From the end of the world

Chapter 712 The Flames of War Continue

"Zhu Shi, along with Fa Zheng and Jian Feixian, invaded the afterlife..." I quickly came to a conclusion, "Zhu Shi has completely mastered the power to forge the Yama Sword?"

Xiao Wan nodded, acknowledging the incredible good news.

“Yes, Zhu Shi was released from quarantine just two days ago,” she said.

After such a long period of preparation and adjustment, Zhu Shi finally mastered the power of the Great Impermanence, and gained the strength to fight alongside me.

I felt genuinely happy and couldn't help but imagine myself fighting alongside Zhu Shi.

"The gate to the afterlife was also completed around the same time," Xiao Wan continued. "We didn't know when you would return, but your cooperative relationship with Fa Zheng and the others still exists. To fill this gap, Zhu Shi decided to go there in your place first."

"I see, it's because I wasn't there..." I understood.

Xiaowan said in a comforting tone, "Actually, compared to the factor of cooperation, Zhu Shi's motivation is more likely her own will. Given her personality, it's impossible for her to sit idly by when the Gospel Institute wants to slaughter all of humanity. Putting aside the past when she lacked the power, now that she has the power, she will definitely want to be at the forefront more than anyone else."

I'm well aware of that, but I don't intend to distance myself from it.

Xiao Wan must have understood what I was thinking. In that sense, it was almost as if she was deliberately reminding me, making me more consciously think about what Zhu Shi had done for me.

"Were only the three of them in the afterlife? Didn't the Diviner Master go with them?" I mentally calculated the combat strength of both sides.

Aside from Huang Quan, whom I have already killed, the gods and humans of the Gospel Academy include Yama, the master of the Gospel Academy; Tu, the great demon god; Ming Zhuo, who has defected; and the Yin and Yang of the Wheel-Turning King Mountain.

Shan Liangyi is currently confirmed to be active in the world of the living, while in the afterlife there are only three powerful enemies for the time being. Let's leave Mingzhuo aside for now; the extent of Shentu's power is also unknown. As for Yanmo, based on my feeling, although he is stronger than me and Xuanming, he doesn't have a significant lead. It's roughly equivalent to Meng Zhang, who is supported by the power of "Shangri-La"—not the one who was about to unleash the power of "Shangri-La" at the end, but the Meng Zhang who was suppressed by me and the Water Master Xuanwu working together.

While Xuanwu of the Water Guard held the advantage of elemental advantage, against Yama, the Lord of the Gospel Academy, even with Fazheng and Jian Feixian working together, they might not be able to hold their own. Based on my understanding, Jian Feixian's combat strength is on par with Mingzhuo and Huangquan, making him a potential weak point in Fazheng's fight against Yama. If Zhu Shi, who possesses the power to forge the Yama Sword, were also included, the odds might be more stable, but the Gospel Academy still has Shentu and Mingzhuo, as well as other potentially unknown trump cards…

To be on the safe side, we need to include the Divination Master in the calculations. Only after that will I enter the fray, and on paper, our combat strength will definitely be superior. However, the combat strength currently allocated to the afterlife is not reassuring.

"The Divination Master still needs to suppress the apocalyptic spacetime brought by the great demons of the past in the real world. Although he is trying to transform his Heavenly and Earthly Dharma Array so that he can break free from this constraint later, it doesn't seem to be so easy to do." Xiao Wan explained, "Fa Zheng and the others don't have any plans to formally attack the Gospel Academy at the moment. Instead, they want to wait for you first and adapt to the unpredictable environment of the afterlife."

"Although there is an apocalyptic spacetime created by the Great Demons in the real world, it is still not large enough in terms of area. As the Great Impermanence, if you want to truly adapt to living in the chaotic and disordered apocalyptic spacetime, it is still necessary to experience the afterlife first. Although my blessing can open a door of convenience for Zhu Shi, it cannot provide help to Fa Zheng and Jian Fei Xian. In this regard, they can only rely on themselves."

"Their activities in the afterlife are as covert as possible, and the Gospel House should not be aware of their intrusion for the time being. And thanks to Yuchi's technology, they are able to maintain real-time communication with Yuchi in the world of the living while they are operating in the afterlife. I spoke with Yuchi before Zhuang Cheng returned, and everything is normal on Zhu Shi's side now."

That being said, if I followed them there, something would probably happen immediately. Asahaya probably also plans to return to the afterlife; I'm afraid that no sooner had we entered than Fukuinin would attack.

Thinking about this, I noticed a dangerous element: "Zhu Shi also spent a lot of time with Ma Zao. She'll definitely attract strange things there, or even a preemptive attack from the Gospel Institute, right? I really need to hurry up and get there..."

