Chapter 122: A Single Sword Across the Sky, Terrifying Beyond Measure

Li Kele, the Honey Badger, froze for a moment.

Perhaps he didn't quite understand why the other party was still asking after he had already stated his name, and not just once.

Despite his confusion, he put on an even more solemn expression than before and, for the Nth time, cupped his hands in a salute. "I am Li Kele, a Wilderness Ranger. I have come to pay a visit regarding a matter of importance!"

"Wilderness Ranger? You hunters usually spend your time crawling through ravines, catching monsters, and scouting ruins. What are you doing in my Myriad Demon Township?" The flying sword continued to vibrate.

It was a very archaic-looking longsword.

By "archaic," one meant simple, ordinary, and completely devoid of any design sensibility... If it weren't flying, no one would give it a second glance.

But the ability to take to the skies made all the difference. It was like the difference between a goose on the ground and a swan in the sky; a chicken on the ground versus a plane in the sky; a meteorite on the ground versus a star in the sky; or a dog on the ground versus one that could swallow the moon in the heavens.

While watching the flying sword, Alpha Ji secretly marveled at the chaotic and unscientific nature of this world, while quietly asking Ye Chao, "What exactly is a Wilderness Ranger?"

Ye Chao was also observing the sword, but he wasn't looking at its style; he was evaluating its mechanics. It looked flashy, but it was actually highly inefficient. There was no explosive force from chemical propellants, no fluid manipulation of electromagnetic conversion, and certainly no powerful, multi-layered release of wind or fire energy... Slash! Hack! Stab! Pierce! That was it. It was as simple as basic calculus or advanced algebra.

If it weren't for the fact that, like himself, one needed materials for modification and processing, how could anyone—or any demon—engrave such a primitive thing?

Puzzled, Ye Chao answered Alpha Ji's question. He had only heard rumors: the Wilderness Rangers seemed to be an organization of elite human experts. They were neutral, belonging to no city-state alliance, acknowledging only their identity as humans. Year after year, they wandered the wilderness, exploring and mapping, capturing dangerous monsters, searching for and excavating pre-catastrophe ruins, and occasionally taking on bounty missions.

"Oh, so it's the Nesingwary Expedition," Alpha Ji remarked with a sudden realization.

Ye Chao let the comment slide.

Mental communication was much faster than speaking aloud. By the time this exchange ended, Li Kele had finally stated his purpose: "I have heard that Myriad Demon Township has developed a secret method to neutralize the Calamity Poison and reverse the effects of beastification and plant-transformation. I have come to seek..."

!!!

In an instant, everything else—the evaluation of the flying sword, the Wilderness Rangers, the Nesingwary reference—faded from Ye Chao's mind. His thoughts were consumed by Li Kele's words: "A secret method to neutralize the Calamity Poison and reverse the effects of beastification and plant-transformation!"

The crises of the catastrophe were countless and shrouded in shadow. If one were to vote on which of these myriad crises had the greatest impact on humanity, the Calamity Poison, even if not ranked first, would certainly be in the top three. Even Ye Chao himself was deeply affected by it.

Hearing this so suddenly, he couldn't help but be shaken.

However, the flying sword was even more agitated.

"Hum!" With a deafening boom, the camera's audio-collection function was instantly shattered, despite being an engraved object...

And then... there was no way to know what happened next.

The camera had been pointed at Li Kele, and it could only see the sword because it had approached from behind. Once Li Kele discovered the sword and turned around, there was no useful footage left. The live-streaming experience was incredibly poor; the streamer could be considered highly unprofessional!

"Ahhh, this again!" Alpha Ji shrieked in misery, like a gaming addict whose internet had been cut or a player who had just had their save file deleted.

One could only tell that Li Kele and the flying sword were fighting. The footage was chaotic, sword energy was surging, and the special effects were likely—perhaps, maybe—extremely magnificent...

Why "likely, perhaps, maybe"? Because the camera was shaking violently, the world was spinning and reeling, the footage was a mess, the frame rate had dropped to single digits, and it was suffering from severe packet loss and dropped frames. The camera simply couldn't handle such intense motion!

It was even worse than when the Honey Badger had fought the bull earlier; at least back then, one could still hear some sound and imagine the scene.

"Eh, the footage is back!" Alpha Ji exclaimed in surprise.

Indeed, it was. The footage was still rotating, but the spin was simpler and more rhythmic; at least something could be seen. The sound, too, had vaguely recovered...

