Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 613 - 574 The flames of war ignite

Chapter 613: 574 The flames of war ignite

Huang Quan’s search for an alternative path outside the human massacre plan might be based on judging the inhuman nature of this plan, which could lead to betrayal and division within the Evangelical Institute and be unfavorable for later subverting the Impermanence in Luo Mountain. He thought it might be necessary to make some compromises to make his plan less inhumane.

As for the results, the other two paths he found seemed both compromised and not compromised. From the faint emotions revealed in the documents, he seemed to think he had already made a considerable concession, although each path still drove all of humanity towards a dead end.

Why hasn’t he explored the direction of the divine seal?

As long as all the Divine Seal Fragments can be collected—though it is not yet known how to repair them into a divine seal, the point that the divine seal has the power to save the world should be quite clear. It shouldn’t be excluded from the discussion just because it’s the "murder weapon" that caused the current state of the world. At least the Impermanence in Luo Mountain has plans to use the Divine Seal Power to stop the doomsday; it’s impossible that Huang Quan couldn’t think of this.

Or is it just that he hasn’t mentioned it in this part of the documentation, but has written extensively about it in other documents? Somehow, I feel that’s not the case. For some reason, I sense that Huang Quan deliberately avoided the divine seal option.

It seems that based on some reason, he believes the divine seal cannot save the world, or he thinks that using the divine seal to save the world involves a price he cannot accept... This price, in his mind, is even higher than "personally burying the old human history and nearly all existing humans."

"No. 7, since you denounced the Evangelical Institute’s human massacre plan, do you have a more perfect plan? One that doesn’t involve a large-scale slaughter of existing humans and can realistically save the world," I said.

"Of course. In the face of a massive crisis, if you can’t provide an alternative plan, you shouldn’t be criticizing others’ plans. Otherwise, it’s just being unreasonable and irresponsible," No. 7 said.

Hearing this, Little Bowl seemed to want to say something but stopped after considering. I could imagine through observing the emotions surfacing on her soul what she wanted to express at this moment. For a plan like the Evangelical Institute’s, even if an alternate plan can’t be put forward, it should be unconditionally denounced. Slaughtering humanity to save the world is completely putting the cart before the horse—she probably had thoughts like these.

Little Bowl’s emotional pattern partly resembles Zhu Shi, meaning her values are very close to Zhu Shi; yet on the other hand, she can make decisions Zhu Shi would never make, only prioritizing herself and those important to her. It’s like the two sides of a coin, seemingly identical, but actually opposite.

To use Zhu Shi’s preferred metaphor, Little Bowl’s personality pattern is partly like a "dark Zhu Shi."

"My plan, you can surely think of as well, and that is to use the divine seal," No. 7 said. "Since the divine seal has the power to destroy the world, and in fact, it was exactly what destroyed the world, by gaining the divine seal, we can revoke this erroneous wish or repair the flawed human history."

"But isn’t our personality based on this ’flawed human history’?" I said. "Once everything is corrected through the divine seal, it also means that we living in the present will be ’corrected’.

"After that, we might live with different memories, a different self, in a world different from now. That might be the world’s true original appearance, but it is ultimately a different world and different us.

"Can you accept the erasure of who you are now?"

This is also the only possible reason I can imagine for why Huang Quan and the others are not considering using the divine seal to resolve the doomsday crisis at the moment.

And No. 7 paused for a moment and then said: "—No, it won’t become like that."

"And your reasoning is?" I asked.

"The divine seal is the power to realize any wish," No. 7 said assertively, "Correcting flawed human history without affecting us living in the present, though logically contradictory, is not a reason why the divine seal can’t realize it.

"Taking a step back, even if we don’t correct human history’s mistakes, it’s fine. We can change our wish. For example, under the premise of maintaining the existing self-contradictory human history, use the great power of the divine seal to forcibly make doomsday impossible forever—

"Talk of ’necessary price to be paid’ and ’unbearable side effects’... any seemingly reasonable obstacle is sophistry in the face of omnipotent and omniscient power and doesn’t exist."

Her argument sounded somewhat stubborn yet quite reasonable, and it matched my understanding of the divine seal. But this makes it hard to explain Huang Quan’s subtle avoidance of the divine seal’s power.

