Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 237 - 223 Impermanence in the Dark

Chapter 237: 223 Impermanence in the Dark

Mr. Zhu fell silent for a moment before saying, "...At least that seems to be the case for now."

I felt like I had nowhere to start.

I have a personal understanding of how strong the mobility of those at the Great Success Rank is. It has been two days since Yinyue took Changan’s soul away, and such a long time is more than enough for Yinyue to move to anywhere on Earth, or even to the moon. Without any clues, the task of finding her is infinitely close to impossible.

Is there really no clue at all? I asked myself inwardly while starting to go back through my memories, reviewing the scene when I defeated Yinyue. No matter how I looked at it, there was no discernible route that Yinyue could have taken to escape, meaning she could only have used Space Transfer to flee. In that case, Mazao’s tracking and investigative abilities would be rendered useless.

Would it be feasible to use the effect of attracting strange clues with the Broom Star Physique? But with the lack of a time limit, and the target possibly being far away, I couldn’t count on the Broom Star Physique benevolently pulling in the weird clues we wanted to come in contact with. It’s an uncontrollable power that attracts calamities and cannot always be regarded as a convenient method to utilize.

After racking my brains, slowly, a figure emerged in my mind.

It was a giant God-like statue, sitting deep within the Void Realm.

He once said—"Most occurrences in this world are within my knowledge."

Perhaps by using a Divine Seal Fragment to exchange for answers with him, I might obtain clues about Changan. Coincidentally, I have an extra Divine Seal Fragment in hand.

Should I propose a trade to him the next time I enter the Void Realm? But I also don’t know when I will be able to enter the Void Realm again.

Mr. Zhu took the initiative to move on to the next topic, this time he reported to me in a briefing tone about the public opinion on me from Luo Mountain.

"...Now the hottest topic there is about you defeating three individuals of the Great Success Rank in a row at the old Human Bureau base, and many people think you might become the new Impermanence," he said.

To possibly become the new Impermanence means that now, in the eyes of many, I still haven’t crossed the threshold into Impermanence.

That’s also how I evaluate myself. Even though now I can kill Chen Long and Divine Spear in one strike, I estimate it’s still the combat power of the Great Success Rank. "One-shotting the Great Success Rank" might sound impressive, but among the Great Success Rank, it’s very likely that they can easily one-shot each other already.

According to what Zhu Shi mentioned to me in past conversations, demon hunters’ Spell and modern military technologies have one thing in common—that is, the offensive capabilities are much higher than the defensive ones. Even for someone like Luoshan Impermanence, who values all-around development, the attack aspect is distinctly stronger compared to defense.

So far, I have encountered three individuals of the Great Success Rank: Chen Long, Divine Spear, and Yinyue. Excluding Yinyue, who is not even human, the patterns observed from both Divine Spear and Chen Long—human Great Success Rank—could give us some insights. The "Teleportation Door Armor", symbolic of extreme defensive power, when faced with the accumulating Killing Move of Divine Spear, symbolic of extreme offensive power, definitely does not result in an evenly matched confrontation, but in the former being instantly killed by the latter.

Purely in terms of the strength of the blow, my one strike that defeated the above three is not stronger than the charged Killing Moves of Yinyue and Divine Spear. It’s just that the latter two needed time to accumulate power, while I can perform it like a normal attack. In other words, what I was able to do, given enough effort, they could also achieve—just this alone is enough to indicate that there is no essential difference between us.

Moreover, Divine Spear’s Killing Move came with the outrageous effects of Guaranteed Hit and Penetration. Just as I could instantly kill him, he could do the same to other Great Success Rank individuals. And if other Great Success Rank figures took the initiative, it might be him getting instantly killed instead.

The reason I was able to repeatedly overpower Divine Spear is not that my power is stronger, but because for some reason I just can’t be killed. Among demon hunters, where the offensive capacity far exceeds the defense, I am also an anomaly. And this does not mean I am Impermanence.

However...I am still getting stronger.

This is something I’ve gradually noticed over the past two days. Even though I experienced a dramatic increase in power during my battle with Yinyue, such an increase was not just a single jump to a higher level. Even now, as I converse with Mr. Zhu, my power is still continuously rising.

Previously, I needed external stimuli to slowly release my inner potential, but now I don’t even need that. Perhaps this "awakening" is exactly what that means. Since I’m already awake, there’s no need for an external "alarm clock" anymore.

Based on what I feel, even if I do nothing now and just lie down anywhere, my power will automatically grow and reach a full release within a month at most. By then, compared to the current version of myself, I will genuinely turn heaven and earth. Maybe at that time, I could truly step into the realm of Impermanence.

Speaking of "Impermanence," another important matter came to my mind.

"Right, Mr. Zhu... have you heard of ’Fa Zheng,’ the Impermanence?" I asked.

This question is critical as it relates to the authenticity of the "illusion" information.

"’Fa Zheng’?" Mr. Zhu asked in surprise, "Where did you hear this name?"

