Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 465 - 435 Subdued on the Spot

Chapter 465: 435 Subdued on the Spot

The power released using the "Zhuang Cheng" rune to attack me is essentially trying to make me hit myself. Even if I stood there and took it without doing anything, it wouldn’t pose a threat, and even Xiaoqiao next to me wouldn’t be harmed. Right now, canceling all of it doesn’t require speaking; just a thought can achieve it.

Doing so might not make it obvious to the opponent why the flames would extinguish, so I simply performed a straightforward action.

Even so, the "Preacher" showed a look of disbelief, as if trying to reconfirm his power. He waved the "Zhuang Cheng’s Blade" in his hand again, intending to summon the flaming Sword Qi and Fire Sea once more. This time, that special weapon didn’t produce any miracles.

"What did you do!?"

He asked in astonishment while retreating. Faced with an incomprehensible situation, he seemed to want to give up immediately. Beating the dog in the water when in an advantageous position and retreating strategically when at a disadvantage might be an essential quality for a demon hunter.

"I just extinguished my power." I reached out my hand, "I’ll confiscate that weapon in your hand first."

Despite the space between us being over fifteen meters, I still ignored the space and grabbed the large knife in his hand. He once told Xiaoqiao that, just as the weak submit to the strong, a weak soul will unconsciously submit to a strong soul. This statement holds true. With just one grasp, his muscles instinctively stopped resisting, and his large, sinewy hand obediently released its most important weapon.

I looked at this large knife engraved with my own name. This weapon made me feel somewhat embarrassed yet also like my existence was being affirmed in a unique way. Perhaps in the distant future, I will become accustomed to my deeds and name being mentioned and used by countless people in various occasions, and also accustomed to being exposed to countless people’s views. But at the current stage, I still find this weapon to have a certain commemorative significance, so I temporarily stored it in my flames.

"As for you..." I looked again at the "Preacher".

The latter realized half a beat later that his weapon had been taken, immediately showing a horrified expression: "This is... spatial ability? But why is there no mana fluctuation...

"Wait, you just said you only extinguished your power, could it be... no, it’s impossible!"

While saying impossible, his body honestly turned and fled, just like that Impermanence earlier, trying to enter the nearest shadow; meanwhile, the surrounding shadows violently surged, transforming into countless black spears like a storm, launching an attack on me and everyone present, seemingly trying to delay my potential next move.

"—Stop."

I spoke again. This time, it wasn’t just to show presence but to truly use the Power of Word Spirit from Great Unpredictable. The "Preacher" instantly became unable to control his limbs as if all his joints were locked, and the Shadow Teleportation Gate that was ready for him to enter also quickly reverted to an ordinary shadow on the ground, causing him to fall face-first. The countless black shadow spears dissipated like an illusion.

The battle with the "Preacher" ended just like that—assuming this could be called a "battle".

The "Preacher" lay immobile on the ground like a dead person, and Xiaoqiao, after watching for a long while, finally whispered incredulously, "Won... Won?"

"That’s right. It’s over."

This sentence was not said by me but by Zhu Shi.

Her figure appeared on this floor of the unfinished building, without the black guitar case on her back. Just like when we first met, she wore a brown-black raincoat, a hat of the same color, and held the sheathed Yama Sword, looking like a majestic swordsman from an ancient martial arts film, walking step by step towards Xiaoqiao.

We hadn’t acted together for a long time, and her outfit made me nostalgic. Presumably, she dressed in such a way in advance to better confess her background to Xiaoqiao.

At the same time, this scene itself gave me a sense of déjà vu. Before, I used superpower to save Changan from the monster’s Shadow Clone and exposed my identity to Changan with Zhu Shi, who wore a raincoat and a hat. Now, similar events are happening again, revealing my identity to Xiaoqiao, a friend of Zhu Shi, and the enemy is also a monster.

"Little Zhu..." Xiaoqiao looked at Zhu Shi as if meeting her for the first time.

"Sorry, Xiaoqiao, I will explain to you properly."

Zhu Shi spoke in a soft voice and closed one eye, consciously making a cute expression.

