Chapter 341 Zhuang Cheng's Power
"Although this may sound like a bucket of cold water, I still have to say it: you have no chance of winning against fate," Mr. Zhu emphasized again.
I can understand the reasoning without his detailed explanation.
Both are Great Impermanence, possessing the power to change the world. One is a novice just beginning to understand, while the other is a veteran who has cultivated this field for countless years. It is obvious who will win.
But the most crucial part isn't here.
The key is that the Turbid Life possesses unparalleled immortality among all forms of impermanence.
I also possess immortality, but I am well aware that my immortality is not absolute. With sufficient power, there is a chance to forcibly break it. Of course, Mingzhuo's immortality is probably not absolute either; I don't believe true absoluteness exists in this world. However, the fact is that even a powerful figure like Xuanming was helpless against Mingzhuo and could only retreat in the end. Therefore, there is even less reason for me to be able to break Mingzhuo's immortality.
Even if I could somehow manage to snatch a life from Mingzhuo, it would be meaningless. As long as Mingzhuo can resurrect infinitely, it's equivalent to being invincible from the start.
Therefore, this battle can only result in two outcomes: a temporary stalemate or my defeat. The outcome of the battle will either be a direct fall into the latter, or the former will occur first, followed by a gradual slide towards the latter.
However, I have no intention of turning away just because I don't see a chance of winning in the predictions.
These are all just predictions based on existing intelligence; predictions are ultimately just predictions. Without actually fighting, the true depths of Mingzhuo remain completely unknown to me. What specific weaknesses does he possess? What possible flaws might his immortality have? Am I truly without any chance of victory? I won't know until I try. Even if the result after trying is "just as predicted," that's still a gain, and certainly not a complete lack of progress.
Finding the opponent's weaknesses is Zhu Shi's area of expertise, but this time I can't take her to the battlefield. She hasn't even reached the Great Completion stage yet, so it's impossible for her to find the Great Impermanence's weaknesses using Buzhou Mountain. Even if Buzhou Mountain is the eye of divine manifestation, the opponent is, after all, a genuine god.
With enough effort, even I, in my current state, am confident that Zhu Shi will be unable to detect my weaknesses. Moreover, the outcome of prying into the secrets of the Great Impermanence is a lesson in itself, as evidenced by Ming Zhuo's previous attempt to reverse-engineer Ma Zao's dream using his own power.
"Since you think I can't beat Mingzhuo... why do you support me in fighting Mingzhuo?" I asked Mr. Zhu curiously.
"Should we just give up if we can't win?" Old Master Zhu said. "It's a very simple principle. This time, Ming Zhu attacked you first. If you were still at the Great Completion stage, then you could just endure it, and no one would think there was anything wrong with that."
"But now you are the Great Impermanence, so you must fight back against any challenge that comes your way. Besides, you recently issued a challenge to Mingzhuo. Now that you have the power of the Great Impermanence, why don't you fulfill your promise? When will you ever fulfill it?"
"I don't intend to condescend to you or peddle my shallow life experience, but since you asked me, I must share my opinion... If you can tolerate humiliation, then countless humiliations will come knocking on your door in the future. When it's time to show your stance, you must show it without reservation. Whoever dares to lay a hand on you, you must chop off their hand; if you can't chop it off, you must make them bleed, let them know what pain is."
“This time you have indeed lost more than you have won, and you might even die at the hands of Ming Zhuo, and our Zhu family will suffer as a result. Even if you win, you may still face all sorts of trouble afterward. But we don’t intend to stand with you only when things are going well for you. As long as you live, you will eventually realize how much benefit your ‘foolish actions’ will bring you.”
It seems that Mr. Zhu is also a radical at heart.
Despite being an elderly man much older than everyone else present combined, he showed no signs of maturity or composure, and never displayed any willingness to compromise. I consider myself a rather radical person, yet his pronouncements were sometimes far more radical than mine, a young person's.
What's worse is that his remarks really align with my personality traits.
He truly lived up to his reputation as someone who, in his youth, could kill his entire family when he went berserk. I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of respect for him.
"But, Grandpa..."
Just then, Zhu Shi spoke up from not far away. She seemed to have finished her daily session of the Heavenly Manifestation of the Dharma, and having put away the Yama Sword, she joined our conversation. She said, "Aren't the Great Impermanences currently gathered at the Luoshan headquarters for a meeting to discuss the issue of the Void Realm forces? If we suddenly attack one of them when all the Great Impermanences are gathered together, wouldn't that be seen as a provocation to the other Great Impermanences?"
