Chapter 472 VS Dog 3
The dog's reaction was like that of a murderer about to leave a crime scene, only to find that the victim he had beheaded suddenly stood up. If his battle form wasn't wearing this full-body armor, but instead transformed into a werewolf or something, his fur might have stood on end.
I broke out in a cold sweat; I almost wasn't careful when reshaping my body and nearly created my true appearance. Luckily, I reacted quickly and transformed into my disguise form midway through the process.
"You're still alive... and completely unharmed?" Dog said in disbelief. "That's impossible. Even the Great Impermanence couldn't survive being hit by that attack..."
He spoke with great conviction, and I found it hard to deny his confidence. Unless one possesses the immortality of a true spirit like mine, or the undead body of a Naraku like Meiko, his previous moves were generally capable of guaranteeing victory with a single strike.
Over 99% of the power in his attack just now was directed elsewhere, rather than being concentrated on me personally. This shows that even he himself couldn't control this power. Even so, among all the Great Impermanences I've seen who could withstand this attack purely through defense, there isn't a single one.
Although the Dog (戌狗) appeared somewhat exhausted after the offensive, that was likely not its limit. Furthermore, if its only goal was to achieve massive destruction, it could potentially expand the area even further. Without other powerful figures interfering, it might very well be the person in the world capable of bringing this planet to its doom in the shortest possible time.
In addition, having witnessed his attacks so many times, I've come to some extent to figure out his true characteristics, or rather, what his special abilities are.
That should be the power of "tailoring".
His magical power possesses a unique "editing" quality, capable of manipulating spacetime itself. While it's not surprising that the Great Impermanence can influence spacetime, he can do far more incredible things. The alternate dimension we inhabit right now is clearly a creation of his editing power. The independent reality space invented by Ying Lingyun in the past was originally also called "Edited Reality."
Furthermore, he can not only skillfully manipulate space, but also easily manipulate time. The reason he was able to super-accelerate his attack movements earlier was not because his speed actually increased, but because he repeatedly halved his attack process, skipping the time between the preparation and the actual attack. This is a "time deletion" phenomenon achieved through the power of manipulation.
The principle is as described, but if other Great Impermanences with similar abilities were used, the same effect probably wouldn't be achieved. Even if other Great Impermanences could greatly increase their physical speed, their soul output couldn't be increased unconditionally; forcibly accelerating would only result in the soul collapsing first. There must be a "chemical reaction" involving the power of the Divine Seal fragments involved.
"You haven't forgotten, have you? If you kill other Void Realm Apostles to seize the Divine Seal fragments, your contribution to the Void Realm will be deducted. Although I don't care about such things, what about you?" I said, "Until this negative value is made up, the Lord of the Divine Seal may not trade with you again."
"So you've already given up on making a deal with the Lord of the Divine Seal? And why are you fighting me here? Are you an ally of those extreme superhumans?"
The Dog (戌狗) had probably really forgotten, and after hearing this, it actually showed some hesitation. Then, as if it had reaffirmed its determination, it once again brandished two large blades and launched a rapid charge towards me.
"Stop trying to confuse me... I refuse to believe I can't kill you!"
Two large blades, like scissors, slashed at me in a crisscrossing motion. However, for someone like me who can freely change form, this kind of close-range attack is the easiest to dodge. Now I can even transform into light, moving across a hundred-kilometer radius like unpredictable lightning, making me impossible to catch.
Meanwhile, the Dog (戌狗) activated its cutting power, erasing the time of its movement and appearing in various parts of the area as if teleporting. Because of its extremely high frequency of appearances, it was as if countless versions of it appeared simultaneously. Its strikes, like those of the Great Impermanence (大无常), possessed the power to lock onto fate and cause and effect, and occasionally they actually managed to hit me.
Unfortunately, he still didn't realize that he had to attack his opponent's true spirit.
His attack movements were quite skillful, and I could sense that he possessed far more combat experience than I did. However, his understanding of the mysterious seemed to be inferior even to mine. This was the first time I had encountered such a situation. On the battlefield of the supernatural world, it was always my opponent who had a superior understanding of the mysteries.
