From the end of the world

Chapter 742 The Power of True Manifestation 1
My inner screams summoned flames; this shouldn't have happened. Having already lost the Vermilion Bird Seed, stripped of all magical talents, and with my body and soul destroyed, it's already incomprehensible that I haven't died. To still be able to use magic is like building a castle in the air—it simply doesn't make sense.

But I can't worry about that now. The person important to me who wanted to stop Shan Liangyi from killing me has regained the power to move again. It would be ungrateful of me to waste time on logical arguments. I immediately reconstructed my body and soul with flames.

During this process, I also noticed some differences.

In the past, when I used fire magic, although I transformed my spiritual consciousness into flames, there was a certain external theme present in the process of transformation. It's like writing an essay; the pen and ink are my own, and the words are indeed written by my own hand, but the topic of the essay is decided from the very beginning. What governs all of this is the Vermilion Bird Seed, which was once deeply hidden within my soul. Therefore, the flames I used were also called the Vermilion Bird Fire.

The flames now possess a free-spirited quality, breaking free from their original framework. It's as if, for the first time, I've escaped a fixed theme, and being told to "write whatever you want" has left me feeling lost and disoriented. I can only hesitate and produce content based on my previous topics. I feel that the magic I'm using now doesn't necessarily have to be flames; it's just that, following my usual habits, I'm expressing it in the form of flames.

It seems that this is no longer the pure Vermilion Bird Fire, no longer a power that must be confined to the Four Symbols and Five Elements system, but a magical power that truly belongs to its own soul and presents its own unique characteristics.

The disorientation brought by freedom probably manifested in my power, making my strength quite weak at the beginning. Initially, I was only at the Great Completion level, almost the same level as when I first encountered Asahaya. However, after clearing my mind of distractions, the scale and density suddenly increased, instantly rising back to the level of Great Impermanence.

After being reassembled, the body transformed into a corona-shaped form and crashed into the mountain's dual nature.

Although I don't know if the slag still remains within my soul, I can no longer wield slag weapons. The third form, "Corona," built upon the Slag Impermanence Divine Sword, should also be a form I can no longer use. However, as I reminisced about the feeling of entering the Corona form in the past and habitually tried to enter it, my body naturally entered this form.

"--Um?"

Shan Liangyi had already turned around, but the moment I launched my charge, he sensed the fluctuation of my magic power, turned his head sharply, and showed a shocked expression on his face.

No wonder he was so shocked. His reaction when he saw me resurrected and unleash the power of the Great Impermanence was probably like seeing the chicken bones on the table, from which he had eaten all the skin and meat, suddenly transform into a skeleton chicken and pounce on his face as if it were still alive.

But as expected of the Great Impermanence who pushed open the third door, he had probably experienced all sorts of absurd and bizarre things. Shocked as he was, he forcibly ignored his emotional turmoil and reflexively raised his right hand. Gravity strong enough to distort spacetime gathered in his palm, transforming into a dark beam of energy that rushed towards me.

A feeling of destiny and cause and effect being forcibly locked within me rose within me. Perhaps it wasn't just the inherent power of the Two Elements of Mountain, but also the innate nature of gravity. One aspect of the essence of gravity is the inescapable fate, the power of destiny. In the past, when I manipulated the Eclipse Fire to kill Huang Quan and the Great Demon Xuanwu, I also manifested this property with the dark gravity fire; now, it was my turn to fall into the same predicament.

There was no way I could dodge this attack. Since I couldn't avoid it, I'd put thinking about it later. My instinctive thought was to force myself to survive the attack and then use a self-sacrificing attack to buy Asahi and Shushi a chance to survive. In reality, I knew very well that with my current level, I couldn't withstand a murderous attack from Yama Ryougi.

I don't know if it was because I wasn't consciously thinking about whether to dodge or not, but my body, driven by the will to survive, followed a mysterious instinct and unconsciously made a dodging motion. Just like that, I inexplicably shook off that feeling of being locked on.

Dark, gravitational fluctuations brushed past me.

"You dodged it?"

Yama Ryougi seemed completely unprepared for this, but he remained unaffected by his surprise and launched a second attack in the blink of an eye.

