Chapter 538 The Lord of the Divine Seal, Tai Sui (Continued)
The hint given by the small bowl flashed through my mind like a bolt of lightning.
Tai Sui is a deity, a being of great impermanence, and the furthest removed from ordinary people. No matter how much information is combined, this conclusion remains unchanged. However, Xiao Wan says that Tai Sui might just be an ordinary person who accidentally received a divine seal—such a thing…
It's not impossible.
Once the divine seal is in hand, the first, second, or even third gate can be easily opened. Even though Tai Sui, the seal holder, was merely an ordinary person at the time he obtained the divine seal, it did not prevent him from later imbuing himself with divine power through the seal.
"Brother Zhuangcheng, do you still remember the divination by the fortune teller?" Xiaowan gave the second hint.
The reason why Shenzhao believed the judgment that "the master of the divine seal is an ordinary person" was not only because he observed the master of the divine seal's clumsiness in manipulating the power of the illusory realm, but also because he had once commissioned the divination master to divine the master of the divine seal's origins.
The diviner then shared his divination findings with Shenzhao—before obtaining the divine seal, its owner was merely a mortal. This mortal had ventured into a forbidden land, where he discovered the intact divine seal and made his wish upon it.
Because Shenzhao's methods failed against the Lord of the Divine Seal, I subconsciously assumed that the Diviner's divination was wrong. However, the "Lord of the Divine Seal" described in the Diviner's divination should actually refer to the "holder of the seal," not the illusory Lord of the Divine Seal who killed Shenzhao.
What if the divination of the fortune teller was actually correct?
Revisiting this divination might even lead to new discoveries. The "land devoid of life" described in the divination initially made me think of the barren Arctic, but what if it actually refers to the apocalyptic era I'm currently in?
In the apocalypse, not only is everything barren, but all animals and plants are unable to survive. Even the maggots growing on corpses are not living things, but rather a bizarre phenomenon. Keep in mind that even the Arctic has polar bears, yet in the apocalypse, you can't find any of those.
Of course, the divination master also mentioned that the forbidden land of life was a place that no human had ever reached, while at least there were human survivors in the apocalypse... However, the concept of "forbidden land of life" should not be a general term referring to the entire apocalypse, but rather "a specific location in the apocalypse".
Xiaowan has sorted out the reasoning so far.
“I suspect that Tai Sui was originally an ordinary survivor in the apocalypse. He accidentally obtained the divine seal, which gave him divine power, and he became a god-human in the Gospel Institute,” she said. “Later, perhaps to seize the divine seal, or for other reasons, the Gospel Institute’s Lord Yama killed Tai Sui.”
"However, Tai Sui did not truly die, nor was the divine seal seized by Yama. Instead, for some unknown reason, it turned into countless fragments, traversing time and space, and scattered to places beyond the reach of the enemy—that is, the era in which Brother Zhuang Cheng lived."
“There may have been an accident during this process. Some fragments remained in the apocalypse. Two of them were obtained by me and Ms. Seven, and one even flew to the ‘fifteenth floor basement’ in the void and was obtained by Brother Zhuang Cheng.”
"Afterwards, in order to restore the divine seal to its original state and to allow himself to be resurrected, Tai Sui established the Void Realm, summoned seven Void Realm Apostles to be his pioneers, and also had Lady No. 7, who was under his command, insert herself into it, planning to play an appropriate role at the right time."
"But the weather is unpredictable. Even Tai Sui, the one in charge of the seal, cannot predict things. For example, there is Zhuang Cheng, an alien entity that invaded the Void Realm outside of his plans, and there are also the Sixth Divine Illumination and the Fourth Xuanming who rebelled against him one after another..."
"With the illusory realm shattered, the plan to resurrect Tai Sui, the master of the seal, had to be put on hold."
Xiao Wan's speculation, at first glance, lacks actual material evidence and contains many assumptions made to fill in the gaps in the causal logic, but it can explain a lot of things.
If Tai Sui obtained omniscience and omnipotence as an ordinary person, it would explain why he lost this all-powerful ability, because it was a power that ordinary people could not control... No, does that really explain it? He was already omniscience and omnipotent, so whether he was an ordinary person or Da Wuchang before, it shouldn't make much difference, right? But it feels more reasonable than Da Wuchang obtaining the divine seal and then accidentally letting it shatter.
Number Seven's actions became understandable. She wasn't just making empty promises to her Tai Sui army or lying to them that "Tai Sui might return in the future." Instead, she was genuinely working towards the resurrection of Tai Sui.
