Chapter 572 - 528: The Means to Slay a False God
BOOM!
Shi Ming’s Sword in the Stone ruthlessly pierced through the monstrous infant being used as a shield, tearing it apart into its most basic particles of energy. The aftershock then plunged deep into the earth of the Primordial Star.
The terrifying power tore space and earth asunder, leaving a bottomless chasm on the Primordial Star!
Smoke and dust filled the air.
In a single exchange, Huang Ji had lost one of her children.
A vicious glint flashed in her eyes. She had no time to mourn her child’s death; her divine authority, the [Blessing of Proliferation], was already being unleashed.
Strictly speaking, this authority was a type of "buff."
Any creature enveloped by this "buff," regardless of gender, would have its reproductive instincts amplified ten to a hundredfold. Without interference, they would ignore gender, and after three minutes, the beginnings of a fetus would form in their abdomens. The fetus would then continuously absorb the abilities, life, and spirit of its mother or father until it was born.
Gripping the Sword in the Stone, Shi Ming unleashed both of his major Nirvana Skills as the aftershock of his attack erupted.
Numbered Nirvana Skill! Zero!
Numbered Nirvana Skill! Moth!
Both major Nirvana Skills were unleashed at once!
[Zero] didn’t target Huang Ji directly but instead covered the entire combat zone. The attribute to be nullified was set to "life." Within every inch of the area, the [Life Attribute] was completely erased. The act of giving birth also fell within the domain of life, so it was now entirely forbidden.
In a sense, this had sealed Huang Ji’s authority!
Meanwhile, [Moth] manifested as a dozen or so transparent worms. They twisted and burrowed into the cavities on Huang Ji’s body, searching for the pseudo-god’s weakness.
Then, the dozen or so borer worms gnawed at Huang Ji, who had temporarily lost her life force. Intense pain shot directly into the pseudo-god’s mind on a spiritual level, and the momentary, bizarre sensation caused her body to twitch involuntarily.
’He actually possesses such a powerful skill.’
’As expected, I underestimated him! But this is good, too. It means he’s the very target I’ve been searching for.’
The beautiful woman let out a sharp shriek and threw out an ever-burning candle that was more than halfway consumed. The candlelight flickered, its shadows indistinct. This was a treasure Huang Ji had woven from the umbilical cords of over one hundred of her children, combined with the telluric currents of her domain planet.
A drop of fresh blood materialized on Huang Ji’s fingertip.
The drop of blood was just about to seep into the flickering candlelight.
Suddenly, she felt the dozen or so borer worms inside her body once again take a vicious bite out of her Spiritual Power. The pain was far more severe this time. In that infinitesimal moment of distraction, she saw a transparent cube fly from Shi Ming’s hand and completely envelop her.
[Knowledge Trap]!
Even a pseudo-god, once caught in the Knowledge Trap, would be subjected to long-lasting, hard crowd control!
Huang Ji’s body, which had lost its life force and was sustained entirely by her consciousness, came to a complete standstill. She was like a statue, all movement ceasing. Her gaze was lost in endless contemplation, like a seeker of knowledge bewildered by the sight of a vast ocean of learning.
The Knowledge Trap was useless against fools.
The more knowledge a person possessed, the more effective it became.
Huang Ji herself wasn’t particularly known for her intellect, but her hundreds of thousands of years of experience were no empty boast. It was enough to make her one of the most knowledgeable beings in the Star Sea!
This was the curse of knowledge!
At this point, Shi Ming’s combo had achieved impressive results.
Step one: The Sword in the Stone served as an opening gambit and a "welcome gift." Using only thirty percent of his power, its purpose was to probe her strength, and it successfully consumed one of the children Huang Ji carried with her.
Step two: Zero nullified the authorities of [Life] and [Blessing of Proliferation], preventing the pseudo-god from using her greatest trump card for 1024 seconds.
Step three: [Moth] exploited the opening.
Step four: And now, [Knowledge Trap] had delivered powerful hard control!
But such a victory would not last. Shi Ming didn’t want hard control or a simple defeat. He had a higher goal: to slay her, to eliminate this problem completely, to make the pseudo-god faction lose a member and thereby divide and conquer them!
It was just that pseudo-gods were not so easy to slay.
Take the current situation, for example. Huang Ji’s body appeared to have lost all its life force, her consciousness submerged in an infinite sea of knowledge, leaving her temporarily unable to resist. But Shi Ming understood that this was merely a twisted, static equilibrium. Once she truly faced a life-or-death crisis, instinct would drive her to empty her mind and escape the Knowledge Trap.
After only a moment of thought, Shi Ming made his decision.
’Use the power of the Eye of Destiny! Destiny Fixation!’
Divine remains like the [Eye of the Divine] and the [Heart of Chaos] contained the skills of a true god. The tier of these skills far surpassed that of Nirvana Skills. Although the Eye of Destiny was not yet the complete form of the Eye of the Divine, a power like Destiny Fixation was already the prototype of a true god skill—more than enough to deal with these pseudo-gods!
Destiny Fixation, activate!
Within his eyes, the great river of fate held no secrets. At this moment, Shi Ming was like a true prophet, able to peer into every branching path of the future within the next sixty minutes. Even though his opponent was a pseudo-god at the apex of the Star Sea, Shi Ming could still clearly foresee her destiny!
Not a single detail of any branching path was hidden from him.
[Branch 1: Blessings of Many Children]
[Unfortunately, Shi Ming’s attack fails to be a fatal blow. Instead, it allows Huang Ji to break free from the Knowledge Trap. Under the effect of Zero, she cannot use her own authority, but she can remotely borrow the skills of her other offspring! Truly, there are blessings in having many children!]
[Probability: 98.12%]
Shi Ming frowned.
A probability of 98.12% meant that without interference, this "Blessings of Many Children" branch would almost certainly become reality.
This outcome was unacceptable to Shi Ming.
But fortunately, 98.12% was not 100%.
Even if the probability was 99.99%, Destiny Fixation could still cause the timeline to deviate. Besides, Shi Ming had another fate-aspected treasure, the [Silver Scissors]—loot he had obtained from Ron—which could also interfere with the flow of fate to some extent.
He looked at the other branches.
[Branch 2: Advent of the God-Child]
[...]
’This one is even worse.’
Just reading its description felt like a form of pollution to Shi Ming. Fortunately, its probability was only 0.03%—far too low to occur.
[Branch 3: Dawn of a Thousand Children]
[Branch 4: Blood-Stained Red Candle]
[Branch 5: Fall of the Old Body]
[...]
Aside from "Blessings of Many Children," the probability of these other branches occurring was very small, and their outcomes were bizarre and varied. Based on the information revealed in them, Shi Ming realized more and more just how difficult it was to truly slay a pseudo-god. One careless mistake could lead to a complete disaster.
No wonder Amonev, who had mastered the power of Concealment, had plotted for so many years and still needed to find collaborators.
’The Knowledge Trap can’t hold Huang Ji for long.’
’I’m running out of time...’
Shi Ming’s eyes scanned rapidly, his gaze searching through the thousands of silk-thread-like branches until he finally found what appeared to be the one and only opportunity for deicide.
[Branch 1819: Vibrant Rebirth]
[...]
[Probability: 0.000001%]