The old man you see with your phone is highly suspicious.

"Finally, that useless world consciousness told me that the old undead had become a heroic spirit, a guardian of the world. I don't know how I was pulled back from the brink of becoming an undead." Xue Dinglu shrugged.

"I remember my eyeballs were falling out, but when I woke up I was perfectly fine."

I got off the tram and waited for the next bus on the side of the small road in this rural town.

The great sage listened attentively to Xue's story without interrupting until the end.

"It wasn't a very interesting story, and I didn't think much of it at the time. I couldn't stand the old people's self-pity, and I couldn't stand the despair on those people's faces. I really wanted to go up to them, confront them, and ask, 'What's with those tears? What's with those expressions?'"

"So I wanted to do something, so I just went for it, and it seems to have turned out pretty well."

On the bus, I saw the Ocean Park in the distance; we were almost at our destination.

“No, it’s a very interesting story.” The Great Sage laughed instead, no longer in his previous emo state. “You made the right choice. If you had run away, you might have regretted it for the rest of your life.”

The great sage spoke slowly, as if he were speaking to Xue Dinglu, or perhaps to himself.

Chapter 29 The Great Sage's Treasure

"Perhaps for you it was just youthful impetuosity, a choice made on a whim, but to them, you are a true hero." The Great Sage patted Xue Dinglu on the shoulder for no apparent reason. "Thank you for not choosing to run away back then... But will you regret your choice?"

"Regret what?" Xue Dinglu asked, puzzled.

“If you had run away then, you would have had a wife who would be absolutely dependent on you, and you would have all the knowledge and magic of the entire Holy See,” the Great Sage said. “You should know that in this world, she has no one to rely on but you, and you are the only family she can depend on.”

"Come on, I can't do something like eating the offspring of the deceased." Xue Dinglu said indifferently, "Besides, I can't just watch people like me die under the slaughter of the undead."

Before long, the bus stopped at the entrance of Kujukuri Beach Park. This is a less-known but famous beach, and it has been the filming location for many Japanese dramas, tokusatsu dramas, and even horror movies.

A girl dressed in an unknown cosplay outfit handed a flyer to Xue Lude. He glanced at it casually; it was an advertisement for a certain stage area. At the same time, he was chatting with the Great Sage in his mind.

The Great Sage looked through Xue's Law at the tourists who were enjoying themselves. Most of these tourists probably shared Xue's Law's thoughts, feeling like they were "tourizing a holy land".

"What a peaceful world!" the great sage exclaimed.

"It's not about world peace, but merely about the peace of the places where I can live and travel," Xue's Law reminded the great sage.

After a brief time together, Xue Dinglu felt that the Great Sage's mental illness was perhaps much more serious than that of the Old Undead.

Although the old ghost was initially insane, constantly yelling and shouting, his mind was simple: he wanted revenge and for his family and surname to continue to be passed down.

He was utterly disillusioned with the empire, and in the end, all he wanted was for Xue Luding to escape with his granddaughter so that the Barak name could be passed down; then he would die without regrets.

The great sage appears to be a very normal old scholar, but the deep-thinking Xue Lude cannot see through him at all.

Even though he saw parts of his memories through his dreams, all he knew was that when he was young, he watched a short-haired girl die in front of him to save him.

Then it seems he died that summer, and for the rest of his life, all that remained was this image.

In that scene, how old was the Great Sage? 13 or 14?

But now, the Great Sage is hundreds of years old, and even after connecting with Xue's Law, he is still left with only this repetitive scene.

It seems that this place has become his inner demon.

Thinking of this, Xue Luding had a question he hadn't asked yet. He looked at the Great Sage, who had fallen into an emo state again, and decided to use his skill to change the subject once more, saying, "Old man, do you have a Noble Phantasm?"

A Noble Phantasm is a conceptual weapon formed from a piece of history that can be considered a "great achievement" after the world's consciousness casts its gaze upon it.

The Birdman Armor represents his and the old undead's passionate partnership... It is a Noble Phantasm formed from their deeds of killing the Lich King and giving the last humans in that world the title of "heroes." Perhaps it also contains the skeleton of a suit of armor after the skeletal demon's sublimation.

Since that's the premise, at the very least, we can deduce a person's image and story from their Noble Phantasm.

"Yes, but I haven't used it in a long time." The old man seemed no longer bothered by Xue's Law and replied directly.

This made Xue Dinglu curious about the old man's treasure. Was it his staff? Or his white robe?

However, in the old man's hand, a swirling mass of blood appeared, as if it had come to life. The old man calmly said, "My treasure, 'Cursed Blood'."

"The foundation allows for precise manipulation of the molecular structure of living organisms. Once developed, it can instantly absorb all of another person's diseases, injuries, and suffering upon contact with them," the Great Sage explained about his Noble Phantasm.

Xue's Law: "..."

Isn't the art style a bit off? You look like such an academic old scholar, how come your Noble Phantasm looks like this?

"Absorb the suffering of others?" Xue suddenly realized the wording used in the Great Sage's introduction.

"Because all the suffering you absorb will ultimately affect you; this is the price," the great sage murmured, adding, "It is also my destiny..."

Xue's Law fell silent.

Indeed, a Noble Phantasm represents a person's true nature; the Great Sage's Noble Phantasm absorbs the suffering of others and bears it himself...

This is... such an absurd treasure...

Indeed, as the name of the Noble Phantasm suggests, it is a cursed power, except that the one being cursed is himself.

To be able to obtain such power, it's clear that the old man is on his side. He can even mentally reconstruct the origin of this treasure in tens of thousands of words.

"This is my curse, and also my atonement." The great sage looked at the blood in his hand, his pupils reflecting the flowing light.

