From the end of the world

Chapter 740 The Descent of the Mountain Yin and Yang

The chill came suddenly and inexplicably. Nothing seemed to be amiss, yet my instincts were screaming alarm bells. I couldn't rationally understand why I was feeling this way, but my body acted first. A vivid thought exploded in my mind, almost completely dominating my thoughts.

—The Two Elements of the Mountain are coming!
This is not baseless speculation or mere conjecture; he is approaching the battlefield!
However, it wasn't from my current location. I immediately focused all my attention on the sea of ​​fire scattered across the other side of the battlefield. In a region extremely far from where I was, on the battlefield where others were fiercely clashing, the spacetime that had been torn apart by the spacetime storm had now been largely repaired by Asahi's power of salvation and restoration. Yet, at that very moment, an overwhelming gravity appeared at the center of the battlefield.

It was as if a steel coil weighing twenty or thirty tons had suddenly fallen onto a rickety wooden table. Vast swathes of spacetime were unceremoniously ravaged and crushed by this immense gravity, revealing a dark and chaotic hue amidst the shattering. At first glance, it looked as if a massive black hole had been created at that location.

Immediately afterwards, the "black hole" disappeared, and in its place appeared a man with long black hair, wearing a black and yellow Taoist robe. Behind him was a dark yellow wheel that was taller than him, and it was decorated with five colors of light: white, blue, black, red, and yellow, on the top, bottom, left, right, and center.

The two elements of the mountain descend.

Seeing this scene, my hair stood on end, and I couldn't understand how he got here.

Although both Luoshan and the Gospel House now possess the means to travel between the real world and the afterlife, strictly speaking, the afterlife is still in a closed state; we can simply cheat to open the passageways.

Yama Ryougi should be in the real world, and the portal between the two worlds at Fukuin-in has been confirmed to be nonexistent. I have also personally confirmed that the only portal to Rozan is closed. At least until we reopen the door from the afterlife, Yama Ryougi should not be in my sight.

I inexplicably recalled Mingzhuo's previous attitude.

Even the fragments of the Divine Seal are probably not Ming Zhuo's true trump card. The reason he desperately stalled for time during the battle was because he knew that Shan Liangyi would arrive on the battlefield sooner or later. And his dying curse that I would soon die at Shan Liangyi's hands was not about the future, but about the present.

While I can't understand how Yama Ryougi appeared here, to be honest, I wasn't entirely unprepared for this. Could simply destroying the portal really keep Yama Ryougi out of the afterlife?
The other party is a powerful being capable of traveling between different parallel universes and other worlds through the method of reincarnation, so it doesn't seem unacceptable that they could be exceptionally allowed to enter the afterlife. Even so, perhaps this is just a "wishful thinking" lacking concrete logical support, since Shan Liangyi couldn't possibly commit suicide to enter reincarnation at this time. That's what the divination master and I thought at the time, but the worst-case scenario still came true.

A feeling of despair washed over me. I knew all too well that I could not protect the Vermilion Bird Seed from him, much less defeat him. If I dared to move to the other battlefield, all my power would vanish instantly, reducing me to a frail mortal.

Meanwhile, everyone noticed the appearance of Shan Liangyi immediately. Zhu Shi was still unable to extricate herself from her battle with the Great Demon God Tu. Ma Zao's handling of Du Shuo Mountain's Yellow Springs was nearing its end. She looked at Shan Liangyi, her pupils contracting sharply, and then issued a warning to the surrounding sea of ​​fire.

"Zhuang Cheng...don't come any closer!" she shouted. "Run—"

She had only spoken halfway when an overwhelming force of gravity swept across the entire area. Ma Zao, Zhu Shi, the Great Demon God Tu, and Du Shuoshan Huang Quan were all immobilized, like insects frozen in amber. Even the sea of ​​fire on the field was frozen solid. Shan Liangyi turned her head to look at Fa Zheng and the others who were fighting in a more distant place, and then looked at the surrounding sea of ​​fire.

"Suzaku, are you nearby too? Watching this place?" he said calmly. "Keep hiding, or you can turn around and run away. I'll clean up this mess first, then I'll come back for you. You're destined to be devoured by me."

Mazao read with difficulty, "Why do you..."

"Are you the student that Huang Quan always talks about?" Yama Ryougi seemed to take Asahasa seriously. "Why am I here... is that what you want to ask?"
He carefully observed Ma Zao and continued, "Actually, it's nothing serious. The Dushuo Mountain teleportation array that Huang Quan researched was originally just a prototype product that remained in the conceptual design stage. Even if it could be completed independently, it would still take a considerable amount of time. The reason it was able to be completed smoothly at such an early stage is because I incorporated my experience and knowledge of traveling through different universes into it."

"In other words, the Dushuo Mountain teleportation array was originally a product of my collaboration with Huang Quan. Since he could build a teleportation portal between the two worlds in the afterlife, I could naturally build one in the real world as well."

"Of course, because the time and space environment is different, it is impossible to reproduce it in the real world in a rigid way. However, thanks to that kid Yuchi who completed the real world version of the Dushuo Mountain teleportation array with his knowledge and skills, I would occasionally go to observe it in secret and learn a lot of new ideas."

"While it would be easy to stop you from building the portal, that would prevent Suzaku from entering the afterlife on his own. Attacking him in the real world would present considerable obstacles. After confirming his entry, I began activating my own portal."

Yu Chi once said that the teleportation array technology data of Dushuo Mountain that Number Seven stole from the Yellow Springs Gospel Academy during the chaos clearly contained heterogeneous components that did not conform to the core style of Yellow Springs. It was something that was fundamentally different from Yellow Springs.

