Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 623 - 583 Suspect Xuanming

Chapter 623: 583 Suspect Xuanming

"Suspects..." I tried to delineate the range in my mind.

Little Bowl then directly spoke out her reasoning.

"Before the Evangelical Institute Master Yama issued a bounty on me, only two people in the Post-mortem World knew that I was the Divine Son. One of them is me, and the other is Lady No. 7," she said. "Through restored memories, I’ve already excluded myself as a suspect, and Lady No. 7 doesn’t have the position or motive to leak this information.

"The Evangelical Institute and the Tai Sui Army she serves are mortal enemies, and the Evangelical Institute Master Yama is the direct murderer of Tai Sui. Anyone in the Post-mortem World might betray me, but Lady No. 7 is the only one who wouldn’t. If we must eliminate all suspicion, we should ask Lady No. 7 face-to-face later. With my ability to test lies, she wouldn’t be able to lie in front of us, and hiding the truth would basically confirm her implication.

"Now, excluding Lady No. 7 as a suspect, there’s no one in the Post-mortem World who could have leaked my information. So the next suspicion should turn towards the real world... the Living World."

"Wait a minute, I have a question here," I interrupted, "Why must it be someone with inside knowledge who leaked your information, and why couldn’t it be that the Evangelical Institute found out about your connection to the Divine Son through divination techniques?"

Little Bowl patiently explained: "Because the Post-mortem World we are currently in is a mimicry of the Doomsday Era. Though it’s not the real Doomsday Era, it possesses all the characteristics of it. Furthermore, according to Lady No. 7, as the frontline of the doomsday process, the Post-mortem World itself is truly bearing the impact and destruction of the doomsday... This place is, in essence, a region that has succumbed to the doomsday.

"In the Post-mortem World, there are even parts where the most basic laws of physics can’t be sustained, and the order of time and space has collapsed to the point that life forms can’t exist—’a future long afterward’... which is already very close to the true end of the world."

A former cartographer seemed to have mentioned similar things to me.

"And Gua Tianshi had also told Brother Zhuang Cheng before. The closer the world is to doomsday, the less effective divination abilities become." Little Bowl continued, "This is because the essence of divination capabilities is the perception and calculation of time-space information, and if the world itself is riddled with errors, it’s like mathematicians using incorrect mathematical tools and formulas to calculate data—what can they possibly achieve?

"Divination abilities have already shown cracks in the real world that even Gua Tianshi couldn’t mend, and they would be utterly worthless in the current Post-mortem World. Plus, my Right Positioning Heavenly Phenomena inherently provides temporal and spatial concealment, and with the Power of Divine Seal Fragments, even the Catastrophe Demon, who masters the Gravity of Fate, can’t completely lock onto me in a short time.

"Needless to say, for other people’s divination techniques, to stealthily discern my details using such a method is an almost impossible task."

"Alright... I understand." I said.

"Now let’s talk about the real world again. Those who know I am the Divine Son can be divided into two groups. One group is centered around Brother Zhuang Cheng, Sister Mazao, and Zhu Shi, and... uh, Zhu Shi’s grandfather..."

Little Bowl seemed momentarily unsure of how to address Mr. Zhu and ambiguously skipped over it, continuing, "... this group would never leak my information. Let alone carelessly leaking it, they don’t even mention me without reason in their daily discussions.

"The other group is the Void Envoy. Excluding me, Brother Zhuang Cheng, Lady No. 7, and the deceased Great Impermanence God Zhao, only Mr. No.1 Xugou, No.4 Xuanming, and No.5 Wei Chi remain..."

"Mr. No.1 Xugou does not have the mysticism acumen to discern that you are unique, and the likelihood of him recognizing you as the Divine Son is incredibly low—he probably doesn’t even know that Fatian Xiangdi has different types." I analyzed, "And No.5 Wei Chi... I’ve communicated with Wei Chi, and he didn’t seem to discern that you were the Divine Son."

Actually, Ying Lingyun also knows that the child, Zhu Shi, is a Divine Son, but he couldn’t know there was another Little Bowl in the Post-mortem World.

Following this line of thought, I suddenly realized there was someone with both the motive and history to harm Little Bowl, someone who also has the conditions to contact the Evangelical Institute and the leverage to get the Evangelical Institute Master Yama to act for them.

