Chapter Thirty-Nine: Frenzied Slaughter

“Human!”

From the scarlet eyes of the divine being, two icy rays shot forth, locking coldly onto Ke Bei, a trace of gravity flickering across its face. Ke Bei had just effortlessly blocked its punch. Although it hadn’t used its full strength, a sliver of caution had crept into its heart—the fact that the young man could withstand its blow meant he must not be underestimated.

A silent wariness welled up inside the divine being. The human before it was no one to look down upon!

In contrast to the divine being’s vigilance and caution, Ke Bei was utterly at ease, almost as if the creature before him was beneath his notice. Calmly, he turned and glanced at Huang Dou.

“Go do what you can. Leave this to me.”

Ke Bei smiled, clapping Huang Dou on the shoulder, his tone serene.

“Alright,” Huang Dou replied, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. Still shaken, he looked at Ke Bei, yet in that moment, a newfound sense of security warmed his heart. It was as if this youth, even younger than himself by a year, stood before him as an unshakable mountain.

Ke Bei’s gaze fell upon the thick, dark eyebrows that dominated half of Huang Dou’s forehead. With a faint smile, he slowly turned around to face the divine being, drawing the broadsword from his back.

The blade traced gently across his palm, and beads of bright red blood welled up.

“A divine being? Hmph. You may have evolved to mimic a human, but in essence, you’re nothing more than a beast.”

With blood streaked across his hand, Ke Bei gripped the wooden hilt tightly, snorting disdainfully.

“A beast remains a beast forever!”

He spat the words in a low growl, then stamped his foot hard upon the ground. Like a ripple on water, he vanished, reappearing behind the divine being in an instant, leaving only a clear afterimage where he once stood.

“Die!” the divine being roared, swinging a massive fist at the afterimage Ke Bei had left behind. The punch tore through the air with a sharp, whistling sound.

A sickening squelch.

“Damn!”

Its fist passed straight through the afterimage, and the divine being instantly realized something was wrong.

“It’s just an afterimage!”

“Heh, too late, beast!”

Behind it, Ke Bei let out a wild laugh. His muscles tensed, and the broadsword whistled through the air with a crackle of wind and thunder. In one fluid motion, he unleashed a Lightning Slash—so swift it left no pause, so fierce it struck like a thunderbolt.

Blood sprayed high. With a single strike, Ke Bei cleaved the divine being in two.

Strength, speed, and the blade’s keen edge—against Ke Bei’s assault, this low-tier divine being stood no chance. The much-vaunted resilience of its body was a joke before the broadsword’s edge; its vaunted speed paled before Ke Bei’s ghostly footwork.

Perhaps, against human cultivators with strange and varied abilities in the Transcendent realm, Ke Bei might not be able to kill with a single blow. But a low-tier divine being, reliant only on brute strength and physical toughness—both of which he completely suppressed—could be slain effortlessly.

Slaying the divine being with one clean strike, Ke Bei wasted no time. He crouched beside the corpse and deftly dug out the divine core from its brow, dropping it into the leather pouch at his waist. Only then did he exhale, slowly rising to his feet.

“The first.”

Ke Bei’s expression was grave as he swept his gaze swiftly across the battlefield. He had only seven days left. If he failed to finish the chain mission of the Nine Suns Divine Art, he would never gain true inner strength—and without it, how could he ever ascend to the world’s pinnacle?

The pressure weighing on Ke Bei was immense.

“Nothing?”

He scanned the battlefield once more, but after a long moment, found no second divine being. A wave of anxiety rose in his chest. At that moment, dozens of green-furred zombies, led by three purple-furred ones, shambled toward him, heedless of their doom.

“Out of my way!”

Annoyed, Ke Bei didn’t even spare them a glance as he swung his broadsword. A silver gleam flashed at the blade’s edge, and in an instant, dozens of green-furred zombies and the three purple-furred ones were cleaved apart.

“Commander Wang and the others must have entered the city.”

Ke Bei didn’t even bother to retrieve the crystal coins, murmuring to himself as he dashed toward Wushan City in a blur.

“As expected, there are divine beings here.”

