As he said this, a cold gleam entered the Sword-man's eyes.
This time, Evans didn't even need Ren Yi's reminder to realize what was being implied, and his brow furrowed deeply.
“You suspect... I am your former master?”
In utter disbelief, he pointed to himself with his one hand that hadn't yet melted into black liquid.
“Sorry, but I have to remind you—I'm not even a human.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Evans himself found it a bit absurd.
The Sword-man fell silent for a rare moment, then nodded earnestly.
“Trust me, based on my understanding of him, if it meant attaining eternal life...”
“...giving up his humanity would be a very easy choice to make.”
The gloomy atmosphere suddenly took a rather bizarre turn.
Evans's mouth twitched.
He opened his mouth, wanting to argue back, but swallowed his words before they could escape.
Because he suddenly realized that what the Sword-man said actually... made sense.
This was someone who would sacrifice an entire world for eternal life, someone who dared to devour the Heavenly Dao, a lunatic who was crazy enough to try and consume the unknown.
If you told him that he could achieve immortality by discarding his humanity, he would probably flay his own skin off overnight.
“Wait, no...” Evans tried to defend himself from another angle.
“Even so, you still have no reason to suspect me.”
“According to what you said, didn't I save you a few times in those previous eras?”
As the Sword-man spoke, he didn't advance. Instead, he began to step backward.
“Then I can only say I am sorry... my savior.”
Evans's sense of impending doom grew stronger, like a string being wound tighter and tighter, ready to snap at any second.
“So, what exactly are you planning to do?” he asked, raising his voice in unease.
“Take one strike from my sword,” the Sword-man replied calmly.
The hand holding his sword slowly rose. A green light flared on the blade in the darkness, causing the surrounding air to vibrate.
“If you are him,” the Sword-man said, enunciating every word clearly, “I will definitely not be able to harm you.”
Evans was dumbfounded.
“And what if I'm not?”
The Sword-man's expression turned slightly awkward.
“Well, you seem pretty hard to kill anyway.”
“But if you really do die, I guess I'll... apologize to you in the next era?”
“Holy... crap!”
Evans blurted out.
Evans's exclamation wasn't just because of the Sword-man's utterly shameless remarks—though they were indeed incredibly shameless.
It was because the Sword-man had already made his move.
A brilliant green sword light instantly flooded the entire space, and a slash that filled Evans's entire field of vision was drawn by the tip of the blade in an instant.
Evans finally understood why the Sword-man had brought him all the way to this space.
It was purely because... he could cut loose here without holding back!
So all those stories he told earlier were just to explain his reason for striking?
Evans, of course, would not sit still and wait for death.
In almost an instant, his youthful human appearance completely collapsed.
His face dissolved, his limbs vanished, and his torso collapsed.
In its place, a shapeless black mass expanded from where he had been standing, blooming outward like a black flower.
However, the sword light was simply too fast.
It seemed the Sword-man understood the golden rule of not letting his enemy finish transforming—no matter what form you were in, strike first.
The attack arrived before him in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, that vertical beam of green light swept directly in front of the massive black creature.
Then, the sword energy sliced through him like a hot knife through tofu.
Black liquid splattered, and Evans was instantly cleaved into left and right halves, the cut so smooth it resembled a mirror surface.
The black liquid froze for a second. The left and right halves were less than a palm's width apart, yet they could not merge back together.
Countless tiny black tentacles sprouted from the severed surfaces, frantically groping through the air in an attempt to grab hold of their other half.
The black liquid convulsed and writhed violently like an earthworm cut in half, desperately trying to piece itself back together.
But in the end, it collapsed limply.
The Sword-man froze for a moment.
He looked down at the sword in his hand, then at the pool of black liquid slowly spreading on the ground, his brow furrowing slightly.
Then, he suddenly laughed, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness, amusement, and admiration.
“Little guy, I have to tell you something.”
He raised his sword before him with the tip pointing upward, placing two fingers of his other hand against the blade, unable to suppress the smile on his lips.
“My sword energy is very unique.”
Even though his target was already “dead,” it was unclear who he was speaking to.
“Once it cuts into a target, it splits from one into two, then two into four, transforming into countless tiny fragmented blades.”
“They explode from the cut, tearing the target apart from the inside like sprouting seeds.”
“A smooth, mirror-like cut like this would absolutely never happen.”
He paused, his eyes gleaming with amusement as his gaze fell upon the slowly spreading black liquid.
“It seems there was a slight flaw in your little parlor trick.”
Before his voice could fade, the Sword-man slid his two fingers from the hilt toward the tip of the blade.
Hum—
A low sword hum rang out, as if something deep in slumber had been awakened.
Instantly, countless arcs of sword energy erupted from the blade, swirling around the Sword-man in overlapping layers.
“If you don't come out, I'm going to have to make things a little dramatic!”
The sword energy was a vibrant green, like spring willow leaves or lightning before a storm, packed so tightly together that there was almost no gap between them.
Then, they moved.
Like an airtight sphere of blades, they suddenly expanded outward, slashing in all directions.
Tens of thousands of sword energy beams bloomed like a firework of sword light within the empty space.
“Didn't you say it would only be one strike?”
A voice drifted from somewhere nearby. It sounded muffled, as if coming from some sealed container, but the anger within it was unmistakable.
The Sword-man's lips curled into a smile. His hands didn't stop, but his tone was as relaxed as if he were just chatting.
“Well, didn't I miss?”
He scanned his surroundings. His eyes were no longer playful, but had sharpened with the keen focus of a hunter.
“I know the effects of my sword energy all too well. You can't possibly penetrate this curtain of blades, so just stay still and take a strike... Eh?”
Mid-sentence, the Sword-man's voice abruptly cut off.
There was a sudden flash in the air.
Without any warning, the Sword-man vanished into thin air.
Only a solitary sword remained floating in his place.
The green light on the blade was still flowing, but without its wielder, the glow began to flicker unstably.
Meanwhile, the Sword-man felt his world spin.
His hand suddenly felt empty, and the scenery before his eyes shifted dramatically.
The chaos dispersed, and the inverted space returned to normal.
He found himself standing a short distance away with empty hands, still holding the posture of raising a sword with one hand.
Tilting his head, he noticed a withered claw gripping his right shoulder out of nowhere.
The Sword-man froze.
He hadn't noticed when this thing had approached, when it had reached out, or when it had grabbed him.
The entire process felt as if it had been edited, with all the keyframes in the middle completely missing.
“Wa... Wait a minute!”
He looked forward.
However, the furious black liquid surged toward him, completely blotting out the sky, having lost all patience to reason with him.
Evans bore down on him with a crushing, unstoppable force. Without his sword, the Sword-man seemed to be nothing more than a fragile, ordinary human.
Thus, with a loud splat.
The Sword-man was smacked to death just like that.
Rate on N.U.
