Chapter 506 The Awakening of the Wandering Soul
The person who appeared in the cartographer's diary and claimed that my flames were very similar to the Great Demon of Calamity was clearly the silent and taciturn girl who was under the cartographer's protection.
It turns out that the "flame-manipulating monster" that attacked her team in the past was indeed the Great Demon of Calamity, and the reason she was afraid of me was because she associated me with the Great Demon of Calamity.
But why does she think my flames are so similar to the Great Demon of Calamity? At least in terms of appearance, my orange-red flames should be completely different from the black flames of the Great Demon of Calamity in legend.
Let's assume for now that the Great Demon of Calamity is indeed my future self. In that case, would the Great Demon of Calamity also possess the Vermilion Bird Seed like me?
Based on the information I had previously gathered, it's impossible for two Vermilion Bird successors to exist in the same era, just as it's impossible for two sets of Divine Seal fragments to exist in the same era. This is true even if I was a later traveler.
Or is it that even this most basic rule was shattered in the chaotic apocalypse? Or perhaps my future self (the Great Demon of Calamity) can retain her power even after losing the Seed of Vermilion Bird?
Since my fire power can still function normally, it means that the Vermilion Bird Seed is on my side, not on the Great Demon of Calamity's side... Following this logic, the most reasonable development is that "the current Great Demon of Calamity" has lost his power.
If we combine this with my previous analysis and speculation on the "time island theory," when I and the Great Demon of Calamity are in different areas, it should also be considered as being in different time periods. In this case, we can indeed retain the Seed of Vermilion Bird at the same time in the apocalypse.
This also means that when I and the Great Demon of Calamity appear in the same area, one of us will inevitably lose all our power...
I'll set aside my initial guess for now and continue reading the cartographer's diary.
"She, like another child I adopted, is a severely infected person with madness. Not only has she forgotten her original real name, but she has also forgotten many things from her past. Originally, she didn't even have the most basic self-care abilities. I barely managed to maintain her most basic mental structure by relying on my 'guiding' ability."
"Survivors in a state of severe madness infection often experience intense visual and auditory hallucinations. They can see a moon in the night sky that does not exist, just like blessed monks, and they can also vaguely hear the gospel. Although most people generally believe that survivors in this state are extremely vulnerable and dangerous, sometimes it is precisely because of their vulnerability and danger that they possess certain sensitivities that ordinary survivors do not have—they can even perceive fluctuations in magical power like we blessed monks."
"It is said that the flames of the Great Demon of Calamity are black, while Zhuang Cheng's flames are clearly orange-red. However, since she judged that the two have very similar frequencies based on her perception of magical fluctuations, I cannot ignore this point."
"Legend has it that the Great Demons are fallen gods. They are speechless, strange kings who only know how to destroy everything. But Zhuang Cheng, whom I have come into contact with, has reason and can speak human language. It is hard to believe that he is a Great Demon."
"However, he does seem to possess some characteristics of the Great Demon of Calamity. For example, when releasing his power, he himself does not exhibit magical fluctuations; only the flames he creates appear."
"Could it be that he is actually the 'Great Demon of Disaster from the Past'? This bizarre, post-apocalyptic world, where even the river of time has become fragmented and chaotic, can actually exhibit such an incredible miracle?"
"A god before becoming a great demon... I've never heard of such a thing before, at least not in this diary..."
"No matter how you look at it, it's still too absurd. To find an amnesiac, blessed cultivator while just wandering around outside, who turns out to be a god before his fall, is simply too far-fetched. I can't immediately believe this theory."
"But, if Zhuang Cheng really is a god..."
The diary ends here. It seems the cartographer didn't know how to continue expressing his feelings, so he put his pen aside for the time being and left it to be recorded later.
However, he had no "afterwards" after that; after transforming into a karmic demon, I burned him to ashes.
Another question arose in my mind.
Judging from the text in the diary, the cartographer did not regard me as "an ordinary blessed monk who could only manipulate fire." At least, although he did not completely believe that I was the Great Demon of Calamity, he did not let go of this suspicion. However, in his subsequent contact and attacks on me, he seemed certain that I was a fish on a chopping board, at his mercy.
