Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 83 - 80 Extraordinaryism 2

Chapter 83: 80 Extraordinaryism 2

I somewhat understood Lu Youxun’s point.

He did not believe in the existence of the divine seal, yet he was convinced that the power to change everything really did exist. Whether the source of that power was human, object, or purely a phenomenon remained unclear, but one thing was certain: the source of that power was considerably biased towards ordinary people.

Even Luo Mountain, even Impermanence, was likewise wary of the unknown. Before completely understanding the truth behind that power, they dared not act rashly.

If I were the ruler of Luo Mountain, where would I suspect the source of that power to be?

The first to be doubted would be those who benefited the most from the existence of that power, the actual ruling class of the secular society.

"We once suspected that the ’divine seal’ might be in the hands of the official forces," Lu Youxun was still using "divine seal" to refer to the source of that power.

And as I knew, the Master of Divine Seal was the one presiding over the Mist Dream Realm, a giant known as "Number Zero."

Could the giant be someone from the official forces?

Was it he who made a wish to the divine seal in the distant past for ordinary people to rule the mortal world? Was his wish directly related to the "bringing the world to the brink of destruction" that number four Xuanming mentioned?

I was very curious about this topic.

If it was just about picking sides, I would want to end the conversation quickly; but if it involved talking about end times and bizarre history, I became thoroughly engrossed.

"You said ’once suspected,’ which means you have now dismissed the suspicion of the official forces?" I asked.

"At least ninety percent of the suspicion has been dismissed," Lu Youxun said, "In truth, the influence of the ’divine seal’ in the past was not limited to us monks but also affected them, the mortals.

"Thinking about it calmly, it is clear that we monks and they, the mortals, live under the same sky. To ignore each other not only requires monks to distance themselves from the secular world, but also requires the mortal community not to interfere with the monks. Since ancient times, those seeking immortality are as numerous as the carps crossing the river, and the number of emperors and nobles who desire immortality are countless. If they were not also restrained by that power, how could there truly be no interference?

"When the influence of that power disappeared, the official forces also fell into great confusion. Although they made many efforts to cover it up, they could not deceive our eyes. It’s true what they say, ’the greatest disguise is in plain sight,’ and we also considered that maybe the ’Master of Divine Seal’ has hidden himself within the court and government, so much so that even the official forces are unaware, which is why they have not acted rashly."

"You must have done a lot of probing," I said.

"Yes. And the result of the probing is that the ’divine seal’ is very likely not with the official forces, and even the ’divine seal’ itself may have ceased to exist," he nodded, "This is an easy guess. No matter how big an impact the ’divine seal’ once had on our world, its influence eventually disappeared.

"Why has it disappeared? If it’s not that the ’Master of Divine Seal’ has changed his mind, then it’s that the ’divine seal’ itself malfunctioned. Although there are other possibilities, we believe the malfunction scenario is worth investigating further.

"If we assume that the ’divine seal’ really is a Divine Artifact, we can even boldly speculate whether this Divine Artifact has shattered due to some catastrophe."

This bold speculation was indeed correct.

And considering that number four Xuanming, an entity of Impermanence, had already obtained a Divine Seal Fragment, I started to suspect that "the existence of the divine seal" and "the shattering of the divine seal" might not be secrets among Impermanence.

"Since we’ve come this far in the conversation, you can foresee that the conflict between Luo Mountain and the official forces will officially erupt in the near future." Lu Youxun advanced the topic to the next stage, "Zhuang Cheng, I hope you can join our ranks."

There it was, finally.

"You still have disagreements within your ranks, don’t you? Extraordinaryism isn’t the absolute mainstream of Luo Mountain," I asked.

"That’s true, there are voices within Luo Mountain saying that the community of monks should integrate with secular society. But you might be misunderstanding something; their so-called integration is not about monks becoming parts of the secular society’s workings," he said, "Their goal is also to become a new ruling class. It’s just that the goal of us Extraordinaryists is to become ’Gods,’ while their goal is to become ’monarchs’."

"Does Zhu Shi think the same way?" I asked.

He laughed helplessly, "She might prefer things remained unchanged. But even she can’t deny that the monk community replacing the obsolete ruling class is an inevitable part of history, and that the mistakes were made by history past."

"The official forces won’t sit idly by. If war breaks out, many ordinary people will die. Zhu Shi couldn’t possibly take part in such a thing," I said.

"It won’t escalate into a war. Luo Mountain possesses overwhelming power; any conflict would end very quickly."

"Is it because Luo Mountain has Impermanence?"

