Entrance to the Divine Realm.
Before the arched bridge, carpeted with red maple leaves, the Divine Monk had been waiting for a long time.
The robust monk, wielding a three-meter-long cleaver and clad in a kasaya, appeared much more imposing than the Phantom Monk of Mibu Village.
Most notably, the Divine Monk’s health bar displayed three red dots above it.
This signified not only that the fellow possessed three health bars but also three distinct phases, with different attack patterns for each.
Eager to enter the Divine Realm, Kuro, without much preamble, charged forward.
The first phase was not significantly different from the Phantom Divine Monk of Mibu Village. He effortlessly depleted one of the Divine Monk’s health bars using less than half of his own.
Upon reaching the second phase, the Divine Monk’s attacks did not change much, but during their exchanges, Kuro found himself gradually losing ground.
It was peculiar.
Despite the Divine Monk’s attacks becoming more wide-ranging and direct in the second phase, Kuro felt an illusion of being unable to parry them effectively.
His offensive pressure also intensified.
*Clang!*
Suddenly,
The Divine Monk vanished from his position, summoning shadowy phantoms to attack.
*Clang, clang, clang!*
Kuro parried while contemplating a faster and more efficient way to defeat the Divine Monk.
Phantom Slash!
This was a unique technique of the second-phase Divine Monk. The phantoms could disappear from their current location and reappear elsewhere, their movements extremely elusive.
Kuro suffered considerable damage from this move, his vitality rapidly depleting.
However, every problem had its solution.
Kuro possessed an abundance of patience.
Finally,
After being defeated six or seven times consecutively in the second phase, Kuro made a new discovery—the maple trees beside the arched bridge were climbable!
Thus, after quickly dispatching the Divine Monk in the first phase, Kuro immediately ascended a maple tree.
As expected,
Within the mist, a large red dot appeared on the Divine Monk’s neck, signifying a weak point, a target for stealthy assassination.
Overjoyed, Kuro leaped down, directly forcing the Divine Monk into the third phase.
*Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!*
Suddenly, a strong wind whipped through the area.
A crimson centipede, its body extending over half a meter from the Divine Monk’s impaled neck, emerged, its clawed legs and fangs appearing terrifying.
At this point, the Divine Monk was clearly no longer a sentient being, but rather a puppet driven by the centipede.
*Crackling!*
Kuro initiated his attack with firecrackers, unleashing a flurry of blows during the Divine Monk’s brief stun in the third phase.
*Hiss, hiss, hiss!*
The centipede, protruding from the Divine Monk’s neck, spewed foul-smelling, dark yellow venom. Caught off guard by his greed for an extra hit, Kuro was unable to dodge, and his face took the brunt of a large amount of venom.
An intense burning sensation instantly spread from his cheeks throughout his body, and the searing pain made it difficult for Kuro to open his eyes.
As the status bar bearing the word 'Poison' filled up, Kuro instantly perished!
[SCRUB]
“I was too careless, I didn’t dodge.”
Reviving before the Divine Heirloom, Kuro, filled with unwillingness, repeatedly told himself not to parry. Yet, he ultimately couldn’t resist the temptation for one more strike.
This resulted in him forfeiting the excellent opportunity he had cultivated, leaving him no choice but to start over.
However, armed with his previous experience, Kuro reached the third phase using only one life.
Once again facing the menacing centipede, Kuro gave it his full respect.
After a few strikes, he immediately created distance. Seeing the centipede prepare to spew venom, Kuro switched to his Loaded Umbrella to block the attack, regardless of the distance.
Having thoroughly understood the Phantom Divine Monk of Mibu Village, even though the current Divine Monk had the added second and third phases,
Overall, the Divine Monk’s basic attack patterns were developed from the first phase.
With only the new moves of Phantom Slash and Venom Spit, Kuro, with a little practice and his impeccable memory, achieved victory with a cost of less than ten lives.
Finally, he delivered the finishing blow with the Mortal Blade, extinguishing the life force of these grotesque beings.
[Mortal Blade]
[Combat Memory: Guardian Ape of the Divine Realm
Stored in the heart, memories of battling a rare strong foe.
By sitting with the Divine Heirloom and facing the combat memory, one can increase attack power.
The Guardian Ape is the guardian of the bridge leading to the Divine Realm.]
[Acquired: Dragon’s Heritage
A Dragon Seal carved from a large piece of jade.
If you possess this item, the quality and quantity of goods sold by merchants will increase... etc.]
“Just a mere gatekeeper.”
“Still not as strong as Father.”
For some reason, ever since stepping into this ethereal Divine Realm, the deeper Kuro ventured, the more his anger swelled.
Whether it was because he and the Prince were too peculiar or because the world itself had become corrupted, it was fine in Ashina Castle. Only some strong individuals pursued immortality, conducting various troublesome experiments for it.
This led to the Prince’s family’s ruin…
But these conflicts were limited to top-tier experts like Genichiro and Lady Butterfly.
However, upon reaching the Divine Realm, he discovered it was an entirely different world from Ashina Castle.
In the Divine Realm, whether they flew in the sky, swam in the water, or crawled on the ground, even ants, in their pursuit of that twisted immortality, had become mere shells walking through time.
Soulless shells, even with eternal life, what was the difference between them and old, stinking zombies?
[Divine Realm]
Standing atop a mountain peak, overlooking the entire mountainous landscape of the Divine Realm.
Magnificent and beautiful; the water was bluer than the sky, the mountains greener than jade… lush and verdant, a paradise on earth.
One could only say it was indeed a place where divine dragons dwelled, quite extraordinary.
Very high-class!
Compared to the ruin and gloom of Mibu Village, the gap was like a chasm.
No wonder the first visit to Mibu Village was filled with so much foul, black, and bloody mud.
After all, the fresh water source for Mibu Village was merely the waste released by the Divine Realm after use.
“Full of immortal charm, a paradise on earth!”
“What a pity, the inhabitants of this paradise are all demons and monsters!”
“Today, your old Monkey Sun is here to slay demons and vanquish evil!”
Kuro’s expression gradually darkened. His experiences in Mibu Village and Ashina Castle had instilled in him an intense aversion to the twisted pursuit of immortality.
The pathological obsession with immortality throughout the Divine Realm disgusted him.
‘The cherry blossoms and waterfalls here are so beautiful they move me!’
‘The source of Shangri-La!’
‘The source of everlasting life in the sky?’
‘It is indeed beautiful, but there are monsters within.’
‘I actually feel a somber atmosphere.’
‘I also dislike this kind of pathological pursuit. Looking at these fallen people, what’s the difference between them and the writhing cultists in the Depraved Chasm in Dark Souls.’
‘The difference is they’re wearing human skin and still look human.’
…
“Since everyone here doesn’t seem to like the monsters, I shall start a massacre!”
Kuro licked his dry lips, a bloodthirsty fire burning in his eyes.
The so-called nobles of the Divine Realm used living people as sacrifices and the entire village of Mibu for immortality experiments, all for the sake of longevity.
This not only turned Mibu Village into a dead village but also transformed most of the nobles within the Divine Realm into beings that were neither human nor ghost.
Gaining longevity, losing humanity.
They even absorbed life essence. Kuro, while fighting these weaklings, occasionally fell victim to it. As a result, Wolf was drained from youth to old age, truly terrifying!
…