From the end of the world

Chapter 647 The Consequences of Being Too Powerful

The monk from Peach Blossom Village referred to me as a "living sacrifice," a term that was reasonable from his perspective. For Peach Blossom Village, the thirty million people of the southern cities were living sacrifices offered for their "Shangri-La" plan. However, I noticed something amiss in his tone; his words could also be interpreted as Jiao Shu himself seeking living sacrifices from the outside world.

What's even more suspicious is that Jiao Shu's expression and emotions changed strangely after hearing the words of the cultivator from Peach Blossom Village.

"But you're really unlucky," the Peach Blossom Village cultivator commented condescendingly. "...I recognize you. You must be Jiao Shu, one of the Xuanming believers. You were quite powerful a while ago, and you killed quite a few of our comrades."

"To be honest, one of the reasons I came here was to get rid of you, this troublemaker, as soon as possible. I was wondering why you weren't here, but after going around in circles, I still managed to catch you."

"If you had returned with this living sacrifice a little later... perhaps you wouldn't have died here."

"A living sacrifice?" I asked.

"Don't believe him," Jiao Shu said in a deep voice. "The cultivators of Peach Blossom Spring are masters of sowing discord. Many people in Luoshan and the secular government have been misled by their 'Shangri-La' plan and turned into shameful traitors. Even some of our Xuanming believers have been turned against us. They are simply a bunch of devils with sweet words..."

The cultivator from Peach Blossom Village laughed and said, "Look at you. I never said you were going to use him as a living sacrifice. Could my words just now be interpreted as me referring to him as a living sacrifice from my own perspective? It's not good to be so impatient."

Jiao Shu's face turned cold, and he casually pressed down on my shoulder, saying, "...It's going to get very dangerous. Don't stray too far from me. Our chances of escape are slim, and if you move, our chances will only become more hopeless..."

The cultivator from Peach Blossom Village said from afar, "Are you planning to use that child as a human shield or something else?"

He gestured, and all the monsters on the platform surrounded us. Then, in a playful tone, he continued, "Alright, how about I give you a chance? Now, tear off your hypocritical acting and hand that child over to me. That way, I'll allow you to run away for ten seconds before I chase after you—how about it?"

Jiao Shu let out a disdainful sneer.

Her current reaction, disregarding life and death, was genuine. As a devout follower of Xuanming, she could not possibly submit to the believers of Peach Blossom Spring. However, the Peach Blossom Spring cultivator opposite her wasn't truly trying to sow discord.

Although I don't know if Jiao Shu really intends to use me as a meat shield, and I don't think that in a battle of this magnitude, I, who am "powerless", have the value to serve as a meat shield, Jiao Shu probably really wants to use me as some kind of living sacrifice.

Throughout this journey, I noticed early on that Jiao Shu harbored unusual emotions and suspicious intentions towards me. While it wouldn't be accurate to call it outright malicious intent, she was definitely planning to frame me in some way. Her initial impatience with me also hinted at the fact that she was dealing with someone she wouldn't be interacting with for long. If it weren't for my ability to use words, I wouldn't have been able to extract much useful information from her.

At this moment, faced with the words of the cultivator from Peach Blossom Village, the emotional reaction on the surface of her soul was very similar to the pattern of "being hit the nail on the head." The cultivator from Peach Blossom Village did not show any deceitful emotions based on sowing discord; he was indeed telling the truth.

Jiao Shu had promised that she would never allow the cultivators and monsters of Peach Blossom Village to threaten my life—but she concealed the fact that she herself might also try to kill me.

Sweat beaded on her forehead under the immense pressure of danger. At the same time, she summoned her Impermanence Sword and whispered to me, "Our opponent is a cultivator from Peach Blossom Spring of a certain level. You don't need to know their level; just know that with their strength, escape is impossible. So, three minutes—"

“I possess explosive power, but it can only last for a maximum of three minutes. If the battle isn’t over by then, it means we will all perish. I will fight with all my might, so you must cooperate with my instructions as much as possible during this time.”

Before I could respond, the Peach Blossom Village cultivators on the other side clearly heard our voices and laughed even harder.

“I have intelligence on you, Jiao Shu. Your ability is to accumulate your strength in peacetime and unleash it in battle. The time is fixed at three minutes, and the more strength you accumulate in peacetime, the higher your power will be in those three minutes,” he said. “But thanks to the comrades who bravely sacrificed themselves for you during this period, I have personally analyzed and judged several of your battle scenes.”

