Infinite Slaughter System: I Kill, Therefore I Ascend!-Chapter 207: The Round of 16! - End

Lin Yan was a nervous wreck inside, because he had already witnessed the gruesome fate of Shi Feng earlier and didn’t think he could bypass that horrendous Chaos Barrier. As such, every step the young man took up the steps was filled with struggle, his eyebrows furrowing over and over.

He had walked onto this stage with the title of ’shadow dagger’ that had enough reputation to leave even other Divine Deva disciples with envy.

Yet right now, facing the man who had promised death to all those who faced him, his fame felt like thin paper held up to fire... and so did his will to fight. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

’I can still... forfeit. If I forfeit, I live. If I fight...’

Lin Yan’s gaze hovered over to the stands where he saw that there were countless eyes staring down at him, some excited while others were full of mocking.

Li Ling’s smile deepened, as if he could hear every thought.

"Well? How do you want to die?" He asked softly, voice carrying easily through the formation.

The ease of it, the very certainty in Li Ling’s tone, made Lin Yan’s stomach clench. He found himself unable to speak, his mouth opening and closing without making a single sound, his legs heavy as if the stage had turned into mud beneath his feet.

He didn’t even notice that his own hand had drifted toward the hilt at his waist.

Li Ling tilted his head. "Do you want it quick?"

"Or do you want it memorable?" He added, his eyes curving with cruel amusement.

A cold sheen of sweat formed on Lin Yan’s back.

Then - like a blade of light cutting through the suffocating pressure - someone shouted from the crowd.

"Brother!"

The voice was young, high, and surprisingly spirited despite everything, but it pushed through the noise with desperate clarity and reached its target smoothly.

Lin Yan’s head snapped toward it, noticing the lower stands where a small girl stood on tiptoe with both hands cupped around her mouth, squeezed between taller disciples.

Her eyes were red-rimmed, but her expression was fierce.

"Brother Lin Yan! You’re the best! You don’t have to prove anything to anyone!!" She cried out at her hardest.

"If you don’t want to fight, then don’t! Come back! Just come back!" She reached the peak of her volume and roared this downwards, hoping that the right person would hear atop the cacophony of voices and cheers calling for blood.

For a moment, the arena’s roar seemed to dull in the ears of Lin Yan, his point of focus limited to one person.

"Junior Sister Yu..." Lin Yan muttered under his breath as he stared at her as if seeing her for the first time in years.

He finally was able to see past his prejudice of her low talent, viewing her not as a burden, not as someone he had to raise his standing for, nor as a reason to climb higher so he could buy better resources.

He finally saw her for what she was, what she always tried to be... his family.

Something in Lin Yan’s chest loosened, like a knot that had been strangling his heart since childhood and his eyes dark eyes full of coldness cleared.

The fear of death didn’t vanish, but it became smaller, pushed aside by something steadier, something that didn’t depend on reputation, ranking, or how many eyes were watching.

Lin Yan exhaled slowly and then, in that quiet exhale, his posture changed as his spine straightened, his shoulders relaxed and his aura became clean.

It wasn’t a surge of power like a breakthrough, but rather more like... a realization.

Lin Yan lifted his head and looked directly at Li Ling with eyes filled with determination and power.

Every clutched the edges of their seats, going quiet as they waited for his next words.

After a few seconds, Lin Yan simply smiled confidently and cupped his fists.

"I concede."

The words fell like a stone into a lake, leaving a spell of silence for half a second before the stadium erupted.

Some reacted with disbelief.

"He conceded? Just like that?!"

Others reacted with grudging respect.

"That’s... actually smart."

A few jeered immediately.

"Coward!"

"Shadow dagger? More like paper dagger!"

Even among the high platforms, expressions shifted in varying ways. A number of elders nodded faintly, because in a demonic sect, survival and calculation were not shameful.

But those disciples who valued pride and face more than life sneered openly, disparaging him brutally.

Lin Yan didn’t look at any of them.

He glanced once more toward his sister, and for the first time since he stepped onto the stage, his face softened.

