Chapter 575 War Breaks Out

Huang Quan's search for a path outside the human extermination plan might stem from his assessment that the plan's inhumane nature would lead to betrayal and division within the Gospel House, and would be detrimental to his subsequent efforts to win over the Great Impermanence of Luoshan. He believes he might need to make some compromises to make his plan less inhumane.

Judging from the outcome, the other two paths he found seem to represent both compromise and no compromise. Based on the emotions vaguely revealed in the documents, he seems to feel that he has made significant concessions, but both paths ultimately lead humanity toward destruction.

Why didn't he explore the direction of the divine seal?

As long as all the fragments of the Divine Seal can be collected—although we don't yet know how to repair them into a complete Divine Seal—it's clear that the Divine Seal possesses the power to save the world. We can't exclude it from the discussion simply because it's the "weapon" that caused the world's current state. At least the Great Impermanence of Luoshan is planning to use the power of the Divine Seal to prevent the end of the world; it's impossible that Huang Quan didn't think of that.

Or is it that he simply didn't mention it in the current documents, but wrote about it extensively in other documents? I don't have a feeling that's the case. For some reason, I feel that Huang Quan intentionally avoided the option of the Divine Seal.

For some reason, he believed that the divine seal could not save the world, or that there was an unacceptable price to pay for using the divine seal to save the world... This price was even higher in his mind than "personally burying the old human history and almost all existing humans".

“Number Seven, since you have rejected the Gospel House’s plan to exterminate humanity, do you have a more perfect plan that can save the world without the need for large-scale extermination of existing humans?” I said.

“Of course. In the face of a huge crisis, if you can’t come up with an alternative plan, you shouldn’t reject the plans proposed by others. Otherwise, it’s just throwing a tantrum and an irresponsible act,” Number Seven said.

Upon hearing this, Xiaowan seemed to want to say something, but then stopped herself after a moment's thought. I could imagine what she wanted to express by observing the emotions that surfaced on the surface of her soul. Plans like the Gospel Institute should be unconditionally rejected, even if one cannot come up with an alternative. To slaughter humans in order to save the world is to put the cart before the horse—that was probably what she was thinking.

Xiaowan shares some emotional patterns with Zhu Shi, meaning her values ​​are very similar to Zhu Shi's; on the other hand, she is capable of making choices that Zhu Shi would never make—choosing only herself and those important to her. Like two sides of a coin, seemingly the same, but actually opposite.

Using a metaphor that Zhu Shi himself likes to use, Xiao Wan's personality pattern is partly like "a darkened version of Zhu Shi".

“You can probably guess my plan too, which is to use the Divine Seal,” Number Seven said. “Since the Divine Seal has the power to destroy the world, and it is actually what destroys the world, then as long as we obtain the Divine Seal, we can withdraw this wrong wish or correct the wrong history of mankind.”

“But isn’t our personality built on this ‘erroneous history of humankind’?” I said. “Once all errors are corrected through divine intervention, it also means that we, living in the present, will be ‘corrected’ as well.”

"After that, we may live in a world different from the present, with different memories and a different self. Perhaps that is what the world should have been like, but it will still be a different world and a different us."

"Can you accept the possibility of your current self being eliminated?"

This is the only possibility I can currently imagine that Huang Quan and his group are not considering using the Divine Seal to resolve the apocalyptic crisis.

Number Seven paused for a moment, then said, "—No, it won't turn out like that."

"What's the basis for that?" I asked.

"The Divine Seal is a power that can grant any wish," Number Seven said firmly. "Correcting erroneous human history without affecting us living in the present—this wish, though logically contradictory, is not enough to justify the Divine Seal's inability to grant it."

"Even if we don't correct the errors in human history, it doesn't matter. We can simply change our wish. For example, while maintaining this existing contradictory history of humankind, we can use the power of the divine seal to forcefully prevent the end of the world from ever coming—"

"What 'necessary price to pay' and 'unbearable side effects'... Any obstacle that sounds reasonable is sophistry in the face of omniscience and omnipotence, and does not exist."

Her explanation sounded rather stubborn, but it was all plausible and aligned perfectly with my understanding of the Divine Seal. However, this made it difficult to explain Huang Quan's subtle avoidance of the Divine Seal's power.

After saying that, Number Seven tossed the cultivator who had reached the Chengjing realm aside, closed his eyes, remained silent for two or three seconds, and then said, "...I have completely grasped all aspects of the information about the Yellow Springs Gospel Academy, and I have also almost pinpointed the location where the technical data of Dushuo Mountain and the fragments of the divine seal are stored."

