Chapter 44: The Origin of the Datura Dharma Sword

After finishing the year-end paperwork, Chen Zi'ang took some time to visit the Grand Archives to inquire of Misago Rio about the "Mist."

"This sealed artifact is from too long ago," Misago Rio replied. "The Grand Archives were newly established at the time, and many protocols were incomplete, so the relevant information is rather scarce."

"Surely there must be a record of who brought it back and logged it?" Chen Zi'ang asked, perplexed.

"Kikuchi Ukyo," Misago Rio answered.

"You mean that senior who was born with extraordinarily high spiritual vision, personally built the Grand Archives, and then suddenly vanished from the world because his spiritual vision became too high?" Chen Zi'ang asked in astonishment.

"That's him," Misago Rio said with a sigh. "The Grand Archives were built by him, so he had the final say on how information was logged. Unfortunately, Kikuchi Ukyo was the kind of man of few words, so he didn't leave much behind—just the general characteristics of the 'Mist' and the dangers of using it. He didn't mention how he obtained it."

Chen Zi'ang continued reviewing the relevant intelligence, which confirmed that once the Mist broke free, it would rapidly seek out nearby living organisms to devour, thereby expanding itself.

This behavior of devouring and expanding was virtually limitless, meaning that once it appeared in a densely populated colony, it would inevitably cause an extremely catastrophic disaster.

As for how to deal with the Mist, the archives made no mention of it.

"If you want to research how to resolve the Mist, it's actually not that difficult," Misago Rio suddenly added. "Take a look at this."

She handed over a document, which Chen Zi'ang took and began to read.

To his surprise, this piece of intelligence had also been left behind by Kikuchi Ukyo, detailing a remarkably powerful divine artifact: the Mandala Dharma Sword.

"The Mandala Dharma Sword is a ritual instrument from the Goddess of Mandala," Kikuchi Ukyo wrote. "It is said that the Goddess of Mandala is extremely aggressive and bellicose, and most of her followers take the subjugation of demons and eradication of evils as their primary duty. Therefore, she is jointly revered by many Onmyoji families."

"The Mandala Dharma Sword bestowed by her possesses a similarly exaggerated might. One only needs to pierce an anomaly with it to kill it by ignoring most rules."

"The only problem is that anyone who wields the Mandala Dharma Sword to kill an anomaly must endure an equivalent degree of agonizing pain—enough to be fatal—a pain that acts directly upon one's own spirituality. Therefore, in the ancient Onmyoji families of the past, whenever a situation arose requiring the use of the Mandala Dharma Sword, the family would usually select someone willing to perish together with the anomaly to wield the blade, a practice known as 'human sacrifice'."

"What I am curious about is what would happen if a robot were made to hold the Mandala Dharma Sword to carry out the slaughter. In any case, if this sword is acquired, it will undoubtedly provide us with tremendous help in dealing with anomalies."

"By the way," Misago Rio added suddenly, "the time Kikuchi Ukyo wrote this intelligence was shortly before he went missing."

"What do you think?"

"Using the robotic method doesn't seem very feasible," Chen Zi'ang sighed. "The Mandala Dharma Sword requires its master to wield it in order to unleash its destructive power. Long ago, I had Lu Yunfeng use it to kill monsters, and it had no effect whatsoever."

"Yet you didn't suffer any 'fatal' pain either," Misago Rio pointed out.

"Indeed," Chen Zi'ang sighed.

He recalled the words of the ghoul priest Salahk: "All the gifts that fate has prepared for you have already had their prices secretly marked on the back."

So, what was the price of using the Mandala Dharma Sword?

To be targeted by two deities and fought over back and forth?

After leaving the office, Chen Zi'ang decided to head to the Limbo Realm tonight, agree to Salahk's request, and try to help him eliminate the Mist.

In any case, since the Mandala Dharma Sword could indeed kill anomalies, it should also be effective against the remnants left behind by the Mist. As for the price...

Although he didn't know why there hadn't been any price yet, he would set that aside for now.

Eggs should not all be placed in a single basket, and he could not rely excessively on the Nightmare clan. It was necessary to seek more cooperative partners and sources of intelligence.

