Chapter 542 Meeting with Number Seven
Although Xiaowan said it was okay for me to lie on her lap and fall asleep, I didn't actually fall asleep.
On the one hand, I don't need to sleep. The thought of Xiaowan expending so much effort to heal me while I just sleep soundly with my head on her lap makes me feel ashamed. On the other hand, we are currently in the stronghold of an unfamiliar force, and we don't know if the power of the jinx will suddenly attract dangerous situations. As the protector, I shouldn't let my guard down.
And so, I actually spent half a day with my head resting on this little girl's lap. Even with the guise of receiving treatment, I couldn't help but feel unspeakable emotions. What's even harder to talk about is that this feeling, like soaking in hot water, was truly wonderful. And Xiao Wan was probably able to sense all these psychological changes happening here.
Her small, delicate hands gently stroked my hair, and occasionally touched my cheek. Although I didn't look at her expression, I sensed that she seemed to be smiling slightly.
When the door was knocked, I instinctively straightened up as if I were about to be exposed to a shameful scene that no one else could see.
Little Bowl blinked, looking at her empty knees with a hint of regret. For some reason, I felt a strange sense of regret, along with a feeling of relief that I had finally found a chance to be free, and then I looked towards the door.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"It's me, Lord Zhuang Cheng. I'm the guide who brought you to this room." A somewhat familiar voice came from outside.
“Come in,” I said.
The door was gently pushed open, and the guide entered with the humility of a waiter pushing a cleaning cart to clean the rooms of VIPs in a high-end hotel. Speaking of which, did these people forget to bring food for me and Xiaowan?
"What's the matter?" I asked.
“The leader has just returned, and she is currently undergoing routine checks. I informed her of your arrival, and after listening, she asked me to inform you of her return.” The guide answered fluently, as if he had secretly rehearsed the conversation.
Has the mysterious woman returned?
Xiaowan and I exchanged a glance, and then I asked curiously, "What does 'routine inspection procedure' mean?"
"This is an internal rule of the Tai Sui Army."
Xiao Wan seemed to know about this, and took the initiative to explain to me before the guide, "Any member who has been active outside the monitoring range of the Tai Sui Army's stronghold will be subject to strict inspection by the Tai Sui Army upon return. This is a measure to prevent enemies or strange beings from posing as our own and infiltrating the Tai Sui Army."
"At the same time, members who have been active outside for a long time may unknowingly become demonic under the influence of madness, or they may maliciously transform into human form and infiltrate the organization after becoming completely demonic."
"Although it is called 'routine inspection process', the process is extremely complicated. There is no higher-level inspection process within the Tai Sui Army."
The guide seemed surprised by Xiao Wan's extensive knowledge, but instead of raising any questions, he added, "Moreover, soldiers operating outside may also be infected with some strange curses or trigger some strange killing rules. If this isn't properly confirmed, a devastatingly dangerous situation could be drawn into the Tai Sui Army's ranks."
"Last time, one member violated this taboo and unfortunately slipped through the screening process. The subsequent investigation revealed that he encountered a strange phenomenon disguised as a suicide note. Anyone who read this note would leave a similar note before going to sleep the next time and then commit suicide. The remaining note would then have the same effect, manipulating other people who read it to do the same thing, creating a vicious cycle..."
"Finally, the leader personally executed all the members who had been infected by the strange phenomenon in the suicide note, and only then did the situation come to an end."
His tone didn't sound heavy; instead, it conveyed a sense of commonplace familiarity, as if he were merely citing a "recent example."
The apocalyptic anomalies are incredibly diverse, and no matter what kind of screening procedures are prepared, it's impossible to completely prevent them. Let alone ordinary blessed cultivators, even I, a Great Impermanence, sometimes find them impossible to guard against. The Tai Sui Army might simply have encountered one of these difficult-to-detect types.
Their strict precautions against the bizarre apocalyptic phenomena, and the fact that even with such precautions they could not prevent them and could only helplessly accept them as commonplace, made me realize a new understanding of the darkness and danger that the apocalyptic era poses to humanity.
The guide continued humbly, "Please move to the conference room, Your Excellency Zhuang Cheng. The leader will move there after completing the routine inspection procedures to have a formal conversation with you."
I nodded, then took the small bowl and went outside.
The guide glanced at the small bowl. Although he might be a little bothered that I was taking this child to such a formal occasion, he didn't seem to dare to say anything in front of me and could only honestly and dutifully complete his task, leading us through the maze of corridors inside the Tai Sui Army stronghold.
A moment later, we arrived at the conference room he had mentioned, entered it, and he excused himself.
All the rooms in the Tai Sui Army's stronghold exude a pragmatic style, or to put it bluntly, a rough and primitive one; all the rooms are like unfinished houses. Because the stronghold is integrated with the mountain, one or two walls of some rooms directly expose the rock layers of the cave.
The guest room that had just hosted us was quite tidy, as if it had undergone some simple renovations before our arrival, and the beds were soft and fluffy. I guess they didn't want to incur my wrath for saying the "guest room was too unsightly." But this meeting room is typical of the Tai Sui Army's interior space: just a long table and a few chairs, a bookcase piled high with documents in the corner, and the walls at the far end are uneven, gray-brown stone surfaces.
