"Life sprouts from death, and life sprouts from life," Yu Jin murmured softly.
These were words the King of the Ancestral Spirits often said. In fact, by the time the Golden Tree on the surface was flourishing, the body of the King of the Ancestral Spirits had already decayed to nothing but a skeleton.
He had many rotten divine bodies, and these great deer-like skeletons were placed throughout the underground forests by the Ancestral Spirits.
Birds, beasts, insects, fish, and all things in the world. When life died, new life would grow from their bodies, and their souls would flow into the decaying flesh of the great deer, awaiting the next reincarnation.
This was life sprouting from death.
Creatures in The Lands Between, whether human or beast, would sprout horns. People on the surface detested them, but those underground eagerly sought them out.
The Ancestral Spirits constantly yearned for the moment new sprouts would emerge, both from their bodies and from their souls.
Through countless sproutings, even a naive deer beast's life would become stronger and closer to the King of the Ancestral Spirits.
The King of the Ancestral Spirits originally had no physical body; He was everything in nature. Therefore, all things in nature could become Him.
This was life sprouting from life.
"Why do I suddenly find that ugly deer a bit beautiful?" Yu Jin recalled the azure giant deer he saw in his consciousness space and couldn't help but chuckle a few times.
"Hmph... sprout, little ones! Use your own power to cleanse the giant dragon that destroyed you!" Yu Jin's curved sword was once again held steady before him.
The azure world instantly vanished, returning to Yu Jin's sword.
"Watch closely! Just destroying isn't much of a skill! Creation and destruction are equally simple for a god!"
"Taste my Flowing Water Sword Technique!!!"
As Yu Jin roared, waves of emerald water blades once again rippled from the sword. Compared to the 'downpour' that drenched last time, this was more like a continuous waterfall.
"Thunderous... Quake!!!"
Azhdaha once again plunged his four limbs deep into the earth. Surging purple lightning instantly crawled all over his body.
His tail stood high, and the almost infinite elemental power from the ley lines converged at its tip.
The entire world turned a brilliant purple. In the Sky behind Azhdaha, countless shimmering purple lightning orbs condensed.
From afar, it looked as if many deep purple stars had appeared in the Sky.
"Cough, cough, cough..." Childe, who was momentarily stunned, suddenly felt a sweetness in his throat, and in a hoarse cough, crimson throat blood splattered out.
Childe looked at the scene before him, his eyes trembling. Merely the leaked elemental power had already corroded him to this extent, so what about Yu Jin, who was at the very center?
He squinted his eyes, looking into the distance, and found a leaping figure within the lightning.
With each leap, an azure waterfall flowed out. The waterfall undulated in the air as slowly as a crawling turtle, making it hard to imagine such an attack could inflict DMG on a giant dragon larger than a mountain.
Turning his head to look at Balladeer beside him, as a puppet and with a much higher rank than Childe, he was naturally in much better condition than Childe.
Balladeer gazed at the brilliant purple Sky, his expression shifting. It was the first time Childe realized this puppet possessed such complex emotions besides arrogance.
"Quick, quick, Morax, quickly use your move! I can't hold on much longer!" Purple lightning continuously crackled on Osial's body.
He was currently pushing towards the Jade Chamber, as if trying to use the Jade Chamber to shield him from DMG.
"Hmph..." Looking at the still agile Yu Jin below, and Azhdaha across from him, drawing power from the ley lines, Zhongli let out a deep breath.
The Geo Dragon had been buried deep beneath the earth for thousands of years, his body deeply connected to the ley lines. Azhdaha now seemed even fiercer than before!
"Stand still, don't move!" Zhongli commanded, then spread his hands. The flickering jade shield instantly erupted with a thick, corundum-like light.
This light then expanded until it enveloped Osial as well before stopping.
"How are you still so strong?" Osial shouted upon seeing the indestructible jade shield before him.
"Heh heh, strong, am I?" Zhongli sighed, "Only this last bit of light remains, unlike you, you have been reborn."
"More or less, though I really hate this color." Osial scratched his body with his tail and yawned, leaning against the jade shield.
He looked into the distance, where Azhdaha had made a new move.
"Sizzle!"
All the lightning orbs suspended in the Sky fell.
The purple stars were as swift as the lightning that formed them; a flash of purple light, and they slammed into the undulating waterfall.
"Boom!"
The lightning orb passed directly through the waterfall without causing the slightest ripple. Soul and matter, without a special medium, these two would not interact casually.
The purple light exploded, painting the earth a scorched black. Amidst the spreading lightning, the waterfall poured down.
"Whoosh!"
The waterfall poured over Azhdaha's body, instantly stopping his swaying giant tail.
The moment the waterfall poured over Azhdaha, a cool sensation permeated him from outside in.
Most of the soul Current in the waterfall sprayed onto the earth again, beginning another round of sprouting, while a portion surged into Azhdaha's body.
The rushing soul Torrent pulsed within Azhdaha's body, making his near-collapsing soul go blank.
The soul Current flowed in a circle, turning into rising mist, while also moistening the souls within.
After a brief moment of dazed, the anger in his heart surged again. However, what Azhdaha didn't notice was that this time the anger arrived a little slower than before.
Just as Azhdaha, consumed by renewed anger, was about to attack again, he saw a new waterfall already undulating before him.
"Splash~"
Azure water droplets splattered, and wherever they poured, countless beings were born.
Subsequently, the water flow became endless. Azhdaha raged and trembled in the pervasive water mist.
However, his movements became incredibly sluggish. When the soul Current impacted Azhdaha, he inevitably fell into a dazed state.
The time Azhdaha needed to regain consciousness became longer and longer, and the soul Torrent grew more and more turbulent.
The initial death was the source of the soul Current; this was obtaining power from death.
The sprouting of every life always protected the growth of more lives. The soul Current thus became more turbulent; this was obtaining power from life.
In the end, the initial downpour had sprouted into an ocean that engulfed everything.
"Hiss—, so prolific." Yu Jin looked down at the Flowing Water Curved Sword in his hand, which emitted a dazzling light, and suddenly felt a bit of a toothache.
"Heh heh, that's enough, one more hit!" Looking at Azhdaha, who was swaying his head in confusion in the distance, Yu Jin swung another sword.
The light from the curved sword poured out, blooming into a rolling, massive ocean.
"Rumble!" The azure ocean spread across the earth, but it didn't destroy anything.
The azure ocean flowed, and in the mudflats it left behind, plants, birds, beasts, insects, fish... countless living beings covered the entire world.
"Bang!" The surging ocean obscured the Sky and the sun. Although the Torrent composed of souls had no weight, Azhdaha's body involuntarily retreated.
The familiar cool sensation came so fiercely this time; the water Current raged within Azhdaha's body, making him feel a bloated sensation.
His mind went blank again, and Azhdaha's crazed eyes slowly closed. Then his entire body collapsed o
nto the ground, causing the earth to tremble again.
"Wash up and go to sleep, what great spirits." Yu Jin put away the Flowing Water Curved Sword and stretched.
Under the scouring of the soul Torrent, Azhdaha's near-collapsing soul was like a reef in a river. The sand and impurities in those souls would all be washed away by this Torrent.
What would remain would be the most resilient and profound parts of his soul.
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