"Impermanence doesn’t even need to step in for Luo Mountain to dominate this country," he said with a calm confidence that was rock-solid. "Zhuang Cheng, what do you think of the level of the freak who fought with you tonight? If Luo Mountain didn’t intervene and he was only up against the official forces, how do you think things would play out?"

I pondered first, then realized a terrifying possibility.

And he answered his own question, "Perhaps to you, that freak was nothing more than a minor nuisance on the roadside, insignificant. But let me make it clear, that freak actually possessed a level of Physical Enhancement that was exceptional even among monks in the Residence Realm.

"Ranked about mid-level among freaks, he can move at speeds exceeding two hundred kilometers per hour, and his body, strengthened by mana, can easily tear through steel armor. He has the dynamic vision capable of tracking bullets and the reflexes to defend against them in time, as well as the toughness to directly withstand a volley of gunfire from heat weapons. Single combatant-level weapons basically pose no threat to him.

"Just combine these conditions, and then he only needs to tactically use assassination and guerrilla warfare while fully utilizing his off-road mobility. It would be an almost impossible task to kill or capture him. And we haven’t even factored in his superpower.

"Freaks can use shadows to teleport over great distances at any given moment, and can also summon powerful clones. The freak who fought with you tonight had the superpower to instantly recover after being killed, which means that surprise attacks by modern weapons using high firepower are utterly ineffective against him. He can easily enter the shadows and appear anywhere, killing whomever he wants and then just slinking back into the shadows when done. And the more he kills, the stronger and more formidable he becomes.

"Such a freak, with a bit of thought, could single-handedly dismantle a small nation’s government, and among our monks, he is merely in the Residence Realm. If you were facing a major country and switched him for one in the achieved realm, I dare say you wouldn’t need ten individuals to bring that national power to its knees without a fight. And here at Luo Mountain, we have nearly ten of the caliber of Impermanence, with even more powerful figures among the monk community. With such a vast disparity in strength, how could the official forces possibly compete with us?"

Although I was no expert in modern military affairs, I had to admit that he made sense.

In the past, I had used modern militaries as hypothetical enemies, even imagining what would happen if I were bombarded by missiles and nuclear weapons, thoroughly researching the topic online.

The reason for my careful research was not that I really planned to fight a modern military, but rather out of simple curiosity. Many people will never encounter a tiger in their lifetime but imagine themselves fighting one, even seriously inquiring online about how humans could possibly kill a tiger with their bare hands. The logic is the same.

After a careful investigation, I became aware of the tremendous advantage I had as a supernatural power user against modern militaries. It wasn’t that I could ignore Physical Attacks or that I could move freely on the battlefield with Flame Transmission. It was that modern military technology lacked ways to combat "super individuals" from the get-go.

Whether it was the nuclear weapons, which I saw as the epitome of destructive modern technology, or the behemoth aircraft carriers that roamed the seas like steel giants, these strategic military technologies were not designed to counter "super individuals" with powerful offensive and defensive capabilities and mobility. They targeted immobile strongholds and massed forces rather than "super individuals," and thus, they posed far less of a threat than I originally thought.

Furthermore, Luo Mountain’s demon hunters possessed not only the brute force of "super individuals," but Lu Youxun and the freaks had shown me profound and unfathomable techniques. The former could temporarily resurrect the dead and force out information, while the latter had tools for confining opponents in "spaces outside of reality." Among the demon hunter community, there were probably experts in spiritual control and curses, forces with enormous destructive power in modern society.

Whether and when power in the mortal world would change hands had never depended on the efforts of the current ruling class but depended on the thoughts of Luo Mountain.

Luo Mountain’s wariness towards the Master of the Divine Seal is a thing of the past; their inaction now might be more because they’ve yet to agree on how to divide the spoils.

"Also, there was something Zhu Shi misunderstood when she spoke to that freak," Lu Youxun said, pointing at the electronic telescope he had used earlier, now lying on the table. "She believes that all of today’s technological civilization is the product of humankind’s efforts, which I don’t deny. But strictly speaking, technology is not ’the strength of mortals’ but ’the power of intelligence.’

"The force of technology never favors any side. Mortals can harness that power, and monks can too, and do it even better. To consider it proof that mortals are somehow superior to monks in certain aspects is a mistake from the start.

"And what monks can use, mortals may not necessarily be able to. This alone proves that we monks fully transcend mortals based on including all of their strengths. We are indeed the ’Transcendents.’

"We are now at a historical turning point. It’s inevitable that monks replace mortals as the rulers of the mortal world.

"So, Zhuang Cheng," he continued, "I extend an invitation to you.

"Join us."