Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 84 - 81 Extraordinaryism 3

Chapter 84: 81 Extraordinaryism 3

At the end, Lu Youxun’s attitude turned particularly solemn.

This was outside a barbecue restaurant, with steamy skewers on the plastic table between us; logically speaking, it wasn’t such a serious setting. However, his overly earnest gaze pressed down on these scenes making one involuntarily feel the need to seriously consider his invitation.

First, I thought for a while, then said, "Before I answer you, I need to ask you a question."

"You’re welcome to ask," Lu Youxun nodded.

"Now, I understand that Luo Mountain is destined to become the ruler of this society, but you also mentioned before that both Zhu Shi’s Transcendentalism Mountain and your Transcendentalism Mountain aim to become this ruler, just with different methods of ruling. If that’s the case, why must I choose you over Zhu Shi?" I countered.

"Do you choose Zhu Shi, because you like her?" he asked curiously.

"Zhu Shi is my friend, I naturally prioritize her," I said. "Also, I have another reason for being unable to accept your method."

"What is it?" he asked seriously.

"You Transcendentalists plan to enslave the common people through violence; I won’t say this is unreasonable, but it feels rather disreputable to me," I said.

"Disreputable..." he mused, taken aback.

At this point, I realized this might be an opportunity, a chance to ask a very important question for myself.

"Moreover, the methods you’ve used in the past also seem disreputable to me."

He looked puzzled, "What have we done to you?"

"Not to me, but to that girl with soul loss," I tried to maintain my act. "Agent Kong mentioned to me that you used concocted charges and slander against that morally ambiguous girl, even trying to execute before appealing to the public security to implement these charges, right?"

"Even if that girl with soul loss could be the key to a cure for soul loss, your approach is excessively unscrupulous. If you believe you represent a mighty trend, why not demonstrate a more noble demeanor instead of resorting to underhanded methods?"

He seemed stumped by my question, a complex expression on his face, "This..."

However, what I really wanted to ask wasn’t that. I had no interest in moral accusations. The following information was my actual target.

"You don’t need the power of the public security; you have the technology yourselves to find that girl with soul loss, don’t you?" I said. "Like you, with your Divination Spellcraft. Although I don’t understand much about divination, finding a missing person should be a piece of cake for you, right? Didn’t we find that odd figure before with your help?"

"Even if you yourself are not capable enough, there must be other demon hunters skilled in divination in your mountain, or other mountains, right? Are you the only one tasked with finding that girl with soul loss, with no one else able to join in?"

Upon hearing this, he sighed deeply, "Quite the contrary..."

"Contrary?" I wondered.

"There are too many people wanting to find that girl with soul loss in Luo Mountain, too many to count. Among them are people from my mountain, and mountains. There are also many of those ’other diviners’ you mentioned," he provided an unexpected answer.

A greater suspicion arose in me, "Then... as you said, why is she still not found?"

"Because of competition," he explained. "Too many want to find the girl with soul loss, but there’s only one such girl. Whoever captures her first leaves the rest empty-handed. Some people, upon realizing they can’t be the fastest, think, ’If I can’t get her, I’ll at least ensure my rivals can’t either,’ and then proceed to hinder them."

"So you mean, she can’t be found by the diviners because..." I vaguely sensed the reason behind it.

And indeed, he provided a shocking answer: "In the hospital where she was previously, there were biological materials like her blood and hair. Some intended to use these materials as a medium to divine her whereabouts, while others used them instead to impose strong anti-divination protections on her, whose location is unknown."

"Last time I was able to read the land’s memory and obtain her photo because my divination target originally had nothing to do with her, it was quite a fortunate fluke. Now that I’m aware of it, even if I were to repeat the act, I can’t achieve the same result."

I was dumbfounded.

Indeed, I had assumed. Though I knew there were many mountains in Luo Mountain, I still subconsciously viewed Luo Mountain as a whole, thinking they’d uniformly look for Mazao.

But it was not the case at all. This explains why I could hide Mazao at home for so many days, and why such an organization with vast Divine Skills couldn’t find Mazao until now—they had started fighting behind the scenes before even finding Mazao.

The "turbulent undercurrents" I had worried about all these days were indeed this turbulent!

"So, the reason you resorted to executing actions without prior consultation is also because..."

"Regarding this matter, I won’t make excuses. Indeed, we weren’t entirely honorable," Lu Youxun sighed. "Some among us, upon seeing so many rivals, inevitably became impatient. When people become anxious, they tend to become irrational and entertain thoughts of taking shortcuts, even resorting to unscrupulous methods to achieve their goals."

