novelraw Chapter 292-1: When the Cherry Blossoms Wither (1)
Chapter 292-1: When the Cherry Blossoms Wither (1)
[You looked up. The Asura King’s three-headed, six-armed body was immense. Even if you transformed into a giant, to the Great General you would still be no more than a toddling child.]
[You felt immense pressure.]
Lin Xun knew he had to use his trump card.
If he hesitated even half a moment longer, it would definitely end in a party wipe.
[You possessed the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Palace Master of Iya Palace.]
[You took out three talismans covered in blood-colored runes and activated the onmyoji forbidden art, Onmyo Talisman, Filth Purification Rebirth.]
[Black flames burned. The yellow paper talismans turned to ash. Tadpole-script like blood surged into the three shikigami.]
[The Snow Woman’s azure eyes suddenly turned blood red. The temperature around her plummeted. Wind and snow ravaged the ancient battlefield. Hail-laden, bone-piercing gusts howled past as if you stood in an inferno of extreme cold.]
[A sky-shaking roar rang out. The celestial demon sea monster’s body rapidly swelled. Tentacles, already thick, bulged further. Black seawater surged beneath it, and a violent aura overflowed.]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox’s white hair flew. Nine enormous fox tails manifested behind her. A sky fox phantom raised its head and howled. While receiving the blessing of the forbidden art Filth Purification Rebirth, she also liberated the power of her nine tails, transforming into the strongest state, Nine Tails Patrolling the Heavens.][Black clouds thickened across the firmament as if the heavens were about to collapse. Thunder rolled. Deep violet lightning flashed again and again in the clouds like countless electric dragons coiling and tumbling.]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox raised her hand and pointed at the Great General. Heaven and earth fell silent in an instant, plunging into pitch darkness where you could not see your hand before your face.]
[At that moment, brilliant purple lightning descended.]
[A divine thunderbolt fell from the sky as if a heavenly tribulation had come. The sudden blaze of light stabbed your eyes with pain. Your vision was nothing but deep violet lightning.]
[When the lightning faded, the eardrum-shattering peal finally rolled across the sky.]
[Jet-black armor across the Great General’s body crawled with purple lightning. Electric serpents slithered back and forth, gnawing at the armor formed of malice.]
[Unfortunately, though the purple divine lightning was astonishingly powerful, it could only dim the jet-black armor slightly. When the lightning dissipated, the Great General remained unscathed.]
[Divine thunder was far from enough to pierce the armor, much less to harm the Great General.]
Lin Xun took a deep breath. He had seemingly anticipated this outcome.
He clicked an item in his inventory, the Core of Extreme Evil.
[Core of Extreme Evil (Special Item): …Using this item will allow you to channel the remaining malice within the core to temporarily fuse it with your summoned creatures or special summoned creatures, enabling them to display their respective traits and unleash extraordinarily powerful combat strength!]
[This item is consumable. When used, it can merge up to three summoned creatures.]
[You chose to fuse the standard summon, the Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox, the special summon, the Origin-Tracing Otakemaru, and the special summon, the Origin-Tracing Shuten Doji.]
After slaying the Extreme Evil Asura, the evil god aura did not completely disperse. The remaining malice condensed into this special item called the Core of Extreme Evil.
The evil god aura in the core had the same origin as that of the Extreme Evil Asura and the Great General, and it conferred the same amplification of power.
The Great General’s transformation from first phase to the Asura King in the second phase brought an astonishing increase in strength. However, using this item to fuse shikigami would also grant a monstrous boost in power.
“This is my final trump card. Use the enemy’s strengths against them.”
[The black core scattered on the wind, but the evil god aura remaining within surged out as if freed from a cage.]
[That pure malice enveloped the Nine-Tailed Fox, Otakemaru, and Shuten Doji, merging the three mighty yokai into one.]
[When the malice fully blended, an entirely new yokai appeared before your eyes.]
[With the forbidden art enhancement and the Nine Tails Patrolling the Heavens state, the Nine-Tailed Fox was the strongest by far. This never-before-seen yokai shikigami took the Nine-Tailed Fox’s female form as its base, sprouted thick horns upon its head, and let scarlet hair fly.]
[She stood barefoot in midair. Three of Otakemaru’s blades floated behind her.]
[The former demon king of gods and ghosts’ blades had become resplendent divine swords condensing the yokai power of the three great yokai. One was wreathed in purple divine lightning, one burned with crimson firelotus, and one was dyed with violent blood light.]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox merely hovered silently and the aura she exuded was terrifying to the extreme.]
[The Great General suddenly halted. He spoke to tiny you, saying he had not expected that a pseudo god’s lackey like you could privately seize the True God’s great power.]
[But most of that shred of True God power had already been consumed. Even if you forcibly fused three yokai, you were far from its match.]
[With that, the Great General hacked down in a sudden slash. Jet-black blade light erupted once more, more ferocious than before.]
[One of the divine swords burning with crimson firelotus behind the Nine-Tailed Fox suddenly changed, becoming a colossal sword that met the strike head-on.]
[With a sky-shaking crash, ash and flame scattered.]
[It looked as if the Nine-Tailed Fox had blocked the Great General’s full-power slash, but you could clearly sense the woman had suffered a serious injury.]
[By contrast, aside from the jet-black greatsword in its hand dimming slightly, the Great General remained unscathed, and the aura he exuded only grew stronger.]
[The Great General swung again. This time he wielded not only the great blade but also a great sword.]
[…]
The Asura King form gave the Great General three heads and six arms, six different weapons striking together. The Nine-Tailed Fox simply could not hold them back.
