The Strongest Devil Team, Trial's Finale

"I... don't want to die!"

The old man Jingu still remembered that pain, and the bewilderment—the moment the Jackal-Headed Desert Warrior broke through the guard formation and brought its double-edged axe down upon his head.

It was as if he had returned to forty years ago, when he was still the most promising successor of Shintoism, before he had been consumed by lust and greed, back when he was a youth devoted to studying shikigami arts and guarding his family's legacy.

Even though his father had poured cold water on him, saying that nothing could be cultivated in the real world anymore.

But what honorable days those were... holding a high position in the shrine, receiving the kowtows and reverence of the local believers.

The shikigami codices passed down by his ancestors, the cursed tools inherited through generations, all placed under his command.

How wonderful!

If only he hadn't been blinded by the obsession with immortality and endless power not long ago, if he had just been content to be a charlatan, if he hadn't clicked that pop-up window and stepped into this endless cycle of horror movies.

What kind of peaceful life would have awaited him?

--I am so unwilling.

--I had already reached such a miraculous world, I had already glimpsed power that transcended the ordinary, the veterans had said that returning to the space would allow one to strengthen themselves using the incredibly rich main quest rewards... I had even discovered that the power of the shikigami could circulate within my body...

Why did I have to be so greedy!!

His skull was split open, hot blood spraying in all directions.

Yet, his unbroken neural pathways and instinct for survival suddenly caused his thoughts to sharpen, as if he had broken through some unknown barrier.

His body, weakened by old age, became strong once more.

It seemed even more agile than that of any top-tier athlete.

And so, death was delayed for an instant.

But only for an instant.

As his bones cracked and his brains spilled out, more Jackal-Headed warriors from the monster legion swarmed over, and the old man Jingu no longer possessed the strength to struggle.

"I... am truly unwilling."

Darkness surged in.

The taste of death was blurred and fading.

Until...

"Still sleeping, old man? You're the weakest one in this batch of newcomers."

A voice that carried a hint of familiarity, as if he had heard it only a short while ago.

Oh, it was the captain.

A proud and conceited young man with heterochromatic eyes.

"Xiu... Captain."

"You recognize me?"

The playful voice suddenly turned serious.

And the next moment, the old man Jingu felt the shikigami circulation that had just been born within him being easily suppressed.

Then, what happened?

It seemed like nothing.

Following that was a tremor originating from his soul, and his eyes snapped open, a scarlet pattern flashing through his pupils, unnoticed.

His vision was blurry at first, then focused on his surroundings.

The pure white plaza came into view, with huge light gates standing on both sides, and the golden Great Light Sphere hovering at the highest point.

In front of him was a circular table and rows of chairs, and he was sleeping at the very edge, with a man sitting to his left who had the exact same face as that East Sea captain, but with a clearly different temperament and physique.

He leaned against the table, his mouth curled into a grin.

He had a very nasty attitude.

He was not the captain from his memory—that man, proud as he was, had never scrutinized newcomers so unscrupulously.

Besides, the build didn't match.

The captain was slightly lean.

The man in front of him had a very powerful physique, like the muscular art style from Dragon Ball.

What kind of enhancement was that?

Having somehow reclaimed his life, the old man Jingu hurriedly squeezed out a flattering smile, pretending to be casual... as he looked around.

Except for the man who looked identical to the captain but was clearly stronger, the other reincarnators were all different from the members in his memory.

"East Sea Team."

"Is that Kaguya-hime a created being, or did he drag her over from the Naruto World? It's so hard to guess."

"Anyway, I don't have the privilege of returning..."

Listening to the inexplicable muttering, the gaze of the old man Jingu rested upon a handsome man wearing glasses in the center of the seating area.

Among a group of people with bizarre temperaments, he was the most peculiar.

Possessing rationality?

Perhaps that was one way to understand it.

"Welcome to the Devil Team. Well, I am the captain... Chu Xuan." The rational stranger pushed up his glasses.

This place, of course, could not be the East Sea.

Devil, a team where highly concentrated clones of potential reincarnators resided.

The criteria for entry remained undefined—

Some speculated that as long as a newcomer unlocked the first stage of the Gene Lock during their early trials, they would be cloned here.

Others believed that a newcomer only needed to erupt with a desperate desire to survive between life and death to be cloned over.

Still others said that if a newcomer possessed a certain talent, such as innate telekinesis, the ability to foresee calamity, or even the favor of mysterious destiny, they would likewise be cloned by the Main God.

Of course, there was also another theory:

The Devil Team was the most fastidious; even if one met one or more of the above conditions, they would only recruit if the team itself had a vacancy.

This was because the members who joined were incredibly powerful and difficult to kill.

While Jingu was at a loss, a youth with an even more exaggerated physique, his muscles appearing ready to burst, leaned over and said excitedly:

"Xiu, if we encounter the East Sea Team in the next team battle, let me gouge out his eyes and give them to you!"