With a flicker, Ke Bei leaped into the city within a few breaths, catching sight of several members of the Three-Star Squad locked in combat with a dozen low-tier divine beings. His heart leapt with excitement.

“Ha!”

Wang Meng, a lower Transcendent in the Three-Star Squad, let out a battle cry. His arms suddenly tripled in size as he slammed a fist at the divine being before him.

A thunderous crash rang out. Though humans were generally weaker than the divine beings, Wang Meng, relying on sheer brute force, sent the low-tier divine being flying.

Ke Bei was moved by the display, but when he saw Wang Meng’s swollen arms, he understood: every Transcendent awakens a unique gift, and Wang Meng’s must be the ability to massively enhance his arm strength.

“Hmph!”

The divine being, sent flying by Wang Meng, grunted coldly and charged back. Though Wang Meng’s arm strength had been momentarily overwhelming, the divine being’s body was astonishingly resilient. Taking the blow head-on, it remained unscathed and launched itself back into battle.

“Beast!” Wang Meng roared, undaunted, preparing to charge again.

But in a flash, a blurred figure interposed itself. It was Ke Bei.

“Go help Commander Wang. Leave this beast to me.”

Ke Bei smiled faintly. Without waiting for a reply, he flashed forward again, leaving several afterimages. In the next instant, he stood before the divine being.

“The second.”

He uttered the words coldly, and the blood-stained broadsword came crashing down.

A wet splatter.

Ke Bei moved so swiftly that the divine being hardly had time to react before he was upon it, blade already descending. With a deft flick at its brow, he dug out another shimmering divine core.

“Next.”

Without pausing, Ke Bei darted toward another low-tier divine being beside a Three-Star Squad member.

Wang Meng stared blankly at the bisected body of the divine being for a long while before cursing under his breath at Ke Bei’s retreating back—what a freak!

Among lower Transcendents, only those gifted with speed could compare, but even then, Wang Meng had never seen anyone as monstrously fast as Ke Bei. Usually, those who excelled in speed were weaker in strength, yet Ke Bei could still split a divine being’s iron-hard body in a single stroke. What kind of power must that take? Wang Meng felt his mind spinning.

“Damn, that’s a monster.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Wang Meng shot a glance at Ke Bei’s back and leapt deeper into the city—Commander Wang and the rest of the Three-Star Guard Squad had already plunged into the fray, and he had to help.

Ke Bei, moving with uncanny steps, flickered in front of another low-tier divine being and dispatched it with yet another clean cut. Another divine core was tucked into his pouch.

He nodded briefly at the stunned Three-Star Squad member before darting off toward the remaining divine beings.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Each time his form blurred, seven afterimages lingered; seven more low-tier divine beings fell, and Ke Bei’s pouch grew heavier with their cores.

“Run!”

The surviving divine beings, locked in fierce battle with the Three-Star Squad, stared at Ke Bei in terror and bolted for the city center.

In the blink of an eye, seven divine beings had perished. The remaining four dared not linger, unleashing desperate bursts of speed as they fled.

To them, Ke Bei was at least a mid-tier Transcendent—far beyond their ability to resist.

“Haha, splendid!”

In one fell swoop, Ke Bei had slain seven divine beings. Counting the previous two, he had killed nine. Satisfaction welled within him.

After scanning the surroundings and finding not a single divine being left, he shook his head, a little disappointed.

“I can’t get too greedy. The higher-ups of the divine beings will soon notice me. Killing more low-tier ones will only get harder then.”

“Time to hunt some zombies instead.”

Ke Bei chose to hide his strength for the time being, refraining from charging deeper into the city. He knew well the old saying: the tallest tree in the forest attracts the wind. If there were so many low-tier divine beings at the outskirts, there would surely be more formidable ones at the heart of the city.

With his current strength, he could dispatch low-tier divine beings instantly, but if he ran into a mid-tier one, even escaping might prove impossible.

He understood himself clearly—while capable of killing low-tier divine beings in a single blow, his true strength was not much greater than theirs. If a mid-tier divine being targeted him, he’d be in grave danger.

As the deafening roar of battle echoed all around, Ke Bei’s form blurred once more—charging headlong into the throng of zombies.