Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 249 - 233 Evils

Chapter 249: 233 Evils

At least there’s one piece of good news now: I no longer have to worry about my carefully cultivated image being shattered.

Given the current situation, even if Mazao learns about my past pursuits of bizarre events through other channels, she probably won’t believe that I was genuinely in pursuit of such events. Similarly, I can’t use this past experience to bolster the persuasiveness of my heartfelt words. The reason is simple; not to mention others, even I myself couldn’t be completely sure whether I was truly in pursuit of bizarre events, or if I was merely fond of them in theory, until the incident in the basement of the fifteenth floor.

So, should I change tack and say that I need Mazao "to anchor myself in the abnormal world"? As the abnormal world and the world of common sense are rapidly merging, without Mazao in the future, I might well face complete rejection from both worlds, and eventually be completely excluded from the civilized world of humanity—this reason is incredibly persuasive.

However, there are several problems with this reason: First, the so-called "future possibility of being completely rejected by both the abnormal world and the world of common sense" is just my past conjecture, and whether those of us with the qualifications of Great Impermanence, like myself, as well as the Great Impermanences themselves, will really face such a terrifying situation remains up for debate.

Secondly, just to anchor myself in the abnormal world, Mazao isn’t strictly necessary. After I form enough ties in the abnormal world (which I don’t think will take too long), my relationship with Mazao will once again become unstable. At that time, I could use the second Little Bowl card, but that would be a last resort.

The most important point is that what I truly hope for is to reach Mazao’s heart with my heartfelt words.

Do I need her because I’m afraid of being excluded from the civilized world of humanity? While it would be false to say that I’m not worried about it at all, this reason only came to my mind afterward, and doesn’t really touch my true feelings.

Even if I were to form enough ties in the abnormal world in the future, I would never want to let go of Mazao. Her very existence is an adventure to me. In less than a month since our encounter, I have already experienced so many ups and downs. She might say she carries bad luck, but in my eyes, she’s practically a goddess of fortune.

After the conversation, Mazao took out the head of Divine Spear and continued her investigation.

Whether it’s investigating the real identity of Great Impermanence behind Divine Spear, or finding the soul of Changan that Yinyue took away, both tasks require time.

"Zhuang Cheng, can you show me the Nameless pendant that Fufeng gave you? I want to investigate if there’s any backdoor," Mazao looked at my chest.

Her tone and expression seemed very natural, as if she had forgotten about our previous conversation.

I took the pendant off and handed it to her, asking, "You can see if there’s anything amiss with this, too?"

"At least one night’s time is needed," she said.

She was supposed to be able to find backdoors in the item that Lu Youxun gave her as an alternative for bearing the soul’s burden, but there wasn’t enough time. Of course, she probably expected from the start that there would be a backdoor and had made preparations to counter it.

Thinking about that, I remembered another item, and said, "Actually, there’s something else. Can you help me investigate it?"

"What is it?" Mazao was curious.

I conjured a ball of flame and took out a palm-sized, fire-scorched, shattered round mirror from it.

This broken round mirror is suspected to be a relic of Dr. Silver Mask—I’m not entirely sure, to be exact, it’s a foreign object that I found at the former base of the Human Bureau in the real world, at the location where Dr. Silver Mask died. Considering the burn marks on it, it felt to me like "an item dropped by Dr. Silver Mask".

Previously, I had always kept this broken round mirror hidden inside the flame. It might sound as if my flames were some sort of spatial storage tool, which might not be far from the truth. Since I can freely convert my personal belongings between flame and solid matter, the flames indeed function much like a virtual game’s inventory bar.

But since the condition is "personal belongings," obviously it can’t store items that are too large, and even for appropriately sized items, it can’t hold too many at the same time. Otherwise, it would no longer be personal—the inherent notion itself is probably what limits me from achieving more.

There are many undefined aspects of my superpower. Take the national level one Demon Hunting badge of young mistress Lu Chan, for example—that silver badge could be considered Chen Long’s dropped item, as well as something abandoned by the past Lu Chan, so it’s an unclaimed object, to further say, it can also be considered my spoils of war, naturally allowing me to treat it as a personal item for Flame Transmission.

However, upon reflection, that silver badge was Young Mistress Lu Chan’s entity at that time, the object where her obsession resided. Could it really be treated as "my thing"? I didn’t think much about it at the time, and I took that silver badge with me for Flame Transmission more than once as if it were a matter of course. If by chance I had dwelled on this question, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it.

