Chapter 482 Third Form 1

To deal with the Yellow Springs and Dogs attacking from different directions, I can only say I'm stretched thin, racking my brains to figure out how to adjust my tactics. And what I'm doing now is the conclusion I've reached after much deliberation.

That is to integrate the slag straight sword into his fire elemental body.

The Slag Straight Sword… Although this weapon has the official name "Slag Impermanence Divine Sword," I often still call it the Slag Straight Sword because in my mind, this weapon is simply slag shaped into a straight sword; the "sword" is merely its temporary form. Giving it a special name is as redundant as giving the action of stepping out with your left or right foot a name that sounds like a finishing move.

Perhaps it's not just the naming that's superfluous; ultimately, the act of turning slag into weapon form is itself likely redundant.

Perhaps influenced by the idea that I might possess the power of weapon forging, I turned the slag into an external object. Upon closer reflection, the properties of the slag are actually quite similar to my body. It can both condense and compress flames, and also release them. Therefore, directly incorporating the slag into my body, using it as a component to strengthen my fire elemental physique, would probably be making the most of it.

This is something that no other witcher could possibly do.

Take, for example, the prototype of the slag weapon, the "Golden Elixir" of the Navy Genbu. Although Genbu usually kept it inside his body, he had to take it out to use it when unleashing its internal power. The reason is easy to understand: even though it's all his own power, under such compressed and concentrated conditions, it becomes uncontrollable. Once released, it would shatter his own body and soul, killing himself before even killing the enemy.

However, I am not afraid of my body and soul being destroyed. The side effects that the Naval Master Xuanwu needs to worry about simply do not exist for me.

After I plunged the slag sword into his body, a terrifying flame, far surpassing even a volcanic eruption, burst out of control and exploded. This body, formed from fire elements, could no longer be restrained into a lifelike human form as I wished, but instead transformed into endless light and heat radiating outwards.

The attacks from Huang Quan and Xu Gou struck me simultaneously, with Huang Quan's attack hitting my true spirit again. However, after penetrating countless rays of light and heat, the yellow-black magic power significantly weakened, causing only minor damage to my true spirit. Killing me with such attacks would require dozens, even hundreds, of strikes.

The damp heaviness caused by the special properties of the yellow-black magic vanished completely with the burst of light and heat. It was like a quilt that had become heavy from absorbing moisture, which, after being wrung out, was placed under the blazing sun to dry and fluff up, regaining its light and soft state.

I struggled to control this untamed power, like a raging wild horse, trying to restore some of my shattered body and soul. Although I wouldn't die without a soul, in my state of only having a true spirit, I could only maintain a basic sense of self and thought.

Or perhaps it's because I haven't truly proven my own spirituality, so for me it's a mysterious and unprovable state.

This might still sound a bit abstract. There's a saying, "I think, therefore I am," but it's hard for outsiders to understand what it feels like to "have a self that still exists, yet be unable to prove its existence." In short, it can be roughly described as a state of ambiguous and loose self-awareness. And to have sufficient power to intervene in the real world, at the very least, one needs the existence of a soul.

The gathering process was not very smooth. The body I finally formed was a humanoid light body of orange-red color, about two meters tall, with an outline that was as illusory and uncertain as if it were burning.

After the initial physical form and the second fire elemental body, I seem to have obtained a brand new "third form" that integrates offense and defense.

The instant I finished, I charged forward and counterattacked towards Huang Quan and Xu Gou at a speed of more than a thousand times the speed of sound.

While my offensive power isn't significantly greater than before, my defensive capabilities far surpass what I once possessed, allowing me to rampage recklessly. Attacks from the Underworld pose a much smaller threat, and attacks from the Dog of the Dog can be completely ignored. No longer needing to defend relentlessly, the horn of counterattack has officially sounded.

"What..." The Dog seemed to feel immense pressure.

He's actually not suited for this kind of team-up, gang-up-style battle. In our last fight, he unleashed an overwhelming "Cut-off Storm," but this time, with "teammates" by his side, his indiscriminate finishing move becomes a forbidden weapon.

