Chapter 626 The Mystery of the Afterlife
Should the entrance to the basement on the fifteenth floor be transferred to Yuchi for use as material for the teleportation array of Dushuo Mountain?
After thinking it over, I replied, "Yes."
Although this entrance is extremely important, and the fifteenth-floor basement holds a sacred place in my heart, important things should be used for important purposes. I believe that what Yuchi is about to do has that kind of value.
"Go for it," I said.
Yuchi breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I am extremely grateful."
"Speaking of which, shouldn't we ask the landlord of that house?" Xiao Wan complained.
"That makes sense..." I almost forgot about it too.
Fortunately, that's not a problem at all. The matter involves whether or not the Evangelical Fellowship's plan to exterminate humanity can be stopped, and the national government, once informed, will likely be even more anxious than we are. And even without official power or supernatural abilities, with the wealth that Yuchi and I can currently mobilize, let alone that small house, buying the entire neighborhood would be a piece of cake. Yuchi and I aren't heartless robbers; we won't mistreat the landlord.
As for Chang'an, he terminated his lease a long time ago, so he's not within the scope of this discussion.
The severely hampered development work finally began to proceed smoothly, and Yu Chi seemed to have finally lifted a heavy burden from his heart. Then, he glanced at the chaotic scene around him and sighed, "However, the afterlife really is a mess... Is this what the post-apocalyptic era will look like?"
"Judging from the current state, many of the functions that the afterlife should have are probably no longer working properly."
“Function…” Yu Chi’s words made me think deeply.
This idea sounds like it's treating the afterlife as some kind of artificial creation. Generally speaking, the word "function" is rarely used to describe natural objects. For example, while rocks in the wild can be used to smash things, no one would say that smashing is the inherent function of rocks; it's just that humans have arbitrarily used them. Only things designed by humans based on some purpose or consciousness inherently possess the attribute of function.
Based on my knowledge, the afterlife was indeed not a naturally occurring alternate dimension associated with Earth. Some fragmentary accounts in historical documents suggest that the afterlife was established in a very distant era.
Some believers in the concept of the Great Impermanence (大无常) believe that the afterlife was created by ancient Great Impermanence with their immense power, but no Great Impermanence has ever admitted to this. Furthermore, some forbidden materials that I accidentally accessed using my Great Impermanence privileges hinted at the existence of the afterlife, suggesting it has absolutely no connection to the Great Impermanence, who are revered as the "gods of the underworld."
Who created the afterlife? Or am I just misunderstanding? In fact, the afterlife is a natural product that emerged during the evolution of Earth's ecosystem, and Yuchi's "function" was just a casual remark?
I tried asking Yuchi this question, and he shook his head, saying, "If you want to ask about other things related to the afterlife, I might be able to answer you, as I am quite knowledgeable in those areas. But if you're asking about the true origin of the afterlife, I don't know more about that than you do. Whether the afterlife was created by humans or not is just a popular hypothesis in Luoshan, but no one can find any relevant evidence."
"The only thing that is certain is that the afterlife is a very, very, very ancient thing, far older than human history. If anyone in Luoshan knows the truth about it, then I can only think of the Divination Master."
"Perhaps because it is too ancient, or perhaps because of other influencing factors, the afterlife has had quite obvious flaws since the beginning of recorded history."
I asked curiously, "What flaw?"
“That is the matter of ‘the afterlife being easily entered and left,’” Yu Chi said. “If the afterlife was truly created, then the creator certainly wouldn’t want this world to be able to freely interact with the world of the living. The living should belong to the living, and the dead to belong to the dead; that would be normal. Otherwise, what’s the point of deliberately dividing it into two worlds? What’s the difference between the past state and ‘two regions of one world’?”
"If only the Great Impermanence, or to put it another way, if only a very small number of living beings at the Great Completion level or above could easily enter and exit the afterlife, that would be fine. But from its founding in ancient times until more than a hundred years ago, Luoshan allowed any demon hunter to claim the titles of Black and White Impermanence and freely enter and exit the afterlife. This is not the normal state of the afterlife at all. In my opinion, the state of the afterlife in the last hundred years or so is actually more 'normal'."
"That makes sense," I commented.
When I first heard that Luoshan could freely enter and leave the afterlife more than a hundred years ago, my first reaction was, "It's so magical and fascinating that one can even cross between life and death at will," but I overlooked the rationality of this phenomenon.
Perhaps it's because I've been immersed in the world of common sense for nearly twenty years that I can accept the many illogicalities of the supernatural world with a clear conscience. In reality, the supernatural world isn't truly illogical; it's just that it doesn't conform to the logic of the world of common sense. With patient observation and reflection, one will find that most of its phenomena can be explained.