The feeling of being locked on returned, but he couldn't truly catch me. In truth, I barely reacted to his second attack; I was merely maintaining my movement. By the time I realized it, his attack had already hurtled past me, missing its mark once more. I felt like a withered leaf floating on a stream, or a camouflaged creature blending into its surroundings. My body seemed to merge with heaven and earth, becoming an untargetable entity.

I seem to be able to become any matter, any energy, any existence, any phenomenon... I can even become any "character," any soul.

"Could it be that……"

Yama Ryougi seemed to realize something, her expression turning somewhat distorted. "No...this isn't right, this can't be!"

As he spoke, his voice grew louder, and a third wave of dark gravity condensed in his palm.

I immediately changed my strategy and moved at high speed into the distance. In the blink of an eye, the battlefield was shifted to a distant area where it wouldn't affect Ma Zao and Zhu Shi. Shan Liangyi pursued without hesitation, but instead of immediately unleashing her attacks, she compressed and accumulated her magical power.

Within that terrifying gravity lay a surge of magical power even greater than the combined force of the two previous attacks.

I don't know when it started, but I could already sense his magical power fluctuations. He was far more powerful than any of the Great Impermanences I had encountered in the past. Even Meng Zhang, the lord of Peach Blossom Village who had fully embraced the power of "Shangri-La," was far inferior to him. All the Great Impermanences and Great Demons present combined could not harm him in the slightest. He was simply the embodiment of despair.

And this third attack was no longer like the first two. This time, it was certain to hit me squarely, plunging me into the abyss of death.

So... I need power.

We need far greater power than we have now.

I must become a stronger version of myself.

The moment this thought arose, my soul seemed to respond to my will, undergoing a fundamental structural change.

Although I've said so many things are impossible before, I still have to say this: changing the structure of the soul is inherently impossible, or rather, it's not allowed to happen. The soul can be said to be the manifestation of a person's consciousness, spirit, and thoughts; it is the embodiment of personality. Changing the structure of the soul is the same concept as spiritually killing oneself. No matter how much I decomposed and reassembled my soul in the past, I never changed the fixed pattern of the soul's structure, nor could I do that.

Conversely, the reason why "great abandonment" can make people break through their limits and become stronger is because this behavior can completely change a person's heart, bringing about a soul revolution, and by killing the old self, ushering in a more powerful new self.

Now, I can walk on any path and become any version of myself.

I am no longer the person I used to be, confined to narrow paths.

My magical power surged at an alarming rate, exceeding ten times its original strength without stopping, quickly reaching a bottleneck. The limit ahead was like a tightly closed door.

The gravitational fluctuations of the mountain's two polarities rushed towards me with the force of a cataclysmic upheaval.

At the same time, without any pause, my soul smashed through the door in one breath, and my power went to a new world.

I concentrated my fire magic on my fist and punched out with all my might against the gravitational fluctuations.

The terrifying gravitational shockwave that could have reduced me to dust was blasted apart by my own hands, like a sandbag being blown up by a cannonball, turning into countless streams of dark yellow turbid gas that raged and flowed. In exchange, my arm could not withstand the excessively heavy impact and exploded on the spot.

This level of injury is barely worth mentioning; my arm recovered instantly. At this moment, my body has been strengthened to a super-density far exceeding that of my Corona Mode; even gravitational fluctuations cannot easily penetrate my body's defenses to reach the True Spirit level. If my True Spirit cannot be harmed, any damage to me is equivalent to zero.

And my soul and power continue to rise.

I've finally confirmed something. For some reason, my innate ability to manifest spirits wasn't taken away by the Vermilion Bird Seed; in fact—

"This is... a true manifestation?" Shan Liangyi seemed to have confirmed something as well. "Your talent should have been completely taken away by the Vermilion Bird Seed, but now not only have you not lost all your power... you've even advanced further?"

As he spoke, he seemed to have made a connection to something, and a ferocious expression vaguely appeared on his face.

“Perhaps I should thank you, Yama Ryougi,” I said. “Thanks to you, it seems I have already opened the third door.”

"How could the third door be pushed open so easily... by some inexplicable bunch like you!" Shan Liangyi roared.

As soon as he finished speaking, he quickly made a hand seal, and the dark yellow turbid energy that had been dispersed and distributed around me suddenly burst out with powerful gravity, like countless shackles that firmly locked my whole body, making me unable to move.

(End of this chapter)