From the end of the world

Chapter 734 Dushuo Mountain Yellow Springs

Although unexpected changes have been occurring on the battlefield since the start of the battle, this time it has truly shattered my preconceived notions.

The massive Mount Dushuo actually stood up, and it even emitted the magical power fluctuations of someone who shouldn't be here. I was so surprised that it took me a beat to match this magical power fluctuation with the name in my mind.

This is the fluctuation of Huang Quan's magical power!
From the moment the spacetime storm began, I had noticed the anomalies of Mount Dushuo. While the land and buildings at the foot of the mountain were falling apart like a torn scroll, Mount Dushuo, so close at hand, remained unharmed, much like our own Great Impermanence.

At this moment, Mount Dushuo presented an extremely distorted and terrifying form. At first glance, this thing that looked like a mountain peak had its surface soil and rocks broken and peeled off like blood scabs as the main body moved, revealing the scarlet muscles below.

This was a fleshy monster, its size comparable to a mountain. Its exposed muscles lacked skin, nerves and blood vessels were directly exposed, spewing foul-smelling heat, and viscous blood and tissue fluid flowed like streams. Moreover, the flesh was a dark red, decaying state, some parts even showing signs of blackish-blue necrosis. Its entire body looked as if it might collapse at any moment, like a rotting jelly unable to support its own weight, about to spill onto the ground.

However, the peach tree at the "mountain top" prevented the flesh and blood monster from self-destructing. The branches all over the mountain bound the monster's entire body, like an exoskeleton, which barely allowed it to maintain its shape.

From some of the gaps in the bottom of the twig network, one after another, blood-soaked, enormous, and twisted arms stretched out, supporting the monster's gigantic body like crab legs, and moving it towards us.

—This thing is actually the Yellow Springs?

What exactly happened to turn that cunning and treacherous Huang Quan into what he is now?

Or perhaps I've misunderstood, and the monster before me isn't the resurrected Yomi, but rather the "Great Demon Yomi" summoned by Naraku Fubuki?
No... this isn't the Great Demon.

I have quite a lot of experience dealing with great demons. At least in Luoshan, I'd say I'm second to none in this regard. I can tell the difference between a great demon and the Great Impermanence just by feeling. The aura emanating from the monster before me, in my intuition, is actually closer to a living Great Impermanence.

The monstrous form of Yomi – let's tentatively name it "Yomi of Mount Dushuo" – immediately displayed an extremely strong aggressive intent after it began to move.

The body of Dushuo Mountain Huangquan was split open like a valley, which was probably its mouth. From the crack came an extremely turbid and loud roar, and yellow-black magic power surged out like a volcanic eruption, turning into a highly destructive meteor shower that swept towards me.

At the same time, it began to move at high speed. Despite its mountain-like size, it hurtled towards me at dozens of times the speed of a space rocket. Although I could sense that this speed was mostly achieved through spatial forces rather than pure physical kinetic energy acceleration, I dare say that at this speed, it could easily destroy any city just by crashing into the ground.

I instantly entered my Corona Mode, grabbed Mazao, and dodged all the yellow and black magic attacks at full speed. Then I fired a fire beam cannon at the fleshy monster.

In terms of magical power, Dushuo Mountain's Yellow Springs was three points stronger than Mingzhuo, yet it still couldn't match me. It almost reflexively deployed a force field shield formed by its magical power, but it was directly pierced by the flame beam cannon.

But its body was simply too enormous. My attack was like a toothpick stuck in an elephant's body; no matter how powerful the penetration, it couldn't fundamentally damage it. At the same time, I could see its massive flesh and blood regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye after being injured.

It even has super-fast regeneration capabilities.

In order to ensure that my attack can penetrate the defenses of Dushuo Mountain Yellow Spring, I must concentrate the density of the flames sufficiently. An offensive that emphasizes scale will only scratch the surface, and what I'm doing now is just a drop in the ocean.

I unleashed a barrage of fireballs from different angles, trying to find any vital weaknesses in the enemy. However, expecting a monster of the Great Impermanence level to have easily identifiable weaknesses like a brain or heart was pure nonsense. After a few attempts, I quickly concluded that this approach wouldn't work.

Furthermore, I noticed something strange about its regenerative abilities. It's not that it shouldn't have super-fast regeneration capabilities, but given the difference in power density between us, even if it could regenerate at super-fast speeds, it shouldn't be this fast.

Even if I cannot materialize the "damage caused by true spiritual power is irreparable" property, as long as I inject sufficiently strong killing intent and malice into my magic power, I can seal off most super-fast regeneration abilities. However, this approach is very ineffective against the Yellow Springs of Dushuo Mountain.

I vaguely sensed that this fleshy monster, like this spacetime storm, was essentially connected to something "greater." It didn't truly possess superhuman regeneration abilities; rather, it was protected from certain death by a force far greater than myself.

If you ask me what my chances are against Huang Quan of Dushuo Mountain, I can confidently say one hundred percent. Although completely killing it would require an immense amount of trouble, this monster, suspected to be Huang Quan, is no match for me. It keeps trying to attack me, but can't hit me at all. However, if I focus all my energy on it instead of trying to break the spacetime storm, Zhu Shi on the other side will surely die, and Fa Zheng is also in grave danger.