It was the first time I saw her make such a playful gesture, and Xiaoqiao breathed a sigh of relief, showing a relaxed smile, saying, "I understand... no rush on my end, I’ll wait for you."

Zhu Shi nodded and then looked at me, saying, "I saw everything just now..."

As she spoke, she turned her head and emitted a chuckle like a sneeze, then turned her head back, tightened her face, and seriously said, "Thank you for protecting Xiaoqiao and for protecting the people around... whew... puff..."

"You don’t need to hold back, just laugh if you want to." I said.

Granted permission, Zhu Shi immediately let out a joyful laugh, holding her stomach and squatting on the ground, laughing intermittently, "Zhuang Cheng... Zhuang Cheng’s Blade... Senior Brother Zhuang’s Blade... what a strange naming?"

"Senior Brother Zhuang, don’t you plan to give yourself a code name? Didn’t you say Fa Zheng Impermanence helped you come up with a code name ’Dawn’ last time? If you had accepted it, the weapon might not have been called ’Zhuang Cheng’s Blade’, possibly ’Dawn Blade’... Although it’s not very novel, at least it wouldn’t be so weird."

"Anyway, everyone has long known my name, and to change it to a code name now and require others to address me as such would feel odd." I chose to treat her laughter as passing wind, "Additionally, let me confirm first... is he the Impermanence you mentioned yesterday?"

I pointed to the fallen Ming Zhuo believer Impermanence in the distance, and Zhu Shi, having watched the battle from start to finish, nodded without hesitation, putting away her teasing smile, and said, "Yes."

"Then—’restore’." I once again used the Power of Word Spirit.

Mysterious fluctuations swept through the area. The target for restoration wasn’t just that Impermanence but also included all the ordinary people lying on the ground. With my current state, using Flame Power directly for healing is still challenging, but the Power of Word Spirit can accomplish many things, helping to make up for some of my shortcomings, healing being one of them.

As for using Flame Power to achieve healing, in my view, burning away the "injury"-related causal factors is one approach.

However, cause and effect can’t be recklessly destroyed. Every object in the material world, from a metaphysical viewpoint, is a conglomerate of causal concepts; arbitrarily deleting a section might cause chain reactions, like pulling a block from a high-stacked tower and causing the whole to collapse.

In terms understandable to ordinary people, cause and effect are like code; randomly altering it might cause the software to become nonfunctional.

As an attack method, this approach is viable, but as a healing method, it requires high precision. Additionally, since I’m not good at interpreting "code", most of the time I can’t just glance at someone and see through all their past and potential future events through their causality. That’s Gua Tianshi’s expertise; at most, I can vaguely grasp some of the overall aura.

Perhaps, as my proficiency in observing causality improves, even if I can’t foresee the distant future like Gua Tianshi, I might naturally achieve the sort of analysis Mazao does, investigating a subject’s "history" and deducing events from long ago.

As of now, I can’t yet discern what significance or fatalistic meaning the Impermanence’s timely intrusion holds for me, but I can confirm its existence.

Their injuries quickly healed. The Impermanence suffered from mana damage with Ming Zhuo attributes, which wasn’t easy to heal, but my inherent resistance to Ming Zhuo mana and the special location possibly facilitated the rapid healing of Impermanence’s wounds.

Some people woke up after being healed, but I used the Power of Word Spirit to make them sleep again. They lean more towards the people of Taoyuan Village, so this prevents noise and distractions during the ensuing moments.

Strictly speaking, they weren’t brainwashed; they just lost their rationality due to the desire to enter the sweet dream world.

The "Preacher" did not receive my healing, as he was not significantly injured. I walked over to him, stretched out my foot, and flipped him over. Zhu Shi also joined me, and Xiaoqiao closely followed behind her.

"Are you... truly that Zhuang Cheng? The Great Unpredictable Zhuang Cheng?"

The "Preacher" seemed utterly unable to accept his defeat, as if he would rather take all these events as a bizarre and absurd nightmare.

"Why... how could it be? How could you appear in such a place..." he muttered incoherently.