When it comes to "Mana", the difference between being able to and not being able to is merely a single thought. That is why Yinyue, who can think in a way different from humans, is so feared.

At the moment, I’m not sure what the shattered round mirror in my hand truly means, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have Mazao investigate it first.

After listening to my explanation, Mazao took the shattered round mirror, saying she would thoroughly investigate it later.

"This appears to be an artifact for spells," she said. "Not just for investigation... I should also be able to repair this mirror to a certain extent."

She could even repair magical artifacts... Cautiously, I said, "Just in case, let’s finish our investigation before we discuss anything further."

She nodded and started investigating the two unnamed pendants we were planning to keep close to us.

I was not idle either; I released some "fireflies" to learn more about the Fufeng Base. At the same time, I checked on Dong Che through the thermal energy marker I had placed on him.

Right now, he was quietly reading a magazine in his room. Just a second passed when he suddenly raised his head.

Fufeng had mentioned that Dong Che possesses perceptual abilities far beyond those of a regular achieved level demon hunter. It seems, thanks to that, Dong Che appears to have sensed that I was watching him.

Not only did he not show any irritation, but he actually said happily, "Zhuang Cheng... no, Senior Zhuang Cheng! Are you watching me? Want to chat?"

I had only meant to glance at him with no intention to chat, so I acted as if nothing had happened and redirected my gaze.

Now, I need to focus on another matter of even greater importance.

-

It was only after Fufeng told me that "There are only four from the Transcendentalism Mountain who have achieved the title of Impermanence" that I realized I had never delved deeply into information about the Lushan Great Impermanences.

Because I wasn’t interested in the political tumult of Lushan, I had intentionally and unintentionally avoided thinking about which Great Impermanences supported Extraordinaryism, which supported Governance Ideology, and so on. It has only dawned on me that I didn’t even know specifically which Great Impermanences were at Lushan.

I inquired about information on the Great Impermanences of Lushan through the "fireflies" to the Zhu family, and Mr. Zhu quickly compiled a detailed dossier and passed it to me.

Although Lushan is full of factions, they can be fundamentally divided into two camps: Extraordinaryism and Governance Ideology. Currently, there are eight Great Impermanences in Lushan. Since four of them are for Extraordinaryism, it seems the remaining four should be for Governance Ideology. A four-on-four seems balanced, but this is not actually the case.

Of the remaining Great Impermanences, only two support Governance Ideology, while the other two are neutral. Furthermore, according to public opinion, the two neutral Great Impermanences show a tendency more towards Extraordinaryism.

Most demon hunters don’t seem to be extreme enough to believe they must turn mortals into slaves or even into resources and consumables; however, they do think they should have a superior status in society. From this perspective, most demon hunters are actually inclined towards Governance Ideology. Yet, in Lushan, an organization where superstructures are decisive, Governance Ideology’s standing is definitely not optimistic.

No wonder Fufeng is so eager to recruit me, the "future Great Impermanence." If I were to be swayed by the opposition, it would add insult to injury for Governance Ideology.

For now, I put those considerations aside and focus on the names of these eight Great Impermanences.

The four Great Impermanences of Extraordinaryism are Gua Tianshi, King Zhuanlun, Ming Zhuo, and Divine Light;

The two for Governance Ideology are Fa Zheng and Jian Feixian;

The two neutrals are Old Fist God and Liu Shuying.

The Great Impermanence behind Divine Spear could very well be hidden among those four of Extraordinaryism. Moreover, there could be more than one lusting after Mazao in the shadows, and the others are all kind of suspicious.

And Number Six is hidden among them too...

As I pondered, my eyes were drawn to the name "King Zhuanlun."

In the folk mythological system, King Zhuanlun is one of the Ten Hall Yamas. Unlike the other Yamas who oversee ghastly torture in hell, His domain is crudely said to revolve around "soul reincarnation."

The Great Impermanences of Lushan are the mythological prototypes of the Underworld Yama. Among those Great Impermanence names that seem unrelated to Yama, King Zhuanlun is the only one that directly brings to mind the Netherworld.

Mazao is known in Mysticism as a "person who has returned from death," and from another perspective, he could be considered a soul that has escaped from the clutches of Yama.

The adage, "Yama calls for your death at the third watch, who dares to keep the person until the fifth watch..." echoes in my mind.

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