Chapter Eighty-Seven: A Cup of Wine

Countless black scales formed a gridded monstrosity, blocking every attack from the worm and preventing it from advancing even a single step.

The Black Death Emperor said apologetically to Zhang Liaoyuan, “I’m sorry. I neglected you. Let us continue.”

Zhang Liaoyuan seemed entirely uninterested in any of it. “I need your help, Black Death Emperor.”

The Black Death Emperor’s chaotic features instantly turned grave. “I know what you intend to do, Zhang Liaoyuan. I never imagined you would actually sense that hidden malice. But how exactly do you mean to resist it?”

Zhang Liaoyuan merely lifted the crystal coffin, revealing the sleeping beauty within. “Embrace her, Black Death Emperor. Then I will tell you my plan.”

The Black Death Emperor extended his black, withered claws and held Shen Yun in an affectionate embrace—Shen Yun, the Demon Consort Green Water.

“Awaken, my love.”

The Black Death Emperor’s dark delta waves were like a key, unlocking memories long buried in the depths of her genes.

Shen Yun slowly opened her eyes. Memories from a thousand years ago had completely overlaid the personality of the young woman, restoring her to the woman once famed as the demon consort.

At the sight of the Black Death Emperor, her eyes filled with sorrow, hatred, pain, reluctance, and many other emotions besides.

All of it became a single, indescribable sigh. “Why wake me, I who betrayed you? If I had not lured you to Witch Water, you would not have been so easy to kill...”

The Black Death Emperor only held her gently. “You did nothing wrong. The only ones at fault are those who deceived you. Their crimes are unforgivable! But no matter. It is all in the past.”

His chest and abdomen split open, and tendrils reached out to slowly coil around Shen Yun, drawing her into his body.

“I spent a thousand years recreating everything as it was for you back then. Now, sleep and dream. It will all be over soon.”

Shen Yun’s body trembled as the black-scaled kiss slowly dissolved her, until she vanished within the Black Death Emperor’s embrace.

Her mind was rewritten, and she saw the village of old, the village that worshiped the divine tree.

There, the divine tree was still everyone’s divine tree. She lived beneath it as well, playing and laughing as though time itself would never end.

But suddenly her expression turned cold, and she looked upon it all as if she were a stranger.

“This is the core of the Black Death Emperor,” she said slowly in Zhang Liaoyuan’s voice.

No—she was Zhang Liaoyuan.

The Black Death Emperor roared in fury. “A body-swapping art! The Heart Sovereign is helping you! Zhang Liaoyuan, what are you doing?”

Shen Yun’s form gradually changed into Zhang Liaoyuan’s likeness. It was clear that with the Heart Sovereign’s aid, Zhang Liaoyuan had severed his own consciousness, disguised himself as Shen Yun, and entered the Black Death Emperor’s body.

Zhang Liaoyuan punched a black hole through the dreamscape, and a bitter wind from outside poured in, scattering everything apart, while he himself walked outward, growing larger and larger.

Within the world of consciousness, he found the Black Death Emperor’s true body—a colossal black-scaled beast, like the embodiment of the world itself.

“So that is it. You intend to replace me!”

——

While battling the black scales, Adonsa instantly sensed the Black Death Emperor’s weakening.

The colossal black-scaled beast, formed from layer upon layer of fibers, suddenly went limp, only to be pressed down by Adonsa instead.

The Black Death Emperor roared, “Zhang Liaoyuan, where is Ah Green?”

Zhang Liaoyuan’s will collided violently with the Black Death Emperor’s genetic consciousness. “You think I could have taken her place without her consent? Black Death Emperor, you destroyed everything she had, and there is no compensation for that. Hand over your body, and let you serve humanity one last time!”

The Black Death Emperor’s resentment echoed out. “Zhang Liaoyuan!”

Adonsa had no interest in the feud between the two; it rudely cut off their exchange and joined this war for the black scales.

The scales gathered into the Black Death Emperor’s formless face, which writhed and fought savagely against Adonsa.

Black-scaled tendrils bound the enormous worm so tightly it could not move, but in the next instant the worm’s hide darkened, and several massive hooked claws burst through the cocoon from the inside, revealing a gigantic centipede-like monster.

Adonsa had been silently nurturing this centipede, full of murderous intent, ever since before; now at last it burst free from its chrysalis.

The centipede was as huge as a train, each body segment gleaming like metal plating. Its hook claws, capable of severing gold and splitting jade, sliced cleanly through every black scale, then opened the dozens of mouths along its belly to swallow and digest the remains.

It was an extremely risky move, but in Adonsa’s calculations it was no less than the dying Black Death Emperor.

Only now did it finally realize Zhang Liaoyuan’s aim: to seize the Black Death Emperor’s body and take the shortcut to becoming the third super life-form on this planet.

Although Zhang Liaoyuan was the strongest veiner, and even the strongest human in this world, he was still inferior to Adonsa in the realm of super life-forms. Even though he had begun devouring earlier, Adonsa had still seized more of the black-scaled tissue.

“Adonsa, do you really think that after devouring me, you will still be yourself—”

The Black Death Emperor’s roar grew weaker and weaker, until it faded away entirely. It had clearly already recognized its disadvantage, abandoned any attempt to confront the two most powerful life-forms head-on, and hidden itself in the subconscious, waiting for an opening.

Before Adonsa had even finished digesting, Zhang Liaoyuan had already begun using his own vital qi channels to gather the black scales together, forming a giant like Kua Fu, radiating a crushing weight as though the entire space were contracting toward him.

The martial will of the veiner and the flesh of the super life-form fused together, evidently producing some unimaginable catalytic reaction.

Though the Black Death Emperor was a revenant living in the past, a full hundred thousand years of steady evolution had brought its cellular structure beyond Adonsa’s imagination and into a surreal realm.

One must know that even now Adonsa still could not fully control the backlash of its second-stage evolution, whereas the Black Death Emperor, over the long ages, had naturally accumulated at least several million genetic traits and reached the apex of its potential. It had only stumbled at the hurdle of genetic consciousness, and in the end could rely only on madly devouring humans to attain a kind of incomplete genetic will.

And yet that achievement was now being seized by Zhang Liaoyuan.

At that moment, a black hole in the air swelled and shrank, and Qi Qiuchan suddenly appeared in the Sea of Bones, holding the Dragon-Riding Rod, leaping through space, and swinging the rod with all her might toward Zhang Liaoyuan’s true body.

It was a short-range instant-teleportation item from the world of magic, commonly known as a blink dagger.

At the same time, a massive golden rune matrix blazed into being, enveloping Adonsa and Zhang Liaoyuan. Golden chains surged forth as though without end, binding both of them.

Adonsa shook once and shattered the chains.

And in that fleeting instant, a samurai reeking of sulfur drew his Flame Blade and unleashed a full-force iai strike, cutting off a small piece of black scale.

A lotus flower flashed into existence, and from within it a skeletal hand emerged to snatch up the black scale.

Success!

The joy of success made everyone in the little group feel, for a moment, as though they were floating on air. But very soon, they were seized by terror.