Chapter 522 Return of Death

The presence of a pistol in this context is like a stick made of balloons appearing on a battlefield where two million-strong armies are locked in a fierce battle—utterly incongruous. While ordinary people might see a pistol as a symbol of slaughter and death, on a battlefield between gods and demons, even bringing out a space-based weapon would be laughable.

What can a mere pistol accomplish here? Besides, from what I've observed, it's not some kind of pistol-shaped magic weapon; it's just an ordinary revolver.

I didn't believe the mysterious woman truly intended to use that pistol to shoot the Great Demon Xuanwu in the distance; I was simply very curious about her purpose. Unlike me, the Great Demon Xuanwu clearly didn't have the patience to wait for the mysterious woman to reveal the answer, and it fired another black water cannon.

Under this fatal blow, the mysterious woman was like a tiny flying insect that had unfortunately entered a factory and was now foolishly suspended in mid-air, about to be blown up by an industrial water jet.

Whether I could escape or not is another matter, but at least I could react to the attack by drastically accelerating my mental processing speed. In this subjective world, accelerated to the point where time seemed to stand still, the mysterious woman once again displayed a speed she should never have been able to exhibit.

At the same time, she also demonstrated how to use the revolver.

She slowly raised the gun and pressed it against her own temple.

Even at the peak of cultivation, the body is still made of flesh and blood. If she were to abandon all defenses based on magic, or even actively weaken her physical strength with magic, a bullet could pierce her skull.

“Zhuang Cheng, if you want to return to your original time and space, and want to know the truth about the ‘Apocalypse’... then come to the Tai Sui Army to find me.”

After she finished speaking, a mysterious yet familiar invisible wave erupted from her body.

She herself pulled the trigger of the revolver without hesitation.

I heard the sound of her head exploding and shattering. At the same time, it felt as if my own head had been blown apart by the same bullet. The world before my eyes shrank and flattened like a television set that had been turned off, becoming a white line of light that vanished in an instant, leaving only pitch-black darkness in my field of vision.

Everything vanished. The surrounding scenery, the mysterious woman, and even the Great Demon Xuanwu and its magical fluctuations that should have been attacking me from afar all disappeared from my perception.

Or perhaps what truly disappeared was me, or more precisely, my consciousness. Because I was asleep, I was unable to observe the outside world—and when this joking thought surfaced in my mind, I "woke up."

When I came to my senses, I found myself in a sparse, dark forest.

The mysterious woman and the Great Demon Xuanwu were nowhere to be seen, nor were any animals. Although it was supposed to be a forest, the surrounding trees were all withered and dead. I tried to summon a fireball to illuminate the area, but I couldn't find a single green leaf or blade of grass; at most, I could only see a few withered leaves symbolically hanging on the branches. Most of the trees lay scattered and disorderly on the ground, as if they had just survived an unimaginable and terrifying storm. I stood there all alone.

The area might sound dry, but that's far from the truth. It's as if a massive downpour lasted a day and a night; the ground is covered in ankle-deep water, so muddy it makes you instinctively frown. In some of the depressions, there are even ponds of unknown depth.

In addition, a considerable number of large and small reinforced concrete rubble fragments can be seen in the surrounding area, making it seem as if someone lacking public morality has used this dead forest as a dumping ground for all sorts of construction waste.

After a quick glance, I noticed that the construction debris looked quite familiar. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it seemed to be the remains of the abandoned evangelistic church where I had previously been.

So that's how it is. The place I'm currently in is the area where the abandoned Gospel Monastery used to be. These building fragments, the surrounding cratered muddy ponds, and the haphazardly fallen trees are all the result of the Great Demon Xuanwu's appearance and activities. Although it only made a slight disturbance in this area, it was enough to cause earth-shattering changes to this region.

It seems the mysterious woman used her own unique method to send me away from the battlefield. She probably also withdrew from the battlefield in the same way, but I don't know where she is now.

This is most likely not a normal spatial transfer, otherwise the Great Demon Xuanwu could probably chase after me again, but I can't detect any similar signs at all.

The moment the mysterious woman pulled the trigger, the mysterious yet familiar invisible fluctuations emanating from her body were clearly the fluctuations of the power of the divine seal fragments. Perhaps only the power of this dimension could allow someone of her advanced stage to reverse the course of events.

The fact that she was Number Seven was already obvious, and just as she had declared, she did indeed end my battle with the Great Demon Xuanwu.