Dushuo Mountain Huangquan only needs to stall me to complete his mission.

I seriously doubt whether this seemingly irrational monster possesses the ability to distinguish friend from foe. Given the stratification of spacetime, I'm essentially trapped in a cage of a ferocious beast. If that were all, I could spare some of my power, but I also need to protect Asahi, so I can't afford to be indecisive.

The distant demon god Tu continued to emit piercing, unsettling sounds, and despite entering my Corona Mode, I was unable to further help Asahaha block out this influence. This was because I had been using the ultra-high-density flames from the slag weapon from the very beginning, and I had also used this power when attempting to break the spacetime storm.

"Yellow Springs... Teacher..." Asa murmured with difficulty, "...Are you still there?"

"Mazao?" I called out to her. Although she had not yet fully entered the Great Impermanence Domain, with the power of return far exceeding the limit of the Great Completion rank, Mazao seemed to be gradually recovering some of her past memories.

She looked in the direction of the Yellow Springs of Dushuo Mountain, her eyes revealing a chaotic and complex emotion.

I felt an indescribable unease, fearing that she would leave me.

“Zhuang Cheng…I’m fine.” Ma Zao hugged my arm tightly. “I’m right here, right beside you. I’m not going anywhere.”

Feeling her body temperature, I calmed down and said, "May I kill Huang Quan again now?"

Ma Zao nodded slowly.

"Do you know what this Yellow Spring is all about? As far as I know, I should have killed him long ago, and I even used the power of my true spirit..." I said.

Although the influence of the Great Demon God Tu prevented Asaho from concentrating on manipulating the power of the vortex of fate, it at least did not deprive her of all her ability to think and speak. After taking a few deep breaths, she said, "...I know...this monster is the teacher's true form."

"The real body?" I asked.

“What you killed in the past was probably just the teacher’s incarnation… But in a sense, perhaps what you killed was the true body.” Asaho said, “The teacher, like Miko, was a seeker of Naraku’s path, a god-human who could communicate with Naraku’s will. That’s why he took Miko, who had the same type of talent as himself, as his personal disciple in the past.”

"However, his talent was not as strong as Mingzhuo's. In ancient times, in order to become a god and to further explore the path of death, he chose to combine his soul with the afterlife."

"Therefore, he could not leave the afterlife. Even though the fortune teller had made a prophecy in the past that a great catastrophe would occur in the afterlife, he could only choose to stay. And after the afterlife was forcibly transformed into an apocalyptic form by Naraku's Gospel, the teacher's soul also lost control and fell into chaos and madness, becoming more and more like a monster every day."

"To avoid utter depravity, he transferred all his human rationality and wisdom to an avatar, while his original body was completely reduced to the form of a mad monster."

"Now it seems that he made further modifications to his original body later, turning it into a carrier for the teleportation array of Dushuo Mountain..."

"I see..." Now I finally understand.

I was wondering why someone as cowardly as Huang Quan would remain in the afterlife with the Gospel Institute over a hundred years ago. It turns out he simply couldn't leave. This explanation immediately convinced me.

The power of the true spirit originally had the property of killing the original body along with the clone, but I cannot materialize it; at most, I can only completely kill the avatar.

The reason why Huang Quan was able to revive time and time again was not because he truly possessed an extraordinary immortality like Ming Zhuo, but because his original body was always alive. He likely used this extremely sufficient condition of "his original body still being alive" to summon his "embodiment of reason and wisdom" time and time again.

However, even if it is just an avatar, once it is killed by the power of the true spirit, it is truly dead. Just as the Doomsday Demon, as an avatar of Naraku's Gospel, was completely sealed by the power of the true spirit, the human avatar of Yomi will also fall into a state of being unable to be summoned.

On one side is merely a frenzied mass of flesh, on the other a clearly inherited self-awareness. Which one is the true form? Perhaps it's just a matter of different perspectives. The Yellow Springs I encountered and fought in the past could very well be considered a completely different entity from this mountain of flesh. Perhaps even the power of true spirits would agree with this, thus recognizing it as an existence that can be completely erased.

It can be said that at that point in time, the real Yellow Springs had already died.

Furthermore, I also understood why I hallucinated Yama, the Lord of the Gospel Temple, on Mount Dushuo after killing Huang Quan. It was simply that Yama happened to be there at the time; what I hallucinated was Mount Dushuo. Although I couldn't simulate the nature of the True Spirit's power affecting the enemy's physical body, it might still produce some meaningless tracking effect; that phenomenon was the result.

Unfortunately, although it has resolved many doubts, it has not been very helpful in addressing the current situation.

"You still have time to escape with my junior sister, Zhuang Cheng." Ming Zhuo once again attempted to weaken my will with words. "Put everything aside, turn around and run away, find a place to hide, that way you can at least live a little longer in the future; or you could simply surrender to us and join our camp, that wouldn't be a smart choice either..."

He knew perfectly well that I was unlikely to make that choice, but just mentioning that possibility might distract me. It's like knowing I must focus entirely on how to defeat the mountain's two forces, yet sometimes I still have extraneous thoughts and emotions, preparing for my future after failure.

However, his fate is not like the duality of the mountain and the yin. In fact, I also saw that there was an opportunity for him to take advantage of the situation.

(End of this chapter)