From the end of the world

Chapter 534: Psychic Unknown Continued

The two white souls seemed to want Xiaowan to ask more questions.

Is there any special purpose for this behavior? I instinctively pondered. Although it may be meaningless to ponder such things about a suspected strange object, I can't completely stop thinking about the abnormal situation. At the same time, the other party's attitude of asking "questions" reminded me of the Lord of the Divine Seal in the past.

One party asks questions, the other party answers. This process of information exchange is a ritualistic behavior that deepens the connection between each other. In the past, Ma Zao, Zhu Shi, and Xiao Wan all asked me not to ask too many or too big questions to the Lord of the Divine Seal. Doing so would likely further bind me in the virtual world, and eventually make me the object of life and death that the Lord of the Divine Seal could decide on the chopping board.

Do the two souls in front of me have the same intention? Are they also a kind of doomsday monsters, and will they show some kind of danger in the future?
Reason told me that it would not develop into that, because I believed in Xiaowan. Although Xiaowan knew that I had super powers that were generally superior to the apocalyptic weirdness, and also knew that I liked shock and danger, if what was happening in front of me really brought some form of danger, she would definitely not do something to keep it a secret before that. In fact, I did not have any premonition of crisis.

Having said that, they gave me an unprecedented sense of strangeness, and I had never come into contact with such souls.

Xiao Wan did not ask the two white souls any more questions, but said conservatively: "No more, thank you both, let's say goodbye now."

They still did not disappear. At this time, the soul who had just handed over the map asked: "Are you an enemy of the Tai Sui Army?"

"The Gospel Institute is our enemy." Xiaowan said, "Therefore, we may also become friends with the Tai Sui Army. So please rest assured that you are not pointing the way for the enemies of the Tai Sui Army."

"……Yeah."

The soul's expressionless face relaxed a little, and seemed to have a more human touch. "That's good..."

As he spoke, his body made of white light began to disintegrate and dissolve like a snowball melting in hot water, turning into tiny fireflies and gradually disappearing; and the other soul also nodded, and disappeared along with his companion.

Xiaowan let out a breath gently.

So the reason they didn't retreat immediately was because they were worried about attracting enemies to the Tai Sui Army?

Why are they so eager to answer questions? Is it because they are influenced by Xiaowan's ability to communicate with all things in nature, rather than because of mental problems? I was thinking that they were replaced by something indescribable, but now I think they are the dead themselves. However, I caught a glimpse of "unusual" smell along the way and it is hard to ignore. It feels like I am in the middle of nowhere, a very contradictory feeling.

Seeing that the matter had come to an end, I asked Xiaowan: "How did you do it?"

Xiao Wan said as if she had been prepared: "Brother Zhuang Cheng, are you referring to... how I summoned the soul that had already been scattered?"

"What just happened seems a little strange, considering it's communication with the spirit of the deceased," I said.

"To be honest, what I used just now was indeed the power to communicate with the souls of the dead. And it is also true that the souls of the corpses on the ground have already been scattered." Xiaowan showed a very complicated expression, "So... I actually don't know what I was communicating with just now."

Was she really communicating with something indescribable just now?

"Is it really okay to come into contact with something of unknown origin?" I asked.

"Those 'souls' should be harmless. At least, that's how I feel," Xiaowan replied. "Of course, I also know that it's a bit unreasonable to judge something harmless when I don't know the details. Every time I come into contact with these 'souls', I get a little nervous and limit the number of questions I ask."

Although she had a superior intellect to mine, she seemed to share my tendency to place greater value on my mystical intuition.

It is no wonder that in the weird world, especially in the apocalypse, it is a very dangerous tendency to rely heavily on logical thinking. Because in the apocalypse, there are some weird things that do not follow logical principles.

Xiao Wan continued, "However, in order to explore the truth of the apocalypse, I have done this hundreds or even thousands of times, and there has never been an accident."

"Hundreds or thousands of times?" I was surprised. "Why do you have to work so hard?"

