Chapter 514 The Abandoned Gospel House
If you can accept it willingly, then what kind of punishment is it? Punishment is when you have to accept it even if you don't want to. That's my first thought.
It's quite a novel experience to be begged for mercy by someone who isn't even an enemy, but I never intended to punish them. Furthermore, I don't really see myself as someone high above who wields the power of reward and punishment.
"Do you want to die after regaining your memories to repay Xiaowan's kindness?" I asked curiously.
The wandering spirit first nodded, then shook its head, and then said, "It's not just that... to know who I am and where I came from, and then to take the last step of my life toward death... that is my complete wish."
"I don't want to be a wandering ghost, but rather a living human being, to face my own death."
"...I know very well that this is an extremely extravagant wish, but it is my only obsession."
I roughly understood what he meant: "In other words, you want to die knowing why."
For ordinary people, this wish is the lowest of the low; but for survivors of the apocalypse, it is indeed a very luxurious wish.
“That’s right,” the wandering spirit replied.
“I understand. This matter is also directly related to resolving Xiaowan’s crisis. I will help you and fulfill your wish,” I said.
The wandering spirit bowed its head deeply, "...I am extremely grateful."
We continued moving. The wandering spirit held the cartographer's map, repeatedly comparing it to the map on the scars on his arm, trying to determine the direction to take next. The surrounding scenery was constantly changing.
One strange creature after another continued to attack us along the way, as if we had stepped into a zombie apocalypse horror movie, attempting to traverse a town overrun by the undead on foot. And these strange forces were far more insidious and dangerous than the zombies themselves. Although Sandalwood was carefully protected by me and the wandering spirit, she still narrowly escaped death two or three times.
After a long while, we finally arrived at our destination.
Sandalwood looked quite disheveled, almost as bad as the disheveled, blood-stained, and dust-covered wandering spirit next to it.
His anxiety and fear seemed to be reaching their limit.
Before meeting me and the cartographer, he had a brief experience of struggling to survive alone in the post-apocalyptic world, and knew to some extent how frequently survivors would encounter strange occurrences under normal circumstances. On his last journey to the safe house, he could still convince himself that it was just bad luck, but now he knew the problem lay with me, and after encountering threats one after another, the urge to leave my side seemed to be gradually overpowering his fear of being alone.
If he decides to leave later, then so be it. Thinking this, I looked towards our destination with the wandering spirit.
We are now on the shore of a huge lake. By the light from the fireballs sent forward, we can see a vast complex of buildings in the distance, in the heart of the lake.
It resembles both an ancient military fortress and a magnificent religious temple. In the modern world, it would undoubtedly be a popular tourist attraction; however, in this post-apocalyptic era, this ancient architectural complex appears to have fallen into disrepair due to lack of maintenance, with overgrown vegetation covering the exterior walls and ground.
Furthermore, it may have suffered from natural disasters or man-made calamities in the past. Even from a distance, one can see that this large complex of buildings is covered with signs of destruction, making one wonder if there was ever a war there.
Even more tragically, a large portion of this complex of buildings is submerged underwater. Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that while the buildings are located in the center of the lake, there isn't actually an island there; rather, the vast lake appears to have formed after the buildings.
"That place is..."
The wandering spirit gazed at the buildings opposite, a complex emotion, as if filled with nostalgia, welling up in his eyes as he fell into thought.
"What do you think of the architecture there? You seem to know what place it is?" I asked.
The wandering spirit seemed to be trying to dig into his memories. After a moment, he answered, "...Yes, I know what that place is. If I'm not mistaken, it should be the Gospel House."
"The Gospel House?" I never expected that I would suddenly find myself in the lair of an enemy force.
Fortunately, the wandering spirit immediately added: "To be precise, that was a former stronghold building belonging to the Gospel House."
"The Gospel House has more than one base building used for gathering, training, and commanding its members. Besides the headquarters where Yama, the Lord of the Gospel House, personally oversees it, and the exception of King Chakravartin, each god has their own branch base with its own name. For example, the Yellow Springs Gospel House, and the Shentu Gospel House..."
"And this place, according to my memory, should be the place that used to be called Tai Sui Gospel Institute, where I seem to have been a member in the past."
"Because Tai Sui and his followers were purged by the headquarters, the cultivators and survivors who originally gathered here were displaced, and the stronghold buildings themselves were destroyed, and then fell into a state of desolation as you can see."
I then asked, "So... are you sure the Three Lives Stone Powder is inside?"
The wandering spirit lowered its head, looked at the map of scars etched on its arm, and then nodded with certainty: "It's in there."
He might have initially thought that the map Xiaowan gave him was a white lie to comfort him, but now that he discovered the map had actually led him to this place with special significance, he seemed to have gained some confidence in it.