’You were right, it was all useless chasing that nonsensical fame...’

Lin Yan shook his head as he turned and began to walk off the platform.

The Divine Deva Overseer’s lips parted, already about to announce the conclusion of the match when he was cut off but a soft voice that was deceptively gentle.

"Who told you to leave?"

Lin Yan froze and so did the Divine Deva Overseer as well as the crowd.

Lin Yan slowly turned his head back, a chill creeping from his neck down into his bones, seeing that Li Ling was still standing where he had always been while smiling.

But then, he vanished.

There was no warning nor any chance to react or to defend himself. All Lin Yan knew was that one moment Li Ling was several paces away and the next, he was right in front of Lin Yan, close enough that he could see the faint reflection of his own face in Li Ling’s dark blue pupils.

This definitely wasn’t speed, but more like... space itself folding?

Lin Yan’s eyes widened in pure shock as Li Ling raised a hand almost gently, like someone adjusting a collar.

His fingers pressed forward and slid into Lin Yan’s chest as if the flesh and bone covering it were thin cloth.

Lin Yan’s body convulsed and the crowd’s scream died in their throats as they watched Li Ling’s withdraw his hand, fresh red blood dripping from his fingertips as he clutched the beating heart of his former foe.

Lin Yan staggered forward, mouth opening and closing soundlessly for a few seconds before his knees buckled and his corpse toppled over.

The Divine Deva Overseer’s aura surged, but even that surge came a heartbeat too late, as if his mind had refused to accept what his eyes had just seen.

Then the scream came, not from Lin Yan who suffered the pain, but from the stands.

"BROTHER—!!!"

Lin Yan’s little sister’s voice tore through the arena with raw despair. She pushed forward wildly, face twisted in hatred and grief, pointing at Li Ling with shaking hands.

"I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll kill you! I’ll—!" She screamed, voice cracking with barely suppressed sobs.

Her hatred was so open, so naked, that it drew every eye. No matter how they felt previously, most could not help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the lass.

Li Ling turned his head slightly toward her, as if he had been mildly distracted by an insect buzzing near his ear.

His smile didn’t change, but only became colder.

"A weakling daring to show their hatred in public?" He asked softly, with a raised eyebrow, as if puzzled by such behavior.

Without any hesitation, Li Ling casually lifted his hand toward the crowd and the next instant, a beam of brutal power shot out that was clean, terrifyingly fast, and utterly indifferent.

ZIU!

It struck the girl and vaporized her so completely that for a heartbeat the space she had occupied looked empty in an unnatural way, like a missing piece of the world. There wasn’t a drop of blood nor was there even a scream.

She was simply... gone.

A choking sound ran through the stands as almost every spectator inhaled sharply, unable to believe what they had seen.

Especially the still alive Lin Yan whose pupils shrank, because somehow, despite the hole in his chest and the life draining out of him, he still had some stubborn vitality left.

Seeing the outcome of his only loved one, his body twitched violently as a surge of immense power erupted from him, rage and grief compressing into a desperate outburst, like a dying star trying to explode.

His aura flared while his eyes turned bloodshot with the deepest, malevolent hatred a person could muster.

"AH!! Li Ling!!!!"

Li Ling’s gaze turned back to him as he noted the fellow was still alive, and that was all it took for the outburst to be crushed.

It was like a mountain pressing down on a candle flame.

Lin Yan’s surging power collapsed inward, strangled before it could become anything meaningful. His body shook once... twice... and then his head fell forward.

His life ended as quietly as a snuffed lamp.

Li Ling lifted his hand, flicked the blood from his fingers like it was filth, and looked out over the stadium with a gentle smile, as if he had simply corrected a minor inconvenience.

For several long breaths, no one spoke, no one cheered and no one dared to curse.

Cold sweat trickled down backs across the entire arena - lower disciples, middle disciples, even some elders - because everyone understood the same thing at once.

Li Ling wasn’t just willing to kill opponents.

He was willing to kill spectators.

And he had just proved it, smiling the whole time.