After speaking, No. 7 tossed aside the achieved realm cultivator, then closed her eyes for two or three seconds before saying: "...I have fully mastered all aspects regarding the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute and have almost pinpointed the suspected location of Du Shuo Mountain’s technical data and divine seal fragments.

"As expected, those suspicious places are heavily guarded. I cannot break through in a short time, and attempting to break through will immediately alert Huang Quan."

I nodded: "So next, it’s my turn to deal with Huang Quan."

"I’m counting on you."

No. 7 walked over to Little Bowl.

Little Bowl took a step forward towards me, hugged my waist, and prayed with a devout attitude, "—Brother Zhuang Cheng, I wish you a triumphant return."

With these words, the blessing power she bestowed on me seemed to be renewed, becoming more active.

No. 7 placed his hand on Little Bowl’s shoulder, and then both disappeared from my sight. The infiltration phase had concluded, and there was no need for Little Bowl to stay in the enemy’s territory.

I quickly summoned the Furnace Slag Straight Sword and pierced it into my own body.

Third Form—"Corona."

As my body transformed into a stellar light body, the fire sea erupted with me at the center, instantly engulfing the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute.

The first to bear the brunt was the achieved realm cultivator beside me. He probably turned to ash before he even realized his own death. However, he was actually the only casualty in the fire sea. Considering that No. 7’s Tai Sui Army also had spies within the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute, and I couldn’t distinguish who was who, plus No. 7 still needed to find Du Shuo Mountain’s technical data in the Evangelical Institute, I decided to show mercy and avoided causing much destruction to the monks and buildings.

It was different for Huang Quan; I didn’t plan to exclude him from the fire sea. As the fire sea expanded, my spirit also pervaded the area, sensing the scene where Huang Quan was located.

He was resting in a room with his eyes closed when the fire sea touched him, and he suddenly opened his eyes and shouted, "—Zhuang Cheng!"

The monks inside and outside the Evangelical Institute all exhibited various reactions to this sudden attack of the fire sea. A plethora of panicked emotions and a wide array of mana fluctuations soared in various places. I let my voice boom across this area as the prelude to battle.

"Huang Quan, I have come to kill you."

As I spoke, I took a step forward. The omnipresent fire sea served as my ubiquitous Teleportation Door. This step took me directly in front of Huang Quan. My right hand transformed into a hand knife, slashing towards him.

Huang Quan ducked nimbly, and the walls and ceiling behind him were swept away by an overwhelming heat on the spot, along with the rooftops of distant building clusters and the mountaintops stretching endlessly beyond the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute, all being shattered out of thin air.

He’s adept at dodging, but with the next strike, I planned to end his life.

The distance was so close, combined with the blessing from Little Bowl, my consciousness completely locked onto Huang Quan’s head. I prepared to strike with my left hand, intending to burn this enemy completely with flames. The surrounding flames also cooperated, encircling him to cut off his retreat. He had nowhere to escape.

Perhaps I focused too much on Huang Quan alone, failing to notice threats from other directions in time. When another wave of mana fluctuation appeared, I couldn’t dodge in time and could only barely assume a defensive posture.

A black water cannon pierced through the floor beneath my feet, and the aftermath blasted this room along with its entire building to pieces. My body and soul shattered like tofu under a hammer blow. Simultaneously, a giant beast, a hundred meters long and resembling a flood dragon, emerged from the building’s ruins, soaring straight to the sky.

The Great Demon Xuanwu was still alive—and was actually here in this place!

Could this be a coincidence? No, it could only be that Huang Quan deliberately used deception to place the Great Demon Xuanwu nearby in advance.

This was an utterly absurd approach. The Doomsday Demon could be seen as the Naraku Gospel’s manifestation of murderous intent towards humanity. Even if there were some unknown negotiations between the Evangelical Institute and the Naraku Gospel, the Demon would not become an ally of the Evangelical Institute because of it. Even for Huang Quan, he could at most make the Demon ignore him, but not control it. Positioning the Great Demon Xuanwu within his own domain is not something a sane person would do.

Did he know I was going to come?

I reformed my body in the high sky, several kilometers away from the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute, while Huang Quan and the Great Demon Xuanwu sped towards me like meteors.

From far away, I could see the grim smile on Huang Quan’s face.

"I did consider that a kid like you, who loves venturing into dangerous things, might assault my territory, so I prepared in advance... but I didn’t expect you to actually dare to walk right into the trap!" he said.