Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 290 - 270 Afterlife World 1_2

Chapter 290: 270 Afterlife World 1_2

Upon hearing this, I recalled something. The former Lu Youxun was aware of Mazao’s soul trauma, and since Mazao had not yet shed her solitary psychological state at the time and was not particularly secretive about her personal information, she mentioned in front of Lu Youxun that the scars were left by the Great Demon, and indicated that the Great Demon and Impermanence were of the same level. Could it be that the information leaked at that time?

I simply asked directly, "Did Ming Zhuo kidnap Mazao to heal his own wounds?"

"Why would you think that?" Lu Chan surprisingly asked in return.

"Isn’t that the reason?" I was taken aback.

"Her power is merely the ability to rewind time. How could it possibly heal the injuries caused by Impermanence? What Ming Zhuo really values is her identity as a survivor of soul loss. Or rather, her status as ’one who has died and been resurrected’," he explained.

One who has died and been resurrected, Ming Zhuo had also referred to Mazao that way... I inquired, "Soul loss is an illness where the soul dies, and to wake up from it equates to being ’resurrected from death’—is that what you mean?"

Lu Chan wrote the word "yes" on a piece of white paper, and I continued to inquire, "Why would Ming Zhuo want a ’resurrected’ person?"

I had thought that such an identity would be of interest to the Reincarnation King.

"It’s related to the power that Ming Zhuo possesses," replied Lu Chan. "In Luo Mountain, Ming Zhuo is neither as strong as Old Fist God nor as wise as Gua Tianshi, but he is definitely the Impermanence that is the most difficult to kill.

"Even Gua Tianshi has admitted that even if the world were to end tomorrow, Ming Zhuo would not truly die. Because he possesses the most unsolvable Undying Body amongst all past Impermanences.

"Xuanming once wished to kill him just as he defeated Fu Hongchen, but Ming Zhuo would revive infinitely even if killed. In the end, Xuanming could only manage to delay his resurrection time and had no choice but to withdraw from the battlefield."

"Undying?" I suddenly felt that the problem might be quite serious.

In my most idealized plan, I would fully unleash all my own power and then go defeat Ming Zhuo after acquiring the power of an Impermanence level. If it were possible to kill him directly, any malicious intent he has towards Mazao would dissipate with him.

However, if the enemy is a monster that cannot be killed, wouldn’t that mean an eternal enemy that can never be eradicated?

"Does this Undying Body have any weaknesses?"

Although I asked this question, I didn’t expect Lu Chan would actually know any weaknesses of Impermanence.

Surprisingly, Lu Chan really did have an answer.

"Based on the information I have, there is only one situation in which Ming Zhuo would die, and that is to wait until he has exhausted his remaining lifespan and dies a natural death," he said.

"What kind of weakness is that... wait, Impermanence can exhaust their lifespan?" I had thought that all Impermanences were immortal.

"Generally speaking, Impermanences live as long as the heavens and the earth, but Ming Zhuo is a very rare exception," he patiently explained. "A long time ago, when he had not yet evolved into an Impermanence, to survive certain dangers, he made a pact with Naraku. At the cost of a future where he cannot escape death by any means of extending his lifespan, he obtained Divine Skills where he would absolutely not die until his lifespan was exhausted."

"Do you think such terms are too favorable for him? These kinds of matters depend on the individual. Not to mention whether ordinary people are qualified to sign a contract with Naraku, even if they could, they definitely could not achieve the same effect as him. Although I have vowed to fight for the common people, I must admit, objectively speaking, the life of an ordinary person is indeed less valuable than that of Impermanence, and the value they could get in exchange is worlds apart.

"At that time, Ming Zhuo, despite not yet being Impermanence, was already a candidate for Impermanence, and what he traded was his nearly infinite lifespan. The price he paid for the Undying Body was almost absolute, without any known method of breaking it.

"Let me make it clear, even if you had the power to accelerate time by tens of millions of times, and used this power to wear down his lifespan, it would be ineffective. Any conceivable shortcut you might imagine has been tried on him by others in the past, and even he has tried it on himself, but all to no avail. That Undying Body is not something that can be overcome with mere cleverness or concepts."

"He has tried it on himself? Why?"

I was puzzled at first, and then I realized: "I see... He wanted to try using the Power of Time to slow down the speed at which his lifespan diminishes."

Since accelerating time cannot shorten his lifespan, then conversely, even if he used the power to slow down time, he cannot extend his lifespan.

Similarly, Mazao’s power to turn back time also cannot restore his original lifespan.

Although logically speaking, it seems unreasonable that one cannot extend or shorten lifespan by accelerating or decelerating time... Ming Zhuo’s Undying Body clearly has a more mysterious mechanism, or perhaps there isn’t any mechanism at all, it’s simply an entity that defies all reason.

"How much lifespan does Ming Zhuo have left?"

I asked this question first, then tried to steer the conversation back to its original course: "And, what does this have to do with Mazao, this ’resurrected person’?"

"Ming Zhuo’s remaining lifespan, although the exact number is unknown, Luo Mountain generally believes that he can live for at most another ten years. Perhaps this is why he has also become anxious." Lu Chan spoke of Ming Zhuo with no reverence, "Now, he is trying to find a way to reconnect with Naraku, hoping to annul the contract he signed in the past.

"To achieve this, he has captured many humans born with strong spiritual power and killed them, hoping their souls would go to Naraku, thereby knocking on the door to Naraku...I won’t conceal it, during my time as night patrol, I have secretly captured quite a number of innocents and sent them to Ming Zhuo.

"And the connection with Mazao lies in the fact that, being a ’resurrected person’, she possibly has a connection to Naraku.

"This should be easy to understand, right? If ’death’ is the soul falling into the afterlife, then ’resurrection’ is the soul returning from the afterlife to the Living World... In this departure and return, the connection between life and death is established.

"If it were a resurrection of an ordinary person, Ming Zhuo could accomplish it himself. The conditions required to revive an ordinary person are quite strict, but not difficult with the power of Impermanence. However, this method lacks an extremely necessary condition to be met, and even if it is met, their spiritual power is not strong enough to support the purpose Ming Zhuo desires to achieve, as a bridge to establish contact with Naraku, it would be too fragile.

"Whereas a person with strong spiritual power like Mazao, just using her as the material for the ritual and killing her in the correct steps, can form a sufficiently stable bridge to Naraku.

"Moreover, according to Extraordinaryism’s in-depth investigation into the traces of her remaining mana, at her peak, she might have been a person who surpassed achieved level... You should have already gained some understanding of Ying Lingyun and Yinyue, and you should also understand how difficult it is to replicate the resurrection of a person of this level, right?"

"I think I understand," I said, "to put it simply, Mazao is being considered by him as the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures needed to extend his own lifespan—is that how I should understand it?"

"It doesn’t seem quite right...but you’re correct," he replied with a helpless expression.

"But there’s still something I don’t quite understand. If he was able to establish contact with Naraku and sign a contract before he became Impermanence, why can’t he do it now?" I asked.

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