Chapter 470 VS Dog 1
With a deafening explosion like a meteorite striking the earth, Xu Gou appeared before me. I had previously chatted with Liu Shuying about whether my "impersonation" of a Void Realm Apostle would be exposed by a real one. And now, a genuine Void Realm Apostle had actually appeared; the speed of their "respond" was beyond my expectations.
The Dog (戌狗) didn't come here to catch the "fake Void Realm Apostle," it's more likely that he's attacking me because I destroyed this branch base. This behavior is practically an admission that he's on the side of this branch base—on the side of the extreme supernaturalists.
That's what puzzles me the most.
Although I didn't interact with Xu Gou many times, I could tell that beneath his cold attitude, the flame of his warmth and kindness hadn't been completely extinguished. When I first met Xiao Wan, he seemed to suspect that I had ulterior motives and even tried to cover for Xiao Wan.
Furthermore, knowing the extent of the atrocities committed by those extreme superhumans at this branch base, Xu Gou was even less likely to side with them, because he had been an experimental subject of the Humanitarian Division and had suffered countless forms of torture and oppression unimaginable to ordinary people. Although the Humanitarian Division used ordinary people as experimental subjects for demon hunters, while here it was the demon hunters using ordinary people as experimental subjects, which seemed completely opposite, Xu Gou believed they were the same.
According to the information I have, before being forced to undergo the Twelve Gods Project's modification surgery, the Dog was just an ordinary person.
The original intention of the Twelve Gods Project was to better research the technology to transform ordinary people into high-level super soldiers. Cases like Chenlong, who were already high-level demon hunters before undergoing the transformation surgery, are special. If Chenlong became a high-level demon hunter in the Twelve Gods Project but was still not recognized as a successful case because of his original power, then Xugou's case is because he had a fragment of a divine seal implanted in his body, making it extremely difficult to replicate.
The Dog (戌) should be filled with intense hatred for the powerful who conduct human experiments on ordinary people.
Regardless, since they attacked with hostility, I should retaliate in kind. This sudden turn of events stirred a sense of excitement within me. Simply overwhelmingly annihilating enemies far weaker than myself lacked a certain thrill. It needed tough nuts to crack like this to make it real.
A violent flash erupted from my palm once again, and a heat-destructive ray, powerful enough to burn through mountains, shot towards the direction of the Dog.
Faced with this attack, the armor on the right arm of the dog rapidly transformed into a huge black metal blade, which slashed down with an aura that seemed capable of splitting the ocean.
Just as an indestructible reef blocked the turbulent current, the orange-red heat-destructive beam was actually split into two by this slash, grazing past his body on the left and right.
At the same time, he raised his left arm. The armored arm rapidly transformed into a cannon barrel, its muzzle aimed at me, and burst forth with a silvery-white light.
A massive beam of light, bright enough to blind an ordinary person, hurtled towards me.
Compared to the dark red and black beams of his life-altering energy, his beam attacks were somewhat weaker in terms of speed and accuracy. Here, accuracy doesn't refer to precision, but rather to a level of manipulation of fate and causality. Although I hadn't anticipated his left arm transforming into a cannon, I still managed to dodge the attack at the last second.
However, this attack seemed to be just a feint to distract me. When I turned my gaze back to the dog and my surroundings, the scene had already changed.
The wreckage of the buildings I blasted away, the smoke and dust from the explosion when the Dog of the Dog descended, and the surviving Great Accomplishment level Impermanence and other survivors left nearby—all had vanished without a trace. Although the terrain appeared to be in the same place, my intuition told me that this was another location. It was as if, in a split second, the enemy had created a duplicate space identical to the original location and transported me into it.
This is probably not a metaphor... I carefully sensed the state of the space around me and found that I had unknowingly entered a different space that resembled an independent real space.
"Who are you?"
The voice of the dog, Xu, echoed in my mind. It was telepathy. Not only did he wear "powered armor," but he also communicated in a way that resembled talking through a communicator.
“Like you, Dog, I am also an Apostle of the Void Realm,” I said. “You can continue to call me ‘Number Three’.”
Rather than the cold and impersonal "Number Three," I actually wanted a cooler name as my code name for my debut in the real world as a Virtual Apostle. However, things happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to prepare in advance, and not long ago Lu Chan criticized my poor naming taste, which made me lack confidence. I couldn't think of anything good to say for the time being.
My real name is definitely out of the question. How about I use "Dawn" instead? But Fazheng would definitely recognize me if he heard it. Or, like the naval master Xuanwu who uses his own power seed as a source, I could call myself "Vermilion Bird"? Then those who know that I am the successor of Yin and Yang would probably have doubts.
