Chapter 271 The Afterlife 1
Enemies and impermanence are the source of life's turbidity.
I silently recalled information related to Mingzhuo. Mingzhuo was a Great Impermanence who supported the transcendentalism, and his power was at a mid-level among the Great Impermanence. It is said that when Xuanming betrayed Luoshan half a year ago, he killed one Great Impermanence and severely injured another. Mingzhuo was the one who was severely injured.
At the same time, based on the religious knowledge I had haphazardly learned while investigating paranormal phenomena, "destiny turbidity" is actually a Buddhist term.
Buddhism speaks of the "Five Turbidities," which are the turbidity of the age, the turbidity of views, the turbidity of afflictions, the turbidity of sentient beings, and the turbidity of life. The so-called "evil world of the Five Turbidities" refers to a world in the Dharma-ending Age where the five turbidities are concentrated.
Leaving aside other forms of defilement, this defilement of life is also known as "defilement of lifespan." In the mythical world described in Buddhist scriptures, beings can live for tens of thousands of years, while in reality, human lifespan is less than a hundred years. Buddhism argues that this drastic difference in lifespan is a result of afflictions and negative karma, and the term "defilement of life" refers to this phenomenon.
It wasn't that I was completely unaware that the enemy's true identity would be Ming Zhuo; he had always been on my list of suspects. It's just that he was the last on the list, and the least noticeable. Before hearing this name, I was still torn between King Zhuanlun and the Divination Master, and I even had some doubts about Fa Zheng. Lu Chan's sudden revelation of this name left me feeling unsettled, caught between surprise and expectation.
Since the enemy is Meijou, what reason did he have for attacking Asahaya? I'll try to analyze this based on that premise. In fact, upon deeper reflection, it becomes clear that Meijou and Asahaya are not entirely unrelated.
It is said that after being severely injured by Xuanming, Mingzhuo's body and mind remained in a state of being burned by Xuanming's fire. He apparently used numerous methods to heal his severe injuries, but never fully recovered. Asaha is in a similar predicament; not only was her soul burned, but the great demon who severely injured her is suspected to be Xuanming, who fell into demonic possession during the apocalypse. In essence, both of them can be considered victims of Xuanming.
However, upon closer inspection, things are actually quite strange. Even the Great Impermanence's Life-Turbidity was helpless against the Fiery of Profound Light, yet Asaho was able to forcefully suppress it with her own power of return. Not only did she not die suddenly, but she also gradually improved over time.
Although the soul-healing medicine provided by Mr. Zhu seemed to have played a significant role in this process, I don't believe that Asa's condition would have gradually worsened without it. In fact, the Asa I initially encountered was frequently losing consciousness and unable to even walk normally. However, after just a few days of rest, she was able to move her limbs normally again and even fight and defeat monsters outdoors. The soul-healing medicine only accelerated her recovery afterward.
Even though Ma Zao and Ming Zhuo suffered different degrees of damage from the Xuanming Fire, it was only a difference in "quantity," while the "quality" should be almost the same. I can now grasp to some extent the difference between the Great Completion stage and the Great Impermanence stage. I don't believe that after becoming the Great Impermanence, my power will be suppressed by the special abilities of ordinary Great Completion stage cultivators.
Therefore, Asaha is likely special, not only because of her jinxed constitution, but also because of the extraordinary power of her return blessing.
Perhaps Meiju saw this special quality, which is why he wanted to kidnap Asaha and use the power of return to do something... Was he planning to use Asahaha's power of return to heal his injuries? If so, why did Lu Youxun in the past say that Meiju intended to kill Asahaha?
Could it be that Mingzhuo did not fully reveal his true intentions to his subordinates, and Lu Youxun simply misunderstood? Even if that were the case, how did Mingzhuo learn that Mazao's power of return could suppress the power of the Great Impermanence and the Great Demon?
