Chapter 105: The Most Talented of This Era, the World

Great Xia.

“No, a holder of the Miko Kikyo template? And she’s also a miko herself?”

“A holder of Esdeath’s Imperial Artifact, Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence? What crap luck did Sakura have to produce two holders of Celestial Treasures?!”

“Kikyo’s fine—InuYasha’s power tier tops out at fifth-rank, and even within fifth-rank, she’s not strong; but Zhan Chi Hong, or rather, Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence—that’s another matter. Are they going to give us an Esdeath?”

“So what’s wrong with Esdeath? And why do you make it sound like Zhan Chi Hong’s world is stronger than InuYasha’s? Their combat tiers aren’t that different.”

Immediately after the war ended, Sakura publicly released information about Kagura Shizuka and Amano Sorami to its entire population, boosting public confidence.

Hide it? What’s there to hide!

Do they really think other countries aren’t watching them?

At most, only ordinary people in other countries don’t know—so what if ordinary people don’t know?

So it’s better to just release it.

As a result, media outlets worldwide learned of the war near Sakura’s territorial waters, and of Kagura Shizuka and Amano Sorami.

Holder of the Miko Kikyo template from the InuYasha world; and holder of the Imperial Artifact Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence from the Zhan Chi Hong world.

Previously, not a single Celestial Treasure holder had appeared—now, two have shown up at once, one of them even a Celestial Character Template holder. No one expected this.

Kikyo’s template is fine—InuYasha’s power system is weak, and Kikyo’s exorcism power mainly targets demons and monsters; plus, like all archers, she has high attack but low defense.

As long as you get close, defeating her isn’t hard.

But the holder of the Imperial Artifact Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence must be taken seriously.

Not everyone has Esdeath’s talent in Zhan Chi Hong, able to push the Imperial Artifact to such extremes, manifesting its terror with sheer individual power—even developing the ability to stop time.

But based on the videos Sakura released, the opponent’s strength is no joke; in our assessment, she’s already reached near fourth-rank.

Whether she’s truly fourth-rank, we don’t know—but even if not, she’s infinitesimally close.

If she were an Esdeath Template holder, we could accept it—templates improve rapidly with higher compatibility; but she’s merely a holder of the Imperial Artifact Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence.

No matter when she obtained Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence, developing it to this degree at this stage means her talent is terrifying—possibly even equal to Esdeath herself.

Calling her a future fifth-rank powerhouse is no exaggeration.

Even if Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence reaches its upper limit, her talent alone could carry her into a higher realm.

Another talent monster.

“Logically, I shouldn’t doubt—since it involves Sakura, I should assume the worst—but is Amano Sorami definitely just a holder of Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence, and not an Esdeath Template holder?”

“Esdeath’s eyebrows, pupils, and hair are blue not because of Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence, but because she was born that way; the artifact doesn’t alter one’s natural hair color.”

“Unless she dyed it herself, I seriously suspect she’s an Esdeath Template holder—though templates themselves don’t alter physical appearance. Zhong Lao looks like Zhong Li because he did it to increase his compatibility.”

“If she were a template holder, that would make sense—but she isn’t.”

“Did Sakura hide it? But there’s no reason to hide something like this.”

“Is she just a fan of Esdeath, and did this out of pure admiration? Honestly, she really does look like her!”

Esdeath’s blue hair, eyebrows, and pupils stem from her origins in the Balutes tribe of the northern frontier—purely innate, not caused by the Imperial Artifact; in reality, no one is born with naturally blue hair and pupils.

Even if such a person existed, they couldn’t possibly be from Sakura.

So she must have dyed it—but why?

If she were an Esdeath Template holder, we could assume she did it to better align with the template; but according to Sakura’s data, she’s merely an Imperial Artifact holder.

Is she just a fan of Esdeath, and dyed her hair out of pure admiration?

Compared to that possibility, I lean more toward her being an Esdeath Template holder, and Sakura is concealing her identity to make her talent seem even more terrifying.

But the problem is—even if she were a Celestial Character Template holder, there’s no need to hide it.

Celestial Treasures and Celestial Character Templates are no different—strength is what truly matters!

“Forget it. Let’s just assume she used her own talent to develop Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence to this level in just a few months.”

“Even though that talent is terrifying, it still can’t compare to Ye Shen.”

“But Sakura’s Celestial Treasure holders are good at hiding—after that monster flooded coastal cities, only two emerged. There can’t possibly be only two, right?”

“Other countries too—I only know about the guy from Lamp who played Iron Man, and even that was from the initial news; now there’s nothing.”

“We don’t know if they have no Celestial Treasure holders, or if they’re all hiding and refusing to reveal themselves.”

“If they’re hiding, that completely contradicts my impression of them.”

Whether Amano Sorami is an Esdeath Template holder or merely a holder of Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence—it doesn’t really matter.

Because the most terrifying talent of this era is right here, with us.

Amano Sorami tops out at fourth-rank; pushing Divine Manifestation: Demon’s Essence to its limit might get her to fifth-rank, and any further growth depends entirely on herself; but Ye Shen has already surpassed all the boosts granted by the Wang Quan Baye template and reached fifth-rank on his own.

The gap in talent between them isn’t something you can brush off with a few words.

But more than that, we’re also curious about the current state of other countries—after all, our own nation has produced so many Celestial Treasure holders, while the only one widely known elsewhere is Lamp’s Iron Man actor, who obtained the Mark III armor.

That was still news from months ago, right after the Spiritual Qi resurgence; now there’s nothing.

Sakura now has two Celestial Treasure holders—what about other countries? Are their Celestial Treasure holders still hiding?

(End of chapter)