Chapter 181 Lu Chan's Nightmare 3

The young girl, Lu Chan, revealed a shocking truth.

"Humans are the most complex and advanced beings in nature, and are naturally suited to be the materials for many spells and rituals." She continued, "I saw in Lu Chan's memories outside that you were engrossed in studying mysticism before you came into contact with the strange world. So you should know very well that human flesh, internal organs, bones... and even hair and skin are excellent materials for spells."

"Human sacrifice during the Yin and Shang dynasties, human skin ritual implements in Esoteric Buddhism... History has never lacked records of exchanging human beings for blessings and power. Even in the period when medicine and witchcraft were still inseparable, some people intended to obtain the nourishment of mysterious power by eating placentas or even fetuses, or to maintain their youth by bathing in the blood of virgins."

"To this day, this bloody and evil mystical knowledge is still preserved within the Witcher faction, and is even regarded as orthodox by some branches, especially some transcendental branches."

"In their view, the value that ordinary people can bring as 'resources' far outweighs their value as 'slaves'."

I am well aware that transcendentalism is by no means benevolent towards ordinary people, and its depiction of a "future where ordinary people will not become slaves" is probably not as idyllic as Lu Youxun described. However, perhaps I underestimated them.

This is probably partly due to my indifference to the political views of the transcendentalist movement. In fact, the terrifying future depicted by the young girl Lu Chan had already begun to emerge in my past experiences.

The ritual array, which appears to have been drawn by Detective Kong in his fifteenth-floor room and leads to a "space not belonging to reality," was drawn using human blood; the strange beings did not consume elixirs to enhance their power, but rather human souls.

Not to mention them, even my flames have the effect of refining the souls of those I kill into "slag" of unknown use. I named it "slag" not because I thought it was useless, but simply because I was inspired by its formation process. Moreover, even the slag produced by industrial smelting in reality is not useless; it can be used as building material or even agricultural fertilizer.

I recalled what the senior researcher had said during the interrogation.

In his view, while the idea of ​​all mortals becoming slaves to witchers was absolutely unacceptable, it was still a "relatively better future." Beyond this future, however, lay a "worst future"...

Is this his idea of ​​"the worst possible future"?

“Most transcendentalists just think that the future world will become a place where witchers turn mortals into slaves, just as most peacemakers believe that witchers can build a future where humans can live in harmony. But the future always seems to slide into something worse,” said the young Lu Chan. “Transcendentalism will eventually turn secular society into a pasture for raising mortals, where only those who can become ‘monks’ will be entitled to human rights… This is the view of most enlightened people, and it’s what that Lu Chan outside didn’t tell you.”

"So, does that mean that a policy of governance is actually better for ordinary people?" I asked.

She shook her head: "Once geopolitics reaches the stage of treating all mortals as slaves, their thinking will become transcendental, and in the end, it will become a transcendental future."

"And what about the Humanitarian Affairs Department?" I asked.

“The Humanitarian Affairs Department isn’t backed by any saviors; they simply want to become the next Luo Shan, which means they’ll eventually succumb to transcendence,” she said.

"According to your logic, as long as 'extraordinary' beings still exist in this world, isn't the future of mortals destined to be bleak?"

As I spoke, I thought of the Divine Seal and its master.

In the past, the power of the divine seal separated the world of ordinary people from that of demon hunters; the former lived in the light, while the latter could only live in the shadows.

If this phenomenon is the result of a wish made by someone who received a divine seal in the past, then that person is undoubtedly biased towards the mortal world.

This person is very likely the Lord of the Divine Seal.

However, the fourth person, Xuanming, suspected that the Lord of the Divine Seal was the culprit who would cause the world's destruction in the future.

Why would someone who favors the mortal world want to destroy it?

"Since you understand these things, then Lu Youxun in the past must have understood them too, right? But I heard that he used to be a staunch advocate of social order, and he knew perfectly well that the end of social order is transcendence..."

Halfway through my sentence, I realized what he meant: "Oh, I see. That's why you called him a 'fool who believes he and the world have infinite possibilities'..."

“I want to change Luoshan from the inside out,” said the young girl, Lu Chan. “Even if I can’t think of a better way now, that’s only now. Maybe new changes will happen in the future.”

Could it really happen? I thought of Asahi.

Living in a post-apocalyptic future, she refers to demon hunters as "monks" and herself as "blessed monks."

