The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

“If things continue like that, Tokyo will be destroyed in the battle between Ye Wang and others, so the great soul intervened, and that is the answer.”

“As expected.” Silva seized the opportunity to interject, “Ye Wang and his group are indeed very dangerous, Lord Goldba. I think we should stop them.”

"No need. The Great Soul did not order any interference with Ye Wang, and the arena is about to be moved. We only need to deal with the relevant personnel of the secular government. There is no need to meddle in other people's business."

"but……"

Before he could finish speaking, Goldba interrupted him coldly, saying, "Silba, remember, you are one of the ten priests of the Patch tribe. You must prioritize the mission of the Patch tribe and not let your emotions control you."

Silva paused for a moment, then bowed his head and said, "I understand, Lord Gordeba. I will abide by the principles of the Patch tribe, remain neutral, and not interfere with either side."

……

On the other side, under the night sky, Su Qi was flying at high speed with the help of the White Tiger's wind manipulation and the Earth Spirit's gravity control.

"Is the target Gandara's stronghold being eliminated before the final battle...?"

Ye Wang's senses are extremely sharp, making it impossible for anyone to secretly monitor him. Therefore, he has been divining the other party's movements every now and then to prevent Ye Wang from causing any trouble when he is not paying attention and wasting his save slots.

"Although I started a little late, I'm faster than him, so I should still be able to make it."

With this thought in mind, Su Qi sped at full speed and soon arrived at Gandara's temporary residence, a remote temple called Kobo-ji on the outskirts of Tokyo.

But just as they approached their target, a deafening roar was heard, and flames shot into the sky, illuminating the night. A sea of ​​fire, nearly a thousand meters in diameter, suddenly appeared between heaven and earth, burning fiercely. That was Ye Wang's "ghost fire".

"This is bad..."

His heart tightened, and he rushed over immediately. He saw Ye Wang riding the Black Chick, hovering above the ruins of the temple surrounded by flames. He turned his head, curled the corner of his mouth, and said, "Dao Cheng, you're late this time."

His gaze swept over the fire scene below, and Su Qi said expressionlessly, "King Ye, are you scared?"

"I'm scared?" Ye Wang scoffed. "Daocheng, you've told another ridiculous joke."

"If that's not the case, why go against the grain and take the initiative? If it were the old you, you wouldn't have bothered to do this, would you?"

"It's just to clear the area in advance so that I can deal with you specifically later. So feel honored, Daocheng, you're the first person I've ever valued so much."

"Being valued by a man doesn't make me happy, and... your clearing of the area doesn't seem to be very thorough."

As they were speaking, a section of ruins below was suddenly pushed open, and a giant Buddha statue, over three zhang tall, stood between heaven and earth. It traversed the sea of ​​fire in a few steps and arrived in front of the two of them.

“Ye Wang…” A pure and holy girl in a white dress, holding a Zen staff, with her flaxen hair cascading over her shoulders, stood in the palm of the Buddha’s hand, looking at Ye Wang, and said in a clear and cold voice: “Your heart has been entangled by karmic fire and fallen into the demonic path, but it is not too late to turn back now.”

Ye Wang narrowed his eyes and said in an icy tone, "You're still alive."

The leader of Gandara, the god-level psychic Shati, lowered his eyes and spoke with a faint sadness in his voice, "My companions sacrificed themselves to protect me, and because I possessed psychic energy that could neutralize magical power, I was able to survive this ordeal."

"Ha, I killed all my companions, and even burned their souls, and you still want to convert me?"

“Life and death are not real, and reincarnation is impermanent. I just don’t want their sacrifice in this life to be in vain; but if I can help you, then I have given my life in charity and died a worthy death.”

"You think you can convert me? You're overestimating yourselves!"

After saying this coldly, Ye Wang's tail fin changed shape again, transforming into a cannon barrel that he placed on his shoulder and aimed at Shati. "This time, do you think you can escape this time?"

"Of course I can." Su Qi stood in front of the latter, arms outstretched, and said confidently, "Why? Because I'm here! Come on, fire at me!"

boom!!

Without hesitation, Ye Wang fired the cannon. Instantly, flames exploded and waves of fire swept across the land. The already devastated ground was ravaged by the high-temperature flames once again. Almost all the buildings and trees on the ground were burned to ashes, and the scene resembled a hellish inferno.

But when everything calmed down, Su Qi and Sha Ti were seen being protected by a pair of huge arms, completely unharmed.

"See? I told you we could stop it. So, Ye Wang, how about we call it quits this time?"

