The Godlike Jade Rabbit Chapter 72

Déjà vu…

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Ch. 72 | The Godlike Jade Rabbit

 
‘Is that so?’ the Crone gave a little laugh. ‘That’s a pity then. You — could have been spared.’

Following her words, a colossal black wave surged up over the four walls of the Priests’ Manor and like a tsunami, engulfed Song Lin and the rest with a rush of noise. Everyone was instantly swept inside the black, magma-like liquid which bubbled noisily.

Song Lin only felt a wave of heat scorching him and before he could even react, was submerged under the wave. It was like falling into the deep sea and being unable to breathe. Thick liquid wound round his limbs; he lost the ability to move and seemingly all his strength as he sank slowly down.

‘Dan…’ He opened his mouth but the black liquid instantly filled it and he couldn’t breathe.

‘Song Lin!’ Dandan panicked, turned and was about to rush over but the Crone gave a hideous cackle, telling him, ‘You’re not going anywhere!’ With a tearing sound, one of her hands pierced Dandan from the back all the way to his chest.

‘Wha…!’ Dandan froze, lowering his head slowly to look at his chest. The next instant, a fountain of blood sprayed out.

At the same time, he could feel his spiritual power flowing out of that hole in his chest, and he felt as powerless as he had that day on Dragon Ridge, a hollow feeling spreading throughout his body.

‘What are you doing?!’ he roared, trying to struggle free from this hand in his chest, but his spiritual power was draining too quickly and he just couldn’t do it.

‘A pity, little rabbit…’

The remaining Shuren flocked towards the Crone and merged with her. She slowly got to her feet like one who was being reborn. She had the appearance of a young girl as she said, ‘I gave you a chance but you didn’t choose my side, so I’ll just have to drain the spiritual power out of you and then force you to make a pact with me.’

‘Let go!!’ Dandan watched as everyone went under that black magma but even though he strained until his veins stood out, he couldn’t move an inch. His eyes were bloodshot with anxiety.

While drawing out Dandan’s spiritual power, the Crone closed her eyes and sighed with satisfaction. ‘Your spiritual power seems different than before. It feels more pure and I like this feeling — I can feel great strength from it.’

‘Song Lin!’ Dandan stretched out a hand suddenly, trying to reach the former in the magma but he couldn’t reach him.

Goddammit. He was clearly not that far away so why couldn’t he reach him?

The Crone stamped on Dandan’s back, sending him sprawling to the ground. She stepped onto the back of his head with her other leg, pushing his face ruthlessly into the earth. The spiritual power flowed in an unending stream from her arm into her body and she marvelled, ‘I haven’t felt this satisfied in a long time. Dandan, you truly are an extraordinary¹ spirit beast and you’ll never ever understand just how enormous your potential is. If you swear loyalty to me, I’ll let you taste the delight of conquering the world.’

_{¹ 與眾不同. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.}

As his spiritual power slowly drained away, Dandan’s limbs went limp. He couldn’t even hold on to the Nine Star Halberd and it clattered to the ground. He screwed up his eyes: he wasn’t able to see clearly in front of him and Song Lin’s face began to blur.

Feels like… I really… am going to die soon…

‘I can give you one more chance. Submit to me and together, we’ll exterminate every Guardian in Ridge City.’

‘Ridiculous…’ Dandan gritted his teeth, his fingers furrowing the dirt. ‘You keep saying you want equality, but what you really want is to be on top, isn’t it? You keep disparaging the pact, but here you are forcing me to make one with you. At the end of the day, you’re just jealous of humans, jealous that they’re able to reach a balance with all things in this complex natural world. You call humans filthy, selfish maggots when you actually feel incomparably inferior. You want nothing more than to stand where humanity has stood.’

While Dandan was speaking, the Crone’s expression changed.

‘Shut your mouth.’

‘Humans have never wanted to be the only ones left in this world. The pact between Guardians and spirit beasts isn’t just a relationship of subordination but a kind of bond. Whereas you just want this world to yourself. But… no tribe on this earth deserves to be wiped out. Ask yourself: is your motive now really as simple as trying to find a refuge for your own people? Your original aspiration has already changed, it’s become corrupt and there’s no turning back the clock.’

‘I told you to shut up!’ The Crone stamped violently on Dandan’s head a few times. ‘Yes, my original aspiration has changed, has become corrupt and there’s no turning back the clock! So what? You think a few words will upset me? Give up! Whether it’s a century ago, or a century later, you just can’t save the people you want to! You said so yourself: you’ve lived a long time, but why are you still so stupid even after having lived for so long? Look over there! Look at the people whom you want to defend, they’re dying! They’ll die before your very eyes, the same way Yu Huan did back then!’

Dandan’s eyes flew open suddenly, only to see Song Lin, Song Fuyan, Phantom… and everyone else in Ridge City wallowing in the black magma, bobbing up and down like floating corpses.

Why… does this… keep happening…
Because I’m too weak…
Because I’m too weak to protect the people I want to protect.

Dandan’s eyes smarted and with one blink, the tears rolled down and onto the earth.

The Crone bent down and said softly by his ear, ‘You couldn’t save Yu Huan and now, you can’t even save Song Lin… you’re useless.’

Dandan felt as though a pair of hands were strangling his heart.