"—Is it Xuanming?" I uttered the name.

"Yes. I suspect that Great Impermanence Xuanming may have reached some common grounds with the Evangelical Institute." Little Bowl said earnestly, "In order to smoothly advance the plan of eradicating old human history, the Evangelical Institute is bound to recruit the Great Demon of Luo Mountain, so why not the one outside of Luo Mountain? They would inevitably look to recruit them as well. In fact, the Human God Huang Quan has already collaborated with the Taoyuan Village Master. Therefore, they have no reason not to approach Xuanming.

"Having learned the truth about the world’s doomsday and the situation in the Post-mortem World from the Evangelical Institute, Xuanming would deduce that ’No. 2 existing in the Doomsday Era’ actually refers to being located in the Post-mortem World.

"He wanted to target me for some reason... although I’m not sure what that motive is. Initially, separated by ’different eras,’ his only chance to target me was when I’m in the Void Realm. But now, things are different; he can enter the Post-mortem World himself to find me and carry out his plan."

I continued along Little Bowl’s line of thought: "Yet he might have other important affairs to tend to in the Living World, and the secret methods of traversing the two worlds are controlled by the Evangelical Institute, posing a risk of being plotted against if he enters the Post-mortem World himself..."

"Hence, his best strategy is to let the Evangelical Institute act on his behalf, to find and capture me alive in the Post-mortem World." Little Bowl said, "The bounty order on me was issued by the Evangelical Institute Master Yama himself, even promising that whoever captures me alive can have any wish fulfilled...

"I reckon only Great Impermanence Xuanming would be significant enough for the Evangelical Institute Master Yama to go to such lengths. Even Mr. One may not suffice, let alone No.5 Wei Chi."

Her reasoning almost convinced me.

Then she hesitated a bit before saying: "... There’s just one part I can’t explain.

"During that disastrous Virtual Realm Conference, Xuanming once warned me that the Divine Son is always beloved by heaven and earth, making it easy to become a living sacrifice offered to them... If he had already decided to capture me alive, why would he take the trouble to warn me to be cautious?"

After some thought, I replied: "... Maybe it’s because he couldn’t stand it."

"Couldn’t stand it?" Little Bowl asked curiously.

I nodded and explained: "From my perspective, targeting children is something disgraceful to speak of and sounds very underhanded. Normally one would not do so. But that doesn’t mean I would never do it. For instance, if a child with malicious intent comes at me with a knife, of course with my strength I could disarm and kindly let them go, but what if I did kill them? I wouldn’t feel any unease in my conscience.

"And even if it’s not a case of self-defense, if there’s something I have to do, the fact that it might mean a child, woman, or elderly person could die as collateral doesn’t change my purpose. Yes, from their perspective, it’s certainly unjust. But I will not stop because of that.

"Even if among those people there are children, women, and the elderly, I admit I’m walking a path of injustice myself. Once my actions end up killing or harming others, I won’t change my course because of their age or gender, though I might feel pricked in my conscience and want to warn her to escape next." I said.

"Obviously, doing so would negatively affect your own plans?" Little Bowl said, puzzled, frowning, "Isn’t that just hypocrisy... just self-satisfaction?"

"I can’t speak to what Xuanming is thinking, but at least I’d say I’m not acting out of conscience. I’ve always acted to fulfill my own heart.

"Even if, in this hypothetical scenario, that child managed to seize the opportunity, successfully escaping and foiling my original plan, that would be her own skill. Honestly, I’m not all that interested in absolute victory or defeat. If she managed to flee successfully, I might even be surprised by that twist of fate." I said.

In Yinyue’s "world of possibilities," it was indeed because of this reason that Zhu Shi turned against me.

What would "I" have thought in that world’s scene? I believe "I" would not have extended my reasoning beyond my current explanation.

"But I wasn’t doing it specifically to harm those people. If one day I needed to achieve something, and some frail child seized the opportunity to escape, partially undermining my goal, well, that would be her own skill. I must say, I wouldn’t consider that such a bad thing. I’m frankly not that interested in absolute victory and defeat. If she succeeds in escaping, in fact, I might even be impressed by the surprise." I said.

Little Bowl had a thoughtful expression.

"Anyway... that’s all I have to say." I concluded.

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