Perhaps we'll be able to gather even more intelligence tonight. Xue Dinglu thought to himself.

……

The two chatted as they arrived at the beach, where a crowd had gathered, seemingly excitedly watching the distance.

Xue Dinglu also squeezed in out of curiosity and came to the railing.

Below the railing was a large group of professional photography equipment and personnel, and he also saw two actors in leather suits suspended by wires fighting.

This is the filming location for "Kamen Rider".

Xue Dinglu immediately pulled out a monocular telescope and held it in front of his eyes. To his surprise, he could actually see the filming location of a tokusatsu drama here. Although the fence he was standing on was still several hundred meters away from the filming location, being able to witness the filming of a tokusatsu drama live made this trip worthwhile.

"Was that Ultraman series filmed like this too?" The Great Sage, who had also seen the filming location in the distance, asked.

“Yes, but they’ll be making a lot of miniature models over there to emphasize the sheer size, but the overall process should be pretty much the same.” Xue Dinglu replied to the Great Sage while adjusting the focus of his monocular telescope.

"In 32 seconds, the rope binding the third male lead will malfunction," the Great Sage suddenly said.

"What?" Xue Dinglu suddenly retracted his monocular telescope, then immediately zoomed in and looked in the direction of the third male lead.

The next moment, while they were filming a scene of jumping down the slope, the wire broke, and the third male actor stumbled and fell to the ground, seemingly injured, clutching his calf.

The entire shoot was halted, and everyone became restless.

“Old man, you…” Xue Dinglu looked at the old man in shock.

"Great Prophecy, a high-level spell. You can only use it when you reach at least level 5." The Great Sage calmly uttered something extraordinary.

Chapter 30 The World is a Giant "True Fragrance Monster"

He has to predict even such a small thing. Does this old man have this prophecy technique on his mind and keep it active for a long time?

Does that mean their very being, even their future, has been exposed?

"No, the Great Prophecy isn't that mysterious. It simply calculates the most likely future based on all existing known information. In the terms of your world's science and technology, it's a weakened version of Laplace's Demon," the Great Sage explained directly, seemingly aware of Xue's inner thoughts.

Laplace's demon... Schrödinger's law is known, and along with Zeno's tortoise and Schrödinger's cat, it is considered one of the three great mythical creatures of physics. It was proposed by the scientist Laplace as a being that could know the trajectories of all atoms.

Laplace proposed that if one could know the trajectories of all microscopic particles, one would be omniscient and omnipotent; this is Laplace's demon.

"What else did you see?" Xue asked.

“You’ll be making a cameo appearance in that film, as an extra,” the Great Sage said. “Then, tonight, the frequent earthquakes here might cause you a little trouble.”

……

A few hours later, Xue left the beach.

The Great Sage really guessed everything correctly; he did indeed make a cameo appearance as an extra in Kamen Rider, in one scene where a passerby was required to run away in a panic.

The production team casually mentioned on set that many people wanted to make a cameo appearance, so he selected a few dozen people to act in the scene.

Since it's just background, no acting skills are needed; it's just a few-second shot of a crowd running away.

Xue was chosen, and the production team treated him like a treasure, giving him a business card and enthusiastically inviting him to play a small supporting role.

However, Xue declined, saying he was just there for fun and it would be a shame if he actually became an actor.

Moreover, his Japanese was really bad, and he relied on translation software to communicate the whole time, which made the old man in the consciousness space click his tongue.

"Are you happy?" the Great Sage asked.

“Yes, many people used to say that it would be a huge waste for someone like me not to act. Now I’ve finally acted once, even if it’s just a minor role or a background character, it’s still fulfilling a childhood dream,” Xue Dinglu replied. “As for staying to play a small supporting role, I’ll just leave it at that. I’m planning to go to a concert.”

Xue's Law is a very content person.

"By the way, old man, you said before that an earthquake would get me into some trouble. Will anyone die?"

"will not."

"That's fine then, let's go home." Xue Dinglu smiled. He didn't press for details, because knowing the future would only make things less interesting.

The same tram was heading towards the city center.

It was already late, and the setting sun cast long shadows of the tram.

On the tram, he seemed to see a familiar face again—JK, whom he had met on this tram that afternoon.

This time, she smiled at Xue Dinglu, and Xue Dinglu nodded in response.

Without further action, it's not surprising that someone with Xue's demeanor would be immediately recognized as a foreigner in Japan.

In the space of consciousness, the Great Sage continued to develop something unknown. He seemed to have another inspiration and began chanting in the space of consciousness in a language that Xue's Law did not know, like a programmer.

The last time he acted like this was when he was building the system for Xue's Law.

"Alright, the language translation module is loaded for you." The old man patted the frame and said to Xue Lude, "You'll always have to deal with different languages ​​in the future, and your language learning ability is terrible, so I might as well give you a translation module."

Xue's Law: "..."

"By the way, 38 languages ​​from your world have been loaded, along with an upgrade function. As long as you collect more than 300 basic characters for a language, it can automatically parse that language." The Great Sage seemed to think this was just a small matter.

Godfather, I will follow you from now on, and I will go through fire and water for you without hesitation.

He immediately used the feature, secretly glancing at JK in the distance. He saw her looking at dating tips, then returned to the original webpage and found that she was searching for "how to make a handsome stranger fall in love with me".

Tsk...girls' high school...

The tram slowly moved into the Zhishan Tunnel.

Xue Dinglu's phone received another pinned message from the National Meteorological Administration, alerting everyone that the Sakurajima volcano had made further movements and appeared to be entering a period of frequent activity, reminding everyone to prepare for the possibility of frequent earthquakes.