Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 203 - 193 Sure-Kill Heart

Chapter 203: 193 Sure-Kill Heart

The Divine Spear gazed at my body, seemingly observing the weaknesses it bore.

Even a layman like me could tell that this Divine Spear, just like Zhu Shi, had undergone a lot of battle training and possessed extensive combat experience. Merely standing there gave me the sensation of having nowhere to start. As for me, not to be overly modest, but the vulnerabilities in my defenses were undoubtedly too numerous to count—it might even be more difficult to identify which vulnerability was the most fatal.

Even though I wasn’t as dependent on techniques due to innate conditions as other demon hunters, defects in skill still revealed themselves from time to time during combat.

Zhu Shi seemed to become tense as well. Her eyes unwittingly sharpened, and her gaze moved over the Divine Spear, probably trying to spot a potential flaw on my behalf.

The Divine Spear did not even glance at Zhu Shi. Instead, he looked down at his right shoulder, which was oozing blood; then, a surge of mana fluctuations erupted from his body. Silver radiance burst forth from his shoulder, weaving together like countless threads into the shape of an arm.

A silver long spear also emerged from within the brilliance, firmly grasped by his newly formed silver luminous arm.

He turned his head and said to me again, "Hand over that girl."

"Who’s backing you, Impermanence?" I inquired. "Which Impermanence is it?"

"Impermanence... Hmph, you really do have an imagination. I only represent myself," he said with a curl of his lip, "This matter is not significant enough to draw Impermanence’s attention."

I did not turn to look at Zhu Shi, but she should have known I could see her. Even without releasing "Fireflies," my Fire Element form allowed me to clearly sense everything in the surrounding area. Her expression became solemn as she silently took out her phone, opened the text app, and typed two characters—"Lies."

In other words, the Divine Spear’s backer was indeed Impermanence.

It was even possible that his reason for attacking Mazao was on Impermanence’s instruction.

Everything was veering toward the worst-case scenario predicted in my previous conversation with Mr. Zhu.

What exactly was Impermanence coveting from Mazao? Was it really because another Blessed Monk from the Apocalypse had done something outrageous, causing Mazao, who was also from the Apocalypse, to suffer collateral damage? Or was it simply because of Mazao’s Broom Star Physique stirring up trouble again, to the point where even Impermanence was affected by this spiritual malady, bringing an abnormal disaster upon Mazao?

Suddenly, a possibility dawned on me. The Broom Star Physique—could it be because of that?

Impermanence and I both faced the mystic effect of mutual repulsion with the abnormal world. To anchor myself, I relied on establishing a relationship with Mazao, while the method for Impermanence was to form enough connections in the abnormal world. Regardless of whether the latter ensured absolute safety, as the Fan Tian Incident descended, combining the abnormal world with conventional society, the consequences of mutual repulsion with strange entities grew increasingly dire. Impermanence might seek more methods to anchor themselves.

My method and Impermanence’s method were not in conflict. Just as I could attempt to form bonds in the abnormal world in the future, Impermanence could also pursue Mazao.

Hence, if I had to point out something that would warrant Impermanence’s attention and even warrant action without concern for dignity, this was all I could come up with.

The problem was, information about Mazao’s Broom Star Physique shouldn’t have been leaked yet, so why would Impermanence be interested in this? Could it be that "Mazao of this era" also had the same physique and had exposed related information to Impermanence?

However, based on the information I received, Mazao of this era should have been unconnected to the abnormal world... No, since she was afflicted with soul loss, perhaps we couldn’t say she was entirely unconnected, but at least she was unconnected before this...

Also, if Impermanence desired it so badly, why didn’t they come to steal it themselves?

Could it be that, just like in the past, more than one Impermanence had their eyes on Mazao, resulting in a standoff between them? Or was it precisely because of this top-level structure of mutual constraint that the past had evolved into various factions sabotaging each other over Mazao?

Mazao, you really are popular.

"I advise you one last time—" threatened the Divine Spear, "hand over that girl."

"You better truly mean this is the last time, or it won’t just be an arm that’s charred to a crisp," I replied.

"You think I can’t kill you?" he emitted a sinister voice. "Or do you think that the level of attack just now was all I had? I could kill you at any moment if I wished."

"So, you have an even more formidable move? Well, go ahead and use it now. After you do, you may as well die."

As I spoke, I gestured invitingly at his severed arm still ablaze in the distance.

