Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 351 - 326 Zhu Shi Fatian Xiangdi 1

Chapter 351: 326 Zhu Shi Fatian Xiangdi 1

Even in the dream where I saw Zhu Shi and Little Bowl looking exactly alike, I wasn’t completely certain that they were identical in reality because, after all, it was in a dream that I witnessed the scene. Although it was a dream shared by Yinyue and Changan, since I, an outsider, joined in, I can’t rule out the possibility that information from my memory got mixed in, thereby replacing Zhu Shi’s appearance with what I had seen in the Mind-Written Photos of Little Bowl.

However, if I could find the white box that I saw in the dream in the Zhu family’s home in the real world, the credibility of this matter would indeed undergo a true qualitative change.

And in fact, the Zhu family did have such a white box.

I had previously worried that the possible existence of this box might have been involved in the incident where Chen Long attacked the Zhu family estate, dooming it to be discarded. However, in that incident, the white box was not at the Zhu family estate at all, but instead, was placed in Zhu Jiu’s ward at the military hospital.

After that, Zhu Jiu—Zhu Shi’s mother’s—location for convalescence was transferred from the military hospital to another place that was safer and more discreet. And after Mr. Zhu and Zhu Shi settled in a villa in the city center, Zhu Jiu was also brought to a room on the second floor of the villa, to be personally cared for by the two of them.

Upon our arrival on the second floor, I saw Zhu Jiu lying on the bed.

In the past, during the Fallen Demon Hunter incident, in order to remotely monitor the changes around Changan, I used "Fireflies" to follow him into the military hospital, and at that time, I also saw Zhu Jiu. However, to be formally sharing a room with her like this was a first.

Zhu Jiu should be around forty years old this year, and perhaps due to possessing the cultivation of a Demon Hunter, she looks like she could be a senior from Zhu Shi’s university; with her eyes closed and leaning against the pillow, her posture was like that of a Sleeping Beauty princess from a fairy tale.

Then Zhu Shi moved a white box from the bottom of the wardrobe.

This box was almost identical to the white box I had seen in the Spirit World of Yinyue and Changan. I say "almost" not because there were characteristics that made me feel this was a different item, but merely because there were signs of aging left by time on it. The white box seen in that dream was ultimately a product of many years ago; after such a long time, it would certainly display some signs of aging.

If it were not for the comparison between the old and the new, and my own rock-solid memory, this white box could have been called new without arousing suspicion—it’s clear it had been well-cared for over the past years.

Zhu Shi opened the white box, which was filled with cloth dolls that had been carefully maintained and cared for.

"—Is this the box?" Zhu Shi asked me nervously.

I assertively replied, "It’s this one."

Mazao then showed a bewildered expression, staring at Zhu Shi and saying, "So it means that Zhu Shi truly is Little Bowl..."

"Could I take a look at Zhu Shi’s photos from when he was a child?" I made the request to Mr. Zhu.

Mr. Zhu nodded, ready to turn around to fetch something, but Mazao quickly summoned the Mind-Written Photos. So Mr. Zhu took the Mind-Written Photos, printing out the childhood appearance of Zhu Shi from his memory, while Mazao and I also created an image of Little Bowl using the Mind-Written Photos.

Just in case, I even asked Mr. Zhu to print out what Zhu Jiu looked like when she was a child.

Because I had previously suspected that Zhu Jiu might be Little Bowl, and this possibility has not been completely eliminated until now.

A soul-loss patient’s soul might have traveled to the Doomsday Era—we have not yet obtained any evidence to refute this conjecture (although there is also no evidence to verify this conjecture); while currently, the only one affected by soul loss in the Zhu family is Zhu Jiu, as Zhu Shi is still lively and standing right in front of us.

Indeed, even if Zhu Jiu had become a little girl in the Doomsday Era, she shouldn’t look exactly like her daughter as a child. But that’s just a general theory. Parents and children who look exactly alike must exist somewhere in this world. Now that we have the opportunity to confirm it, we might as well do so.

Mr. Zhu handed over the photo of Zhu Jiu as a child, and Mazao and I both looked at it, with even Zhu Shi unable to resist leaning over, tightly cuddling up next to Mazao.

Had it been in the past, Mazao might have shown a disgusted expression and moved away slightly, but now she paused briefly and did not take any action.

I carefully observed the little girl in the photo.

Placed next to the photo of young Zhu Shi, young Zhu Jiu did indeed look about ninety percent similar to him. Of course, to be precise, it’s Zhu Shi who looks ninety percent like Zhu Jiu. Any discerning person could tell these were two completely different children.