"Good brother, this is what I owe you."

His name was Zheng Zha.

Clone Zheng Zha!

The cloning node had been the moment he was creating Luo Li, exchanging for Vampire enhancement, and considering whether to choose Qigong.

He still felt a lingering fear whenever he recalled the scene of his arrival—he and Luo Li had suddenly appeared in the unfamiliar Main God Space.

Before him were black and white men he did not recognize at all.

By nature, he certainly would have run over to strike up a conversation, trying to figure out what was going on.

However, the veterans erupted with unprecedented malice. The basic perception brought by his Vampire enhancement allowed Zheng Zha to keenly sense their spite.

It was Xiu who helped block these racist thugs, allowing Luo Li to return to the private space and avoiding the tragedy of being defiled.

He had preserved his final dignity as a man!

Of course, he and his good brother, who remained in the square, were brutally beaten by the group.

At that time, Xiu, who had just arrived from the Ninja World, only had the first stage of the Gene Lock and standard Three Tomoe; he hadn't mastered many high-level ninjutsu, possessing only enough resistance to avoid the fate of being farmed.

He had incidentally protected him, keeping him from being bullied too badly.

Later on, his good brother, who seemed to know the secrets of the Main God Space, secretly told him: one could pay a Rank D side quest to redeem Luo Li from the Main God, preventing his lover from being exposed to the sight of thugs in the future and exempting her from horror movie trials.

At the same time, they could travel to the plot world of the previous mission to further unearth resources.

The Devil Team's next mission was Final Destination 3.

And the previous one had been Heaven and Earth Mystic Gate.

The two teamed up in private, sneaking away for two months to slay various low-level ghosts in the Hong Kong of the last century, even running to the Kingdom of Thailand, which was riddled with witchcraft and obscene sacrifices, grinding for points tirelessly.

Finally, with the help of celestial phenomena, the duo—who had rebelled against the old order of the Devil Team—successfully arrived in the Ming Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong and found that great cultivator from the original plot:

The Hermit of the Thatched Cottage!

They obtained a portion of his inheritance.

Through his comprehension of Daoist arts, Xiu initially unlocked a more advanced Sage Mode, capable of absorbing the power of heaven and earth from any environment.

As for me, I mastered the path of cultivation and obtained a scroll of the Heaven in a Pot secret technique.

"If you don't want to explode or spend the early stages in 'prison,' you must either focus on the cultivation of Yin power to balance your Vampire system, or exchange for a plot treasure called Perfect Blood to balance the positive and negative."

Just like that, under the meticulous care of his good brother Uchiha Xiu, Zheng Zha developed steadily. When he broke through to open the second stage of the Gene Lock, he joined forces with the strategist Chu Xuan—who had been cloned in after Final Destination—during the last trial, A Nightmare on Elm Street, to trap and kill all the farmers.

They established a new order!

They pushed Chu Xuan, who excelled at operations, to be the Devil Team captain.

Recalling this, clone Zheng Zha exhaled softly... He was very happy to hear news of the East Sea Team.

Finally, he could repay his good brother's kindness. Even if he killed that guy from the East Sea Team, gouged out his eyes, and collected his corpse for research, it still wouldn't be enough to repay the full debt.

At the very least, I can do something for Xiu now!!

"The next mission is The Mist, the team battle targets... South America Team, East America Team, Celestial Team, a battle of four teams."

At this moment, Chu Xuan added calmly:

"Even if the Main God hasn't made it clear, if you want to encounter the East Sea, you must at least get through the next mission."

Why? Zheng Zha did not understand.

Zheng Zha decisively gave up on thinking.

With Chu Xuan and his good brother Xiu around, he had no need for such a useless thing as a brain.

It was nothing but a burden.

"According to the intelligence read and shared by Xiu, due to the time dilation, that East Sea Team is still in its nascent stage. They don't have many veterans, and no matter how impatient the Main God is, it wouldn't force them to encounter a powerhouse team."

"Furthermore, the matchmaking mechanism has a lag. Unless that Uchiha Xiu did something to provoke the Main God's principles, it wouldn't be in such a rush to send them to us for cleanup."

"However, we will definitely encounter the East Sea Team by the third team battle at the latest. They are absolutely formidable foes."

Chu Xuan spoke in his usual measured, unhurried tone: "You need to be prepared."

His gaze fell squarely on the clone Uchiha Xiu.

"Uh... the third team battle at the latest? What about the second?"

Zheng Zha still didn't understand the logic and, unable to grasp the argument, simply pressed for an answer:

"What about the second? I can't wait that long!"

"High probability."

"The East Sea Team has a Soul Bender, a Saint, and a female assassin named Zhao Yingkong has appeared."

"These three are official reincarnators; there are too few strong hands."

"The model I've built currently tells me that the Kaguya-hime with the Three Tomoe Sharingan between her brows is one hundred percent a created being."

