Chapter 444 Countdown Mechanism
While saying she could always be with him, Zhu Shi also said that he absolutely must not fall in love with her. Zhu Shi's words sounded very contradictory.
She was like someone who had drawn a forbidden yet sweet line; the more she forbade others to like her, the more it fueled their urge to break the rules. Besides, I'm someone who enjoys challenging rules in many ways, so her smiling words sounded like she was seducing me.
I know her very well; she definitely doesn't have any seductive intentions. Right now, she's like an unconscious little devil. Although she always acts like the most sensible person in front of me and Mazao, upon closer examination, her personality is the most abnormal among us. She lacks some very basic perception regarding interactions with the opposite sex.
This unusualness, ironically, seemed to generate a strange attraction. I felt as if I could embrace her anytime, anywhere, embrace her body, and possess her loyalty. She would surely shyly keep her promise, accepting all my desires with her soft body, again and again.
On the other hand, it seemed I could never truly possess her, and could only interact with her as a friend. This ambiguous intimacy allowed me to experience a contradictory yet unconventional charm from this girl.
Faced with this unfamiliar relationship, not only was she at a loss, but I was also at a loss as to what to do. We were like two animals encountering each other for the first time in the wild, cautiously approaching each other, testing each other's boundaries, and trying to figure out how to get along.
One thing seems to have become very clear—the one who falls in love with the other first is the loser.
"Why do you think that if I sleep with you, I might fall in love with you?" I countered.
"Because I'm very good-looking, and I have a great figure with great curves. Even Xiao Qiao envies me in this respect. It would be very comfortable to do it with me, and you might even become addicted."
She seemed to have a mysterious confidence in this regard, and after opening up, she seemed to gradually let go of some common-sense concerns, and her words became very direct: "Besides, don't most of you boys think that you have to take responsibility after you've been with a girl? That's a good idea, but you shouldn't think that way about me."
"Since you've already made a promise with Asaha, you must always love Asaha. You absolutely cannot feel obligated to take responsibility for me just because you slept with me. Our relationship is purely platonic, involving only physical intimacy."
Zhu Shi is practically a "scumbag" factory... I had this thought, and then I said, "Have you ever thought about how incredibly damaging these words can be to men?"
"Huh?" Zhu Shi was slightly taken aback.
"There's one more thing, you seem to have forgotten. I've told you to your face more than once before that I've always liked you." I said it directly.
Zhu Shi blinked, then nodded repeatedly, smiling as she said, "Yes, yes, that's it! Keep it up!"
As she spoke, she began to ponder, as if considering the specifics of "doing" with me, muttering to herself, "Hmm, before we do it, we should prepare safety measures. Getting pregnant now would be a bit risky... It seems there are spells that can directly prevent this?"
"Also, this matter must be reported to Ma Zao beforehand. We can't do it behind her back with Zhuang Cheng... If she says she's willing but is actually against it, I have to do my best to refuse Senior Brother Zhuang... But it's also possible that she agrees verbally and is willing in her heart, but later when she's alone and thinks about what Senior Brother Zhuang and I did, she'll suddenly feel uncomfortable..."
"Should we just have her supervise me and Senior Brother Zhuang the whole time? That seems a bit indecent, after all, she's still young..."
"Or I could film the whole thing, blur out the key parts, and then send it to Asaho? Uh-oh, no, wait, I feel like I've seen this plot in some work before..."
Her train of thought seemed to be increasingly deviating from common sense, and as she read on, she suddenly seemed to wake up, clutching her head and shouting, "Wait, wait... what have I been thinking about since just now?!"
I pretended not to hear her outrageous remarks and started eating the fruit platter.
A night has passed.
-
The following morning, Zhu Shi and I returned to the Luoshan headquarters and took the head of the "Preacher" to Ma Zao.
On the way, Zhu Shi kept a serious expression, as if nothing had happened, and even discussed with me issues related to the last incident. Now that I had calmed down, I wanted to focus on serious matters rather than things between men and women, so I discussed them in more detail with her.
Zhu Shi had already written a detailed report about the previous incident that night and sent it to the Luoshan headquarters. She included the fact that the level-up Wuchang was a hidden follower of Mingzhuo, and pointed out in the report that there was likely a traitor among Mingzhuo's subordinates.
After that, the Mingzhuo faction will probably begin an internal investigation. Regardless of whether they can find any potential traitors, people like Mingzhuo who like to do things behind the scenes probably hate being targeted by others in the dark; it could be described as a kind of mutual loathing.
However, Zhu Shi seemed to have a slightly different view on this matter. The first question she asked was one that sounded very important: "Zhuang Cheng, do you think... it's possible that Ming Zhuo is secretly joining forces with the Peach Blossom Village Master?"
