Chapter 90 Mutual Exchange 4
“I know.” Zhu Shi nodded confidently. “He used his ability the instant he was burned by Zhuang Cheng’s flames.”
"What are his abilities?" I was also very interested in this question.
"Hmm... let's just call it 'teleportation' for now."
As she spoke, Zhu Shi began to explain the details of her observations regarding the "shifting" ability.
This ability is actually quite simple. The previous monster could transfer damage to its clones, while this monster can ignore spatial distance and swap positions with its clones. For convenience, we'll call the former the "Immortal Monster" and the latter the "Shadow-Swapping Monster."
The Shadow Changer and the Immortal have one thing in common: when they suffer fatal injuries, their abilities are passively triggered, saving their masters' lives.
The moment I inflicted fatal damage on the Shadow Monster's main body, the main body automatically swapped positions with its clone, which was located elsewhere. This passively triggered swap even had the power to alter causality. Originally, the Shadow Monster's main body was genuinely burned by me, but after the ability was activated, the causality of the burn was also swapped to the clone, and the reality became "the one I burned was the clone from the beginning."
I was quite surprised after hearing this, but Asahi looked completely unfazed.
"Is this kind of strange power that alters causality common?" I asked.
"It's not exactly common, but it's not particularly strange either. Actually, the weirdo we dealt with last night, his ability 'damage transfer' was also a kind of ability that transferred the cause and effect he was responsible for to his clone, wasn't it?" Zhu Shi explained, "Because he transferred the cause and effect of his injury to someone else, he was able to go from being seriously injured and on the verge of death to being completely unharmed without any warning. That is also a phenomenon of reality distortion."
"Strange phenomena involving alterations to reality and reversals of cause and effect are quite frequent in the post-apocalyptic era," Asahi nodded.
“We humans consciously or unconsciously categorize the concepts we encounter into high and low levels. The reason why concepts such as cause and effect and spacetime seem more profound and unfathomable than visible flames is because those concepts far exceed our intuition,” Zhu Shi said. “If we could look at things from a natural perspective, we might find that they are just the many elements that make up nature, and that humans are just making a fuss over nothing.”
"Strange things do not follow common sense, much less human intuition. The same is true of supernatural powers; supernatural powers involving causality and spacetime sometimes appear as naturally as ordinary monsters and demon hunters. Even so, that does not mean that those monsters and demon hunters are powerful."
"For true powerhouses, altering reality and causality is nothing more than a fancy trick. Even without those superpowers, the Great Impermanence is still the Great Impermanence, because rules are always made by pure, powerful forces. So Zhuang Cheng, you don't need to be surprised by those superpowers. Your ability to manipulate fire is actually much stronger than those superpowers."
Only after hearing the rest did I realize that she was worried I would be frightened.
Actually, I wasn't scared at all.
I recalled the feeling when I grabbed that strange man with my fiery palm. At that time, I had a feeling that "something was trying to escape," and because I couldn't react in time, it actually escaped. According to what Zhu Shi is saying now, could what escaped back then be something like cause and effect?
So, if I had been prepared at the time, would I have been able to grasp the "cause and effect" itself?
I became curious about this. I wanted to know, and I wanted to try again. If I went to catch that strange man again, maybe I could catch what had escaped back then.
“Since you don’t have any clues about that escaped monster, could you give us his severed hand?” Zhu Shi looked at the plastic bag that Ma Zao was carrying. “We have demon hunters who are good at divination. If we have that severed hand, we might be able to track down the other party’s location.”
"Hmm..." Ma Zao hesitated.
"Is it not allowed?"
Perhaps even Zhu Shi herself wasn't aware that her voice had become somewhat softer. I feel that she might be mistaking Ma Zao, who looks no different from a junior high school girl, for a little sister.
Asaho certainly possesses many qualities that evoke a protective instinct in others. Although she always appears extremely wary and prickly, carries the mission of preventing the apocalypse alone, and has an unfortunate constitution that attracts misfortune, she is ultimately just a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl, making it impossible not to feel pity for her. Even I, who consider myself a villain, can't help but watch her smile when she's faced with delicious food, hoping to see that smile a few more times.
"...Actually, I also possess a skill similar to divination," Asaho said after some thought. "Since you've already seen through my blessing power, I'll be frank. When I use my blessing power, I can use my consciousness to trace back to the scenes the recipient experienced in the past. So this severed hand is somewhat useful to me. However..."
"However?" Zhu Shi asked.
“I don’t mind giving you the severed hand, but I want to keep one of his fingers. Is that okay?” Ma Zao offered her opinion.
