IRM Chapter 123

After the domain dispersed, the restless berserk beasts caught the scent of fresh blood from Ji Chi’s body and surged forward in a swarm. Everywhere the eye could see were forest-white fangs and claw tips glinting with cold light.

Countless berserk beasts rushed forward one after another, instantly burying Ji Chi beneath their foul-smelling fur.

“Chaotic Slash.” Ji Chi’s calm voice rang out faintly. Then, countless disordered and crisscrossing sword lights shot out from the pile of berserk beasts. The beasts’ biting and clawing movements suddenly froze, their massive bodies splitting into innumerable small pieces as pitch-black blood seeped into the pure white snow.

“Time Rift.” After dealing with the surrounding berserk beasts, Ji Chi didn’t even look back as he swung his sword behind him. The high-speed vibrating sword wind became the sharpest weapon, tearing through time itself and forming a pitch-black gap behind him. Two berserk beasts that had been sneaking up from behind leaped right into the rift, their bodies instantly shredded to pieces.

As the full moon was about to be stained red by the blood mist, more and more berserk beasts appeared on Beast God Mountain. They seemed to be restricted by some kind of shackle, only able to wander near the snow peak, unable to cross beyond the fortress. And precisely because of this, their eyes became increasingly blood-red, their berserk aura gradually drowning the entire Beast God Mountain.

Ji Chi wielded his twin swords without pause. His stamina bar rose and fell, never recovering to full, even showing a trend of gradually depleting to zero.

At this moment, the world in his eyes was somewhat illusory. The massive blood loss had shortened his stamina bar by more than half and made his consciousness blur. His body had even gradually adapted to the pain of his wounds, and for a moment, he nearly confused his current predicament.

Ji Chi dodged the claws of a frenzied beast that were right at his face, thinking to himself, This game is quite realistic, players can actually feel the fear of death approaching…

He backhanded and severed the head of a giant bear, while his mind was also contemplating, Why would the Beast God expend so much effort to materialize the flesh and blood of phantom beasts?

The Beast God stood at the peak of the snow mountain, frowning as they watched the chaotic battlefield not far away.

Berserk beasts continued to surge forward endlessly. The corpses hacked into pieces by the sword edge piled into a small mountain, but Ji Chi’s movements became increasingly stiff and mechanical. Several times, berserk beasts pounced near his feet before he would remember to parry and kill them.

The Beast God said softly to the Wolf King, “Slaughter and fresh blood can easily cause one to lose themselves. This won’t do—he hasn’t grown enough to control his own power.”

The Northland Wolf King stood up and shook its smooth fur. “Do You wish for me to stop him?”

Beast God: “Go over there and watch over him, but be careful not to get too close. Right now, in his eyes, everything that moves is an enemy.”

The Wolf King responded with a low sound and lifted its leg to walk in Ji Chi’s direction.

But before it could step down from the peak, a tearing roar from inside the mountain made everyone’s hearts tremble.

Then came an unprecedented violent tremor, so intense that all the berserk beasts lost their footing and stumbled around Ji Chi. But they quickly stood up shakily. This time, not a single berserk beast wanted to attack Ji Chi who was right beside them. They all turned their heads in unison, their blood-red eyes staring directly at the direction of the fortress, sending chills down one’s spine.

The Beast God’s expression changed dramatically as They shouted at Ji Chi, “Get away from there quickly! The final tide is coming!”

The blood mist instantly covered the entire moon. The moon hanging at the peak of Beast God Mountain was so crimson it seemed blood could drip from it. The entire Beast God Mountain was trembling. Countless berserk beasts awakened from Beast God Mountain, slowly crawling out from between the mountain bodies and directing their gazes at the flat snow plains. Beast God Mountain seemed to be melting—rocks collapsed and the mountain body fractured.

The snow layer beneath Ji Chi’s feet loosened. He lost his footing and staggered to the side as even more powerful berserk beasts rose from deep beneath the snow layer, their foul breath swirling around him.

Seeing this, the Beast God hurriedly commanded the Wolf King. The Wolf King understood and rushed into the pile of berserk beasts, pulling out Ji Chi who was about to be trampled to death.

Having escaped from battle, Ji Chi also came back to his senses. His complexion was still very pale, which made his dark eyes appear even more profound and pitch-black. He lowered his gaze, looked at his filthy appearance all over, and asked softly, “What happened to me?”

The Beast God was somewhat exasperated, “You were too reckless. The berserk beasts are originally the power that lost control from my body. I didn’t expect your condition to be so poor—you nearly lost yourself under the influence of the berserk beasts.”

Ji Chi was silent for a while, then shook his head lightly. “No, I was just recalling some things from the past.”

The Beast God snorted heavily and no longer looked at Ji Chi. They looked worriedly at the restless snow peak, a rare hint of despair dyeing Their brows and eyes. “It still won’t work…”

They turned Their back to Ji Chi and said wearily, “Hurry and compose yourself. When it comes out—”

Before Their words fell, the Demon Sword stuck in the center of the peak suddenly began to shake. It became increasingly loose, and before long, it was as if pushed out by some tremendous force and flew toward the distance.

Fortunately, the Wolf King had been paying attention to everything at the peak and swiftly pounced forward to catch it in its jaws, preventing it from falling off Beast God Mountain.

No wonder when I came here to look for the Demon Sword in the game, its position had changed so much… Ji Chi still had time to recall scenes from the game.

Crack—the sound of hard bones being torn apart came from where the Demon Sword had been inserted. It was as if something was struggling beneath the fissure, wanting to break free from its restraints.