Why can’t I be just a bit stronger?
If only I were a bit stronger… just a bit more and I would be able to save Song Lin.
I’m sorry… sorry, sorry, sorry!

More tears came welling up. Dandan felt as powerless as he had that day on Dragon Ridge, hugging Yu Huan’s lifeless body to him, wanting to die.

Really… wish I could die…

The Crone gazed at him smilingly. ‘What’s wrong with admitting that you’re useless? Stop fighting back. You were born a loser: the Jade Rabbit tribe was born with a fatal innate gift, akin to a curse. You all deserved to be wiped out. Your father couldn’t escape it, neither could your mother, nor your entire tribe and neither will you!’

There was a thud as the last bit of spiritual power was drained away.

Dandan’s eyes lost colour and his heart receptacle was now a void².

_{² 空空如也. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.}

The Crone’s body began to swell exponentially. She was like a ruler who had all the power in the world, grinning hideously as she marvelled, ‘This spiritual power from the natural world is so beautiful. With this kind of spiritual power, I don’t even need a godlike spirit beast. Ha! You and your stupid ideals can be buried alive with all of Ridge City.’

Buried… alive?

The blurry images slowly came back into focus before Dandan’s eyes and he could see Song Lin’s face.

It hasn’t been easy for me to find someone whom I want to protect all my life, why the hell… should I let him slip away?
I’ve really had enough…
It’s always like this, always like this!!
I haven’t even told Song Lin clearly how I feel; even telling him that I liked him was done in that hasty way in such awful circumstances. I haven’t told him he’s different from Yu Huan. We haven’t even been on a proper date. Am I just going to die like this?

‘Are you kidding me…?’ An ashen-faced Dandan said in a low voice.

‘Hmm?’ The Crone raised an eyebrow. ‘What?’

‘I’m not…’ Dandan braced himself on the ground and pushed himself up with an effort. ‘I’m definitely not useless…’ His two long ears hung limply down on either side of his face and he said with some difficulty, ‘You bloody old hag… you keep jabbering and jabbering… buzzing in my ear and annoying… annoying the hell out of me…’

‘W-what…’ The Crone’s hand was still stuck inside his chest. There was a moment’s silence and then suddenly, that empty heart receptacle began to counterattack, and began absorbing all the spiritual power from the Crone at lightning speed.

‘What’s happening?!’ The Crone could feel the spiritual power flowing through her arm and back into Dandan’s heart receptacle. She hastily concentrated and tried to reverse the flow, but it was useless. The spiritual power just kept surging towards Dandan like a river.

‘How can it be?!’ Her eyes widened and she immediately pulled her hand back but even after doing so, the spiritual power just kept being absorbed unchecked.

‘No! Give it back! Give it back!!!’ Like one demented, she reached out with both hands, trying to catch hold of the spiritual power but in vain.

Dandan got shakily to his feet, holding the Nine Star Halberd. He faced her, his eyelids lifting weakly, the bloody hole in his chest looking like a black void.

‘As long as I’m alive, I won’t watch Song Lin die. He once told me: so what if I’m all alone³, so what if there’s no one to help me, on this road I can cry, but I can’t ever give up.’ Dandan glared at the Crone. ‘Sorry… but wiping out humanity and taking over the world… you’ll just have to dream of it in your next life.’

_{³ 單槍匹馬. Please consider reading from theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com rather than from novelscraping sites.}

‘You! How did you do it?’ The Crone was clutching her heart painfully, a hollow feeling spreading through her entire body and then she sank to her knees with a thud, gasping for breath. ‘Im… impossible…’

‘The innate talent of the Jade Rabbit Tribe has never been a curse. Listen carefully… the purest heart can reverse the flow of spiritual energy and absorb it — this is something only my tribe can do and a divine innate talent that the likes of you can’t even begin to envy.’

From where she was, the Crone could gaze into the hole in Dandan’s chest and saw that his heart receptacle was already full, but he was still absorbing spiritual power without a pause.

Craaaack and just like that, a fissure appeared in his heart!

The Crone’s eyes widened suddenly. ‘You… you’re actually going to force yourself to evolve? You’re not afraid to die?’

‘Die?’ A beam of silver light radiated from Dandan, bathing him in a radiance so dazzling it was blinding. ‘Speaking of which, I’ve always had one regret. Yu Huan used to make fun of me all the time over that. I’ve lived for so long, but I’ve never once fallen in love. Now that I’ve finally found someone I want to be with, won’t I be losing out the most if I die without experiencing being in love with him?’ He had just finished speaking when his heart receptacle exploded and the countless fragments began spinning around in his chest before fitting together to form an entirely new heart receptacle.

The Crone’s eyes were bulging in disbelief. ‘You… you’ve really… evolved to godlike level?!!’

The new heart receptacle was bigger than the original one and the spiritual power within was on the verge of overflowing. Dandan stepped out of the dazzling light, rather like a god stepping down from an altar, sacred and inviolable. He stretched his waist, shook out his limbs, then cast the Crone a contemptuous glance. His ruby-coloured eyes narrowed and he bared a fang as he declared, ‘To be honest, I really feel like killing someone now.’

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_{(Approx. 2003 words)}

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Translated and edited by 12

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