Chapter 500: Merger and Death
Translator: Yukidaruma Translations Editor: Yukidaruma Translations
The merger of Tyrant and Fang Xingjian was in order to use Tyrant's unique body structure to imitate the Heavenly Abyss Annihilation Armor and stick onto Fang Xingjian like a layer of armor.
While Tyrant did not appear any different, he had engulfed a body which was at the level of a Demigod with two tiers of perfection. After Tyrant merged with Fang Xingjian's body, Fang Xingjian could now draw out the power from the 1,440 specialty seeds.
With this merger, Fang Xingjian felt an immense amount of power was gushing forth from void space, and the vital energy and blood in his body were seething like they were part of a great surging river.
At this moment, Fang Xingjian felt as if his physical strength had suddenly increased by 10, or even 100 times. Endless amounts of energy surged forth from the many specialty seeds in his body, giving him a strong feeling of exhilaration.
With a slight step, waves of air currents seemed to form in the air, and Fang Xingjian flew out a distance of ten kilometers. With another step, sounds of thunder rang out as his body cut across the air, reappearing several thousand meters up high in the sky.
"As expected. After the two of us merged together, my physical strength rose crazily, and it's now even above that of an ordinary Demigod with two tiers of perfection.
"Now that my physical strength has increased tremendously, my battle prowess on Earth is even stronger now when paired with my sword arts cultivation.
"But... I still need to become stronger."
Thinking of his opponent this time around, negative emotions started burning up in Fang Xingjian's heart. In this battle, no matter what kind of moves his opponent made or what setup had been prepared, Fang Xingjian could not allow himself to lose.
Just then, Tyrant, who was on Fang Xingjian’s skin, said, "It should be fine, right? Let's remove the merger for now."
"Hmm?" Fang Xingjian asked, "Shouldn't we get used to this a little more?"
"What's there to get used to?!" Tyrant said angrily, "Try sticking all the flesh of your body onto another man... I can't... I'm going to puke..."
"Hmm? In your current state, how are you going to puke?"
"I don't know either, but I feel that I can't take it anymore."
...
Up in the air, Fang Xingjian looked at the ground below him and went into deep thought. He was condensing specialty seeds constantly at all times, and he was also tempering his martial will without stopping as well.
However, in the following month, he had to bring his battle prowess up qualitatively by another notch. Ordinary methods would not make it in time.
Just then, Fang Xingjian's gaze suddenly flashed as he looked toward a street that was several tens of kilometers away.
On the street, several tens of ruffians, who were holding onto machetes, were forcing a young man into a corner.
The group’s leader, a man with a beard, shouted, "Kid, do you know whose territory this street comes under? How dare you spoil things for us? If we don't take one of your arms today, we can forget about staying around here in the future."
The young man shouted furiously, "Who can ignore a group of thieves stealing things? You guys better think it through carefully. Stealing will only get you detained, but if you dare to slash me today, all of you will have to end up in jail!"
"Ohhhh, kid, you seem very arrogant."
"Slash him! Let's see if he still dares to remain so arrogant."
"Take one of his arm! He'll know what fear is after that."
In that instant, over ten people charged forth together, slashing crazily. The young man managed to block a few of them, but he was soon bathed in blood. Then at the next moment, a machete came slashing down toward his face, clearly wanting to take his life.
Confronted with this slash coming down toward him, the young man's mind instantly blanked out, and a terror he had never felt before in his life filled up his brain, causing his entire body to go numb. His muscles twitched a little, and all the blood throughout his body accelerated in circulation.
However, at the next moment, the machete shattered, and Fang Xingjian was standing before the young man.
No one present was able to see clearly how Fang Xingjian had appeared before them. These people were just those who were at the bottom of the chain, so it was impossible for them to know who Fang Xingjian was either.
The bearded man asked somewhat doubtfully, "And who would you be? You want to help this kid?"
Fang Xingjian did not look at the man but turned to look at the young man to sense the terror in his heart.