If not for Lin Xun standing ready to heal her, the Nine-Tailed Fox would likely already have collapsed.
In a battle at such a terrifying level, a close-combat shikigami like the celestial demon Nurarihyon could not approach at all, and could only stay by Lin Xun’s side to protect the Saio Chisoku-hime shell.
The Snow Woman dared only to cast Domain of Extreme Frost from afar to assist with slowing. Even with the forbidden art Filth Purification Rebirth, the slow remained pitiful, weakening the Great General only a negligible amount.
Valkyrie shot without pause, but even the mighty Radiant Light could not penetrate the Great General’s armor. It could only shave away a faint trace of malice from the armor, that is, reduce the armor value by a sliver.
For the Great General in Asura King state, such damage could be ignored.
[…]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox once more drove the three divine swords to withstand the Great General’s full-force blow. Her face turned pale and blood beaded at the corner of her lips.]
[You could feel the Nine-Tailed Fox had suffered an extremely serious injury.]
Lin Xun used the last branch of Crimson Blood Coral to refill the spent mana of the Saio Chisoku-hime shell.
He immediately restored the Nine-Tailed Fox’s health again.
[The Great General suddenly looked at you. Its gaze brimmed with malice, seemingly annoyed that you kept restoring the Nine-Tailed Fox.]
[He let out a shout, extended a massive arm, and hurled a jet-black great spear.]
[The spear tore the air, bearing a world-ending momentum as it hurtled toward you.]
[All you could see was the black spear like a sky-pillar swelling before your eyes.]
“We are done for.”
Because he needed to cast healing in time, Lin Xun still possessed the Saio Chisoku-hime shell.
If he switched to the Greedy Wolf Star Lord, though he still could not withstand the Great General’s full-force strike, at least he would have a hope of escaping upon the sword.
But the healer shell was fragile and slow. Apart from supreme healing, it had nothing else. How could he dodge the Great General’s full-force strike?
[The celestial demon Nurarihyon at your side swiftly wrapped you in a tentacle and flung you aside, facing the world-ending spear alone.]
[With a thunderous crash, the black spear pierced the sea monster’s body and pinned it to the ground.]
[Your shikigami, the Origin-Tracing Nurarihyon, has died.]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox’s scarlet hair flew. Seizing the instant after the Great General struck, she unleashed Soul-Seizing and Spirit-Stealing.]
[In the instant the Great General lost focus, the three divine swords of different hues slashed at the enemy together.]
[Brilliant purple lightning, crimson firelotus, and violent blood light all bloomed, engulfing the Great General.]
[…]
[When you saw the Great General again, much of the jet-black armor on its body had dissipated, and the malice on the armor had been greatly reduced.]
Lin Xun had escaped death by a hair. If not for Nurarihyon’s self-sacrifice, he would certainly have fallen.
The Nine-Tailed Fox used the opportunity to unleash an ultimate and shave off a huge amount of the Great General’s armor value.
He had no time to rejoice at the Nine-Tailed Fox’s achievement before the hellish game displayed a despairing message.
[The Great General roared. The weapons in its hands all dimmed together, and the malice upon the weapons surged into the armor, mending it in an instant.]
[Only then did you notice that the black spear like a pillar still stuck in the ground not far from you also dimmed along with the weapons in the Great General’s hands. It was as if an invisible thread connected the six weapons and the enormous suit of armor.]
[Whether weapon or armor, both were formed from a wisp of malice granted by a deity. When the armor was damaged, the weapons would share out their malice to repair it, and vice versa.]
[This meant that unless you destroyed all of the Great General’s weapons and armor, you would not be able to harm the Great General’s body.]
Lin Xun gnashed his teeth, overwhelmed by despair.
The World of Omniscience, also a Hell difficulty chapter, was very hard, but aside from the hidden map Hidden Canyon being far beyond the chapter’s own difficulty, the other bosses were reasonably strong. Even the final boss was not this absurd.
But in this chapter, the early bosses were like those in the World of Omniscience, pressuring but not despairingly strong. The Great General’s strength was simply not the difficulty a final boss in this chapter should have.
He truly could not understand. Other than himself, who else could have lasted this far. How would an ordinary Apostle clear this.
If anyone else encountered the Great General, even a hundred lives would not be enough.
“This is simply unreasonable. The hellish game gives no path to survival. A difficulty like this is utterly impossible to clear.”
[The Great General raised its weapons again and attacked the Nine-Tailed Fox.]
Lin Xun could only mechanically act as a healer support.
After casting healing, he would switch swiftly to the Greedy Wolf Star Lord shell and flee upon the sword to avoid another ambush by the Great General.
Truthfully, he no longer held much hope of clearing this chapter.
Because once the Saio Chisoku-hime’s mana was exhausted again, it would mean a party wipe.
The Dance Goddess was indeed as he had suspected and would not appear.
Yet as the Great General attacked again and again, he gradually realized that the Great General’s offensive power seemed to have weakened a little.
Previously, after five or six exchanges with the Great General, the Nine-Tailed Fox would be at low health and forced to be healed.
But now, the Nine-Tailed Fox could withstand nearly ten attacks before falling into a near-fatally injured state.
Light returned to Lin Xun’s eyes.
By using the malice from the weapons to repair the armor, the Great General was reallocating the malice it had invested in offense and spreading it to defense.
With that explanation, the Great General’s reduced offensive power made sense.
As long as the total amount of malice continued to be reduced, its offensive and defensive power would keep weakening.
“I get it.”
He slapped his thigh and thought of a brilliant method.