Chapter 194 – The Soul Reaper King!
After landing his control technique, Jiang Zhe immediately pressed the attack.
Runes of law flared across the pale, sickly skin of his demonic avatar. Space rippled violently around him. In the next instant, Jiang Zhe's figure blurred and forcibly slipped into the fabric of space itself.
This was his innate secret technique: [Void Walker]!
Also known as "Teleportation."
It was clear that this Flame Immortal Zerg Empress had never once considered this assassination mission difficult. She never even bothered to set up a spatial lockdown from the start. It wasn't that she couldn't — as someone close to the invincible Monarch level, she had long since mastered the three profound mysteries of spatial law.
By the time Jiang Zhe reappeared, he was already tens of kilometers away, right before the massive spherical mother nest.
Space fluctuated violently. A three-meter-tall silhouette abruptly stepped out of the void, raising a hand to fling a barely visible streak of blood-red light at the mother nest.
That blood light stretched into a fine crimson thread, like the fabled red string of fate said to bind destined lovers. But this string, delivered by Jiang Zhe, was anything but gentle — it was cruel.
It was a Blood String, a mark from Yama, the underworld king, sent to claim a life.
"One thread ties Bilu and Huangquan alike!"
This was a rough, embryonic ultimate technique Jiang Zhe had devised himself, meant specifically to synergize with the Blood Transformation Godblade. It didn't aim for sheer power, only extreme penetration, designed to break through an enemy's armor and let the blade contact the divine body directly.
Once that happened, the restrictions hidden within the Blood Transformation Godblade would activate, and the power of [Annihilation] would deal the true damage.
To use an analogy, this technique was like a rocket that delivered a satellite into orbit.
The blood thread landed on the mother nest. Its carapace — not even a true treasure — was easily pierced, allowing the Blood Transformation Godblade to sink deep into the nest, its blade edge biting into the Empress's hundred-meter-tall snowy-white divine body.
One strike to pierce the armor and wound the flesh!
The blood poison flooded in.
Agonizing pain erupted throughout the Zerg Empress's body, abruptly waking her from the shock of Jiang Zhe's earlier mental assault.
"Ahh! It hurts! What is this? My divine body — it's been obliterated by 20%!"
"A secret technique? No… it's this blade. The blade is the problem!"
"A supreme treasure? A mere World Lord, yet he can wield such a weapon?"
"Jiang Zhe! You damn bastard!"
With a metallic clatter, chains wreathed in flames lashed out from the Empress's back, wrapping around the fierce blood-hued curved blade to keep it from escaping, then dragging it away from the mother nest.
Her once enchanting face twisted hideously from the pain. The Zerg Empress let out a shrill screech, unleashing a wild, indiscriminate soul shockwave in every direction.
But to Jiang Zhe, who had maximized his soul defenses, it was little more than a breeze.
"A spiritual-type heavy treasure?"
The world force woven into the Blood Transformation Godblade sensed the binding power of those flaming chains. Jiang Zhe raised an eyebrow, realizing that this Zerg Empress's identity was truly extraordinary.
Meanwhile, the Empress gritted her teeth through the searing pain coursing through her body. She forcefully commanded the countless Immortal Zerg warriors whose minds had been shattered by Jiang Zhe's earlier assault. Rather than orchestrating a combined strike, she had them all self-destruct at once.
The damage was far inferior to a coordinated attack and was a wasteful move. But at this moment, Zerg Empress Kathleen had no choice.
Nuclear weapons were powerful, but would you dare detonate one while standing side by side with your target?
Even the Zerg Empress couldn't fully resist the devastating power of her own troops' combined strikes. If she tried to obliterate Jiang Zhe that way, she herself would be gravely wounded.
Self-detonating Immortal Zerg warriors, however, produced just the right level of force. Kathleen could withstand it, but as for Jiang Zhe — a mere World Lord — he might not survive.
"Die! Blow him to pieces! That blood blade can be my compensation!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rocked the void one after another. In the blink of an eye, dozens of Immortal Zerg warriors perished in succession, each detonation only slightly weaker than the self-destruction of an ordinary Flame Immortal god.
One after another, the explosions stacked, creating a force that would make even fledgling Monarchs wary.
The blast waves spread across millions of kilometers, collapsing the surrounding cosmic space. Terrifying shockwaves carried torrents of superheated particles, incinerating everything in range.
When they struck Jiang Zhe, however, his Pan Spirit Armor easily blocked them.
Noticing how effortlessly Jiang Zhe withstood the explosions, the Zerg Empress's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Damn it! Could he also be wearing a heavy treasure armor?!"
The shockwave slammed into them. Jiang Zhe and the Zerg Empress were both hurled away.
Her soul attacks had failed.
And there was no time to test his limits with physical attacks.
This assassination mission — failed!
