Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 131 - 125 The next day’s Zhu Shi 3

Chapter 131: 125 The next day’s Zhu Shi 3

I once tried to sneak into the Zhu’s mansion with "Firefly," but my attempt was sadly cut short by the barrier that guarded the estate. Ever since then, I’ve been curious about the mysterious Zhu’s mansion. Now, by proposing a visit to the Zhu’s mansion, on one hand, I felt that it wouldn’t be very nice to have Zhu Shi come to us in person, and on the other hand, I wanted to satisfy my own curiosity.

Zhu Shi seemed unaware of my ulterior motive and nodded enthusiastically.

"We should also take Mazao with us," she said. "My grandfather has far more experience than I do, perhaps he might have a way to heal Mazao’s soul."

Hearing that, my hopes rose even higher.

And so, she accompanied me home.

Perhaps it wasn’t just me who was interested in Zhu Shi’s home, as Zhu Shi was curious about my home, or rather, about "the cohabitation situation between Mazao and me." At first, I didn’t catch on, chatting amiably with her on the way. But as we entered the hallway, her gaze sharpened suddenly, scanning the surroundings.

By then, I had realized something was off. Mazao wasn’t in the living room; it seemed she was still enjoying a lie-in. Meaning, she was asleep in the bedroom. It’s worth mentioning that the only bed you could sleep in at my place was the double bed in the bedroom.

Zhu Shi quickly found Mazao in the bedroom. Sure enough, Mazao was sound asleep on my bed. For her, it was a rare high-quality sleep—the noise we made upon entering didn’t wake her.

"Senior Brother Zhuang..." Zhu Shi slowly turned her head towards me.

And I couldn’t help but avert my eyes: "What’s the matter... Sister Zhu?"

"From my observations, there seems to be only one bed in your house..." she said, her eyes glinting dangerously.

"We usually sleep separately," I said earnestly.

Of course, usually meant usually, and last night was last night. The latter was an exceptional case and should not be generalized.

"That would explain why there are pillows and blankets laid out on the sofa in the living room..." she pondered thoughtfully.

Thank goodness I hadn’t put away the pillows and blankets I used for sleeping on the sofa the last time.

She eventually let it go and turned her head to look at Mazao.

"She’s sleeping deeply," she noted with some concern. "May I use ’Buzhou Mountain’ to check her state?"

"Why ask me?" I said. "Just look, she probably won’t mind."

Zhu Shi nodded and gazed at Mazao with a penetrating look.

Then, she showed a look of horror.

"...Her soul is completely shattered," she said with difficulty.

At those words, I felt quite uneasy: "Is it that serious?"

"Normally, her soul would already be in pieces. It’s only because she has a powerful superpower acting like glue, barely holding her broken soul together, that she can maintain the structure of her soul," she said, staring intensely at Mazao. "When I used ’Buzhou Mountain’ to observe her yesterday, her soul had severe flaws, but at least it was intact. Was it the overexertion during last night’s fight? But she has used her superpower continuously before without it being this serious..."

Seemingly awakened by her voice, Mazao slowly came to.

"...Ah, the soul has become whole again," Zhu Shi murmured to herself. "I see, so it’s because the superpower becomes more active upon awakening..."

Mazao, on guard, propped herself up and turned to look at both Zhu Shi and me.

Her attention focused on Zhu Shi, and like a territorial animal noticing an intruder, she became tense and asked cautiously, "Zhu Shi? What are you doing here?"

While talking, she also glanced at me out of the corner of her eye—it seemed like a silent reprimand for bringing someone else into the house without notice. Sorry, that was my bad, I’ll make sure to inform you next time. Wait a minute, this is my place.

"We’re going to the Zhu family next to retrieve the head of the Weirdo Maker, Zhu Shi is here to lead the way," I explained first, then passed over the packed breakfast of little steamed buns and fried pork cutlets I had brought back, "Here’s your breakfast, eat it while it’s hot."

Her nose twitched, likely catching the scent of the fried pork cutlets, and her expression brightened immediately.

She seemed unaccustomed to eating alone, so she shared half of her deep-fried pork chop with me and two buns with Zhu Shi.

I went straight to the point and asked her about the state of her soul. Her expression remained unchanged as she replied that although she was a bit tired, she felt better than last night. It seemed that her soul being in a state of scattered brokenness was quite normal for her now.

But Zhu Shi and I couldn’t view it that way. Zhu Shi’s concern for Mazao was like a grown-up’s tender care for a child, whereas in my eyes, Mazao was truly indispensable, and not a thing could go wrong with her.

With Mazao’s permission, I tried to probe deeper into her body once again. After all, my ability is to manipulate flames, and if Mazao’s lingering injuries were due to the Disaster Demon’s flames still residing in her wounds, then perhaps I could extract them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t feel any presence of flames. Mazao also said there were no flames in her soul, only incurable wounds.

