From the end of the world

Chapter 250: Fake Moon in the Water 2
While reciting this scripture-like spell, I kept looking into Ma Zao's eyes. The mirror of the fake moon in the water was reflected in her dark and transparent pupils, and the mirror of the fake moon in the water also reflected her pupils. The two became a pair of mirrors reflecting each other, and an endless maze corridor was formed in them.

The power of the fake moon in the water took effect. My mind was sucked into this psychedelic mirror flower and water moon. It was like being carried away by an irresistible current, and I could only go with the flow and rush into it. With my power, of course I couldn't be manipulated by a mere fake moon in the water, but that was my theory from the perspective of the recipient. Now I am the caster, and it is my own power that is carrying me, so I can only watch the changes happen.

When I came to my senses, I was no longer in the room at Fufeng Base.

I stood in an empty courtyard, the sky was dim, and there were flower beds and lawns around me. However, the flower beds were full of withered and decaying plants, and the lawns were overgrown with weeds. In the distance, there were buildings of varying heights in all directions. I couldn't see what they were. In the night, they looked like countless blurry behemoths, or like groups of tombstones formed purely by shadows.

"This is..." Ma Zao's voice came from the side.

I don't know when she appeared beside me, looking around with an expression of admiration.

I had just used the fake moon in the water to invade her soul, but now I had to face this bizarre and bleak scenery. I vaguely had an answer to this change in my heart. This place might be Ma Zao's inner world, or an illusion space formed by Ma Zao's spirit and memory.

If this place is formed by Ma Zao's memory, then it is intriguing. I am sure that Ma Zao has never been to such a place in the real world. The construction material here may be Ma Zao's memory of living in the apocalyptic era in the past.

I looked up at the night sky. There was no trace of the moon or the light of the stars in the dark sky, just a monotonous blackness. Even in the darkest night, the sky should be clear, but the sky here gave me a very dull feeling. Was it covered by dark clouds? No, there seemed to be no dark clouds in the sky. Even so, the night sky was like a piece of heavy iron that stretched as far as the eye could see. Just looking at it made me feel breathless.

“There are no stars in the sky,” I said.

"There will be no stars in the sky of doomsday. There will be no moon or sun either."

Ma Zao's tone was complex, and there was some nostalgia in it, but it was definitely not a positive kind of nostalgia. She continued, "It is said that when the end of the world just came, the nights lasted longer and longer, and the stars disappeared little by little. Until a certain time, the sun no longer rose from the east, and all the stars disappeared.

"However, some people can still see the moon normally. They are usually blessed monks and those who are about to become demons, and the latter account for the majority. Therefore, in the land of doomsday, there is a saying that the moon is a star of disaster."

"Is this your memory?" I asked.

She nodded: "This is my dream, a place formed by my memories."

The so-called soul is the spirit, mind, and consciousness. To invade the soul of another is to invade his heart. The current phenomenon of entering dreams is probably a manifestation of successful invasion.

"So, where exactly is this place in the apocalypse?"

As I spoke, I began to move forward, wanting to explore this apocalyptic dream more deeply.

"let me see……"

As she caught up, she looked around and tried hard to recall.

Is this something that requires so much effort to recall? Since it is a place that appears directly in the dream, it should be a place that can be recalled immediately. Although I thought so, I remembered another thing. The land of the apocalypse is full of madness that affects people's hearts. Many survivors will gradually forget their past and self, and eventually become crazy demons. Even Ma Zao's memory has been blurred because of this. It seems that even the power of return cannot make her an exception.

I looked up at the extremely depressing night again. The disappearing stars and the sun that would not rise... It was really beyond common sense. The daylight would not appear, and we could explain it as the earth stopping its rotation... Although it was quite unbelievable that the earth stopped rotating, it was a doomsday disaster after all, so it was not unacceptable that such a thing would happen... But how could the stars disappear bit by bit? How could the moon become visible to some people and invisible to others?

The doomsday prophecy circulating in Luoshan emerged in my mind. It is said that when the doomsday comes, all humans, all creatures, all strange things in this world will disappear into thin air, and even all matter will become nothing. "This world" - could it be that this "world" does not refer to this planet alone, but to the entire universe?

If all matter disappears, then it makes sense that the stars will disappear. But is that really possible? Is the end of the world that Ma Zao and I intend to challenge actually the end of the universe?

