CHAPTER 828: CHAPTER 3: THE LOGIC OF DEATH

Fisher opened his mouth, his brow furrowing slightly. Following the Death Lord’s line of thought, he quickly discovered a loophole. Although hope was slim, it was indeed a loophole.

Just as he was about to speak, the Death Lord in front of him interrupted while puffing on a cigarette,

"I know what you’re thinking. You’re about to say that life levels are not fixed, and even Humans can leap to higher ranks. So you suspect that even if the probability is minuscule, if a Human were to jump from Zeroth Rank to Twentieth Rank, wouldn’t they soon be immune to death? Hehe, if the divine plan could be broken so easily, it would be nice. Aside from the ’corresponding death’ I mentioned earlier, He Ya has other safeguards..."

"Firstly, the Twentieth Rank of life levels is a generalized concept defined for Humans. Its specific meaning is actually the ’limit of living creatures.’ In other words, as long as your rank is above Zeroth Rank, only Divine Gods can save you from death; second, aren’t you curious why since you’ve been marked by death, your rank has been continuously falling? You were able to fight the Life Minister, so you couldn’t possibly be a Zeroth Rank Human Mage, or else a mere breath from him would turn you to dust."

Upon hearing this, Fisher looked down at his own thin hands. The skeletal appearance was a stark contrast to his previous Thirteenth Rank body. In front of him, the Death Lord’s voice continued,

"Let me remind you again, this world is a world bound by rules, and any phenomenon is traceable... the reason your life level has plummeted is because He Ya had already considered that life might achieve rank transcendence. Therefore, the preliminary step in executing the Death Authority is to revert life back to the ’Lowest Rank’ of its own race; if it’s a Mixed Blood, it takes the lowest value."

Fisher’s pupils slightly contracted as everything suddenly made sense, and the Death Lord simultaneously articulated Fisher’s current thoughts and insights,

"So according to He Ya’s Power, your rank will first be reverted to the Human’s lowest rank, which is the lowest of Zeroth Rank, and then He Ya will bestow upon you the ’death of a Human.’ And the reason you’re still being chased by death and haven’t died is that you seem to have taken some miraculous drug, which continuously pushes your body to recover, raising your rank to ’First Rank’..."

"He Ya’s unconscious trait is thus exposed without a doubt. They are constantly repeating the process of reverting your rank to zero. This process will grow exponentially over time, until any miracle drug you take in the world can no longer keep pace with the speed at which your rank is lowered. After that, inevitable death will descend upon you."

"According to this death logic, as long as the Gods do not intervene, even those few beings of Twentieth Rank cannot escape the pursuit of death..."

Listening to the Death Lord’s words, Fisher suddenly felt enlightened. He panted, looking down at his hands, many strategies and thoughts constantly colliding in his mind. After pausing for two or three seconds, he looked up at the Death Lord in front of him, who had smoked half his cigarette, and asked,

"...how do you know so much? And why are you immune to death?"

The Death Lord, with a cigarette in his mouth, shrugged and looked at Fisher,

"First, to answer the latter question, which is, I don’t know why either. I can only roughly recount my experiences to you."

"You know, the faiths of the living are very complex. Most Humans worship the Mother Goddess; in the Northern Realm, some believe in the Frost Phoenix; in the South Continent, people believe in the Fermat Baha Dragon God... and even fewer beings directly worship True Gods, such as the God of Hundred Forms, the Gate, and others..."

"When I was young and reckless, in the eastern part of the Western Continent, hundreds of small countries were at war every day. Like most people, I was displaced, with nowhere to eat, so I joined a Death Cult organization in a small country in eastern Kado. Damn it, these guys chose to worship He Ya, an unconscious god. Every day the cult’s activities were all about courting death, jumping off cliffs, self-immolation, hanging, anything, saying that they could reach the heaven they yearned for through death. I followed them to court death every day, thinking if I die, then I die, at least before death, they provided food and shelter..."

"Who would’ve thought that I would survive every time they held such a ritual. At first, I thought it was luck too, but as time went on, the high-level leaders of the Death Cult actually suspected my faith was not sincere and that I was avoiding death, so they wanted to execute me publicly! They arranged for an executioner to chop off my head. At that time, I really felt it was the end, but there was nothing to do, just accepting death honestly... Who knew, after a ’click,’ my head that flew off flew right back!"

The Death Lord, cigarette in mouth, animatedly gestured with his hand, describing the situation back then, exclaiming,

"Guess what, it scared the executioner to death on the spot, and the cult leaders all fled, quitting the cult right away... from that moment on, I realized I seemed to be a very special existence. It was as if He Ya had overlooked me or something, but whatever it was, I just couldn’t die... so I decided to live well, but after a few years, I couldn’t go on living, it was too damn hard!"