His previous reaction was the same: if someone had really been in the supernatural world for a long time, the result of "the enemy being killed but not dying" would not be commonplace, but at least it wouldn't be as shocking as finding a large cockroach in your coffee.
I won't kindly point out the correct target. While I like to do that when I have a clear advantage, ultimately, what I seek are challenges so difficult that even that pretentious stance becomes impossible to maintain. Therefore, when faced with truly difficult obstacles, I prefer to approach them with the attitude of a challenger, using any means necessary to find a way to overcome them.
Furthermore, attacking the "true spirit" is completely different from attacking the "soul," and it's not something that can be done simply by having awareness of it. I have a premonition that even if I were to tell the Dog about the concept of the true spirit, he could only rationally accept it, and still wouldn't grasp it in practice.
On a mystical level, the true spirit is essentially equivalent to the "Tao," something that can only be understood intuitively and cannot be explained in words.
While dodging, I occasionally fired beams of light in retaliation, but they were all sliced through by his large blade. These were just feints; secretly, I gathered the destructive light until its density finally reached a critical point.
The charging process had been interrupted by his terrifying attack, which was like a destructive storm, but it was finally completed.
As the large blade of the Dog pierced through me simultaneously, I deliberately didn't dodge, allowing it to pass right through my face and heart. This sudden success seemed to have surprised even the Dog itself. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I raised my left hand, and a small, murky black orb of light appeared in my palm.
Similar to the principle of a solar eclipse, this is the power of light after extreme compression. Compared to fire, light seems to be more suitable for compression, actually creating a flavor that surpasses even a solar eclipse.
The light, which shouldn't have had any weight, now seemed to crush the space around it. Centered on the black, murky sphere of light, the dust scattered in all directions after the earth turned to dust moved without wind, frantically converging towards our location. The dog seemed to realize it was about to be caught in the crossfire and hurriedly tried to draw its two large blades to retreat.
His magical power surged, and I sensed he was about to use a time-erasing skill to immediately retreat. However, the sudden appearance of immense gravity seemed to distort time as well, possibly hindering the time-erasing process. The dog's movements were a fraction of a second slower, and I seized the opportunity, slamming the black, murky orb of light into his massive "powered armor."
"—Black Destructive Ray."
I randomly picked a name and unleashed the power of the black, murky sphere of light at point-blank range.
Within my perception spanning a radius of hundreds of kilometers, I saw a towering, fiery pillar of light suddenly rise into the sky. The previously gathered dust instantly exploded, transforming into a rolling "tsunami" that spread outwards, making the pillar of light appear as if it were a massive jet erupting from the center of a black hole's accretion disk.
This variant of "Eclipse" is just like the original "Eclipse," a finishing move that deviates from the main theme of fire power. Moreover, perhaps because manipulating light itself is already a deviation from the main theme, the combination of the two makes it even more difficult to control.
Both involve the element of "gravity," which seems unrelated to my own power, and this may be one of the reasons why I can manipulate them. Although I can use the power of words to influence gravity, that is only an indirect method.
Fortunately, regardless of the circumstances, this was power I released myself, a manifestation of my own spirit, so it wouldn't harm my physical body. I retreated a distance along with the shockwave and then looked towards the center of the explosion.
The dog is still alive.
A large crack appeared in his "powered armor," from which blood and bits of flesh could be seen flowing, and the mangled flesh inside was vaguely visible. However, the injury quickly healed and regenerated at an astonishing speed.
The outer metal armor also repaired itself rapidly, as if it were made of self-replicating nanorobots. Ignoring the bloodstains on the surface, it looked as if it had never been damaged in the first place.
It truly lives up to its reputation as armor that simulates the power of metal and slaughter, and it even seems to simulate the hardness of metal that a descendant of the White Tiger should possess. Although the density of the magic power used for defense is negligible compared to my attack just now, it has managed to resist more than 80% of the power simply because of its hardness.
If given enough time to grow, and once he acquires the magical manipulation skills befitting a Great Impermanent Being, he could very well rival, or even surpass, powerful figures like Xuanming and the Lord of Peach Blossom Village in terms of pure killing ability.
Since the previous variant of "Eclipse" could not determine a winner, it means that I, in my current form of light, have no chance of winning the battle against the Dog.
(End of this chapter)
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