Chapter 346 Lu Chan Surrenders

"curse?"

I don't know any curse spells, but after hearing what Lu Chan said, I'm not completely clueless.

"Those qualified as Great Impermanence... or even those who are enemies of Great Impermanence, will have bad luck. Especially if they are targeted with clear malice, they are more likely to suffer unexpected disasters in their lives," Lu Chan said. "A curse is essentially an intention to make others unhappy. It's not just Great Impermanence and those qualified as Great Impermanence; even a powerful demon hunter who hates someone from the bottom of their heart, and that person doesn't have the means or power to counter the curse, will truly encounter misfortune."

"Your power is fire, which is related to the laws of heaven and earth and high temperatures. Therefore, those who oppose you may encounter disasters related to fire and high temperatures."

"Similar things may have happened in your past life, but I don't know if you noticed them."

Now that you mention it, I do seem to have some recollection... For example, when I was in high school, I assisted the authorities in taking down a certain feudal superstitious force in another city. It seems that the leader at the time was unfortunately burned to death by his own followers in the end... Could it be that it wasn't just bad luck on his part, but that his fate was influenced by my latent power, which led him to that kind of ending?

At this point, there's no going back to confirm things; let's focus on the present. I glanced at the two anxious demon hunters. Like I said before, while I was still somewhat annoyed with these two demon hunters involved in kidnapping Mazao, I wasn't so petty as to hold grudges after they'd already completed the tasks I'd assigned them.

However, it seems they won't let this go unless I do something. Letting them live with this feeling of not knowing when they'll be held accountable is a kind of punishment, but I'd much rather have this matter brought to a clean and decisive end.

Besides, I've never cursed anyone before, so I'll take this opportunity to test it on them.

"Alright then, I'll curse you so that you'll never be able to cool off in the summer, and even if you go into an air-conditioned room, you won't feel any coolness."

As I uttered those words, I vaguely sensed that the fates of those two witchers had undergone a slight change.

It seems my curse has truly come true.

Zhu Shi seemed to have observed something with his own eyes as well, and exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? Such a tricky curse is possible? Doesn't that mean that if Senior Brother Zhuang cursed them to burn their tongues with soup dumplings, to be so hot they couldn't sleep under the covers, to have their refrigerators malfunction and shut down when they went on long trips, and to have their graphics cards overheat and explode while playing games..."

She rattled off more than seven or eight examples in one go, concluding with: "...and things like that can also be achieved?"

The two demon hunters sweated profusely as they listened, while Lu Chan wore a speechless expression after hearing their stories. Could Zhu Shi have deliberately given so many examples? Although each one seemed relatively minor on its own, the combined effect was strangely frightening.

"Well... it should all be possible, as long as Zhuang Cheng has the idea..."

Lu Chan coughed, then urged the two demon hunters, "What are you still doing here? Why don't you leave?"

The two of them looked at me at the same time, and after I nodded, they immediately turned and ran away, as if they were escaping some extremely terrifying nightmare.

"Since you don't intend to go to Fazheng's residence first, then I'll have to excuse myself."

After realizing I was the Great Impermanence, Yu Chi didn't bother trying to persuade me to give up the challenge against Ming Zhuo, and instead turned and left. Unlike the others, he knew I was a Void Realm Apostle, so he probably thought I could manipulate the power of the Divine Seal Fragment and have a chance of winning even against Ming Zhuo. Unfortunately, I am not yet able to manipulate the power of the Divine Seal Fragment and cannot meet his expectations.

The sun was almost setting by then, and Mr. Zhu had booked a hotel for us at the Luoshan headquarters. Before heading to Mingzhuo's location, I went to the hotel with the others to check its exact location, just in case any future conflict might affect this area.

Lu Chan had said he would lead the way, so he didn't separate from us for the time being and entered the hotel with us. Zhu Shi didn't seem to want to talk to Lu Chan at first. Although she was usually very easy to talk to, she didn't have a good attitude towards the two demon hunters who had been detrimental to Ma Zao. She was also expressionless towards Lu Chan, who had betrayed the social order and even betrayed us.

I guess she remembered what I had said before, that the current Lu Chan and the past Lu Youxun were essentially different people. So, in the end, she seemed to convince herself and inquired about information related to the Soul Loss Syndrome from Lu Chan, wanting to know if Luo Shan had made any further breakthroughs in his research on the Soul Loss Syndrome. Lu Chan, in turn, showed an attitude of being open and honest with her.

Incidentally, Zhu Jiu, who lives far away in Xianshui City, is now being cared for by Zhu Shi's grandmother—who is also Mr. Zhu's wife.

