Chapter 412: Golden Soul, Gift of Liberation

Whoosh!

A murky yellow liquid surged out from the earth, and the dark Gate of Life and Death suddenly swung wide open; amidst the shrill shrieking of countless spirits, the complexions of Fubuki and the others, hundreds of meters away, turned pale in an instant.

She was on the verge of being drowned by that aura of death.

Saitama extended his hand, watching his glove seem to traverse countless years in a flash, becoming tattered and worn; he simply loosened his fist, and the glove turned into dust and drifted away.

The ground around him also turned gray, all vitality having vanished.

Saitama looked at the open Gate of Life and Death and the surging torrent of death, his figure suddenly disappearing; the next moment, the figures around him vanished one by one, as Saitama sent everyone away one by one at a speed completely impossible for the naked eye to capture.

By the time he returned to his original spot, the torn Spirit World entrance and the Gate of Life and Death had both disappeared.

Saitama looked at the puddle of radioactive blood on the ground and the corpse still standing there, remained silent for a moment, and turned to leave.

"Tao Baibai... is it..."

At the very moment that punch landed just now, it had given him a flicker of excitement and a throb; Tao Baibai was, of course, no powerhouse, and among the monsters he had fought, he probably wouldn't even rank in the top tier.

But he had a feeling that Tao Baibai was a guy with potential, though it was a pity, he was a madman.

After confirming that the people at the scene whose bodies were emitting white light were just standing stiffly in place without any reaction, Saitama bent his knees and then jumped violently.

Accompanied by a crackling sound as if the earth were splitting, Saitama leaped into the clouds in an instant, then found a direction and descended.

He was going to clean up all those guys who had made such a mess of this world!

"Saitama-kun..."

Fubuki's chest heaved violently; she looked at how she and the car had been moved to the outskirts of the city without her knowing when, and only at this moment did she truly feel the power of Saitama.

That indisputably overwhelming power made her unable to even feel fear.

Lilith also walked out of the car weakly; she pursed her lips, looking at the corpse in the distance that only had its lower half left, still maintaining a stepping posture in place; that half of the body no longer grew disgusting granulation tissue like before, showing no signs of recovery.

"Mr. Tao Baibai..."

Lilith reached out her hand, then let it drop powerlessly; Fubuki pressed her hand on the latter's shoulder, her own complexion not looking very good either.

Even though Mr. Banggu had already told her that Tao Baibai was in all likelihood a vicious person from another world, and all his previous actions were merely to gain the trust of her and the others.

But Fubuki felt that the fact that the other party and Lilith had saved her was not a lie.

Must she really have to distinguish in the future whether a person is sincere or fake when saving someone?

Heroes... are truly complicated.

——

In the black-and-white world, there were no dimensions of time or space; there was no up, no down, no left, no right, and what the naked eye saw could not correspond at all to what actually existed.

This was a completely distorted world.

But in this world, there was a piece of tranquility.

In the shadow of the giant Broccoli, Bai Cangshu suddenly opened his eyes; he saw a pair of eyes, a pair of empty eyes, with absolutely no pupils to be seen.

Bai Cangshu wanted to retreat, but his body remained in place, unmoving.

The surroundings began to echo once again with that familiar "Why," the voices of the countless souls who died unjustly in Seasoning City, still unable to rest in peace, asking themselves day and night why they had to die.

"Do you know the answer?"

Kageyama Shigeo squatted in front of Bai Cangshu, asking this at the moment.

Bai Cangshu suddenly realized his perspective was very low; Kageyama Shigeo was of normal human stature at this time, so why did he need to squat to look him in the eye?

The next moment, as Bai Cangshu's field of vision shifted, he saw that only a small portion of his body remained; he immediately looked at the space interface, only to see that a large amount of information had long since refreshed.

【ex051, you have withstood a Concept-level attack: Serious Punch】

【Exemption check failed】

【Body vitality lost, you have entered a near-death state】

【Soul shattered, ex051 is about to die...】

【Spirit Ability injection detected, life form conversion in progress...】

【Conversion failed, special Constitution detected: Ten Thousand Calamity Spirit Yellow Springs Body, Reincarnator ex051 cannot be converted into a Spirit Body creature】

【ex051 is about to die, data beginning to precipitate...】

【Special material detected, Golden Soul Fragment has precipitated】

【ex051, special environment detected, you have entered: Artificial God Kingdom: Spirit World Revelation】

……

"You saved me, why?"

