Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 614 - 575 Fierce Battle

Chapter 614: 575 Fierce Battle

Here I stood alone, facing the formidable foes of Huang Quan and the Great Demon Xuanwu. The sight was all too familiar, as if I had returned to the headquarters of the Tai Sui Army.

Strictly speaking, I wasn’t truly fighting solo. Behind me was the assistance of Little Bowl, making this perhaps a fair two-on-two battle.

Both Huang Quan and the Great Demon Xuanwu were opponents I had encountered twice before. As the saying goes, "The first blow wins the strongest momentum, the second grows weaker, the third is exhausted," and "everything comes to an end after the third time." This battle with them should be the last. Whether it’s me falling by their hands or them by mine, a resolution must be reached today.

It was apparent I had fallen into Huang Quan’s ambush, yet the raging momentum of the Great Demon Xuanwu was far more ferocious than that of the schemer. The dragon-beast, marked with a pentagon array, roared madly, charging forth with relentless force. Its speed reached a fraction of light-speed, creating a storm capable of city-wide destruction, shrouding the world in darkness.

I chose not to confront it directly but relied on Little Bowl’s blessing to enhance my evasion, easily dodging the Great Demon Xuanwu’s lunges and snaps. Meanwhile, Huang Quan gathered yellow and black mana from a distance, biding his time like in our last battle.

"Do you wonder why the Great Demon Xuanwu would appear here and obediently ambush you with me? The truth is simple," Huang Quan’s voice reached out to disturb my focus from afar, "the Catastrophe Demon is renowned for its preference for hunting powerful beings, having little interest in the Great Demon Xuanwu, whom it greatly restrains. After heavily injuring the Great Demon Xuanwu, it discarded its broken body, likely moving on to pursue you.

"After my resurrection, I returned to the battleground from last time, transporting the remnants of the Great Demon Xuanwu near this Evangelical Institute. The Great Demon Xuanwu, unlike fragile humans, possesses super-speed regeneration. Even after severe injuries, it quickly returned to full power.

"However, during its weakened state, I made some manipulations, temporarily confining it to this area...like so."

With his statement concluded, I felt a tremendously strong binding force seize my body.

It felt like a massive gravitational pull, yet upon deeper reflection, it differed. To describe it precisely, it was like wearing layer upon layer of heavy, worn-out cotton jackets in winter, accidentally plunging into an icy, bone-chilling lake. The jackets, being old and tattered, offered no waterproofing; the lake water seeped inside, saturating them, transforming them into shackles that dragged the wearer to the suffocating, dark abyss of the lake’s bottom.

Awaiting me at the lake’s bottom was a mound of decaying earth, where countless skeletal remains lay jumbled, and where I would soon join them.

Cold, piercing pain, heaviness, suffocation, helplessness, despair... every conceivable and inconceivable negative sensation penetrated my body and mind, bizarrely infiltrating my thoughts. I found myself involuntarily contemplating surrender, forever sinking into the lake of despair, and my mana output displayed a decreasing trend.

This was Huang Quan’s Death Force.

However, not all the force was released from him; much of it emanated from the land itself.

It was likely an array hidden beneath the soil. Huang Quan had developed "Du Shuo Mountain," a technique employing arrays to penetrate the post-mortem and living worlds, which was why No. 7 wanted me to pass it to Weichi for decryption and replication. Huang Quan himself was evidently an array master at a pinnacle state.

The region surrounding the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute, Huang Quan’s long-established domain, was undoubtedly the foundation of his taunting. This array was probably not solely set against me but was a killing array that had been in place for ages by the cunning, cautious human god.

But trying to suffocate me with such measures was impossible. The Death Force that sought to consume me seemed menacing, yet it never took the final step. As I unleashed my flame magic power, the binding force quickly dissolved like sugar in boiling water.

This Death Force might have been effective against other Evils, but against me, in my "Crown Form," an existence of attack itself, it was akin to trying to bind a blazing war chariot with flammable grass ropes.

Meanwhile, I released a Fire Sea around me, attempting to melt and evaporate everything in the vicinity to its core.

"—Hmph!"

Huang Quan raised his hands, as if attempting to grip my shoulders from afar, fiercely tightening, the Death Force attempting to bind me once more. Simultaneously, the Great Demon Xuanwu, unsatisfied, transformed into a black-water-wrapped projectile, rapidly colliding towards me.

Regrettably, scorching the land didn’t seem enough to destroy the array he concealed here. His Death Force, despite its ineffectiveness against me entirely, still ensnared me with disconcerting discomfort, significantly lowering my evasion.

I could no longer elude the dual attacks of the god and demon as deftly as in our last battle; despite Little Bowl’s blessing not being wholly nullified, I faced undeniable difficulty.

"This is the consequence of your reckless risk, Zhuang Cheng," stated Huang Quan. "The Catastrophe Demon possesses a formidable ’attraction’ power, so even I, once designated as its prey, couldn’t escape its hunt unless we fought to a life or death outcome.

