[1] through a funnel.
But at this moment, the Blood-Drinking Sword had already changed drastically compared to when it first awakened. The once snow-white blade was now a deep, blood-red hue.
That pulsing crimson glow, rising and falling like a slow breath, gave off an unsettling sense of sticky, ominous rhythm. It was almost as if thick droplets of blood might slide off its surface at any moment .
The dense, glowing threads and runes once etched along the sword’s length were now completely consumed by that red hue. The long sword trembled faintly. Even Li Xiaofei’s hand, gripping the hilt, had gone slightly numb from the vibration.
He could clearly sense the vast, terrifying vitality contained within the blade. It was as boundless and immense as the cosmic sea of stars. All of it had been drawn from the body of the Mother of All Beasts.
Li Xiaofei looked down. That once-overbearing, savage creature was now on the verge of death. Its life force had been nearly drained dry. It no longer possessed the trait of immortality, nor could it rapidly regenerate its wounds.
Li Xiaofei took a deep breath. Slowly, he raised the Blood-Drinking Sword, which was as heavy as a star. Then, he soared into the sky, only to dive straight back down.
Cut the weeds, eliminate the roots. He would not waste a single word.
"Roar! Roar! Roar...!" The Mother of All Beasts lifted its head to the heavens and howled madly.
Even at death’s door, its massive golden vertical pupil still radiated fierce, unyielding savagery, still brimming with cold, mocking contempt for all life. Its eyes opened wide, unblinking, as it stared straight at the falling sword.
It was the sound of a blade slicing through flesh and blood. The Blood-Drinking Sword plunged straight into the golden vertical pupil. The blade unleashed a terrifying suction force.
The Mother of All Beasts’ eye shattered, then rapidly shriveled. In just a few dozen seconds, its massive body, fifty kilometers in length, collapsed like a deflated balloon. It was shrinking and withering.
By the end, nothing remained but a layer of pale golden scales. All the blood, flesh, and bone within had been completely drained by the Blood-Drinking Sword. Even Li Xiaofei felt his scalp prickle at the sight.
An Emperor’s Armament forged by the Sword Immortal Emperor was simply too terrifying. Li Xiaofei even had a fleeting, absurd thought, if I so much as get a scratch, the sword might suck me dry on the spot.
He could clearly feel that the sword's vibrations were growing stronger after devouring the Mother of All Beasts. It was like a gluttonous child who had eaten too much. It was on the verge of throwing up from overindulgence.
The clouds cleared and the wind stilled. The Eight Trigrams Heaven Array, which had enveloped the entire Thirty-Third Heaven, faded swiftly. The Eight Trigrams Furnace shrank once again, becoming no larger than a fist. It nestled back into Little Aunt’s palm like a homesick little sprite and fell silent.
Tan Qingying let out a long, steady breath. Her entire body finally relaxed, completely at ease.
“Woof, woof, woof!” Black Emperor grumbled loudly as he released the leg of the Mother of All Beasts bite. It still had a strip of flesh in its mouth. It looked thoroughly displeased and disappointed that it hadn’t managed to absorb more of the beast’s precious life essence in those final moments.
“It’s finally over,” said Li Xiaofei, allowing himself to fully relax.
A nightmare of despair had loomed over his head since the moment he had stepped into Heaven, and now, it had finally been shattered. He turned to look at Little Aunt. And then he saw Ximen Qianxue standing beside her.
At this moment, Ximen Qianxue seemed even more blurred than before. Her features were no longer distinct, like a sketch on white paper that had yet to be colored in.
“It’s not over,” Ximen Qianxue spoke softly. “What comes next is even more important.”
She gestured toward Li Xiaofei. A streak of light flew from his body. It was the jade pendant, the miniaturized Cemetery of the Ancestors.
Ximen Qianxue gazed at the Cemetery of the Ancestors, and a look of deep relief and hope shimmered in her beautiful eyes. She was like a lonely traveler who, after many years and by the grace of fate, finally met an old friend thought lost forever.
“The Mother of All Beasts is one of the most extraordinary species in this universe, brimming with the most potent vitality imaginable. Through endless spawning, it can create limitless Ruo Swarms, granting them overwhelming combat strength...
“This terrifying life force makes it nearly immortal. If it hadn’t been sealed here in Heaven for centuries, draining much of its energy... and if it hadn’t forcibly broken its seal and suffered the backlash... bringing it to the lowest ebb of its life force, killing it today would have been nearly impossible.
“But thankfully, the plan succeeded. Now, all of the Mother of All Beasts’ life force is stored within the Blood-Drinking Sword. Li Xiaofei... if it were you, what would you choose to do with this immense life force?”
Ximen Qianxue looked at Li Xiaofei. Her words were laden with meaning. At first, Li Xiaofei was puzzled, not understanding what she meant. But when his gaze fell upon the Cemetery of the Ancestors, a bold—no, a mad idea suddenly took root in Li Xiaofei’s mind.
“Senior, are you saying that the life force of the Mother of All Beasts can be used to infinitely summon the heroic souls within the cemetery?” Li Xiaofei asked urgently.
Ximen Qianxue looked at him. After a brief silence, she said, “Don’t you want to bring them back to life?”
“Resurrect... them?” Li Xiaofei gasped in disbelief. “Is that even possible?”
Ximen Qianxue replied, “A plan a century in the making—luring the Mother of All Beasts into Heaven, sealing it, grinding down its energy, creating the right moment... The Sword Immortal Emperor forged the Blood-Drinking Sword with the laws of origin not for vengeance, but for the hope of returning those fallen comrades, those who died protecting the human race on the Star Battlefield, back to this world.”
Li Xiaofei was utterly shaken. Little Aunt, equally stunned, suddenly understood. At last, the truth became clear. All the ruin, abandoning Heaven, enduring catastrophic losses on the Star Battlefield; it had all been for one ultimate purpose. It was a scheme to resurrect the heroic spirits who had perished in the fiercest battles of the early and middle stages of the war for humanity’s survival.
She had heard the stories. Those souls were once the mightiest champions of the human race. Many had grown alongside the Five Immortal Emperors, sharing bonds of kinship and friendship as they walked the path of cultivation together.
In life, they had carried the fate of the galactic human race. Many had stood on the verge of ascending to the Immortal Emperor Realm. Had they succeeded, the odds of humanity winning the war would have skyrocketed.
But many of them had died tragic, brutal deaths during the early clashes with the Reaper Faction, when they caught off-guard and lacked knowledge of their enemy. But now, there was a chance to bring them back.
Did this not mean that, if the plan succeeded, the galactic human race could finally launch its greatest counteroffensive against the Reapers? That the endless war that had ravaged the cosmos for eons might finally come to an end?
Hope, at last, began to shimmer with its brilliant light.
1. Erguotou is a type of qingxiang baijiu, a Chinese spirit, originating in Beijing. It is known for its light aroma and is often associated with Beijing and its culture. The name "Erguotou" translates to "second distillation," indicating its level of purity and production method. ☜