"Since you used to be a night patrol directly under Mingzhuo, do you know anything about Mingzhuo's weaknesses?"

In the hotel corridor, Zhu Shi seemed to want to ask on my behalf: "Or is it that you can't answer this question? But since you were able to take Zhuang Cheng to where Ming Zhuo is, that means that you are not like those two demon hunters, and you don't have any 'cannot reveal secrets' restrictions on you, right?"

“In the past, I was trusted by Mingzhuo, and even the restrictions on my body were set by myself. But now I am no longer under Mingzhuo's command, so naturally there are no restrictions,” Lu Chan said. “As for weaknesses… as far as I know, Dawuchang basically doesn’t have the concept of weaknesses. If you’re asking if there’s any way to break Mingzhuo’s immortality, unfortunately, there isn’t.”

"If you want Mingzhuo to die, you can only wait for him to die of old age. Even using spells and abilities in the time domain cannot accelerate the passing of Mingzhuo's lifespan. Conversely, Mingzhuo cannot use spells and abilities in the time domain to prolong his lifespan."

“In Luoshan, there is a Grandmaster who can freely stop time. Mingzhuo once tried to use his power to stop his lifespan from passing, but even that power could not affect Mingzhuo’s life countdown. That was the price he paid for trading with Naraku. I’m afraid that even a Great Impermanence-level time-manipulation user could not change Mingzhuo’s lifespan.”

Luo Shan actually possesses a Grandmaster level cultivator capable of stopping time?

Is it just my imagination? But it always seems like characters in the Great Completion rank range have increasingly "heavyweight" special abilities. While I don't have any negative opinions about my own abilities, sometimes I really wish I could replace my fire manipulation ability with something cooler, like time manipulation or space manipulation.

"Then... what about the flames of Xuanming?" Zhu Shi pressed on relentlessly. "I heard that the flames of Xuanming are constantly burning inside Mingzhuo's body, and Zhuang Cheng has the ability to manipulate flames. Isn't that just the right way to suppress Mingzhuo now?"

“As long as Zhuang Cheng can manipulate the Xuanming Fire within Mingzhuo’s body, it’s equivalent to launching an attack directly from inside Mingzhuo’s body… Isn’t that Mingzhuo’s weakness?”

That's a good starting point, but Lu Chan shook his head.

"Mingzhuo has placed a very strong seal on the Xuanming Fire within his body to prevent himself from being attacked directly from within his body when he clashes with other Great Impermanences in the future... especially with Xuanming again," he said. "Moreover, even if there's a way to break that seal, to control the Xuanming Fire, Zhuang Cheng himself would first need to become a Great Impermanence, in that respect..."

As he spoke, he glanced at me, paused for a moment, and then said, "This shouldn't be a problem for you, right?"

I wasn't particularly fixated on hiding my Great Impermanence abilities, so when he said that, I simply admitted it: "You can tell?"

“The Great Impermanence can manifest aspects of its existence in the form of a Sambhogakaya or Nirmanakaya, and my ‘Possibility Avatar’ is actually a clumsy imitation of the Great Impermanence’s incarnation. Therefore, I am more perceptive of the Great Impermanence as the prototype of power than ordinary demon hunters,” Lu Chan said. “However, this is only a vague intuition. More importantly, I know your character, and I probably know you better than you think.”

Most people see you as someone who's incredibly arrogant, but I know you wouldn't do something you know you're destined to fail at. Or rather, you lack interest in things whose outcome you already know.

Even if your odds of winning are only one percent, or even one in ten thousand, you'll still gamble with great enthusiasm. But if it's 'zero' or 'one hundred,' you'll become bored. What you really want is 'instability,' so even knowing you have an absolute advantage won't make you happy. Even becoming a fickle person might not be a truly happy thing for you.

"Of course, there's a difference between 'zero' and 'one hundred' for you. If you do the latter, you can do it again, there's always a next time. But if you do the former, there's no next time. And now you're going to Mingzhuo's side to fulfill your challenge, which means you actually still have a bit of a chance of winning, right?"

Actually, no.

However, I truly didn't have a feeling I would definitely lose. If I were still at the Great Completion stage, I probably wouldn't have taken the initiative to challenge Mingzhuo; Lu Chan really saw right through me in that respect. But now that we're both at the Great Impermanence stage, the odds of winning can be figured out after the battle begins. If we don't fight, we'll never know if we have a chance of winning.

"What are you trying to say by telling me all this now?" I asked.

Lu Chan then spoke his next words.

“I hope you will accept my allegiance,” he said.

(End of this chapter)