The Black Hand

Over three millennia, the regret had festered deep within Poison's heart, driving him to frantically research potions to enhance his strength, dreaming of the day he could exact his revenge. Poison had always believed that if his Seventh Brother hadn't engaged their opponent back then, he could have easily escaped with his life. Instead, Seventh Brother saved him, blocking the Immortal Scaled Creature, Toru, and ultimately perishing.

“I did it, Seventh Brother, I did it! I killed that ghoul!” Poison cried out in his heart. For over three thousand years, he had worn a facade of laughter and anger, but this regret had remained deeply rooted.

Finally, his vengeance was complete.

Poison abruptly looked up, his gaze fixed on the other Immortal Scaled Creature, Fuweisa, who was battling Taiwo in the distance.

“Die!” Poison commanded his plant life, and instantly, the 72 dark green vines shot towards the distant foe.

He wasn't the only one acting.

Luo Feng, at this moment, was already controlling the Yan Shen Golden Sword, flying directly towards the last enemy, the strongest among the Qiuluo Clan.

...

“Prepare to die.”

“You can’t escape.”

“Perish.”

Illusionist Wei, Enchantress, Psychic Reader Kuangwu, Divine Spirit, and others—each either unleashed soul attacks, cast illusions, or launched long-range psychic weapon attacks. They didn't expect to harm the Immortal Scaled Creature, but even a slight disruption would give Captain Taiwo the upper hand.

“Toru is dead.” Fuweisa, seeing his comrade fall, glanced at Luo Feng and Poison in the distance, a sudden alarm seizing his heart. “Those two human Sector Lords are very powerful. If they join forces with this human Immortal Being… I’ll be in deep trouble. I might even perish here.”

“No time to think about that now.”

The Immortal Scaled Creature, Fuweisa, had initially hoped to escape unscathed, but now Taiwo was desperately holding him back… and Luo Feng and Poison were closing in.

“Arghhh~~~” Fuweisa roared savagely. The black chain burning with flames on his body vanished instantly, and at the same time, his claws slammed fiercely into the human Immortal Being Taiwo’s fists.

“Boom!!!”

Fuweisa’s fists instantly transformed into dazzling fiery red light. An Immortal Being’s body is an Immortal Divine Body, formed by the condensation of endless Immortal Divine Power. Once one becomes an Immortal, their body can easily transform into endless Immortal Divine Power, and endless Immortal Divine Power can also transform back into a body, provided the soul imprint remains intact.

Fuweisa instantly sacrificed his entire fists, consuming nearly 10% of the energy he had accumulated over countless years in one go. Don't underestimate this 10%; every part of an Immortal body contains a spiritual imprint. The explosion also meant the destruction of a portion of his spiritual imprint. He was not an Undying Body; an Undying Body can rapidly regenerate its entire form from even a single cell fragment. He was not an Undying Body, so… daring to self-destruct 10% of his sharp claws was already his limit.

“Rumble~~”

A powerful explosion slammed into Taiwo, sending him flying backward.

The surrounding starry sky directly shattered, tearing massive ravines in the cosmic space. Countless spatial fragments formed a torrent, and the powerful shockwave spread in all directions. Even the numerous items left behind by the dead scaled creatures whose internal worlds had collapsed, previously floating in the distance, were shattered and destroyed by the impact.

“Bang!” Fuweisa, relying on his Immortal Battle Armor, withstood the explosive recoil. Using this force, he swiftly fled!

Whoosh!

He instantly shot tens of thousands of kilometers away.

As he fled, the massive amount of surrounding items were also scattered by the shockwave. No one noticed that among these countless items, a seemingly ordinary black space ring had quietly appeared.

“Damn it, he got away,” Poison gritted his teeth.

“He’s fast,” Luo Feng said, watching the opponent fleeing at near light speed millions of kilometers away.

When an Immortal Being is determined to escape and is already far away,

Unless one can teleport, even a King-level Immortal Being cannot catch them.

“Let’s go quickly. That commotion was too big. If we linger, many powerful alien teams will surely arrive,” Taiwo ordered immediately. “Quickly collect the spoils.”

The elite Sector Lord squad swiftly gathered the vast spoils, then boarded their C9-class Spaceship and departed rapidly.

...

In the Shattered Star Belt, in space.

The biological spaceship was quietly returning to the base Luo Feng and his team had established.

“Just a little more, just a little more, and we could have killed the other Immortal Ghoul too.” Poison had returned to his normal appearance, his eyes filled with wild excitement.

“Alright, it’s already excellent. To force that guy to self-destruct 10% of his Immortal Divine Body, that’s a huge price,” Taiwo said with a smile. “Even after tens of thousands or millions of years, the lost spiritual imprint might never fully recover.”

“What happened?” Rocky asked, puzzled. “Aren’t these creatures fine even if they’re blown apart? Why is self-destructing 10% of an Immortal Divine Body such a high price?”

“Being blown apart merely shatters the body; at most, it turns into Immortal Divine Power,” Taiwo explained. “And Immortal Divine Power… contains energy and spiritual imprints, serving as the most basic component of an Immortal Being. Those Immortal Divine Powers can re-coalesce into an Immortal Divine Body.”

