Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 152 - 145 Undercurrent 2

Chapter 152: 145 Undercurrent 2

The Master of Divine Seal had instructed the seven of us to collect the Divine Seal Fragments, but he did not specify how he would reclaim the fragments we gathered.

Although he proposed a trade, "exchanging the Divine Seal Fragments for answers," not all of us would necessarily take the bait, nor did all of us have many questions. Among us were even dissenters like No.4 Xuanming and No.6.

Thus, Zhu Shi and I believed that the Master of Divine Seal had the means to forcibly reclaim all the Divine Seal Fragments at the final stage.

In the worst-case scenario, we, the so-called chosen ones, would face a dire fate. Simply put, once all the Divine Seal Fragments were collected, we would be of no use anymore. Naturally, there would be no need to fulfill any promises to useless individuals. He might not even intend to fulfill the last winner’s wishes.

Without surprise, his method of reclaiming all the Divine Seal Fragments probably lay in the bond between the chosen ones and the fragments. Since the Master of Divine Seal could interfere with us through this binding, it was entirely possible that he could interfere with the other Divine Seal Fragments we possessed—that was my understanding.

However, there seemed to be some issues with my bond to the Divine Seal Fragments. Could he do the same with me?

I could not place my hopes on such uncertainties. Instead, it was better to consider a more concrete approach—since the Master of Divine Seal still needed the seven of us to collect the Divine Seal Fragments, it meant that he could not forcibly reclaim those not in our possession.

In other words, if I were to acquire new Divine Seal Fragments in the future, I should at least pass one to Zhu Shi or Mazao, or another trustworthy individual not under the control of the Master of Divine Seal, to prevent the Divine Seal from becoming whole in his hands again.

Considering that the Master of Divine Seal mentioned he could summon new chosen ones from the outside world, this method wasn’t completely foolproof. Therefore, launching one of the Divine Seal Fragments into unreachable outer space also seemed like a viable final measure.

"Zhu Shi, what do you think of No.6?" I asked. "There shouldn’t be many Great Impermanences, so which one do you think No.6 might be?"

"Great Impermanence characterized by destructive white light..." Zhu Shi pondered. "’White light’ is such a vague criterion. Many Great Impermanences wield a variety of powerful spells, and it’s hard to pinpoint based on only the trait of emitting white light. However, as I speculate, No.6 is at least not one of the Great Impermanences outside of Luo Mountain."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The Master of Divine Seal probably only selects humans as chosen ones of the Void Realm. Outside of Luo Mountain, there are only two human Great Impermanences that I know of," she said. "One is Xuanming, who betrayed Luo Mountain, and the other is a figure known as ’Taoyuan Village Master.’ The latter has no enmity with Xuanming, but No.6 has a bad relationship with Xuanming.

"If No.6 is from Luo Mountain, then it makes sense. For the Great Impermanences of Luo Mountain, Xuanming is seen as a traitorous foe, and it’s normal for their relationship to be fraught."

Taoyuan Village Master? I noted the name, planning to inquire more later.

However, Zhu Shi had to go to class soon, and after finishing our conversation, she bid me farewell and left.

Before leaving, she handed me the report of the medical examination—something I had asked her to do a while ago because I wanted to know the source of my superpower, so I had given her some of my blood.

Even though she had confirmed that my superpower did not originate from my lineage, blood, being a medium for the soul, seemed to reveal a lot of information about the soul. Moreover, since my body is composed of flames, and my flames represent my spirit, it wasn’t an exaggeration to describe my blood as the manifestation of my spirit.

The results, however, were unclear. While a considerably high concentration of Mana could be detected in my blood, it was still unclear where my superpower originated from. Moreover, it seemed that the Mana in my blood rapidly decayed when out of my focus for a while, losing an unknown amount by the time of the analysis.

I wasn’t too disappointed. From the reactions of Zhu Shi and Lu Youxun, my superpower was absurd, even by the standards of demon hunters, and fell into the category of the unknown. It was unrealistic to expect that conventional methods could clarify the unknown.

While I was keen to know the source of my superpower, I wasn’t in a hurry. After all, it was an issue that had remained unclear for many years; there was no need to rush now.

I then reviewed other documents Zhu Shi had given me, which explained my duties as an Outer Path Impermanence of Luo Mountain.