"Your ability is indeed to accumulate power, but it's not about accumulating power in normal times and then only being able to use it for three minutes in battle. It's the other way around—these three minutes are the time your special ability accumulates power. Once you get through these three minutes, you can unleash power far exceeding your usual strength, displaying the strength of a Master Realm cultivator at the level of a Master Realm cultivator, right?" Upon hearing this, Jiao Shu remained expressionless, as if the other party had only uttered some nonsense. However, I sensed a turbulent emotion surging within her soul—she had been hit the nail on the head again.

"Being able to unleash magical power a whole realm above your own, this ability is undeniably strong. However, there must be other strict limitations or costs involved," the Peach Blossom Village cultivator said with an air of absolute power. "Based on my deduction, you can only accelerate that three-minute power-building process after a battle has begun. Otherwise, you could have already started accumulating power while we're talking."

"Once the enemy knows your weakness, no one will be willing to spend those three minutes warming up with you. It's either a quick battle or they'll avoid the brunt of the attack and run away before the three minutes are up. That's why you spread false information about your abilities, making the enemy mistakenly believe that as long as you can stall for three minutes, they'll be fine. Little do they know that those three minutes are actually your countdown to defeat."

"To increase the persuasiveness of the false information, you didn't even announce the information about your own abilities yourself. Instead, you spread indirect hints to those around you through your actions. You even pretended to wear a light bulb with magical fluctuations around your neck."

"The light bulb will initially be blue, gradually turning yellow and red over time, and then start flickering in the last thirty seconds... Coupled with your increasingly exhausted acting as you approach the end, anyone would think they should adopt delaying tactics to avoid being counterattacked by this 'trapped beast' on the eve of victory, right?"

"Is that really the case?" I couldn't help but look at Jiao Shu beside me, who remained calm and composed. However, from the slight tremor in her hand gripping the Wuchang Sword and the fluctuating emotions on the surface of her soul, it was clear that her secrets had been discovered by the enemy once again.

I knew that her previous act of appearing exhausted was just acting, but I never expected there to be this truth behind it.

Starting from the Grand Mastery rank, Witchers gain a deeper understanding of abstract concepts and acquire more and more incredible skills. They gradually enter a stage where they focus more on pure magical power than on special abilities, a characteristic that becomes even more pronounced at the Great Impermanence rank. However, in the lower levels of the Formation, Existence, Decay, and Emptiness system, Witchers are always in a state of limited hand types, making it difficult to truly be all-encompassing in combat.

As long as the combat methods are correct and the strengths and weaknesses of both sides are accurately grasped, it is not impossible for an ordinary person to defeat a bad-level witcher, and there are also many cases of a high-level witcher defeating a high-level witcher.

Their battles are often not a contest of strength, but a contest of wisdom and experience, and the availability and quantity of intelligence can significantly affect the outcome.

Because I entered the Strange World at the Great Completion level and became a Great Impermanence early on, I rarely experienced battles that emphasized intelligence gathering and battlefield observation. Sometimes I lamented how my overwhelming power severely hampered my adventure experience. Now I realize this again—I truly missed out on many exciting and thrilling parts of the Strange World.

Even now, in this state where I can only mobilize bad-level mana, it would only take me a boring moment to kill Jiao Shu beside me, the Peach Blossom Village cultivator opposite me, and all the monsters around me.

"It's not too late. Hand the child over to me, and I will keep my promise," the Peach Blossom Village monk said in a seductive tone.

Jiao Shu coldly replied, "Hand him over to you—and then let you and these monsters devour him alive?"

"Isn't it much better than becoming a living sacrifice for your Proclaimed Believers?" the Peach Blossom Village monk said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Here, he only needs to experience pain for a short time, and his soul will eventually be merged into 'Peach Blossom Paradise' to enjoy an infinitely beautiful dream... But where you are, even his soul will be squeezed out of its last bit of value, and he will end up with his soul scattered."

"Enough with the nonsense! Let's fight." Jiao Shu pointed his sword at the cultivators of Peach Blossom Village.

The cultivator from Peach Blossom Spring nodded with great regret: "Very well, very well. However, before that—"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly attacked, raising his right hand and, for some reason, striking me first.

A bolt of azure lightning, as wide as a tree trunk, burst forth brilliantly from his palm, instantly piercing through the air in the middle. Its very tip transformed into a giant claw woven from intertwined lightning, ready to seize me tightly.

(End of this chapter)