The reason why the Gospel Academy is so persistent in its pursuit of the Tai Sui Army, and even seems to be secretly manipulating the Great Demon Xuanwu to launch the pursuit, may be because the Gospel Academy's Lord Yama himself has an unresolved feeling about the "death of Tai Sui".
It could even explain the attitude that Tai Sui displayed towards his followers before his death. According to the wandering spirit, Tai Sui always told his followers that "he was just a human being" and "he just happened to have very strong power." I originally thought that these were just a pretentious performance, but now I think, could it be that he was telling the truth and that he genuinely felt that he was just an ordinary person who accidentally obtained the power of the divine seal?
Besides, many things that were previously incomprehensible seem to be easily resolved under the hypothesis of the small bowl.
There are some contradictions, mainly two.
First, according to our speculation, the reason why the apocalypse came was because the holder of the seal made an unknown wish to the divine seal. However, if the holder of the seal only obtained the divine seal by chance after the apocalypse, it would become a logical paradox of which came first, the chicken or the egg.
Secondly, if Tai Sui obtained the power of a god by making a wish to the divine seal, it is actually difficult to explain why he is so unfamiliar with the manipulation of power—the divine seal should not only give the wisher the power itself, but also the "proficiency in manipulating power".
Even if Tai Sui didn't think things through at first and only asked for the former, he had been acting as a human god Tai Sui for more than a day or two, and had come into contact with other gods and humans in the Gospel Institute more than once. It wouldn't be too late for him to make a wish and ask for the latter.
However, I don't think these two contradictions can be used to refute Xiaowan's conjecture. Xiaowan's conjecture has far too many plausible explanations and is far too convincing. I believe Xiaowan herself has noticed some of the less logical parts, but even so, these cannot be considered decisive evidence of disbelief; rather, they can only be seen as "there's more to the story."
"We're just waiting to confront Number Seven next," I said.
“Perhaps there’s another truth to it, and even if that’s the truth, I doubt Ms. Seven would readily admit it.” Xiao Wan glanced at the door. “Besides, her journey home might not be so smooth.”
"Do you think she'll encounter an accident on her way back, making it impossible for us to find her and confirm the truth?" I asked.
“There will definitely be a chance to confirm the truth. Even if she really encountered an accident, there’s a high chance that we will be involved. This is determined by the power that Sister Mazao left on Brother Zhuangcheng,” Xiaowan said. “We didn’t see her immediately in the Tai Sui Army, but arrived here before her. If we consider this as an ‘arrangement of luck,’ then it can be understood as a prelude to unexpected complications.”
"What I'm really worried about is that she didn't encounter any accidents on the way and actually met us. Because that might mean that all the arrangements and preparations were rendered ineffective by my incredible luck."
"This kind of ineffectiveness is at most temporary. Just like a spring that accumulates power when it encounters pressure, temporary luck may just be the calm before the storm."
As she spoke, a dark cloud appeared on Xiao Wan's face.
Although she was a divine child blessed with good fortune, she was still easily overcome by anxiety. I think this might be because her mind was simply too intelligent. Tragedies that others might miss were crystal clear to her. The wiser a person is, the easier it is for them to spot problems, and the easier it is for them to be troubled by them; conversely, the more oblivious a person is, the more likely they are to enter a state of carefree existence.
"When soldiers come, we'll meet them head-on; when floods come, we'll dam them with earth... There's no need to overthink things. No matter what happens, I'll be there to protect you," I said. "So, there's nothing to worry about."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Wan paused for a moment, then showed a relieved expression and said with a smile, "Brother Zhuang Cheng, although your statement is cliché, it scores very high!"
I said without changing my expression, "Thank you for the compliment."
“But even if you’re going to give extra points, you shouldn’t give them to me. I’m only ten years old, at least physically. Your destined partner should be Asahi-neechan,” Xiaowan said.
I countered, "If that's the case, then your older sister Mazao is only thirteen or fourteen years old, isn't she?"
"Should this be something you, Brother Zhuang Cheng, should have pointed out?"
Xiaowan first complained, then said, "Speaking of which, I don't think I've asked you how things are going with you and Mazao-neechan lately... We used to always mention it whenever we met in the virtual realm, but now that we've actually met, I've forgotten to ask."
“That’s right. So, where would you like to start?” I asked.
"Well, this..."
The little bowl stared into my eyes, paused for a long while, and then spoke again.
“Brother Zhuang Cheng, you don’t want to go back to the era you originally lived in, right?” she asked.
(End of this chapter)
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