Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 441 - 411 Loading into Void Realm

Chapter 441: 411 Loading into Void Realm

I came to the place where Divine Light had just stood, looking in the direction he had been gazing. There stood several massive blank tombstones, exuding an aura that seemed to entice those who saw them into the graves.

The tombstones of the Great Impermanence with owners were inscribed with text, documenting the experiences and great achievements of the Great Impermanence in their lifetime, while the tombstones without owners were bare.

The death cult culture of Luo Mountain brings to mind the civilization of Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was also regarded as a human god, and his death was seen as a step towards becoming a god of the afterlife. Just like how great floods or the legend of the Fire Stealer appeared independently in different parts of the world, different regional cultures sometimes exhibit this kind of convergence phenomenon.

Yet, myths are ultimately myths. Not all of the Great Impermanence are Shan Liangyi; generally speaking, once the Great Impermanence dies, they are truly dead.

The more advanced and intricate a machine is, the harder it is to repair once damaged. Similarly, if there is a faint possibility of those of the Great Success Rank being resurrected by others after death, then once the Great Impermanence truly meets death, there’s no conceivable way for them to be resurrected through external force.

Therefore, what appears as a sacred and honorable dark tower forest to the demon hunter community can only seem ominous and dank to someone like me from the Great Impermanence, and Divine Light likely holds a similar view.

Yet, on the eve of the next Virtual Realm Conference, Divine Light not only attended a burial ceremony he would normally not participate in but also went to this inauspicious place to gaze at the blank tombstones of the Great Impermanence. His mindset could perhaps be gleaned from such behavior.

Perhaps, he feels he might die.

No, it seems more reasonable to speculate that he is mentally prepared for a decisive death. In front of me and Weichi, he showed great confidence in his conclusions about the Master of Divine Seal and the success of the assassination attempt, but since he once grew from a simple demon hunter to the Great Impermanence, he would understand that "absolute" is a concept nonexistent in the abnormal world.

The Master of Divine Seal may not be an ordinary mortal, even if they are, who knows how many changes they could manifest using the divine seal. Every seemingly foolproof plan carries an inherent possibility of unforeseen failure. Divine Light might have already detected some suspicion unseen by even Weichi and me, glimpsing his possible failure.

And he is not one who walks only the great and wide roads; he can also stride boldly across perilous single-plank bridges. Only such a person can seize great victories faster than anyone else. Even if he happens to fall into the water, he would stick to his style until the very end, swallowing the bitter fruit willingly, and should there be a next time, he would do it without hesitation.

However, I’m just speculating about Divine Light’s character based on my own thoughts. Perhaps he’s not the kind of person I imagined, or perhaps he participated in the burial ceremony and entered the Great Impermanence Grave Area for other motives. Now, if I desire, I could also glimpse into others’ hearts, but I can’t truly read Divine Light’s mind.

I focused my attention once again on those massive blank tombstones. Maybe one day, my name will also appear on them. If that happens, I hope my end would be death. I can accept dying in an adventure, but I cannot accept loss.

After observing for a while, I turned and walked out of the Great Impermanence Grave Area, leaving the cemetery behind and returning to the Luoshan Headquarters area.

I briefly observed the demon hunters and agents coming and going within the headquarters. Now that I can directly observe fate, naturally, I can also observe the attraction between others and abnormal entities.

How should I describe the feeling of observing fate? I don’t know if this analogy can resonate with other Great Impermanence; to me, watching others’ fates feels like watching a heavily clichéd movie. When seeing a certain plot, even if the subsequent events have not actually occurred, the following scenes have already played out in my mind. Of course, this premonition isn’t always one hundred percent accurate, just as fate is not absolutely unchangeable.

The demon hunters and agents give me the impression of characters in the opening of a horror movie recklessly running into a haunted house — my point is they have that "air." Even if the characters in the beginning of a horror movie do nothing stupid, the audience knows they’ll meet a bad end anyway.

Under normal circumstances, the attraction between a person and abnormal entities is strongest in demon hunters who have achieved level, which is where it reaches its limit. An Impermanence like Weichi, who is of the Great Success Rank, shows only a negligible difference in attraction compared to those of the achieved level, suggesting that demon hunters of the Great Success Rank tend to be longer-lived than those of the achieved level.

Mazao gives me the most intense feeling, on an entirely different level from the others. She is like the protagonist of a horror movie — not only does she easily fall into danger herself, but those who come into contact with her also get caught up in life-and-death chaos.