After confirming this completely, I finally relaxed my body and mind.

Perhaps because the appearance of the Great Demon Xuanwu was so sudden, I wasn't too disappointed when the battle ended just as abruptly. Objectively speaking, it could also be explained as the mysterious woman saving my life. If the battle had continued like that, I would likely have been the one to lose.

However, this is not the end, but merely a "halftime break." A bitter feud has already formed between me and the Great Demon Xuanwu, and this interruption will certainly not be the true end of our battle. We will inevitably meet and clash again in the near future.

Taking advantage of this hard-won respite, I should probably think carefully about how to turn the tide next time I fight.

And the "truth about the apocalypse" that the mysterious woman mentioned before parting ways also piqued my interest.

Before I can figure out these issues, I need to find the wandering spirit and the sandalwood incense.

I summoned the Blessing Lantern from my own flames, then took it in my hand and headed in a random direction.

I remember hastily teleporting them to a distant location near the ruins of the abandoned Gospel Temple during the battle. As long as they remain where they are, I should be able to reunite with them quickly using the Blessed Lantern, provided the area is the same. I just don't know how Tanxiang is doing. The massive aftershocks of the storm caused by the Great Demon Xuanwu moving at a thousand times the speed of sound, while certainly not enough to kill an immortal wandering soul, are less certain about Tanxiang's situation.

Perhaps because I've become too powerful, I now lack understanding of the survival abilities of ordinary people, and I always feel that they could die very easily.

Fortunately, the facts soon proved to me the resilience of ordinary people's lives, or perhaps the wandering spirits had helped Tanxiang. It didn't take long for me to find the two people in a corner of the woods.

They were in a large, two-story building rubble, which contained a room from an abandoned evangelistic monastery. The wandering spirits had somehow found a tattered waterproof sheet, which they covered the damp floor with, and sat down beside a blessing lantern.

Tanxiang sat on a chair not far away. Although she was soaking wet and in a sorry state, with bruises on her face, she had at least not suffered any injuries that could have been fatal or crippling.

He stared blankly at the tips of his shoes, like a war refugee, his face filled with existential doubt, seemingly feeling insignificant from being caught up in an overwhelming battle. It's not incomprehensible; the feeling of powerlessness, like an ant at the mercy of fate's turbulent currents, is absolutely unbearable. Those who have experienced such things are easily trapped in a vicious cycle of questioning the value of life.

Hearing my undisguised footsteps, he seemed startled and quickly looked up. When he saw it was me, he breathed a slight sigh of relief and hurriedly asked, "Zhuang Cheng, you're back... Where did that monster go? Did you kill it?"

“Unfortunately, I can’t kill it. However, it won’t be chasing us for now,” I said.

"Even you have an unkillable anomaly?" Sandalwood asked, stunned.

The wandering spirit walked over and said, "That's not just any ordinary monster, but the king of monsters, a god or demon from mythology."

"You heard what that woman said, right? She's one of the Great Demons standing at the pinnacle of the apocalypse, an existence from a completely different dimension than any of the strange beings we've encountered before..."

Sandalwood murmured, "But... even so..."

It's likely that witnessing my incredible power so many times before gave Tanxiang an inexplicable confidence in me. Now that he's discovered an enemy who even a god like me can't defeat, and who almost killed him, he probably feels as if his very foundation has been violently shaken.

“Now you understand, right? Traveling with me means you’re destined to encounter countless dangers. It’s not just about running into those weak apocalyptic monsters again and again; you’ll face a scene like what just happened more than once in the future. And next time, you might not be so lucky,” I said. “It’s not too late to leave my side now.”

After leaving me, Sandalwood should no longer encounter such frequent dangers.

Although he, as someone close to me, might also be affected by the jinx, I have considerable experience with the jinx's power and have roughly figured out some of its operating rules. First, those who have had direct communication or contact with Asahi will definitely be affected by the jinx, but whether "those close to me" will be affected depends on the specific relationship.

If a close friend like Chang'an gets involved in a strange event, I'm likely to be dragged down with her. Based on this logic, Chang'an would definitely become a target of the misfortune. On the other hand, someone like Tanxiang, whom I wouldn't particularly care about even if she died out there, is less likely to catch such misfortune.

The more emotionally invested you are in someone, the more likely they are to suffer misfortune; this is the malevolent nature of the jinx.

(End of this chapter)