From the end of the world

Chapter 682 Risk
I've killed plenty of enemies on the battlefield, but turning them to defect is something I'm completely unfamiliar with. Hearing Xiaowan suggest this direction immediately piqued my interest, and I asked, "Turning them to defect...how exactly do you want to do that?"

For convenience and efficiency, we communicate by reading aloud. However, even so, Xiaowan's mental processing speed is still far slower than mine at this moment. In order to keep up, Xiaowan first made a request for mental synchronization with me on a conscious level.

After I passed through, it was like catching a ride; Xiaowan's processing speed accelerated dramatically. A large part of her thought process wasn't running within her own consciousness, but rather with the help of my conscious resources. This meant that I understood what she wanted to express almost as soon as she had thought it through.

“Mr. Dog Number One and Mr. Yuchi have one thing in common: they both fight for their deceased lovers. The difference is that Mr. Yuchi has no intention of resurrecting his wife, while Mr. Dog is eager to see his lover again and is willing to do anything for it,” Xiaowan said in a state of mental synchronization. “And this matter… I can help him.”

"You mean... psychic abilities?" I asked. "You plan to bring that female researcher named Ai Ye into the real world?"

“Unlike the Great Impermanence Qilin, the female researcher who fell in love with Mr. Xu Gou was just an ordinary person. Given the right medium, not only could she easily communicate with the spirits, but she might even be able to completely resurrect him with the power of the Great Impermanence,” Xiao Wan said. “Mr. Xu Gou himself possesses the power to resurrect him, but he knows nothing about occult knowledge and does not have the relevant technical methods. It’s like having enough wood and a set of woodworking tools, but being unable to build a house and furniture to his satisfaction.”

"We not only possess sufficient magical power, but also the 'professional skills' that meet Mr. Xu Gou's needs. We can directly provide the method he can exchange for through fragments of divine seals to reunite with his lover."

"Even the medium is readily available, namely Mr. Xu Gou's own body."

"When he was still at the Great Completion stage, his body was full of defects and limitations due to the various backdoors and restrictions implanted by the Humanity Department. He was able to be reborn by relying on the female researcher's body. After becoming a Void Realm Apostle, he obtained the power of the Great Impermanence with the help of fragments of the Divine Seal..."

"In other words, the body he is currently using is itself a perfect medium for spiritual communication. The token of love that Mr. Yuchi possesses with the Great Impermanence Qilin is far inferior to this in terms of the strength of its medium."

On one hand, there's an extremely low difficulty in resurrecting someone; on the other hand, there's an extremely powerful medium for communication...

This summoning seems to be on a completely different level than the last one, with the Great Impermanence Qilin being summoned by countless dimensions. It seems that all that's missing to revive the target is for the Dog to nod.

However, can we really resurrect the female researcher Ai Ye so easily? Admittedly, resurrecting an ordinary person is a piece of cake from the perspective of the Great Impermanence. As long as the correct method is mastered, even someone not at the Great Impermanence level, but merely at the Great Completion stage, should be able to achieve it.

That's precisely why I feel this matter isn't so simple. "As long as you master the right method"—I presume the Dog (戌狗) understands this principle. But now, so much time has passed, and the Dog, who was so desperate to resurrect their lover, still hasn't found any relevant clues and can only rely on the method of dreams. This is truly underestimating the Dog.

The Dog (戌) doesn't seem to be characterized by intelligence or cunning, but it's not entirely mindless either. Given its drive to achieve its goals and its immense magical power, it could accomplish a certain level of success in most situations. The fact that it's making no progress suggests some insurmountable obstacle. I have some rough guesses about this.

"So... what do you think, Dog?" I looked at my enemy. "You heard the conversation just now, didn't you?"

In the realm of perception at the level of Great Impermanence, the spiritual realm, like the metaphysical realm, reveals many seemingly mysterious and hidden things. Although my communication with Xiaowan took place in the spiritual realm, and I myself had the ability to conceal it, Xiaowan seemed to be consciously allowing Xu Gou to also access the information on this "communication channel," so I went along with it.

As a man-made Great Impermanence, the Dog (戌狗) differs from the real Great Impermanence in some aspects, but in terms of the scope of its perception, it is not much different from this one. Especially during battle, its silver-white metal elemental magic seems to temporarily sharpen its perception to be more acute than usual.

"You really underestimated me..." Dog said gloomily. "Trying to turn me against you? And you even talked about it in front of me, deliberately letting me hear it?"

