From the end of the world

Chapter 730 The Great Demon God Tu
With one step, I left the area where the ruined town was located and moved straight towards the location of the Gospel House headquarters.

As we moved forward, I made sure to hold onto Asahi's hand to avoid getting separated from her. We had agreed from the beginning that we would treat her as a formidable fighter, to go to the most intense battlefield together. Although I still felt uneasy, I didn't object to it.

Clearly, the most important thing, rather than fighting alongside Asahi, should be ensuring that Asahi survives to the very end. Even a child could do such a simple analysis of the pros and cons, yet I am so easily overwhelmed by my own expectations and passions.

And when it comes to responding to my expectations, Asahaya always shows an enthusiasm no less than mine; similarly, I am very willing to believe that Asahaya will respond to my expectations. It's a relationship of trust. Even though we have completely opposite views on the direction of the apocalypse, and it wouldn't be surprising if we became irreconcilable enemies, we have formed such a close relationship that I can't help but fall for it.

I left all the mountains and rivers behind, with Fazheng, Jian Feixian, and Zhu Shi close behind. It seems that the claim that they have adapted well to the chaotic post-apocalyptic world is not just talk; none of them showed any sign of falling behind.

Although the afterlife currently mimics the post-apocalyptic real world, whether its exact land area is completely identical to the real world remains to be discussed. It's said that the afterlife contains many places that collapsed due to extreme spacetime chaos, and since it's only a human channel, it should only cover areas covered by human civilization. However, because of this spacetime malfunction, its total area might mutate to be even larger than Earth in the real world.

Even if it were to expand to more than ten times the total surface area of ​​Earth, given its incredible physical speed combined with its spatial abilities, it wouldn't take particularly long to travel from one end to the other. The distance from the ruined town we were in to the Gospel House headquarters felt like a very long one to me, but in reality, we arrived in a relatively short time.

Soon, a majestic mountain, shrouded in the boundless night, came into view, with a vast cluster of ancient-style buildings at its foot. This scenery reminded me of the Moonlit Mountain City from long ago, but unlike the past, both the mountain and the buildings here exuded a strong sense of death.

This is the headquarters of the Evangelical Fellowship, but I didn't sense any sign of life from the direction of the buildings. It was like a veritable ghost town. Since it was the enemy's main base, it shouldn't have been so eerily silent. It's very likely the enemy anticipated our attack and evacuated everyone in advance.

Although Fazheng and the others had concealed their whereabouts in the afterlife, the fact that "Luoshan might launch an attack in the near future" was something that Fukuinin could have anticipated.

Considering that they had no means to extend their reach after sending the three-headed Doomsday Demon to attack the real world, and probably didn't know that the data on the Dushuo Mountain teleportation array had been stolen, the news that Luo Shan had successfully researched the Dushuo Mountain teleportation array was very likely still undisclosed. However, since I once entered and left the afterlife through what they considered an unknown method, they wouldn't be so careless as to absolutely believe that Luo Shan couldn't advance.

What's being shown now is likely their "just in case" measure. The headquarters of the Gospel House has probably been moved elsewhere; this is merely an abandoned site. This cautious approach reminds me of Huang Quan. Although Huang Quan is dead, there's currently Ming Zhuo at the Gospel House, who has inherited Huang Quan's mantle. This idea might very well have come from Ming Zhuo.

If it were just Mingzhuo alone, perhaps things would have ended there. However, the true power behind the Gospel Academy is its Master, Yama. Based on Tai Sui's description and my own experience, Yama is a terrifying figure possessing both immense power and a ruthless heart, whose every move is aimed at a fatal strike. It's possible that the enemy has not only evacuated everyone but also prepared an ambush for us on this site.

Therefore, Fazheng did not show a relaxed expression on his face, but instead observed the front with a very solemn gaze.

"Is this the headquarters of the Evangelical Fellowship?"

As he spoke, he reached out and summoned a long spear-shaped weapon of humanity in his hand. Then he moved the spear tip and aimed it at the headquarters of the Evangelismos Monastery.

Immediately, an extremely strong wind howled from above.

Looking up, they saw an enormous meteorite appearing high in the sky, falling towards the headquarters of the Gospel Institute.

The term "meteorite" might not be entirely accurate, as it's not actually a rock, but rather a block of ice. Many comets are said to be primarily composed of ice, moving at high speeds through space with broom-like tails, and sometimes even bombarding Earth like meteorites.

The comet that bombarded the complex was as huge as a mountain, and its impact alone compressed the atmosphere, generating howling winds and high temperatures.

No matter what ambushes or traps there are, they cannot remain hidden under this attack. Fa Zheng is going to expose all possible threats in a grand and imposing manner.