Within this seemingly abnormal system, the afterlife is particularly difficult to explain.
"It is precisely because of this abnormal flow that in the past, the afterlife would frequently see the dead intruding into the world of the living. Most of the strange incidents that Luo Shan dealt with back then were caused by ghosts. The reason why Luo Shan was stationed in the afterlife was because it was the source of most of these strange incidents. It was the most convenient place to deal with them," Yu Chi said.
The soul of the living is changeable, capable of growing and changing according to its environment, much like water, thus requiring a physical body as a container. The soul of the dead, however, is different. Having lost its capacity for change, it is static and therefore more resistant to its environment, much like the sticky residue that is difficult to wipe off a wall.
As long as one has a strong karmic connection with a particular place, or possesses a sufficiently unwavering conviction, it's possible to operate in the material world. The vengeful spirit that haunted the abandoned construction site where Asa and I first met was probably of that type.
However, not all the souls of the dead can move about in the material world. The present-day Xiaowan and the past-day Lu Chan, as "weak selves strangled by their past selves," are strictly speaking also a kind of unconventional dead, but because their intentions are too fantastical, they cannot manifest in the material world. Xiaowan can overcome this entirely thanks to her identity as a child of divinity.
"Of course, that phenomenon didn't only bring negative effects. Precisely because they could freely travel to the afterlife and interact with the collective unconscious of humanity, demon hunters in the past could communicate with their deceased friends and family in the afterlife through means similar to dreams. Furthermore, if a soul that fell into the afterlife was intact enough, it was even possible to resurrect it..."
As he spoke, Yuchi seemed to be thinking of the Qilin that had died long ago, and his tone became somewhat absent-minded.
He had previously stated that he did not intend to revive the Qilin, but what if he only wanted to have a conversation with it?
"Mr. Number Five, do you want to speak to your deceased wife?" Xiao Wan suddenly asked.
Yu Chi paused for a moment, then came to his senses and said, "This... of course I've thought about it, but it's impossible. When the Qilin was killed by the Old Fist God, the afterlife had already been sealed off, and no soul of any deceased person could settle here."
"Moreover, those who die at the hands of the Great Impermanence are basically unlikely to have any soul components remaining; their souls are literally scattered. This is even more true for those killed by the Old Fist God. If the soul is also composed of atoms, then the Qilin probably wouldn't even have a single soul atom left."
After a moment of contemplation, Xiao Wan said, "...I've learned about you from Brother Zhuang Cheng before, Mr. Five. You hate Old Fist God so much that you think he's a cold-blooded thug who even killed his adopted daughter, and that Qilin must have died with resentment. That's why you made killing Old Fist God your life goal."
"But the Old Fist God has the opposite view. He believes that Qilin is a martial arts fanatic just like himself, and that he would have no regrets even if Qilin died by his hand. Therefore, he has never felt guilty about killing his adopted daughter... Is that right?"
“...That’s pretty much it.” Yu Chi said, “Qilin’s reason for pursuing power is that I failed to protect her when she was young, forcing her to face incredibly terrifying things... She and monsters like Old Fist God, who only strive to become stronger, are never on the same path.”
Then, he asked suspiciously, "...Why are you asking this?"
“I have a way to let you talk to your dead wife, Mr. Number Five,” Little Bowl said.
"Huh?" Yu Chi looked bewildered.
After a couple of seconds, he seemed to finally understand what Xiao Wan meant, and said incredulously, "You can communicate with the Qilin?"
“Yes,” Xiaowan said seriously. “Although it’s just a temporary conversation, I can do it. As for who is right between you and Old Fist God, as long as we summon the parties involved and question them face to face, the truth will naturally come to light.”
“This…this is impossible!” Yu Chi exclaimed. “Summoning a Qilin…summoning the Great Impermanence who has died in the past, do you know how difficult this is? Although this is not the resurrection of the dead, but merely a temporary dialogue with the dead, this is using the Great Impermanence as the object of the summoning, and the difficulty is no less than fully resurrecting a powerful Great Completion level cultivator.”
“I know you are a child of divinity, and communicating with the spirits of heaven and earth, or with the spirits of the dead, is as easy as lifting a finger for you. But you shouldn’t be able to do that! Especially not with those who have completely disintegrated their souls and have no chance to settle in the afterlife… There’s no reason you could do that!”
Hearing Yuchi's doubts, Xiaowan simply responded briefly and forcefully: "I can do it."
(End of this chapter)
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