---

Arriving at the City of Zubasa, Chen Zi'ang, wearing the Mandala Dharma Sword at his waist, successfully met with the ghoul priest Salahk.

"Have you decided?" Salahk asked with a grim tone.

"The reason you chose me is because of this, isn't it?" Chen Zi'ang patted the sword at his waist and asked tentatively.

"The Mandala Dharma Sword." Salahk laughed hoarsely. "Not just anyone can wield it so easily."

"I need intelligence regarding the Mist," Chen Zi'ang said straightforwardly.

"Very well, follow me," Salahk said.

He led Chen Zi'ang into the subterranean black sanctuary, passing through long corridors and passageways, until he finally stopped at the door of a room.

Most of the interior architecture of the black sanctuary was connected by corridors without doors, and all the grand halls were open-plan. However, this room not only had a door constructed, but it was also covered with bizarre and complex secret-text magic arrays painted all the way from the door across the entire wall.

It looked like some sort of extremely powerful seal.

"The aberrants left behind by the Mist are inside," Salahk replied. "The dead parts were extracted by my master, and the living parts were killed by us."

"However, a portion remains that is 'neither dead nor alive,' and we are completely helpless against it. Therefore, we can only rely on your Mandala Dharma Sword to completely eradicate them."

"Neither dead nor alive?" Chen Zi'ang asked tentatively, demanding more information. "What does that mean?"

"Uh, this world does not only possess the two possibilities of life and death; you should already know this much," Salahk said nonchalantly. "The spirits that enter the Limbo Realm are almost exclusively the consciousnesses of those who are 'dying,' which is also a state of being neither dead nor alive."

"Of course, the dying will eventually return to death, while certain polluted and assimilated individuals cannot die naturally... but they can be killed by the Mandala Dharma Sword. It is as simple as that."

The intelligence provided by Salahk was far too brief, which displeased Chen Zi'ang somewhat.

However, upon careful thought, it was likely because human reason had its limits and could not comprehend too much taboo knowledge, leaving Salahk able to speak only of trivial matters.

Thinking of it that way made it even more displeasing.

"Let me in," Chen Zi'ang resolved.

"May you return safely," Salahk said, uttering a rare human sentiment, before pushing open the door set into the sealed wall and gently shoving Chen Zi'ang inside.

The entire subterranean space of the black sanctuary was illuminated by braziers burning wood charcoal, and this room was no exception.

Guided by the light of the braziers in the corners, Chen Zi'ang finally saw the monster sealed within.

It was a... monster impossible to describe. To use an analogy, it was as if countless little figures sculpted from clay had been crudely mashed together by someone with a very strange aesthetic.

The main body of the monster consisted of a massive mass of writhing flesh, from which extended countless hands, feet, torsos, and heads—some belonging to dwarves, others to ghouls. They were all competing to flail outward, as if striving to break free from the mass, or perhaps trying to drag the only living thing in the room that did not belong to them—namely, Chen Zi'ang—into their flesh.

Chen Zi'ang quickly drew the Mandala Dharma Sword, slicing through several limbs that had lunged to entangle him, while simultaneously receiving a prompt that he had obtained a spark of fire.

Clearly, these severed limbs were judged by the Mandala Dharma Sword to be individual anomaly entities, allowing him to acquire sparks of fire from the process of killing them.

Yet these limbs were simply too numerous. Even though Chen Zi'ang swung his blade as rapidly as possible, they still swiftly invaded through the gaps in his sword strokes, greedily and ferociously grabbing at his body—the places they grasped radiated a melting pain, as if his flesh was being rapidly devoured by the opponent.

This must have been why Salahk could do nothing against it... It was neither living nor dead, and lethal spells had no effect on it. Even if an army of ghouls were sent to tear this mass of flesh apart, the result would merely be feeding more bodies to it.

Chen Zi'ang endured the pain, quietly activating the ability of the blood-stain brooch to lock down the injuries on his body so they would not interfere with his subsequent actions.

With his right hand, he continued to brandish the Mandala Dharma Sword, whereupon all flesh in its path receded like butter cut by a hot knife. With his left hand, he drew the Scythe of Glacial Cold, pressing it against the proliferating flesh and limbs as an icy aura spread outward along the points of contact toward them.