Chapter 127: The Withering of an Era, the Turn of the Age

Too fast.

Everything happened too fast.

The great war erupted. Tamamo-no-Mae only struck a few moves, yet completely dissolved the lethal killing intent that could have slain the ancient gods and primordial demons alike.

Even sitting before the livestream, many people felt a tragic, brutal aura, as if myriad living beings bled out, as if a host of fierce gods and vengeful ghosts were passing the new year.

This great war was still ongoing.

The deaths of eight hundred onmyoji, three hundred and sixty Gao Seng, and the annihilation of armies numbering in the tens of thousands did not bring the great war to an end. The bloody battle continued, growing ever more intense.

The heroic man roared, his eyes like yin and yang, endlessly cycling. His left foot trod the daylight, his right foot crushed the night.

Time flowed away with his steps.

Master Saicho burned his immeasurable Buddha blood. Nine Buddhist wheels interlocked and merged into one, summoning Kṣitigarbha to descend upon him.

The remaining soldiers charged forward one after another. Onmyoji, Gao Seng, and Dharma masters pressed on without retreat, using blood to call down the dharma-image of the Buddha, wagering their lives. Even the heavens were about to be overturned.

They saw—

The scene was tragic and heroic, blood everywhere.

People watched with solemn respect, yet grief welled up from within.

Every time Tamamo-no-Mae struck, one could feel her overwhelming might that suppressed the universe and swallowed the ages.

Who could dare claim invincibility, who could dare call themselves unmatched…

Tamamo-no-Mae had the right to claim she was unmatched, to claim she was invincible.

Before this, countless people believed Tamamo-no-Mae could become one of the Three Great Legendary Yokai, mainly because of her peerless talent, and that world-toppling beauty which moved heaven and earth and made all living things feel ashamed.

But they were wrong.

Tamamo-no-Mae could stand as one of the Three Great Legendary Yokai, not merely because of her peerless beauty—

Time passed drop by drop. People kept falling, their numbers dwindling, yet the great war grew ever more tragic.

Fresh blood stirred their bloodlust, drove them to madness.

Perhaps Tamamo-no-Mae had also been roused to true fury. Perhaps she simply wished to end the great war sooner. Perhaps, moved by the humans' fearless spirit of sacrifice, she was touched, and finally unleashed her true power to answer humanity's unyielding will. Or perhaps—

No one knew the true reason. The thoughts of such a supreme being, none could fathom.

They only knew one thing.

Tamamo-no-Mae's strikes increased in number, each one stronger than the last. At the final strike, the entire heaven and earth shattered. The firmament fell, the earth died, and all the myriad worlds were startled.

Ancient gods awoke from their slumber. The supreme beings of the myriad worlds turned their gaze.

Witnessing Tamamo-no-Mae's strike, ripples arose in the eternally unchanging, indifferent hearts of these supreme powers.

And at this very moment—

The myriad worlds trembled. The starry rivers across the three thousand great worlds all lost their light beneath Tamamo-no-Mae's jade-white hand.

The strike fell.

Before the livestream, in Tochigi Prefecture, across the myriad worlds at that era and that moment—even ancient gods and supreme powers fell silent.

This was a scene that made gods and demons turn pale with fright, and made even immortal spirits tremble in their livers.

Yin and Yang bled out. The Buddhas crumbled and perished.

In the ancient temples, transcendent beings as immortal as Buddhas coughed blood, their bodies shattering. In the ancient shrines, undying divine priests like gods themselves fell apart, their divine souls extinguished.

Whatever Buddhist spiritual havens, temple pure lands, shrine dwellings of the gods—everything was crushed beneath that descending jade-white hand, reduced to ash…

Even—

That grand imperial palace in Heian-kyo, representing the supreme authority, also split apart.