"And before the team battle against us, that person will definitely squeeze every resource available in the Ninja World."

The clone Uchiha Xiu remained expressionless throughout.

Whatever deductions Chu Tiandao made, it was best to just believe them blindly.

As long as this guy didn't get arrogant and try to scheme against him in secret like he did with Li Shuaixi, then... they were all brothers, and they could manage the Devil Team well together.

And crush the final team battle!!

After Chu Xuan finished speaking, Zhao Zhui-Kong, having witnessed the bloody internal elimination tournament of A Nightmare on Elm Street, chuckled foolishly, offering no opinion and simply playing the fool.

"Yingkong, ah, brother is truly looking forward to meeting you."

"Tsk tsk, in our Devil Team now, only this new old man looks the simplest."

Under their gaze, the old man Jingu felt a chill.

The man playing with a dagger opposite him had such a lecherous expression.

Was he interested in a balding man like him?

Besides, the local veterans were so rude; it sounded like they had read his entire memory without permission!

A mental pervert!!

On the other side.

In the Cairo battlefield, where time and space were out of sync.

The battle grew increasingly brutal. Kobayashi Yoshito's arm was slashed by a bone blade, the phantom of the Kazan ghost god was fading, and Kitagawa Nacai's stamina was nearly exhausted, the domain generated by her cross flickering unsteadily.

As the capital of a civilization with a long heritage, this place housed millions of people. Four small-yield nuclear backpacks detonated in two waves had indeed relieved the pressure, but they could not help them secure victory.

During World War II, the plutonium bomb codenamed Fat Man detonated over the Urakami River basin with a TNT equivalent of 22,000 tons, causing only sixty percent of the city's buildings to be destroyed and fewer than eighty thousand deaths.

Zhao Yingkong, used as the main force, was once again pushed to the brink, covered in wounds and about to be submerged by the undead!

"Come back."

A rope accurately snared her, dragging the girl back.

Eddie, the leader of the tomb guardians riding on a camel, set Zhao Yingkong down: "You should rest for a while; my tribe still has some strength left."

As the scimitars swung, a camel caravan behind the leader launched a counter-charge against the undead.

"la!"

"For the Sun God!"

"Pharaoh, please bless your most loyal guards..."

Now, they could only rely on the still-considerable number of native guards. They traded one for three, or at most five, fighting a bitter battle against the Undead Legion with the power of their heritage.

The decline was inevitable.

Until space suddenly twisted, and two figures traversed through via a Flying Thunder God Kunai!

Uchiha Xiu landed steadily in the center of the battlefield, his gaze sweeping over the corpses, the jackal-headed creatures, and the tribal guards.

"It seems I'm not too late."

None of the core members of the East Sea Team had kicked the bucket in this small trial, so... as the captain, he could accept anything else.

If one doesn't endure pressure, how can one unlock their potential?

Without unlocking, how can one have human rights in the Main God Space?

"Ten Plagues Curse... let it end."

The Book of Amun-Ra hovered in mid-air.

What was the nature of chakra? Its primordial form was neutral, but at this moment, Uchiha Xiu, who had arrived to save the day, used the power of Yang Release—the symbol of life—to thoroughly awaken the original authority of the ancient tome.

As long as he remained in Egypt, he could use this to strip away immortality and purify the wandering souls.

"Form to form, dust to dust, curse to the underworld, soul to the void!"

His voice blanketed the entire ancient city.

The Jackal-Headed Warriors, who had been forcibly dragged back to the mortal realm by the curse and denied the cycle of reincarnation, suddenly stiffened, their sand-formed bodies crumbling inch by inch.

"Ah--!!"

Piercing wails erupted, not of resentment or fury, but of gratitude for their release.

A gust of wind swept through the streets of Cairo, carrying away countless grains of sand until they vanished from the world entirely.

The Cairo citizens who had been afflicted by the curse began to regain their senses, as the erosion had not yet run deep; the strange markings on their faces vanished rapidly, and their withered flesh gradually regained its vitality.

On the city walls, where the aftermath of the fierce battle still lingered, space rippled in the direction Kaguya-hime was watching.

Three figures tumbled out in a disheveled heap.

"The Sun..."

Gazing at Uchiha Xiu, who stood suspended in the air as the savior of Egypt, Evelyn—the reincarnation of the Pharaoh's daughter—was filled with excitement, instinctively raising a hand to point at the scripture floating before him.

Almost simultaneously, her boyfriend O'Connell hurriedly covered her mouth.

Her brother Jonathan pressed a hand down on her.

That belongs to the big brother, don't covet it!

"Little sister, I have a bag of ancient gold coins on me, and I managed to archeologically recover a golden statue from the offering hall of Ramesses II. Once we sell these, it will be enough to live a life of luxury back on the European continent."

"Stop thinking about those gods and ghosts, just settle down and enjoy life. We aren't setting foot in Egypt for the rest of our lives—no, we aren't going to any ancient civilizations ever again."