From the end of the world

Chapter 47: Impermanence of the Outsiders 1
"Join Luo Shan..."

Zhu Shi was stunned for a moment and then sighed.

"Is it still not possible?" I asked concernedly.

"It's not impossible. If you really have such great power, whether you want to join Luo Shan or do other things, I have no reason or qualifications to stop you."

"So, you think I'm lying about my powers?" I think her reaction is completely understandable.

But she shook her head: "I don't doubt your description of the previous battle process."

You should doubt it.

I was planning on demonstrating it on the spot.

"Before, I thought you had serious deficiencies in combat, so I opposed you joining Luo Shan. But now it's the opposite. Being strong also has its downsides." Zhu Shi seemed to be worried about something. He looked at the body fragments on the ground with a sad look on his face. "I will explain the detailed reasons to you later. Now let's deal with the remaining issues of the fallen demon hunter first."

Agent Kong seemed to be an acquaintance of Zhu Shi. Seeing her acquaintance turn into a villain and die, her emotions must have been very complicated.

"I'm sorry, I didn't intend to kill him," I said.

"You don't have to apologize to me. I know it wasn't you who killed him, but some unknown reason. Even if you really killed him, the fault lies with Agent Kong, not you." She said with a guilty look, "Besides... I am the demon hunter in charge of this area. This is the karma of killing that I should bear."

I originally felt a little unreasonable regret for killing Zhu Shi's acquaintance, but now she feels guilty towards me. I just remembered that when Agent Kong was still disguising himself, he told me that one of the reasons why Zhu Shi didn't want me to join Luo Shan was that he didn't want me to kill anyone.

Agent Kong probably didn't just say that casually. Zhu Shi does have a very naive side.

I didn't kill Agent Kong directly, but I must have contributed to his death. And unlike the fallen demon hunter last time, Agent Kong is still a human being in my mind. I should feel guilty for killing someone, but I don't feel anything in my heart.

On the contrary, I feel even more regretful that after Agent Kong's death, many truths that I didn't know were buried in the darkness.

There are obviously still many mysteries in the case of the Fallen Demon Hunter. Where did Agent Kong get this power? Why did he suddenly explode and die at the end? Why did the last Fallen Demon Hunter know me? What's the matter with the ritual array and cave in the room on the fifteenth floor? I feel like I have speed-run the game and found that there are still many collection elements that I haven't collected. I can't start over in reality. It seems that I can only devote myself to the next adventure.

I also deeply regret not being able to enter the shadow world again through Agent Kong.

I can't describe the situation inside the shadow world in human language, and even I don't know what it feels like to be there. If I were to compare my existence to a software program, then entering the shadow world is like forcibly opening a video program with text software, which almost turned me into a piece of garbled code.

So I had to endure it hard and maintain my existence and thinking there.

When Zhu Shi heard me say this, he looked at me with an even weirder look, as if he didn't understand what I was saying at all. I didn't understand either, I just followed my feelings.

I originally planned to observe there for a while, but I thought it would be bad if Agent Kong escaped during this time, and if I caught him, I could let him open the passage again, so I hurried back. But I didn't expect...

After saying goodbye to Zhu Shi, I found other parts of Agent Kong's body that were scattered around nearby. Of course, they were not large pieces of body, but just fingers that were scattered in the explosion, and they were burned to charcoal by the flames. Out of regret, I picked them up and took them away. Perhaps because they were burned to charcoal before his death, they still retained the appearance of a fallen demon hunter, which was quite commemorative.

Calling it a "souvenir" may make me seem a bit perverted. I may encounter many strange things in the future. In comparison, this charred finger is definitely nothing. But at least for me now, this thing still has some meaning.
-
A day later, early this morning, Zhu Shi and I made an appointment to meet in a park near the university.

Maybe she did something. Even though I did something as big as chopping down the unfinished building, no official came to talk to me. Or maybe she was the official responsible for talking to me.

She was still wearing a white blouse and black skirt, carrying a large black guitar case, dressed like a band girl.

Compared to yesterday, her face was much calmer, as if she had dealt with the emotions brought about by an acquaintance turning into a villain and dying, or maybe she had simply hidden it all deep in the closet of her heart.

There was no one else around, so we could talk freely. And now, as a Luoshan demon hunter, she wanted to discuss my future with me formally.