Unfortunately, I can't immediately extricate myself from dealing with Mingzhuo, and he doesn't seem to be able to cause me any trouble either. The evidence is that even though Lu Chan has already revealed his information to me, he hasn't launched another long-range attack on me or Lu Chan. It seems he's truly trapped in some kind of predicament.
"What problem is Mingzhuo facing now?" I asked.
"He needs to suppress the Xuanming Fire that erupts within him regularly, and the next two days will be around that time," Lu Chan replied frankly.
"So, these past two days have been his period of weakness?" I asked. "Do you know where he is now? Is there a pattern to the dates he suppresses the Flame of Proclaimed Enlightenment?"
“He usually stays in the Luoshan headquarters area, but when it is necessary to suppress the Xuanming Flame, he usually informs his confidants several days in advance and then goes to a secret location known only to himself.” He replied again, “I can’t tell if there is a pattern to the dates, and even if there is, he will not easily reveal it to others.”
"I used to be a night patrolman directly under Mingzhuo. Although my position was not high, I was quite trusted and did some dirty work. I was also secretly investigating information that could help him heal his injuries, which is why I knew that today and tomorrow were his important days. However, I am obviously no longer trusted now, and I probably won't get similar notices in the future."
Upon hearing this, I suddenly remembered. Lu Youxun knew about Mazao's soul trauma in the past. Because Mazao hadn't yet escaped her solitary state of mind and wasn't very discreet about information related to herself, she told Lu Youxun that it was a scar left by a great demon, and even stated that the great demon was on par with the Great Impermanence. Could it be that information was leaked back then?
I simply asked directly, "Did Meiko kidnap Asaha to treat his injuries?"
"Why would you think that?" Lu Chan asked, surprised.
"Isn't this it?" I asked, surprised.
"Her power is merely the ability to rewind time; how could it possibly heal the injuries caused by the Great Impermanence? What Mingzhuo truly values is her identity as a person who has awakened from the Soul Loss Syndrome. Or rather, it's her identity as someone who 'came back from the dead,'" he said.
The term "resurrected person" is also used by the author, Ma Zao... I asked, "Is 'soul-death syndrome' a disease of soul death, and waking up from soul-death syndrome the same as 'resurrected person'?"
Lu Chan wrote the word "Yes" on the blank paper, while I continued to ask, "Why would Mingzhuo want a 'person who has been resurrected from the dead'?"
I thought the one most interested in this identity would be the Wheel King.
“This is related to the power that Mingzhuo possesses,” Lu Chan replied. “In Luoshan, Mingzhuo is neither as powerful as the Old Fist God nor as wise as the Divination Master, but he is definitely the most difficult to kill.”
"Even the Divination Master admits that even if the world were to end tomorrow, Mingzhuo would not truly die. This is because he possesses the most inexplicable immortality among all the Great Impermanences of all time."
“Xuanming once wanted to kill him in the same way he killed Fu Hongchen, but even if he was killed, he would resurrect infinitely. In the end, Xuanming could only barely postpone his resurrection time and had no choice but to withdraw from the battlefield.”
"Can't be killed?" I suddenly felt that the problem might be a bit serious.
In my ideal plan, I would first unleash all my power, and after acquiring the power of the Great Impermanence level, defeat Ming Zhuo. If I could kill him directly, then whatever sinister intentions he might have towards Ma Zao would vanish without a trace.
However, if the enemy is a monster that cannot be killed no matter what, wouldn't that be equivalent to an enemy that can never be eliminated?
"Does this immortality have any weaknesses?"
Although I asked the question, I didn't expect Lu Chan to know the weaknesses of the Great Impermanence.
Lu Chan actually answered.
"Based on the information I have, Mingzhuo will only die under one condition: when he has used up the rest of his lifespan and dies naturally," he said.
"What kind of weakness is this... Wait, is it true that the Great Impermanence can exhaust its lifespan?" I thought the Great Impermanence was immortal.
“Generally speaking, Great Impermanence lives as long as heaven and earth, but Mingzhuo is a very rare exception.” He said patiently, “Long ago, before he grew into Great Impermanence, in order to survive some dangers, he made a contract with Naraku. In exchange for not being able to extend his lifespan or escape death by any means in the future, he obtained the supernatural power that he would never die before his lifespan was exhausted.”
