Chapter 15 Truth and Lies

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi came back to his senses, Xu Fu had already taken him far away from Osaka, appearing near Kyoto.

However, Xu Fu's condition was very poor at this time. The foundation of his false immortality was destroyed, and his eyes were filled with madness. He stared at Toyotomi Hideyoshi for a long time, until the latter's scalp went numb. He seemed ready to kill Hideyoshi as a tonic pill for his recovery, but after hesitating for a while, he ultimately did not act.

This allowed Toyotomi Hideyoshi's initially pale face to gradually regain some color, feeling fortunate to have escaped an imminent disaster.

"Your Majesty, Emperor Jinmu! Is there anything you need me to do?"

Hideyoshi said flatteringly, his gaze fixed on the nearby Kyoto city. He could see the strange changes occurring around Kyoto, with various wriggling flesh monsters, grotesque in shape, devouring living people. Both inside and outside the city, Buddhist light swirled, and there were sounds of Shinto incantations and spells. Clearly, people from Shinto and Buddhism were exterminating those bizarre monsters.

"Kyoto has also been affected..."

Of course, the meaning behind Hideyoshi's words was not a lament for the fall of Kyoto.

"Does Your Majesty wish to kill the current Emperor?"

Hideyoshi's tone was eager to try. He certainly knew that each generation of Emperors had a "Divine Country Medium" placed within them, which was a powerful spirit form nurtured since ancient times. This spirit form was one of the cores for perfecting the Divine Country, an important element. Relying on the existence of this spirit form, all the power within the Divine Country was bound, concentrating towards the top like building a pagoda, and then spreading from this top to the entire Divine Country, completing the yin and yang cycle within the Divine Country. People born from the Divine Country, if their lives ended, the power of their lives would feed back to the Divine Country, and the three souls of the dead would fall into the Yellow Springs, becoming nourishment for the ghost and spirit path. It was truly making the most of everything, completely consuming all the value of a life without any waste.

However, in the previous battle, the spirit form had already been taken back by Xu Fu, which meant that this Emperor was useless.

But the Emperor's bloodline still existed. That was also a descendant passed down since the Jinmu era, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi knew that these people were called "Qin Descendants," their veins flowed with the blood of the ancient Qin Dynasty land... Every such Qin Descendant's blood, for Xu Fu, was as precious and useful as a divine elixir.

"No need, he is already dead." Xu Fu glanced at Toyotomi Hideyoshi, "Those rotten flesh monsters rampaging in Kyoto are what became of the current Emperor's flesh rotting away. These guys are just containers for my spirit form. Having lost my spirit form, their own spirit forms have long ceased to exist. Without the constraints of the spirit form, they are like the end result of a false immortal exhausting their immortal power, turning into a pile of wriggling rotten flesh, without a fixed appearance. Anyone who comes into contact with this rotten flesh and its blood and stench will become an 'avatar' of this rotten flesh, because this is a product of the immortal realm."

"Do you want to be the Emperor? I can bestow upon you the blood of the Qin Descendants. There are still more than ten Qin Descendant corpses sealed away from the Qin Shi Huang era."

Xu Fu made a suggestion, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi's heart trembled violently.

He didn't know before that losing the Emperor's spirit form would lead to such serious consequences, so the thoughts of usurpation he had just had were immediately extinguished. He quickly declined, claiming that he too had suffered serious injuries, harmed by the aftermath of that Heavenly Devil, and needed to recuperate temporarily. Furthermore, he dared not covet the Emperor's throne, and even less dared to make decisions for Xu Fu.

And he changed the topic: "Your Majesty, Emperor Jinmu, I faintly heard just now that you seemed to call out the name 'Dongfang Shuo'?"

Xu Fu saw that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had chickened out, and didn't say much. He skipped the topic directly, answering his question:

"Although you escaped far away, your ears are still very sharp. I didn't expect that Osaka Castle had already destroyed all laws and spiritual energy had been exhausted, yet you could still hear. Was it because I used Penglai immortal techniques, and the Heavenly Devil's primeval energy collided with my Heavenly True Nine Energies, causing Osaka to temporarily shed its Dharma Ending state, that you heard it?"

Hideyoshi didn't know how to answer, but Xu Fu didn't care:

"This is not a secret, so it doesn't matter if you heard it."

"Because this matter is closely related to you."

"You are the 'Union of Heaven and Man' that I have chosen, one who achieves a heavenly god with a human body after birth. This is completely different from those ghosts who ascend to the divine throne, or the folk gods who are transformed by faith and worship. They possess divine tablets, while you are equivalent to the divine tablet itself. So, specifically speaking, they are merely mortals occupying divine positions, while you are the true heavenly god, the only one in the world."

"But in this world, there are also those who are born holy. When I was in the Han Dynasty in the past, I met with Chinese alchemists, and the leader was named Dongfang Shuo. He ridiculed my vision of a divine country, and told me that if you want to achieve a divine country, then there must be someone who is 'born to be a god'."

"It is said that within the Chinese Confucian religion, there is such an existence, so they can transform into a divine country, hidden in the world... But that's just hearsay. Dongfang Shuo himself is a liar, and seven out of ten sentences he speaks are false."

"I searched for two thousand years, but never saw such a person, so I thought he was lying to me. However, the idea he gave me was correct. I believe I have already seen through his lies, and have long begun to create such a being myself. I have created many such heavenly gods. The great god who governs the Yellow Springs is Empress Suiko. She is also one of my creations, but a failure, just fallen into the Yellow Springs and unable to leave, but is instead bound by the divine position. This is not the result I wanted."

