Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 349 - 324 Nostalgia

Chapter 349: 324 Nostalgia

Mazao naturally wasn’t completely unrestricted when it came to resetting her soul state.

For instance, in a virtual game, if there is a character with ten thousand health points and a passive skill that guarantees a full health recovery when damaged, as long as the single instance of damage does not exceed ten thousand points, they would never die. Conversely, no matter how much health they can recover after taking damage, if the character dies, then that’s the end of it.

Once Mazao’s soul suffers a load beyond its limit, the blessing power would become inoperative, and the self-purification mechanism designed to clear the load would grind to a halt.

However, to regard this as a weakness of Mazao’s power is somewhat akin to nit-picking. It’s like saying no matter how powerful a weapon is, it’s utterly useless if the wielder dies first. As long as she is mindful of the soul’s limit for a single instance of load, it is as if she can use any skill without any burden.

Other forms of deterioration, like the injuries she suffers in combat, can also be reset following this logic. What’s more impressive, considering what she did for the people of Moon Concealing Mountain City before, is that this advantage can not only be applied to herself but also extend to all the allies on the same battlefield as her. And taking into account her Space Transfer skill, the requirement to be "on the same battlefield as her" could be somewhat circumvented.

Due to the concerns over the Broom Star Physique, Mazao spent most of her time in the Doomsday Era operating solo, a situation which likely buried her talents to a large extent. Although one cannot expect her power to be effective against companions and enemies on the level of Impermanence, at the Great Success Rank and below, her value is immeasurably high.

So, is there a way for Mazao to also ascend to the level of Impermanence? Although such a thought could be considered greedy and laughed off as fanciful by others, I am seriously contemplating this matter.

Mazao continued speaking.

She picked up the stone necklace and reported her findings.

"You are correct in your conjecture about this stone necklace; it is indeed an artifact used by Yinyue to bind the Ancient Moon God within her Fatian Xiangdi, specially crafted to target the Ancient Moon God," she said. "That is to say... this object would be exceedingly effective even against Yinyue herself."

I immediately turned my attention back to the topic: "Why is that?"

"Because the Ancient Moon God is essentially another self designed and created by Yinyue."

Although I have never seen Yinyue or the Ancient Moon God with my own eyes, Mazao, after a thorough investigation of the stone necklace, might understand Yinyue and the Ancient Moon God even more than I do. She continued, "Even though Yinyue ultimately deemed it a failed creation, not fit to be her retribution body, from a design concept perspective, it is indeed ’another Yinyue’. The reason why Yinyue could create such a targeted Sealing artifact against the Ancient Moon God is that she possesses the ’blueprint’ of the Ancient Moon God.

"On the other hand, the current Yinyue is not the Yinyue from before death but a manifestation of Yinyue, created with the core design concept of ’another Yinyue.’ Although there are vast differences in specific implementation, the two can be said to have a kind of coincidental similarity. The stone necklace that can perfectly restrain the Ancient Moon God can naturally perfectly restrain the current Yinyue as well."

"In other words..." I looked at the stone necklace, "Yinyue created a magical item to seal herself?"

At the same time, inspiration surged in my mind.

I might have fallen into a misconception before—there is no need to separate Changan and Yinyue in order to save Changan.

Just as Yinyue herself said, without her, Changan’s personality would become an empty shell, unable to sustain itself. In that case, simply resealing Yinyue into the subconscious realm of Changan would suffice.

Yinyue taking Changan’s place in the real world is not without precedent; she herself said Changan’s childhood loss of control was not a rampage of demon blood, but the result of her own self-awakening surfacing. Therefore, by repeating past actions, the consciousness of Yinyue can be remodeled into the foundational architecture that allows Changan’s personality to be established. Although this method leaves a significant risk, it is at least a million times better than being completely powerless.

Even now, the "strategy artifact" capable of this task has been delivered into my hands!

Wait... could this be the implied condition in Gua Tianshi’s prophecy that I would need to save Changan at Moon Concealing Mountain? Because I failed to realize the value of this stone necklace in advance, did I miss the opportunity to save Changan?

When I put forward this point, Mazao shook her head.

"No, this stone necklace was originally incapable of being used against Yinyue..." she said, "After creating this Sealing artifact, Yinyue was not oblivious to the possibility that it could be used against her by others. Therefore, during the design stage, she set up a mechanism to prevent it from affecting herself.

