Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 330 - 308 Water Navy Xuanwu Fully Liberated_2

Chapter 330: 308 Water Navy Xuanwu Fully Liberated_2

The Water Navy Xuanwu didn’t just stand there idly. In fact, aside from differing power attributes, our combat strategies are very similar in many ways. As I deployed the Fire Sea, he too summoned an enormous wave of water akin to a tsunami, instantly transforming the midsection of Moon Concealing Mountain into a marshland.

Water gushed forth out of thin air, cascading down the mountain under gravity’s pull, causing a widespread landslide disaster.

The ravages of water and fire completely destroyed the natural ecology of the mountain, turning forests into boiling swamps and lakes, while the massive amounts of water also split my Fire Sea.

I had no time to concern myself with environmental preservation, focusing solely on finding a way to break the deadlock – the first thing that came to mind was "Artifact Refining."

Water Navy Xuanwu’s Alchemy talents weren’t cultivated through cracking the mechanism of Shan Liangyi’s rituals, but rather, were inherent in the Xuanwu Seed, which truly caught me by surprise. However, since he can amplify his combat strength through Inner Core Skills, couldn’t I also strengthen my combat ability by utilizing my talent for Artifact Refining? For instance... treating my own soul as a weapon and refining it to enhance?

This idea was the most obvious and I didn’t know if it was feasible. Yet, stepping back, I currently haven’t even figured out the very basic ability to refine someone else’s soul, let alone enhance my own.

Another dozen black water cannons blasted towards me from Water Navy Xuanwu and his clones. Like before, I dodged nimbly and fired the Flame Light Cannon, attempting to neutralize one of the unavoidable black water cannons. This time, through the tactile feedback, I confirmed—my power had advanced mid-battle to the point where I could just withstand and neutralize Water Navy Xuanwu’s black water cannons, despite the elemental advantage.

The scales of the situation were no longer so tilted in favor of Water Navy Xuanwu.

However, to reach the point of victory was still far insufficient. I could only release a full-force Flame Light Cannon once at a time, whereas he could launch a dozen simultaneously with the aid of the "Golden Core" inside his body. Not to mention, he still had the hidden Impermanence domain’s killing move... Perhaps I should strive to conceal the evolution of my power until the moment I genuinely stand a chance.

With this thought in mind, I pretended to be unable to counteract his black water cannons, allowing my body to be battered and severely damaged again, and then swiftly regenerate using the residual fire around me.

Alas, no matter how exquisite the act, it is difficult to hide from Water Navy Xuanwu’s Insight. As expected, the situation took a turn for the worse.

Water Navy Xuanwu suddenly furrowed his brows.

"...Your strength has undergone a significant boost... no, that’s not quite it... I see!" He then revealed an incredulous expression, "So it’s not that you still had reserved strength, but that you are rapidly evolving during the battle?

"How is such a thing possible? Could it be that my knowledge is flawed and that the power associated with the Vermilion Bird Seed isn’t Artifact Refining, but rather growing stronger through battle? But even Shan Liangyi himself didn’t possess such an ability, so how could you, as a Liangyi Inheritor, possibly have it?"

His gaze scanned my body, his eyes flickering with sharp light, as if he were searching for the most likely answer with his eyesight and intuition.

"Could it be... this isn’t some special ability, but merely because your potential is exceptionally profound, and now it is being unlocked step by step?"

What troublesome observation skills, he actually saw through it!

I tried a last-ditch struggle.

"I didn’t expect you to see through my act, but you’re giving me too much credit, actually..."

Before I could finish my words, Water Navy Xuanwu sharply interjected: "In that case, I must seek a swift resolution, and use my strongest strike!

"The tables have turned, huh. Zhuang Cheng, I admit I underestimated you. As the saying goes, ’when hunting a rabbit, the lion still uses full force’—even though I said this at the very beginning, I still played it cautiously and didn’t immediately reveal my most powerful move...

"I was careless, but it’s not too late. I won’t underestimate you again, but will treat you as a foe on the level of Impermanence... Take this!"

As he spoke, he dissolved all his clones and rushed up high into the air, raising his right arm forcefully.

In my senses, the "Golden Core" within his soul vanished and then materialized in the palm of his raised right hand, held aloft.

An aura with an ineffable overwhelming power swept in all directions, so vast that even the Fire Sea was nearly obliterated, leaving behind only countless shattered sparks and bits of burning charcoal scattered everywhere.

"This is my ’inner core’, in which I’ve compressed mana hundreds to thousands of times greater than my own. Such an immense amount of mana exceeds the limits of my control; even I, as its master, cannot completely harness it, and can only transfer its power to the outside world bit by bit," said the Water Navy Xuanwu from his vantage point. "There is only one circumstance under which I can fully unleash all the power within."

With a fierce clench of his right hand, the inner core shattered on the spot.

An incredibly profound and pitch-black mana glow radiated from his clenched fist.

In ancient times, black represented the color of water, and it is said that Emperor Shi’s dragon robe was black, symbolizing the virtue of water. In some historical periods, black was also referred to as "mysterious," originating from Xuanwu. Xuanwu’s root meaning is ’Mysterious Darkness’, as the ancient pronunciations of ’martial’ and ’darkness’ are the same, bearing connotations of ’black’ and ’yin’.

Among the Four Symbols, Xuanwu is the Divine Beast most closely associated with death.

He aimed his right fist at me.

"Die, Zhuang Cheng."

The Mystic Light transmuted into an all-encompassing darkness, barreling towards me with the momentum of a collapsing mountain.

I was about to dodge, but almost simultaneously, I realized that it was impossible to evade this killing move.

It was not because the scale of the attack was too large, nor because the speed of the attack was too fast for me to react. To the average person, the speed at which the darkness devoured everything might feel as sudden as turning off the light in a room, but in my eyes, the pace of this darkness was much like the previous black water cannon. What truly rendered me unable to dodge was the force of elemental restraint.

This was a restraint on the level of mysticism, not only putting me at a disadvantage during the clash of powers, but also sealing my fate to be absolutely overwhelmed in every aspect. His earlier use of power was on par with mine, so the restraint was only evident in the realm of attack and defense. Now, however, this restrain even manifested in the concept of ’Guaranteed Hit.’

The excessively overwhelming power brought about an overpowering restraint, forming a destiny guaranteed to utterly destroy me.

In simpler terms, it was ’Guaranteed Hit and Penetration’.

It wasn’t that the Water Navy Xuanwu had the superpower of ’Guaranteed Hit and Penetration’ that brought about this effect. When power reaches a certain magnitude, it inherently displays all sorts of mystical phenomena.

Without a doubt, this was a Killing Move from the domain of Impermanence!

At the first moment, I distributed part of my soul into the scattered sparks and residual fire on the battlefield, and the next instant, the dark abyss of death mercilessly devoured me.

An unprecedented crisis caused an unparalleled outburst in the liberation of my power.

However, faster than even the explosion of power, in less than a ten-thousandth of a second, my Fire Element body was completely destroyed by the darkness, and my soul was ground to extinction.

What’s more, even the parts of my soul I had hastily allocated to the sparks and residual fire, seemingly untouched, were also snuffed out along with them. The extent of this power and restraint was such that the darkness extinguished all my physical forms and souls like an unreasonable curse.

The enormity of this darkness did not stop there; it further obliterated all matter in its path. Like a high-pressure water jet tearing through a child’s sandcastle, half of Moon Concealing Mountain was directly shattered by the overwhelming dark Mysterious Power.

And for some reason, I could still see all this.

It seems... I have not yet perished.