"But today... I actually saw such a person."

Xu Fu's face was gloomy. This was the truth, not a lie. But Dongfang Shuo didn't tell Xu Fu how long it would take for such a person to appear, so the truth became a lie. And two thousand years later, the lie was exposed, and then it was discovered that Dongfang Shuo was not lying.

Truth mixed with lies, that's what Dongfang Shuo was like!

Most alchemists are also like him. Every time Xu Fu thought of Dongfang Shuo's face, anger arose in his heart, perhaps because this younger alchemist not only far surpassed himself in achievement, but even his deceitful words were more clever than his own!

Xu Fu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi entered Kyoto City. The immortal power on those rotten flesh was all recovered by Xu Fu. Having lost their immortal power, these rotten flesh truly became ordinary rotten flesh, no longer moving at all, and unable to display any strange behavior.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked, "The other places in Kyoto also need to be cleaned up."

Xu Fu snorted coldly: "There's no need to bother with those. These immortal powers are too weak. I recovered them just casually, and it's better than nothing for my recovery. I don't have the mind to expend so much effort to find these rotten flesh clones everywhere. You also have important things to do. Aren't those Shinto and Buddhist people clearing them out? Let the people of those two religions do it."

"Hideyoshi, does the current Emperor have any children?"

"Yes, but only two years old."

"Two years old is fine too. The bloodline has not been cut off, as it should be. Hideyoshi, bring that child to me, and I will connect him to the Qin Descendant bloodline. Right now, we must restore the operation of the Divine Country. That Heavenly Devil has not yet recovered to the true realm of a True Immortal. After fighting with me, he suffered a great loss of vitality and must not be able to go far. If we restore the Divine Country, he will not be able to get out. If we wait another seven days, I will absorb the life energy of the people of the world, and I will be able to recover as before."

Xu Fu reached out, and from the place where the current Emperor died, light emanated from the void.

The last divine artifact was not in Osaka but in Kyoto. The back of the Yata Mirror was painted with a three-legged golden crow, which represented the great power of the sun. The light could be transmitted to any corner of the Divine Country, and at the same time, it governed the changes of life and death. It could turn living people into vengeful spirits, and it could also turn vengeful spirits into walking corpses and zombies.

Uesugi Kagekatsu used this artifact to transform into a vengeful spirit.

Ancient Japanese culture believed that another self could be seen by looking in the mirror. This was the secret of transformation. Existence and non-existence are like the so-called Dharmakaya, Response Body, Transformation Body, and Original Body of gods and Buddhas. Which one is their original image?

"The Qin Mirror hangs high, always illuminating people, those with fearful hearts will be killed."

"Wherever its light reaches, nothing will not be destroyed."

"Your Majesty, I have kept your words firmly in mind, for two thousand years."

Xu Fu muttered the words of Qin Shi Huang in ancient times, while sitting on the Emperor's high throne. This thing, passed down since the Nara period, although not an immortal artifact, was also a Zhen artifact. In terms of the level of the treasure, its power was even greater than the dragon chair of the Ming Dynasty emperor. After all, the things under the butts of the emperors of the various Chinese dynasties were different. One dynasty would change them every two or three hundred years, while this high throne has continued from Nara to the present.

"Born to be a heavenly god... Although the national fortune has suffered a great loss, I have seen another kind of hope. Although this loss is huge, if I can catch that Heavenly Devil next, then the previous losses are not worth mentioning."

"Rest for now..."

————

Dongfang Shuo was telling the truth?

This sentence caught Ji Xiang's attention, but Xu Fu had already escaped with the divine artifact. When the blue light dissipated, Ji Xiang reacted and was already half a beat too late. Then, an alarm rose in his heart, and in an instant, he used the Golden Escape, disappearing from the ruined Osaka Castle.

The Kusanagi Sword, the Yasakani no Magatama.

The three divine artifacts still had one that hadn't appeared.

Ji Xiang was worried that the appearance of this last divine artifact would trigger terrible things, and he himself didn't have the extra power to pursue. If he forced himself to chase and kill, the result was likely that he would be counter-killed by Xu Fu.

This was, after all, the territory of a false immortal, which was already unfavorable to him. The other party's recovery speed was definitely faster than his own, and although Japan's national fortune had collapsed by half, it still had half left. At most, it would only destroy hundreds or thousands of years of accumulation. Perhaps the greatest benefit gained from this trip to Japan was forcing Xu Fu to sacrifice those false immortals who maintained the Divine Country. This greatly reduced the immortal combat power of the Japanese side.

Although false immortals were far inferior to True Immortals and False Immortals, they were still crushing to the Pure Yang level and ordinary cultivators. After all, they were half of their bodies in the immortal realm. Pure Yang level quasi-immortals had no way to fight against masters at the false immortal level.

However, now, they had all been sacrificed. Even if there were any remaining false immortals, Xu Fu would probably catch them and sacrifice them to the national fortune in order to quickly restore his own strength. Otherwise, Japan's current state was indeed somewhat dangerous.

These were all Ji Xiang's guesses in his heart.

He had to leave here as soon as possible, and first recover his mana. Staying in Osaka was definitely not an option, as that place had become a place of Dharma destruction.