Enduring the agonizing pain tearing through her body, Kathleen's mind raced. She decided on retreat, immediately using the blast's momentum to open distance from Jiang Zhe.
But how could Jiang Zhe possibly allow her to get away?
The Mixed Element Umbrella on his back glimmered faintly. Within it, his Candlelight Clone used the secret art [Abyss] to seize control over space-time. Not to freeze the near-invincible Empress herself, but to stabilize the chaotic spatial ripples left by the explosion.
As soon as the turbulence calmed, Jiang Zhe triggered [Void Walker] again, instantly reappearing right before the mother nest.
"Teleportation?!"
Kathleen's seductive eyes, now full of pain and exhaustion, went wide with shock. Then she reacted instantly.
"Damn you! Get away!"
With a furious scream, she unleashed her most powerful soul attack, pouring out ethereal godforce. Simultaneously, flames of law erupted from the mother nest's wounds, forming a repelling ring — a type of domain application — attempting to push Jiang Zhe back.
Jiang Zhe withstood the soul onslaught once more. The world around him shifted, transforming into an endless expanse of desolate mountains.
World Projection!
The flames shattered. Her law domain collapsed.
Nearby, several Lords and Monarchs who had survived the earlier blasts were about to rush to aid their mistress — only to be pinned down by the crushing force of the projected world.
Jiang Zhe raised his hand.
World force tugged on the Blood Transformation Godblade, ripping it free from the binding flame chains.
The blade slashed through the void, tracing another bloody line. It pierced her armor once more, sinking deep into the mother nest and biting into Kathleen's enchanting divine body.
The second cut: to wound the soul and shatter the spirit.
"No! No — don't do this — aahhh!"
At this moment, Kathleen bitterly regretted not having a heavy treasure armor instead.
She was absolutely right — the perfect counter to the Blood Transformation Godblade was armor or palace-type treasures.
The blade was absurdly sharp, but Jiang Zhe's own strength was insufficient to break true heavy treasure defenses. Against other G-grade armor, however, with 220,000 times the soul power of a typical World Lord infused into the blade, it could slice them apart effortlessly.
"It hurts! It hurts so much! My divine body… another 20%?!"
With 40% of her divine body obliterated, Kathleen's aura plummeted by over half. The excruciating pain nearly overwhelmed her consciousness.
Wearing the protective "Pan Spirit" shell, Jiang Zhe was bold. He leaped onto the mother nest and approached the Empress directly.
Placing his hand on her head, he poured world force into her divine body.
Though transformed into energy, the internal structure of a Zerg Empress remained largely the same — crystalline, filled with countless energy lines and channels, and dotted throughout with 10,000 luminous orbs.
These weren't her soul cores, which had already suffused every inch of her divine body, but they were crucial nodes.
Control them, and he could enslave the Zerg Empress.
Yes — enslave!
Jiang Zhe was mad enough to plan this from the very start.
"Original Sin Secret Art: Myriad Demons Devour the Heart!"
This was one of over a hundred soul enslavement techniques gifted to him by the Seraph, designed to stir, divide, and seize the deepest original sins lurking in a being's heart, carrying a taste of driving them mad.
As his foreign power invaded her divine body, Kathleen's consciousness briefly cleared.
"You… you actually dare to enslave me?"
Her shrill roar dripped with humiliation.
As a Zerg Empress — a natural master of the soul — this was a disgrace of the highest order.
She was the one who enslaved others. How dare a mere World Lord try to enslave her?
Fighting through the agony wracking her divine body and soul, she resisted with all her might.
But soon, Kathleen despairingly discovered that under the torment of unbearable pain, her will was already beginning to crumble.
"No! I won't accept this! Die!"
Kathleen's eyes went bloodshot. With a hysterical roar, she forced all the Monarchs and Lords under her thrall to self-destruct.
At the same time, she burned her divine body.
Her power spiked a thousandfold. The soul-force attack she launched was something Jiang Zhe absolutely couldn't withstand.
Even with the Pan Spirit Armor — built to block material attacks — its soul defense was only incidental, reducing power by 90% at best.
Jiang Zhe had long prepared. Watching Kathleen closely, the instant she ignited her divine body, he acted.
He wrapped world force around the entire mother nest and slipped it into a heavy treasure orb.
The shockwaves from all those exploding Monarchs and Lords struck the orb's outer shell, their force diffused to near nothing.
Inside the emerald orb, Jiang Zhe's eyes flashed coldly.
"Submit!"
He roared, unleashing a universe overlord-level will, battering Kathleen's mind.
Before her thousandfold-strength soul-force could burst out, Jiang Zhe's will crashed into her sea of consciousness.
Already tortured by unspeakable pain, Kathleen's mind went black under the assault. She fainted completely, all resistance shattered.
Now, she was in an even worse state than when Luo Feng enslaved Ilena.
