From the end of the world

Chapter 695 Ying Lingyun, Successor of the White Tiger

While I enjoy the various dangerous events that the power of the jinx often brings me, I don't like to take every risk. Enemies like the incarnation of Meng Zhang are not really within my aesthetic range, especially since there is also the formidable foe of Meng Zhang himself, the Lord of Peach Blossom Village, in this city. These incarnations are even more unappealing.

The power of the jinx doesn't care about aesthetics; anything related to the bizarre and the Witcher will gather around it, and Meng Zhang's avatar is naturally among them. The Water Master Xuanwu also seemed unwilling to get entangled with these enemies, frowning as he surveyed his surroundings.

"—Follow me."

As I spoke, I grabbed the shoulder of the naval Xuanwu and simultaneously fired five large fireballs, destroying and eliminating Meng Zhang's avatars before they could attack.

Before these things could be reassembled, I led the naval force Xuanwu to move out of this place, and then moved over a hundred times in succession. The surrounding scenery changed at a high frequency, like different colored lights flashing.

I pieced together every distant view I captured with my spiritual perception during my constant relocation, like a jigsaw puzzle, trying to piece together the overall terrain of the city center. Scenes from when I was moving with the naval Xuanwu and the alchemy furnace were also recalled from my memory and added to the puzzle.

This attempt quickly ended in failure. None of the distant view pieces could be properly pieced together; each element was misaligned. Moreover, even when forcibly combined, the resulting total terrain area far exceeded the city center.

I'm afraid that even if I moved a thousand or ten thousand times, I would only see unrelated scenes. And even if I pieced together countless scene fragments, I still wouldn't be able to discover the correct terrain. Maps are useless here; the area inside the barrier surrounding this city is probably far greater than the city itself. In a sense, our spacetime is like an elephant stuffed inside a refrigerator.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a place that can be considered "another universe." My intuition is vaguely telling me that the spacetime in the city center is likely expanding at this very moment.

Finally, the scene around us freezes on an intersection piled high with abandoned vehicles.

The feeling of being hunted subsided again, but based on previous experience, I could tell it was only temporary. If I stayed in the same place, my location would inevitably be locked again.

Perhaps this is to be expected. This place is, after all, enemy territory, and finding a safe place to rest is undoubtedly a pipe dream.

Incidentally, according to the experience of the Dog (戌狗), the lord of Peach Blossom Village, Meng Zhang, should be in the very center of the city center area.

I've also been trying to keep moving in that direction—though calling it a "direction" is difficult in today's world, as it's hard to clearly explain the correct direction to others. There's no longer a fixed concept of east, west, south, or north. I'm simply trying to grasp the right direction by combining my experience with the Dog (戌狗) and relying on abstract intuition.

The deeper one goes, the more pronounced the illusory and chaotic nature of spacetime becomes. It's like walking through a maze; the routes are easy to understand in the outer layers, but become increasingly intricate and complex in the depths.

Let alone others, even Xu Gou himself would probably only be able to enter the place where Master Meng Zhang of Peach Blossom Village is now by sheer luck. Fortunately, I have Ma Zao's jinx power and Xiao Wan's blessing, so this kind of "extremely difficult problem" that "requires luck" to solve is not a hopeless wall for me. I now have both enough luck and the inspiration and analytical ability necessary to solve the problem. Xu Gou's experience is the last piece of the puzzle that I'm missing.

Shui Shi Xuanwu looked at me in surprise and said, "I knew you could move relatively normally through space and time here, but I didn't expect you could actually temporarily shake them off..."

“Let’s keep moving for now. We’ll go find the Lord of Peach Blossom Village next,” I said.

"Alright." Naval Master Xuanwu nodded.

As I moved forward, I used my senses to connect with the "fireflies" outside the city's barrier, and then sensed the individual left in the small bowl. Although the clarity of my senses wasn't very high, it was enough to establish a channel to send the Great Demon God Gui Ling Dan there.

"Are there any specific rules about taking this pill?" I asked the naval commander Xuanwu.

"There's no particular rule, just eat it directly. Whether you swallow it whole or chew it up doesn't matter, whether you eat it dry or take it with water is entirely up to personal preference. As long as you don't spit it out after eating it, it doesn't matter," he said. "However, you also know very well that this thing is, after all, a product made from the body material of a Great Impermanence-level monster, so it's impossible to digest it all in an instant."

"People like you and me can eat it, but for that girl at the Great Completion stage you mentioned to digest it, it would take at least a few days."

That's already easy enough to digest.

I teleported the Great Demon God Guiling Pill to Xiaowan, who was at the Luoshan headquarters, and sent her a "firefly" containing detailed information about my situation. I also briefly explained what the medicine was to her in words.

This call could only be one-way; it was extremely difficult for information from the other end to enter this tightly controlled yet easily accessible barrier. After saying that, I "hung up the phone" and focused my attention back on this side.

“Well… now it’s your turn to ask a question, Xuanwu,” I said. “Although I just received the healing medicine from you, and it wasn’t exactly polite of you to pry into my personal information… could you explain what you mean by ‘metal element magic’?”

Furthermore, I'm also very curious about how exactly the naval Xuanwu was resurrected. He countered, "Do I have the right not to tell you?"

“The power of the Metal element is the nemesis of the Lord of Peach Blossom Village. Since we are going to fight him next, you shouldn’t be hiding this trump card, right?” I asked.

"Is that so? So you suspect that the Lord of Peach Blossom Village is a descendant of the Azure Dragon..." Shui Shi Xuanwu pondered.

