From the end of the world

Chapter 537: Tai Sui, the Lord of the Divine Seal
Hearing the guide say this, Xiaowan also showed a somewhat speechless expression.

As long as there are no twists and turns on the road...if Zhu Shi were here, he would probably complain, "Don't raise such a bad flag casually."

Xiaowan, who used to hang out with Ma Zao and suffered from the power of the jinx, probably also has a deep understanding of this "bad luck".

It was ridiculous that I, the invited guest, arrived at the other party's house faster than the mysterious woman who invited me. However, the mysterious woman was not a divine child like Xiaowan who had the right position of heaven and earth. Even if she had a blessing in her hand and could guide me to return to this Tai Sui Army stronghold smoothly, she could not be as fast as us.

Even cartographers still need to use the blessed lantern. When it comes to the "guiding direction" role in this regard, Xiaowan is much more powerful than the cartographer.

After passing through several corridors, the guide brought Xiaowan and me to a room and said politely, "This is the room we arranged for you. Please rest here first. We will deliver meals later."

I nodded, and Xiaowan thanked him obediently on my behalf. The guide turned and left, I opened the door and walked in, with Xiaowan following closely behind.

This is a very clean single room with a dedicated bathroom. It is much cleaner and more complete than the cartographer's safe house, and it is a very good configuration in the doomsday era. The only drawback is that there is only one bed in the room, probably because they didn't expect me to bring a friend with me.

The guide seemed to have forgotten this. The people who were in charge of receiving guests were temporary security guards, and they seemed sloppy in many aspects. It was not so much a lack of sincerity as a lack of experience in receiving visitors.

Xiaowan pressed the bed with both hands and then sat on it, seeming to be very satisfied with the softness and hardness of the mattress.

Then, she looked at me, straightened her expression slightly, and continued, "Brother Zhuang Cheng, what do you think of the leader of the Tai Sui Army... and Ms. No. 7?"

Although they haven't met formally yet, she has already assumed that the mysterious woman is number 7. In fact, I have almost the same opinion.

It’s not that this judgment won’t be overturned later. Even if it’s really wrong, I won’t be surprised. I thought the other person was A, but it was actually B, or C. This level of surprise is not the first time, and it doesn’t make me particularly moved even now.

Until the dust settles, any judgment is likely to be reversed.

"What do you mean by how you look at it?" I asked.

"Ms. No. 7's real identity is that she used to be a close follower of the Tai Sui God, and now she is the leader of the Tai Sui Army, but we all know that her identity is far more than that." Xiao Wan said, "She is also the seventh apostle of the virtual world, and the most mysterious apostle of the virtual world.

“When we were still at a stage where we knew nothing about the Void Realm and the Lord of Divine Seal, she did not show the slightest panic or curiosity, as if she already had a certain degree of understanding of the Void Realm, and she acquiesced and obeyed everything the Lord of Divine Seal said and did.

"We can suspect that she has a certain degree of connection with the Void Realm and the Lord of the Divine Seal. And this connection may be reflected in her real background."

It's more than just "having a certain degree of correlation", I even suspect that No. 7 might be the subordinate of the Lord of the Divine Seal.

After a little thought, I said, "Are you trying to say that... the true identity of the Lord of the Divine Seal is Tai Sui, who is considered dead by the outside world?"

Hearing this, Xiao Wan fell into great hesitation. After a long time, he said: "...I think we should first define what the 'Lord of the Divine Seal' is."

"You're talking like a forum user caught in an online argument," I said.

Xiao Wan's face showed a confused expression as if she was asking "What is the Internet" and "Why do I know what the Internet is?", and then she said helplessly: "I can't do anything, because the 'Lord of the Divine Seal' is indeed an unclear concept at this stage..."

I just said that casually, and then I turned the topic back to the main track, "I understand what you mean. The Lord of the Divine Seal that we have been in contact with is not the 'person who controls the Divine Seal' in your perception, but the 'Divine Seal itself'."

"Yes, this is what I observed on the eve of the destruction of the virtual world, when Mr. No. 6... Da Wuchang Shenzhao attacked the Lord of the Divine Seal." Xiaowan said, "The Lord of the Divine Seal is simply a character transformed from the spirit of the Divine Seal. This is the biggest reason why Da Wuchang Shenzhao cannot sever the connection between him and the Divine Seal... because the two are originally inseparable."

"In this case, there is an additional puzzle that cannot be ignored, and that is where did the 'real Lord of the Divine Seal' - the 'person who holds the Divine Seal' go." I continued, "This person must exist, because a long time ago, it was this 'person who holds the Divine Seal' who divided the common sense world and the strange world... For the sake of convenience, let's call him the 'person who holds the Seal'.

“Although we don’t know whether the owner of the seal is currently dead or hiding behind the scenes and manipulating everything, the first thing we can be sure of is that he is currently in a state where he cannot use the power of the seal to affect our world.”

While analyzing, I recalled a sentence I saw in a Ming Dynasty numerology document when I was a mystic enthusiast reading various ancient books.

——Taisui is the ruler of a year and the leader of all gods.

As the person who holds the divine seal, if he wants to achieve his goals, he doesn't need to play any tricks. Just a thought can change the world and make it run the way he wants.

Whether it is creation or destruction, calling the end of the world or saving the world from the end of the world, it is easier than lifting a finger. In this way, if the human god Tai Sui is the seal holder, it is hard to avoid confusion that he was killed by the head of the Gospel Temple, Yama.