In this bizarre world, caution is a fundamental quality of a witcher. One can never have too much vigilance towards the unknown, and this is especially true in a post-apocalyptic world. If a target leaves you hesitant and unable to fully ascertain its true nature, the best course of action is to abandon it early rather than forcing your way forward.
But in the end, he still chose to bare his fangs at me and serve me the poisoned food. Such a reckless act was somewhat reckless. This was certainly not a decision that an experienced survivor should have made after rational consideration.
Unless he wasn't making decisions based on reason, but was driven by an emotion that people like me and Tanxiang, who have lived in the modern world, couldn't understand.
I remembered the last words he uttered before he died, as he faced the giant fiery hand in the sky.
Then, I continued flipping through the diary, trying to see what the cartographer had experienced in the past and to try to gain more knowledge about the post-apocalyptic world.
Sadly, written records from the post-apocalyptic era are just as difficult to preserve as the memories of the survivors; the latter become fragmented, and the former can also mysteriously be destroyed. The cartographer's diary contains many inexplicable black marks.
Some of the un-blackened text also contained analyses of these destroyed records. The cartographer had even suspected that he might be under the control of madness, sleepwalking and blackening his own diary. But the blackening phenomenon occurred even when he had no pen, ink, or paint at hand, and he wasn't the only survivor experiencing this. He could only ultimately explain it as a bizarre phenomenon unique to the post-apocalyptic world.
"Some survivors believe that there are hidden patterns in the chaotic space, and that we are not completely randomly teleporting to different areas when we move. In order to survive better, they will try to analyze the spatiotemporal changes of their area and record them on a drawing, which they call a 'map'."
"Of course, very few survivors would actually volunteer for such strenuous and difficult work, but I've heard that the Gospel House is actively pushing forward with this project. The people involved are called 'doomsday cartographers'."
"I think I used to be one of them, and I was quite enthusiastic about this job. I don't know what happened, but I think I chose to escape from the Gospel Institute, but I still didn't give up the work of making maps. A long time passed... long enough that my personality iterated again and again under the influence of madness. I couldn't even remember who I was in the past. Only this map is still in my hands for the time being."
"Perhaps this map isn't in perfect condition either; in fact, it's quite damaged. A graffiti map like this, with only messy, scribbled lines, would probably be hard to spot even if someone carelessly altered it several or even a dozen times."
"Not only have I lost the desire to create maps, but I also lack the knowledge to decipher them. If a monk from the Evangelical Fellowship were to find it by chance, he might be able to decipher its contents, but such maps are likely already outdated."
"Although I can still decipher some things with my 'guiding' ability, I am not interested in my past work results."
"I don't want to recall my past."
Another diary entry has been read. The further back I go, the more it's been crossed out and redacted. This is already one of the better-preserved entries.
As I perused the book, my understanding of the post-apocalyptic world increased, and I benefited greatly. There were also records about Ma Zao, which were largely consistent with what the cartographer had said before his death. After I had mostly finished reading, I heard strange noises beside me.
I put down my diary and looked around. I saw the wandering spirit let out a low groan, then slowly opened its eyes, staring blankly upwards like someone with low blood sugar.
A moment later, a look of excitement finally appeared in his eyes. He sat up abruptly, looked around, and then his gaze settled on me and Tanxiang.
“You are…” he read aloud.
"You've finally woken up? Then let's introduce ourselves. I'm Zhuang Cheng, and this is Tan Xiang."
I first pointed to myself and Sandalwood, then asked him, "And who are you? Do you remember your name?"
Upon hearing this, the wandering spirit looked at me, then at the sandalwood incense, and then covered his forehead as if nails were still embedded in his brain tissue, muttering, "My... name..."
Meanwhile, Tanxiang chimed in with a few sarcastic remarks: "You're acting like a mobile game player who's just entered the prologue and is choosing a nickname. Don't give yourself any weird names, or you'll definitely regret it later."
The wandering spirit looked like it was groping for something lost in a swamp, and seeing this, I tried to remind it: "Is your name 'Wandering Spirit'?"
"A wandering spirit...a wandering spirit?"
He kept repeating the name, and his expression gradually calmed down.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com