Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 388 - 361 My retribution body

Chapter 388: 361 My retribution body

I first redirected my focus back to what Lu Chan had mentioned earlier, then raised a doubt: "Although you said that other people just need to believe in me to gain power... I don’t feel like any power is being taken away from me.

"Or is it that so far, no one has reached the devout standard, hence the power has not been taken away?"

"You misunderstood." Lu Chan explained, "The power that believers obtain from you isn’t taken away from you. It has been mentioned before, you have left a mark between heaven and earth. This mark has become a totem in the dark. Believers use this totem as a symbol to draw power from nature.

"This totem is actually your retribution body, which will invisibly reside in the world even after your death. While you are still alive, this retribution body and you are completely integrated. By the way, this retribution body doesn’t possess any self-consciousness, it’s more like a natural phenomenon, you need not worry excessively.

"You can use this to prohibit some believers from continuing to use the power generated based on their faith in you, or enhance the believers’ power through your own word spirit. Generally speaking, it can be enhanced up to the achieved level."

Although I once referred to the Ancient Moon God as Yinyue’s retribution body, compared to the Ancient Moon God, the retribution body I now possess seems to fit the original definition better.

While thinking this, I noticed another issue.

"Can believers only be enhanced up to the achieved level? Isn’t that too weak..." I said.

"No, the achieved level is already very high, it’s the highest level achievable in the Demon Hunter’s system of formation, persistence, destruction, and void," Lu Chan corrected.

"But Lu Chan, aren’t you at the achieved level too? Are achieved level Demon Hunters really that noble?" I asked.

"Are you demeaning me as a matter of course?"

Lu Chan first complained, then helplessly said, "Is there a possibility that I am indeed a very noble figure within the normal Demon Hunter system? You should know I was once a close follower of Ming Zhuo. Although I do not particularly want to recall those years, if Great Impermanence is the sky of Luo Mountain, then followers of Great Impermanence are the angels of Luo Mountain."

The term "angels of Luo Mountain" sounded odd.

However, after removing the mere eight people of Great Impermanence and less than twenty people of Great Success Rank, achieved level Demon Hunters are indeed the highest tier in Luo Mountain, and Lu Chan’s logic made sense. Besides, as a close follower of Ming Zhuo, it’s possible that he could stand on equal footing with the Great Success Rank in some situations.

Despite that, the Lu Youxun I knew before did not seem to hold such a lofty status... But right, Lu Youxun was part of Ming Zhuo’s Dark Department’s night patrol, though a close follower, he was not publicly acknowledged, and seemingly just an ordinary day patrol.

"If you wish to enhance a disciple to Great Success Rank, it’s possible too, but this requires the compatibility between you and them to be high enough to bear your power, otherwise your power might actually burn them up," Lu Chan said, "If you establish a religion with you as the Main God, that person could sufficiently become a Saint Heir, a Saint... and might not even need genuine faith in you, what matters is the compatibility to endure your active ’empowerment’.

"Moreover, if you completely overlay their personality consciousness, you can also turn them into your own vessel of incarnation, changing them into your own avatar, or ’embodied response’... In that case, you can even manifest the power of Great Impermanence using that body.

"It’s likely that the now resurrected Yinyue also referenced the ’embodied response’ ability of the Great Impermanence to some extent."

Originally, Changan’s body had the chance to develop its independent consciousness, but it lost that opportunity due to the presence of Yinyue; perhaps this is also a kind of "complete overlay."

"Do you know the matter concerning Yinyue?" I asked.

"Mr. Zhu told me, he hopes that I can help to investigate which stronghold of the Human Bureau Yinyue is currently held at," Lu Chan said, "However, even if he didn’t seek me out, I believe the result will soon emerge."

Based on the information I heard in these three days, the Human Bureau has become Luo Mountain’s most prioritized enemy.

Indeed, not the Void Realm that recently destroyed two of Luo Mountain’s branch bases, but the Human Bureau.

The cause lies with Xu Gou.

Just as Lu Chan previously mentioned, in Luo Mountain’s three major threats, the Human Bureau is the most unique. Despite not having Great Impermanence backing it officially, once they miraculously achieve Great Impermanence’s power through technical means, they immediately become an unprecedented foe of the Human Bureau — and in the battlefields where the Void Realm attacked the Human Bureau’s bases, Xu Gou exhibited power of the Great Impermanence Level.

Xu Gou was once a Great Impermanence candidate created by the Human Bureau — Fu Feng had passed this intelligence to Fa Zheng before his death, and Fa Zheng, now secretly gathering strength, is prepared to eradicate all bases of the Human Bureau.

At the same time, he relayed this via Mr. Zhu to me, hoping for a detailed conversation with me soon.

He evidently knew about the relationship between Changan and Yinyue through the intelligence passed before the destruction of Fufeng Base, and also knew about my intention to save Changan.

