Infinite Slaughter System: I Kill, Therefore I Ascend!-Chapter 209: The Round of 8, Cao Xian Versus Hu Lili! 2

Hu Lili raised her head and glanced at Cao Xian with a look of surprise and mild interest. "The weird ghost body of those skinny guys? You can use that? How interesting!"

Cao Xian smiled and maintained the seal posture, the destroyed hand reforming slowly with an infusion of Dharma Power. "Indeed, and its not the only thing I can use!"

Up on the middle platforms, Path Saint Wang Kuangnu laughed, baring her teeth. "Interesting. Very interesting! Cao Ling, you old fox, you really hid a good cub."

Cao Ling didn’t laugh back. She only rested her chin on her hand and spoke in a calm, even tone, as if she were explaining something mundane to disciples who had failed a basic lecture.

"The True Human Way corresponds to mundanity, to the human world. To life." She began slowly, her eyes remaining on the stage, unblinking.

"And what is humanity, if not a species that survives by borrowing? By observing what is superior, stealing its methods, and adapting it into something that suits us?"

Some of the lower disciples frowned, still confused, but the older ones stiffened because they suddenly understood where this was going.

Cao Ling’s voice continued, steady and faintly disdainful.

"The other paths cultivate extremes. The Path of Beasts and Bloodlines. The Path of Light and Judgment. The Path of Severance and Emptiness. The Path of Yin and Hunger. Those powers are ’pure.’"

Her gaze sharpened slightly.

"But the True Human Way is flexible. It can imitate the nature of other paths, momentarily converting True Human Dharma Power into a simulated version of their abilities."

A ripple went through the stands.

"Simulated...?" A disciple murmured with confusion.

Cao Ling’s lips curled slightly.

"Of course, there is a price, and that is the fact that the conversion rate is poor. Even if she is a Core Formation cultivator, when she borrows another path’s nature, the output is often only equivalent to the previous major realm’s output of that path’s methods."

She paused, as if that was the end of the explanation.

"...But in battle, ’a weaker version’ is still more than enough, if used well."

On the stage, Hu Lili rolled her shoulders, the corners of her mouth lifting into a feral grin.

"That’s more like it! Weird hands, huh? Fine! Do it again!" She challenged, her Tiger Battle stance deepening, claws flexing with a sound that made weak disciples imagine their own throats being opened.

Cao Xian didn’t answer, but instead, she stepped forward and rushed towards her opponent.

Hu Lili alo lunged like a tiger pouncing in tall grass, low and vicious, her feet nearly scraping the ground as she closed distance with terrifying speed.

Cao Xian moved straight into the attack with a gleam in her eyes.

For a split second, it looked like she was throwing her life away!

Then she made another hand sign, clean and practiced, her expression sharpening into something focused and cold.

"True Human Way: Divine Deva Simulacrum!" Her voice rang out, crisp.

Her Dharma Power changed texture in an instant as it brightened up in the familiar sacred brilliance that carried judgment in it, like a courtroom’s final verdict made into light.

A pair of radiant wings unfurled behind her back and they weren’t physical feathers like a bird’s, but countless blades of condensed light shaped like plumage, layered and haloed, creating the illusion of angelic grandeur.

The crowd gasped so hard it sounded like the stadium inhaled as one.

"She—she grew wings?!"

"That’s Divine Deva Hall power!"

Hu Lili’s eyes flashed with excitement rather than fear.

"HAH!"

She twisted mid-lunge, claws carving down but Cao Xian swept one glowing wing outward.

SHHHH!

A storm of light-feathers rained down like sword-shards.

They didn’t explode this time, these were purely for cutting. They were thin precise lines of lethal light that would have diced a normal Foundation Establishment cultivator into a dozen pieces by now.

Hu Lili, however, was one of the top talents of the Wild Beast Hall and was not easily taken down like this.

She ducked, rolled, and sprang with instinctive ferocity, her body moving like it was born for this exact moment. Some feathers struck her arms and shoulders, drawing blood in shallow lines, yet she deflected others with her claws, swatting them aside with brute force and savage timing.

"Good! Now this is fun!"" Hu Lili howled with battlelust, laughing even as she bled.

Cao Xian’s brows furrowed as her light-feathers intensified, multiplying, turning the space around Hu Lili into a killing net.

At this point, even Hu Lili’s tailbone felt like it was on fire, but rather than retreat, the crazy tigress accelerated!

Her shoulders hunched, eyes locked, and she burst through the feather-storm with sheer predatory violence, closing the distance in a blink and throwing a clawed strike straight for Cao Xian’s throat.

Cao Xian’s pupils constricted as she tried to pull back, but it was too late.

Hu Lili’s claws grazed her neck, slicing a line of blood across her pale skin.

A collective roar erupted from Wild Beast Hall disciples.

"YES!"

"Rip her!"

Cao Xian staggered half a step, shock flashing across her face, less from pain and more from the realization that Hu Lili’s senses as well as her battle instinct were unreasonable.

Up above, Cao Ling’s expression didn’t change.

"She will not win by trying to dominate the battlefield, she must disrupt the beast’s rhythm." She murmured, as if speaking to herself.

On the stage, Cao Xian’s expression cooled as the wings behind her snapped shut and vanished as if they had never existed.

Her Dharma Power dimmed, then deepened, becoming heavy and strange, like a graveyard’s air at midnight.

Hu Lili’s grin widened again. "What now? More weirdness?"

Cao Xian’s hands moved as she spoke quietly.

"True Human Way: Desolate Hell Simulacrum."

The arena’s light seemed to warp as the edges of reality blurred.

For a moment, the crowd’s eyes felt unfocused, as if the world had shifted sideways and even Hu Lili noticed that her surroundings changed.

