Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 398 - 371 Impermanence and Doomsday 2

Chapter 398: 371 Impermanence and Doomsday 2

Perhaps because I just recently became an Impermanence, or perhaps because I never considered running away when Doomsday came, it wasn’t until this moment that I realized that Doomsday, which could destroy the world, wasn’t enough to destroy an Impermanence’s life.

They could completely move to other planets on the eve of this planet’s destruction.

The Impermanences have long since rid themselves of material needs, not requiring food or sleep, able to survive in the vacuum and radiation of the universe. Their power can be continuously generated from the soul. Although they might fall into temporary exhaustion from high-intensity outbursts, they can recover with just a little rest, a different sort of biological perpetual motion machine.

Ming Zhuo might be an exception, with at most ten years left, unable to leisurely live in the cosmic vacuum and barren alien planets. If Doomsday arrives before his life ends, he must continue to look on Earth, filled with terrifying chaos, for a way to enter the afterlife.

Although three days ago in battle he questioned me if I truly didn’t want to find a way to protect myself during Doomsday, it seemed that he was the only one truly racking his brains trying to find such a method.

"But wait... wasn’t it prophesied that an Impermanence would turn into a Great Demon?" I said, "Since the Impermanences can escape into space, why would the prophecy say some Impermanence would fall to become a Great Demon?"

Ming Zhuo and I turning into Great Demons during the Doomsday Era makes some sense, but why would future Water Master Xuanwu and Xuanming also fall to become Great Demons? Of course, it might not be Xuanming who becomes the Catastrophe Demon, but me; however, in the original timeline, the fact that Water Master Xuanwu likely didn’t die doesn’t make sense.

I couldn’t directly bring up information about the Doomsday Era in front of Gua Tianshi, so I could only bring up the Doomsday prophecy first. Although it’s not very courteous to demand answers from the other side while hiding information myself, I wasn’t planning to hastily expose the identity of Mazao from the Doomsday.

"Perhaps it’s because only a portion of the Impermanences are prepared to abandon Earth." Gua Tianshi said without hesitation, "Like Divine Light and King Zhuanlun... they have no attachment to this planet; when the great calamity falls, they will surely enter the deep void space without looking back. Ming Zhuo, too, as long as he solves his lifespan issue, he will abandon this planet without any hesitation.

"But an Impermanence like Fa Zheng is different; he cannot convince himself to abandon humanity, so he will definitely stay. Jian Feixian is Fa Zheng’s friend, having a nature that views life and death lightly, so he is very likely to stay too. And Xuanming and Taoyuan Village Master have unique feelings towards human civilization, so they will most probably stay and fight to the end of Doomsday.

"I am also one of those planning to stay on Earth. Although currently opposed to Fa Zheng, we both do not want to see this human race completely extinguished, and there might come a day when we collaborate entirely."

So, even if I stand on Fa Zheng’s side, that would still be acceptable to him... I’ve come to realize this, and I’ve also noticed some other issues.

"Since the Doomsday problem is already imminent, why haven’t you publicized this matter widely and instead are engaging in a conflict between Extraordinaryism and Governance Ideology within Luo Mountain?" I said, "Moreover, to continue the human race and civilization, it doesn’t necessarily require staying on Earth, right?"

After Gua Tianshi opened my sights from Earth to the universe, I quickly came up with a plan to deal with Doomsday, which is to use the power of the Impermanences to migrate humanity to other planets.

Someone like Gua Tianshi, an Impermanence, can even restore the scorched earth I destroyed into a natural forest, so it should also be possible to transform a barren planet like Mars into an environment suitable for human survival and then use the power of the Impermanences to transport humanity to Mars.

Of course, even with the power of the Impermanences, it is impossible to turn the entire Mars into a habitable environment, at most only a section of it can be transformed; and humans capable of interstellar travel under the Impermanence’s power probably can’t encompass everyone, though some parts of humanity should be possible.

Subsequently, spend time slowly recuperating and transforming more areas into habitable zones while developing the population, maybe it’s not impossible to restore human civilization to its heyday—this is just my rough idea at the moment; there might be some technical difficulties that can’t be realized, but as a direction, I think it is worth trying.

Admittedly, this approach will definitely leave many without salvation, but it’s a matter concerning the survival of race and civilization. It’s not to say we must fully implement this ruthless plan right away, but at least it can be seen as a last resort contingency.

"Your two questions actually have the same answer." Gua Tianshi revealed a helpless expression, "And that is... the source of this Doomsday event is very likely humanity itself."

