Chapter 454 Tracing History

Getting back to the point, I didn't come to Xianshui City Park to play pranks on Zhu Shi with Ma Zao; I came here on serious business.

The reason I didn't go with Asahi to investigate the ruins of the Humanitarian Division's main base a month ago was that I wanted to use that place to "fish" and see if the Unknown Blessed Cultivator would be unable to resist going there to cover up some important clues in order to avoid Asahi discovering them.

The unknown blessed cultivator has shown no sign of appearing during this time, and there are several possibilities. Perhaps he's not thinking clearly and didn't anticipate that he might be the subject of clues; perhaps there were no significant clues there, and he was deemed not worth covering up; or perhaps he had already swiftly dealt with the matter before we realized the importance of the Humanitarian Division's headquarters ruins…

In addition, there are other possibilities, such as his stealth abilities, which we cannot detect, allowing him to complete the cleanup of remaining clues during this time, and the possibility that Ying Lingyun, before his death, had already completed the cleanup work flawlessly while transferring the Humanitarian Affairs headquarters to an independent reality space. Most of these possibilities point to a bad fact: even if we were to actually go to the ruins of the Humanitarian Affairs headquarters to investigate, we might not find any useful clues.

In any case, this is no reason for us to neglect that location. Since the Unknown Blessed Monk has not shown up for so long, I have no patience to continue wasting time on "fishing." I'll take Ma Zao there first and lick up all the potentially nutritious parts.

After explaining my purpose, I took Asao's hand and then took a step forward.

With just one step, the surrounding scenery changed dramatically, just like in a science fiction movie when entering a time travel scene, the surrounding scenery suddenly becomes dazzling and colorful, as if entering an incredible passage.

This "passage" appeared in the blink of an eye, and we were transported from a secluded corner of the park to a desolate island.

The ruins of the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau's main base stand in the center of the island, resembling a large industrial park for a pharmaceutical company. We quickly entered it. Now deserted and thoroughly searched by Luo Shan's forces, coupled with its long period of neglect, it exuded a ghostly, deathly atmosphere.

Because countless horrific experiments had taken place here, many empty rooms still bore traces of blood that hadn't been cleaned up. When Ying Lingyun ordered the main base to be moved to the independent reality space, some researchers probably simply treated this site as a junkyard, dumping some dying, low-value experimental subjects and their removed organs and limbs here.

Some rooms were filled with a stench, swarms of flies, maggots crawling all over the floor, and even a few small to medium-sized scavengers lingering around.

Speaking of cruel and bloody scenes, I've seen plenty at the Humanitarian Department's secret outposts before, but this filthy and foul-smelling scene was the first I'd ever encountered, and it made me feel utterly nauseous. This wasn't a psychological issue; it was a physiological inability to accept it, much like how many people who try canned herring often vomit involuntarily after opening the can. If I couldn't adjust my flame-simulated body, I probably wouldn't have been able to control certain physiological reactions either.

On the contrary, Asahi had a completely used expression on her face. She only frowned slightly before continuing to hold my hand and calmly observing her surroundings.

She truly deserves to be called a survivor who has endured countless challenges in the post-apocalyptic era; in some aspects, her mental fortitude is something I have to admit defeat to. Her soft yet steady little hands actually gave me a strange sense of security.

Asa slowly closed her eyes, as if sensing the history of this place.

I waited for a while, then asked, "How is it, Ma Zao? Can we go back to the historical information here?"

"..."

Mazao opened her eyes, exhaled as if she were emerging from underwater, and said, "The historical information here has indeed been very carefully processed; a very mysterious force has obscured my senses..."

"Is this the power of the Divine Seal Fragment? In terms of strength, it's almost indistinguishable from the power of the Great Impermanence, but in terms of nature, it's even more mysterious..."

I asked, "So...it's impossible to go back?"

“I need to take another look,” Ma Zao said. “Unlike processing the historical information of just one person, processing the historical information of an entire region is very complex. Even the Great Impermanence might miss some corners. It’s like sweeping up dust from the ground; it looks like you’ve swept it all up, but there might still be some dust left that has slipped through the net.”