Within Jiang Zhe's demonic avatar, the Seraph watching through the [Codex of Life] couldn't help but sigh.
"As expected, this blood blade and soul technique are a perfect pair."
"Whoever forged this bizarre weapon did so solely to torment living beings, inflicting ultimate pain on body and soul alike… it acts like a debuff, weakening the target's will and making soul enslavement so much easier."
"Without the 'blood poison' destroying this Zerg Empress's mind, with only your pseudo-overlord willpower, you'd never be able to enslave someone nearly at Monarch Invincible level."
Glancing at the Mixed Element Umbrella and the Blood Transformation Godblade, even the Seraph knew not to underestimate these tools.
Jiang Zhe heard her mutterings but ignored them.
"Of course it's sinister. The original version of this blade gave even Nezha and Lei Zhenzi a nightmare."
Before long, he seized control of the 10,000 vital nodes in Kathleen's divine body, completing the soul enslavement.
Lifting the Blood Transformation Godblade, he slashed her once more — but this time, he activated the blade in reverse, drawing back the blood poison instead of unleashing the third strike of [Annihilation] that would have destroyed her divine body outright.
As the blood poison retreated, the pain subsided.
Kathleen's awareness returned. Her ruby-like eyes opened, now calm and gentle.
"Master."
Her soft voice still held that eerie, soul-piercing allure. The Empress's hundred-meter figure rose from the mother nest and gave Jiang Zhe a graceful bow.
Jiang Zhe nodded slightly.
"Zerg Empress, your name?"
"Kathleen, Master."
"Who sent you on this assassination mission?"
"By order of my race," Kathleen replied. Then, sensing his intent, she added,
"I think I understand what you want — you hope to identify the leaders of the spy networks within human territory."
Jiang Zhe nodded.
"That's impossible."
Kathleen explained in detail.
"I am merely an executioner, not part of the espionage network. I've never met any of the operatives hidden within human realms."
"I received my orders within the Zerg domain, handed over an immortal crystal used as a coordinate beacon. That was transported into human territory by dedicated couriers, distributed to the designated locations. After that, I simply waited to be summoned by god-nation teleportation to eliminate the target."
"My race's spy systems are exceedingly mature. The moment my assassination began, they already prepared for the worst — treating me as expendable."
Without waiting for Jiang Zhe to speak, Kathleen continued.
"I even left behind a special Immortal Zerg warrior in the Zerg domain carrying 5% of my divine power, acting as a kind of divine avatar. The instant I was enslaved, regardless of success or failure, it would transmit a warning signal, marking me as in a 'compromised state.' Even if you hadn't enslaved me and I managed to escape back to the Zerg, I would still face a thorough investigation by our Sovereigns."
Jiang Zhe's mouth twitched.
So that path was sealed off — he couldn't send Kathleen back as a mole.
Truly ruthless. The Zerg lived up to their reputation as the masters of espionage.
"So, Master, please abandon any thoughts of using me to inflict massive losses on the Zerg."
"My only value now is to wage war for you."
Jiang Zhe rolled his eyes.
'Fine. You'll just stay on Earth as a housekeeper for the Jiang clan. If I can't handle a fight, you definitely can't; if I can handle it, why would I need you?'
Still, someone nearly at Monarch Invincible level, carrying heavy treasures, and a soul master at that — she was among the deadliest below Sovereign level.
More than enough to protect the Jiang family and Earth.
"Alright, let's head out."
"Yes, Master."
Kathleen stowed the mother nest away, her body shrinking to just shorter than Jiang Zhe's, following behind him like a devoted maid.
Outside, Jiang Zhe sensed someone sealing the emerald orb.
Spreading out his world force to scan, he found it was his Ninth Senior Sister. He immediately called out.
Dream Sovereign reluctantly lifted the seal. Jiang Zhe stepped out of the orb with Kathleen in tow.
The moment they emerged, ethereal godforce froze him in place.
As for Kathleen, she wasn't treated so kindly. A universe overlord's soul power invaded her without mercy, scrutinizing every corner of her being.
Only after seeing the brand of soul enslavement did the power withdraw.
"Junior Brother, you truly leave me speechless. A World Lord peak… no, even at Domain Lord peak, you managed to enslave a near-Monarch Invincible — and one of the Zerg Empresses, known for their soul mastery."
"Not only do you possess overlord-level willpower, your attainments in the soul are frightening."
Jiang Zhe quickly waved his hand, smiling wryly.
"Senior Sister, I had to rely on certain external aids. Nothing worth boasting about."
Dream Sovereign nodded, not probing his secrets any further.
"You've now slain a Monarch-level foe. I'll submit your application to join the Hong Alliance. Do you mind if we make this battle public?"
Jiang Zhe thought for a moment, then said,
"That's fine…"