If it were me, I would be willing to do it tens of thousands of times, not to mention hundreds of times. This is related to the truth of the doomsday era, and it is completely acceptable to take some risks in the process of exploration. It would be better to say that if it is too safe, I will be disappointed. But Xiaowan should not have this tendency. "Brother Zhuang Cheng and Sister Ma Zao are persevering in investigating the doomsday in the modern world, so of course I can't slack off. Even if I can only find a few useful clues in the end, I still want to help you." Xiaowan said as a matter of course, "When the virtual world was destroyed in the past, I was sad for a long time, thinking that even if I could find out something here, I might not be able to convey the news to you.

“Although I have thought that I might be able to meet Brother Zhuang Cheng again through fate, I could only think that it would be after the virtual world was rebuilt. I didn’t expect that Brother Zhuang Cheng would enter this era on his own…”

She sighed, looked at the map in her hand, and said, "Then let's set off first, Brother Zhuang Cheng."

There was nothing left to do in this gathering place for survivors. I nodded and started moving with her.

"Oh, there's one more thing I almost forgot to mention..." Xiao Wan turned around and looked at me, "Through my ability to 'communicate with the dead', I not only tried to investigate the secrets of the apocalyptic era, but also investigated news related to Zhu Shi and Zhu Jiu... In particular, I tried to investigate whether Zhu Jiu was active in this apocalyptic era."

If the soul of a patient with amnesia really travels to the doomsday era, then we may meet Zhu Shi’s mother, Zhu Jiu, in the doomsday era.

Especially, with the power of heaven and earth strengthened by the fragments of the divine seal in the small bowl, it would not be difficult for her to find anyone she wanted even in this chaotic and disordered doomsday space and time.

She could even locate the legendary Three Lives Stone Powder miraculously, so how difficult would it be to find a person?

"What was the result?" I asked.

Xiaowan stared at me for a long time, then said, "——I didn't find out anything."
-
Xiaowan's attitude seemed to have some implications.

Even with her power, she couldn't find Zhu Jiu in the Doomsday Era. So from the perspective of common sense, we can immediately come up with two possibilities: First, our hypothesis is wrong, the souls of the amnesiacs did not travel to the Doomsday Era, and Zhu Jiu certainly could not be in the Doomsday Era;

Second, although Zhu Jiu is in the doomsday era, he is in a state where he cannot be retrieved by Xiaowan's power of heaven and earth.

Normally, it should be the former, but Xiaowan seems to have some lingering doubts about the time and space in this doomsday era.

She did not express to me what kind of doubts she had. She conducted various investigations on the apocalypse with her own strength and obtained a great deal of intelligence. In the process, although she had not yet advanced the work to the point where she could analyze the exact results with her own intelligence, she might have glimpsed a vague conclusion through her intuition and instinct.

She seemed to take the hypothesis of "the souls of patients with amnesia traveling to the apocalypse" more seriously than Ma Zao and I, and she seemed to have spent a lot of effort on "finding Zhu Jiu". Although she said that her ability to "communicate with the dead" should be risk-free, she would not use this unknown channel over and over again for something without a special reason.

Then, maybe I should also believe that Zhu Jiu is in the doomsday era, so why can't Xiao Wan find her? The second possibility is temporarily put aside by me. Even if Zhu Jiu herself cannot be retrieved, she should have left some clues and traces in the doomsday era that can be tracked by Xiao Wan.

To take it extremely seriously, even if Zhu Jiu was killed by a passing monster when he first arrived in the doomsday era, Xiao Wan could still track down his body remains, and use the power of psychic communication to summon his "soul" and communicate with him.

It is true that Xiaowan only knew Zhu Jiu's name but had never seen her appearance, but this level of hindrance was not enough to explain why Xiaowan could not find her. In the virtual world, Xiaowan had a clear sense of the names of Zhu Shi and Zhu Jiu, which was enough to show that there was a mysterious causal relationship between Xiaowan and them. This invisible connection alone was enough for Xiaowan to distinguish them from the crowd.

unless……

Unless, Xiaowan is Zhu Jiu, Zhu Shi’s mother.

It's like a person who hides his cell phone in his pocket and searches the whole room for it. Unless he remembers to check his pocket, he won't be able to find it even if he tears down the whole room.

But... is this possible? Is it reasonable? My speculations are based on too many assumptions, most of which are just imagination. Should I really take this idea seriously?

I kept pondering my thoughts, and after moving for a while, Xiaowan and I finally reached our destination.

The entrance to the Tai Sui Army's stronghold is right in front of us.

(End of this chapter)