Perhaps as an unconventional Great Impermanence, he could also use his magic to identify the target of harm, just like me. However, that move "Cut-off Storm" is like the Netherworld Strike of the Water Master Xuanwu releasing his Golden Core, which Xu Gou himself obviously cannot control properly.

At this moment, I can't speak for anyone else, because I can't properly control this raging fire power that is rampaging from the inside out; its very existence will have a devastating impact on the surroundings.

In a sense, I can now be considered a star in human form. Even other Great Impermanence, without properly establishing a defense with their magic, cannot stand unscathed before me. As for Demon Hunters of the Great Completion level or below, they would be annihilated simply by getting close to me, let alone ordinary people.

Just by moving at high altitude, the earth directly below turned into magma out of thin air, and the heat continuously released from my body caused endless nuclear explosion-like destruction wherever I went.

I think that even if I do nothing and simply maintain this "third form" for a long enough period of time, it could very well cause a mass extinction-scale catastrophe to the planet's surface ecosystem.

"So that's how it is. The weapon you just used wasn't an external object you forged with the power of the Vermilion Bird... it seemed more like your own power?" Huang Quan seemed to have seen through something. "What a speed of progress... Not long ago, you should have only relied on the old wounds Xuanming left on Ming Zhuo to defeat him, but now you possess the power to defeat Ming Zhuo alone..."

"However, this doesn't seem like the form that Luo Shan Da Wuchang, who upholds justice, should display. To actually unleash such power, do you intend to destroy this world?"

Hearing the question, I responded: "So, back then, across the river of time, you seemed to have told me and Asaho that the organization behind you... Gospelin was planning to save the world, right?"

"Although I have serious doubts about the credibility of what your secretive organization says, now is the time for you to prove it to me."

"If you don't want me to destroy the world, then try to defeat me here."

Huang Quan snorted coldly and said in a deep voice, "There's a limit to boasting. Do you think the advantage is on your side?"

As he spoke, he suddenly appeared in front of me.

Yellow-black magic gathered in his right hand, the tip of which spun wildly like a drill, and he thrust it toward my chest like lightning.

It seems he has figured out how to effectively strike me in this form: first penetrate my body, then attack from the inside. In this way, my third-form light body cannot reduce most of his destructive power beforehand, and his attacks can damage my true spirit as before.

Direct contact with this luminous body would certainly cause him considerable harm; such a risky move is simply playing with fire.

At the same time, I seized the opportunity and activated Flame Teleportation, instantly teleporting behind the Dog in the distance.

After becoming a Great Impermanence, I generally avoid using skills like Flame Teleportation in combat. The principle behind Flame Teleportation is decomposing my fire elemental body and reassembling it at a distance. This process reduces the density of my body and soul to zero, leaving me completely defenseless. Rebuilding this density takes a considerable amount of time. This process becomes a huge weakness, potentially allowing an enemy to kill me in one strike.

However, in my third form, this weakness doesn't exist. My defense relies almost entirely on the slag from which I continuously release ultra-high-density flames from within my body, so I can teleport however I want.

What's even more convenient is that, in the past, after teleporting close to the enemy, I needed to mobilize my power to launch an attack, but now, my mere existence is an incredibly powerful attack; after teleporting, I can simply crash into the person.

Dog's combat instincts are incredibly sharp; almost the instant I activated my fire teleportation, he had already reacted. However, this was his first time witnessing my fire teleportation, and likely his first time facing an enemy whose very existence was an attack. He seemed to be trying to assume a defensive stance, but he was a fraction of a second too late in mobilizing the necessary mana for defense, and I struck him squarely in the face.

The impact shattered his entire black power armor, and his internal flesh was burned to a crisp by the extreme heat before it could even be clearly seen. He was sent flying like a shooting star, at a speed many times greater than the third cosmic velocity, and was quickly propelled outside Earth's atmosphere, disappearing into the depths of space.

Although I don't know if I killed Xu Gou, I can feel that the dark cloud of crisis hanging over my head has lessened. Even if he's still alive, his current severe injuries prevent him from returning to the battlefield. These aren't injuries that can be overcome in a short time with super-fast regeneration; they contain the full-force killing intent of my third form.

Seizing the opening where I had defeated the Dog, the yellow and black magic power closed in again, striking me with a surprise attack.

(End of this chapter)