"This is the fear one feels at the moment of life and death. It might also be human's greatest fear."
Seeing Fang Xingjian behavior, the bearded man let out a cold laugh and said, "Another show-off. Brothers, kill him!"
However, an eerie sword intent passed by at the next moment, and the sounds of the machetes falling to the ground rang out incessantly. All the ruffians had turned into human vegetables and collapsed.
The bearded man let out a terrified scream as if he had just seen a ghost. Then with a bang, he dropped to his knees, struck with the realization that he had came across a powerful person. "S... S... Sir... I beg of you, please spare my life."
However, when he lifted his head, Fang Xingjian was already nowhere to be seen. The bearded man then felt a pain in his chest. He did not know when it had happened, but there was now a huge hole in his chest, and blood was gushing out from it like running water.
Sensing the terror the bearded man felt before his death, Fang Xingjian was struck with a new understanding.
'If I want to further temper my martial will, I can probably only rely on the fearr that’s felt during life and death moments.'
What was the most terrifying thing in the world? Although different people might give different answers, the one answer which would appear the most would likely be ‘death’.
That was a living creature's instinct, a human's instinct. Something which everyone was unwilling to face the most, yet people were left with no choice but to face it.
In the following month, Fang Xingjian tried all sorts of methods with a single goal in mind—to get close to death. He wanted to use the threat of death to push forth his potential, thereby further tempering his will and fully completing his fifth God-Slaying Sword.
So, at the beginning, he put himself in danger. He plunged down from several hundreds of thousands of meters high up in the air, smashing a large crater into the ground.
Then he went deep to the down into the sea, several tens of thousands of meters down under. In the pitch black sea, he tempered his sword arts while withstanding the terrifying water pressure.
After that, Fang Xingjian jumped into a volcano's lava, went deep underground, and watched as the stratum slowly engulfed and pressed against him.
He also soaked himself in liquid nitrogen, sensing his body's temperature lower incessantly and his heartbeat get increasingly slower.
Fang Xingjian did not inform anyone to assist him, since that would prevent him from experiencing the threat of death in the tests.
Thereafter, the various powers on Earth could no longer let him feel danger. So, he changed his method.
...
He strolled along the battlefield, watching as many bullets and missiles took away one life after another.
"Who are you?!" A soldier bellowed out toward Fang Xingjian, who was walking along the battlefield like a ghost. "Stop right there!"
However, the next moment, Fang Xingjian had already disappeared from before his eyes like a real ghost.
Then Fang Xingjian went to the slums and looked at the numb and desperate gazes of numerous people. He watched the many emaciated figures lay on the beds, calmly accepting death.
An old man looked dazedly at Fang Xingjian, who had suddenly appeared. Seeing how Fang Xingjian was hovering just above ground with hints of sword light wrapping around him like wings, the old man could not help but ask, "Are you an angel?"
As Fang Xingjian watched the old man smile for the last time, he disappeared in midair..
He witnessed and observed death firsthand.
During the final couple of days before the battle, the deathly aura on Fang Xingjian grew increasingly stronger. He looked like a ghost that had come from the netherworld. Fang Xingjian went to many hospitals and saw that many lives were lost everyday.
Fury, despair, terror, calm, numbness... Before death, everyone showed different emotions.
Fang Xingjian continued like that until one day before the battle. On this day, he arrived at a dilapidated hospital, found an empty bed, and lay on it.
For the past one month, he had tried out, seen, and experienced many different things. So, he now had a special understanding toward death.
However, he still seemed to be a little bit away from understanding death completely.
Fang Xingjian knew that it was time to take it one step further.
When he entered the hospital, it was as if no one was able to see him wherever he passed by. There was no one who would ask why he was lying on the bed either.
Fang Xingjian just lay there, slowly closing his eyes.
This time around, he was going to face death personally.
The moment he closed his eyes, his breath got increasingly weaker and his heartbeat got increasingly slower. Eventually, it was like his breathing had stopped completely and as if he had turned into a piece of ice cold rock.