Chapter 589 Xuanming's Sniping 1
Little Bowl stared wide-eyed, looking around with a curious gaze.
Zhu Jiu and Zhu Shi, who served as her prototypes, were humans living in the real world, but she herself could be considered a spirit born in the afterlife. Even though she had gained a deep understanding of this material world belonging to the living through the memories of Zhu Jiu and Zhu Shi, and even knew about knowledge points like the "theory of the formation of the moon in astronomy" that even I wasn't particularly clear about, she was still coming to this space-time with sunrise and sunset for the first time.
The warm sunshine, the fresh air, the hustle and bustle of the city... these things that I take for granted are all things she is experiencing for the first time.
Seeing her curious and amazed reaction, I felt proud of myself for bringing her to this place.
At the same time, I am also checking on her physical condition.
Because I'm holding her hand, showing my acceptance of her existence, even if she, as the embodiment of a dream, might experience some adverse effects from being directly exposed to the material world, as long as she's by my side, there won't be any real problems. However, it seems that even without my power, she can exist independently. The natural privileges of a child of divinity are functioning normally within her, which puts me at ease.
As for myself, someone like me, whose essence is fire, whose body and soul are both mimics of fire, is no different from the afterlife in the real world. Even if I'm in the spiritual realm one second and in the material realm the next, my existence will not waver in the slightest. It's not because I'm powerful, but because this is how I should be.
The ability to freely transform oneself into elements can also be interpreted as a natural existence in any realm. This might be a state that can dwell in any dimension. On a grand scale, it can stir up clouds and mist; on a small scale, it can conceal itself. When it rises, it soars through the universe; when it hides, it lurks within the waves.
A strange realization dawned on me, and I was reminded once again that I am indeed incomplete compared to a true "manifestation."
Then, I looked around as well.
This is the living room of my fifteenth-floor room, which I know very well. Although it was a room Chang'an used to rent, he certainly doesn't live here now. He had already moved out, and before I entered the afterlife, he lived near the Luoshan headquarters. The landlord of this room hasn't rented it to anyone else either.
Unless you're a busybody like Chang'an or me, no one would want to live in a rental house with ghost stories and a history of bizarre murders. Apparently, even the neighbors next door were scared away. Thanks to this, I was able to sneak in multiple times later to continue my investigation and experiment with ritual arrays. The carpet on the living room floor is currently rolled up and set aside; I made it myself when I sneaked in before.
The ritual array had been destroyed by Zhu Shi himself, but I later re-engraved it, perfectly replicating it exactly. Of course, the blood used in this ritual array wasn't obtained by hunting down unrelated individuals like Agent Kong. This blood came from my own body. On a side note, I do have some doubts about whether the failures of my past experiments might have been because my blood wasn't considered "human blood."
As for whether the landlord would find out about his messy behavior, the answer is no. It seems that even the landlord himself is not very willing to go in and out of this house. The floors and furniture are covered in dust, and there are cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. The environment is really not very clean.
Fortunately, the sunlight streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows was still enough to dispel the gloomy and decaying atmosphere of the afterlife. Stepping onto the balcony, one could see the bustling traffic in the distance. Judging from the sunlight, it was around noon.
A warm breeze blew in from outside.
When I entered the afterlife, it was before the start of spring, and the weather was cold, but now it seems to be approaching summer.
I pulled my phone out of the flames. The signal and network connection were now fully restored, and I could confirm the date. I looked down at it.
Late May 2025...
It has been more than four months since I last found myself in the real world.
Immediately afterward, my phone started ringing incessantly with notifications. A flood of missed calls, text messages, and messaging app notifications popped up in the notification bar. These included messages from Ma Zao, Zhu Shi, Chang'an, Mr. Zhu and Lu Chan, Yu Chi and Dong Che, even from my junior classmate Xiao Qiao, some believers who somehow found my number, and other people I knew or didn't know.
If I hadn't listed them out, I wouldn't have known that I had unknowingly formed so many connections in this world.
During my "disappearance," even though Asahi and the others had my "fireflies" (messages), they should have known that if they couldn't contact me through the "fireflies," my cell phone was even less likely to work. Yet, they still bombarded my phone with messages. The content was mostly the same: asking where I was and telling me to reply promptly when I returned. They probably suspected I was dead, and I needed to get back with good news.
I sensed a cycle of "fireflies" that I left behind in various parts of the real world.
Excellent, I can sense them all. Even though I've been gone for six months, not a single one of these "fireflies" has gone offline. Through these sensing mediums, I located Mazao and Zhushi, and also found other familiar faces, which put my mind at ease. After being gone for so long, Mingzhuo was very likely to have harmed Mazao, but she seems to be safe and sound now.
I'll go into the details later. I turned to look at Xiaowan, who was looking at me nervously and asked, "Has Zhu Jiu shown signs of death?"
"I don't know, I didn't leave any 'fireflies' with Zhu Jiu," I said. "But we can go and check it out now."
Leaving the "fireflies" with familiar people was to protect them; however, the "fireflies" are a double-edged sword. After all, they are essentially my clones, and the holders might experience symptoms of attracting strange things. Leaving them to others is fine, since they occasionally come into contact with Asahi anyway, but leaving them to Zhu Jiu, who is in a state of suspended animation, would have a much higher proportion of negative effects.
As I said this, I decided to take the small bowl and go to the Zhu family's villa in Xianshui City to make a simple confirmation.
Oh right, I should also close the entrance to the basement on the fifteenth floor first... or maybe I should just leave it there? This thought flashed through my mind as I glanced at the entrance not far away and immediately noticed something amiss.
The entrance and exit had disappeared at some point, leaving only the ritual circle drawn with my own blood on the ground.
Vanished? Why? There should only be me and Xiaowan around, maybe with Number Seven standing in the afterlife on the other side. No one else was near, so why did the entrance disappear...? Did Xiaowan cancel the extra permission she and Number Seven had to enter the fifteenth-floor basement? Or...?
Almost at the same time I was astonished to discover this phenomenon, the answer was revealed on its own.
An uninvited guest's magical power surged and descended upon this space.
Huge, heavy, scorching, and majestic, it exudes the presence of a colossal being the moment it appears, reminiscent of the blazing sun hanging in the blue sky.
Its intensity alone is enough to tell that this powerful and aggressive magical fluctuation comes from a Great Impermanence.
And it was someone I knew who was a Great Impermanence!
In my perception, a large patch of orange flames burst forth from the depths of space, rapidly burning towards the small bowl.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com