From the end of the world

Chapter 91 Going Home 1
Under the street light on the side of the road, Ma Zao spoke to me solemnly and nervously, with a voice mixed with expectation and uneasiness.

"Zhuang Cheng, it's time for you to tell me the truth." Ma Zao observed my expression intently, "Zhu Shi has already walked away, and there are no other passers-by around who can hear our conversation. I don't know why you couldn't tell me about my friend before, but now there are only two of us here, there should be no need to hide it anymore."

"You're right. I need to explain this to you clearly." I nodded. "Before that, I have to ask you a question. Did you mention before that you had seen fragments of the God's Seal in the apocalypse?"

Although she was a little puzzled, she still answered my question honestly: "Yes, I have."

"What do the fragments of the divine seal look like?" I asked.

She paused for a moment, as if doubting why I was asking such detailed questions and whether she should tell me. But perhaps because she needed my help, she finally said it: "... From the appearance, the fragment of the divine seal is a black hard substance with an irregular shape, and it feels like jade. And for some reason, it doesn't feel cold or hot to the touch, as if it has no concept of temperature..."

"Have you touched the fragments of the divine seal?"

"My friend and I got the fragment of the divine seal by accident." She replied, "But soon after that, we were attacked by a great demon and were forced to separate."

"You don't have the fragment of the Divine Seal in your hand. In other words, the fragment of the Divine Seal is in the hands of your friend... Is it really okay to tell me such important information?" I was curious.

"No problem. Rather, I want to ask you to take care of my friend." She said, "We once wanted to abandon the fragment of the divine seal, because keeping such a valuable item with us would bring great danger to us. However, there seems to be some kind of strong bond between the fragment of the divine seal and my friend, and we can't abandon it even if we want to.

"If you really value the fragment of the divine seal, then I hope you can keep my friend by your side. She is just a weak little girl, not suitable for this weird world, and even less suitable for me."

It turned out that she wanted to "entrust her child to someone else".

In the past, in the apocalypse, she kept her friend with her because she knew she would die if she left. But if her friend also came to the peaceful era, that kind of reason would no longer exist, and she had to let her friend leave her as soon as possible. And in this strange peaceful era, the only person she can ask for help is me.

Since I am going to live with her friends, it is difficult to hide the matter of the fragment of the divine seal. Instead of doing that, it is better to speak out openly.

Maybe she sent this message to test me. If I really showed my desire, she would take her friends and run away. With her space transfer skills, it would be easy for her to escape from my grasp.

"It's just that, in the end..." Ma Zao revealed some weakness, "At least in the end... can you let me see her for the last time? I want to talk to her. After that, I won't meet her again..."

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to meet her," I said.

"What?" She was stunned.

"The fragment of the divine seal you described before should be this thing." I took out my own fragment of the divine seal from my trouser pocket and showed it to her.

“A fragment of the divine seal!” She was struck by lightning. “Why do you have this thing in your hand? Did my friend give it to you? Impossible, this thing should not be passed on to others. Could it be, could it be——”

She quickly looked around, as if trying to find the third person here, but she couldn't find him no matter how hard she tried.

Wait, could it be that she thought the fragment of the divine seal in my hand belonged to her friend, and her friend was dead, so I could hold this fragment of the divine seal? Seeing that she was getting more and more panicked, I immediately added: "Your friend did not come to this era. This is another fragment of the divine seal in my hand."

"Ah?" She stopped as if she had been acupunctured.

"The thing is like this..."

I roughly explained the circumstances of how I had entered the foggy dream and come into contact with her friend.

"...She is still wandering alone in the ruins of doomsday and has even forgotten her own name. In ten days at most she will become a demon?" Ma Zao said helplessly.

"To be exact, it's only been seven days." I said, "So, what is her name? Tell me first, and I can tell her the next time I enter the misty dream."

"Xiaowan, her name is Xiaowan! Small, like bowls and chopsticks!" She gave the answer immediately, and then asked anxiously, "Zhuang Cheng, when can you enter that misty dream again?"

"This is not something I can control..." I first wrote down the name, and then calculated in my mind. The first time I came into contact with the misty dream was in the basement of the room on the 15th floor. At that time, No. 1 and No. 2 Xiaowan also entered the misty dream; the second time was the night after Ma Zao left, they and No. 4 Xuanming also entered the misty dream. The interval between the two times was about four days, and now it has been three days since the second time.