“Don’t worry, Brother Zhuangcheng, Zhu Shi isn’t affected by the power of the jinx,” Xiaowan said. “And the reason Sister Mazao didn’t go into the afterlife with us, besides wanting to wait for Brother Zhuangcheng’s return, is partly to avoid triggering the misfortune and inviting an early attack from the Gospel Institute.” These words were puzzling at first glance. How could Zhu Shi, who had spent so much time with Mazao, not be affected by the power of the jinx? The last time I saw Zhu Shi, I could clearly observe related signs in her fate… Then, I thought of a possible answer.

Just as I was about to voice my guess, Xiaowan smiled and pressed her finger to my lips, saying, "Don't get the answer to this from me. You should have Mazao-neechan show it to you herself."

She had essentially given away the answer, but I wasn't so tactless as to change the subject, so I steered the question in another direction, and she answered them one by one.

First, besides suppressing the expansion of the apocalyptic spacetime in the real world, the Diviner Master did other things during this period, such as using his divination skills to investigate whether the Gospel Institute had any other entrances and exits from the afterlife to the real world.

What we can be certain of right now is that there are zero such entrances/exits. It's likely that when the three great demons were mobilized into the real world to execute the apocalyptic spacetime expansion tactic, to prevent Fazheng from unleashing his super-enhanced humane weapon and rampaging into the afterlife after the plan's success, no other extra entrances/exits were left.

At the same time, the Divination Master has set up his own reconnaissance spells in various places. As long as a new entrance or exit appears, he will definitely be able to grasp the fluctuations in spacetime at the same time, and launch a long-range sniping attack immediately to destroy the entrance or exit that is still in the process of forming.

The reason his transformation of the Heavenly and Earthly Formation into a magic array was so slow was because he was busy with this matter. It is estimated that even after completing the formation process, he will continue to remain in the real world and will not participate in the campaign to advance into the afterlife. This is to prevent an extremely terrible possibility: if Luo Shan devotes all of his Great Impermanence forces to the afterlife, would Yama take advantage of the situation and suddenly attack the real world to carry out his plan to slaughter humanity?

Given the extreme destructive power that a being of the level of Yama, the Lord of the Gospels, could unleash, it is entirely feasible for him to dismantle human civilization before all the other beings in the afterlife could even react.

Even though there are ways to maintain contact with the afterlife in the real world, we cannot be complacent. The Great Impermanence has far too many tricks up its sleeve. Yama might destroy all of Luoshan's communication facilities with the afterlife immediately and then fabricate false messages to send to the front lines. We must have a trustworthy and powerful figure guarding the real world.

In addition, during this time, Fa Zheng and his comrades also tried to save a group of survivors in the afterlife.

A significant portion of the survivors in the apocalypse are patients suffering from amnesia in the real world. Their souls are trapped in the afterlife because communication between the afterlife and the real world is blocked. Now, this barrier has been breached thanks to Yu Chi's successful development of the "Dushuo Mountain" teleportation array. By using this teleportation portal, patients suffering from amnesia can return.

The souls of those suffering from amnesia can automatically return and recover to their original state as long as they set foot on the land of the living through the mysterious connection between them and their bodies—those in a vegetative state will open their eyes and wake up.

Before, No. 7 was worried that Xiao Wan's soul might not be able to maintain itself properly when she returned to the real world. On the one hand, she guessed that she had never had the opportunity to understand this phenomenon since she had always been in the afterlife. On the other hand, she also stumbled upon it by chance. As the incarnation of a dream, Xiao Wan's situation was special, and this phenomenon of automatically returning to the body would not happen to her.

Thanks to this, a considerable number of people suffering from madness are able to escape that veritable hell and return to the safe reality, reuniting with their family and friends. The only drawback is that the memories they lost due to their madness are not recovered in this process.

A few awakened patients with amnesia might mistakenly believe they are "post-apocalyptic survivors," and unfortunately, their misunderstanding isn't entirely wrong. The apocalypse might indeed arrive in the future, and the real world might become as desolate as the afterlife we ​​know today.

Even after saving a small number of patients with the Soul Disorder, the spread of the disorder did not end. The afterlife continues to randomly devour the souls of ordinary people in the real world, and even some Witcher have been affected.

If the root cause of the amnesia is not resolved, even if Fazheng and his companions save countless amnesia patients in the afterlife, it will be like trying to scoop water out of a ship with countless holes that keep leaking in.

The number of holes keeps increasing, and no matter how diligently they bail out water, the boat will sink sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)