Infinite Slaughter System: I Kill, Therefore I Ascend!-Chapter 196: The Preliminaries! 9

This sight caused the entire arena to become silent for a few seconds, many people speechless at the implication.

"...Uh." Someone finally said.

"...Those are linked." Another finally uttered.

"So he..." Another finally started.

"He often... kills those he sleeps with." Another finally finished bluntly, face twisted with disgust and amusement.

Even in the Asura section fully of heartless murderers, a few expressions became slightly disdainful with hints of disgust.

The Overseer’s face remained neutral, but his eyes cooled slightly.

"Wang Feng, Asura Blood Path. Significant killing karma, heavily entangled with lust karma. The Asura Path values clean slaughter karma as a tempering force. Mixed karma of this type is... less than ideal. Overall rating... B Rank!"

A low murmur spread in the lower paths section as Asura slaughter was one thing, but this kind of indulgent cruelty hit even some demonic cultivators the wrong way.

There were no rules against it and they wouldn’t be hypocrites to criticize him on mortality... but it was in bad taste, nonetheless.

Wang Feng’s jaw clenched, eyes flickering with stubbornness, convinced his way was correct.

He turned his head and locked onto Li Ling, who had - finally - opened his eyes a fraction to glance at the display before giving a thumbs down with a look of disdain.

Heat flushed Wang Feng’s face.

"So my karma’s dirty, eh? Fine, I’ll purify it with your blood!!" He thought maliciously, teeth grinding with hatred and barely suppressed madness.

"Next person, Bai Yegui!"

The roar of whispers that followed nearly drowned out the Divine Deva Overseer’s voice.

"The Twin Monster!"

"The red talent genius!"

"I’m curious what such a monster’s karma looks like..."

Bai Yegui walked onto the platform with his usual quiet grace, pale features calm as he stood in the beam, eyes half-lidded, allowing the Wheel of Karma to shine down uninterrupted.

The light settled, but nothing appeared.

For a few seconds, there were no threads at all... no lines around his limbs, his mouth, nor his lower body.

Then, in a slow manner, a single silver thread emerged that ran from the center of his chest and went upward, passing through his skull then extending above his crown, vanishing into the air.

This thread was thin and almost fragile-looking, but it shimmered with a eerie yet ethereal light, like viewing a phantom ghost bride in her best state.

This strange phenomenon caused everyone in the audience to fall into a confused silence.

"...What the heck is that?"

"All his karma... is just that one line?"

On the high platform, several elders shot to their feet.

"That’s...!!!"

"Impossible!"

"That’s a second-life soul bridge...?!"

Path Saint Hei An of the Hungry Ghost Path tilted her head, the emptiness in her sockets somehow intense.

The Divine Deva Overseer inhaled slowly, his brows shaking as he slowly announced the results, voice carrying a hint of awe for the first time.

"Bai Yegui, Hungry Ghost Path. His bodily karma - whether from killing, lust, or speech - has been... reset. What remains is a single soul-bridging karma thread, connecting his current existence to a past death."

He paused, then continued, explaining the details for the general audience.

"This indicates that his previous life perished prematurely under an unnatural death, but his spirit did not reincarnate or disperse. Rather, it possessed his dead body perfectly, allowing his soul to fuse entirely with his body and mind once more. There are no extra remnant souls, no borrowed bodies like the Nascent Soul possession. This is a true second life in the same vessel."

A ripple of exclamations burst out.

"A second authentic life..."

"That’s one of the rarest Yin cultivation templates!"

"Hungry Ghost Path jackpot!"

Hei An laughed, which was a dry and eerie sound, then rose smoothly to her feet.

"Bai Yegui, from this day forth, you will be my personal disciple." She declared casually, her voice raspy like wind through bones.

Gasps sounded out from the assemblage, and even Gu Mugui, Hall Master of the Hungry Ghost Hall, flinched sharply as if whipped, his face flushing. He’d had his eye on Bai Yegui for his own faction, but when a Path Saint spoke, a Hall Master could only bow.

Bai Yegui’s calm composure froze for a brief second before he cupped his fists toward the upper platform and bowed deeply.

"Disciple greets Master." He said solemnly, a shameless twinkle in his eye as his lips curled up slightly.

Likewise, Path Saint Hei An’s thin lips curled with cruel satisfaction, as if pleased to steal another’s toy.

Meanwhile, down among the competitors, Shi Gaolin’s fists tightened until his knuckles turned white.

’...So that’s it, I guess. I scrape and claw my way to become the Hall Master’s disciple while this fellow just... gets a second life template and a Path Saint for a master.’ He thought with unwillingness.

His bitterness was real, but when his eyes slid to Li Ling and saw the faint gleam of genuine interest in the Asura War Demon’s gaze, his malice cooled down rapidly.

’At least if I lose, I’ll lose to monsters, and not worms!’ He thought with a snort.

"Next person, Bei Dongshi!"

