From the end of the world

Chapter 702 VS Meng Zhang 3
Taking advantage of Meng Zhang's hesitation, I tried to use the same clever footwork again, wanting to relentlessly pursue him. However, the same move rarely works a second time. Meng Zhang no longer regarded me as someone who only knew crude fighting techniques, and coupled with his speed being far superior to mine, he immediately retreated to create distance.

I used the surrounding sea of ​​fire to launch a flame teleportation attack, attempting to press my advantage. Meng Zhang still seemed unable to accept what had just happened, but instead of retreating, he actively counterattacked, engaging me in close combat, and we entered another cycle of exchanging blows. Strangely enough, one of us controlled fire, and the other controlled lightning, both using destructive power that had nothing to do with defense. Logically, we should have been like two quick-draw guns, quickly deciding a life or death, but for a while, we couldn't kill each other no matter what we did.

And what I just used was indeed Xuanming's movement technique.

"What you learn from books is never enough; you must put it into practice to truly understand..." Thanks to Xiaowan's blessing, I was able to gradually digest Xuanming's experience even in peacetime. Especially after Xiaowan made specific adjustments to the blessing, it was like adding wings to a tiger. Real combat, however, allowed me to accelerate this process a hundredfold. Xuanming was an ancient master of battlefield combat, and the experience he left me was primarily based on practical application. I was meant to learn and understand these things on the battlefield.

It's impossible for me to fully absorb Xuanming's vast experience from this battle alone; I can only absorb a portion at most. But even this alone will be of some help. Because what Xuanming gave me is precisely my weakest point. I've only been a Great Impermanence for a very short time. Other Great Impermanences have lived for at least several centuries, while I haven't even been a Great Impermanence for half a year. My accumulation of experience is severely insufficient.

The experience gained from the Great Demon of Calamity was extremely one-sided, focusing only on the understanding of power itself, but lacking any practical wisdom. Even the understanding of power itself was based on his own haphazard conjecture, containing many primitive and crude elements, while Xuanming's understanding was much more comprehensive.

After repeated clashes, I gradually deduced my chances of winning. Based on my initial calculations at the start of the battle, against Meng Zhang, who had received the "Shangri-La" buff, my odds of winning were significantly lower, but now they are starting to catch up.

Meng Zhang and I can both unleash countless supernatural abilities, manipulating time and space, and even abstract concepts with ease. However, our battle didn't directly demonstrate those elements. It's precisely because we possess all these skills and can use and counter them at will that they become meaningless to each other.

We simply collided and punched each other. There weren't even any special techniques, no joint locks or grappling skills; each strike was powerful enough to shatter mountains and destroy cities. Fighting techniques were useless against my ball of flame, and my opponent, who could transform into lightning speed, had no need for such superfluous things.

Looking back, I recall seeing scenes in foreign comics depicting battles between supreme beings. The lore always described them as possessing various powers, yet the visuals consistently showed them punching and kicking. These were characters who could manipulate time and cause and effect at will, so why did they fight like cavemen? I used to have similar thoughts occasionally. My younger self certainly couldn't have imagined that I would ironically fall into this "conventional" pattern as an adult.

The phrase "things reach their extreme and then reverse" came to mind again. Once you've mastered a certain number of skills and techniques, combat becomes incredibly simple. This seems to align with the theory that different paths lead to the same destination; all different things, after reaching a certain level of development, will exhibit homogeneous characteristics.

However, neither Meng Zhang nor I are yet to reach the third gate, let alone be compared to the Lord of the Divine Seal who possesses omniscience and omnipotence. We are both still far from the ultimate realm, far from being able to speak of "the great way is simple." The reason we have entered a confrontation mode mainly based on physical strength is partly because our nature as Great Impermanence is somewhat similar.

Although we differ in our magical attributes, we are both characters who primarily rely on overwhelming power. Xuanming is no exception. Conflicts between pure power often lack dramatic reversals; the outcome usually unfolds naturally, as can be seen in my battle with Xuanming.

“It seems we’re the same type,” I said in the midst of our rapid exchange.

Meng Zhang seemed still in shock. He said incredulously, "Xuanming left his experience... his legacy to you at the end of his life? How is that possible? Someone like you!"
"Does Xuanming agree with you even more than I do? Does he also have a world in his heart... a compassionate heart for humanity?"