“But once it self-destructs… that means even the ‘Immortal Divine Power’ completely explodes, leaving no fragments, turning into the most basic particle flow,” Taiwo chuckled. “That’s why its power is immense.”

“This is also why being blown apart doesn’t cause a massive explosion.”

“But self-destruction does.”

Taiwo continued, “The Immortal Divine Power contains spiritual imprints. If only a very small amount is lost, it can recover. But losing 10% at once is equivalent to losing 10% of one’s soul… Although the imprint remains complete, his strength, potential, and so on are greatly diminished… it will likely take a very, very long time to slowly recover.”

“Of course.”

“If one cultivates to the level of an ‘Undying Body,’ even if they are shattered into countless pieces, even if the Immortal Divine Power begins to collapse and shatter, and the spiritual imprint is pulverized… as long as a single fragment remains! They can instantly absorb other countless shattered energies and restore their complete Immortal Divine Body.” Taiwo said, “Once you reach the Undying Body, it’s very difficult to kill you. Forget losing 10% of your soul; even if you lose 99.99%, as long as a trace remains, you can fully recover, and instantly at that.”

Rocky nodded in understanding.

...

“Cheers!”

“To Seventh Brother, to all the brothers and sisters who died over the years, cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Taiwo, Poison, Luo Feng, and the rest of the group raised their cups. Although Luo Feng and Rocky were new, they could feel the excitement of Taiwo and the others.

“From the day we stepped onto the Outer Battlefield, death has been our constant companion. I’ve been on the Outer Battlefield for over 30,000 years, progressing from a Sector Lord to an Immortal. Many of my sworn brothers from back then—First Brother, Third Brother, Fourth Brother, Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, Seventh Brother, Ninth Brother—all perished one by one.” Taiwo glanced at Poison beside him.

Poison also took a deep breath.

Back then, Taiwo was ranked second. Poison was considered a later addition to the team and was always looked after by Seventh Brother. Seventh Brother was very fond of the childlike, cute, and mischievous Poison.

“Old brothers die, new brothers and sisters join,” Taiwo sighed. “We all have our own goals. In our team, someone like ‘Er Sha’ retired after achieving his goal. I estimate I’ll probably retire in another 20,000 years. I wish… all of you here, my brothers and sisters, can retire alive.”

“Mm.” The group raised their cups.

“To retiring alive.”

They clinked glasses and drank it all.

In truth, the veteran members had all completed their basic military merit quotas and were free. But everyone was unwilling to be ordinary; they all had their own goals. So, they wanted to earn more military merit to exchange for treasures. You see—100,000 military merit could be exchanged for 1 Primal Chaos Unit, and treasures could be exchanged within the military system! Accumulating 1 billion military merit meant 10,000 Primal Chaos Units, which was almost the entire fortune of an ordinary Immortal Being.

Within human territory… these Sector Lord generals would likely never earn 10,000 Primal Chaos Units even if they fought for 1,000 epochs, unless they encountered special opportunities.

But on the Outer Battlefield, as long as one could survive for tens of thousands of years, accumulating 10,000 Primal Chaos Units was easy.

Of course—

The prerequisite was surviving for tens of thousands of years.

“Poison, your Seventh Brother’s revenge is done. Drink less from now on,” Taiwo said softly.

“Mm.” Poison nodded.

Poison walked over to Luo Feng, looking up at him, his eyes shining with gratitude: “Lunatic, thank you.”

“Heh heh.” Luo Feng grinned.

Just then, within the world ring where Psychic Reader Kuangwu stored the ‘spoils,’ among the dense array of miscellaneous items, there was a very ordinary black space ring. And within this black space ring, among some random items, lay a fifth-tier weapon.

...

The biological spaceship carefully navigated through the Shattered Star Belt.

“Damn it, damn it, those hateful humans, damn them!!!” In the control room, the Immortal Scaled Creature Fuweisa roared, furiously smashing cups and other objects. Crash! Bang! Explosions and curses in the Qiuluo Clan language echoed through the control room.

After a long while, Fuweisa finally stopped, his claws now fully recovered.

His eyes were filled with savage fury: “10% of my soul! This will slow my comprehension of space laws significantly, those hateful humans… I will make you die, I will make you die!”

“You probably didn’t even notice that very ordinary space ring among the countless items floating in space, did you? You don’t know that inside that space ring, there’s a weapon, do you?” Fuweisa’s eyes gleamed with malice. “That weapon is my token, concealing a trace of my spiritual imprint. No matter how far away, I can sense it.”

“By sensing the token, I can naturally confirm the location of you hateful humans.”

Fuweisa’s eyes were filled with hatred.

Immortal Beings could perform Divine Kingdom Teleportation, which required certain tokens. These tokens could be an ‘Immortal Crystal’ (because Immortal Divine Power contains spiritual imprints), or a recognized plant life, or specially manufactured token items, like the token Chaos City Lord left for Luo Feng.

A token contains a trace of a spiritual imprint… no matter how far away, no matter if it’s in an internal world or a divine kingdom, it can be sensed.

“No.”

“I can’t waste time.”

“It’s possible these hateful humans might discover the secret of that weapon. Although the chance of discovery is very low, I cannot afford to lose… I must have my revenge, I must kill them.” Fuweisa gritted his teeth. “I must immediately contact my other Immortal Being allies and comrades to eliminate those hateful humans together.”