Before I could answer, he continued, "Just right, I was about to inform you about Fa Zheng."

From his tone, it seemed that the person named Fa Zheng really exists!

"I don’t know how much you know about Fa Zheng, so I’ll start from the beginning. Fa Zheng is Impermanence, the leader of the Governance Ideology faction; in other words, he is currently the highest-ranking leader of our Zhu family. Nevertheless, I estimate that Impermanence might not have taken much notice of the Zhu family, perhaps not even knowing that we are under his command—but that was until yesterday." Mr. Zhu said, "Just yesterday, Fa Zheng reached out to our Zhu family, hoping to convey a message to you through us."

"Convey a message?" I asked puzzled, "Didn’t the Zhu family openly sever ties with me?"

"That’s right. Fa Zheng probably just sees the Zhu family as a megaphone," Mr. Zhu explained.

"So, what is the message he wants to convey?" I inquired.

"He’s offering you an olive branch, that is, he’s attempting to win you over," Mr. Zhu answered.

"Win me over..." I repeated, "Even though I killed a Great Success Rank from Luo Mountain? Since it’s Governance Ideology, he should value rules quite a bit. What I did is clearly an act of rebellion against Luo Mountain."

A Great Success Rank is second only to Impermanence in status within Luo Mountain, and there are fewer than twenty such individuals. Even if Divine Spear wasn’t a close confidant of Fa Zheng, wouldn’t this action be problematic? Even if Fa Zheng, as an Impermanence, can disregard many rules, he should at least somewhat consider the opinion of the Impermanence behind the scenes of Divine Spear.

Being an Extraordinary Fanatic, the Impermanence behind Divine Spear is most likely also an Extraordinary Fanatic; while Fa Zheng is at the helm of Governance Ideology, could he afford to dismiss the view of an Extraordinary Impermanence?

Something about this deduction didn’t seem quite right.

"If you had just killed Divine Spear in an ordinary way, then it would be hard to say, but that’s not the case, is it? Returning those two demon hunters to Luo Mountain was the right decision; they’ve greatly publicized the details of your fight with Divine Spear. Also, the demon hunters who participated in the raid on the old Human Bureau stronghold have spread the word about your battle with Chen Long," Mr. Zhu said, "Chen Long is a Great Success Rank forged by the Human Bureau’s technology, and Luo Mountain has always looked down upon Human Bureau technology. Therefore, your one-strike victory over him has been viewed with skepticism by others. But defeating Divine Spear is different...

"Not only did you kill Divine Spear in one hit, but you also took his ’Guaranteed Hit and Penetration’ killing move head-on and came out completely unscathed. This feat is enough to draw a decisive line between you and the other Great Success Ranks.

"For the Impermanences, a Great Success Rank is nothing special; but if you’re ’a future Impermanence,’ then the nature of the situation changes entirely."

The details of my fight with Yinyue didn’t seem to spread much. No wonder, others probably only judged the outcome by the conflict of mana fluctuations and didn’t closely observe the actual battlefield. If anyone had unfortunately come close, they would probably have turned to ash in Yinyue’s nuclear explosion.

"The nature of the situation... That must apply to the Impermanence behind Divine Spear as well," I speculated, "If Fa Zheng wants to win me over, one would think he should actually want to eliminate me."

Mr. Zhu spoke slowly: "Fa Zheng hopes you will go to one of his bases. There, the Impermanence behind Divine Spear should not be able to lock onto you. What do you think?"

I could tell that he seemed to be hoping I would accept this olive branch. He is also a Governance Realist, perhaps hoping to use this opportunity to bring me into the fold of Governance Ideology.

As for Fa Zheng’s side, frankly, I had some doubts about whether Fa Zheng even knows who is behind Divine Spear. Perhaps there is also internal strife among the Impermanences, and now he’s not only hoping I will join Governance Ideology but also to entangle me within the internal disputes of the Impermanences.

I have absolutely no interest in such matters, let alone becoming someone else’s pawn. Moreover, this Impermanence named Fa Zheng is somewhat dubious... or rather, suspect...

Right, I now know what felt off to me before.

The one commanding Divine Spear, an Extraordinary Great Success Rank, might not necessarily be an Extraordinary Impermanence. In fact, I don’t believe that Impermanences and Great Success Ranks are bound by mere ’ideologies’ and ’factions.’ What determines their power has never been their status within these positions, but the purest form of strength.

I must consider this—not that ’Impermanence Fa Zheng’ is a member of ’Governance Ideology,’ but that ’Governance Ideology’ is subordinate to ’Impermanence Fa Zheng.’

Similarly, Extraordinaryism likely doesn’t have much of a hold over Divine Spear as a Great Success Rank.

They are not ordinary people who need to be part of organizations to maintain influence.

In other words, Fa Zheng could very well be the mastermind behind Divine Spear’s abduction of Mazao.

Even if that’s not the case, I can’t afford to be careless. Because no one has ever guaranteed that there’s only one Impermanence after Mazao in the dark.

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