To be honest, I don't really understand what exactly Xuanming trusts about me.

"Can't I have it?" I asked deliberately.

Disbelief immediately appeared on Meng Zhang's face, but perhaps considering that Xuan Ming had indeed left me an inheritance in the end, he paused slightly, seemingly looking at me for the first time, and then said in a deep voice: "Okay... then let me ask you, why do you deny my 'Shangri-La'?"
"Don't try to evade the issue by saying that you're hostile to me just because you want to eliminate me, the successor of the Vermilion Bird... I can sense from your magic that you have a strong aversion to my 'Shangri-La'."

I said, "I want to ask you instead, why do you think you won't be rejected? Wanting everyone to drift into a sweet dream... that's not your real wish, is it?"

Xuanming stated that no new life would be born in the "Shangri-La," and civilization would end within a generation—a statement that, upon closer examination, is puzzling. Admittedly, if everyone were asleep, pursuing in their dreams everything that should be pursued in reality, then naturally there would be no offline interaction or mating, and certainly no new life. However, that presupposes the "Shangri-La" to be merely an online cyberspace. The "Shangri-La" is also another real universe, and I don't believe that new life absolutely cannot be born there.

Especially for the Great Impermanence, there is no absolute distinction between matter and spirit. Defining "Shangri-La" as a spiritual realm is merely a relative perspective of the real world; for the inhabitants of "Shangri-La," it can also be considered a material realm. Even within this real world, there exist monsters capable of treating reality as an illusion.

Xuanming was so certain because he saw through Meng Zhang's true intentions.

Meng Zhang's goal is for everyone's consciousness to undergo near-infinite time within the "Shangri-La" to achieve homogenization and ultimately merge into one, thus truly completing the ultimate existence of the "Shangri-La." For this purpose, the birth of new life is superfluous and might even hinder it.

Thinking about this, there's something I don't quite understand. Based on past contact and intelligence, "Shangri-La" already had a rudimentary form before Meng Zhang destroyed the city. Why did Meng Zhang have to plunder so many souls from outside and incorporate them into the dream network, instead of first allowing the consciousnesses already incorporated into the dream network to combine and multiply into a large number of new souls? Was it because it wasn't possible at the moment, or was there some reason not to do it that way?
"What I'm pursuing is true order," Meng Zhang said.

"Order?" I countered.

"This is also the goal that you, Luoshan, have been pursuing. Transcendentalism, social order... all exist for a more ideal order," Meng Zhang said. "But because you are always stuck in low-level arguments, you cannot reach the correct conclusion. No matter which side you go to, the end result will be a minority of elites ruling over the majority of the masses."

"There is no fundamental change at all. The persecution of the weak by the strong will not stop. No matter how advanced civilization becomes, it will be no different from the primitive era of eating raw meat and drinking blood. Today's society may seem glamorous, but isn't it still governed by the same underlying order as in the primitive tribal period?"

"The accumulation and progress of civilization that Xuanming pursued, from another perspective, never existed from the beginning; it was nothing but an illusion."

That's an extremely extreme statement. Even if most people encounter various misfortunes in life, probably very few would willingly want to be reborn into a primitive, hunter-gatherer era to start a new life. If the past and present truly hadn't changed, some people's answers would likely differ. I think this in itself is enough to prove that the accumulation and progress of civilization are not meaningless.

However, I felt like I'd heard a similar tone somewhere before. Then it dawned on me: during the first invasion of "Shangri-La," his avatar had criticized Luo Shan.

“The ideal order seeks a society where everyone is closely united. However, although humans call themselves social animals, they are still stuck in an in-between stage and are not true social animals like ants and bees. Even with abundant material wealth, as long as selfishness exists, true peace is destined to be unattainable,” Meng Zhang said. “Ideology is just a superficial topic; to solve the problem, we must make fundamental changes.”

"An ideal order exists, but humans at this stage are not adapted to such an order. So we just need to let humans evolve to the next stage."

"You mean 'Shangri-La'?" I sensed what he was about to say.

As for his claims, I have absolutely no empathy for them.

“Everything stems from differences. Love and hate, good and evil, as well as human personality and selfishness…” Meng Zhang said, “and the ‘Shangri-La’ exists precisely to transcend all contradictions.”

(End of this chapter)