However, if there’s a ridiculously powerful supporting character by such a protagonist’s side, constantly overshadowing the lead, a clear-headed screenplay writer would likely focus on eliminating this supporting character first, to restore the plot to its proper course. Events drawn by Mazao’s Broom Star Physique always seem to find me first, perhaps for a similar reason.

As for the Great Impermanence, from what I’ve observed, there’s no gravitational pull towards abnormal entities on them; instead, there’s an inexplicable repulsion. It’s like a powerful character from a fantasy story appearing on the stage of a horror movie, feeling completely out of place.

I’m unsure if I should continue using the screenplay writer analogy here. If destiny inherently exists as a screenplay writer, a disruptive character like the Great Impermanence would definitely face strong repulsion. Even if accidentally included in the "script," efforts would be made to remove them, or at least, they would be thoroughly hidden, best without a single scene.

Many explain the repulsion effect between the Great Impermanence and abnormal entities as "extremes meet." If greater power means stronger attraction to abnormal entities, then the Great Impermanence is excessively powerful, causing attraction to reverse into repulsion. I used to believe this, but now, it feels rather off.

This "repulsion" seemingly has nothing to do with "attraction to abnormal entities." It doesn’t appear to be a reversal of the latter but rather a separate, inexplicable phenomenon that emerged out of nowhere on the Great Impermanence. At least, that’s my personal impression.

Recently, I also inquired Gua Tianshi about the origins of this strange phenomenon, but even Gua Tianshi couldn’t provide a definitive answer. The unstoppable decline of the Great Impermanence is likely because the intricacies of this strange phenomenon have never been unraveled.

After returning to the mansion, I stayed with Mazao. Regrettably, there are many rooms in the mansion, and Mazao and I sleep in separate ones. Yet we seize every opportunity to be in the same room together. Neither of us is adept at conversing, so we just do our own things while being together. Recently, Mazao has been researching data scavenged from the main base of the Human Bureau, while I’ve been delving into ways to continue growing stronger.

While pondering about the Lost Great Impermanence, a question that deeply concerned me arose, and I asked Mazao, "Mazao, the Great Demons of the Doomsday Era should be today’s Great Impermanence... right?"

"They should be," Mazao responded seriously, "To be precise, during the Doomsday Era, there was no term ’Great Impermanence,’ but there was ’human god.’"

"’Human God’ is the ancient term for Great Impermanence."

As she answered, I remembered that there was a time when Little Bowl referred to Xuanming and Divine Light as "human gods."

"So then... how did those Great Demons anchor themselves?" I inquired.

Assuming the Great Demons are the fallen Great Impermanence who lost their sanity, surely they would have failed to anchor or continue anchoring their consciousness, logically preventing them from maintaining a recognizable form to the people.

Yet in reality, during the Doomsday Era, they brought calamity everywhere as Great Demons.

Is it because, once fallen into an abnormal entity, they no longer needed to find a way to anchor themselves in the abnormal world? Such reasoning lacks persuasiveness. Frankly speaking, the Great Impermanence were already more like abnormal entities than humans. I’m a prime example.

"I can’t answer that question," Mazao shook her head, "During the Doomsday Era, there was no ’anchoring’ concept. The idea of having a way to completely steer away from abnormal entities... that’s something I only learned about since coming to this era."

Putting aside the different terms used for the Great Impermanence, the fact that even the concept of ’anchoring’ was nonexistent makes Mazao’s previous Doomsday Era seem like a completely different worldview.

Upon realizing this, I suddenly became aware of a deeper issue.

No, wait, if anchoring wasn’t necessary in the Doomsday Era yet could still contact abnormal entities, doesn’t that mean... those unrecognizable Lost Great Impermanence could all return in the Doomsday Era?

The Doomsday Era... a time where one didn’t need to worry about anchoring or fear loss?

The ripple of this possibility set off waves inside me. The concept of the Doomsday Era seemed to bloom with new light in my heart.

Even until I fell asleep, my mind was occupied with pondering this matter.

And on this night, even as I slept, in a hazy state I miraculously experienced a sensory perception that felt like imagination — within a void of darkness, gray mist surged from the Divine Seal Fragment inside my consciousness, enveloping my awareness in return.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in an extremely vast space, with gray mist pervading all directions.

I had once again entered the Void Realm.