From the end of the world

Chapter 771 Willow Shadow's Awakening
Does the veteran boxer want to use the external pressure created by a powerful opponent to force himself to "give up"?
Achieving self-breakthrough in battle is arguably the key to victory. I often find myself driven by a sense of utter recklessness during combat, willing to use any means necessary to achieve victory. In this state of mind, it's true that one can abandon many important things. Therefore, I can understand the logic behind it.

But can such conditions alone truly accomplish the Great Abandonment? I find it hard to be optimistic. It's precisely because I've tried and come close to the Great Abandonment myself that I know how difficult this challenge truly is. If the Great Abandonment were so easy to achieve, I wouldn't have struggled so much in the past. Frankly, I still believe the Great Abandonment is an impossible achievement.

Perhaps the old boxing god had his own reasons. The "powerful enemy" might not be his only reliance for opening the fourth door; he might have made other preparations in secret, and the powerful enemy as external pressure was just the final link in the chain.

That concludes our conversation. Finally, I asked the fortune teller about the fragments of the divine seal.

“In order to defeat Shan Liangyi and the Old Fist God, as well as the Lord of the Divine Seals hidden behind the scenes, I want to obtain more fragments of the Divine Seals from you.” I said directly, “I know you are worried that I might have thoughts that are detrimental to the world, just like the Old Fist God. To be honest, I did have such thoughts before, but now I have changed my mind, and I hope you can believe me.”

The divination master looked at me deeply, then nodded and said, "I will believe you, and you are the only one I can believe now. But I must apologize to you, I cannot give you the fragments of the divine seal. Because as early as last year, I had already handed over all the fragments of the divine seal that I had collected to the living god Zhao."

"Is that so?" I was somewhat surprised.

So, it seems that Shenzhao did indeed have some secret collaborations with the Divination Master during his lifetime. The reason he was able to deduce so early on—that the "Master of the Divine Seal was a mortal before obtaining the Divine Seal," a conclusion initially considered incorrect—was because of their private cooperation. It seems they had many stories hidden from me, an outsider, that I was unaware of.

At the same time, the Diviner may even have had some consensus and communication with Yama, the abbot of the Gospel Temple during his lifetime.

The divination master had mentioned "Yam's premonition about the old fist god's unknown intentions" before, but last time he at least added the prefix "perhaps". This time he didn't pretend at all and said it directly in a very confident tone.

Logically speaking, the divination master couldn't possibly know what specific judgment Yama had made about the Old Fist God. One person is in the world of the living, and the other is in the world of the dead, especially since the latter is in the most chaotic and severe time-space of the apocalypse. Prophecy couldn't possibly get sufficiently accurate feedback there.

I have reason to believe that after Luoshan and the Gospel Institute established an irreconcilable relationship, the Diviner and Yama had at least one secret meeting without my or Fazheng's knowledge.

These two men share a common nemesis: the Old Fist God. It's highly likely they reached some consensus on this matter and considered how to eliminate the Old Fist God. The specific method most likely falls to Shan Liangyi.

Of course, one thing is one thing. No matter how much consensus there is, the Diviner could not allow Yama to carry out the plan to slaughter humanity. That is why he launched a sneak attack at the time when the two elements of the mountain returned to the afterlife.

Now that the Mountain Two Elements have been proven insufficient to be an enemy of the Old Fist God, the Divination Master can only rely on me.

The fortune teller didn't seem to mind me seeing through these things. With his cunning and shrewdness, it would be easy for him to deceive me. He was now showing his sincerity.

I replicated the power of return once again, and applied this power to the severely injured and weakened Divination Master.

Because this damage was inflicted by Shan Liangyi himself, the speed of restoration through the power of return was not as fast as restoring the city or resurrecting millions of people. Fortunately, the number of people being treated was not that large compared to myself. Before long, the Divination Master's face regained its full color, and there was no trace of his previous near-death state.

The divination master let out a long sigh of relief, as if appreciating his own good health, and then said, "As expected, this is truly a manifestation of divine power... Thank you very much, Zhuang Cheng."

"You're welcome. This is just a small token of my gratitude," I said. "See you later. I have to go see the others now."

After leaving the fortune teller's room, I found Xiao Wan nearby. Xiao Wan then led me to meet Master Zhu, Lu Chan, Chang'an, and others in other parts of the mansion.

