When Toyotomi Hideyoshi came to his senses, Xu Fu had already taken him far from Osaka and appeared near Kyoto.
However, Xu Fu's condition was dire. His foundation as a False Immortal was shattered, and his eyes held a madness. He stared at Hideyoshi for a long time, making the latter's scalp tingle, as if Xu Fu was preparing to kill him and use him as a restorative elixir. But after hesitating, he ultimately did not act.
This caused Hideyoshi's previously pale complexion to gradually regain some color, feeling fortunate to have escaped imminent disaster.
"Your Majesty Emperor Jinmu! Is there anything you need me to do?"
Hideyoshi spoke ingratiatingly, his gaze fixed on the nearby city of Kyoto. He could see the anomalies occurring around Kyoto: various writhing flesh monsters, grotesquely devouring living people. Buddhist light emanated from within and outside the city, accompanied by the sounds of Shinto incantations and Buddhist mantras. It was clear that people from Shinto and Buddhism were engaged in slaying these bizarre monsters.
"Kyoto has also been affected..."
Of course, Hideyoshi's statement was not an expression of regret over Kyoto's potential fall.
"Does Your Majesty wish to kill the current Emperor?"
Hideyoshi's tone was eager. He knew that each generation's Emperor was endowed with a "Divine Kingdom Medium," a powerful spirit and form nurtured since ancient times. This spirit and form was a core component of a perfect Divine Kingdom, a crucial element. By its existence, all power within the Divine Kingdom was bound, concentrated like stacking a pagoda towards the apex, and then dispersed from that apex throughout the entire Divine Kingdom, completing the yin and yang cycle. Those born within the Divine Kingdom, upon death, would have their life force returned to the Divine Kingdom, and their souls would descend to the Yellow Springs to become sustenance for the Ghost Dao. Thus, everything was utilized to its fullest, consuming the entire value of a life without any waste.
However, in the previous battle, the spirit and form had already been retrieved by Xu Fu, meaning the current Emperor was now useless.
Yet, the Emperor's bloodline still existed, a lineage passed down from the era of Emperor Jinmu. Hideyoshi knew that these individuals were called "Qin Descendants," their veins carrying the blood of the ancient Qin Dynasty... Each Qin Descendant's bloodline was as precious and useful to Xu Fu as an immortal elixir or divine medicine.
"No need. He is already dead," Xu Fu glanced at Hideyoshi. "Those rotting flesh monsters rampaging in Kyoto are what the current Emperor's flesh and blood decayed into. These creatures are merely vessels for my spirit and form. Without my spirit and form, their own spirits and forms have long since vanished. Without the restraint of a spirit and form, they are like False Immortals who have exhausted their immortal power, turning into a pile of writhing rotten flesh with no fixed shape. Those who come into contact with this rotten flesh, its blood, or its stench will become 'clones' of this rotten flesh, for this is a product of the Immortal Dao domain."
"Do you wish to be Emperor? I can grant you Qin Descendant blood. There are still over ten Qin Descendant corpses sealed from the era of Qin Shi Huang."
Xu Fu made the suggestion, and Hideyoshi's heart trembled.
He had not known before that losing the Emperor's spirit and form would result in such severe consequences. His ambition to usurp the throne immediately vanished, and he quickly declined, claiming he too was seriously injured by the residual power of the celestial demon and needed time to recover. He also declared he would never covet the Emperor's position nor dare to make decisions for Xu Fu.
He then shifted the topic: "Your Majesty Emperor Jinmu, I faintly heard you utter the name 'Dongfang Shuo' just now?"
Xu Fu saw Hideyoshi's timidity and said no more, directly skipping the topic and answering his current question:
"Although you fled far, your ears are still sharp. I didn't expect you to hear it, as Osaka Castle had already been stripped of all its laws and spiritual energy. It was because I used the Penglai Immortal Art, and the primordial energy of the celestial demon clashed with my True Nine Energies, temporarily removing Osaka from its state of Dharma-ending, which is why you heard it?"
Hideyoshi didn't know how to respond, but Xu Fu didn't care:
"This is no secret. It doesn't matter if you heard it."
"Because this matter is intrinsically linked to you."
"You are the 'Unity of Heaven and Man' I have chosen, one who achieves divinity through a human body in the acquired realm. This is entirely different from ghosts ascending to divine positions or local deities becoming celestial beings through faith and worship. They possess divine tablets, while you are equivalent to the divine tablet itself. Therefore, to be precise, they are merely mortals occupying divine positions, while you are the true celestial being, the sole one in the world."
"However, there are also those who are born divine. When I traveled in the Han Dynasty, I met with alchemists from the Central Plains. Their leader was named Dongfang Shuo. He mocked my concept of a Divine Kingdom and told me that to achieve a Divine Kingdom, one must have a 'born divine.'"
"It is said that within the Central Plains' Confucianism, such an existence resides, which is why they can manifest a Divine Kingdom and hide it from the world... However, this is merely hearsay. Dongfang Shuo himself was a person of constant falsehoods; seven out of ten sentences he spoke were lies."
"I searched for two thousand years and never encountered such a person, so I believed he was deceiving me. But his idea was correct. I believe I have deciphered his lies and have been working on creating it myself for a long time. I have created many such celestial beings. The great deity governing the Yellow Springs is Empress Suiko; she is also one of my creations, albeit a failed one. She merely fell into the Yellow Springs and could not leave, instead being bound by her divine position. This is not the outcome I desired."