“Isn’t it because you knew he was a descendant of the Azure Dragon that you used metal element magic to set up a hidden barrier? Since metal can overcome wood, spells cast with metal element power can be effective even in the heart of Peach Blossom Village,” I analyzed.

"The reason I can't be certain is because I didn't sense the Azure Dragon Seed from the Lord of Peach Blossom Village. However, it's absolutely certain that he used the power of wood and cultivation," said the Water Master Xuanwu, frowning. "That being said, the power of the Four Symbols and Five Elements of the Mountain Yin and Yang is not something only the Yin and Yang inheritors can use. The Zhu family inheritors are the best example, and the artificial Great Impermanence Dog is a similar example."

"Therefore, I have always remained in doubt about whether Taoyuan Township Lord is the successor of the Azure Dragon... To be honest, I am even more suspicious that he might be Shan Liangyi. Didn't you say before that Taoyuan Township Lord's method of spreading the Seeds of the Heart everywhere is very similar to Shan Liangyi's method of treating us Liangyi successors?"

"Moreover, if it is the Yin-Yang of the Mountain, it is conceivable that he could either simulate the power of the Wood element or hide his Yellow Dragon Seed. Can't you also simulate attributes other than the Fire element? Not to mention that he has a history of hiding his true identity and infiltrating the Yin-Yang lineage."

Hearing him say that made me notice another problem. I had only shown the Earth Element Solar Eclipse Fire to retrieve the flesh and blood of the Great Demon Xuanwu, so I hadn't reacted in time. It was truly a wonder he hadn't suspected I was a Mountain Yin-Yang master then. Or is he currently harboring suspicions, but deliberately hiding them from me?

After thinking about it for a moment, I decided to give him some information first.

“Of course you can’t sense the Azure Dragon Seed of the Peach Blossom Village Lord, because the Seed of the Heart is very likely the Azure Dragon Seed that he split off through some means,” I said. “Ying Lingyun’s ‘Possible Doppelganger’… In the documents left behind by the Silver Mask Doctor before his death, it was mentioned that the Seed of the Heart was also known as ‘Mengzhang Original Seed’.”

The naval commander Xuanwu was clearly hearing this for the first time, and he immediately frowned.

“You’re talking about the Seed of the Heart…” he said, “but… that’s impossible. The power seed of the Two Elements of the Mountain is a product of the third gate. What virtue or ability does the Lord of Peach Blossom Village have to split it into countless Seeds of the Heart?”

"Is it based on his 'Shangri-La'? But the Seed of the Heart is a precursor to his 'Shangri-La,' and the Dream Network is a creation formed by countless interconnected Seeds of the Heart. Even if the 'Shangri-La' can now unleash some of its power, it cannot produce miracles at such an early stage..."

As he was speaking, his eyes suddenly widened, and he blurted out, "Could it have been Ying Lingyun who did it?"

"How did we get onto Ying Lingyun's topic again?" I asked, puzzled. "Also, don't change the subject. Although I'm interested in what you're saying now, our initial topic was your metal element magic. First, answer me, why do you possess the power of the metal element?"

As if sorting out the storm in his mind, the naval commander Xuanwu replied, "Because I obtained the seed of the White Tiger."

I asked in surprise, "You made a deal with the Wheel King?"

Since I am the Vermilion Bird and he is the Black Tortoise, and assuming that the Lord of Peach Blossom Village must be the Azure Dragon, then the White Tiger must be the Wheel King.

The Wheel-Turning King is a god-man from the Gospel House.

Did the naval commander Xuanwu also have contact with the Fuyin Academy?
Unexpectedly, the naval commander Xuanwu gave me a strange look, and then said, "No, the White Tiger seed was transferred to me by Ying Lingyun... Ying Lingyun is the current successor of the White Tiger."

"How is that possible?" I never expected such an answer. "Ying Lingyun himself has no magical power, and the power seed of the Two Elements of the Mountain will transform all the talents of the successor of the Two Elements into forms corresponding to its nature... There is absolutely no related sign on him!"

More importantly, there is a restraining relationship between fire and metal. Fire can overcome metal, so if I, as the descendant of the Vermilion Bird, were to encounter the descendant of the White Tiger, it would be impossible for me not to have a related perception, and the same would be true for the descendant of the White Tiger towards me.

Furthermore, even without any perception, the mere contact between the two parties will reveal an extremely clear relationship of restraint and being restrained on various levels, even on the level of fate.

From a retrospective perspective, Ying Lingyun's luck has been terrible ever since he met me. First, there was the creator of the monsters, then Dr. Silver Mask, and finally Ying Lingyun himself... Whether it's the "possibility clone" or the real person, basically as soon as we meet, he is doomed. No matter how intelligent he is, he can't predict any of my actions. Any seemingly perfect plan starts to collapse from the point of contact with me. This is indeed in line with the fate that the successor of the White Tiger will step into after meeting the successor of the Vermilion Bird...

But apart from that, is there anything else about Ying Lingyun that fits the description of a descendant of the White Tiger?
Thinking about this, I was almost convinced of it—Ying Lingyun might really be a descendant of the White Tiger.

“I’m not entirely clear on the specifics, but it seems he combined his research on the White Tiger Seed with a mysterious black jade, transforming the experimental subject named ‘Dog’ from the Twelve Gods Project into a special individual with the power to manipulate reality,” said the Water Master Xuanwu. “After understanding this power, he used the White Tiger Seed and the black jade to recreate it, then removed the White Tiger Seed from his own soul and pasted it into my soul.”

(End of this chapter)