Chapter Ninety: Evolution Island (Sixteen)

The player, Butcher Blade, has evolved into a sixth-tier lifeform. Accelerate the evolution process.

Monster Harley fell silent. He looked in silence at the ragged yet fiercely resolute man before him, and a faint smile squeezed onto his grotesque face—perhaps admiration, but more like wistful reflection.

Since Monster Harley did not move, Butcher Blade was more than willing to take a moment to adjust. After all, his opponent was a sixth-tier peak demon creature, and he had only just advanced to the sixth tier himself; the gap in their strength was bound to be immense.

Butcher Blade cooperated by standing utterly still as well, the two of them locked in a stalemate, eyeing each other like a pair of combatants before a storm. At the center of the battlefield, monster and man stared each other down, each searching for the other’s flaw, waiting for that fleeting instant.

Only Luo Hanya suffered for it. Concealed in the distant grass, he had lain low, prepared to watch a great battle and then profit as the fisherman who reaps the spoils. Yet neither Harley nor Butcher Blade was willing to strike lightly, and watching them hesitate made him nearly frantic. Luo Hanya’s temper was on the verge of exploding; he longed to rush in and shout for everyone to get into position.

They confronted one another for a long time. Though no real physical contact had occurred, their spirits had collided countless times already. One side was savage and bloodthirsty; the other was calm as a mountain. These utterly different auras met and entwined in the air, and though the struggle for every inch of space appeared tranquil, beneath the surface it was fraught with deadly peril.

Suddenly, the muscles in Butcher Blade’s right arm twitched.

“Here it comes!” Luo Hanya’s heart tightened. He immediately stilled every stray thought and watched the two in the center of the battlefield with complete focus, fearing he might miss even the smallest detail.

“Do you truly mean to fight me?” Monster Harley asked. With every word he spoke, his aura grew stronger.

“My evolution is something I wager my life on. Since it has come to this, of course I will fight you!” Butcher Blade replied, his aura not yielding in the slightest, savage bloodlust surging forth.

“Even if it means becoming a wedding robe for those two petty schemers?” Monster Harley said languidly, as though trying to avoid the battle.

“Who dares plot against me? Since I stand here, I do not fear being ambushed by others!” Butcher Blade answered. His words were free and confident, yet they also carried an arrogance beyond the ordinary.

“Why not join hands with me and wipe out the others first?” Monster Harley said, glancing meaningfully to either side.

Butcher Blade drew a deep breath, his eyes widening. With full-throated force he shouted, “Monster! Do not think you can shake my will! Today, I stopped caring about this life long ago!”

“If only I could have been like you a hundred years ago...” Monster Harley seemed lost in recollection of his past.

“Despicable!” Luo Hanya cursed under his breath, then gave a sly grin. “There was a chance long ago. Too crude. That ambush was handled with no finesse at all. A proper sneak attack would have decided the outcome in one blow.”

By then, Monster Harley was no longer the immense beast body of before. Instead, he had become a middle-aged, shadowy man draped in beast hide, a giant serpent coiled around both arms. He looked down disdainfully at the grievously injured Butcher Blade and sneered, “Hmph. Do you think I would duel you head-on like some knight? You are far too naive. Victory is the only truth; everything else is false.”

“Ah! Damn you!” Butcher Blade cried in pain, clutching his abdomen. A savage wound had opened all the way to the viscera, and blood poured from him like a breached reservoir, dragging out tiny fragments of organs like gravel.

“Right now, the one who is doomed is probably you. But don’t hurry. I’ll tear you into strips and chew you slowly. Food of your caliber—I will savor you properly,” Monster Harley said with a chilling smile.

“Now! Go to hell!” At that moment, Monster Harley seemed to turn into a bolt of lightning. His movement could no longer be tracked at all; in an instant, no one could tell how many strikes he had already unleashed. Butcher Blade’s body was like a scrap of paper caught in a gale, flung wildly through the air, each violent pass leaving streaks of crimson paint behind, the already torn paper looking even more ruined.

“Hahaha...” The assault lasted a full three minutes. Butcher Blade lay on the ground, gasping in great mouthfuls, his body blossoming with blood again and again.

“Relinquish all your strength to me in peace. I will evolve into the ultimate existence here! I will leave this place in your stead!” Monster Harley said, gazing fervently at Butcher Blade like a religious zealot.

“I can walk out on my own! Who needs you to replace me?” Butcher Blade did not know where the strength came from, but he actually forced his shattered body upright. Swaying unsteadily, face covered in blood, he rose like a fiend crawling from the depths of hell.

“Go on, then—walk for me, if you can,” Monster Harley said, and with a casual punch knocked Butcher Blade back down, sending another line of blood arcing through the air.

“Die, damn you!” Like a cockroach that could not be killed, Butcher Blade once again forced himself up, picked up the ghost-head saber that had fallen to the ground, and, like a burst of last light before death, hacked madly toward Harley.

“Sky Ghost Devours the Sun!”

A thread of black qi slowly appeared over Butcher Blade’s ghost-head saber, lingering beside him like a shadowy guard. In an instant, the black qi grew thicker and thicker, completely enveloping Butcher Blade. It coiled around him, and within his body some indescribable change seemed to be taking place.

“Die, damn you!”

At that moment, the savage aura around Butcher Blade grew tenfold, as though he had become a god of slaughter reborn from the underworld. Endless black qi circled outside his body, dense yet not dispersing, gathered yet not hollow, and actually formed a massive shadow. The shadow lifted its head to the heavens, a huge rift opening in its head, as if it meant to swallow the brightest and most glorious sun-star.

And that sun-star was none other than Monster Harley, transformed into the middle-aged shadowy man. Sky Ghost Devours the Sun! A ten-thousand-deaths situation, with no path to life!

“Damn it! Are you insane? Burning your soul?” Beneath the cover of the enormous shadow, Monster Harley was like a frightened beast. After emitting a burst of uncanny cries, he was brutally suppressed in midair, unable to breathe even a little on his own. He could only watch helplessly as the shadow devoured him inch by inch, as though in the next moment he would be swallowed whole by the sky ghost.

“Die! Die, damn you!” Butcher Blade had already lost all consciousness. What sustained his body upright, what fueled him to burn his life and unleash this forbidden technique, was likely nothing but his resolve to wager his life on the outcome. Born from the heart, and therefore capable of creating miracles.