I hoped that our visit to the Zhu’s mansion would reveal some way to marginally improve the condition of Mazao’s soul. I didn’t expect a complete cure, but at least to see some symptom relief.

"Speaking of which, doesn’t this random probing of someone else’s body count as sexual harassment?" Mazao suddenly asked.

"Ah?" I was surprised.

Seeing my reaction, she quickly said, "Ah, it’s fine. I was just mentioning it because I came across the term ’sexual harassment’ in a book. I know you didn’t mean it that way."

Even though I truly had no such intention, now that she mentioned it, it might be hard to shake off that notion in the future... I could only remark to myself internally.

After Mazao finished breakfast, we set off for the Zhu’s mansion.

Changan was also at the Zhu’s mansion, and Zhu Shi especially instructed us not to reveal that the Weirdo Maker was Ying Lingyun, or that Ying Lingyun was likely dead. And we definitely should not bring out the Weirdo Maker’s head in front of him. Unlike herself, Changan would surely go mad upon sighting that head.

By the way, Mazao buried the head of the Shadow Swapping Monster somewhere outside yesterday and applied a blessing power to preserve and immobilize it, which we have not retrieved yet; similarly, a man in a black suit, immobilized by the blessing power inside the restaurant, we also didn’t collect again, but I heard Lu Youxun’s subordinates captured him and eventually handed him over to the public security department.

Zhu Shi took out her phone and informed her family we were coming to visit. Mazao looked thoughtfully at the other’s phone, perhaps pondering the inconvenience I mentioned before about not having mobile payment and identity verification. There’s no need to bind Mazao to my side with those excuses anymore; I should buy her a phone on our way home.

Looking at the black guitar case Zhu Shi was carrying behind her, I remembered the "Yama Sword" and the "Eye of Divine Manifestation" mentioned by the Weirdo Maker, and I decided to ask her about them. After all, I had even disclosed something like the Divine Seal Fragment to her, so asking a bit about her secrets shouldn’t be a problem.

"You’re asking about my eyes and my weapon?"

She seemed still distracted by the issue of Mazao’s soul injury, but when I asked, she was momentarily stunned, and then quickly said, "Wait, the reason I didn’t explain it to you earlier isn’t because I don’t trust you, okay?"

"I didn’t ask that," I said.

"Is that so?" she replied skeptically, "Senior Brother Zhuang, sometimes you seem to take things very seriously, like the type to be sensitive to these little details. Maybe if you had a girlfriend who suddenly became cold to you, you’d grab her arm and demand an explanation, and if she didn’t respond, you might even secretly dress up and follow her until you find out exactly what’s going on..."

"Very serious..." Mazao turned to glance at me, nodding as if she understood, half-knowing. Really? Was I supposed to be that damp in interpersonal relationships? They definitely misunderstood me.

"Now that you mention it, I’m starting to care," I said deliberately. "If you don’t explain to me, I’m going to cover you with thermal energy markers and monitor you until you’re ready to talk."

"You sound completely serious now..." Zhu Shi murmured before explaining, "Regarding my eyes, they are actually related to the ancestors of the Zhu family. Although the Zhu family is now in decline, a long time ago, it actually produced an Impermanence. This Impermanence was the original Family Head, ’Zhu Yi’."

"Impermanence?" I never imagined that the Zhu family had such grandeur in the past.

"Impermanence is considered on par with gods and even possesses true Divinity. This Divinity sometimes manifests in the descendants of Impermanence. I am the tenth generation descendant of the Zhu family, and the blood of Impermanence is so diluted in my generation that the manifestation of Divinity is accidental." As she spoke, Zhu Shi’s tone became light-hearted, "Maybe the spirits of our ancestors thought we descendants were too disappointing, and they decided to give me a bit of a boost in this generation.

"My ability ’Buzhou Mountain’ is merely a powerfully insightful superpower without the boost of Divinity, but with the divine enhancement, it starts to show some unbelievable powers. The condition for this enhancement is that I must be in a combat state. Then the color of my eyes changes, and my personality becomes quite different from normal.

"As to why I didn’t explain this to you all beforehand..."

She suddenly stuttered, causing me to wonder, "What’s wrong, is it uncomfortable to say?"

"––Because it’s so embarrassing!" she blurted out, "I’ve been waiting for you guys to ask, really! If nobody asked, then it’d be pretty weird for me to grab you and start explaining stuff like ’eyes that change color in battle,’ ’Eyes of Divine Manifestation,’ or how my temperament shifts drastically in critical moments as if switching to a second personality... that would just make me seem like I indulge in explaining my own chuunibyou fantasies, right?

"Senior Brother Zhuang, I’m really envious of you! Your power to manipulate flames might feel normal to you, but for those of us with the Demon Eye Series of demon hunter abilities, explaining our powers to others is always awkward!"

"Ah, um, I see, it must be tough..." I was splattered with her outburst of frustration like a storm and decided to change the topic: "Alright then, let’s not talk about this... So what exactly is the ’Yama Sword’?"