Chapter 458 Not a Blessing Cultivator
Can a Blessed cultivator devour souls like a karmic demon? This is the first time I've heard of such a thing.
I seem to have encountered quite a few characters who can kill to refine souls. In the past, it was the freak, and now it's the blessed monk and the karmic demon... However, considering that the karmic demon is the prototype of the freak, it should be said that the freak's power of killing to refine souls is the later imitation, while the karmic demon is the original.
Since Mazao is also a Blessed cultivator, she must also possess the power to kill and refine souls, but I have never heard her mention it, let alone seen her demonstrate it.
Furthermore, her soul was severely injured when she first transmigrated, and she desperately needed to absorb other souls to repair herself. Why didn't we see her display this ability then? Although she is kind-hearted, she also disregards modern laws. In a moment of desperation, it wouldn't have been difficult for her to find some deserving victims and kill them...
No, she was new to the place and probably didn't know where to easily find people who deserved to die... Come to think of it, since transmigrating to the modern world, she doesn't seem to have killed a single person. Could it be that she has a moral fastidiousness in this regard, believing that devouring human souls is no different from cannibalism, and therefore doesn't want to devour anyone? That seems somewhat inconsistent with the values expected of a survivor in the apocalypse.
If that's the case, shouldn't I try to reason with her? Of course, if she absolutely refuses, I won't force her... Or is the real reason that she believes simply devouring souls isn't enough to heal the soul damage caused by the Calamity Demon Fire? I pondered this as I raised my question.
Mazao quickly shook her head and explained, "It's not that I have a moral fastidiousness in this regard, nor do I think that devouring souls can't heal wounds... it's simply because I don't have the ability to devour other people's souls."
"Why? Since blessed cultivators have this ability, you should be able to do it too, right?" I asked, puzzled.
“No, I can’t,” she said. “For some reason, I seem to have a flaw as a Blessed Monk…”
Towards the end, she seemed a little hesitant, as if she had doubts about her own judgment, and I thought of something she had mentioned before.
Asa once told me that in the apocalypse, the sky would always be dark, and neither stars nor the moon could be seen. According to rumors, only blessed monks and those about to become karmic demons would be exceptions, as they could see the moon hanging in the apocalyptic night sky.
Asaho had hinted at the commonalities between Blessed Cultivators and Karmic Demons long ago. At the same time, Asaho herself was different from the former two, which had also been hinted at before—although she was a Blessed Cultivator, she had never seen the Doomsday Moon.
Is there a possibility that... Asahi is not actually the Blessed Monk he thought he was?
After I brought this up, she nodded reluctantly and said, "...That's a possibility."
“In the post-apocalyptic era, those who used strange powers were all Blessed Monks, so I always thought I was a Blessed Monk... It wasn't until I came to this era and came into contact with concepts such as Witcher that I realized that the strange powers that humans possess are not limited to the power of blessing.”
When Mazao first met me, she seemed completely unaware of the concept of "witch hunters," and even thought that people with strange powers might be collectively referred to as "superpowered individuals" in this era.
“Actually, I’m quite curious…” I said, “The Blessing Monks of the Apocalypse have the word ‘Blessing’ in their names, which means that it must be ‘the power that is bestowed’, right?”
"Can I understand that the power possessed by the Blessed Cultivators was bestowed upon them by some being?"
Asaho said with certainty, "Yes. I've heard that when the Blessed Monks awaken, they hear a vague voice in the darkness, which is called the 'Gospel'."
"I have never heard the 'Gospel' before, so I can't describe what the sound is exactly... According to the blessing monks I've met before, the sound seems to be guiding them on what to do, but it's too vague to decipher its true meaning. Only the gods and men of the Gospel House can discern the content of the 'Gospel'."
"In addition, there are some corrupt Blessed monks who believe that the 'Gospel' is guiding them to go on a killing spree—because whether Blessed monks are healing themselves or continuing to become stronger, they can solve the problem in one go by devouring souls."
"The process of devouring souls is said to be accompanied by intense pleasure and beautiful hallucinations. Blessed monks are easily captivated by this pleasure, then become deeply addicted and corrupted, searching for survivors on the apocalyptic land and killing them."
"For some reason, this ability to devour souls only targets humans. Since humans in the apocalypse are more or less infected with madness, if one devours too many human souls at once, the madness will also be absorbed into one's own soul. I know that many blessed cultivators have transformed themselves into karmic demons who are madly greedy for souls in this way."
Contrary to the sacredness of their name, the Blessed Monks seem to be a group that is almost demonic.
What exactly blessed them?