They had been hiding in this location all this time. Although, according to the divination master, it was a low probability that the Mountain Two Elements would kidnap someone close to me as a hostage, and even if they did, it would at most be to buy themselves time to adjust their mindset, not to actually become material for demanding my surrender; correspondingly, the Mountain Two Elements wouldn't particularly care about the value of the hostages, and it could easily escalate into killing all the hostages to provoke me. Just in case, the divination master still sheltered them all.

Zhu Shi's grandmother and others were also arranged to stay in the mansion, and Zhu Jiu's body was also moved there, taking care of everything.

After confirming everyone's situation, I had a private conversation with Xiaowan in an empty room in the courtyard. In order to rely on Xiaowan's wisdom, I told her everything I had discussed with the fortune teller, hoping it would become material for her to advise me in the future.

As I recounted this information, I deliberately used the power of the divine seal fragments, much like in my previous life, to create a barrier that would prevent the master of the divine seal, Tai Sui, from eavesdropping. Once out of sight of others, Xiao Wan became somewhat bolder. I sat on the edge of the bed, and Xiao Wan sat on my lap, then hugged me tightly, face to face, like a sloth clinging to a tree trunk. She listened to my account, occasionally asking questions with a smile, requesting more details, and asking me to stroke her back like I would a soothing kitten.

Now I am Mazao's unwavering partner, willing to fight to save the world—Little Bowl is clearly still overjoyed about this, and has become like a real child, always wanting to be pampered.

Seeing her so happy made me happy too.

However, the important matters still need to be carried out seriously.

“…Now I think I understand why the Old Fist God refused to fight Willow Shadow again,” I said.

Xiao Wan gradually regained her serious attitude and then asked curiously, "Why?"

I recalled the old boxing legend's words, "I don't want to fight opponents who won't use their full strength anymore," and I remembered Liu Shuying's mysterious attitude when mentioning the old boxing legend's wish. I also thought about the wish the old boxing legend might want to fulfill...

"The fortune teller said that what the old fist god wanted to achieve might be a 'doomsday world' far worse than ours... When I heard this, I was deeply attracted by the description. What kind of world is that?" I said, "If I could, I would like to see it for myself... And without a doubt, since I have this idea, Liu Shuying will too."

"Although it is unknown whether he guessed this matter like the Diviner and Yama, or learned it during his confrontation with the Old Fist God... but from the moment he learned about it, he was most likely unable to concentrate on killing the Old Fist God."

"Even if it doesn't necessarily mean that one side will be unable to use 100% of their strength in a fight, the fact that one side is single-mindedly pursuing victory while the other side is thinking about other things is enough to create a clear gap. I don't know if Liu Shuying really had the power to defeat the old Fist God, but at least at that time he was definitely not the enemy the old Fist God expected."

Xiao Wan said knowingly, "So the Old Fist God merely banished Liu Shuying to the void because he still hoped to fight Liu Shuying again in the future when she was at her full strength; at the same time, in order to prevent Liu Shuying, the current master of the divine seal, from interfering with him, he needed to temporarily prevent Liu Shuying's return..."

"The reason why Liu Shuying couldn't go all out was because he was also secretly hoping that the old Fist God's dream could come true and realize that extremely dangerous world..."

"But doesn't Liu Shuying want to reclaim the divine seal of the present world and become the 'true master of the divine seal' again?"

Tai Sui once said that as long as the location of the Divine Seal in the present world is confirmed, Liu Shuying can use her identity as the owner of the Divine Seal in the present world to make it automatically return to her own hands.

Perhaps Liu Shuying made such an attempt during her battle with the Old Fist God, but failed because the opponent suppressed the divine seal of the present world with brute force. It is estimated that the Old Fist God also confirmed Liu Shuying's true identity through this phenomenon.

An ordinary person might panic because of this. The "golden finger" that allows you to manipulate the world at will, which is clearly yours, has been seized and imprisoned by others.

If the power of the third gate can forcefully push the Divine Seal of the Present World and manipulate a portion of its power without the authority to hold the seal, then the power of the fourth gate must be able to completely control the power of the Divine Seal of the Present World.

At that time, whether or not he has the authority to hold the seal will no longer matter. Power will be the qualification of the old Fist God as the current master of the divine seal. He will become the new master of the divine seal.

From Liu Shuying's perspective, this was absolutely a terrible thing. Having once been the "true master of the divine seal," she couldn't even get back the divine seal in the mortal world. No matter how you looked at it, it was a huge loss.

However, Liu Shuying likely never truly cared about this matter from beginning to end. Why, you ask…

“… ‘Success doesn’t have to be achieved by me.’” I read this sentence aloud.

(End of this chapter)