Even if there was something fishy about this battle, for example, Tai Sui was not really dead, but wanted to fake his death to achieve some ulterior motive, that was totally unacceptable. Because the real seal holder had no need to resort to so many twists and turns, and even less to conspiracies and intrigues, he could just show what he wanted to achieve.

It’s like people who use game modifiers don’t need to work hard to kill monsters to increase their levels, they can just change the levels to that level; they don’t need to spend a lot of time completing the main and side quests, they can just change the progress of the game’s plot to a completed state.

This is "absolute power" in the true sense.

Under absolute power, all means and schemes are meaningless.

Of course, considering that the seal of God has been broken at some point, it is understandable that the holder of the seal cannot manipulate the power of omniscience and omnipotence as he wishes. However, this raises another question - why can't the person who possesses the power of omniscience and omnipotence avoid losing it?

Furthermore, even when the divine seal was broken, it was hard to imagine that the seal bearer who was once the "true Lord of the Divine Seal" would be killed by Yama, the Lord of the Gospel Temple, a "mere human god".

After all, why would Yama, the head of the Gospel Temple, want to kill Tai Sui?

"Let's not talk about why things have developed to this point. Assuming that the one who holds the seal is Tai Sui, the black hand behind everything, then No. 7 is probably not a subordinate of the Lord of the Divine Seal, but a subordinate of the one who holds the seal. She and the Lord of the Divine Seal may be on the same level..." I thought.

"But is this hypothetical seal holder doing something unnecessary?" Xiao Wan said, "From the perspective of the outside world, we, the Void Realm Apostles, are pawns pushed to the front by the Divine Seal Master, while the Divine Seal Master is the mastermind hiding in the Void Realm. If the seal holder wants to hide behind the scenes, he will become the mastermind behind the mastermind.

“It’s not that this behavior has no benefits. If powerful Void Realm apostles like Brother Zhuang Cheng and Xuan Ming join forces to rebel, the Lord of the Divine Seal who is pushed to the front can become a scapegoat. But if I were the Master of the Seal, I would not allow the Divine Seal to give birth to its own consciousness in the first place.

"Even if we can theoretically guarantee its absolute loyalty through a series of regulatory measures, that is only in theory. Allowing such an omnipotent artifact to develop its own mind is a taboo in itself."

I tried to speculate: "Perhaps the Divine Seal has not really given birth to its own consciousness, but the Seal Master is manipulating it behind the scenes like a puppet, or perhaps there are some interests involved that we are unaware of."

Xiao Wan thought for a moment and said, "Is there such a possibility... In fact, there was no seal holder from the beginning, only a seal that somehow developed self-awareness. And in ancient times, the one who used omniscience and omnipotence to divide the common sense world and the strange world was also the 'Lord of the Seal' we came into contact with?"

This assumption has a huge flaw. I believe Xiaowan herself knows this. She should be hoping to get another perspective from me to test her own thoughts, so I cooperated with her and said, "This should be impossible. Shenzhao once said that the Lord of the Divine Seal is quite unfamiliar with the use of his own power, just like a mortal who accidentally obtained a powerful magic weapon and is using his power...

“Although this logic is a bit far-fetched, we can still reluctantly explain it as follows: Because the consciousness of the divine seal itself was born not long ago, there are too many flaws in controlling its own power, just like a newborn baby who is not good at using his hands and feet.

"But if we say that this consciousness has existed in ancient times, then it would be impossible to explain the inexplicability of its use of power."

According to this theory, the Lord of the Divine Seal who appeared before our Void Realm Apostles in the past is unlikely to be directly manipulated by the Seal Holder behind the scenes like a puppet, as that would also make his unfamiliarity inexplicable.

It’s not that there’s no room for the seal holder to act, but there’s no motive for him to do so.

Xiao Wan was very sensitive to the dissonance in my words and asked, "'Although this logic is a bit far-fetched' - why does Brother Zhuang Cheng think so? Is there something inexplicable in this logic?"

I said carefully, "Rather than saying it's hard to explain... I just think that with the vision of a veteran like Shen Zhao, he should be able to tell the difference between a 'mortal who accidentally got a powerful magic weapon' and a 'new consciousness that is not very good at using its hands and feet'.

"But this is just my speculation. It is also possible that he simply did not think in that direction and made a wrong judgment."

Hearing this, Xiaowan showed a thoughtful expression.

"It is highly unlikely that the Seal Master will allow the Seal to have its own consciousness, but it is an established fact that the Seal has its own consciousness..." Xiao Wan thought seriously, "At the same time, Ms. No. 7, who is Tai Sui's confidant, has shown a certain degree of obedience to him. In addition, Tai Sui seems to be dead in the eyes of the outside world..."

"...Based on the above factors, could it be that the Lord of the Divine Seal and the Seal Holder are actually one and the same? After Tai Sui, the Seal Holder, was killed by Yama, the Lord of the Gospel Court, his consciousness possessed the broken Divine Seal?"

"Doesn't this still explain why the Lord of the Divine Seal is so unfamiliar with power?" I said, "Tai Sui is a human god, not an ordinary person who accidentally obtained a powerful magic weapon."

Xiao Wan glanced at me, and then said something surprising: "What if Tai Sui is just an ordinary person who accidentally obtained the divine seal?"

(End of this chapter)