"I see..." I just felt that the long-standing clouds of doubt lingering over my head had finally cleared.

"I hope you won’t misunderstand us too much; such improper methods aren’t our norm," he said. "And as for you, we will also adopt as peaceful an approach as possible."

Seeing him shift the topic to me, I couldn’t help but become alert, "Such as?"

"You want to hide your true power level from others, I will help you conceal it," he actually said, "My previous investigation of you was just to fulfill my duty as an agent of the Luoshan Patrol. But now, as a representative of Transcendentalism, I want to extend goodwill towards you."

"What if I want you to also hide this from your colleagues and superiors?" I probed.

He nodded without hesitation, "Yes, we can do as you say."

Is this really possible? Is he serious or is he deceiving me? For a moment, I couldn’t ascertain his intentions.

"Now that it’s confirmed you are a supreme powerhouse who can even master Elementalization, naturally, I will respect your will and at least not do anything that could anger you," he said seriously. "Moreover, you mentioned before that we Transcendentalists enslave ordinary people, right? This view is also Zhu Shi’s misunderstanding of us; it’s a stereotype."

"What?" I was surprised again.

"For what I’m going to say next, my words alone provide no proof. Fortunately, I previously gave you the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring, which you can use on me," he indicated.

"Are you serious?" I countered.

He made a "please" gesture.

This was indeed a good opportunity to use the new artifact, and I felt the desire to try it, but was it really okay to use it on someone I knew? After watching him for several seconds and seeing that he didn’t seem to be bluffing, I took out the ring he had just given me, which looked as if it were woven out of iron wires, and wore it on the middle finger of my right hand.

Immediately, I felt my right hand suddenly lighten, as if my entire palm had disappeared. In fact, my hand was still there, but it had become translucent like a ghostly shadow. I couldn’t even pick up a kebab with that hand; it seemed to have become a ghost’s palm.

Looking back at Lu Youxun, his expression was normal, his hands on the table, and he was sitting straight, watching me. If I continued being hesitant, I might appear weak, so I went ahead and reached for his chest.

My right hand passed through his clothes, his skin, and his ribcage, and then touched something firm yet lively, strong and regularly pulsating with moisture.

It was his heart.

I grasped his heart, and a sudden enlightenment rose from within me, as if the ring was speaking to me—after this, he couldn’t lie or remain silent; he could only answer my questions.

"You say that Transcendentalism enslaving ordinary people is Zhu Shi’s misunderstanding, what do you mean by that?" I asked.

"It’s not just Zhu Shi’s misunderstanding but also a misconception among some Transcendentalists. The world that Transcendentalism truly wishes to describe doesn’t require the enslavement of ordinary people."

Despite his heart being grasped, Lu Youxun’s expression remained unchanged as he spoke lightly, "After the world of Transcendentalism is realized, it would be as if demon hunters will become monks, and Luo Mountain will no longer be Luoshan, but will transform and get a more fitting name. It could be ’Heavenly Court’ or something else... We will stand above the heavens, do you understand what that means?"

"Not really," I looked into his eyes.

"In ancient myths, even the servants of Immortals weren’t roles that ordinary people could take on," he calmly said. "Just like in ’Journey to the West’, those who guarded and served the Gods and Buddhas had to be spirit beasts; even the lowest-ranked soldiers in the Heavenly Court were not roles ordinary people could fulfill. Of course, our Transcendentalism isn’t as majestic as the Heavenly Court in ’Journey to the West’, but we indeed have no need to have ordinary people busy themselves on our behalf."

"You’re exaggerating a bit too much. Ordinary people might not match demon hunters in physical strength, but that’s not the case intellectually. They can still operate technology and create tremendous power," I questioned while holding his heart, but couldn’t feel any indication of deceit in the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

"That’s the viewpoint of Zhu Shi’s faction," he said gravely. "The disparity between monks and ordinary people is great. Even differences in skin color and facial features among humans are enough to fuel mutual disdain and hatred, let alone such a vast disparity in power," he intoned gravely. "Transcendentalism doesn’t concern itself with the births and deaths of ordinary people; such cold governance, in fact, is fairness to them.

"Conversely, what about those monks like Zhu Shi who want to coexist harmoniously with ordinary people? I could stake my heart on predicting—when the time comes, it’s definitely not us but them who will enslave the ordinary people and turn them all into slaves.

"Their ideas are the most dangerous."

His heart continued to beat steadily.

Even after returning home, this sensation still lingered in the palm of my hand.

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