Chapter 120: The Black Blade
Relief broke across his delicate face, though his wide eyes stayed glued to the black-clad man.
The scavengers whispered in terror, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
For the first time in her two lives, Ling Yu felt her heartbeat quicken.
Not in affection or in attraction.
But in recognition.
This presence, this strength...
’Why was he here now of all times???’
***
The battlefield was chaos. The ground trembled under the weight of collapsing insectile corpses, each one massive enough to crush a house. Their acidic blood hissed as it pooled, eating into the soil, sending up poisonous fumes. The sky itself seemed darker, shrouded by the massive Gate overhead, still trembling from the passage of the Bee Queen’s colossal form.
And amidst it all— was that person.
Ling Yu’s heart skipped a beat when her eyes caught sight of him.
The long black robe fluttered against the storm of wings and shrieks, embroidered with the faint shimmer of ancient sigils. He moved with impossible elegance, cutting through the air like the embodiment of a blade. Each step carried him forward, each flick of his wrist released an arc of dark steel that severed monsters in two. The heads of the monsters rolled on the ground, while the carapaces cracked like brittle shells. The acid from the slain monsters splashed, but never once touched his body; it was as if even the elements of death refused to taint him.
God dammit! How did this man get here?!
Ling Yu’s breath caught in her throat. Her lips parted in disbelief, though no sound escaped.
Wasn’t he supposed to be stationed in another base?!
The careful calculation she’d carried out for weeks had always included this man as a distant variable. Someone to account for, yes, but not someone she intended to meet now. Not this soon. She had been cautious, deliberately keeping her distance from any path he might take, steering her team and her plans toward safety. Yet fate had thrown him here, directly in front of her, turning her neat web of plans into tangled threads.
He cut down another third-grade insectile, its dying screech echoing across the battlefield. He didn’t even flinch at the acidic gore spraying against the air. Song and the others, emboldened by his presence, charged alongside him, striking down the weaker stragglers with grim determination. Their blades found strength in his shadow.
Ling Yu gritted her teeth, frustration and unease mixing in her chest.
’I guessed we would cross paths eventually... but like this? In the middle of a battlefield, covered in insect guts, with my team barely trained, and me... still not at my peak?’
Her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on her blade.
’This isn’t how I wanted it to happen.’
He hadn’t looked at her yet. His eyes, that has always been sharp, cold, and unwavering, were locked solely on the battlefield. It was as though the monsters themselves were nothing more than obstacles in his path. And perhaps, to him, they were. For the man before her was no ordinary survivor.
In her last life, he had been more than a symbol. He had been the storm that broke the apocalypse itself. The hero whispered about in fragments across the remnants of humanity, the one who bore the weight of entire legions upon his shoulders.
But to Ling Yu, he had been something more personal.
A figure she could never reach.
She had only crossed paths with him a handful of times before her end. Never once had they exchanged words. Yet in those fleeting moments, she had stared at him from afar, her chest aching with something she had no name for. Admiration. Respect. Longing. Perhaps even... envy.
Her lips trembled slightly.
’What if he recognizes me?’
The thought struck like lightning, freezing her in place.
She wasn’t afraid of his reaction in terms of hostility; no, she knew her own strength now. She could survive any attempt against her. But his words? His gaze?
That terrified her.
Because no matter how hard she tried to mask it, she still remembered the woman she had been in her last life. The broken and betrayed woman crawling through the dirt with her name tarnished, her heart hollow, and her soul chained to despair. Back then, she was nothing compared to him.
What if he looked at her and saw that version of her? What if he stripped away the mask she wore now and exposed her for the fragile, desperate woman she had once been?
"Coo..." Fluffy’s tone jolted through her mind, as the little beast perched on her shoulder, claws digging into her cloak as its tail twitched.
Ling Yu almost laughed aloud.
’Even this Furball noticed my anxiety.’
But she inhaled sharply, trying to calm the storm inside her chest.
The man, the one the survivors called Ji Xiulan, "The Black Blade of the Apocalypse". He moved with ruthless precision. His blade tore into another monster’s abdomen, spilling steaming entrails across the battlefield. The stench was unbearable, but he remained unaffected. His aura pulsed outward, black and suffocating, filled with killing intent so sharp it nearly sliced the air itself.
Her System chimed in her mind.
[System Notification]
[Unique Divine Aura Detected]
[Entity: Shen Xiulan, "The Black Blade"]
[Rank: ???
Class: Abyssal Monarch (SSS?)
Affiliation: Unknown
Warning: This entity possesses strength far beyond current parameters. Direct confrontation is inadvisable.]
Ling Yu’s pupils contracted as her face twichted.
’As if I needed a reminder...’
But it wasn’t his strength alone that made her uneasy. It was what lay behind it. In her past life, he had been a mystery wrapped in shadows. Few knew where he came from, and fewer still understood the source of his power. Some said he had made a pact with a divine being; others whispered he was no longer human at all. Whatever the truth, he had stood above all others, unshaken even when the apocalypse itself seemed to tear the heavens apart.