Chapter 348: It

"Almost done; it doesn't look like things got too out of hand."

Seeing that the aura of poverty had finally passed, the Taoists began their cleanup work; Feng Xue also sighed in relief, refraining from using the aura-viewing technique, and merely glanced briefly toward the Dragon King Temple over her shoulder—only to find that the murky wish still remained in its original place, at which point she finally felt at ease.

But just as he thought the matter was settled, he suddenly noticed several cultivators stationed at the periphery slowly vanishing into the crowd; before long, the front of the City God Temple—once packed with seventy percent of the city’s cultivators—now held less than thirty percent. Though those remaining were all prominent masters, the ones who had disappeared were by no means inferior to them.

"Could there still be a change?"

Feng Xue suddenly felt his soul jolt twice violently, and the King Ghidorah, whose wings had been cradling his soul’s phantom image within his mind, instantly raised all three dragon heads.

Without warning, his temples throbbed as if something pulsed within—a subtle yet undeniable connection seemed to be guiding something toward him.

"What the hell is going on?"

Feng Xue was utterly baffled and immediately turned to Liu Yunxi, who couldn’t attend the ritual in person and had transformed into a ring—but she clearly had no idea either, except that the turbid vow had suddenly surged upward.

No, it wasn’t just a surge—he could see even without the Spirit-Viewing Technique that the turbid vow’s composition had changed entirely. If previously it had been a single-color “pigment” with clear intent, perhaps slightly uneven from improper dilution, now it was a chaotic mixture of unrelated pigments—disordered, impure, and unnatural—yet forcibly fused into one entity, filling him with unease.

But Feng Xue’s intuition warned him of more than mere discomfort. He took a deep breath, steadied his spirit, recited the Pure Heart Spell to himself, and searched for the cultivators who had left.

"Friend, please wait a moment!"

With a soft call, the Taoist Feng Xue had singled out halted, then turned around with an annoyed expression—but upon recognizing Feng Xue, the rising star, he forcibly suppressed his irritation and said:

"Friend, that’s an ill-omened thing to say!"

"Oh, sorry, sorry! I just wanted to ask—what’s going on? Why have so many cultivators suddenly left the ritual?"

Feng Xue felt his sense of dread growing sharper, so he cut through the formalities and got straight to the point.

The cultivator’s expression turned serious at once.

"I just received a message: the Japanese invaders used the Dragon King Temple’s vows as a catalyst, fused them with demonic deities’ vows they brought from their homeland, and forged an eight-headed serpent god. If it were to fight head-on, that’d be one thing—but whatever triggered it, it’s fixated on rushing toward the city center, ignoring all attempts to stop it. Worse, it’s releasing poison along its path. If it enters the city, the civilians will suffer. Some suggest that since it won’t retaliate no matter how we harass it, we might as well obliterate it before it reaches the city..."

"Damn!" Feng Xue cursed inwardly. Though he had no proof, his intuition screamed that this eight-headed serpent was targeting him!

Don’t say he was too certain—a serpent with eight heads, brought from Japan, absorbing the Dragon King’s vows, and possessing flood-like traits? What else could it possibly be but Yamata no Orochi? Could it be Xiang Liu or the Nine-Headed Insect?

But hearing this, Feng Xue finally understood the source of his ominous premonition. As the cultivator said, if Yamata no Orochi entered the city, it would bring immense karmic retribution. The Japanese were undoubtedly the primary culprits—but as the one who had drawn Yamata no Orochi here, wasn’t he at least partially responsible?

Don’t even think of “victim-blaming”—the human spirit’s cosmic mechanism doesn’t care about “ignorance is no crime.” At best, ignorance might mitigate punishment—but Feng Xue now knew the truth, so his guilt was effectively sealed.

"I just captured one human vessel, and even let Bai Yi take her away—why is it targeting me?"

Though puzzled, Feng Xue put on a righteous, resolute expression and declared:

"As cultivators, we must eradicate demons and defend the Dao—it’s our sacred duty! Do you have a flight technique?"

"Of course I do," the cultivator nodded, assuming Feng Xue wanted a ride, and immediately began forming the incantation—only for Feng Xue to nod and say:

"Then I’m reassured. Friend, we’ll meet again later!"

Before the words had fully faded, Feng Xue’s figure vanished in a flash, leaving the cultivator—who had barely conjured a gust of wind—staring in stunned silence...

……

"It really is Yamata no Orochi!"

Feng Xue used a teleportation technique to soar into the sky, leaping forward with a motion identical to Baijing Heizi’s, riding on inertia.

Now hovering three hundred meters above ground, he saw far below: amidst churning black clouds, a colossal entity whose eight heads alone stretched dozens of meters high. Before it, the cultivators looked like ants.

All manner of spells struck the giant serpent, creating ripples—but not enough to alter its course. As it moved, a strange meteorological phenomenon formed behind it.

Setting aside those bosses who, through bizarre fan interpretations, gained absurd cosmic statuses like “planetary negativity,” “human negativity,” or “supreme demonic god,” Yamata no Orochi itself is fundamentally a symbol of flooding.

“Eight heads” refers to the sprawling spread of floodwaters; its crimson, blood-dripping body represents the red mud (iron ore) washed into rivers during floods; Princess Kushiinadahime and her seven sisters symbolize the seven consecutive years of farmland and harvests lost to floods; and the sword extracted from its tail represents the tools forged from iron mined after the floods were quelled.

Thus, Yamata no Orochi inherently symbolizes flood and famine. After absorbing the accumulated incense vows from the Dragon King Temple, it gained further reinforcement from local faith—its eight serpent heads now faintly sprouted dragon horns, as if on the verge of transformation into dragons, elevating its power from riverine inundation to the wrath of the open sea!

But more than these obvious insights drawn from the vows, what left Feng Xue most exasperated was the reason it had targeted him—

King Ghidorah.

Yes, though King Ghidorah’s lore originates from a Venusian alien in legend, and in the Godzilla franchise has no direct link to Yamata no Orochi, it’s undeniable that its design drew upon elements of Yamata no Orochi and Eastern dragons—and when Feng Xue shaped his own King Ghidorah, he had inevitably, consciously or unconsciously, incorporated those same elements.

"So it’s another type of phantom deity! What is this, do monsters attract each other? So now, before I even face Godzilla, I have to fight Yamata no Orochi to determine the king of monsters?"

Such thoughts flashed through Feng Xue’s mind—but he had no intention of taking on the entire burden. He still remembered the oracle’s warning: “Rigidity leads to breakage; rely on the power of righteousness to turn danger into safety and return triumphant!”

With this thought, he pressed the slot on his waistband. Five-colored jade stones sequentially touched the golden talismans within his belt. Vast amounts of primordial energy surged into his dantian, flowed into his mind-sea, and transformed into Five-Elemental force.

Grounded in earth, water and fire chased each other like yin and yang; metal and wood formed the eyes of the yin-yang fish, embedded within—coalescing into a golden lightning orb, held firmly in his palm.

Power swelled violently in his grasp. Feng Xue descended—and then came the lingering, grumbling echo of Mo Ying’s voice still ringing in his ears...

(End of Chapter)