"Don't you think these conditions are too lenient on him? It depends on the person. Putting aside whether ordinary people are qualified to sign a contract with Naraku, even if they could, they would never achieve the same effect as him. Although I swear to fight for the common people, I must admit that, objectively speaking, the life of an ordinary person is not as valuable as the life of Naraku, and the value that can be obtained in the exchange is also worlds apart."
"At that time, Mingzhuo was not yet a Great Impermanence, but he was already qualified to be one. What he exchanged was his almost infinite lifespan. The immortality he gained by paying such a price was also almost absolute, and there was no way to break it."
"Let me state upfront that even if you possess the power to accelerate time tens of millions of times, using that power to diminish his lifespan will be ineffective. Every trick you can imagine has been used against him before, and he even tried it on himself, all to no avail. That immortality isn't something you can overcome by playing tricks or using concepts."
"He also used it on himself? Why?"
At first I was puzzled, then it dawned on me: "So that's how it is... He's trying to use the power of time to slow down the rate at which his lifespan is decreasing?"
Since the power to accelerate time cannot shorten his lifespan, conversely, even if he uses the power to slow down time, he cannot extend his lifespan.
Similarly, Asahi's time-reversal power could not reverse his lifespan back to its original value.
Although I think logically speaking, there should be no reason why one cannot shorten or extend lifespan by accelerating or decelerating time... but the immortal body of the Fate Turbid clearly has a more mysterious mechanism, or rather, there is no mechanism at all; it is something that does not listen to any logic.
"How many years does Mingzhuo have left to live?"
I asked that first, then tried to steer the conversation back on track: "And what does what you're saying have to do with Asahi, this 'person who came back from the dead'?"
"Although the exact number of Mingzhuo's remaining lifespan is unknown, Luoshan generally believes that he can only live for another ten years at most. Perhaps that's why he's starting to get anxious." Lu Chan showed no respect for Mingzhuo. "Right now, he's trying to contact Naraku again to break the contract he signed in the past."
"To achieve this goal, he captured and killed a large number of humans who were born with strong spirituality, hoping that their souls could go to Naraku and thus open the door to Naraku. ... I will not hide it here either. During my time as a night patrolman, I also secretly captured quite a number of innocent people and sent them to the hands of the scumbag."
"The connection between this matter and Asaho lies in the fact that, as a 'person who has been resurrected,' she may have a connection with Naraku."
"This shouldn't be hard to understand, right? If 'death' is the soul falling into the afterlife, then 'resurrection' is the soul returning from the afterlife to the world of the living... This back and forth establishes the connection between life and death."
"If it were merely the resurrection of ordinary people, then Meiju could accomplish it on its own. Although the conditions required to revive ordinary people are quite strict, they are not difficult with the power of the Great Impermanence. However, there is one extremely necessary condition that cannot be met, and even if it were met, its spirituality would not be sufficient to support the purpose that Meiju wants to achieve, making it far too fragile as a bridge to establish a connection with Naraku."
"But people like Asaho, who possess strong spirituality, are different. As long as she is used as material for the ritual and killed in the correct steps, a sufficiently stable Naraku Bridge can be formed."
"Moreover, according to the in-depth investigation by the Transcendentalists into the traces of her remaining magical power, she may have been a figure beyond the level of a celestial being at her peak... You should already know a lot about Ying Lingyun and Yin Yue, and you should understand just how difficult it is to replicate the resurrection of a figure of this level, right?"
“I think I understand,” I said. “Simply put, he regarded Asahi as a rare and precious treasure necessary to prolong his life—can I understand it that way?”
"It doesn't seem quite right... but it's right." He showed a helpless expression.
“But there’s still one thing I don’t quite understand. He could make contact and sign a contract with Naraku before he was the Great Impermanence, so why can’t he do it now?” I asked.
(End of this chapter)
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