This was the first time both Mazao and I had seen the appearance of young Zhu Jiu. Therefore, even if my memory had flowed into the dream of Yinyue and Changan last time, it couldn’t have mistaken Zhu Shi’s appearance for Zhu Jiu’s. And Mazao couldn’t have printed Little Bowl’s appearance as Zhu Jiu’s on the Mind-Written Photos either.

It seems that I can now be completely certain.

Mr. Zhu pondered and said, "If I really had to say something was off... my granddaughter has always been a bit silly since she was little, but the photo you guys printed of this girl called Little Bowl, just by looking at her head, it’s clear that she’s very clever..."

"Grandpa!" Zhu Shi called out in dissatisfaction.

"Since Little Bowl is very likely the young girl that Zhu Shi transformed into after rejuvenation, plus the fact that she has crawled and tumbled through the Doomsday Era for such a long time, it would make sense that she is smarter than the real Zhu Shi was during her childhood," I said. "However... there are actually other discrepancies."

I recalled Little Bowl’s behavior in the Void Realm, then said, "Little Bowl told me that she has had the power to communicate with all things in nature since she was young..."

Upon hearing this, the expression in Zhu Shi’s eyes slightly changed, while Mr. Zhu nodded and said, "...That’s even more proof that the Little Bowl you speak of is my granddaughter herself."

"Why is that?" I asked. "Does Zhu Shi also possess the same power?"

That shouldn’t be the case; I’ve fought side by side with Zhu Shi more than once, and if she really had such a powerful ability, she wouldn’t have kept it hidden.

Unless the current Zhu Shi had already lost that power.

At this moment, I remembered what Ying Lingyun... or rather the monster maker, had said to Zhu Shi when he appeared in front of us.

- "It’s truly sad. If it was the genius you from your youth, you would have already won the acknowledgement of the Yama Sword."

Thinking about it now, there seems to be an issue with that statement. Praised as a genius in her youth—does it mean the current Zhu Shi is no longer a genius?

Under normal circumstances, I would have been bothered by this issue and would have asked Zhu Shi about it afterward. However, because of the shocking twist that "the monster maker, who I had killed with my own hands, turned out to be Zhu Shi’s father," I couldn’t help but overlook this information.

In the cultures of most regions, children are considered to have a stronger affinity for the spirit, capable of seeing the supernatural phenomena that adults cannot. And many talented children, burdened by their parents’ high hopes, often grow into mundane adults just like their parents as they mature into teenagers and then adults.

Perhaps influenced by such views and stories, some fairy tales and stories from ancient and modern times, both domestic and foreign, occasionally feature the plot that "a child who could wield magical powers grows up to be an ordinary adult and loses the ability to control their incredible powers."

The "ability to communicate with all things in nature" also sounds a bit like a fairy tale; could it be another "child’s magic" that is lost with age?

Mr. Zhu thought for a moment and then asked Zhu Shi, "Should I explain, or would it be better if you did it?"

Zhu Shi glanced at her mother, who was lying on the bed not far away, then sighed and said, "I’ll explain it. Although I was planning to wait until my brother’s affairs were settled..."

I had heard this before.

Zhu Shi had lost the "ability to feel romantic love," and the truth of this was somehow related to Changan. Regarding the details, she said she wanted to wait until things with Changan were settled before revealing them. She also asked me to keep this matter confidential.

"Is it okay to say it here?" I asked tactfully.

"...It’s okay."

Zhu Shi took a deep breath and then started to explain about the powers she once had.

Firstly, Zhu Shi did indeed have the ability to communicate with all things in nature in the past, and this ability wasn’t just some superpower that could be obtained by luck. It was a talent that could only be found in the descendants of Impermanence.

Impermanence was regarded as God because they all had the power to intervene in the natural system, the power of ’Fatian Xiangdi,’ which is also why they were seen as moving natural disasters. In other words, ’Fatian Xiangdi’ is the manifestation of Impermanence’s Divinity. This divinity, on rare occasions, sometimes manifests as a gift in the descendants of Impermanence.

Of course, unlike Impermanence themselves, the descendants who naturally possessed Divinity couldn’t lord over All Things from high above.

They could only interact with nature. Specifically, they could listen to the voices of all things and transmit their own voice. If the natural world were compared to a society, Impermanence would be equivalent to super-elite individuals capable of deploying social resources at will, whereas their descendants would be like the children of the elite who could persuade some companies and departments in society to give them face.

And in some situations that might be difficult for ordinary people, they could get the green light all the way, making their path smooth and unobstructed. In practical situations, this meant they were extremely lucky. If given a math test paper with only multiple-choice questions, they could score over ninety just by filling it out randomly.

In Luo Mountain, such a talent was referred to as ’Right Positioning Heavenly Phenomena.’

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