Outer Path Impermanence didn’t need to follow Luo Mountain’s management like regular Impermanence; it was more a title than a job. All they had to do was regularly report their whereabouts to Luo Mountain and notify them in advance when traveling. If they didn’t have work, they could also apply for a substantial living fund from Luo Mountain; housing and car funds were calculated separately, and someone would pay their social security, and they could even apply for extra subsidies if there were elderly family members to support or urgent medical needs.

From an ordinary person’s perspective, it all seemed rather generous. However, considering this as a condition for keeping potentially high-risk social elements in check, it might be a good deal for Luo Mountain.

The cash reward for last time’s cooperation in the mystery person investigation had already been transferred into my account. The amount wasn’t as substantial as I had imagined, but according to Lu Youxun’s words, Luo Mountain usually recorded Impermanence’s merits as internal contribution points. These points could be directly exchanged for cash or resources related to magic, such as talismans and magic artifacts. The exchange catalogue had been sent to my phone in digital format, dazzling me with its array of options.

Because my performance and contributions in the incident report were downplayed, my points weren’t high enough to exchange for anything decent. Zhu Shi did tell me that if there was anything I liked, I could use the points she had accumulated so far, but I wasn’t quite shameless enough to accept yet, so I politely declined.

And now, I had the Outer Path Impermanence Sword. The value of this sword actually far exceeded my total points, and both its appearance and function perfectly matched my aesthetic, temporarily satisfying my desires.

After returning home, I also shared the details of the discussion with Mazao, and she generally agreed with the conclusions Zhu Shi and I had reached.

These past few days, under the effects of the soul healing medication, Mazao’s condition had significantly improved, and she wasn’t falling asleep at every turn. Additionally, she had screened and checked the soul loss patient list that Zhu Shi had sent over.

Considering the photographs and profiles of nearly a hundred thousand people, Mazao initially intended to carefully go through them from start to finish, but the volume of work was truly enormous. Assuming she spent half a minute per person, she would have to stay awake continuously for a month to finish. I understood why she wanted to be so thorough; it’s possible there was not only No.2 little bowl, but also past survivors from the Doomsday Era, who had been victims due to her Broom Star Physique.

Eventually, she had to compromise, merely focusing on finding No.2 little bowl from the hundred thousand names and checking each likely candidate.

But in the end, she found nothing.

Not a single girl resembling No.2 little bowl from Mazao’s memories was identified.

That night, Mazao sat on the sofa, still repeatedly checking the list to ensure 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 soul loss really has nothing to do with my time travel?"

She seemed a bit lost. She had seemingly prepared herself mentally. She was originally from modern society, only having traveled to and from the Doomsday Era because of soul loss—she had almost convinced herself to accept this theory, only to feel like her fists were punching cotton.

I thought it was too early to reach a conclusion. If we could find No.2 little bowl among the list of soul loss patients, it would prove that Mazao’s Doomsday travel was closely related to soul loss and might infer similar situations for other soul loss patients. Not finding her does not necessarily disprove it.

"It’s also possible that little bowl’s situation is different from yours; she wasn’t transported to the Doomsday Era due to soul loss but was originally living there," I suggested other possibilities. "Or perhaps for some reason, she hasn’t been counted, like maybe she’s abroad now or was taken as a vegetable by some local hospitals.

"Or perhaps little bowl is currently healthy, and her becoming a soul loss sufferer is something that is yet to happen. Then the soul of her future self transports even further into the Doomsday Era."

"Zhuang Cheng, that last hypothesis is a bit much..." Mazao started to object, then fell into contemplation, "...No, it might actually make sense..."

These were just one of the whimsical ideas I had come up with. All the sci-fi and fantasy stories involving time loops I had immersed myself in weren’t for nothing—there were even more far-fetched and self-consistent ideas than that.

However, I was also starting to feel it might be a bit unreliable to link "soul loss" with "Doomsday travel." Are we striving in a direction opposite to the truth? Occasionally, this thought surfaced.

Mazao’s time travel seemed to also relate to No.2 little bowl, or at least the latter had once mentioned it. Unfortunately, No.2 little bowl hadn’t sorted out her memories yet, and I hadn’t managed to extract the truth from her. I would have to wait until next time.

But more importantly, there was something else we needed to focus on now.

For some reason, the personnel at Luo Mountain responsible for soul loss, hadn’t contacted us yet.

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