Starforce Warriors-Chapter 1030: Choices (2)

Twenty years had passed, and the five Human Emperors had yet to return. At the very least, it meant they had not emerged victorious. They were still being held back by their violet-flame doppelgängers and unable to lend support.

At the Emperor Realm, battles could span centuries. Twenty years was but the opening act. Having ascended not long ago, Li Xiaofei had grown rapidly through constant life-and-death combat. His strength only continued to rise.

But he was wounded again and again. Still, again and again, he healed. His blood spilled across the void. Even a single drop was like an ocean, flooding vast regions of space. The gold-and-crimson blood clashed against the endless violet annihilation flames, ringing out with echoes of Dao resonance. It stubbornly resisted the onslaught of Oblivion’s energy.

Boom.

Oblivion formed a fist and threw a punch from a distance. In that instant, the entire Land of Annihilation seemed to collapse into a single, destructive punch. Li Xiaofei had no way to dodge, so he took the blow head-on. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Li Xiaofei coughed up a mouthful of Emperor blood.

His body hurtled across the distance like a kite with broken strings. He shattered countless spatial barriers as he went, tearing and mangling his body. But in almost the very next moment, he reappeared before Oblivion, whole once more.

Saber light surged like a tidal wave. Sword intent cracked like lightning. Wielding both saber and sword, he reversed the flow of the Great Dao and struck Oblivion head-on.

Li Xiaofei’s logic was simple. He might not be able to defeat Oblivion alone. So he had to stall Oblivion before Ding Hao and the others could return to assist him. More than that, he needed to exhaust him, wound him, and wear him down as much as possible. Only then, when all six stood together once more, would there be a true chance at victory.

Oblivion, however, remained as composed as ever. The plain man’s signature faint smile never wavered. That smile contained a mockery for life, weariness toward endless time, indifference toward all creation, and unshakable confidence in his own strength.

He smiled as he fought Li Xiaofei. Like a patient elder humoring a stubborn and hot-tempered junior, no matter how violently that junior raged and struck out, he could never so much as touch the hem of his elder’s robe.

The third cycle of twenty years soon came to a close. Li Xiaofei’s injuries had worsened. A finger-width hole had pierced right through his right chest, leaving a clean hole from front to back.

The wound writhed with violet energy. It twitched as if it was alive, yet it refused to heal. The annihilation energy of Oblivion revealed its devastating potency. Even with Li Xiaofei’s Emperor strength, he couldn’t purge it immediately.

It had taken root in the wound, and was eroding his body from within. Yet Li Xiaofei’s saber and sword had left a mark too. A long, narrow gash marred Oblivion’s left shoulder, as pale violet blood slowly seeped out.

Li Xiaofei’s eyes were heavy with fatigue. For the first time, he felt truly and utterly weary. The Heart of Guardianship, though tempered to new heights through battle, had suffered great corrosion as well.

Time passed.

Anxiety began to build in Li Xiaofei’s heart. He knew that time was running out. If the Oblivion began reviving and returning to the battlefield in their cyclical waves, then the hope of victory would diminish... until it vanished entirely.

"I know what you’re waiting for." Oblivion remained unhurried, just as he had been from the beginning, his voice calm and composed, "But you won’t be able to wait for long enough."

Li Xiaofei said nothing. His gaze remained steady and silent.

Oblivion smiled faintly. "If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you."

He casually reached out and slashed through the void, opening a rift in space and time before them. Through the gap, they could now see another battlefield.

Lin Beichen’s battle was drawing to a close. The violet-flame replica of Lin Beichen held the clear advantage. The true Lin Beichen had lost half his body, and his Immortal Force had severely diminished... Yet he still fought with everything he had.

The situation had already reached the point of no return. Before Li Xiaofei could even react, a thunderous explosion erupted from the battlefield beyond the rift.

Lin Beichen’s body detonated into a radiant explosion of brilliant light. A sea of sword intent erupted like a cataclysm, flooding the void with unrestrained devastation. The violet-flame replica of Lin Beichen was caught in the blast. Half of his body melted away in an instant, like wax in a raging fire.

Li Xiaofei’s heart jolted in disbelief, The Sword Immortal... Lin Beichen... has fallen? Impossible.

Shock gripped him like thunder, and before the spatial rift could close, the half-dead replica of Lin Beichen transformed into a streak of light, rushing directly into Oblivion’s body.

The pressure radiating from Oblivion surged violently. It became even more terrifying than before as he surpassed his previous peak.

Li Xiaofei took a long, deep breath. He felt it. Something within the laws of heaven and earth... A certain strand of Dao had vanished. It had been entirely ripped away. He felt it with painful clarity in the depths of his soul. One of the Emperors... had fallen.

But Li Xiaofei still could not believe it. He refused to believe it. That was Lin Beichen. The Sword Immortal of the human race, who stood at the very peak. An undying, immortal existence. How could he fall so easily in battle?

"This is only the beginning," Oblivion said, a cold and mocking smile in his eyes.

That mockery was not directed at Li Xiaofei and the others for overestimating themselves. It was aimed at fate, at destiny itself. It was ridiculing how they always turned something destined, something inevitable, into a farcical game of false hope and crushing despair.

He, who had seen through everything from the beginning, felt only fatigue. He was tired. He was bored. His duty and his purpose were clear, to erase those two who had harmed Mother from this world, which included their descendants.

All of them deserved death. He had waited for this day for far too long. So long, in fact, that the final arrival of this destined moment stirred not even a flicker of excitement.

He had even considered how interesting it would be if he himself were to perish in the Land of Annihilation? But unfortunately, that could not happen. He had to avenge Mother. His mission would forever outweigh his personal whims.

And so, another figure emerged from his body. A second violet-flame replica of Sun Fei took shape.

"Go," Oblivion said softly.

The doppelgänger transformed into a stream of eerie light, like a great fish diving into the void. It pierced the spatial barriers, rippling outwards as it vanished into unknown depths. Li Xiaofei tried to intercept it but he failed. A sense of foreboding rose sharply in his heart.

Three years later, the two Sun Fei replicas appeared once more, each holding a blood-drenched crown. It was the crown of the Holy Emperor Sun Fei. Emperor blood flowed, dyeing the azure skies red.

Li Xiaofei's heart sank, Has humanity’s second Immortal Emperor fallen too?

"It’s time to end this," Oblivion’s voice carried a hint of desolation.

The two Sun Fei doppelgängers dissolved back into his body, and just as expected, the overwhelming pressure radiating from him surged to yet another level.

Li Xiaofei took a deep, steady breath. When he saw Oblivion’s body begin to split again, this time producing two more copies of Ding Hao, he knew he had to act.

Li Xiaofei did not hesitate. He went all out and ignited everything. He burned his spirit, his flesh, his essence, and his Dao laws. He burned everything. If someone had to be sacrificed, let it be him.

Even if he could not slay Oblivion, if he could hold him back and stall these doppelgängers just a little longer, then perhaps Ding Hao and the others would still have a chance.

Li Xiaofei firmly believed that his predecessors would triumph. As for himself, he had to fulfill his part. Perhaps this was the reason why the entire universe and the entire human race had been waiting for his rise and ascension as an Emperor.

Li Xiaofei burst forth. He shone like a blazing sun, burning with divine fire as he charged toward Oblivion.

Come. Let us fight. Let everything end. Right here. Right now.