Now the truth has finally come to light, and the things that puzzled Yuchi were probably the parts of the development that Shan Liangyi was involved in.

There are likely some aspects of the Yin-Yang theory that haven't been mentioned. For example, activating the Dushuo Mountain teleportation array requires a portion of the power of the Divine Seal fragments. Although it's unknown whether he originally possessed Divine Seal fragments, after our encounter in the southern city, he likely has at least two fragments he took from me. It's possible these were used for his own teleportation gates, or perhaps, as a Great Impermanence at the legendary Dao-proving realm, he himself possesses the ability to output True Spirit power.

While the Divination Master can observe and intercept potential portals from the afterlife to the real world, if Shan Liangyi himself builds a new portal in the real world, the Divination Master's power is insufficient to intercept or hinder it.

Having said that, Yama Ryougi seemed to have finished observing Asahaya and didn't appear to intend to continue the conversation.

The gravity field around his body began to shift, clearly indicating his intention to kill Ma Zao and Zhu Shi. I felt my vision darken and narrow, my eyes only able to see that scene, and I wanted to rush over and stop it all. At the same time, my body felt as if it were bound by countless chains, unable to take even a single step. Should I really go?

Whether I go or not, I cannot change what is about to happen, and forcing it will only cost me everything. Even if a miracle were to occur and I could truly save Mazao and Zhushi, I would ultimately lose all my power.

After taking the Vermilion Bird Seed, Yama Ryougi might kill me, or he might simply abandon me, now worthless, to the roadside. I am not afraid of losing my power, nor am I afraid of dying at Yama Ryougi's hands. I am mentally prepared for death. As long as I die on the path of adventure, no matter how tragic the ending, I will have no regrets. What I truly fear is losing the right to continue adventuring.

If the bizarre world is an ocean teeming with raging waves, then great power is the sturdy, stable ship. I am not afraid of the raging waves; rather, they are precisely what I relentlessly pursue. But without a ship, I would be swallowed up and drowned before I could even experience the true grandeur of the waves. "Power" is my passport to my ideal world, almost synonymous with the concept of "being able to take risks."

Therefore, I must remain calm and not act impulsively. The most important thing now is to preserve my health. As long as I'm alive, I can always make a comeback.

—To be honest, when I realized I had this thought, I almost burst out laughing at myself.

Would I, Zhuang Cheng, ever say something like that? Such utterly lame words? Even just thinking about it in my head?
In order to preserve his supernatural powers and remain in this supernatural world, he must choose to flee from his enemies... and escape his own adventure?
Just because I didn't know what to do, I was terrified and scared, so I became so cowardly that I abandoned everything and gave up on facing it like a rat—if I were really that kind of person, I should have died in that basement from the very beginning.

But... retreating means fleeing the adventure, and advancing means giving up the adventure. I feel like I've encountered an unsolvable problem, deeply entangled in a contradictory dilemma of whether to move forward or backward.

At the same time, scenes flashed through my mind, vivid as photographs bathed in light. The time I spent with Asahi, the promise I made to fight alongside Shiki. Her shouts and expressions as she opened the path to victory for me, and Asahi's incredibly earnest face when she said she would save the world and me…

Perhaps... it's time to "let go".

Thoughts that I would have considered absolutely unforgivable in my past self surfaced in my mind. At the moment of making the decision, my emotions were surprisingly calm. I took a step forward, teleporting myself to the location of the Mountain and Yin-Yang symbol.

The corona form transformed into a projectile capable of vaporizing all matter, crashing towards the mountain's yin and yang.

"Hmm?" Yama Ryougi turned to look at me.

He stretched out his hand, and a deep yellow magical power formed an indestructible wall before him, forcefully blocking my attack. I continuously unleashed flames throughout my body, but the wall remained unmoved. It was like a child trying to ram their head into an adult's stomach, only to have the adult hold their head down with one hand, preventing them from taking another step.

Yama Ryougi wore an incomprehensible expression and said, "A hot-blooded young man like you, seeing his woman about to be killed, might not be able to restrain himself and rush to me without thinking... Yes, I have thought about this development and I think it would be more reasonable for things to develop in this direction. I have seen this kind of ungrateful behavior countless times in my past life."

"But...you're not really the kind of person who would make that choice, are you? Although we're not very close, my intuition tells me that you're the kind of selfish person who would turn away for your own benefit even in a moment like this...Could my intuition be wrong?"

In the distance, Mazao was also desperately unleashing his power of salvation and return, but under the overwhelming power of the mountain yin and yang, even the power to save the world, which was entrusted with great hope by the natural will of the planet, could not struggle.

“Zhuang…Cheng…” she managed to utter.

"Fine, a mistake is a mistake. The important thing now is how I should deal with you." Yama Ryougi stretched out his other hand. "There's no reason to let go of prey that comes to our door. Suzaku, thank you for your growth so far. You will become the resources for my growth, and then die with the pride of being of use to me."

An incredibly strong attraction surged from his palm. The Vermilion Bird Seed within my body completely disobeyed my commands, transferring all my power to Shan Liangyi's hands in an instant.

The power vanished from my body, and an overwhelming sense of emptiness engulfed my inner self.

On the enormous, deep yellow wheel, the red light solidified. The Vermilion Bird Seed had finally returned to its place, and the cycle of the Four Symbols and Five Elements was now complete.

"It's done."

Shan Liangyi initially showed a satisfied expression, but then suddenly paused, his face showing suspicion.

"What's with that expression?" he asked, looking at me.

(End of this chapter)