People shuddered, faintly seeing within the ancient temples the three thousand Luo Han statues and five hundred Bodhisattvas cracking layer by layer. It seemed Tamamo-no-Mae's wrath did not merely destroy the monks, but her jade-white hand struck toward the Buddhist lands as well, causing the Arhats, Bhikkhus, and Bodhisattvas to be bloodily grievously wounded.

The next moment—

A cough of blood. Countless gazes turned toward it, souls trembling, nearly scared out of their wits.

"Cough…"

The heroic man was seen drenched in blood, one arm severed, his body pinned to the vast firmament by a great halberd formed from a jade fan bone, on the verge of death.

And Master Saicho was no better off. A hideous wound split his face from the top of his head all the way to his chin, his entire head looking cleaved in two. Were it not for his staggering cultivation, any ordinary person would have died beyond any doubt.

The scene was too bleak and tragic.

God-like corpses carpeted the ground. The brilliant stars, sun, and moon were stained red. Heaven and earth dimmed, the universe fell desolate—so tragic that even the world itself wailed, and gods and demons wept blood.

At this moment—

This heaven and earth was dim, yet also dazzlingly bright, illuminated by a hazy figure whose radiance made this blood-soaked world glow even more vividly red.

She seemed like a creator of heaven and earth, personally weaving together the destruction of heaven and the annihilation of earth. Even if this world were beaten into oblivion, not a single hair on her was harmed, not a ripple stirred.

"Why the hell keep fighting, just surrender at 20."

A netizen mourned.

The crowd fell silent. This person named "My Hero Academia Author Must Be Executed" was absolutely right, and spoke the truth.

At this moment a netizen muttered.

"The Heian Era didn't end just like this, did it."

Holy shit!

Countless people froze, cold sweat breaking out.

This battle had marshaled the full strength of the nation. Too many transcendent beings had died. Even the heroic man, Master Saicho, and other ancient transcendent beings were grievously wounded, most had fallen, the outstanding figures were essentially all dead. Such a great war was enough to affect the changes of an era.

The more they thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

One had to know, this was an era where everyone was transcendent. Yet in later ages, transcendents ceased to exist, surviving only in legend. The change was so vast it was simply incomprehensible.

Although they had always felt "that side" was most likely responsible for the disappearance of transcendents and yokai, they truly could not figure out how it was accomplished.

Now they knew.

Just kill off the supernatural until it's all but extinct, right? Like this one battle—countless prodigies fell, ushering in the End of the Era.

Because this battle also wiped out countless ancient shrines and temples, and many supernatural arts were lost or destroyed in it.

It fits perfectly as the cause of the supernatural vanishing and going into hiding.

Most importantly, the key point—Tamamo-no-Mae possessed that supreme, world-altering power. If she were willing, she could easily forge an entirely new great world.

"I finally understand why Shuten-doji, just to run an experiment, would directly create a whole world to use as a petri dish," Director Takahashi sighed. "Creating a world is far too easy for them—probably no harder than skipping a meal."

Suddenly, Director Saito turned and asked Professor Beishan and Professor Zhongtian.

"What era came after the Heian period?"

The moment the question was asked, everyone's pupils contracted sharply, their hearts pounding without pause—they understood what he was getting at.

Director Saito wanted to ask whether the era after the Heian period had any ancient records—for instance, whether that era had a wealth of legends and accounts written down.

As everyone knows, yokai truly exist. For an era from which a great many legends have flowed down, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that era produced many heaven-blessed prodigies, which is precisely why so many legends from that era have been passed down.

The Heian period is exactly such an era—one rich in legends and records of yokai.

And if, after that glorious Heian period, came an era from which no great flood of legends or yokai stories emerged, that would be very thought-provoking.

Moreover, according to the records, Tamamo-no-Mae's great battle took place at the End of the era of the Heian period. The timing is extremely coincidental—precisely at the End of the era of the Heian period, precisely when a great battle of fallen prodigies occurred.

It is highly likely that it was precisely this great battle that caused the prodigies to fall, thereby bringing the Heian period to its end—and even, the changing of the era.

……