Starforce Warriors-Chapter 958: Blade Ruins (2)

Liu Shaji summoned the White Lotus Killing Sword and took the group with him, soaring swiftly toward their destination. Zhu Zhixun and the others had done their homework thoroughly. The route had already been planned out, so there was no risk of getting lost.

The group quickly exited the Fire Domain and a refreshing breeze greeted them. Everyone felt as if they had been reborn, their entire bodies relaxing in relief. The anti-fire gear was quickly stowed away.

“The Blade Ruins are just ahead,” Zhu Zhixun said, pointing to a mist-shrouded region in the distance.

A veil of fog covered the area. One could faintly see a ruin-like landscape through the haze, with broken walls and crumbling structures scattered across the land, as if this had once been a city devastated by war and long since abandoned.

The environment and terrain of the Holy Ruins were peculiar beyond comprehension. To Li Xiaofei, it felt as if this place had been pieced together at random by some divine being using supreme powers. It was chaotic and fragmented, yet impossibly vast.

“Let’s move,” Li Xiaofei said. “Even if it’s a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, we have to push through. Things have come this far, so there’s no turning back. Besides, we need to hurry and reach the third formation site before the Heavenly Eye Guards. If they get there first and lie in wait, it’ll be a trap.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. They picked up the pace. The moment they stepped into the Blade Ruins, Li Xiaofei felt a wave of coldness. It was like a magical attack, piercing straight through his Immortal Force barrier and stabbing into the marrow of his bones. It was yin energy.

Li Xiaofei understood immediately. Ordinary cold couldn’t possibly penetrate his Immortal Force defenses like that. It seemed the rumors of the Blade Ruins being haunted might be true after all.

“Stay close, everyone. Don’t get separated,” Zhu Zhixun called out loudly to the group.

The surrounding mist was strange, as visibility dropped to nothing twenty meters in. Li Xiaofei focused his mind. Hundreds of golden blades and silver swords condensed from Immortal Force silently floated around the group, forming a protective mesh that could instantly detect and slice apart any hidden threat.

Eerie. That was the only word Li Xiaofei could use to describe the Blade Ruins. It felt as though whispers from evil spirits were constantly brushing against his ears. No one dared to move too quickly.

“Did you hear something?”

“There’s... something whispering near my ear. It won’t stop.”

“So annoying. I want to kill something.”

The five little tough guys whispered among themselves.

Zhu Zhixun explained, “That’s the legendary ghostly whisper. It’s trying to corrode your will. Don’t listen to it.”

He had once read some of the Reapers’ internal records, and according to those texts, the Blade Ruins were said to be haunted by countless demonic spirits and wicked ghosts. These entities would endlessly whisper into the ears of the living, eroding their minds, breaking down their will, and driving them to madness without even realizing it.

Many high-level Reapers had met their end this way, falling to insanity. If their innate divine abilities couldn’t suppress or resist yin-based evil, then even level eight or level nine Reapers faced real danger within the Blade Ruins.

After all, Reapers couldn’t cultivate martial arts or learn combat techniques. They relied solely on innate gifts, brute strength, speed, and reflexes to fight. The Blade Ruins were the natural bane of such beings. That was exactly why the Reaper Ancestor Court had never established fortresses in this region.

Even Li Xiaofei began to hear whispers in his ears. They sounded distant... yet disturbingly close. At times, they were the coquettish murmurs of a young woman. Then, they shifted into the moans of a maiden in her prime.

Moments later, the voice morphed into an elder’s harsh scolding. Then it changed again, becoming the cruel, twisted laughter of an enemy. The voices constantly shifted, each time attempting to draw out his inner demons.

“There’s something up ahead,” Liu Shaji suddenly warned. “Be on guard.”

Li Xiaofei peered through the thick mist and saw a massive shadow looming ahead. It flickered in and out of sight within the haze, emanating a faint yet deadly killing intent. It was like invisible blades scraping against his skin. It was no trivial presence.