"But... how do we get to the center of the lake? There don't seem to be any boats around here..."
As Tanxiang spoke, she seemed certain that I had a solution, and she secretly glanced at me.
Such a trivial matter was certainly no challenge for me. I gently pushed the wandering spirit behind me, then pushed the sandalwood tree behind me, and then took a step forward myself. Ignoring the spatial distance between myself and the abandoned Gospel House, I arrived at the platform section of the abandoned Gospel House that had not been submerged.
"Huh? We... we're here already!?" Sandalwood took a beat to react.
The wandering spirit seemed surprised as well, yet it also seemed to regard it as something that humans and gods could do naturally, and it did not react as strongly as Sandalwood.
Performing this ability in a chaotic spacetime is no easy feat, and it's something I've gained by analyzing the post-apocalyptic spacetime using the Blessing Lantern along the way. Now, I can recreate this spatial teleportation skill based on the remaining semblance of order in the post-apocalyptic spacetime.
We arrived at the observation deck of one of the halls of the abandoned Gospel Church. The hall looked like it was used for some kind of religious ceremony, but it was now a mess and disorderly place.
“Wandering Soul, do you know the exact location where the Three Lives Stone is scattered in this place?” I asked.
The wandering spirit looked troubled and said, "The map doesn't give that much information... I'll just have to look around for now."
I wasn't worried that we wouldn't be able to find the Three Lives Stone Powder. As long as we kept searching, we would definitely find it. Then, following the wandering spirit's suggestion, we began to move around and search the abandoned Gospel House.
Since most of the buildings were submerged in the lake, many areas were impassable, hindering our movement. I figured the Three Lives Stone Powder might be more likely to be found in the unsubmerged areas, so I decided to explore those parts first. If I couldn't find it, I'd explore the underwater parts; if water was too much trouble, I could consider evaporating the lake itself first.
Since we were exploring indoors, the light from the blessing lanterns that the wandering spirit and I each carried was more than enough. Occasionally, we would enter narrow places, so I would remove the fireballs that were floating around me.
During the search, Tanxiang looked at the flooded areas and said, "That Three Lives Stone Powder... it sounds like some kind of medicine, right? Like Five Stone Powder or something... what if it's been submerged in water? Will it lose its effectiveness? And..."
He touched the rough wall beside him.
“I’ve traveled to some places before and visited some historical sites that aren’t very well preserved,” he said. “This place feels like one of those historical sites; it doesn’t look like it was destroyed a few years ago, or even decades ago… it looks more like it was destroyed and abandoned centuries ago.”
“This might also be one of the effects of the chaotic spacetime,” the wandering spirit explained. “In some places where no one is watching, time may pass abnormally fast or abnormally slow. You don’t need to take these traces of time’s passage seriously; anyway, even if you analyze something, it will be meaningless to us.”
“But if the Three Lives Stone Powder is here, even if it wasn’t submerged, it’s probably already past its expiration date, right?” Sandalwood offered a common-sense suggestion.
This question seemed to have stumped the wandering spirit.
This made me think about time in the modern world. Time in the apocalyptic era and time in the modern world cannot be compared. Although, in my own perception, less than a day has passed since I arrived in the apocalyptic era, how much time has passed in the modern world?
A few days? A few months? Or even a few years?
In the modern world, all Luo Shan might know is that I vanished after attacking the Peach Blossom Village stronghold with Liu Shuying. Even if he could deduce that Huang Quan banished me to the void, he couldn't possibly calculate that I would have the chance to survive and reach another era from the void. The relatively normal line of thinking is that I have already died in battle.
Will Asaha also believe I'm dead? What thoughts will she have about it?
She will be devastated by this, and my sudden "death" may cause her indelible trauma.
However, aside from her vulnerability and fear of loneliness, she occasionally shows resilience. Perhaps, given time, she can recover from the grief and pain of my "death." Thinking of this, though I probably shouldn't say it, I can't help but feel a little lonely.
What about Zhu Shi? If I die, will she cry for me?
What would Chang'an's reaction be if they knew of my "death"?
Have they already forgotten me?
This kind of anxious, insecure feeling is really not my style. However, my heart isn't made of iron, and I occasionally experience moments of vulnerability. There's a saying circulating online, "Only those you truly care about can hurt you." I care deeply about Ma Zao, and I also care about Zhu Shi and Chang An, so just imagining them forgetting me makes me feel sad.
Just then, I suddenly heard a voice calling, as if it were calling my name.
"Zhuang Cheng... Zhuang Cheng..."
The sound was so faint, it was like a hallucination.
Hearing this faint voice, I looked at the wandering spirit and sandalwood beside me and asked, "Which of you is calling me?"
The two of them looked at me with puzzlement.
And that voice is still ringing out.
"Zhuang Cheng... Zhuang Cheng!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com