Chapter 146 Undercurrents 2
The Lord of the Divine Seal only told the seven of us to collect the fragments of the Divine Seal, but he didn't say how he would eventually reclaim the fragments we collected.
Although he offered us the deal of "exchanging fragments of the Divine Seal for answers," not all of us would necessarily take the bait, nor would all of us have many questions. There were even rebellious individuals like Xuanming (Number Four) and Liu (Number Six).
Therefore, both Zhu Shi and I believe that the Lord of the Divine Seal has the means to forcibly reclaim all the fragments of the Divine Seal in the final stage.
In the worst-case scenario, we so-called chosen ones will all face the utter desperation of being discarded like hunting dogs after the hunt. The logic is simple: once all the fragments of the divine seal are collected, we will be useless. And for the useless, there is naturally no need to fulfill the promise. He may never have intended to grant the final winner's wish in the first place.
If nothing unexpected happens, his method of reclaiming all the Divine Seal fragments likely lies in the binding relationship between the chosen ones and the fragments. Since the Lord of the Divine Seals can interfere with us through this binding relationship, it's entirely possible that he could also interfere with the other Divine Seal fragments we possess—that's how I understand it.
However, there seems to be some problem with my binding relationship with the Divine Seal Fragment. Is it possible for him to do the same thing with me?
I can't place my hopes on something so uncertain. Instead, let's think about something more practical—since the Lord of the Divine Seal still needs the seven of us to collect the fragments, it means that he can't forcibly take back any fragments that aren't in our hands.
In other words, if I obtain new fragments of the Divine Seal in the future, I must at least give one of them to Zhu Shi, or Ma Zao, or other trustworthy individuals who are not under the control of the Lord of the Divine Seal, in order to prevent the Divine Seal from returning to its complete state in the hands of the Lord of the Divine Seal.
Considering that the Lord of the Divine Seal stated he could summon new chosen ones from the outside world, this method isn't entirely foolproof. Therefore, launching one of the Divine Seal fragments into unreachable outer space might be a viable final option worth exploring.
"Zhu Shi, what are your thoughts on Number Six?" I asked. "There shouldn't be many Great Impermanences. Which one do you think Number Six is?"
“A Great Impermanence characterized by destructive white light…” Zhu Shi pondered, “The search criterion of ‘white light’ is too vague. Many Great Impermanence possess a wide variety of powerful spells, and it is difficult to pinpoint their location based solely on the impression of emitting white light. However, based on my speculation, Number Six is at least not a Great Impermanence from outside Luoshan.”
"How so?" I asked.
"The Lord of the Divine Seal should only choose humans as the chosen ones for the Void Realm. As far as I know, there are only two Great Impermanence level beings outside of Luoshan who are also human," she said. "One of them is the Fire God Xuanming, who betrayed Luoshan, and the other is a person known as the 'Lord of Peach Blossom Village.' The latter has no grudge against Xuanming, while Number Six is very hostile towards Xuanming."
“If Number Six belongs to Luo Shan, then things make sense. In Luo Shan’s view, Xuan Ming is a traitor who killed his own side, so it’s normal for their relationship to be tense.”
The Lord of Peach Blossom Village? I'll make a note of that name and ask him about it later.
However, Zhu Shi was about to go to class, so after we finished discussing the important matters, she said goodbye to me and turned to leave.
Before leaving, she gave me the results of her physical examination—something I had asked her to do some time ago. Because I wanted to know the source of my superpowers, I gave her some of my blood.
Although she has confirmed that my superpowers do not originate from my bloodline, blood is also a medium for the soul, and blood tests seem to reveal a lot about the soul. Moreover, my body is composed of flames, and my flames are my spirit; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that my blood is a manifestation of my spirit.
The results of the examination were unclear. Although a fairly high concentration of magical energy could be detected in my blood, the source of my superpowers remained a mystery. Moreover, it seemed that due to being away from my attention for some time, the magical energy in my blood had rapidly diminished; although the concentration was high, by the time the examination was conducted, an unknown amount had disappeared.
I wasn't too disappointed. Judging from Zhu Shi and Lu Youxun's reactions, my superpower was absurd not only by common sense, but even by the common sense of a demon hunter; it belonged to the category of the unknown. It was truly unrealistic to expect to investigate and understand the unknown through conventional methods.
I'm eager to know the source of my superpowers, but on the other hand, I'm not in a rush. There's no need to rush something I haven't been able to figure out all these years.
I then looked at the other documents Zhu Shi had given me, which explained my duties as a wandering Taoist priest from Luoshan.