All eyes moved to the blindfolded Desolate Hell Path genius as Bei Dongshi stepped into the beam, his posture straight, band of black cloth covering his eyes as always.

He clasped his hands behind his back and waited calmly as the revealing light fell on him but... nothing happened, again.

No threads appeared, not a single line for over a minute of waiting by the spectators who thought it might be similar to the previous one.

"...No way, again?"

"Is this thing broken?"

"No, it lit for everyone else except those two freaks..."

The Divine Deva Overseer’s brows furrowed as he shifted the array, strengthened the beam, and had the wheel rotate a quarter-turn, but the result was the same.

There was absolute karmic silence around Bei Dongshi’s body, no killing threads, no lust threads, no verbal karma, nothing tied to his heart or blood.

"He has... no karma?" Someone whispered, horrified as they finally realized the truth.

On the upper platform, Zhen Mingshen, Path Saint of the Desolate Hell Path, suddenly burst out laughing, the sound muffled behind bandages.

"Hahaha... good, good, good! To think such a seed would show up in this era..." This genderless Path Saint croaked, eyes blazing like twin beams.

The Divine Deva Overseer shook his head and gathered himself.

"Bei Dongshi, Desolate Hell Path. The Wheel of Reincarnation cannot detect active karmic threads on his body, so either his karmic load has been entirely severed or it is being diverted elsewhere. For the Desolate Hell Path, which walks the road of severing cause and effect and stepping outside the script of Heaven... this is considered supreme fortune."

He paused and drew in a breath.

"Overall rating... S Rank dedicated authority, approaching the theoretical limit of this test!"

The arena exploded, and the few Desolate Hell disciples were practically howling!

Yan Moqing, the lower sect Hall Master of Desolate Hell, clenched her jaw, purple hair trembling slightly beneath her veil.

But before she could even open her mouth...

"Bei Dongshi." Zhen Mingshen’s voice cut through the noise like a blade.

"Come to the middle layer. From today, you are my disciple." The Path Saint demanded coldly.

Bei Dongshi bowed in the direction of the voice without hesitation. "Yes, Master."

Yan Moqing’s lips thinned beneath her veil, but she said nothing. When a Path Saint claimed someone, even she could only accept it with grace or look petty.

Meanwhile, Li Ling chuckled softly as he found all this betrayal and indignation to be very funny.

’A karma-less fate cutter and a twice-born ghoul. Tsk, tsk, this generation really is stacked!’ He mused.

Then the Overseer took a breath and raised his jade slip again.

"Next person... Li Ling!"

The noise in the arena jumped instantly to a fever pitch as the target of everyone’s curiosity and interest was finally called forth!

"At last!"

"What will his karma even look like?!"

"He smashed entire sects wiped out cultivator markets, massacred countless righteous path cultivators... can the Wheel of Reincarnation even handle it?"

"Maybe it’ll snap in half? Heh."

Li Ling rose leisurely to his feet and strolled toward the center of the platform, hands tucked into his sleeves, not bothering to hide the smile playing at his lips.

He stepped into the beam of light and for an instant, nothing happened. Many people in the crowd began to groan, thinking that it was going to be another show of no karma lines but how could things be that simple?

However, the next moment changed the nature of the entire event as the Wheel of Reincarnation almost audibly screamed like someone placed under a crushing weight all of a sudden, its pale-gold light forcibly compressed, then detonated into a pillar of crimson so intense it seemed almost solid.

The entire arena shook as a howling gale of killing intent tore through the arena, making weaker disciples gasp and clutch their chests.

Good news, the karma threads finally appeared.

Bad news, they were not a few in number, not dozens, not hundreds, but hundreds of millions!

They coiled around Li Ling’s arms, shoulders, neck, chest - every inch of his body - layer upon layer, so densely packed that from a distance, they no longer looked like individual strands at all... no, they now resembled a cloak!

A giant roiling red cloak that billowed crazily behind the young man, extending upwards and seemingly vanishing into the sky. The air behind his back became a swirl of blood-colored fabric made of pure karma, whipping in a wind only it could feel.

The arena went dead silent as every pupil rapidly constricted due to the fact that, in the depths of that karmic cloak, shapes began to form.

At the ends of those innumerable threads, countless faces flickered - men, women, children, cultivators, mortals, beasts - each one twisted with rage, hatred, or despair. They glared down at Li Ling, mouths open in silent screams, ghostly hands reaching toward him.

A lesser man would have been drowned in that hatred, pressed to his knees by the sheer weight of it, but Li Ling simply tilted his head upward, his dark blue eyes peering directly at the myriad spirits atop those karmic threads.

The faces locked in hate froze, then they flinched as their fury collapsed into terror. Spectral heads bowed in obeisance and features became blurry as if they didn’t dare maintain distinct identities before him. One by one, ten by ten, a hundred by hundred, they sank down, kneeling within the sea of red.

From the stands, no one could see that detail clearly, they only felt the crushing pressure ease slightly as the phantom resentment... submitted!