Bai Cangshu lowered his head to examine himself; at this moment, only a small portion of his figure remained, just as if someone had drawn a circle in front of him that happened to encompass most of his body, and then everything within that circle had vanished.

Bai Cangshu was left with only a small portion of his body, and even his head was only more than half remaining.

The 【Serious Punch】 had not only completely extinguished his cellular vitality, but had also struck his very existence—his Soul—to the point of near-shattering.

The Spirit Ability on Kageyama Shigeo's body surface slowly subsided; he looked at this guy who was so indifferent even to his own death, and felt pity.

He lowered his head and picked up the other's fragmented Soul.

"I want an answer, Mr. Bai Cangshu."

Bai Cangshu's gaze focused on Kageyama Shigeo; this guy had indeed undergone some kind of change, no wonder the space had issued a special kill order—【World Mainline】.

This guy, defined as the 【Spirit World Evil Lord】, had actually peered into his true name; this should have been an impossible thing, but then, Bai Cangshu realized that his soul was almost shattered at this moment, and the other party still possessed some kind of powerful Prophecy ability.

If the space had lost its ability to interfere with him, the other party could indeed obtain this information.

Kageyama Shigeo then gently tossed Bai Cangshu's Spirit Body upward, watching the Golden Soul Fragment wrap around the other's Soul, preventing him from sinking.

"I cannot save you; the one who saved you is him."

Bai Cangshu felt a warm aura surrounding him.

This is... the reward he got from that mission after Kori died, a fragment of a Golden Soul?!

The 【Golden Soul Fragment】 was marked by the space as a special material, but Bai Cangshu had never found a place to use it; the Fairy Master speculated it could be used to forge certain powerful items, or used in some powerful abilities.

But I did not expect that it would play a role in this form today.

Kageyama Shigeo reached out his hand, and his golden Soul quickly took shape; as if molding clay, he completed the body for Bai Cangshu.

Bai Cangshu stood up once again, feeling the solid sensation of stepping on something.

"So, can you give them an answer, Mr. Bai Cangshu?"

Bai Cangshu frowned, not understanding what Kageyama Shigeo meant, and furthermore, the other party seemed to be deliberately emphasizing his name.

In the other party's eyes, he should be that 【Fatalism】.

Before Bai Cangshu could continue to think, the voices of those Spirit Bodies all around grew louder and louder, beginning to sound like a mountain of shouts and a sea of roars.

What a scene it was for hundreds of thousands of people to roar at once; the giant Broccoli began to tremble and disintegrate in an instant.

Kageyama Shigeo's figure also staggered, and Bai Cangshu noticed that the massive Kage that had previously been connected to the Spirit World behind him had already vanished.

He recalled the Kage that shattered under Saitama's punch; was it that part of Kageyama Shigeo's power that had taken that blow?

"You have no answer..."

Kageyama Shigeo seemed disappointed, but the aura on his body surface quickly became unstable; watching his own God Kingdom begin to collapse and fall away, having lost that power, he could no longer grant peace to these hundreds of thousands of spirits.

The God Kingdom was about to shatter.

Kageyama Shigeo suddenly turned his head and gripped toward Bai Cangshu with one hand; a burst of Spirit Ability erupted, and Bai Cangshu was immediately choked by the neck, his Soul trembling violently.

Kageyama Shigeo looked at Bai Cangshu, who still had a calm expression and was not struggling, and raised his other hand as well.

"Resist, Bai Cangshu, otherwise, I will kill you, then become the new supreme evil spirit, and then..."

Pfft!

Bai Cangshu's left hand thrust out violently, instantly piercing through the boy's chest.

Kageyama Shigeo's figure trembled twice, and Bai Cangshu instead lifted him up.

Bai Cangshu looked at Kageyama Shigeo, his eyes devoid of any cruel expression for the first time while killing.

He knew very well that the other party was begging him to kill him.

This was... a Merciful Release.

(End of chapter)