"Sure enough, those suspicious places were heavily guarded. I couldn't break through in a short time, and I would definitely be detected by Huang Quan the moment I tried to break through."

I nodded: "So next, it's my turn to deal with Huang Quan."

"Please."

As she spoke, Number Seven walked over to Little Bowl's side.

Xiao Wan stepped forward and hugged my waist, chanting in a devout prayer, "Brother Zhuang Cheng, I wish you a triumphant return."

Along with those words, the blessing she bestowed upon me seemed to be renewed and became more active.

Number Seven placed his hand on Little Bowl's shoulder, and then they both disappeared before my eyes. The stealth phase was over, and Little Bowl no longer needed to remain in enemy territory.

I quickly summoned the Slag Straight Sword and plunged it into my own body.

The third form – “Corona”.

As his body transformed into a stellar luminous body, a sea of ​​fire erupted from his own center, instantly engulfing the Yomi Gospel Institute.

The first to be hit was the cultivator at the Chengjing realm nearby; he probably didn't even have time to realize his own death before he was reduced to ashes. However, he was actually the only one to die in the sea of ​​fire. Considering that the Tai Sui Army of Number Seven also had spies infiltrated within the Yellow Springs Gospel Academy, and I couldn't distinguish who was who, plus Number Seven still needed to search for "Dushuo Mountain" technical data within the Gospel Academy, I showed mercy and didn't cause much damage to the cultivators and buildings.

But Huang Quan is different; I have no intention of including him on the whitelist of the sea of ​​fire. As the sea of ​​fire unfolded, my spirit also spread throughout the area and sensed the location of Huang Quan.

He was resting with his eyes closed in a room when the sea of ​​fire touched his body. He suddenly opened his eyes and shouted sharply, "—Zhuang Cheng!"

All the monks inside and outside the Gospel Monastery reacted in various ways to the sudden attack of the inferno; panic and all sorts of magical fluctuations rose from various places. I made my voice boom throughout the area as an opening statement for the battle.

"Huang Quan, I've come to kill you."

As I spoke, I took a step forward. The omnipresent sea of ​​fire here was my omnipresent teleportation portal. This step transported me directly to the gates of the underworld. My right hand transformed into a hand blade and slashed out.

Huang Quan suddenly ducked down, and the walls and ceiling behind him were blown away by an overwhelming heat, along with the roofs of the distant buildings and the tops of the endless mountain ranges beyond Huang Quan's Gospel Temple.

He's really good at hiding, but with my next strike, I'll take his life.

With such close proximity, and enhanced by the blessing of the small bowl, my consciousness completely locked onto Huang Quan's head. Immediately, I swung my left hand, intending to incinerate this enemy with flames. The surrounding flames also cooperated, blocking his escape route. He had nowhere to run.

Perhaps I was too focused on Huang Quan alone, so I didn't notice the threats from other directions. When another surge of magical power appeared, I didn't have time to dodge and could only barely manage a defensive stance.

A black water cannon pierced the floor beneath my feet, and the aftershock shattered the room and the building it was in. My body and soul were reduced to dust as if struck by a hammer. At the same time, a gigantic monster, a hundred meters long and resembling a dragon, emerged from beneath the ruins and soared into the sky.

The Great Demon Xuanwu is still alive—and he's actually here!

Could this be a coincidence? No, it can only be assumed that Huang Quan deliberately used a luring method to arrange for the Great Demon Xuanwu to be nearby beforehand.

This is utterly absurd. The Doomsday Demon is essentially the embodiment of Naraku Gospel's murderous intent towards humanity. Even if there's some unknown connection between Gospelin and Naraku Gospel, the Demon wouldn't become Gospelin's ally. Even Yomi, at most, can only make the Demon ignore him, not control him. Placing the Demon Genbu in his own territory is simply not the thinking of a normal person.

Did he know I was coming?

I reassembled my body high in the sky, more than ten kilometers away from the Yellow Springs Gospel Temple, while the Yellow Springs and the Great Demon Xuanwu moved toward me at lightning speed like shooting stars.

From a great distance, I could see the expression on Huang Quan's face and hear his voice.

"I did consider that a brat like you who likes to do adventurous things might attack my home turf, so I made the necessary preparations... but you actually dared to walk right into my trap!" He revealed a sinister smile.

(End of this chapter)