Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 666: 624 Gate of Life and Death 2
Cheating mode... Weichi's words are quite appropriate.
As the saying goes, "One with the Dao has many helpers; one without the Dao has few." Originally, this was used to describe the difference between gaining and losing people's support. However, the Evangelical Institute has not gained human hearts but the heart of heaven; they occupy not the human realm, but the Heavenly Dao. They embody the phrase "going with the flow" to the utmost.
However, the Naraku Gospel may not be entirely biased toward the Evangelical Institute. No matter how much the Evangelical Institute slaughters humans, the fact that they themselves are humans does not change, making it difficult to think that the Naraku Gospel is absolutely bound to them. This ambiguous relationship may also be reflected in the Du Shuo Mountain Teleportation Array.
The Evangelical Institute's use of the Du Shuo Mountain Teleportation Array is currently limited to sending a single human god from Huang Quan into the real world; whereas, when it comes to transmitting Great Demons, they can send three at once. This indicates that the Naraku Gospel still reserves considerable support for the Evangelical Institute, but not for their own incarnations.
Speaking of "going with the flow," I thought of Little Bowl beside me and said, "If aided by the Divine Son, could you overcome the obstacles you encounter in implementing the Du Shuo Mountain Teleportation Array?"
"...Are you referring to No. 2? It seems I wasn't mistaken, she is indeed the Divine Son..."
Weichi first glanced at Little Bowl, then shook his head regretfully, "It's not possible. The Divine Son can only go with the flow, not make heaven act according to her will. To take it a step further, even if it were possible, she would have to personally engrave the Du Shuo Mountain Teleportation Array, only then would the array receive sufficient empowerment.
"Incidentally, standing next to her to guide her in drawing the array is useless. That would reflect not her will, but mine."
Clearly, this path won't work. Perhaps supported by Zhu Jiu and Zhu Shi's memories, Little Bowl possesses significant mystical knowledge, yet it is obvious she cannot match Weichi in array techniques.
"To be honest, apart from its inherent flaws, there are still many parts of the teleportation array's technical documentation that baffle me," Weichi pondered, "Huang Quan is also a master in array techniques. When I studied long ago, I delved into a lot of his knowledge preserved at Luoshan, so I'm quite familiar with his core style...
"However, that documentation clearly contains heterogeneous elements inconsistent with Huang Quan's academic style. Even though Huang Quan left Luoshan over a century ago, it doesn't explain this anomaly. Those elements are fundamentally different from Huang Quan, undoubtedly the work of others... Who on earth?"
Huang Quan's Du Shuo Mountain Teleportation Array seemed to originally have the collective involvement of the Yellow Springs Evangelical Institute, and from Weichi's implication, there appear to be unknown talents in the Evangelical Institute.
Neither Little Bowl nor I could discuss issues related to arrays. At this point, Little Bowl seemed to remember something and said, "Mr. No. 5, if there is a ready-made entrance and exit that allows travel between the Living World and the Post-mortem World, could it assist in your teleportation array development?"
"What!? Such a thing exists?" Weichi was startled. "Is it the path you used to return to the Living World? And it's not one-time but reusable? Then why would you need me to develop the Du Shuo Mountain Teleportation Array at all?"
What Little Bowl referred to, without a doubt, was the basement on the fifteenth floor. I explained, "That entrance does not allow those without connections to come and go. Although Little Bowl can slightly increase the number of people allowed through, it can add only one more person, and it can't be any Impermanence other than me."
Weichi calmed down, "I see... So, can you take me to see it now? I must see it before I can draw any conclusions."
"Sure." I summoned flames.
The orange flames enveloped the other two, and I crossed the space, arriving directly at the living room on the fifteenth floor in distant Saltwater City. The flames also brought Little Bowl and Zhu Shi here.
On the floor was the ritual array I had previously recreated, but it temporarily did not reveal an entrance to the basement. Weichi first looked around, then at the array on the floor, a look of shock appearing on his face.
"...The entrance you mentioned, isn't it referring to this array?" He incredulously pointed, "Relying on this thing?"
"That's correct," I said.
Weichi confirmed again, "This scrap of an array can summon an entrance to the Post-mortem World? You used this thing to return from the Post-mortem World to the Living World?"
"Yes," Little Bowl nodded.
Weichi looked at our faces, then again at the ritual array on the floor, seemingly still hesitant to believe us.
I skillfully unrolled the black plush carpet beside us, spreading it and covering the ritual array. The pattern on the carpet was the missing component of the ritual array. Little Bowl then cast a blessing, strengthening my connection to the basement on the fifteenth floor. More specifically, the "furnace slag" I placed last time in the basement is now the focus of this connection.