"Humanity itself..."

I felt like I was step by step approaching the truth of Doomsday.

"A world destroyed by humanity itself" is not a development I can’t accept; it often appears in some science fiction movies, also incidentally advocating certain environmentalism.

But is that really the truth?

While pondering, I confirmed a previous question: "I see... this is one of your grounds for believing the Doomsday event probably isn’t a universe-scale event, isn’t it?"

"That’s right. Compared to the universe, humanity is too small. Even if they lift a stone and drop it on their own feet, it’s impossible to smash the entire universe." Gua Tianshi nodded, "The fact that Doomsday’s source is humanity, I deduced this from the increased frequency of abnormal events over the recent years using my divination and prophecy abilities. Have you heard of a hypothesis regarding the increased number of soul-loss patients?"

At those words, I recalled what Fu Feng mentioned to me in the past.

It is said the drastic increase in the number of soul-loss patients is related to the increasing fusion between the world of common sense and the abnormal world. And this fusion is closely linked to humanity’s awareness of abnormal events.

That is to say, the more who are aware of abnormal events, the more soul-loss patients there are.

Soul loss has been acknowledged by the Master of Divine Seal as an anomalous phenomenon closely related to Doomsday. Thus the drastic increase in soul-loss patients can also be understood as a dangerous signal that Doomsday’s approach is drawing nearer.

"The source of Doomsday may be closely related to human consciousness activities," said Gua Tianshi, "I don’t know what the specific causal relationship between the two is, but based on my divination results and forebodings about the future, if the truth about Doomsday is publicized, the speed of Doomsday descending will drastically accelerate. And once everyone believes in the existence of Doomsday, Doomsday will come immediately.

"Initially, we did intend to tell everyone about the Doomsday intelligence, but just as we began to propagate the Doomsday prophecy internally in Luo Mountain, my divination results and premonitions about the future changed dramatically. In desperation, we had to stop all the publicity work altogether.

"The abandonment of the alien immigration plan is also for this reason. If Doomsday is indeed summoned by human consciousness, then even rebuilding human civilization on another planet will likely lead to the same end."

Frequent abnormal events are also seen as one of the omens of Doomsday, and the general populace’s recognition of this phenomenon might also be interpreted as indirectly recognizing Doomsday.

Just this indirect recognition of Doomsday has already caused a drastic increase in soul-loss patients; one can only imagine what consequences might follow if the reality of Doomsday was broadly proclaimed.

"However, if it is not to pass on civilization and the race, but merely to take a few, a dozen friends from Earth, it should not attract Doomsday," said Gua Tianshi, "With your abilities, as long as you master the power of natural law, you might also establish a new ecosystem on another planet, although I think you probably won’t choose to run away."

"Of course not," I said without hesitation.

Not to mention that I myself somewhat look forward to Doomsday, all my friends are the kind who won’t abandon their homeland choosing to survive at all costs, so that path was not even on the horizon for us from the beginning.

"So, is the conflict between Extraordinaryism and Governance Ideology occurring in Luo Mountain just a play you are putting on to divert most people’s attention away from the Doomsday prophecy?" I asked.

"Not exactly," Gua Tianshi shook his head, "Although I must admit that this conflict between the two ideologies does have the objective effect of helping divert attention, our route dispute is genuinely from the heart.

"Merely because of the great event of Doomsday, we haven’t escalated the contradictions to a real intense level yet. Over the years, despite disliking each other, we haven’t had any conflicts but kept a tacit understanding, focusing most of our energy on studying how to deal with the Doomsday event... except for one person."

Does he mean Ming Zhuo? That’s my first reaction, but I quickly realized he was talking about another person.

"You mean Xuanming?" I asked.

Gua Tianshi nodded.

"When we could not parse the cause and the specific solution to Doomsday, us Impermanences began attempting to find a ’universal solution,’ which is the divine seal. And to use the divine seal to stop Doomsday, we must first collect all the Divine Seal Fragments. You probably know about this result, that part of the Divine Seal Fragments has already been collected by us," he said, "However, just half a year ago, Xuanming suddenly went mad, attacking Fu Hongchen and Ming Zhuo, and seized their Divine Seal Fragments.

"No one understands why he did such a thing. Was it because he had an unknown wish that had to be realized using the divine seal? Or is it that he was persuaded? He gave us no explanation, then disappeared without a trace...

"When he reappeared, he had already become the so-called ’Void Envoy,’ claiming to serve the ’Master of Divine Seal.’"