Pop! Soon, a deathly pale arm stretched out from the fissure, its five fingers curled as it clawed at the snowy ground. Then came a head of silver-white hair and a pair of blood-red eyes—

It was another Beast God, a Beast God without breath, deathly still—or rather, a part of Their corpse.

The Beast God closed Their eyes, as if unwilling to see Their own lost appearance. “Ji Chi, for the sake of my teaching you for three years, help me kill it.”

The Beast God’s corpse had completely crawled out from the fissure. Before its other hand emerged from the crack, it reached inside and slowly pulled out a bone sword. The bone sword was forest-white, but its shape was identical to the Demon Sword.

Without Them saying so, Ji Chi had already stood before the corpse, silently raising his twin swords horizontally.

Seeing his appearance, the Beast God’s heart jumped. “What are you doing? Don’t tell me you want to defeat it like that? That’s my body! Although it contains only a small half of its original power, it’s still not something you can casually eliminate!”

Ji Chi stared at it intently and replied in a light voice. “I know.”

The Beast God was nearly driven half to death by this stubborn child and roared, “You know nothing! Aren’t you usually very cautious? Hurry and put on all those odds and ends of equipment! Or do you want to fall here?”

Hearing them jump up and down, Ji Chi actually had the mood to smile at Them and said, “When I first came here, Beast God Mountain was much shorter than it is now. This place was very quiet, with only the Northland Wolf King absorbing divine power. It looked very weak—everyone said it was the one that killed the Beast God. Thinking about it now, they weren’t wrong. It had just killed your corpse at that time…”

The Wolf King turned its head to look at Ji Chi, letting out a puzzled sound from its throat.

The Beast God looked at Ji Chi quietly. “And then? What does this prove?”

Ji Chi: “The Wolf King was able to kill it, and I was able to kill the Wolf King. What does that prove?”

The Beast God’s corpse slowly walked toward Ji Chi. Ji Chi’s hands gripping the twin swords began gathering power. “On the leaderboard, I killed the Wolf King a total of 2,085 times. My fastest time was 48 seconds, a record that remained unbroken by any player for two full years.”

Ji Chi lifted the corners of his mouth in a smile, his face showing a hint of madness. “Although there are many skills I can’t use right now, if something can be solved, how can it be considered a difficulty?”

He bent down, kicked hard with his right foot, and charged at the Beast God’s corpse carrying afterimages!

The Beast God stood straight at the peak, watching him like a sword being unsheathed—his entire being seemed to shine with a beam of light that one couldn’t look away from.

The Wolf King seemed to notice the gradually changing aura of the Beast God and turned its head to ask Them, “You seem much calmer. Is it because you saw his will?”

The Beast God was silent for a long while before pursing Their lips in a smile. “Yes, I saw it. His will is—advancing forward without hesitation.”

“Advance Forward!” Advance Forward was one of the warrior’s most basic skills, holding the same status as the mage’s Fireball. Its movement was simply sweeping the sword edge horizontally forward—a very ordinary strike.

Precisely because it was so ordinary, the Beast God’s corpse didn’t even bother to dodge and directly raised the bone sword to block.

But the sword edge passed through the solid body like a blade cutting through flowing water, without any obstruction, severing it in two.

The Beast God’s corpse simply separated like that, the cut at its waist smooth and even. Everything seemed very smooth.

But the Beast God frowned. “It won’t work. It’s part of me after all. You must use the power of divinity to truly kill it.”

Sure enough, the corpse didn’t turn to ash like ordinary berserk beasts. Instead, it wriggled and gathered together, reforming into a whole. Ji Chi slashed several more times, cutting it into even smaller pieces, but it was useless. Instead, it made the gathering speed much faster.

The Beast God signaled for Ji Chi to take the Demon Sword. “Use this sword to pierce its heart!”

Ji Chi firmly refused. “No, that sword can only be used once.”

The Beast God was angry again. “Who cares how many times it can be used! If you don’t use it now, when exactly do you plan to save it for?”

“Mm,” Ji Chi actually nodded. He turned to look at the Beast God. “To be honest, my main purpose in coming here was for it. Saving the snow plains was just incidental.”

Ji Chi: “Because this sword has a more important use—it needs to be used to kill that person.”

Hearing this, the Beast God froze in place, Their gaze slightly unfocused.

The Wolf King looked at the Beast God uneasily and prepared to join the battle. “Let me kill it. I also have Your power.”

The Beast God came back to Their senses and suddenly laughed softly. They shook Their head and said, “No need. Save your strength to rescue more people. To eliminate my corpse, it seems I still need to do it myself…”

The Beast God’s soul had actually become much more transparent. They floated before Ji Chi and said to him softly, “Ji Chi, I hope you still remember the promise you made three years ago when you called me back to this world—please let me rest in peace. My will is meant to protect the snow plains.”

After speaking, They closed Their eyes and gradually dissolved Their own soul, transforming into points of fluorescent light that merged into the twin swords in Ji Chi’s hands.

At the same time—

[Congratulations, player has triggered hidden quest: Indomitable Will]

[Current quest objective: Follow the Beast God’s request, kill the Beast God]

The hidden quest’s objective had changed. It seemed he had already pushed this world’s trajectory very far away.

Ji Chi rubbed his thumb over the twin swords in his hands and said softly, “I remember. The snow plains will forever remember you too.”

He flashed before the Beast God’s corpse that was struggling to crawl up, crossed his twin swords, and thrust them into its chest without hesitation.

“Ahhh—” Another piercing howl echoed through the snow peak, but this time, after the howl’s trailing sound fell, it transformed into a shallow sigh that drifted toward the snow plains with the cold wind.

[Congratulations, player has completed hidden quest: Indomitable Will]

[Congratulations, player has obtained warrior skill]

[Lv.max Unstoppable Force]