Although I initially had a bit of a "what kind of makeshift headquarters is this?" feeling, upon reflection, I realized I might actually quite like this rugged and primitive interior style. Perhaps it could be considered a kind of "style of the times." An interior that's pretentious, like a government or company meeting, would actually be rather disappointing.
I found a chair and sat down, while Xiao Wan continued to look around. While waiting for the mysterious woman to finish her examination, I also took the opportunity to check my own spiritual restoration progress again.
The result is that it's almost healed.
Normally, an injury of this severity would take at least a week to recover, but with Xiao Wan's power, it was healed to this extent in just about half a day.
This is the first time, and Xiaowan herself is obviously still unfamiliar with many things, so there is probably still a lot of room for improvement and acceleration.
Moreover, to be more precise, it wasn't "about half a day" before. Based on my physical perception, my true spirit had been repaired to the point where I couldn't even sense any remaining problems after about two hours. However, neither I nor Xiaowan could truly perceive the existence of the true spirit directly. Therefore, perhaps we simply couldn't sense it, and there might still be hidden injuries somewhere.
Just like a patient who has completed healing from a severe leg fracture, they might initially worry that their bone is still unstable, so they extend their recovery period, trying to avoid putting too much pressure on their leg and eating more calcium-rich foods. With the same mindset, Xiaowan spent the next few hours doing this "just in case" work, somewhat forcefully insisting that I continue lying on her lap.
After a while, the meeting room door was pushed open from the outside.
A woman with burgundy hair, dressed in a black, tight-fitting tactical outfit and wearing a black full-face mask, strode in.
The little bowl looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded.
The other person was the mysterious woman I met in the abandoned Tai Sui Gospel Temple.
She actually came to us without any hindrance, and there seemed to be no unexpected incidents along the way, at least no unexpected incidents that would have involved me and Xiaowan...
The biggest surprise is the absence of any unexpected event. This means that Xiao Wan's luck has temporarily outweighed the misfortune of the jinx. Although the jinx is currently in a state of flux, it's normal for Xiao Wan's luck to suppress it. However, the jinx seems to have the property of rebounding doubly when suppressed, which suggests that we may face an even greater crisis in the near future.
Xiao Wan's expression immediately turned serious, clearly having considered this as well.
The mysterious woman raised her hand and removed the mask from her face, revealing a captivating and beautiful face. Combined with her tall, well-proportioned figure and sharp, sophisticated attire, she evoked the image of a multi-talented and deadly female agent from an action movie, as sharp as a Swiss Army knife.
Her gaze darted back and forth between me and the small bowl.
"...This should be our second meeting, Zhuang Cheng."
She stared at me for a moment, as if trying to discern something from my face, then looked at Xiaowan a few seconds later, "And... are you number two?"
Little Bowl paused, seemingly considering her words, before politely saying, "Nice to meet you, Ms. Rainbow Grass. I am Number Two, or you may call me Little Bowl."
The mysterious woman pondered, "Little Bowl? That doesn't sound like your real name... Have you forgotten your original name?"
Her complete ignorance of Xiao Wan's actions, which seemed perfectly natural at first glance, is actually thought-provoking.
Even if Number Seven, living in the post-apocalyptic era, knew I was Number Three from the Void Realm, she shouldn't know my name is Zhuang Cheng. My initial deduction is that since Number Seven has a potential connection with the Lord of the Divine Seal, she likely obtained my offline information through the Lord of the Divine Seal's "almost omniscient ability" of "knowing most things in this world."
Similarly, since she was able to obtain information about Zhuang Cheng in this way, she could naturally use the same method to demand Xiao Wan's true identity from the Lord of the Divine Seal.
Unless she didn't ask, and the Lord of the Seal didn't say—but this shouldn't have happened.
From Number Seven's perspective, among all the Void Realm Apostles, the most unique one is neither Xuanming and Shenzhao, who are both Great Impermanence, nor even myself, the "mysterious intruder," but rather Xiaowan, who, like herself, is in the apocalyptic era. This is because the other five Void Realm Apostles might be people she could never reach before her death, while Xiaowan is the only "kindred spirit" she could possibly encounter. It's impossible for her not to be curious about Xiaowan.
So, I did have this idea—to find out Xiaowan's true identity directly through Number Seven.
I couldn't very well give Xiaowan the Three Lives Stone, which would kill if ingested, nor did I really want to question the Lord of the Divine Seal through a transaction involving fragments of the Divine Seal when the Void Realm was re-established in the future. Since the mysterious woman had previously suggested I go to the location of the Tai Sui Army, and used such important matters as "the truth of the apocalypse" and "the way to return to the modern world" as bait, she likely wanted to ask me for a favor, and probably wouldn't refuse to answer my other questions. Asking her was the most convenient way to find out Xiaowan's true identity.
And she didn't even know... This reaction in my mind could lead to two possibilities:
First, even the Lord of the Divine Seal did not know Xiao Wan's true identity;
Secondly, the mysterious woman in front of us is not Number Seven, but someone connected to Number Seven.
Let's explore the second possibility first.
"Before we get to the main topic, answer one question for me," I said. "How do you know that Xiaowan and I are Number Three and Number Two respectively? Who exactly are you? Are you Number Seven, or...?"
The mysterious woman seemed to smile, then replied, "I am number seven."
As she spoke, she raised her palm, and a black jade stone appeared floating in her palm—a fragment of the divine seal.
The divine seal fragment bound to me did not produce any vibration reaction.
(End of this chapter)
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