Unlike ordinary impermanent beings who are required to obey Luo Shan's commands, the title of "Heterodox Impermanence" is more of a title than a job. Their obligations include regularly reporting their status to Luo Shan and informing him in advance before traveling to other places. If they are unemployed, they can apply to Luo Shan for substantial living expenses; housing and car purchase funds are separate; social insurance and housing fund contributions are handled by someone else; and additional subsidies can be applied for if there are elderly family members to support or if they are ill and in urgent need.
From an ordinary person's perspective, it is indeed quite generous, and as a condition to keep potentially high-risk social disruptors in line, it can perhaps be considered a good deal for Luo Shan.
The monetary reward for cooperating with Zhu Shi in investigating the strange man incident had already been deposited into my account. The amount wasn't as much as I had imagined, but according to Lu Youxun's side, Luo Shan's contributions to Wuchang were mostly recorded as internal contribution points. These points could, of course, be directly exchanged for cash, or for magical resources such as talismans and magical artifacts. The exchange catalog was sent to my phone electronically, and it was simply dazzling and mesmerizing.
Because my performance and contributions were downplayed in the incident report, I don't have many points yet, so I can't exchange them for anything decent. Zhu Shi did mention that if there was anything she liked, she could exchange it for her accumulated points, but I'm not shameless enough to do that right now, so I politely declined.
Moreover, I now possess the Unpredictable Sword of the Heretic. The value of this sword far exceeds my total score; its appearance and function perfectly match my aesthetic sensibilities, and it has temporarily satisfied my hunger.
After returning home, I told Ma Zao about what I had discussed with Zhu Shi, and she basically agreed with the conclusions that Zhu Shi and I had reached.
In the past few days, thanks to the soul-healing medication, Ma Zao's condition has improved significantly, and she no longer feels drowsy so easily. In addition, she has screened and checked the list of patients with soul loss that Zhu Shi has been sending her.
With nearly 100,000 photos and resumes, Asa initially seemed to intend to meticulously review them from beginning to end, but the workload was simply too immense. Assuming she spent half a minute on each person's information, she would have to work non-stop for a month to finish. I understand why she was so meticulous; there might be more than just "Number Two Small Bowls" among them; there might also be survivors who were dragged into and killed by her jinx-like constitution during the apocalypse.
Later, she had no choice but to compromise for the time being, focusing solely on finding the second small bowl, filtering out those who met the criteria from a list of 100,000 people, and then checking them one by one.
In the end, they couldn't find it.
She couldn't find any girl whose face resembled the second small bowl in Mazao's memory.
That evening, Ma Zao sat on the sofa, repeatedly checking the list to make sure she hadn't overlooked anything. I poured her a glass of iced cola and placed it on the coffee table in front of her.
"...Could it be that my amnesia really has nothing to do with my time travel?"
She looked somewhat bewildered. She seemed to have mentally prepared herself. She was from modern society, but due to a mental disorder, she had transmigrated to a post-apocalyptic world and then back—she had seemingly convinced herself to accept this theory, only to find herself punching cotton.
I think it's too early to draw conclusions. If we can find Little Bowl No. 2 on the list of patients with Aphasia, it will prove that Asaho's apocalyptic time travel is closely related to Aphasia. Furthermore, we can deduce that the souls of other patients with Aphasia have also traveled to the apocalyptic era. However, not finding it does not necessarily disprove the theory.
“It’s also possible that Xiaowan is different from you. She didn’t travel to the post-apocalyptic era because of amnesia, but was someone who has been living in the post-apocalyptic era from the beginning.” I tried to suggest other possibilities. “It’s also possible that she was not included in the statistics for some reason, such as that she is not in the country now, or that she is being treated as a regular vegetative state patient by some local hospitals.”
"Or perhaps Xiaowan is still a healthy person now, and her becoming a patient with amnesia is something that happens in the near future, and then her soul travels to a post-apocalyptic era even further in the future."
“Zhuang Cheng, your last conjecture is a bit…” Ma Zao first wanted to refute, then fell into thought, “…No, it doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable…”
This is just one of the ideas I came up with from my wild thoughts. I didn't read so many fantasy stories about time loops for nothing; there are even more imaginative and self-consistent ideas than this.
However, I'm starting to wonder if linking "loss of consciousness" with "apocalyptic time travel" is really that far-fetched. Are we perhaps heading in the opposite direction from the truth? I occasionally have this thought.
Ma Zao's time travel seems to be related to Little Bowl No. 2, at least that's what the latter once said. Unfortunately, Little Bowl No. 2 hasn't sorted out her memories yet, and I haven't been able to get the truth out of her before. I can only wait for next time.
However, there is one thing we must focus on right now.
For some reason, the people in charge of the amnesia case in Luoshan have not contacted us until now.
(End of this chapter)
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