Using dust from the air as a medium, earth spirits as a skeleton, and half of his magical power as flesh and blood, the manifested super-spirit body did indeed block the will-o'-the-wisp head-on. Now, even if he were to confront Ye Wang directly, he wouldn't need to be as wary as before.

This is the second time... or the third if you count the chase... The third time, I've failed to get anything from this man... I really want to burn this obstacle to ashes right now, but I can't, it's not the right time yet...

Ye Wang remained silent for a moment, then suddenly fired three more shots. Seeing that he was indeed unable to do anything to Su Qi, he left without saying a word and turned away.

"He almost managed to eliminate an important ally."

Watching his retreating figure, Su Qi felt a sense of relief. He hadn't expected Ye Wang to put aside his pride and use such a sneak attack-like tactic to eliminate a powerful enemy. This showed that Ye Wang was now seriously preparing for this great battle, rather than being as overconfident and complacent as in the original story, letting the psychic battle unfold step by step.

Just like this surprise night raid, no one knows what Ye Wang will do next. The initiative is on his side, and he has many targets to attack. Unless Su Qi stays by Ye Wang's side all the time, it will be difficult to effectively limit his power.

But the one in danger of following closely behind him is Su Qi himself. If he were to enter Ye Wang's stronghold and be besieged by numerous psychics, Su Qi, who is already weak in offense but strong in defense, would not be confident that he could emerge unscathed.

Therefore, we still need to resolve the Ye Wang issue as soon as possible; the fewer variables, the better...

Su Qi had no intention of following the procedure of the psychic war from the beginning. He only waited until now, when many psychics had gathered in Tokyo, to take action because he wanted to form an alliance with Jeanne and Satie to increase their chances of winning and because the two sides were mutually restraining each other and could not move around freely.

X-LAWS and Gandara both arrived today. He had planned to visit and form an alliance with the two organizations tomorrow after they settled in. However, he did not expect that Ye Wang would strike first, ordering his subordinates to hunt down other psychics indiscriminately, and then launching a surprise attack on Gandara, forcing him to rush over in a hurry.

“Miss Satie, we have a common goal…”

Worried that Ye Wang would launch another surprise attack on X-LAWS and his own base, Su Qi invited Sha Ti to come and discuss the alliance. He also told her the location of the Destiny Circle Hotel and immediately set off to chase after Ye Wang in the direction he had left.

However, seemingly aware that he had already launched a surprise attack tonight and would be closely watched by Su Qi, Ye Wang didn't cause any more trouble and went straight back to his own base. Seeing this, he lingered outside for a while before returning to the Destiny Circle Hotel, which wasn't far from Ye Wang's base.

By this time, Shati had finished chanting sutras for her companions and came to visit the inn. Su Qi talked with her and easily established an alliance. Because they shared common goals and common enemies, their ideologies did not conflict, and he had just saved her once, it was only natural that the talks went so smoothly.

"Next up is X-LAWS..."

Su Qi didn't intend to waste any more time. To prevent Ye Wang from launching a surprise attack while he was away, he simply took everyone and left the hotel, heading to X-LAWS's base overnight on a large oil tanker named Ark X, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay.

At the same time, Ye Wang also divined their actions.

"Hmph, so you really are planning to gang up on me?"

Having discerned the enemy's plan, he had no intention of rushing in to disrupt it, as there was a high probability that he would return empty-handed. His priority now was to improve his own strength.

"I need more offerings..."

On the riverbank beneath the bridge, Ye Wang glanced at the hundreds of timid ghosts gathered there, a cold glint in his eyes.

These are the captured spirits of psychics, along with the spirits that the psychics possessed in life. The stronger a person's magical power, the stronger their spiritual power after death. Needless to say, the spirits that can become the spirits of psychics are the best among all spirits, so... they are excellent food.

The five natural spirits possess some characteristics of great souls, and can all devour the souls of others to enhance their spiritual power. Their original spiritual power limit was around 400,000. Now, Ye Wang intends to feed his fire spirit to enhance its spiritual power, break through the limit of witch power injection for a super-spirit body, and gain powerful strength to defeat Su Qi.

"Come on, Fire Spirit, it's time to eat."

With a thought, a crimson giant-like fire spirit quickly materialized beside him, then bent down and approached the ghosts.

"Wait, wait, wait! What is this? What do you want it to do to us?"

"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer! Don't kill me!"

"I'm going to be killed!"

The overwhelming magical power and the oppressive feeling as heavy as a mountain caused many ghosts to shrink back in fear when facing the fire spirit.

