“This is only a request of mine, a longing… If it is possible, I hope you will find the Demon God Lixiao as soon as you possibly can, and borrow the four divine spirits’ power to destroy him or bring him to heel… Surely no one knows that the Demon God Lixiao has come back, or the Lost Continent would be certain to lose its quiet. And now, having found that he exists, the only person I can tell is you… Of course, this is only a hope of mine, and you are perfectly free not to agree. So long as you are willing to take the Holy Mark Beast away, the countless dead of my Phantom Beast race and I will thank you from the world below.”
There was a thread of pleading in the old man’s voice now. They had put the Demon God Lixiao down at the price of their whole race, so that he could never go on bringing ruin to the Lost Continent… but now his consciousness had woken to find that the Lixiao they had paid so enormous a price to stop had already shown himself there again. Even with nothing left of him but that last thread of divine consciousness, he still felt an endless refusal to accept it…
Ye Tianxie did not agree at once. His face was serious. “As things stand I am in your race’s debt, and if this were an ordinary wicked man, or an enemy, there would be nothing wrong in my helping you. But back then the Demon God Lixiao could not truly be blotted out even by the destruction of the four divine spirits. What am I… supposed to beat him with?”
The old man seemed to have expected that question long since. He did not sigh; he answered straight out. “True enough — as strong as the Demon God Lixiao was in those days, there was hardly any power that could stand against him. But now that he has returned to the Lost Continent, he has raised no waves at all — because although he came free of the Heaven-Parting Array, one of the prices of it had to be this: the power he holds would be forcibly cancelled by the power of the Holy Sword War God, the Annihilation Asura, the Azure Demon Emperor and the Abyss Knight… To put it another way, if the Demon God Lixiao originally held five parts of power, and each of the four divine spirits held one part, then after he came free of it the best result for him would still be four parts cancelled, and only the last part left.”
“You mean Lixiao’s power now is far short of what it was — that this is the weakest he has ever been? And that he must be looking for a way to get it back… and that is why you want me to find him in the shortest time possible?” Ye Tianxie frowned.
The Lost Continent had never been quiet to begin with, and in truth it was hiding a far larger crisis that nobody knew about. While everyone’s eyes were fixed on the strange turn at the Tower of Fate and the Eight Demon Kings who had escaped it, the Demon God Lixiao — more terrible than they were by no one knew how many times over — had already come quietly back…
And he himself had become the first person to know it.
So should he pass this news to the City Lord of Heaven’s Star and let the whole world know?
……
……
It seemed… he could not.
And at the same time — the Eight Demon Kings appearing, and escaping from the Tower of Fate… could that have anything to do with the Demon God Lixiao?
“Yes, this is my request… a request I make of you for myself, for my Phantom Beast race, and for the whole Lost Continent.”
No prompt tone for a quest sounded at his ear. That meant this really was nothing more than a request, with no reward or anything of the sort waiting at the end of it. He thought it over and said, “Since you can feel the Demon God Lixiao’s existence as you are now, you should be able to sense how strong or weak I am too. Do you think that as I am… even using Phantom God Transformation without caring what it costs, I would be any match for the Demon God Lixiao? An ancient Demon God is an ancient Demon God in the end, and even with a tenth of his power left, he is simply not something I can stand against.”
“As you are now… truly, you cannot. But you carry the Holy Mark… and if you can obtain the inheritance of all four divine spirits, you will certainly have the strength to make a fight of it against the Demon God Lixiao as he is now. A Demon God’s power is a terrible thing, but if he wants to recover what he has lost it will be enormously hard for him. A thousand years, perhaps, or ten thousand… it is not something to be finished overnight, or in ten years, or a hundred… A person carrying the Holy Mark is chosen by heaven. I believe… you can do it!”
The old man’s voice gave Ye Tianxie another small start. He thought about what Phantom God Transformation did and the terrible cost of using it, and asked, “I am only one person. Even if I could get the inheritance of all four divine spirits’ power, I could only transform into one of them at a time. Why would you say that if I can obtain all four inheritances, I will certainly have the strength to make a fight of it against the Demon God Lixiao as he is now… is there something more to it?”
“There is.” The old man answered firmly. “Among my Phantom Beast race there has always been a story out of the far past. The highest state of my race’s ‘transformation’ is not Phantom God Transformation but… Holy Mark Transformation. When a person carrying the Holy Mark wakes the Holy Mark Beast and obtains the inheritance of the four ancient divine spirits’ power, the bearer and the Holy Mark Beast will complete together the Holy Mark Transformation that exists only in the stories and has never once appeared.”