Without hesitation, Li Xiaofei summoned the Blood-Drinking Sword. The five little tough guys also raised their respective weapons. The full barbecue combo was ready for deployment. As they closed in on the massive shadow, Li Xiaofei’s pupils contracted sharply.

It was a massive, broken corpse that stood several hundred meters tall. A human corpse. Judging by its appearance, it had been here for countless years.

The remnants of its shattered armor were caked in dust and sand. Only the upper torso remained but there was no head. The left arm had been torn off by something powerful, and its whereabouts were unknown. But the right hand remained clenched in a tight fist, frozen in a combat stance. Even after all this time, the flesh had not decayed.

The wounds at the points of severance were free of dust. Faint traces of dark red blood still lingered there, as if the blood were still slowly flowing. One could only imagine how powerful this person had been in life. They had been dead for years, yet the body remained incorruptible.

“Is this one of our own?” someone asked.

“No doubt about it. He’s one of us.”

“He’s huge...”

“He probably used some kind of divine ability in battle, so even after death, his body retained the transformed state brought on by that power.”

The five little tough guys carefully examined the scene and drew several conclusions. From the style of the armor and the lingering aura, they judged that this fallen human warrior had not belonged to the Ancestor Court star system’s resistance forces.

“He must have come from the Star Battlefield,” Li Xiaofei said.

This had to be a cultivator who had reached at least the Seven Transformation Realm. He had fallen in battle against the Primal Faction of the Reapers. The shattered armor and corpse were riddled with bite marks. But strangely, the body had not been devoured. Li Xiaofei quickly found out why.

A strange, polluted force that was immensely destructive in nature lingered within the corpse. Anyone who attempted to devour it would become poisoned and corrupted.

It seemed that in the final moment of his death, this warrior had used some secret technique to taint his own body. Thus, the Reapers hadn’t dared to consume his corpse as raw material for their evolution.

“The Blade Ruins are where the Reapers discard broken scraps. They couldn’t process this body, so they threw it here,” Liu Shaji explained. “Judging by the style of armor and the martial aura still emanating from the remains, he was likely a war general under Lady Qianqian, the Martial Goddess.”

“Martial Goddess Qianqian?” Li Xiaofei had never heard the name before.

Liu Shaji nodded and replied, “Lady Qianqian was one of Sword Immortal Lin Beichen’s closest confidantes, and one of humanity’s top military commanders. She was known as the Hammer of Beichen. Her Berserker Legion was one of the most formidable battle units on the Star Battlefield. They were invincible wherever they marched. Even many of the Reaper Kings trembled at the mention of her name.”

Another hero of the human race. Respect welled up in Li Xiaofei’s heart. The five little tough guys dug a large pit in the ground and gently buried the nameless general’s remains, erecting a stone marker to honor his sacrifice.

“Rest in peace, Senior,” Zhu Zhixun murmured with his head bowed.

Whether it was real or just his imagination, as soon as they completed the burial, the oppressive chill in the air seemed to ease.

They continued forward. Soon, they came across a pile of metal fragments. These were remnants of weapons. There were shattered blades, snapped sword tips, broken hammer heads, spear shafts, axe pieces, torn-off tassels, cracked bells, ruptured furnaces, and fractured scrolls. There were all manner of wreckage.

The metal fragments grew in number, denser and denser. Eventually, the ground beneath their feet became nothing but a sea of jagged shards. It was a boundless desert of broken steel.

“Are these... all remnants of weapons once wielded by our people?”

“Yes,” someone replied solemnly. “Each one belonged to a spirit who refused to yield, they were blades of indomitable souls.”

“So many...”

The five little tough guys stood frozen in awe.

The resistance had battled the Reaper Ancestor Court in this star system for countless years. Thousands upon thousands of warriors had perished. An unending number of sons of humanity had fallen under the blades of the Reapers.

But now, a ruin of broken weapons without end stretched before them. It was proof that even more warriors, far beyond just those of the resistance, had died gloriously in the war against the Reapers.

The raw and overwhelming atmosphere of tragedy and sacrifice surged forth. Their blood began to boil. They quickly started to burn with sorrow, rage, and determination.