Additionally, considering that Fa Zheng stood on my side along with Jian Feixian before, it seems I’m about to owe him a favor yet again.

From Gua Tianshi’s tone when commenting on Fa Zheng, it seems that although Fa Zheng is an Impermanence, he appears to be a figure with a strong political sense, and continuously accumulating favors from him makes it difficult for me to feel cheerful.

"So, I need to deal with other things first. I still need to help develop your influence on Mr. Zhu’s side."

Lu Chan seemed to have almost finished speaking and then stood up, leaning on his knees, and suddenly seemed to remember something, adding, "By the way, when you have time, you can also participate more in these affairs."

"Why? You know I’m not interested in these kinds of things, that’s why I hand them all over to Mr. Zhu." I said.

"It is said so, but if you don’t get involved more, problems will arise with the karmic ties between you and your devotees." Lu Chan said, "Devotees must have enough devout faith in you to receive power — while such formed karma is undoubtedly strong, it is as remote as a kite, and the anchoring effect on you is both powerful and weak, so it’s necessary for you to actively close the distance."

"I don’t quite understand, what do you mean by an anchoring effect that is both powerful and weak?" I asked.

"This matter is as important as your life-and-death situation in the hearts of your devotees." Lu Chan said, "Your life and death are certainly very important to those who believe in you; if a life-threatening crisis occurs, devout devotees would not hesitate to exchange their lives for yours—otherwise, what kind of devotion would that be?

"However, on the other hand, even if you die, it does not prevent them from continuing to believe in you, nor does it hinder them from gaining strength from your retribution body.

"Your goal is not to anchor yourself in the abnormal world through a large number of devotees? But even if you lose your anchor and disappear, they can continue to believe in you and gain strength through belief.

"Because the nature of this karma does not depend on your existence at the other end, it can’t really be said to be healthy, and in terms of the critical effect of anchoring you... although it can’t be said there is no effect or the effect is weak, there are indeed some unreliable aspects that can be exploited."

I thought about it and then said, "Specifically, where can it be exploited, where is it unreliable?"

"Uh, how should I describe it..." Lu Chan also thought seriously, "Simply put, in some cases, the relationship between your devotees, your retribution body, and yourself is similar to the relationship between the fans of a virtual streamer, the character skin, and the person behind it."

I directly said, "Sorry, with that description, I’m even more confused now."

"Alas, if it were Zhu Shi, he would definitely understand right away. And although I can’t say why, I feel like Mr. Zhu would probably understand it too."

Lu Chan first showed a look of pity, then said, "Well, never mind, it seems Mr. Zhu has already figured out how to patch this loophole, you can ask him about it when you have the chance. You rest easy for now, I need to get going."

After saying that, he left the room.

Mazao seemed to still be busy cooking in the hospital kitchen and wouldn’t be back for a while.

I originally wanted to turn on the television to relieve boredom, but I wasn’t in the mood to continue watching and ended up replaying, in my mind, the battle with Ming Zhuo and pondering my future evolution space.

Indeed, there was no sign of evolution in terms of power, so I could only explore the evolution of technique, that is, how to further enhance the density of my power.

I raised my palm, and flames emerged out of the空 from space on my palm, then rapidly spiraled and compressed as if caught in a mini hurricane. Countless flames emerged, and in just one second, they compressed into a ping-pong-sized small fireball.

This small fireball was pitch black, and its surface occasionally burst kleine flames like solar flares, and even those small flames showed a dark color.

Black is different from other colors. All colors emerge because they reflect certain visible light, which after entering the eyes and being processed by visual cells, display colors. However, black is a color that absorbs all visible light to manifest, representing nothingness.

For different creatures, the definition of visible light varies. Just as cats and dogs are colorblind to humans, some animals might consider humans colorblind. Therefore, what appears black to humans might reflect different colors to other animals. Although my eyes mimicked by the Fire Element have the same visible light range as humans, I can, if I wish, capture infrared and ultraviolet light that humans cannot.

Even to the current me, this small fireball was still black because it did not emit any light, and it even burned up the external light upon contact, making it impossible to escape.

It was almost like a black hole, melting and warping the space upon its appearance, pulling in the blanket on my knees and the surrounding furniture towards this world’s hole.

"Stop."

As I uttered a word, surrounding cabinets, tables, chairs, fish tanks, and other objects simultaneously stopped moving. I continued to scrutinize this dark small fireball.

"Eclipse"... No, to prevent excessive影响 on the surroundings, what was made now could only be described as a "Miniature Eclipse".

This is the most powerful Killing Move I currently possess, one that by simply brutally compressing my own power, I even managed to inflict a light injury on an established Great Impermanence like Ming Zhuo. If I continue to evolve, perhaps I could gain even greater power and achieve further feats. However...

It seems this is not a power I should touch.