She was still on the platform, but now it felt like she was standing in a dead land under a dim sky where shadows crawled at the corner of her vision and the air tasted kinda like iron.

Cao Xian split into three figures, one in front, one behind, one to the left.

Each one smiled with the same face and each one raised a hand in the same posture.

Hu Lili’s eyes narrowed as she paused and for the first time, she hesitated, claws hovering with uncertainty.

The crowd leaned forward with interest.

"Is she trapped?"

"This is Desolate Hell trickery!"

Cao Xian attacked from the left but Hu Lili easily turned her head and slashed at her attacker, but her claws passed through empty air as the figure dissolved like smoke.

From behind, Cao Xian’s palm struck out, but Hu Lili pivoted and slammed her elbow backward.

But again, it was a feint!

The real Cao Xian appeared directly in front, striking with a cold, sharp palm that carried an eerie draining intent.

Hu Lili’s pupils contracted, but instead of panicking, she reverted to her instincts and gave a deep and slow exhale.

The next moment, her nostrils flared and her eyes sharpened into something terrifyingly beast-like as she didn’t look at the illusions anymore, but rather smelled the world!

A moment later, she lunged sideways and whipped her claws across the air.

PIAK!

Cao Xian’s eyes widened as she was forced to block because this was a case of real flesh meeting real force, her forearm jolting backward as Hu Lili’s claws struck her sleeve and nearly tore it apart.

The illusions shattered and the stadium erupted again, louder than before.

"She broke it using her sense of smell? You can do that?!"

"Damn, she’s supposed to be a tiger right? What is with that dog-like nose?!"

Cao Xian’s confidence cracked for the first time because she had assumed the illusion would buy breathing room.

Instead, it nearly got her killed.

Hu Lili’s face lit with raw joy.

"You’re amazing! Do more!" She declared, like she was praising a sparring partner she wanted to keep forever.

Cao Xian gritted her teeth, blood still sliding down her neck.

Her gaze shifted upward for a fraction of a moment, toward the stands where her mother sat.

Cao Ling didn’t move, but her eyes were calm, as if to say ’stop playing games and end it’.

Cao Xian exhaled slowly, then her smile returned but it was thin, sharp, and a little dangerous this time.

She raised her hands again, posture changing as the Dharma Power around her churned, turning dense and violent.

This time, the aura that bloomed from her wasn’t light, nor eerie illusion, nor hungry yin-hands.

It was the familiar heavy blood-like oppression that promised a callous death.

The crowd’s expressions shifted because every disciple of the sect recognized that feeling in their bones.

"Asura Blood..."

Cao Xian’s voice rang out, no longer theatrical, but decisive.

"True Human Way: Asura Blood Simulacrum!"

A crimson aura surged around her body, wrapping her like a second skin.

Her movements immediately changed, becoming sharper and more explosive, her muscles tightening as if her body had been reforged for slaughter.

Hu Lili’s eyes lit like flames.

"Yes!"

The two women collided.

BOOM!

It was no longer ranged harassment or tricky misdirection, instead it had become a direct exchange of palm against claw, fist against forearm, knee against hip.

Cao Xian’s borrowed blood aura amplified her strikes, letting her finally trade without being instantly overpowered.

Hu Lili, however, was built for brutality.

Each impact sounded like bone trying to crack bone and each near miss or evasion tore wind.

Cao Xian was fast, far too fast for a normal cultivator.

Whereas Hu Lili was relentless, far too too relentless for someone relying on power and technique.

They traded dozens of blows in a few seconds, then Hu Lili’s foot planted, her spine straightened, her eyes widened into something wild and her veins visibly pulsed beneath her skin.

And the audience felt it, the moment the tigress stopped playing.

Hu Lili raised her head, lips peeling back into a savage grin as her aura spiked.

A tiger’s phantom presence seemed to roar behind her, the air itself trembling.

"Tiger Blood Rage!"

Her entire body surged with ferocity, strength exploding upward as if a restraint had snapped.

Cao Xian’s pupils shrank and she tried to retreat but Hu Lili didn’t allow it.

She appeared in front of Cao Xian like a pouncing predator and slammed her claws into Cao Xian’s guard.

CRACK!

Cao Xian’s arms gave way and Hu Lili drove a full power knee into her abdomen.

WHOOM!

Cao Xian’s eyes went blank for a fraction of a second because that brutal strike even had a shockwave behind it!

After this, Hu Lili’s struck out a full palm that hit Cao Xian’s chest.

BAM!

Cao Xian was launched off the stage like a broken doll, tumbling through the air and hitting the ground hard, a spray of blood bursting from her mouth.

For a moment, the entire stadium froze, then it erupted.

Wild Beast Hall disciples howled crazily while the True Human Hall disciples clenched their teeth, expressions dark.

On the stage, Hu Lili panted, shoulders rising and falling, blood streaking her arms like war paint.

She looked down at Cao Xian with surprise and genuine interest, almost like she couldn’t believe the fight was already over.

Looks of admiration flickered in her eyes. "You were not bad, I actually had to use 70% of my power to fight you!"

Below, Cao Xian coughed, then forced a smile through blood. "You are truly a monster. It was great to exchange fists with you, Hu Lili."

Up above, Hu Wulei’s laughter thundered, delighted beyond reason. "Hahaha! That’s my baby girl! The strongest in the world!"

Cao Tian’s eyes narrowed, but her mouth twitched, as if she wanted to snort but didn’t allow herself.

And in the middle stands, Cao Ling’s calm gaze never left her daughter, because win or lose, this match had already proven what she wanted the entire sect to remember:

That the True Human Hall was not their weakest link, nor their beasts of burden!