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Last embryo Volume 6 Chapter 3 Part 5

Ayato could understand the desire not to reveal any more information than necessary to others perfectly, because if she was in her shoes, she would have done the exact same thing. After all, it is better to deal with the bitterness of defeat in a small skirmish to make a spectacular comeback later and win the war rather than showing pretty much everyone what you are truly capable of right at the very start and doom yourself to lose against everyone else because they would have known everything about you and prepared countermeasures and contingency plans to work around your abilities.

At the same time, she realized why was Shen Gongbao sent here in the assistance of Byakko instead od coming alone. Because if it was not for him and his words that calmed her into accepting defeat, Shen Gongbao definitely would not have stopped and she would have continued to fight even more fiercely and relentlessly, outing more of her secrets and quite possibly causing massive amounts of damage, both to herself and her surroundings, so if there will ever come a time where she will be forced to fight them again, Ayato needs to remember that during that fight, Byakko will have to be left for last, because his calmness and rationality is what keeps Shen Gongbao mostly in check. If he was not here, then she definitely would have gone berserk right from the very beginning, taking advantage of her immortal body.

「All right then. . . . . I hope you are perfectly aware that now that we won and you have lost, we are going to have a nice chat where you are going to tell us everything that we want to know? Because if you did not know that, then I advise you to prepare yourselves if you do not want this to turn ugly when it does not have to.」

「Oh yeah, we got our asses handed to us, I will definitely give you that. I thought we were going to succeed if we make a daring preemptive strike, but apparently I overestimated our chances. So, I do not suppose that the chances of you just laughing this whole thing off and forgiving us for that little stunt we pulled on you are very high, but maybe you could at least consider it? You know, I might have called us a part of 『Avatara』, but we are not exactly a part of 「that」『Avatara』, you know? I did also call us 「Pawns to be pushed around」by them, remember?」

Asuka glared at Shen Gongbao without even trying to hide her hostility towards her, and Shen Gongbao responded in kind as the two of them exchanged words with each other. But such a reaction was understandable, since Asuka is very well aware of the nature of the relationship between 『Avatara』 and 『Uroboros Demon Lord Alliance』, and in Asuka’s eyes, that relationship between them was more than enough to not try to get all buddy-buddy with anyone who claimed to be a part of 『Avatara』. . . but she did have to admit that Shen Gongbao’s words just now intrigued her, so she inquired about it further while she was looking at some unspecified point behind Asuka with a sharp, sour expression on her lips.

「You are not a part of 「that」 『Avatara』? What exactly does that mean? Is there more than one 『Avatara』 around?」

「Hmm. . . . . . .no, at least not any that I am aware off, and to be honest I do not care all that much, because I was only doing this because I was asked to by Jin Russel.」

「By Little Jin? . . . . . . I see. So what that kid was doing was actually such a dangerous thing all along, huh?」

Kudou Asuka said that with resentment while placing her hands on her hips. It was not because she was feeling as if she has been betrayed, but rather because she was angry that Jin was being unreasonable again and was doing something that was way out of his league. Ayato, on the other hand, was finally able to understand why Jin Russel is one of the core members of 『Avatara』 after hearing Shen Gongbao’s story.

(Now that I think about is, Jin had the qualifications to be classified among the ranks of the 『Uroboros Demon Lord Alliance』 because of his relation to King Solomon. I was wondering why someone like Shen Gongbao, one of the Immortal Sages and the key figures of 「Investiture of the Gods」would be affiliating herself with 『Avatara』, but if she did so at Jin’s request, then it would all make sense now.)

According to her legend described in 「Investiture of the Gods」, Shen Gongbao has been sealed at the bottom of the North Sea by the Primitive God of Heaven after she failed to sabotage the efforts of her fellow disciple of under the Primitive God of Heaven, Jiang Ziya, known in Japan under the name Taikoubou, so it might be possible entirely possible that Jin freed her from her imprisonment and then made her one of his subordinates.

(According to Mister Tokuteru, there was a series of incidents where the Demon Lords that were supposed to have been sealed began disappearing one after another sometime after I left Little Garde, and I am sure that Shen Gongbao must have been one of these Demon Lords.)

Tokuteru informed her about a series of mysterious incidents in which someone, presumably the remnants of 『Uroboros Demon Lord Alliance』, which was supposed to have been mostly destroyed during the battle with the Demon Lords that took place two years ago, destroyed the sealed mounds in which a number of Demon Lords have been imprisoned. But even though Tokuteru described it as a major incident, it turned out that it disappeared from the memories of Little Garden’s inhabitants relatively quickly, mostly because other than the sealed mounds being destroyed there was literally no other kind of major damage to speak of. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . but it might be that the culprits responsible for it were not from 『Uroboros』, but from 『Avatara』, and that would check itself out with the fact that many if not all of 『Avatara’s』 members were actually Demon Lords.

(And she is not the only Chinese member of that Demon Lord Community. According to what Izayoi said after the battle in the Labyrinth was finished, one of The Seven Great Sages, Demon Bull King, is also one of 『Avatara’s』 members.)

But that was not all. There are other things that Ayato learned from that skirmish of theirs just now. The weapon that Shen Gongbao was using, that fiery spear of hers. . . .  it was not her weapon at all. That Armament is actually The Fire-tipped Spear, one of the weapons belonging to Crown Prince Nezha, Marshal of the Central Altar and a protector deity form Chinese folk religion, a youth who is said to be one of the aspects of the old Chinese God of War. As a fellow Chinese deity, he is also reported to be a good friend of Sun Wukong and also a participant in the conflict in Chinese Mythology known as The Seven Great Sages War. But then, why would Shen Gongbao be in possession of Nezha’s spear? And what is her connection to the Demon Bull King, the leader of The Seven Great Sages?

(. . . . . . . . . . . . . I think these connections are worth exploring for a bit.)

Wearing a smile on her face, Ayato decided to approach Shen Gongbao and see if she could convince her to talk about the hings that she would like to know about.

「Allow me to congratulate you, Shen Gongbao. That battle we just had was a wonderful one, es expected of one of the Immortal Sages.」

「. . . . . . . . . . . Mu? That is all you have to say as a winner? Is that supposed to be irony? Or perhaps sarcasm?」

「None of them. It is supposed to be a heartfelt praise.」