I Am Here to Cooperate

"Death cannot vanquish death, nor can death die again." Suddenly, the Death Emperor's voice echoed from one of the arms. The keyhole in its palm expanded rapidly, and the Death Emperor stepped out with measured grace. The one Li Zhenlong had just slain was merely a ghost thrall controlled through his art of Ghost Enslavement and God Driving. Because the ghost thrall shared nearly the exact same origin as him, it was exceptionally difficult to distinguish between the two without an ability that could instantly identify a target's true nature. Moreover, both were completely wrapped in bandages, allowing the Death Emperor to effortlessly swap positions with the ghost thrall. With the bandages serving as cover, the exchange went entirely undetected. Unfortunately, Li Zhenlong was not fooled by the Death Emperor's posturing in the slightest. Wasting no words, he reached out and recalled the scepter hovering in midair, which then morphed into a longsword. Nine Heavens True Martial Demon-Subduing Sword! A single strike. Countless layers of sword qi unfolded like a blooming lotus. The arms encircling the arena bore the brunt of the attack, reduced to minced meat in the blink of an eye. Many of the arms further back hastily drew an assortment of weapons, swinging them to ward off the sword qi. But the Death Emperor soon realized that this sword qi carried an astonishing might. The Law of Strength! The instant Li Zhenlong had attacked, the Death Emperor had already swapped places with one of his ghost thralls. Suspended high above under the cover of countless arms, he assessed the situation immediately upon witnessing this. He swiftly fell back, simultaneously directing more arms toward his position to absorb and offset Li Zhenlong's sword qi. The most vexing aspect of the Law of Strength was its ability to shatter all techniques with sheer brute force. The deeper one's mastery, the more untamed and overbearing that force became—and Li Zhenlong was undeniably among the foremost masters of it. Though the Death Emperor had known from the start that he was no match for Li Zhenlong, watching him mow down the arms like wheat still sent a chill through his heart. This guy was absurdly strong. Ganging up on him was useless. Special attacks were useless. A frontal assault was hopelessly out of reach. The Death Emperor had considered sending all the arms swarming in at once to pummel Li Zhenlong into paste with an all-out barrage, but executing that in practice was impossible. If they all charged in a cluster, a single sweep of Li Zhenlong's sword qi would wipe them out entirely. It was better to leave them loosely encircling the arena to obscure vision and provide cover for his ghost thralls. That way, with so many ghost thralls concealed among the arms, it was much harder for Li Zhenlong to pinpoint the Death Emperor's true body hidden within. This actually bought him time! Just moments ago, the Death Emperor had simply wanted to look cool and use bravado to throw Li Zhenlong off balance. But Li Zhenlong was truly maddening to deal with—his mind was as unyielding as a boulder, his will forged like iron. He didn't buy that act at all. Still, sensing more and more arms being slaughtered, the Death Emperor could no longer sit idly by. His eyes narrowed slightly, and a dense aura of death erupted from his entire body. In an instant, a rift tore open across the sky, and a dense swarm of ghost thralls and reapers descended from above. These ghost thralls and reapers were formidable in their own right, largely at the level of the Emptiness Realm. Li Zhenlong looked up to see a dark, writhing swarm of bizarre, grotesque monstrosities raining down. The sword in his hand transformed once more, turning into a broad saber. In truth, his choice of weapon was never arbitrary. As a martial arts powerhouse possessing monstrous combat talent and rich battlefield experience, every weapon he wielded was tailored to handle a specific situation with absolute perfection. His sword was meant for wide, sweeping strikes—to put it simply, it excelled at mowing down mobs. Its sword qi bloomed like a lotus, severing every enemy and obstacle in its wake. His saber, on the other hand, was meant for penetrating deep into enemy lines, driving straight into the heart of the foe. Nine Nether God-Slashing Buddha-Extinguishing Demon Saber! With a low roar from Li Zhenlong, blood-red light flared in his eyes. A frenzied, sinister aura erupted from his frame. In contrast to his earlier regal majesty, he now resembled a berserk demon who had butchered until his eyes turned red. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he spun and swung the massive saber. Blood-colored blade light burst from the pitch-black blade. Even without direct contact, mere exposure to the faint traces of red light caused the surrounding arms to rot and fester instantly, forcing them into a desperate retreat. Finally, the broad blade swept across the sky, obliterating everything. The newly descended ghost thralls and reapers disintegrated into foul blood in a flash, perishing amidst shrill, agonized shrieks. Evil. Utterly, profoundly evil. Hidden in the rearmost ranks, the Death Emperor still found Li Zhenlong terrifying upon witnessing this. Yet he also understood what Li Zhenlong had meant earlier. Li Zhenlong genuinely believed that power itself was neither good nor bad. As long as a power was useful to him, he would learn and wield it without the slightest hesitation. This man was a martial fanatic; judging him by conventional standards of good and evil was entirely pointless. Strictly speaking, his moral alignment leaned toward good, but if the conditions were right, he could just as easily align with evil. In that regard, he was remarkably similar to Yu Xian. The only real difference was that Li Zhenlong was obsessed with martial arts, while Yu Xian was a lazy salty fish. Both possessed unfettered hearts that no one could bind. When it came to morality, integrity, and concepts of good and evil, both were extraordinarily flexible—or rather, neither had any bottom line to speak of. In a single second, the ghost thralls and reapers the Death Emperor had cultivated for nearly a millennium were chopped up like vegetables by Li Zhenlong. Immediately after, Li Zhenlong drew back the red evil aura surging across his skin, returning to normal in an instant. This alone showcased the terrifying precision of his control over power. Sweeping his gaze across the remaining arms, he said, "Hiding your head and showing your tail—do you really find this amusing?" "Actually, I am here to cooperate," the Death Emperor said as he slowly emerged from among a cluster of arms, looking at Li Zhenlong. Not a shred of trust showed in Li Zhenlong's eyes, yet he said, "Go on." "There is a target who commands a vast amount of Calamity Origin. I am no match for her, but if we join forces, we should be able to take her down," the Death Emperor said in a somber tone. Li Zhenlong sneered. "You're hoping for 'the river clams to fight so the fisherman wins,' aren't you?" "Allow me to correct you—it should be 'when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman wins.' You seem to have misremembered," the Death Emperor replied flatly. Li Zhenlong didn't care. He was indeed uneducated; if he misspoke, he misspoke. So long as the meaning got across, it made no difference. He narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who is the opponent, and how strong are they?" "Margot Moxi, one of the strongest among the Mighty Ones, Empress of the Mechanical Empire. Under her command are dozens of Mighty Ones, as well as a vast arsenal of rule weapons. Furthermore, her stronghold, the Mechanical Empire, is itself a Mighty One—riddled with traps and exceedingly perilous. Even a Mighty One enters with a nine-in-ten chance of death. Unless one can defeat the Mechanical Empire first, they shouldn't even dream of reaching Margot Moxi." The Death Emperor laid out the target plainly. There was no need to hide it anyway; Yu Xian's goal was to pit Li Zhenlong against Margot Moxi. If Li Zhenlong grew interested in Margot Moxi right now, so much the better. And sure enough, Li Zhenlong's interest was genuinely piqued. Such an opponent... sounded like a worthy challenge! He felt his martial soul igniting. Yet there remained one problem. He didn't trust the Death Emperor!