Chapter 28 Extraordinary Communication 2
I consider my superpowers to be quite ordinary, but I have never said that I am weak.
Although I've never used my full power, based on my calculations, if I were serious, a single fireball could probably destroy a street. However, does high destructive power equate to high skill? Not necessarily. When I was trapped in the cave, what freed me wasn't the destructive power to destroy the entire basement, but rather analysis and reasoning.
Therefore, I have doubts about whether my strength qualifies as "strong." Who knows the average strength of demon hunters, or the specific criteria for evaluating strength? Perhaps many people use "how big a crater you can create in the ground" as a standard for evaluating strength, but I can no longer view it that way.
"You have such powerful superpowers, yet you've never shown them to anyone around you even once?" Zhu Shi suddenly became suspicious after calming down. "So many people criticize you, saying you're mentally ill, yet you've never thought of taking revenge on them?"
"Since you possess this ability to 'kill with your eyes'... no, you don't even need to be present. As long as you have the intention, you can set your target on fire from kilometers away. Whether the burns are minor or severe is entirely up to you. No one else would suspect you, right?"
Seeing her suspicious expression, I deliberately went along with her and said, "So there's such a way. Thank you, I'll try it next time."
She glared.
"That was a joke. Don't worry, I never intended to do anything like that," I promised.
She glared at me for a while, then relaxed her shoulders and said helplessly, "That's for the best. I don't want to see you become a fallen witcher..."
“Thank you for your concern,” I said. “So, that fallen witcher isn’t a traitor among you, but a villain who has been using extraordinary powers to do evil from the very beginning?”
Because the title is "Fallen Witcher," when I first heard it, I thought the other person was originally a witcher from a righteous faction who later fell and became a thug hunting humans. But since I can change my class to "Fallen Witcher" on the spot, then of course the other person can be too.
Zhu Shi nodded and said, "Yes, he first appeared eight months ago in the murder case that happened in the fifteenth-floor room. He is the murderer."
I still have some questions about the origins of the Fallen Witcher, but I first asked myself the question that mattered most: "In your opinion, is he powerful or weak?"
“…He’s quite powerful.” Zhu Shi gave a very clear answer. “Luo Shan roughly divides demon hunters into four levels, from strongest to weakest: Formation, Dwelling, Destruction, and Emptiness. Most demon hunters are at the ‘Destruction’ level, while that fallen demon hunter is at the ‘Dwelling’ level. Moreover, he possesses very comprehensive physical enhancement abilities, making him an outstanding individual even within the ‘Dwelling’ level.”
Formation, existence, decay, and emptiness are Buddhist concepts used to describe the four stages of the world from its formation to its destruction.
"Cheng" corresponds to the world being born and formed, "Zhu" corresponds to the world that remains stable after its formation, and the final "Huai" and "Kong" correspond to the world entering a state of decay and the stage after destruction when nothing remains.
It sounds a bit strange that "Luoshan" is a Taoist concept, yet the Demon Hunter ranking system uses a Buddhist concept. However, the mutual influence between Taoism and Buddhism has been a recurring theme throughout history. For example, the Taoist concept of hell was gradually formed under the influence of Buddhism, and "Fengdu Luoshan" was also a concept that emerged afterward.
Zhu Shi added, "I only started dealing with the Fallen Witcher incident a week ago. Before me, two Luoshan Witchers in charge of this incident had already been killed by the Fallen Witchers."
"He's actually that dangerous?" I exclaimed in surprise.
“Extremely dangerous.” As she spoke, she analyzed for me, “Since your superpower can destroy the body of a fallen witcher, it means that your attack methods are at least at the ‘Dwelling’ level, a level of power that is rarely seen even among witchers.”
"So, according to your opinion..." I took the opportunity to ask the question that concerned me most, "Is it possible for me to join Luoshan?"
Unexpectedly, she immediately frowned deeply: "You want to join Luo Shan?"
"Is there a problem?" I asked, surprised.
“Given your personality, it’s not surprising that you want to join Luoshan, but…” she hesitated, “I suggest you don’t join Luoshan, especially at this time… Luoshan is in a very chaotic state, and a conflict is likely to break out soon. I can’t go into details, but I suggest you don’t join during this turbulent time.”
Chaos? Conflict? The mere mention of it piqued my interest. The unknown chaos and conflict within a supernatural organization sounded incredibly intriguing. Her desire to keep me away from the vortex of conflict showed her goodwill towards me. I could only apologize; whether or not I would get involved would depend on understanding the full story.
However, she seemed very resistant, so I could only switch to another more pressing question: "Does Chang'an know that you're working as a demon hunter in Luoshan?"