The flames on the severed arm ignited without any breeze and flew towards me, merging into my body. As this fire was absorbed by my body, the soul wounds inflicted by the Divine Spear’s "Guaranteed Hit and Penetration" superpower began to heal rapidly.

Merely a small flame like that didn’t seem to be enough, so I summoned a large amount of flames within my soul to fill the wounds. In an instant, the soul injury had disappeared completely.

Frankly, I was just giving it a try on the spot. Healing a soul injury was surely much more difficult than healing a physical one. In the past, I had only used this method to heal minor injuries inflicted by Chen Long, and it wasn’t guaranteed to easily heal wounds inflicted by the Divine Spear. Surprisingly, the actual healing turned out to be that simple, it felt like the difficulty of healing my soul was no greater than healing this body of Fire Element.

To be honest, I didn’t bear a grudge against the Divine Spear for harming me. Although the wound was very painful, I wanted it to linger for a while longer, to experience the "battle wounds" more deeply. However, since he said he had an even stronger move, I wanted to face it in the best condition possible.

And it seemed like the Divine Spear realized what had happened to me.

He, who had lost an arm in our recent exchange, stared at me in disbelief, now unscathed.

"You... you...!"

He muttered, unable to accept what he was seeing, and glared hatefully at Lu Youxun once more, before a hesitant look appeared on his face.

In the end, he lowered his stance, and the silver spear vanished along with it.

It seemed he had given up.

Although a little disappointed, this also fit my needs. Like other beings of Great Success Rank, he was probably a confidant of Impermanence. Killing him would no doubt enrage Impermanence behind him and bring disaster upon myself.

Yet, I couldn’t believe that he had completely given up on attacking Mazao. At most, he just figured that resorting to brute force at this moment was not worth it. He was probably concocting a more sinister plan to attack Mazao. Still, I couldn’t suppress the urge to kill him.

Moreover, just the thought of holding back because I feared provoking Impermanence went against my nature. I can’t get comfortable with that idea.

Since Mr. Zhu had said he could clear the Zhu family’s ties with me, I no longer had to worry about the aftermath. Even though opposing Impermanence could potentially involve Mazao, Impermanence himself might have been targeting Mazao from the start, and it probably wasn’t a stage where I needed to be concerned about making Impermanence angry anymore.

If there was one thing not right, it was the timing. I hadn’t yet rescued Changan from the Human Bureau’s secret base, and Lu Chan, the girl, was still preparing for the battle to come after Chen Long. If I had to conflict with the Divine Spear and his Impermanence backing now, the situation at the Human Bureau base would be ruined.

——All right, I’ve made up my mind.

First, I’ll rescue Changan, and then I’ll kill the guy daring to attack Mazao.

After that, I’ll face whatever comes: when Impermanence arrives, I’ll give him a fight. If I can’t win, I’ll run; if I can’t run, I’ll die. Before I die, I’ll do my best to ensure Mazao escapes. Although it’s regrettable to die, this is the adventure I chose for myself, and I’m willing to accept all success and failure along this path.

As I made this resolution, the Divine Spear seemed to sense something, and his expression darkened tremendously.

"——You want to kill me?"

"As long as you stay put there, I won’t kill you," I said.

"Big talk..."

He seemed to have his own plans, not immediately turning hostile with me, and switched into a business-like demeanor, then looked around expressionlessly.

Most of the buildings at the Luoshan Office had been blasted to ruins; we could see the outside scene. From a distance, a group of figures appeared, clad in black uniforms—demon hunters. It seemed my eye power had improved; I recognized them instantly as demon hunters.

It was already night, and the black-clad figures roamed like a spectral army.

"They’re the elite Vie ready for the assault in this mission, a total of fifty. Led by three achieved level Vie in three teams, plus me as the core combatant," the Divine Spear spoke in a matter-of-fact manner, "Also, Lu Chan, the ’artifact that absorbs soul burdens in your stead’ you requested has also been brought over. What are your plans next?"

Seeing that he had shifted into a cooperative mode, Lu Youxun mentioned our intentions. First, I would destroy the independent reality space, then the Divine Spear would lead an assault on the Human Bureau’s forces returning to reality. Although currently impeded by Chen Long, we might succeed tonight.

The Divine Spear turned to scrutinize me.

"I’ve seen the information you sent before, you want to defeat Chen Long?" he asked.

"What about it?" I retorted.

After a moment’s thought, he stated with conclusive authority, "You alone cannot triumph over Chen Long."