Chapter 354 VS Fate's Turbidity 4
Just like the time-manipulation user before, this time it was Mingzhuo's body that erupted with flames, instantly engulfing his entire body.
Even the most fortified castle struggles to handle an internal crisis. No matter how strong Mingzhuo's defenses are, they cannot withstand an attack originating from within. Moreover, the location occupied by the Proclaimed Flame is itself a wound that Mingzhuo has been unable to heal. The expansion of the flames signifies a rapid widening of the wound.
Mingzhuo let out an excruciating scream, and the black-red light that had been gathering in his palm dissipated. His body was quickly burned to a crisp by the flames. My spirit, like gasoline, was poured into it with all its might, and it was no longer just about intensifying the burning. Mingzhuo's body exploded on the spot, and his soul was completely disintegrated and destroyed.
He appears to have been murdered.
My fate is not mine; I cannot continue to live under the condition that both my body and soul die at the same time. It is only natural for me to die like this.
Unfortunately, if he could die so easily, I wouldn't have had such a headache before the battle, unable to come up with a strategy to defeat Mingzhuo no matter how hard I tried.
Countless fragments of his body exploded and flew apart, turning into afterimages. Like ice and snow melting in the sunlight, the afterimages dissolved and disappeared. At the spot where he died, an afterimage of his body appeared, then quickly solidified into a physical form.
He has been resurrected.
Not only that, but it resurrected in a nearly complete state. Although it had already repaired the marks I had left on it, the one standing before me now looked like it had never been injured in the first place. Its breathing was not heavy at all, and its spirit and aura were extremely full, as if it had not been depleted in the slightest.
This is the immortality he obtained by making a contract with Naraku.
The only flaw is that I can still sense the Xuanming Fire within his body. This flame is like a curse entangled in his fate; even after dying and being resurrected, he cannot shake it off.
Naturally, if dying once or twice would be enough to get rid of it, he would have gotten rid of it long ago.
"Zhuang Cheng——"
As soon as he was resurrected, Mingzhuo let out a hateful and furious roar, but I had no intention of listening to what hateful words he was about to say, and launched another attack from within him.
His recovery included restoring his seal on the Flame of Profound Light, but the Flame itself wasn't reset to its original strength. With the infusion of my spiritual fuel, the Flame of Profound Light had been temporarily strengthened to the point where the original seal was insufficient to completely contain it. Although it could still be largely sealed inside, some sparks were leaking out. This was enough for me to maintain contact with the flame.
The flames engulfed Mingzhuo's body again, but this time it seemed that he concentrated most of his power into his body, so he was not killed immediately. At the same time, he released some of his power into the outside world, turning it into black and red rays that shot towards me.
However, he couldn't attend to both sides at the moment. If he focused on dealing with the Proclaimed Flame, the black and red rays he emitted wouldn't be enough to catch me. But once he focused his attention on me, the Proclaimed Flame would engulf him in an instant. I would also release a black sun "Eclipse" attack, causing him to lose his balance, and in the end, he would still be consumed and killed by the flames.
In the blink of an eye, he died four or five more times. I moved around at high speed, attacking and observing his deaths and resurrections.
I roughly figured out what his Naraku immortality was all about.
On the level of cause and effect and destiny, I can sense that all the causes and effects directly related to his death are postponed to the distant future by a mysterious force the moment they appear.
The "distant future" I'm referring to is merely my perception as a young person who's lived for less than twenty years; in reality, it's less than ten years. To others, it's likely just a fleeting moment. I can now intervene in cause and effect, yet I'm powerless against this mysterious phenomenon.
This mysterious force has already pronounced its judgment on Mingzhuo's fate—Mingzhuo will definitely die at some point in the future, thus proving the conclusion that "Mingzhuo will definitely not die now."
Even if the body and soul of the corrupted life force, and even its cause and effect and destiny, are burned to nothingness, this mysterious power will still bring the corrupted life force back to life from a place where nothingness exists.