“He doesn’t know. Not only does he not know I’m a Witcher, he knows nothing about the world around us.”
Her words made me somewhat happy. It wasn't that she was referring to "Chang'an not knowing," but rather that she mentioned "our world." As a demon hunter, she herself had bound herself and me to the same realm, making me feel like I was receiving some kind of recognition.
She continued, "Also, I hope you won't tell him. Neither about my work nor anything related to strange things."
"Is it necessary to keep it a secret? But he's already encountered the strange phenomena in the fifteenth-floor room, hasn't he?" I pointed out. "Ultimately, why would Luo Shan want to conceal information about strange things from the general public?"
“I don’t know how to explain this to you either. I’m sure you’ll feel the same way I do in the future.” She sighed. “As for the room on the fifteenth floor, it was an accident. We had no choice but to accept it. We can’t just give up now, can we? I’ll go and deal with the ritual array and the cave there first thing tomorrow morning.”
"The ritual circle, do you mean that magic circle?" I pretended not to have eavesdropped on her phone call with Agent Kong.
“Yes.” She nodded. “However, the appearance of the ritual circle and the cave are not necessarily related; the latter is still an unknown event. You have no experience dealing with truly strange events, so I suggest you don’t get involved…”
At this point, she noticed something suspicious: "—Hmm? Wait, where did you say you encountered the Fallen Witcher earlier?"
Instead of answering her second question first, I proactively provided her with information about the cave.
"That cave is actually related to a ritual magic circle. I've already solved the mystery of how the cave appeared—the answer is the missing symbol in the magic circle, and the letters on the carpet fill in the missing part. So every time the carpet is covered, the cave switches between disappearing and appearing."
"Huh?" She paused for a moment, then asked instinctively, "But the carpet and the floor aren't on the same plane, are they?"
“It doesn’t matter if they’re not on the same plane. Even if there’s a floor separating the cave from the floor below, you can reopen it by filling in the corresponding symbols.” I explained patiently. “However, there are still some things that haven’t been explained. For example, after people from the outside go in, the cave entrance and exit sometimes disappear on their own. I haven’t found the reason for this phenomenon yet, so you must be careful about this if you go in…”
"Wait, wait, wait a minute..." She finally came to her senses, staring at me in disbelief. "Could you please tell me... how did you know that even from below, the cave could be reopened, and why the cave entrance and exit disappeared by themselves after we entered..."
"Because I went in."
"You went in?!" she suddenly shouted, then realized she was being too agitated and quickly calmed down. "Aren't you afraid you'll never get out?"
"That's not important."
"No, this is important..." she complained.
I continued, "Anyway, since you're going to deal with that cave, I'll give you all the information I have first..."
Then, I began to explain what information I knew.
Actually, I hoped she wouldn't deal with the cave for the time being, so I could continue investigating its other unknown parts. However, firstly, I don't yet know whether the cave's existence will affect Chang'an, as the one who made contact; secondly, rather than standing against Zhu Shi and stopping her, I'd rather make things easier for her and build a good relationship with her and the Luo Shan forces behind her. Like I said, I can tell the difference between one full meal and a full stomach.
As she listened to my account of my experiences in the cave, her gaze grew increasingly strange.
After I finished speaking, she let out a long sigh, and after a long while, as if she had finally digested what I had said, her expression became very empty.
“I always thought you just really liked ghost stories. When people outside said you were crazy, I just assumed it was because they didn’t know you as well as I did. They all deeply misunderstood you…”
"Regardless of whether they misunderstand me or not, you and I have only met offline a few times, right?" I asked, puzzled.
She retorted matter-of-factly, "Don't we chat online all the time?"
That's just online, right?
She did often chat with me online about Chang'an, and we exchanged a lot of messages. But the internet is ultimately just the internet; how can you be sure you can grasp someone's true feelings when you can't even see each other in person? I also couldn't keep talking to my friend's sister about my failed attempts to investigate ghost stories, which are actually the focus of my life.
Could she be the type who's easily scammed by bad people online?
It seems she's always unilaterally considered me a good friend, and I'm only now realizing it, which makes me feel a little ashamed.
“But now I must admit that I was the one who really misunderstood.” She said, feeling very frustrated. “When I heard that you had awakened your superpowers a long time ago, I even thought that the reason you were able to persist in pursuing ghost stories for so many years was because you yourself were evidence of the existence of the supernatural. Now it seems that I was wrong about that too.”
"No, that's really how it is," I said. "Without superpowers, I don't know if I could have made it this far."
“Whether you are convinced of the existence of strange things and how deep your obsession with them is are two different things.” She shook her head. “Now I am truly convinced that whether you have superpowers or not, you will definitely keep going.”
(End of this chapter)
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