"And since you now appear alone here, it signifies you must have slain the Catastrophe Demon.

"The reason you were able to reverse the situation in the last battle was because of the Catastrophe Demon’s intervention. Otherwise, even if you could temporarily evade both my and Great Demon Xuanwu’s attacks, you would eventually be worn down to death by us. Now that you are deeply trapped in my home field, with no additional forces intervening, what else can you use to fight me?

"This is our third duel. You may escape the first day of the month, but not the fifteenth. Surviving the last two times was just your luck, and this time you will inevitably die at my hands!"

"That’s my line, Huang Quan," I said. "The one who will die is you."

"Still being stubborn?" Huang Quan sneered.

Meanwhile, Great Demon Xuanwu only focused on a violent attack, its offensive uninterrupted, black water cannons firing like machine guns in a frenzied barrage.

The current me is much stronger than when I previously fought against him. Purely in terms of density, my second form is enough to match Great Demon Xuanwu, while the third form "Crown" is a whole level higher.

However, the disadvantage of elemental suppression is even greater than this gap; the current me still cannot directly defend against Great Demon Xuanwu’s attacks head-on.

If I use the Solar Eclipse Fire, the situation would be drastically different. Although my Solar Eclipse Fire cannot counter Great Demon Xuanwu, it can neutralize the elemental suppression. With pure strength disparity, I could defeat Great Demon Xuanwu in a short period.

But if I do that, there’s a ten-to-one chance that I won’t be able to kill Huang Quan. Don’t be fooled by his current arrogant demeanor; it’s all an act. As soon as things look bad, he’ll drop all pride, forget all his prior boasts, and flee without looking back.

If that’s the case, should I ignore Great Demon Xuanwu and focus all my firepower on Huang Quan?

That’s not possible either. Even if my power surpasses his, with Great Demon Xuanwu’s interference on the side, I still can’t prevent his escape. Worst of all, if he realizes he can’t even escape, he also has the ultimate tactic of suicide.

Can I kill him faster than he can commit suicide?

Unless... I have a way to instantly kill Great Demon Xuanwu, and while Huang Quan realizes the situation is not in his favor, attempt to use True Spirit Power to strike his life in one blow... Only then is there hope to seize victory before he commits suicide.

Is such a thing possible for me? One-hit kill Huang Quan, maybe, but Great Demon Xuanwu is much harder to kill. To draw a video game analogy, although Great Demon Xuanwu’s attack and defense are just at normal Impermanence levels, its life value is extremely high and it comes with passive skills that recover a large amount of life per second.

In any case, I absolutely must not rashly reveal the Solar Eclipse Fire card, nor easily show Huang Quan the significant progress I made after battling the Catastrophe Demon.

I must quickly come up with a method, without delaying a single second. Based on my understanding of Huang Quan, his preparations for this battle are likely much more extensive than this.

Because in past battles, I have repeatedly broken his predictions, so even though he seems to have such a firm grasp on victory now, he’s likely still wondering "Is this Zhuang Cheng going to pull out another countermeasure to reverse the situation?" A cautious and cunning person like him would certainly think so.

So, likely, after confirming my invasion, he has already secretly summoned other Evangelical Institute human gods in an emergency.

Having other human gods to assist him will undoubtedly incur a huge favor debt, but given it’s a matter of life and death, such a thing will not be something he’s stingy about. And considering the chaotic time in the Post-mortem World, coupled with the fact that the Evangelical Institute’s human gods don’t seem to live nearby or frequently interact, there’s likely a bit of temporal dislocation between them. Just like two old mechanical watches that haven’t been synchronized for a long time, the time is bound to be off, and the reinforcement won’t arrive in an instant, as evidenced by the current situation.

I must control this battle within five minutes... No, at most within three minutes. I can foresee that this is the longest battle time I’m allowed.

"Struggling in vain." Huang Quan continued to attempt to strike at my morale, "This battle is like that, as is your stance. Clearly aware of our plan, yet you choose to stand on the same side as the Tai Sui Army. Do you really think you have a chance to go against me, against the Evangelical Institute?

"Even if you miraculously survive this battle, what can you do? The Evangelical Institute has long been one family with Luo Mountain in the Living World. When we all migrate to the Living World, we will naturally converge with Luo Mountain. At that time, all Impermanence will support the Evangelical Institute’s plan, and even Fa Zheng might join us.

"No one can help you, what awaits you is only a future of destruction."

"—One family with Luo Mountain?" I intentionally used a disbelieving tone, "Speaking of which, there was someone who boasted about the Evangelical Institute being Luo Mountain orthodox in front of me before as well. Quite a daydream. You guys once primarily focused on Naraku’s Will, and now the current Evangelical Institute worships some unknown Naraku Gospel. Do you really think you are still on the same path as Luo Mountain?"