The Dog (戌) said in a cold voice, "Do you think I'll believe you just because you spout nonsense?"
Like that other cultivator at the Great Completion stage, he also displayed an attitude of distrust. The difference was that his distrust didn't seem like self-deception, but rather seemed to stem from a sense of certainty.
He continued, as if observing the space itself: "You referred to yourself as the 'Third Apostle of the Void Realm' to those people before... In other words, you wanted others to think you were 'Number Three'?"
He may possess historical research skills and be able to see what happened in the past.
"You can fool those who don't know the truth, but you can't fool me!"
In the end, his right arm armor transformed into a cannon, firing silver-white beams at me from both sides.
Now I have no way to dodge. I still need to disguise my identity, so I can't directly summon flames to retaliate; and if I just manipulate light, a counterattack won't be enough to neutralize this silver-white beam. As for defense, light isn't a defensive force to begin with, and the orange-red light barrier I create isn't enough to stop the opponent's attack.
From my observation, the density of this silvery-white beam of light is roughly the same as mine in my normal state, hardly comparable to a solar eclipse. However, the magical power constituting the beam possesses special properties, significantly increasing its destructive power. In terms of pure destructive force, it even approaches the level of the "Life Impurity" realm.
This property feels familiar to me, as if it is similar to the "metal and killing power" used to forge the Yama Sword. This is the most destructive attribute among the successors of the Yin and Yang.
It's highly likely that when Ying Lingyun was modifying the Dog in the Twelve Gods Project, he incorporated his research findings on the White Tiger's killing power into it. However, the Dog doesn't truly possess the White Tiger's killing power; it merely shares similar characteristics.
In the Five Elements, fire can overcome metal. If I were to fight a true descendant of the White Tiger, even if I could only manipulate light, I would be able to overwhelm the opponent at the same level. However, the magic power of the Dog does not follow the framework of the Four Symbols and Five Elements system. It is clearly an imitator of the White Tiger's killing magic power, but it only takes the benefits and seems to have left none of the disadvantages. It is truly cunning.
However, this is not entirely incomprehensible. Essentially, the Dog's magical power comes from fragments of the Divine Seal. Compared to the power of these fragments, even the Five Elements magical power of the Mountain Yin-Yang is likely only at a lower level. Using higher-level power to simulate lower-level power, thus presenting a form that is more advantageous than the lower-level power, is plausible.
At the same time, I also understood why the Luoshan branch base I attacked was shrouded in the power of the Divine Seal fragments.
That was probably the work of the Dog (戌狗). Although it's unclear what specific effect the power of the divine seal fragments shrouding that area had, this explains why, even though the power of the divine seal fragments could be sensed, the location of the divine seal fragments couldn't be detected. As fellow Void Realm Apostles, they wouldn't react to each other's divine seal fragments.
So... how should we fight next? It's not convenient for me to take out the slag weapon here. The power inside is too compressed, too "heavy," even I can hardly control it, let alone extract just the light portion. And if I were to unleash the flames within in front of the dog, it would still expose my identity.
While quickly thinking, I asked myself, "Oh? Is there anything about me that doesn't seem like number three?"
“I know Number Three’s true identity, and I’ve personally witnessed his power. His power form and magical fluctuations are completely different from yours,” Xu Gou said in a deep voice. “Having been exposed to this extent, are you still going to shamelessly continue to impersonate a Void Realm Apostle?”
He said he had witnessed my power… I remember now, at the last moment when the illusory realm shattered, I released flames in front of everyone to protect Xiao Wan. It seems that my actions at that time left an impression on him. Now he must know that "Number Three" is "Luo Shan Da Wu Chang Zhuang Cheng".
I don't care if he knows this, the problem is that "I here" must be recognized as an apostle of some virtual realm.
Since the Dog is on the side of the branch base I destroyed, it's likely connected to Peach Blossom Village, or even the Village Lord. I need to make the Village Lord treat the attack on this branch base as "a Void Realm Apostle acting for the Divine Seal Fragment," otherwise things will get complicated later.
How can I convince Xu Gou that I am Number Three? This approach is definitely not feasible... Even if I am not Number Three, I must at least convince Xu Gou that I am also a Void Realm Apostle.
I had a general idea in mind, and then said in a deliberately meaningful tone, "—Pretend? I don't understand what you mean, Number One."
"You...!?" Dog exclaimed in surprise.
(End of this chapter)
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