"To be specific, this stone necklace can only function normally within the boundaries of Yinyue’s Fatian Xiangdi and must be powered by her own Mana Energy. No matter how much the stone necklace could restrain her, if the power source was her own, she could always shut down its effects.

"Even if someone could mimic her Mana, it would be useless. As soon as it is fed into the stone necklace, the right to manipulate the similar Mana would automatically transfer into her hands—this is also one of the stone necklace’s latent functions."

That is to say, this stone necklace is like an electrical appliance that cannot be used without being connected to a power source. And Yinyue is like a "supernatural power user who freely manipulates electricity." No matter what the specific function of the appliance is, as long as it uses electricity, there’s no reason it could show off its power in her presence.

However, I noticed that Mazao used a strange word at the beginning.

"You said... ’originally’?" I asked.

She first nods, then says, "Because this stone necklace has worked before, I can use the Power of Return to make the stone necklace return to a functioning state—even if there is no Mana Energy inside."

"Are you saying that it’s like a cellphone that, despite having no trace of battery left and not being connected to any external power source, can somehow be powered on and operate?" I asked.

She thought for a moment, then affirmed, "That’s right."

That’s got to be a haunted machine then.

However, in that case, Yinyue can no longer use her own backdoor designed in the stone necklace to counteract.

I still had doubts about using Yinyue’s own items to seal her, so I asked one more question, "If you do it yourself, can you reset Yinyue to a ’sealed state’?"

"I’m probably no match for Yinyue, and my Power of Return could likely be countered by her reality-altering power," Mazao replied, "Although if she is first weakened to an extremely powerless state, my power might be able to override hers. But the sealing that the Zhu family applied to Yinyue in the past may not be strong enough to truly hold down her spirit, and she could quickly break free from it.

"Unless my power can also reset her consciousness and memories to the past state, but..."

She looked at the stone necklace, then said, "...Yinyue’s spiritual state seems to be at a depth I cannot comprehend. Even if she becomes very weak, there’s a high probability that I cannot interfere with her consciousness and memory."

"Is that so..."

I remembered what Yinyue had mentioned, about her past attempts at proving the path of the True Spirit, comprehending the sense of form and formlessness... The "spiritual depth" Mazao spoke of might be related to this as well.

"...If it really comes to it, I can try."

Seeing my expression, Mazao gathered her courage and said, "To restore myself to my current state, you paid the price of not being able to save a friend... I will try not to let you down."

"No, it’s fine... You’ve already brought me plenty of good news," I said sincerely, "Without you, I really wouldn’t know what to do next... Help me adjust this stone necklace to a usable state."

"I understand." She nodded vigorously.

The next morning, Mazao and I returned to Saltwater City.

The hidden city of Moon Concealing Mountain is extremely far from Saltwater City, but such a distance is simply not a concern for us. I had already notified the Zhu family, saying that I was going to exchange information next. Since there was a lot to discuss, involving Little Bowl and Zhu Shi, as well as my plans of action after becoming Impermanence and more, it was best to have Mazao come along for face-to-face discussions.

This matter wasn’t very urgent, so I told them to prioritize their current tasks first, and took a walk on the streets of Saltwater City with Mazao for a while.

We passed by Saltwater University, the food truck still in operation nearby, selling its usual fare of scallion pancakes and soy milk among other items. We took a detour to look at the restaurants and clothing stores that I used to visit with Mazao and Zhu Shi; aside from changes in the details of the signs, everything else remained the same. However, the unchanging scene didn’t bring a sense of warmth and friendliness but rather translated into an indescribable distance between me and this city.

We also took Mazao back to my place. It had been just a few days since I was back, but sitting on the sofa and looking at the empty living room, I felt a disconnect as if I didn’t belong here. After a quick breakfast at home, we left again.

Though I was in Saltwater City, a place where I grew up, for some reason, I felt as if I was walking through a foreign land, with an emotion akin to homesickness. I could come back here anytime, and I was walking on its streets now, but there was a feeling that I somehow couldn’t return anymore.

I shared these feelings with Mazao, but she didn’t quite empathize. Though she found the sights nostalgic, it was different from my homesickness. For her, every place in this era was a foreign land. While not as restless as in the Doomsday Era, she was wrapped in a solitude that was very different from mine.

Standing on different grounds, people seeing the same place can perceive different scenes. I am slowly losing sight of my own homeland now.