Next, I lifted the carpet printed with brown English letter patterns, and as expected, a wooden cover appeared in the middle of the ritual array.
Weichi stared in disbelief, and when I opened the wooden cover to reveal the gray concrete stairs below, his jaw practically dropped in astonishment.
"It really... really appeared?" he said, unable to accept it.
"Would you like to go down and take a look?" I asked.
After Weichi's expression changed several times, he gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, let's go down and take a look!"
We went together into the basement of the fifteenth floor.
The windowless interior space, the bare concrete walls, and the dusty gray shelves... everything was as usual, and my "furnace slag" remained almost unchanged in the middle of the floor.
As expected, No. 7 was no longer there.
I looked at the wall not far away where there was a hole resembling a doorway. That was where I broke through the wall when I entered the basement of the fifteenth floor from the post-mortem world. Through this doorway, one could glimpse the outside scenery: a town area shrouded in deep night darkness, full of rubble and ruins.
It's quite fascinating, really. At this moment, the real world was still in dusk, while the post-mortem world remained an unchanging night. Two worlds with different skies were connected through that entrance about a meter in length and width.
While marveling at it, I also breathed a sigh of relief. Because I was very worried about seeing not the scenery of the post-mortem world through that doorway but a black void. The first time I entered the basement of the fifteenth floor, that's what I saw.
This time, it not turning out like that was not entirely due to luck; my prior preparation played a role too.
The "furnace slag" I placed inside the basement of the fifteenth floor released heat extremely slowly. This heat would seep through the air into the space of the post-mortem world outside, following my preset instructions to infiltrate the air and soil, stubbornly remaining in this area. It's as if the piece of "furnace slag" spread a heat-constructed "force field," connecting the basement of the fifteenth floor with the space of the post-mortem world.
I believed this method could maintain the junction state between the basement of the fifteenth floor and the post-mortem world even when I was absent. Of course, this is merely an optimistic estimate. Still, even if it didn't fully meet expectations, when I reentered, I could use the heat lingering around the junction coordinates and Little Bowl's blessing power to restore the basement to its junction state with the post-mortem world—just like it is now.
The basement of the fifteenth floor had clearly become a transit point between the Living World and the post-mortem world.
We passed through the doorway and arrived under the sky of the post-mortem world. Speaking of which, although Little Bowl and I could come and go between the two worlds like it's routine using this method, after returning to the Living World, I never once thought of exercising such convenience. It wasn't until this moment that I felt a real sense of "being able to freely travel between the two worlds."
"It truly is the post-mortem world..." Weichi looked at the night sky, absent-minded.
"Have you had contact with the post-mortem world before?" I asked.
"Of course. Over a hundred years ago, when the Luoshan Headquarters was still stationed in the post-mortem world, I spent day and night studying and practicing there... though technically, there was no distinction between day and night in the post-mortem world." Weichi said.
I almost forgot that this guy is of the Great Success Rank, with a lifespan far surpassing that of ordinary people; in terms of age, he could very well be my ancestor.
Meanwhile, Little Bowl discovered a new clue; she found a letter stuck to the wall on the outside of the doorway.
"Brother Zhuang Cheng, there's a message here left by Lady No. 7." she said.
"No. 7?" Weichi was surprised.
"What's written on it?" I asked.
Little Bowl handed over the letter while saying, "Lady No. 7 said she has preliminarily gathered the scattered remnants of the Tai Sui Army across the post-mortem world. If we wish to find her, we can follow the map drawn on this letter to meet her."
I glanced down at the letter. The front side contained the text, just as Little Bowl mentioned, while the back was an apocalyptic map drawn in a haphazard graffiti style. The writing was so wild and messy that it might get all the neatness points deducted in an exam.
Apart from the handwriting, it's remarkable that No. 7 managed to complete such a task in just two or three days... no, perhaps from her perspective, much more time has passed.
Seeing Weichi's curiosity, I briefly explained to him the current status of No. 7 in the post-mortem world. As for whether to meet No. 7 again, there's no immediate necessity for that now.
"So, does the existence of this entrance help you develop the Teleportation Array of Du Shuo Mountain?" I asked.
"It helps a lot!" Weichi asserted, "Even though your ritual array is perplexing with little to serve as a reference, the mere presence of this entrance provides me with a wealth of key information...
"I even have confidence that just using the entrance itself as the foundational material for the Teleportation Array, I can create a gateway within half a month that will allow the entire Luoshan demon hunter team, including the entire Impermanence, to freely traverse!"
After his bold declaration, he paused to observe my expression, "So... pardon my audacity, may I ask if you could transfer this entrance?"