The old man’s voice was very faint, but as he came to those three words, “Holy Mark Transformation,” there was unmistakably an endless longing buried in it. The person carrying the Holy Mark had appeared — but he would never be able to see that strongest skill of the old stories…
“Holy Mark Transformation… what is that? Turning into an even stronger divine spirit?”
“Perhaps… What the Holy Mark Transformation actually turns you into, nobody knows. But on my Phantom Beast race’s Ancient Stone there is a partial record about it. The strongest Phantom Mages of my race spent generations decoding one name off it, and that is very likely the name of the divine spirit you become after the Holy Mark Transformation.”
“What name?”
“That name is… Ultraman.”
Ye Tianxie: (⊙﹏⊙)b !@#$%…
“Young man, your expression tells me that name surprises you a great deal. Could it be that you have heard this name before?”
“N… no.” Ye Tianxie wiped the cold sweat off his forehead without letting it show.
Ultraman, your glory truly is unstoppable… and the peace of this world is in your hands too!
“Whatever happens, I hope that one day… you can use my Phantom Beast race’s power to destroy the Demon God Lixiao, or bring him to heel. My people… how could the strongest race there ever was be wiped out for nothing like this? If my race’s power cannot be used to blot him out completely or bring him to heel, so that he can never work ruin on the Lost Continent again… I will not close my eyes in death.” The aged voice let out a long sigh, and the thick refusal to accept it was not hidden at all.
A thing like that would leave anyone unable to accept it.
“All right. I understand. If there really is a possibility of beating him, I will find him, and I will use the Phantom Beast race’s power to destroy him.” Ye Tianxie answered.
What he was thinking of at that moment was only destruction.
What the old man had said was destroy or bring to heel.
Ye Tianxie had automatically passed over those words, “bring to heel.” Because how could a terrible Demon God be brought to heel, and how could he ever consent to be? For him truly never to threaten the Lost Continent again, the only means was complete destruction. Even the Heaven-Parting Array’s seal had not been able to do anything about the Demon God Lixiao; so-called bringing to heel would be nothing at all but keeping a terrible time bomb at his own side.
And on the day… when he finally learned what Lixiao truly was, only then did he remember in silence why the old man had added those words, “bring to heel,” to what he was saying here. The road of fate always carries too many surprises with it, too much that cannot be foreseen… and even things that cannot be believed.
“Thank you, young man… thank you for satisfying this selfish wish of a man already dead. You are the fated one who carries the Holy Mark, and I believe that having agreed, you will certainly do it… That way, I can finally go with an easy mind… Before that, my last wish is to see my race’s Holy Mark Beast with my own eyes. How it came to be, and how it exists, is a riddle nobody can untie. It was there when the Phantom Beast race appeared, and it has been there for no one knows how many years, giving off an eternal sacred light every minute and every second. Generation after generation guarded it, and yet not one person ever saw or knew what it truly looks like. Can you… wake it completely, now?” The old man made his last request, and his voice had begun to fail. Plainly his last consciousness had come to the edge of dispersing.
Ye Tianxie nodded and stood in front of that ball of light, so much dimmer now than before. “How am I supposed to wake it?”
“Put the hand carrying the Holy Mark on its egg, and with your will call to it and guide it out of sleep and fully awake — then it will break the shackle and come into this new world newborn.”
Ye Tianxie put out his left hand as he was told and pressed it to the sphere. A gentle touch of warmth came through his palm. He closed his eyes and slowly felt his own power connecting with another kind of power that came from inside — warm, and careful. It left him feeling comforted in a way he could not account for, and there was even a familiarity in it that should not have been there at all.
“Come out. You have slept so long; it’s time you woke. Come… get rid of what’s in your way, be good and come out, and then you’ll find that the world outside is better than you imagined… Come, come out.”
He sent his own voice out gently, on his will, and bit by bit he felt that power stop being so careful and start moving close to him, fondly… and closer…
Snap!
On that floating ball of light, a long thin crack suddenly appeared. Little by little, through a run of faint splitting sounds joined one to the next, the crack spread longer and longer, until it had divided the glowing sphere evenly in two.
Crack…
The white light vanished. The sphere parted into two smooth halves that came away to either side and dropped to the ground. At the same time a mass of white mist bore a living creature — one whose shape could not be made out inside it — slowly down out of the air, until it touched down.
Everything around them went quiet. So quiet that not a sound could be heard.
The old man had gone silent, but Ye Tianxie could feel well enough that he was gathering every scrap of his divine consciousness to see what the Holy Mark Beast looked like. If he had still had a heart, it would certainly have been pounding with excitement.
The white mist drifted slowly away, and the Holy Mark Beast’s face and form came whole into Ye Tianxie’s sight.
(End of Chapter 251)