However, the Fire Spirit ignored them and, at its master's command, grabbed a dozen ghosts, tilted its head back, opened its blood-red maw, let go, and shoved them into its mouth like candy beans, before snapping its jaws shut.

"Ah ah ah ah ah……"

Various desperate screams escaped from between the not-yet-fully-closed teeth, but quickly ceased, returning to deathly silence.

Chapter Forty-Five: A Sudden Stab

As night fell, a bonfire party seemed to be taking place on the riverbank under the bridge, but the fuel that lit the bonfire was not firewood, but the human soul.

"Ahhh! Help! Someone, please save us!"

"Run! Run together!"

The souls being devoured screamed and scattered in terror, only to be easily driven back by Ye Wang's subordinates who surrounded them, and served up like meat on a felt board for the fire spirits to enjoy.

Then they stood there silently, coldly watching their fellow human beings being devoured, without any intention of offering a helping hand. As followers specially selected by Ye Wang, they were people who had nowhere else to go in this world and were accepted by Ye Wang.

The vast majority of them were fanatical believers in Ye Wang and, under his influence, believed that they were different from others, that they were new humans who were about to establish a new world and live there. Therefore, they regarded others as nothing more than tools and waste, and that sacrificing their souls to achieve their goals could even be considered as recycling waste.

Soon, all the screams and cries of terror vanished from the fire spirit's mouth. The patterns, base color, and texture on its body became even more distinct, and it was enveloped in a faint red light, its spiritual power noticeably increasing.

Not enough...

However, Ye Wang was not satisfied with this.

This level of strength is not enough to gain an absolute advantage; more power is needed...

Recalling the times Su Qi had blocked him before, Ye Wang's dark eyes gradually turned cold.

Guided by his divination, aside from a few tough nuts his subordinates couldn't crack, the city's best psychics had already been harvested. Continuing to have his subordinates hunt them would be less efficient, and their own side had also suffered losses...

He glanced at the group of subordinates standing around him. There were originally more than twenty people, but after just one day, only seventeen or eighteen remained. Moreover, as the news spread and the government reacted and began to take action, their numbers would quickly decrease further.

After all, apart from the top tier, the physical bodies of most psychics are too fragile. If the opponent is prepared, they simply cannot deal with an army or police armed with modern firearms, not to mention the huge difference in numbers between the two sides. Therefore, their value is only...

"That's not enough."

Ye Wang sat on the rock and sighed softly.

“My lord, please rest assured.” One of them stepped forward, bowed deeply, and said with fervent eyes, “We will definitely bring more offerings tomorrow, so that they may become your power.”

Ye Wang rested his right hand on his cheek and smiled, "You guys are really very diligent."

"This is what we should do! As long as it's for the sake of our esteemed master..."

The latter was speaking when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest and back, as if he had been pierced by something cold, sharp, and huge.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch... My back muscles have been torn apart, my spine has been pierced, my internal organs have been turned into a mushy mess, my ribs are broken, and my pectoral muscles and stomach have been pierced...

A surge of blood and excruciating pain rushed up his chest. He looked down and saw a sharp, thick cone protruding from his chest, its iron-gray surface stained red with blood.

Huh? What... what's going on? How could someone hurt me in front of a grown man?

Perhaps he was blinded by pain, or perhaps his consciousness refused to believe the possibility; his mind went blank until he was lifted up, bitten by that giant mouth, and torn off that iron spike. Only then did he realize that he had been pierced by that great man's super spirit.

Impossible! This can't possibly happen! This... must just be a nightmare...

An expression of disbelief froze on his face, then with a snap, his flesh and bones were shredded, and a large amount of bright red liquid flowed down like a cheap prop in a movie, before being evaporated by the rising flames... He fell into the gaping maw of the fire spirit, and inside it was nothing but flames like those of purgatory.

After a final, piercing scream, the entire riverbank fell into a deathly silence.

The shocking and brutal reality was incomprehensible, leaving everyone stunned, speechless, and unable to utter a word for a moment.

"Good...good sir..."

The first to break the silence was a young black boy named Achoba, who had curly black hair and big, wet eyes, nestled beside him.

He and Ye Wang possessed the same mind-reading ability, and he was usually the one who relied on and trusted Ye Wang the most. But now, his voice trembled, and his eyes were filled with fear.

Malice... a massive malice capable of freezing a person into an ice sculpture in an instant...

Achoba had never felt such terrifying malice from Lord Ye, and that malice was directed at himself.