Immediately afterwards, a strange shadow suddenly rose rapidly from the headquarters of the Gospel House. Along with it rose an extremely powerful surge of magical energy emanating from the shadow. Defying gravity, the shadow crashed into the comet summoned by Fazheng; the two were completely disproportionate in size, like a tiny insect attempting to smash through a brick with its minuscule body.

But it was the "brick" that actually lost. The shadow pierced through the massive comet, which was as big as a mountain, like a bullet piercing flesh, and the comet exploded in the middle, turning into countless smaller comets that bombarded the earth like shrapnel.

We all clearly saw the shadow's exact form—it wasn't human, but a humanoid figure seemingly composed of countless black clods of earth. Its height was similar to that of the great demon Yu Lei, who had invaded reality in the past, around sixty meters. Yes, this was also a great demon.

“The frequency of this magical energy fluctuation is basically consistent with the records of the Luoshan lineage…” Fa Zheng looked at the enemy opposite him with a gloomy expression, “Shen Tu…”

The Great Demon God Tu is one of the "human gods" of the Gospel Institute.

Demons like these would normally be impossible to join a human organization like the Fukuin. This isn't just because they are monstrous beings existing to slaughter humans, but also because they fundamentally lack any sense of coordination or cooperation. Although they are all incarnations of Naraku Fukuin, summoned by him, they will fight each other if they don't like each other. Shen Tu is the sole exception.

After appearing, Shen Tu didn't immediately attack. Instead, he calmly remained in place, observing us as if carefully examining the weaknesses in our formation. Any other powerful demon would have roared and charged without hesitation. Even the more special demons like Dizang and Qilin wouldn't restrain their bloodlust so readily. This Shen Tu is truly exceptional.

"As expected, I had some doubts when I heard about the Great Demon God Tu. It seems that my prediction was pretty much correct..." Fa Zhengnian said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Fa Zheng responded to me in a faster and more efficient telepathic form, which Jian Feixian, Zhu Shi, and Ma Zao could also hear, saying, "Shen Tu was an ancient Great Impermanence from the same period as Yu Lei. Although I only heard some simple news a long time ago, it is said that Shen Tu was keen on researching the art of resurrection."

He went on to explain that although the Great Impermanence (Da Wuchang) lives as long as heaven and earth, it can still die if killed. In the ancient mythological era, when humans were not yet the main players in the universe, the death of the Great Impermanence was not as unprecedented as it is today. Therefore, it's understandable that some Great Impermanence would be so keen on researching resurrection techniques.

The difficulty of resurrecting the Great Impermanence is self-evident. Unless a part of his body and soul is left alive elsewhere beforehand, so that he is not completely dead, there is no way to resurrect the Great Impermanence.

That being said, the power that can completely kill the Great Impermanence usually has the ability to trace cause and effect and destroy all its parts; the kind of clever trick of "leaving a part beforehand" is generally useless. So after much thought, Shen Tu turned his attention to his own Sambhogakaya.

The Sambhogakaya (or Reward Body) is the totemic imprint left between heaven and earth by the power of the Great Impermanence (or the Great Impermanence), simply put, it is the historical trace of one's existence in the world. Because the Great Impermanence is so powerful, even these residual traces generate inexhaustible magical power, allowing its followers to draw strength from them. At the same time, even among those who are both Great Impermanence, destroying another Great Impermanence's Sambhogakaya is extremely difficult, no less than using time travel to make the fact that another Great Impermanence existed never happen.

Shen Tu, on the other hand, hoped to use his incarnation as a foreshadowing of his resurrection.

"Similarity" has power—the more a believer is in a deity, the closer they will be to the deity on a spiritual level, and the more skillfully they will summon the power of the deity's avatar, even synchronizing with the various talents possessed by the deity. To a certain extent, such believers can become vessels for the deity's incarnation; and in an ideal state, they may even be regarded as the deity's reincarnation on a mystical level.

In other words, such believers can also be seen as a particularly powerful "resurrection medium." Ying Lingyun's method of resurrecting Yin Yue was precisely to sacrifice a living offering that was "equivalent to another version of himself."

However, Shen Tu in his previous life clearly couldn't complete his resurrection in this direction, because there was a huge flaw. A believer who simply had a very strong faith and gained power by imitating gods could not become another god. If he could, it would mean that he incorporated elements of becoming stronger into something other than faith, which would make Shen Tu's resurrection medium impure.

However, in this day and age, an unexpected event has occurred that no one could have foreseen.

Naraku Fubuki summoned a series of great demons with his boundless power, among which was the Great Demon God Tu—a strange creature "equivalent to the Great Impermanent God Tu who lived until the end of the world."

It became the best medium for resurrecting the ancient and unpredictable Shen Tu.

(End of this chapter)