"Perhaps I knew more in the past, but now I've forgotten even those things," Asahi said regretfully.
"Are memories erased by madness truly irrecoverable?" I asked. "Can they be repaired using spells in the realms of mind and soul?"
“It’s impossible.” Ma Zao shook her head. “Countless survivors from the apocalypse have tried to retrieve their past memories, and similar approaches have been explored. After transmigrating to this era, I also tried using fake moons in water and other methods to repair my memories, but all of them were ineffective.”
"If I had to say, I heard about an item when I was wandering around in the post-apocalyptic era. I think it was called 'Three Lives Stone Powder'? Its effect is that it can allow people who have lost their memories due to madness infection to regain a small part of their memories... but the price is that they will definitely die soon after using it. It is a complete poison."
"I'm not sure if it's a real object. Although I was very curious about what my lost memories were like, I wasn't curious enough to risk my life."
The name "Sanshengshi Powder" evokes the infamous slow-acting poison "Wushi Powder." In fact, "Sanshengshi" refers to an item that appears in myths and legends, and "Sansheng" represents the past life, present life, and future life.
The apocalypse is the end of the world, and presumably the Three-Life Stone truly exists there. It cannot illuminate the next life of any being, only revealing their past and present lives. In folk legends, this stone is placed on the banks of the River of Oblivion beneath the Bridge of Helplessness. Those who see this stone are souls queuing on the Bridge of Helplessness, rushing to be reincarnated. They are allowed to take one last look at the human world from the Terrace of Longing for Home before drinking the Meng Po soup and being reborn.
This topic seemed to trigger more thoughts in Asaho, and she let out a sigh: "Lost memories... I wonder how Xiaowan is doing now..."
After her reminder, I realized one of the major predicaments Xiaowan was facing.
The madness of the apocalypse can cause lone survivors to forget their own names, and those who forget even their own names will rapidly approach karmic transformation. I was so focused on the countless dangerous and bizarre creatures that Xiaowan might encounter in the apocalypse, and perhaps even more dangerous human survivors, that I inadvertently overlooked the most deadly threat to her: "loneliness."
This was a blind spot in my thinking. In my mind, once the name was returned to Xiaowan, the matter became "a problem that had already been solved"; moreover, unlike Mazao, who had personally experienced the apocalypse, this matter hadn't become profound common sense in my mind. Despite having had brief exchanges, Xiaowan had never directly demonstrated the danger of karmic transformation to my face, so it remained mostly knowledge on paper for me.
Upon closer reflection, even during the period when the Virtual Realm was still intact, Xiaowan wasn't entirely safe in this regard. Because the time flow was abnormal during the apocalypse, if Xiaowan entered a place where time flowed too fast, she might fall into irreversible karmic demonization between the two Virtual Realm meetings. Xiaowan also mentioned this in the final Virtual Realm meeting; although only three weeks had passed since the last meeting on my side, at least three months had passed on her side in terms of physical perception.
Xiaowan herself must have been aware of this problem, and may even have faced life-threatening difficulties again during this period, yet she never mentioned it to me. I guess it's because she knew it was a problem I couldn't solve, and even if she did, it would only cause me futile worry.
I'm really ridiculous that I was so considerate of a little girl like Xiaowan in this regard.
Xiao Wan will likely have no choice but to seek cooperation with other survivors to escape his solitary state, but in this post-apocalyptic world, morals are unreliable. Even with his power to align with the heavens and earth, Xiao Wan cannot guarantee that no unforeseen events will occur.
Originally, I thought that simply relying on Yuchi and Xiaowan to re-establish contact would be a useless transaction. But now I realize that the most useful part is that "the contact can be re-established." It will be necessary to urge Yuchi again afterward.
"Don't worry, everything will be alright." I said in as strong a tone as possible. "Do you remember what I told you before? There must be a strong connection between us and Xiaowan, and there are still many mysteries about Xiaowan that we don't know about."
"Therefore, her matter will not end hastily before all the mysteries are revealed. This is not just a consolation, but a guarantee from the jinx you have always considered a curse."
"I believe in you, so you should believe in yourself too."
Xiaowan herself also possesses a remarkable ability to survive seemingly hopeless situations. The reason she was able to enter the illusory realm before everything became irreversible and happen to receive my help was likely a manifestation of this remarkable luck.
Ma Zao stretched out her soft, slender arms and hugged my body.
“Yes, I believe you, Zhuang Cheng,” she said reliancely. “I still don’t know how to trust myself, but I won’t doubt a single word you say.”
(End of this chapter)
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