"You mean, it's not that there's a traitor among Mingzhuo's subordinates who has defected to Taoyuan Township... but rather that Mingzhuo himself has been secretly colluding with Taoyuan Township, only this exchange is limited to a small circle, so that Chengji Wuchang is unaware of it?" I asked, "Why do you think that?"
Zhu Shi nodded first, then said, "'Shangri-La' allows people to obtain near-eternal life within it, right? And what Mingzhuo is pursuing is precisely to break free from his lifespan limitations and obtain a lifespan that matches his status as the Great Impermanence."
"Although entering 'Shangri-La' might mean being controlled by the Peach Blossom Village Lord, under dire circumstances, could Mingzhuo possibly defect to the enemy?"
After thinking about it, I shook my head.
“It’s normal for traitors to appear among Mingzhuo’s subordinates, because Mingzhuo uses terror to control his followers and subordinates. Even if this method can cultivate highly loyal subordinates, they would probably find it difficult to resist the gentle embrace of ‘Shangri-La’... But it is absolutely impossible for Mingzhuo himself to betray Luoshan,” I said.
"Why is that?" Zhu Shi asked curiously.
“Because a ‘Shangri-La’ cannot fulfill the desires of a corrupted life,” I said.
The problem lies in the mechanism of Naraku's immortal body, which is tainted by fate.
I repeatedly triggered Naraku's immortal body at point-blank range, and by combining this with other clues, I was able to figure out some of the specific operating mechanisms of Naraku's immortal body.
First, the remaining lifespan of the Mingzhuo is at most ten years. So, what time reference system is used to determine this "ten years"?
Among Mingzhuo's subordinates was a time-manipulator who could freely manipulate time, even entering a world where time had stopped. I myself have entered this frozen world, and Mingzhuo must have also tried to extend his lifespan using the power of this time-manipulator.
However, according to the information at hand, all his attempts ended in failure; even entering a world where time had stopped, he couldn't stop the countdown of his lifespan. This was enough to show that this countdown had nothing to do with the objective flow of time.
My intuition and reasoning both pointed to the same conclusion—the countdown to the end of Mingzhuo's life depends on his subjective experience. The number of days he subjectively experiences corresponds to the number of days his lifespan is reduced.
Because the Great Impermanence spirit possesses an extraordinary perception of time, space, and causality, even when the power of time is applied to him, he can still perceive the external flow of time. Therefore, accelerating or decelerating time on a temporal level is futile for his body and consciousness.
However, if this acceleration and deceleration were not acting on him, but on the external environment, things might be different. Judging from the case of time stopping, if Mingzhuo were to stay in a world where time had stopped for ten years, from the perspective of space where time flows normally, Mingzhuo would probably die instantly, as if his remaining lifespan had been accelerated to exhaustion.
The entire process doesn't actually involve intervening in the life-destroying state using the power of time. According to the relative logic of fast and slow, this approach is equivalent to placing everyone and everything outside the life-destroying state into a space where time accelerates infinitely, only to stop accelerating after the life-destroying state's lifespan is exhausted. From another perspective, this is essentially using time travel to send the entire world to a future where the life-destroying state is already dead.
Under normal circumstances, it would be best for Mingzhuo to stay in an alternate dimension where the flow of time is much slower than in the real world. Although his subjective time flow remains unchanged, Mingzhuo's followers and subordinates outside the world can receive more help from him. However, due to the existence of the apocalypse, from Mingzhuo's subjective perspective, doing so actually accelerates the arrival of the apocalypse, which in a sense also shortens Mingzhuo's lifespan.
Therefore, when considering how to kill Meiju, I also thought of this method: to have Meiju and I simultaneously enter an alternate dimension where time flows much faster than in the real world. This way, I would have ten years to completely kill Meiju before the apocalypse that is expected within ten years. Although I mentioned before that a prolonged conflict would result in Meiju's victory, that was without considering the effects of the Xuanming Flame. If I fight by any means necessary, I am confident I can wear Meiju down.
Unfortunately, firstly, I don't know where there's a convenient alternate dimension that I can use at will; secondly, even if I did find such a dimension, given the boundless power I unleashed during my conflict with Mingzhuo, I doubt any alternate dimension could withstand it for ten years without incident. That kind of destruction would repeatedly annihilate the entire surface world, and the unfinished "Shangri-La" would probably be no exception.
Since Naraku's immortality is due to this mechanism, the method of indirectly extending lifespan through illusionary dream power is futile. Not only will Meizou not join the "paradise," but he will also stay far away to avoid affecting his continued research in the real world on how to overcome the lifespan countdown problem.
(End of this chapter)
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