Ye Chao withdrew his hands from the keyboard. The data packets he sent weren't receiving a response, making it impossible to manifest a new camera, but remotely repairing an engraved object was possible. If that were the case, remote control should also be feasible—like piloting a drone or a scout robot, provided the drone or robot had its own power source... Ye Chao fell into deep thought.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" The camera continued to spin, frames cycling like a carousel. Blue sky and white clouds, mountain peaks and waterfalls, the grass-covered earth, and a man and a sword fighting—oh, and a small tail dragging behind.

The sword was spitting out massive amounts of sword energy, truly forty meters long... each strike was unimaginably powerful. When it slashed through the air, the shockwaves went supersonic, creating "bang-bang" sonic booms. When it struck the ground, it instantly carved out deep, bottomless ravines dozens of meters long, slicing the carcasses of the grilled-meat bulls into two halves. It even sliced a corner off a floating mountain; falling rocks rumbled down, the special effects more over-the-top than any fantasy blockbuster.

And it wasn't just powerful; it was fast. "Slash, slash, slash, slash..." The speed was incredible, the angles tricky, and the sword light spread out in a complex web.

Li Kele had removed the filaments that had been circling his body and unleashed his giantization ability. The filaments expanded, coiling like giant pythons as thick as water barrels. They could reach out a hundred meters or more, or coil tightly around him to create an airtight defense... By all accounts, the power should have been immense.

But facing the forty-meter sword, it was truly struggling.

When he held them horizontally, one became two; when he bent them into an 'S', they were instantly sliced into '$'; when he coiled them into a snake formation, they still couldn't escape the fate of being sliced into pieces.

Thinking about it, Li Kele had probably been using those filaments to dangle the camera earlier. The little tail hanging behind the camera now was just a severed piece of that silk...

Li Kele couldn't even touch the ground; he was like a ping-pong ball, being batted back and forth by the great sword in mid-air, toyed with at will.

Suddenly, he shook his body. One became two, two became four, four became eight... But the flying sword on the opposite side turned one into three, three into nine, nine into twenty-seven... It was always more numerous, faster, and stronger than Li Kele!

And so, what had been one ping-pong ball being played with in one style was now eight ping-pong balls being hit in various ways—singles, doubles, mixed doubles, triples, mixed triples...

Suddenly, Li Kele erupted with power, "Bang, bang, bang..." Like champagne corks popping, streams of white vapor spewed from every pore on his body. Each time it sprayed, his skin color transformed. After seven or eight times, he and all his clones looked like golden Arhats, so brilliant they were almost blinding.

He stopped using the python filaments to defend. He punched and kicked, dragon roars and tiger howls echoing with every movement, light and shadow overlapping; he looked like a true golden Arhat descended to earth.

But... "Ping-ping-pang-pang-ping-pang," he was slashed and hacked by the flying sword, blood spraying wildly from his body. The golden glow was quickly sliced away and faded, and within moments, his normal skin tone returned.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! A real flying sword! A real golden Arhat! Real immortal arts! This isn't a post-apocalyptic world; it's a fantasy world!" Alpha Ji watched, exhilarated.

Ye Chao was equally amazed. He recalled that just a moment ago, this person had been punching a bull, a creature of terrifying strength... and even then, he clearly hadn't been using his full power. Yet, in the blink of an eye, he had been reduced to a ping-pong ball.

This flying sword—or rather, its master—was the truly terrifying one.

What energy conversion efficiency? What simple operations like basic calculus? In the face of absolute power, so-called technique and so-called efficiency were complete nonsense. When a human fights an ant, do they care if the ant is using boxing, judo, or taekwondo? They just crush it with a finger.

"Boring! Boring! Too boring! Is this all the top-tier hunters of the Wilderness Rangers have to offer?" The flying sword suddenly shrieked. Its speed accelerated sharply, and Li Kele's attempt to mobilize his python silk for defense was simply too slow.

Everything before had been play; this moment was for real.

"Pfft!" The sword pierced his throat. Li Kele's battered, struggling body suddenly froze. Seven or eight heads flew into the sky almost simultaneously, then shattered into a mist of blood...

"A decoy? Damn it, meow!" The flying sword flared in sudden anger, transformed into a brilliant rainbow, and shot into the sky.

"Boom!" The massive floating island directly above exploded instantly, like a colossal firework, shattering and blooming. The shockwave of rocks and energy spread in all directions, finally dissipating like a sky full of falling stars.