“In the past, Xuanming attacked Fu Hongchen and Mingzhuo at the Luoshan headquarters, and even killed one of them. He was then labeled a traitor, right?”
“Zhuang Cheng isn’t even strictly a member of Luoshan right now; he’s just an outsider. If he were to attack Da Wuchang on Luoshan’s territory, wouldn’t it be considered an attack on Luoshan by an external force?”
Considering my relationship with that so-called Void Realm force, it could indeed be considered an attack by an external force.
"It's alright. Zhuang Cheng had a legitimate reason to attack this time. It was Ming Zhuo who made the first move, and Zhuang Cheng retaliated. He even issued a challenge through the other party's subordinates first, which can be considered as fulfilling the proper etiquette of the challenger." Old Master Zhu said, "The Great Impermanence of Luoshan has never been a united force. They actually have no organization or collective consciousness, let alone any sense of collective honor—because the organization and the collective are subordinate to them."
"If we pay too much attention to such trivial matters and hesitate to take action, they will only look down on us. To put it another way, even in the worst-case scenario, if the Great Impermanence really does define Zhuang Cheng as an enemy in the name of the Luoshan Organization... so what?"
“The most important part of Luoshan has never been the organization itself, but the Great Impermanence who are in charge of it. Zhuang Cheng is also a Great Impermanence. So what if he is excluded from Luoshan? At worst, we can follow Zhuang Cheng and leave Luoshan to establish a ‘Zhuang Cheng force’ outside… Xuanming and Taoyuan Township Lord did just that, so why can’t we do it?”
Zhu Shi blinked in astonishment, and after a moment she managed to stammer out, "...It can be like this?"
Perhaps because she had always considered herself a member of Luoshan's political camp, she seemed to have never had the idea of leaving Luoshan. What Mr. Zhu pointed out was undoubtedly a path she had never imagined.
Even I never thought about establishing a so-called "Zhuangcheng Force," or rather, I never wanted to manage any force at all.
“It’s clear you’re not interested in managing a faction. You can leave it to us,” said Old Master Zhu. “Even if you don’t leave Luoshan later, this faction can still be established within Luoshan. Anyway, there’s more than one faction in Luoshan led by Da Wuchang, so adding another ‘Zhuangcheng faction’ won’t be a problem.”
"The large number of Xuanming believers who remain in Luoshan today, becoming a hidden danger, are at their core the old forces that Xuanming left behind in Luoshan in the past..."
As a casual conversation, Mr. Zhu continued to talk to us about other topics within Luoshan, while the scenery outside the train window flew by. After leaving the urban area, the train went up to the surface and entered the suburban area, and after some time, it entered a primeval forest.
Environmentalists might be furious if they saw the railway laid into a nature reserve, but Luoshan, who values concepts like nature, innate qualities, and spirituality, seems completely indifferent to such things.
I mentally calculated the purpose of my trip.
The first thing to do is to formally declare war on Mingzhuo; the second thing is to meet with Fazheng and see if we can use Fazheng's support to locate the Humanitarian Affairs stronghold where Chang'an is now located.
If Fazheng distances himself from me because of my battle with Mingzhuo, then I'll have to find another way to resolve the latter issue. But if the Great Impermanences don't distance themselves from me, then I still want to take Mazao to see the Divination Master to inquire about the doomsday prophecy circulating within Luoshan.
To be honest, "investigating the apocalypse" is the main objective of my and Asaho's activities, while "dealing with the Misfortune" and "saving Chang'an" are side issues that arose after the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau base incident, and now they have become the most pressing issues.
If there's a chance, you could inquire with Fazheng about the "other Blessed Cultivator" and see if he knows anything about it. Ying Lingyun's future technology was obtained from another Blessed Cultivator of unknown identity, which means there are "people from the future" besides Ma Zao. And perhaps we can explore the secrets related to the apocalypse in this direction.
—The premise is that I didn't die at the hands of Mingzhuo.
The train traveled through the primeval forest for a long time. At one point, it felt as if we were passing through an invisible membrane; although we were inside the enclosed carriage, it was as if a short, sharp gust of wind was blowing in our face. This feeling came and went quickly, and the forest scenery outside the window disappeared, replaced by a scene resembling the interior of a concrete tunnel.
We have passed through the barrier surrounding the headquarters of Luoshan.
Soon, the train stopped next to an underground platform, and then the doors opened automatically with the sound of exhaust vents.
(End of this chapter)
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