"Okay." Zhu Shi nodded directly.
Ma Zao took the severed hand out of the plastic bag, summoned the phantom recurve blade, cut off the thumb of the severed hand, and then handed the main body of the severed hand to Zhu Shi.
I looked around, thankfully no one else was passing by. On a street after nightfall, a beautiful girl who looked like a middle school student and a beautiful college student were exchanging bloody human remains—the scene was indescribably bizarre. If a passerby had taken a picture and posted it online, who knows what strange urban legends would have emerged.
And I was a witness to this urban legend—after realizing this, I felt a strange sense of joy and accomplishment.
After accepting the severed hand, Zhu Shi said to Ma Zao, "Well then, I'll be handing it over to our patrol. Where do you plan to spend the night? Is there nowhere else..."
“Of course Ma Zao will stay overnight at my house,” I said without thinking.
"You really didn't hesitate at all..." Zhu Shi said dumbfounded. "Generally speaking, would anyone bring someone of the opposite sex to their home to stay? Although I don't suspect you of having ulterior motives, shouldn't you at least have some self-awareness about things being out of line?"
“This is a choice based on the process of elimination,” I said seriously. “First of all, we definitely can’t let Mazao sleep outdoors, but she doesn’t have an ID card, so she can’t stay in hotels or inns. You also have Chang’an and your grandparents at home, so it’s inconvenient to take Mazao there. I live alone, and Mazao has experience staying at my house, so letting her stay at my place overnight is the most reasonable option.”
Actually, these are all reasons I made up on the spot. I just didn't want Ma to leave my sight too early.
"Why can't I let her stay overnight at my place when I have my brother and grandparents at home?" Zhu Shi seemed not to have realized what was going on.
Ma had already realized this, and she immediately said, "Didn't I say before that I'm a jinx that attracts strange things... Actually, just talking to you like this is already dangerous for you. I do want to use your power to gather evidence that the end of the world is approaching, but if you can't accept me and think that I will bring you disaster, then..."
As she spoke, her expression grew increasingly somber, but Zhu Shi suddenly exclaimed, "It's alright!"
"Huh?" Mazao was startled by the other person's suddenly louder voice.
"The reason you left Zhuang Cheng in the past was because you were afraid that you would affect him, right?" Zhu Shi placed his hands on Ma Zao's shoulders and stared directly into Ma Zao's eyes.
"Yes, yes..." Asaha looked at me with a pleading look, at a loss for what to do.
“But you don’t need to worry about affecting me!” Zhu Shi said righteously. “I am Luoshan Wuchang, and my duty is to sweep away the supernatural and protect society. If you can lure out all the strange things lurking in the shadows of this city, I would be more than happy to do so. Similarly, I will protect you and save you from the threat of the supernatural.”
“Uh… I can protect myself,” Asa said in an unusually weak tone. “Also… my shoulder hurts a little from your grip.”
"Ah, I'm sorry." Zhu Shi released her hand and continued, "In short, you don't need to worry about posing a danger to me. You can cooperate with me with peace of mind."
“Me too,” I added. “I am now a heretic and impermanent, and even heretics and impermanents are impermanent. If you encounter danger, you can ask me for help.”
Zhu Shi complained, "On the contrary, I think you, Senior Brother Zhuang, are one of the dangerous factors around her..."
"Is Zhuang Cheng in danger to me?" Ma Zao asked疑惑地, "Why?"
"Maybe it's because she feels it's inappropriate for me, as someone of the opposite sex, to live under the same roof as you," I said.
“I see. It’s alright. Actually, I was worried about something similar at first, but Zhuang Cheng doesn’t have those kinds of feelings for me.” Ma Zao said to Zhu Shi, “I went back to Zhuang Cheng’s house to spend the night afterwards. Thank you for your concern.”
"Fine..." Zhu Shi had no choice but to accept.
Ma Zao scrutinized Zhu Shi's face and suddenly asked, "Speaking of which, have we met somewhere before?"
"Huh? No. Why are you asking this all of a sudden?" Zhu Shi asked, puzzled.
"It's like I've seen your face somewhere before..." Asaho said this, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.
I silently noted down her strange behavior.
Seeing that the other party had no further explanation, Zhu Shi had no choice but to leave it at that and then separated from us, saying that he was going to find Lu Youxun with the severed hand.
Asa and I, on the other hand, headed in opposite directions with my home as our destination.
After walking for a while, we stopped at the same time.
Next, we're going to talk about some things that we don't want Zhu Shi to hear.
(End of this chapter)
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