Even if it is a divine seal that can fulfill all wishes, I don't think it is something that can affect the universe as a whole. As the saying goes, "discussing toxicity without considering the dosage" is a hooliganism. In my understanding, the power of the divine seal is also a strange power. Just like Yin Yue cannot unconditionally defeat me with her power of "turning illusions into reality", no matter how much the divine seal can distort the common sense of the world, there must always be a limit.

In other words, the Doomsday was not caused by the Divine Seal? Or was it a misunderstanding that the Doomsday would cause the end of the universe?
Or is it that my idea is just the vulgar view, and the real strange power can ignore even such truth?
So how do we explain the moon appearing and disappearing from time to time?

Accepting everything you can't understand is perhaps the right quality to explore the strange world. If you seek explanations for everything, there will be no end. The end of this road is either an explanation that is impossible to comprehend, or there is no explanation at all from the beginning. Because this universe has no obligation to explain itself to humans.

Even if we are told this, we still have to think about it. Perhaps this is the nature of human beings that cannot be abandoned. "Ma Zao, you just said that only blessed monks and those who are about to become demons can see the moon..." I asked, "You are a blessed monk, you should have seen the moon of doom. And this is a dream formed by your memory, why is there no moon?"

"It's just a rumor that the Blessed Monk can see the moon. In fact, I had never seen the moon until I was teleported to the peaceful era."

As she spoke, she seemed to finally remember the scene before her, and said, "I remember now... this is the Gospel House."

"Gospel House?"

I don't know if it's my stereotype, but the name sounds like an orphanage or a nursing home, or some other charitable facility.

"The Gospel House is the force with the most blessed monks in the apocalypse." She said, "Generally speaking, people in the apocalypse are afraid that their companions will suddenly become demons. The more people there are in a settlement, the more likely this will happen. Once it happens, it can easily turn into a catastrophic disaster, so everyone survives in small teams or settlements. The Gospel House is the only large human organization I know of.

"In the past, when I was still very weak, I once received training in the Gospel Institute to learn how to control my own strength. Then something happened and I chose to leave the Gospel Institute."

"Is it because of your unlucky personality?" I asked.

"It doesn't seem so. It was something else. But... I don't remember it very clearly," she said.

"You can't remember it anymore?" I asked.

"At least I can't remember it over there. It's not just me, it's the same for everyone. All the memories are like sand in the palm of your hand, which can be lost easily. As for whether it is possible to recover them after coming here... I don't know," she said.

And just as she hinted, the memory material of this space is actually not enough. I have found that I can't walk out of this courtyard. No matter how far I move, I can't get close to the boundary of the courtyard, and the buildings in the distance are like low-resolution maps. It seems that this courtyard is the entire area of ​​the dream.

At the same time, I had a strange feeling. According to Ma Zao, human civilization was destroyed due to the outbreak of countless strange phenomena and monsters, but even if it was not destroyed so violently, civilization would probably decline and die quickly. In the world after the end of the world, it seems that the human mind can no longer accumulate anything.

Although the space in front of her was just a dream of her past memories, in her narration, the people in the doomsday era were wandering numbly in the ruins without sunrise, just like wandering in a dream. It was difficult to feel the passion and desire of struggling to survive in the face of the doomsday disaster, and more of it was the indifference of the walking dead.

The end of the world has not only come to the material world, but also to people's spiritual world.

And Ma Zao in the past lived in such a world.

I was very curious about how Ma Zao and No. 2 Xiao Wan survived, so I took this opportunity to ask. She told me without hiding anything, and it was not much different from what I had imagined at the beginning. They usually looked for food that had not yet decayed in the ruins, and carefully avoided the strange things they might encounter, and also stayed away from some dangerous humans.

"Do you still need to collect food? Can't you rely on your power of return?" I asked.

"Xiao Wan and I both need to grow physically. We won't be able to grow if we always rely on the power of blessing. And if we can grow up, our souls can also become stronger in a mature container."

As she was talking, she seemed to remember something, turned around and asked me tentatively, "...Do you hope that it would be better if my body didn't grow bigger?"

If I say "yes" here, I will really be misunderstood as a lolita complex, so I said without hesitation: "I think it's better to grow up."

"Really..." She was skeptical.

I thought I needed to change the topic away from this dangerous direction, and looking at the scenery in front of me, an idea suddenly popped into my mind.

This idea may help us find the mastermind behind the magic gun.

(End of this chapter)