If the misty dreamland can be entered once every four days, then I should be able to enter it tomorrow. Of course, due to the small number of statistical samples, the credibility of this speculation is very low. But it shouldn't be impossible to enter it again in the next seven days, right?

I tried to comfort Ma Zao, but she seemed to know that there was no rush and could only try to suppress her anxiety.

We no longer stayed where we were to talk, but continued to move towards home.

"By the way, isn't the name Xiaowan a bit strange?" I tried to change the subject. "Is this the name you gave her?"

"I guess it was partly due to me..." Ma Zao said vaguely, still seeming to be thinking about the second small bowl.

"So, do you have any impression of the name 'Xuan Ming'?" I asked, "No. 4 in the misty dream called herself 'Xuan Ming', and No. 2... Xiao Wan also had a special reaction to this name, as if she was afraid of something. Do you know why she was afraid?"

Her reaction suddenly became very gloomy: "The number four you mentioned before is Xuan Ming?"

"Yes. Is there any problem with that?" I asked curiously.

"I've told you before that in the apocalypse, the survivors who are engulfed by madness will become karma demons. The reason why Xiaowan and I were forced to separate was because of the attack of the great demon... The so-called great demon is actually the highest level individual among the karma demons." She said gloomily, "In a sense, karma demons are one of the endings of humans in the apocalypse. Since it is an ending, it means that there is no way to move forward. After becoming a karma demon, people basically have no way to continue to become stronger by their own strength.

"So the power of a Karma Demon depends largely on the power of the person in his previous life. If he was weak in his previous life, he would only have some strange and bizarre abilities after becoming a Karma Demon. The stronger he was in his previous life, the stronger he would be after becoming a Karma Demon."

I understood what she meant: "In other words, only those who are the strongest in life will have the chance to become the highest-level demon after death?"

"That's right." She nodded. "In the apocalypse, the number of demons does not exceed ten. The demon that attacked us is called a 'disaster demon'.

"The Disaster Demon is a great demon that is good at manipulating fire. People in the Doomsday Era believe that he is the form of a powerful man named Xuanming who fell into the form of a Karma Demon. It was this great demon that burned my soul."

Disaster Demon...

The word "disaster" is composed of a roof character and a fire character, which means a naturally occurring fire.

If the one who is qualified to become a great demon must be a strong man like Xuan Ming who is at the level of Great Impermanence, then what about other great demons?

Ma Zao said that the number of great demons in the doomsday era will not exceed ten, and this number also makes me particularly concerned. The number of great impermanence is also no more than ten. Could it be that all the great demons in the future are transformed from great impermanence?
"Ma Zao, how many years is it from the time period before you traveled through time to the present era?" I asked.

"I don't know. The time and space in the doomsday era are very confusing. People in some places believe that the doomsday has come for more than a hundred years, while people in other places believe that the doomsday has just come not long ago." Ma Zao shook his head.

"What about Zhu Shi? You seemed to think Zhu Shi looked familiar. Have you seen her in the apocalypse?"

When I asked this question, I couldn't help but think of myself.

Maybe Ma Zao still hasn't collected the evidence of the end of the world, but the many clues I have come across have shown that the existence of the end of the world is not groundless. This makes the reality of the end of the world in my heart stronger and stronger. Many things that I never thought about in the past, I now think seriously about.

For example, where would I be and what would I be doing after the apocalypse?
From the descriptions of Ma Zao and No. 2 Xiao Wan, we can know that although the world after the doomsday is desolate and dangerous, there are still a few survivors struggling to survive in the ruins. Among them are "blessed monks" like Ma Zao and powerless ten-year-old girls like No. 2 Xiao Wan. Although we don't know how the doomsday will come, I don't think I will die easily in a disaster where even ordinary people have a chance to survive.

People in the apocalypse believe that the demon is Xuanming after the fall. Ma said so. Since it is "belief", it means that there may be no ironclad evidence to prove this inference. Just like a living person would not say "I believe I am still alive", there is no need to believe in things that are truly taken for granted, just accept them as they are.

So, although such speculation may make me seem too arrogant - is it possible that the disaster demon is not Xuanming, but my future self?

If not, then where am I?
(End of this chapter)