"Moreover, the person who manipulated the power of this divine seal fragment to obscure historical information should not be Da Wuchang. This person's manipulation of power can be described as meticulous in many aspects, but in some strange ways, he is careless."

“It should be Ying Lingyun,” I said. “He’s not only not the Great Impermanence, he’s not even a Witcher, so it’s perfectly normal for him to have such minor flaws.”

After nodding, Asahi said, "Because his attack wasn't specifically targeting my historical research skills, but rather a cover-up against general divination skills, my abilities should be able to penetrate the parts he can't defend against more effectively."

Next, we went to other parts of the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau's headquarters ruins. Asaha repeatedly sensed the history of the land and space, and collected a lot of fragmented information. After piecing it together like a jigsaw puzzle, the results were mostly useless intelligence.

Most of the content consists of researchers' experimental processes and trivial matters of daily life, with a small portion also including private exchanges of organizational secrets. However, it lacks the parts we are most concerned about, such as those related to the Unknown Blessed Monks, and even the parts related to Peach Blossom Spring are missing.

Such a closely guarded secret is likely known only to a handful of people, including Ying Lingyun, especially regarding the part related to the unknown blessed cultivator, which may only be known to Ying Lingyun himself.

Along the way, we visited Ying Lingyun's office and laboratory at the ruins of the Humanitarian Department's main base, as well as the massive metal room he used when attempting to revive Silver Moon, but still found nothing of note. There's a saying that even if it were just excrement being transported, if it were transported in an armored truck with a large guard, it might attract the greed of a bandit gang. When I wanted to hide the fragments of the Divine Seal before, I also considered whether I should just find any forest to hide them in. Truly important treasures are not necessarily hidden in seemingly important places.

At one point, Mazao suddenly paused, then her eyes lit up as she looked into the distance and said, "—It's right there."

I realized that she was probably about to uncover some incredible information, so I quickened my pace with her and moved to that place.

It was a laboratory located in a corner of the ruins of the Humanitarian Division's headquarters. It was unremarkable in terms of both its location and its interior furnishings, yet Asahi seemed very certain of its importance.

"It's right here... Ying Lingyun seems to be secretly talking to an unknown person here, and he even specially set up a barrier to prevent external detection and divination reversal. He's not using his own body, but rather a 'possibility clone' that he specifically summoned to communicate with this unknown person," Ma Zao said.

"Can you access the information here?" I asked.

“Yes,” Ma Zao said. “Although he has taken very thorough countermeasures against the location itself, we can reconstruct what happened here by using external information changes and the few remaining internal information.”

"It's just that the details may not be very credible... Just like when people recall things from a long time ago, they may make fabrications about things they can't remember without even realizing it. This kind of approach has the same problem."

"Furthermore, since Ying Lingyun is skilled in using the power of the Divine Seal Fragments, it is also necessary to guard against him making a counterattack in history."

The power of the Divine Seal Fragments has the attribute of penetrating the past and the future, so when we peer into this history, Ying Lingyun may use it to lock onto and counterattack us in the future, which is quite easy to understand.

If a future enemy tries to see into my present self through divination or through an ability similar to Asaha's, I can sense that gaze and launch an attack against the enemy in the future.

Although Asaho's plan to trace back the history she investigates is based on fragmented information that she reconstructs and deduces, potentially including fictional elements, this act could still disturb the Great Impermanence residing within history. Even peering into history through a blurry, or even distorted, filter doesn't change the fact that it's an act of voyeurism. Perhaps it's not the same thing; Asaho herself, when using her historical investigation skills to investigate the head of the Divine Spear, inadvertently disturbed and summoned the incarnation of the Fate-Stained One.

Although Ying Lingyun is not the Great Impermanence, we should treat him as such in certain situations.

"In that case, let's look at this historical information together. That way, I can easily lend a hand if danger arises," I said.

"Um."

Ma Zao nodded, then summoned the fake moon reflected in the water.

The real fake Moon in the Water is still in my hands; it's a phantom of the fake Moon in the Water that she summoned with the power of rebirth. She can summon magical artifacts and weapons that she herself has used. Zhu Shi said that Ma Zao now seems to be able to summon even the phantom Yama Sword.

(End of this chapter)