As for whether this re-proven Life Impurity is the original Life Impurity, I'm not entirely sure. However, considering the existence of True Spirits, even if the re-proven Life Impurity's memory information is replicated, its consciousness itself is probably still the original Life Impurity.
In a sense, while Naraku's immortality has a cursed aspect, it may also have an "opportunistic" aspect. It is estimated that not all great impermanence can come back to life under the condition of complete annihilation of body and soul, but life impermanence can die and be reborn repeatedly, which may become a shortcut to "prove one's true spirit".
That being said, not everyone would want to prove their own spiritual power. At least in the eyes of a normal person like me, proving one's own spiritual power is tantamount to courting death, and Silvermoon has explicitly denied this.
Moreover, the more deaths one incurs, the more the fact of "death" accumulates on future "anniversaries of death." The karmic debts incurred now must be repaid in the future. For those hoping to overcome this calamity, it is a terrifying situation that must be avoided at all costs.
So... what should I do next? While concentrating on using the Xuanming Fire to kill Mingzhuo, I pondered how to completely kill Mingzhuo.
To be honest, by this point, I had almost given up on the idea of "completely killing the Life-Staining Demon".
I still don't believe that Naraku's immortality is absolutely unbreakable; the problem is that I lack the wisdom and knowledge to break it. As for the "brute force" approach, I have considered it. Unfortunately, the power that determines the lifespan of Naraku is not something I can overcome with brute force alone.
I vaguely sensed that power was very closely connected to another dimension. Perhaps that was Naraku, the so-called afterlife. In terms of size, I felt that Naraku was roughly the same size as the world of the living I inhabited. To destroy this mysterious power by brute force, I must first destroy Naraku, its source.
In other words, it is impossible to kill the Life-Destroying Impurity without the power to destroy at least one planet.
If you can't kill him, what about sealing him? A common approach to dealing with immortal beings is to force them into a state of permanent immobility, such as sealing them in concrete and then throwing them into the Pacific Ocean... However, life is unpredictable, and concrete won't be enough to contain him. At the very least, you'd need something of white dwarf material quality. But I don't have white dwarf material, nor do I know any sealing spells.
"Have you made enough of a scene?" Mingzhuo asked coldly.
He seemed to be focusing more on finding opportunities in the gaps between death and resurrection, trying to kill me with his black and red beams. Since I still didn't have the strength to aim, I dodged his attacks time and time again.
We're currently locked in a stalemate. No matter how many times I kill Mingzhuo, he's essentially unharmed. And if my offensive falters and I get hit by the black and red beams two or three more times, it will be a fatal blow.
The battle has only been prolonged to an extreme degree. It's as if I've been put on a pedestal by myself, and the moment it stops could be my death day.
It was practically like a story from One Thousand and One Nights... To avoid being killed by the king, Scheherazade had to tell him one captivating story after another every night. If he could no longer continue the tale, a merciless blade would be drawn.
"Keep going, Zhuang Cheng, keep going! Why are you slowing down a bit?" Ming Zhuo's voice revealed a sinister chill. "Are you starting to get tired? Feeling hopeless? Do you want me to cheer you on?"
"It's alright, I have plenty of patience. Kill me a few more times, come up with some more tricks! The closer a cicada is to death, the louder it sings. You're almost dead, if you don't sing a few more times, you won't have another chance to sing!"
"Is that so?" I said. "Since you want it so badly, I'll grant your wish."
"--Um?"
He seemed to sense that something was wrong.
I've figured it out.
I'll admit it, I really can't break his Naraku Immortal Body, neither intellectually nor physically.
If something can't be cracked, then don't try to crack it.
It's not that I'm surrendering; right now, all I can think about is victory, nothing else.
As the saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way," perhaps my desire for victory brought about a miracle, and a brilliant plan emerged from my mind. After a moment's thought, I couldn't help but admire myself. Truly, I am worthy of this; to think of such a perfect solution!
“Didn’t you say you could only live for another ten years at most?” I said. “In that case, I will keep burning you to death. I will burn you to death as many times as you are resurrected, until you die of old age!”
"Huh?" Mingzhuo was dumbfounded.
(End of this chapter)
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