"And today... I have actually met such a person."
Xu Fu's expression was grim. This was a truth, not a lie, but Dongfang Shuo had not told Xu Fu how long the appearance of such a person would take. Thus, the truth became a lie, and after two thousand years, the lie was exposed, only then realizing that Dongfang Shuo had not lied.
Mixing falsehoods with truths, Dongfang Shuo was such a person!
Most alchemists were like him. Every time Xu Fu thought of Dongfang Shuo's face, anger would surge within him. Perhaps it was because this junior alchemist not only surpassed him in achievement but was even more skilled at deception than he was!
Xu Fu and Hideyoshi entered Kyoto. The immortal powers within the rotten flesh were reclaimed by Xu Fu. Without the immortal powers, the rotten flesh truly became ordinary rotten flesh, no longer moving or exhibiting any strange behaviors.
Hideyoshi asked, "The other areas of Kyoto also need cleaning."
Xu Fu snorted, "No need to bother with them. These immortal powers are too weak. My reclaiming them was merely incidental, offering negligible help to my recovery. I have no intention of expending so much effort searching for these rotten flesh clones everywhere. You also have important matters to attend to. Aren't those Shinto and Buddhist people clearing them out? Let those two religions handle it."
"Hideyoshi, does the current Emperor have any offspring?"
"Yes, but he is only two years old."
"Two years old is fine. The bloodline is not broken, it is as it should be. Hideyoshi, bring that child to me. I will connect him with the Qin Descendant bloodline. To restore the operation of the Divine Kingdom, that celestial demon has not yet recovered to the true True Immortal realm. After battling me, he must have been severely weakened and cannot have gone far. Once the Divine Kingdom is restored, he will be unable to leave. In another seven days, I will absorb the life essence of all beings under heaven, and I will recover completely."
Xu Fu reached out, and from the place where the current Emperor had died, light emanated from the void.
The last divine artifact was not in Osaka but in Kyoto. The back of the Yata no Kagami was painted with a three-legged golden crow, representing the power of the sun. Its light could reach any corner of the Divine Kingdom, and it controlled the changes between life and death, capable of turning living people into vengeful spirits, or vengeful spirits into walking dead zombies.
Uesugi Kagekatsu had transformed into a vengeful spirit with the help of this divine artifact.
Ancient Japanese culture believed that looking into a mirror could reveal another self, which was the secret of transformation. Existence and non-existence, much like the Dharma Body, Response Body, Incarnation Body, and True Body spoken of by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, which one was their true form?
"The Qin Mirror hangs high, constantly reflecting people. Those with agitated hearts and moving courage, it slays."
"Where its light reaches, there is nothing that is not extinguished."
"Your Majesty, what you said, I have firmly remembered, for two thousand years."
Xu Fu muttered the words of Qin Shi Huang from ancient times, simultaneously ascending to the Emperor's throne. This item, passed down since the Nara period, although not an immortal artifact, was a震器 (zhenqi - a type of powerful artifact). In terms of treasure level, its power was even greater than the dragon throne of the Ming Dynasty emperors. After all, the items beneath the emperors of various dynasties in the Central Plains were different, replaced every two to three hundred years. But this imperial throne had continued from Nara to the present day.
"Born celestial... although the national destiny has suffered immense damage, another hope has been seen. This loss is huge, but if I can capture that celestial demon next, then the previous losses will be insignificant."
"Rest for now..."
---
Was Dongfang Shuo telling the truth?
This question caught Ji Xiang's attention, but Xu Fu had already escaped using a divine artifact. As the green light dissipated, Ji Xiang reacted, but it was half a beat too late. Then, an alarm bell rang in his heart, and in an instant, he activated his Golden Escape and vanished from the ruined Osaka Castle.
Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Yasa-kani no Magatama.
Of the Three Divine Artifacts, the last one had yet to appear.
Ji Xiang worried that the appearance of this final divine artifact would trigger terrible events, and he currently had no surplus strength for pursuit. If he forcibly pursued, the outcome would likely be his own death at Xu Fu's hands.
This was, after all, the territory of a False Immortal, inherently disadvantageous to him. The opponent's recovery speed would certainly be faster than his. Moreover, although half of Japan's national destiny had collapsed, the remaining half was still substantial. At most, it was the destruction of a few hundred or a thousand years of accumulation. Perhaps the greatest benefit gained from this invasion of Japan was forcing Xu Fu to sacrifice those False Immortals maintaining the Divine Kingdom, thus greatly reducing Japan's immortal combat power.
Although False Immortals were far inferior to True Immortals and False Immortals, they still possessed overwhelming power against those in the Pure Yang realm and ordinary cultivators. After all, they were half in the Immortal Dao domain, and Pure Yang, being a quasi-immortal, had no way to contend with experts at the False Immortal level.
However, they had all been sacrificed now. Even if there were remaining False Immortals, Xu Fu would likely capture and sacrifice them to the national destiny to quickly restore his own strength, otherwise, Japan's current state was truly somewhat dangerous.
These were all Ji Xiang's speculations.
He also needed to leave this place as soon as possible and first recover his spiritual power. Staying in Osaka was impossible; that place had become a land of extinguished Dharma.