"Do you really think I'm clueless and can be easily fooled? Ai Ye's soul has completely vanished, so how can you communicate with her spirit or revive her?"

I said, "Those whose souls have been scattered are not necessarily beyond resurrection; methods do exist. Ying Lingyun, whom you know well, didn't he once attempt to revive Yin Yue, whose soul had been scattered? You must have investigated this level of knowledge, right?" "It's precisely because I've investigated that I can be certain... reviving Ai Ye is impossible!" Xu Gou's voice became extremely agitated.

The silver-white beams he fired in succession seemed to respond to their master's emotions, becoming even more ferocious and violent, yet their accuracy didn't decrease; on the contrary, it showed an upward trend. His magic clearly possessed this attribute: the more active it was, the more it would amplify and enhance all combat-related abilities. This was the same as the White Tiger's killing magic I knew.

As the battle dragged on, his power not only didn't diminish, but actually became sharper. In that short period, he had grown one or two parts stronger than when he first attacked. If nothing unexpected happened, he still had a lot of room for improvement. Therefore, he didn't seem to be in a hurry to determine a winner.

At this stage, it's still quite difficult for him to hit me. While dodging his attacks, I used my fire magic to neutralize the lightning strikes from Meng Zhang's avatars coming from different directions. Meanwhile, I was also keeping an eye on the last source of magical fluctuations in the distance.

The naval Xuanwu still hasn't arrived at this battlefield, and it's estimated that even after some more time, he won't be able to reach it. The illusory and chaotic spacetime labyrinth is clearly greatly hindering the naval Xuanwu's movement. The Xugou side certainly possesses the authority to freely traverse this spacetime, while the other side doesn't have such convenient conditions.

This allows me to focus more intently on dealing with both the Dog and the five incarnations of Meng Zhang at the same time.

“Well… Little Bowl, you heard it too, the Dog doesn’t intend to give up the fight,” I said.

Xiao Wan paused slightly, then said, "In that case... is it possible to take Mr. Xu Gou prisoner without killing him, and then have me personally demonstrate the possibility of him reuniting with his lover using my psychic abilities? Perhaps there are indeed some obstacles to reviving him, but I have an alternative that is 'equivalent to reviving him'."

Is it because the Dog once showed some kindness to Little Bowl in the virtual realm that Little Bowl doesn't want to see the other party killed by me? I had such a thought, but through mental synchronization, I can sense Little Bowl's current state of mind.

She felt grateful for Xu Gou's previous verbal cover-up and genuinely wanted to help him. However, since she was the one who would ultimately have to make tactical compromises in the life-or-death struggle, she didn't let her subjective emotions interfere with her current decision.

Xiaowan often presents a gentle and kind side to me, but that's only when dealing with important people like me, Mazao, and Zhushi. With others, she reveals more of a post-apocalyptic survivor, displaying a rational, calm, and even ruthless side. Right now, she's thinking about how to win over Xugou, a powerful figure of the Great Impermanence level, to our side.

Our current camp, besides me, the Great Impermanence, includes Zhu Shi, who is about to master the combat power of the Great Impermanence, and Ma Zao, who is expected to come into contact with the power of the world's destiny vortex after his soul is fully repaired. If we add Xu Gou, we might be able to have the equivalent of four Great Impermanence in the future.

This not only gives us a numerical advantage when we become enemies with the Gospel Institute in the near future, but even if, in the future, the Divination Master, Fazheng, and Jian Feixian turn against us because of the Divine Seal, we will still have one more fighter than the other side.

Xiao Wan has already considered the future.

"...That's how it is, Brother Zhuang Cheng. Are you confident that you can turn Mr. Xu Gou into our prisoner first?" Xiao Wan asked in mental synchronization.

“I’m not confident,” I replied. “Just ensuring your safety while simultaneously fighting against him and the five avatars of Meng Zhang is already giving me a splitting headache. If I show any mercy to Xu Gou… I might not be able to protect you.”

“But it’s not entirely without a chance… right?” Xiao Wan calmly analyzed, “Sixty percent, even seventy percent… you actually have more than a 50% chance of saving me. And even if you can’t save me, you have the confidence to defeat Mr. Xu Gou and the five Meng Zhang incarnations head-on without getting injured… Brother Zhuang Cheng, I hope you can take a gamble here.”

“I don’t think the Dog of the Year has that kind of value,” I said.

(End of this chapter)