The miracle that the young girl Lu Chan hoped for did not seem to come true.

I've decided to focus on the current operation to take down the secret Humanitarian Division outpost.

"You just said you can't fight, so is there anything else you can do?" I asked directly.

“I am quite familiar with the situation inside this stronghold, and I have experience in capturing it in the past.” She seemed to have said something significant.

"What... capture the point?" I was shocked.

“In the past, I managed to make contact with other imprisoned and tortured witchers and secretly planned a counterattack, which you can think of as a large-scale prison break,” she said. “I plotted two prison breaks. The first time, I killed more than half of the guards, but I was already exhausted and was eventually suppressed by Chenlong and other guards. The second time, I killed Chenlong and most of the guards and successfully occupied the stronghold, but the subsequent ‘time restart’ confiscated all the spoils of victory.”

As long as this base remains an "isolated island" completely separated from the real world, and continues to restart in cycles, no matter how much the girl Lu Chan and the demon hunters struggle, it will be in vain, and all the miracles they create will eventually vanish. Despite the sadness, I am not surprised.

What truly surprised and even shocked me was something else: "You were capable of killing Chenlong?"

Even if we combine all the forces from both sides at this secret stronghold, including myself at this very moment, we still couldn't possibly inflict the slightest harm on Chenlong. The girl Lu Chan's claim that she and her group killed Chenlong during their prison break is, in my mind, no less significant than a human soldier defeating a super robot in hand-to-hand combat.

“Back then, Chenlong was only at the level of a fully-fledged being, and we still had a chance to kill him. Of course, it’s impossible to do that now.” She shook her head. “But as long as you have the power, you should be able to contend with him.”

"I see……"

Now I can accept that, and then I clarified: "I suggest you don't have too high expectations for my combat power. I can't use my full strength here right now."

"What?" she asked in surprise.

I explained why I couldn't fight at full strength here, and then she looked thoughtful: "...This doesn't make sense. If this place can only hold power at the Cheng level at most, why should Chenlong be able to fight at full strength?"

Seeing that she couldn't come to a conclusion for the time being, I asked, "Speaking of which... so you know about rebooting? You have memories of rebooting in the past?"

“Yes, the time reset at this base couldn’t reset my memories. I don’t know why, and I’ve always been curious about it,” she said. “In the past, I thought this base was a place we could escape from, so even though I knew about the reset, I still led everyone in a second prison break. Later, I realized that there was no exit we could use at all.”

"Don't you have anyone among you who can use spatial teleportation?" I asked.

“Yes… but this base cannot be freely entered or exited using spatial teleportation. It’s like there’s an invisible ‘firewall’ blocking all means of outward movement,” she said. “Even Chenlong can only use shadow teleportation freely with the permission of Dr. Silver Mask.”

"In addition, after he reached the Great Perfection level, he also had a move called 'Shadow Binding' that turned the power of shadow into armor that wrapped around his body. Although it was a skill based on shadow teleportation, it could be used without Dr. Silver Mask's permission.

I was thinking of taking advantage of the fact that Chenlong hadn't gotten Dr. Silver Mask's permission to take advantage of his portal armor, but it seems that path is blocked too.

No wonder Chenlong didn't use shadow teleportation to get here directly; there was this obstacle. But if there's this "firewall," why wasn't my fire teleportation hindered?

Even if I am powerful enough to forcibly break through the "firewall," I shouldn't feel nothing at all.

“Let’s leave here first,” said the girl, Lu Chan. “Next, let’s go check out the supervisor’s office. The supervisor’s office has equipment that monitors all the rooms inside this secret base, which should help you find Zhu Chang’an’s whereabouts. I just hope we don’t run into Dr. Silver Mask there.”

"good."

Perfect timing, I also know which way to get to the supervisor's office.

We left that special cell together.

With "fireflies" scouting ahead, our stealth was effortless, and we even had the energy to speak in hushed tones along the way.

"You said earlier that you hoped not to encounter Dr. Silver Mask... Does that mean he has strong combat abilities?" I asked.

"On the contrary, his actual fighting ability is even inferior to mine now. I could knock him to the ground with one hand. Doesn't he look like an old geek who has never exercised? In fact, his fighting ability is about the same as the impression he gives," she said. "But in terms of how difficult he is to deal with, he is even above Chenlong now."

(End of this chapter)