# 957
Chapter 958: One Person's Lady Wu
Osaka.
Explosions echoed across the ruins as the black sun hovering above the throne frantically destroyed the corpse beasts drawing near.
But at this moment, the number of corpse beasts closing in from all corners of the "Human Enclosure" had swelled to a terrifying scale. Standing in the center of Osaka and looking in all directions, one could see massive corpse beasts surging from every side—in rough count, seventy or eighty of them!
Among the beast horde, Baili Pangpang, his body wrapped in radiating treasure light, smashed the head of a corpse beast and stood in place, breathing heavily. He glanced at the wall of corpse beasts continuously approaching from all sides, his expression turning grim.
"Damn it, why are there so many of these monsters?"
He turned his head and shouted toward the distance: "Old Cao! You okay?!"
At this moment, the Demon-Stricken Cao Yuan, already surrounded by three corpse beasts, was rapidly dodging their attacks. His figure had accelerated to the point of leaving afterimages, yet he still couldn't shake them.
Baili Pangpang gritted his teeth, about to rush to help, when a figure descended from the sky trailing countless threads of cold ice, slicing one of the corpse beasts into fragments.
"Qingyu!" Baili Pangpang's eyes lit up when he saw the person, but noticing the familiar black coffin wasn't on her back, he asked with confusion: "Where's Sister Jiang Er?"
"These corpse beasts have no self-awareness, no brain magnetic field—Jiang Er's abilities are ineffective against them, so I left her in that formation." An Qingyu explained.
Snap—!
At the same time, a crisp snap of fingers rang out, and a violent firestorm swept across behind Baili Pangpang, annihilating a corpse beast that had been about to ambush him.
Shen Qingzhu rode golden sword shadows, a black 【Soul-Severing Blade】 in hand, standing high above. His gaze swept across the surroundings as he spoke with a grave expression:
"Don't let your guard down. These things keep multiplying, and our situation grows more dangerous by the minute."
"When will this end?" Baili Pangpang rubbed his ears, as if trying to rub out the continuous roars piercing his head. His voice turned bitter: "At this rate, we won't be able to hold on much longer..."
An Qingyu adjusted her glasses without answering. She silently raised her head, looking toward the steel throne in the distant sky.
Seated upon the throne, suppressing the extreme evil turmoil, Lin Qiye's brow furrowed slightly.
He could clearly sense that among the people pinned beneath the 【Tyrant's Wrath】, although their bodies couldn't move, couldn't harm others, some had actually begun mutilating themselves.
They stared with blood-red eyes, slamming their foreheads against the ground with tremendous force. Large patches of blood stained the earth. Their expressions were savage and manic.
Others had bitten through their own teeth, the shattered fragments mixed with bloody saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths. The muscles on their bodies swelled bit by bit as they gathered all their strength, damaging their own bodies just to tear through the muscle and stand up.
These people who had completely lost their sanity and become beasts, though few in number, hid a crucial piece of information.
【Tyrant's Wrath】 could not suppress those who had descended into total madness.
If this continued, as the Red Moon's corruption gradually seeped into the Yata Mirror, casualties would inevitably occur and continue to expand.
This "Human Enclosure" was approaching its limit...
...
Beneath Mount Fuji.
Hoshimi Shota cradled Lady Wu in his arms, kneeling in a pool of blood, frozen in shock.
"Reincarnation..." he murmured.
Lady Wu extended her remaining hand, gently grasping the back of Hoshimi Shota's hand. The vermillion-colored haori had completely merged with the blood pool beneath her. She smiled as she spoke:
"You and I, we've been bound for centuries. Every time you reincarnate, I personally watch you be born, grow up, and wait until the right moment to appear by your side.
I know that although I have flesh and blood, fundamentally, I'm just a Magatsu Blade... but so what?
In life, I was your beloved wife. Transformed into a blade spirit, I can still be your exclusive Magatsu Blade, holding umbrellas for you, killing for you.
Shota,
I will forever... always be your one and only 【Lady Wu】."
Hoshimi Shota gazed at that face growing paler by the moment, then suddenly snapped back to reality. He pulled her tightly into his embrace.
"This isn't the time for talk of reincarnation! When you say things like that, it sounds like you're leaving a will!" Hoshimi Shota's hands were covered in Lady Wu's blood as he shook his head repeatedly. "You won't die! You're a Magatsu Blade spirit—as long as this blade exists, you cannot die!"
As if remembering something, he looked up and shouted toward Furuhara Yoshiki nearby:
"Yoshiki! Doesn't your 【Divine Concealment】 have the power to repair other Magatsu Blades? Save her!"
Furuhara Yoshiki lightly patted the hilt of 【Divine Concealment】, and an old man drifted out like smoke. It was the blade spirit of this Magatsu Blade—the only human who had participated in the forging process of the Nine Magatsu Blades: Furuha Yukitaka.
Furuha Yukitaka glanced at Lady Wu in Hoshimi Shota's arms with a complicated expression, then slowly spoke:
"She won't die... however, this physical body cannot be preserved."
"What do you mean?" Hoshimi Shota froze.
"A normal Magatsu Blade spirit doesn't possess a physical body." Furuha Yukitaka slowly explained. "Condensing a physical body requires spending a great deal of time and power. Even among the Nine Magatsu Blades, not every one has this ability. Only Lady Wu achieved this.
Once this body of hers dies, she will return as a虚无 (void) blade spirit to the Magatsu Blade itself. After a period of nurturing, she will awaken."
Hearing this, Hoshimi Shota breathed a sigh of relief: "So, she'll be fine?"
"Mn. However, with this, she won't be able to leave the Magatsu Blade's body anymore, nor accompany you as she did before." Furuha Yukitaka slowly said. "Though we blade spirits are undying and imperishable, the price is that we can never truly be free.
Unless..."
"Unless what?"
Furuha Yukitaka shook his head, saying nothing.
"Unless, the blade body and blade spirit are actively separated."
Another voice came from the distance. Amemiya Haruki staggered to his feet, lowering his head and coughing a few times: "Only this way can the blade spirit escape the cage of the refined blade body and regain freedom..."
"Amemiya? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Amemiya Haruki took a deep breath. His heavily scarred body slowly walked to the wooden box on the ground. He raised his head to glance at the sky growing redder by the moment.
"We're running out of time..."
He murmured.
Amemiya Haruki gazed at Yuzuri Takishiro fighting the corpse god in the distance, determination surfacing in his eyes. He drew his blade across his palm, and scarlet blood flowed down.
He stretched out his hand, slowly reaching toward the Magatsu Blade inside the wooden box...