Starforce Warriors-Chapter 976: Fish Hooking The Man, Or The Man Hooking The Fish

Chapter 976: Fish Hooking The Man, Or The Man Hooking The Fish

“Waiting destined to be useless is nothing more than a waste of time.” The young fisherman said, “Since you already know about the existence of the true Great Calamity, you should understand that escape is futile and resistance is equally pointless. The path you insist on walking can never succeed. So why continue to fight like cornered beasts?”

Lin Beichen raised his middle finger, rubbed the space between his brows, and said, “You call yourself the Ancestor of Wisdom. Do you think you’re smart? Do you believe that because you embody wisdom, you can see through everything? Ridiculous.”

Yes. The young fisherman was the Ancestor of Wisdom. One of the twin Ancestors of the Reaper faction. He currently held supreme authority over the Ancestor Court of the Reapers.

Li Xiaofei had imagined the Ancestor of Wisdom many times. He had thought the man would look fierce and menacing, or perhaps be elusive and ethereal. Even if he took on human form, he should have appeared as a gaunt, elderly man with graying hair.

After all, someone renowned for wisdom must surely be one who comprehended the laws of all things and understood the vicissitudes of the world. Yet, to his surprise, the face of the Ancestor of Wisdom turned out to be that of a refined and scholarly young man.

When he remembered how he had just eaten fish, Li Xiaofei truly found it difficult to associate such an image with humanity’s greatest mortal enemy.

The Ancestor of Wisdom spoke slowly, “I was born from this calamity, so naturally, I know more than you do. I know how terrifying it is. A path lies before you, yet you refuse to take it and insist on blazing your own trail. In the end, you will only be consumed by wildfires.”

“Cut the crap. How many times have you repeated the same lines? If you’re not sick of it, I am. Just get lost already. I don’t want to hear you ramble.”

Lin Beichen sounded very much like an angry youth. He showed the Ancestor of Wisdom no courtesy at all. Yet the Ancestor of Wisdom did not seem particularly offended. It appeared he had long grown used to Lin Beichen’s way of speaking.

“Our time is running out,” the Ancestor of Wisdom sighed. He gently shook his head. “Ten years from now, I will return.”

After speaking, he glanced at Li Xiaofei and asked, “Was the fish tasty?”

Li Xiaofei nodded. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“So, do you think it’s the fish hooking the man, or the man hooking the fish?” he asked again.

Li Xiaofei didn’t respond. The Ancestor of Wisdom had asked this question once before. Back then, Li Xiaofei had thought it was complete nonsense. But now, he felt that perhaps the Ancestor of Wisdom had meant something deeper.

The Ancestor of Wisdom smiled and said, “Did you know that the universe is a stomach?”

Li Xiaofei was puzzled, but the Ancestor of Wisdom didn’t explain further. He simply turned and walked away. Just like that, he was gone.

Li Xiaofei remained behind. His heart was flooded with questions, and for a while, he didn’t know what to say. Everything was different from what he had imagined.

Standing on the stone terrace, Li Xiaofei looked toward Lin Beichen and called out, “Senior...”

“I told you, don’t call me senior. Based on Earth years, I’m not that much older than you,” Lin Beichen said as he flickered into view on the stone platform. “Just call me Brother Lin.”

He was so easygoing.

“Brother... Lin?” Li Xiaofei hesitated for a moment, then asked, “What exactly is this place? And why are you staying in this space?”

Lin Beichen replied, “This is the Heart of the Holy Ruins. You and that old monster descended from the Cliff of Ruin in the Land of Sacred Fall. It might have seemed like just a few dozen minutes of walking, but the distance you crossed spanned billions of kilometers.”

Li Xiaofei was startled. He and the Ancestor of Wisdom had merely walked a short distance while chatting along the way, yet they had actually crossed billions of kilometers?

The Heart of the Holy Ruins? Could this truly be the core of the Holy Ruins region? Wait a moment. Isn’t the end of the Holy Ruins said to be the Land of Annihilation, the place where the legendary founding sect perished?

It was rumored that the aura of annihilation within that land was so terrifying that even the twin Ancestors of the Reapers dared not go near it.

Then what exactly is this Heart of the Holy Ruins?

“This is the central land, and nothing more than that,” Lin Beichen explained casually. “You got lucky, kid. You ran into the sane personality of the Ancestor of Wisdom. That’s why you’re still alive. If it had been one of his mad ones, you might’ve already ended up as dinner in his stomach.”

“He has multiple personalities?” Li Xiaofei asked.

Lin Beichen replied, “That guy didn’t just manage to take human form successfully, he went even further and developed multiple personalities. He can shift his temperament and mental state to suit different scenarios and situations. Honestly, that bastard probably understands humanity better than even our most brilliant scientists. Maybe it’s exactly because he understands us so well that he spearheaded the Reaper faction’s transformation into human forms.”

The Reapers had never taken human form. Their appearances were strange and varied, and they took pride in their monstrous forms. It had been the Ancestor of Wisdom who had first proposed the idea of ‘intelligent’ Reapers taking human form, and he introduced a unique, effective cultivation method—one that even Reapers could use. This method slowly guided their bodies and appearances toward human-like traits.

Many clans had opposed the idea, but none had dared to defy the will of the Ancestor of Wisdom. Judging by the timeline, this had happened shortly after his battle with the human Sword Immortal Lin Beichen in the Holy Ruins. That battle must have had a profound impact on the Ancestor of Wisdom’s ideology.

But the scene that had just taken place still felt bizarre to Li Xiaofei. Logically speaking, when a top figure from the Reapers like the Ancestor of Wisdom encountered the Sword Immortal of the human race, the two greatest forces of opposing factions should have clashed in a world-shattering battle. Yet all that had happened was a casual conversation.

“Senior, is this your true body, or just a clone?” Li Xiaofei asked again.

Sword Immortal Lin Beichen replied, “Of course it’s my true body. I’m not the type who likes splitting myself into pieces... By the way, how did you run into that bastard?”

The term 'that bastard,' in Lin Beichen’s mouth, was clearly referring to the Ancestor of Wisdom. Li Xiaofei recounted everything that had happened to him in the Land of Sacred Fall.

After listening, Lin Beichen thought for a moment and said, “That bastard even cooked whitefish for you... Looks like he has high hopes for you.”

Li Xiaofei found that remark odd. He was just a rising figure among the human race. Why would the Ancestor of Wisdom place his hopes on him? Then he remembered what the Ancestor of Wisdom had said earlier, 'My daughter likes you too.' But the problem was, he didn’t even know who his daughter was.

Huh? Wait a minute, a sudden flash of realization crossed Li Xiaofei’s mind. Could his daughter be the Hui Yao Clan’s eldest princess?

He recalled how, along the journey, that princess had received excessive courtesy and attention from the major royal clans. His heart stirred at the thought.

Could it be that the princess is actually the illegitimate daughter of the Ancestor of Wisdom?

Tsk tsk.

He hadn’t expected the Reaper circle to be so messy. Li Xiaofei couldn’t help but shake his head.

The Ancestor of Wisdom had led the Reapers toward humanization, but in the process, he was almost turning the entire species into humans. If they all succeeded in becoming human one day, would they still be called Reapers or humans?

The question returned to its original form. Was the fish hooking the man, or the man hooking the fish? Li Xiaofei felt as though his mind was now filled with the voice of philosophical interrogation.

He quickly shook his head and said, “Senior, when I was in the Dragon Palace beneath the Burial Sea well, I met Senior Priestess Qin. She asked me to deliver a message to you.”