She first asked me to demonstrate my skill of transforming my body into flames. After I did it, she walked around me and observed me, looking as if she had seen a ghost.

"…Although I have never doubted what you said and have prepared myself mentally, but…are my eyes okay? Am I really not dreaming?"

"Is this skill really that powerful?" I asked curiously.

"It's not a question of whether it's powerful or not, this is a divine skill." She gave her evaluation, "In the world of demon hunters, freely transforming one's body into natural elements is considered the power of 'apparition', or in layman's terms, 'elementization'. Demon hunters regard this skill as a characteristic of gods or immortals. Although there are other ways to forcibly imitate this divine skill, they basically have certain conditions or costs, or restrictions, and it is impossible to use it naturally like you." I continued with a feeling of no reality: "In other words, I am a god or an immortal?"

"...That depends on how you master the elementalization." She also seemed to think that was a bit outrageous.

Hearing this, I recalled my past experiences and explained them to her.

The process of me learning elementalization - or "second form" - was not complicated.

Both Zhu Shi and Agent Kong seem to think that people with flame abilities are more like "mortals with powerful weapons" than "superhumans." In fact, I do have that feeling when I'm in normal form.

In the past, I always felt that there was an invisible barrier between me and the flame. When I manipulated the flame, it was like I was giving orders to my subordinates. There was always a gap between "I gave the order" and "the flame received the order". No matter how much I practiced, it was like cultivating a tacit understanding between me and the flame, rather than truly controlling it as if it were my own arm.

It stands to reason that my flame is my spirit, and there shouldn't be this kind of inexplicable delay. So I had to make the assumption that there is a difference between "my own spirit" and "the spirit that has been transformed into flames".

Then, I had this thought - the reason why I can't control the fire as easily as I can is because I am still a human being, not the fire itself, so can't I just become the fire?

In order to implement this idea, I chose a very simple and crude approach.

I set myself on fire.

Unless I wanted to, the flames would not harm my body. I could directly fill every crevice inside my body with the flames, feeling myself becoming one with the flames.

Until one day, I found that the flame and I had finally become one.

I myself became the flame.

In fact, even I myself was confused about this process.

After listening to my story, Zhu Shi was stunned.

"Your approach..." She said with difficulty after a long while, "I can only say that true gods and immortals are very clear about the process of their elementalization, even though they cannot describe it to others in words. For the former, it is an innate state; while for the latter, it is a result of enlightenment.

"As for your situation where you just picked up some incomprehensible idea and suddenly got it right after practicing... From what I know, there is no other example of your approach."

"I see……"

It seems that I really have nothing to do with gods and immortals. It's just that as a person with super powers, I am obviously very special.

I don’t know whether I should be happy about my “uniqueness”. This uniqueness seems to mean that it is difficult for me to find other reference examples, which makes it more difficult for me to figure out the reason for the awakening of my super powers.

"I think I understand why you never encountered weird things in the past." She said with relief, "Weird things will attract each other, but things will turn into the opposite when they reach the extreme. Your power is too great, and the weird things will actively retreat from you. Not only will the weird things with instincts and wisdom retreat, but even the weird things that exist as phenomena will somehow be unable to have any relationship with you.

"This is a special phenomenon that would happen to the vast majority of Great Impermanence and a very small number of demon hunters who are too powerful."

I heard a new term and couldn't help but become curious: "What is 'great impermanence'?"

"The so-called Great Impermanence are the strongest demon hunters who reign at the top of Mount Luoshan," she explained. "They are powerful but few in number. Currently, there are less than ten Great Impermanence sitting in Mount Luoshan."

"You said they were powerful...how powerful are they exactly?"

While asking the question, I also began to speculate in my mind. Considering that organizations like Luoshan have never become the rulers of this country, and have not left their own records in history, the power of the Great Impermanence should not exceed the level of ancient armies, and at most will not exceed that of modern armies.

But...even I have the confidence that I can defeat the ancient army, can the strongest demon hunters really not do it?

Or am I underestimating the military? Since ancient times, armies have had trump cards to suppress people with super powers like me?

Then, Zhu Shi said something very absurd:
"Excluding some special cases that may have existed in history, as far as I know, the Great Impermanence generally possesses the power to destroy an entire country single-handedly."

(End of this chapter)