From the end of the world

Chapter 545: Old Prophecy
I have thought countless times whether the apocalypse is the afterlife. I have come across more than one clue that can connect the two, which is enough to make me suspicious. Even Xiaowan seems to attach great importance to this hypothesis, and I believe that Xiaowan's intelligence is superior to mine, which is one of the reasons why I can't give up this direction.

On the other hand, if this assumption is true, the problems that come with it will explode. The problems that will be added are far more than the problems that will be reduced. This is why I used to think about things based on the premise that the end of the world is the future relative to the modern world, even though I knew that the end of the world might be the afterlife.

And No. 7 gave affirmative testimony directly in front of me.

Xiaowan let out a breath, but instead of showing any shock, it was as if a huge stone had fallen from his heart, and the speculation that had been hanging in his heart for a long time had finally come true.

"The end of the world... is it the world after death?"

I tried to digest this important information, and then I noticed a detail in Number 7's words that was hard to ignore. "Wait... you just said that this place was 'once' the afterlife?"

What does "once upon a time" mean? Isn't this the afterlife now?
Also, regardless of whether it was in the past or not, since this is the afterlife, why do the countless doomsday survivors wandering in this space and time so unanimously believe that this place is the era after the doomsday?
"I want to confirm first, how much do you know about the afterlife?" No. 7 asked me first.

I responded in a cooperative way: "The afterlife, as the name suggests, is the world where the soul automatically goes after a person dies. It is also called the underworld, the spirit world, and the dream world. It is the spiritual world opposite to the material world.

"In the material world, human souls must reside in their own bodies. If the soul is water, the body is the container. Without the container, the soul will not be able to sustain itself. In many ancient legends, the souls wandering outside are so fragile that they cannot even withstand the sunlight, and will be shattered on the spot by the sound of thunder.

"Many demon hunters can cast the spell of soul-leaving, but the soul is unstable. The reason why it can maintain its shape is because it is still connected to the body. If the body is found and killed by the enemy, the soul will die with it. Even if it is transformed into a ghost by chance, it cannot be considered as the previous self, but only a specious echo, a weird thing with the same thinking pattern as the previous self."

The pure and independent soul form that is completely free from material containers is the realm of the dead for humans.

Most ghosts formed after a person dies do not have the intelligence to communicate normally. Even the few individuals who seem to speak naturally do not have the potential to continue to grow. Because they are dead, their existence has ended. No matter how much time has passed, they cannot change their nature. Therefore, they are also regarded by most demon hunters as "walking suicide notes" or phenomena that run according to specific programs.

One of the characteristics of the "manifestation" state is that one can become a pure spiritual life as a living being. The soul is as stable as matter and as changeable as water, so "manifestation" is also regarded as the achievement of the materialization of the soul. When it rises, it soars in the universe, and when it hides, it lurks in the waves. It is completely free from the suffering and weakness of flesh and blood and is an eternal existence.

Even for a powerful being at the Great Accomplishment stage, it is extremely difficult to completely get rid of the material container and exist purely in the human world as a soul. Only through certain special abilities and super-advanced spells can one transform into a similar existence in a short period of time. This is the so-called "pseudo-elementization."

The Great Impermanence may be able to simulate a similar effect with his all-pervasive power, but it is still a long way from the true essence of "manifestation".

"...But it's different in the afterlife," I said, "because it's originally a spiritual world, so the soul exists there just like a living person exists in the material world, without any constraints, and will not be torn apart by reasons such as the brightness of the environment being too high or the noise being too loud.

"Of course, ghosts and spirits are ultimately just a phenomenon, just like there is no endless wind. These phenomena will eventually vanish into thin air and become sediments of the dead. They may reappear suddenly like the mud at the bottom of a lake that has been stirred up, but they are just a bunch of lonely ghosts that are pieced together and belong to no one.

"However, more than a hundred years ago, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the situation changed dramatically. As Gua Tianshi predicted that hell would be destroyed and flow into the human world, Luoshan headquarters withdrew from the afterlife and made full preparations for this shocking change. However, the situation did not develop as Gua Tianshi said. Instead of spreading to the world of the living, the afterlife suddenly lost all contact with the world of the living. Luoshan could no longer enter the other side of the world, and could not even establish communication with it.

"Since then, the souls of the living people living in the world of the living can no longer reach the other side after death. Basically, they can only survive and perish in the material world."

That’s all I understand about the afterlife.

Number 7 nodded first, then continued, "The prediction of the Gua Tianshi is very accurate. The world after death is really about to be destroyed, and it is really about to flow into the world of the living.

“The reason why the prophecy has the deviation that most people think it has is that the prophecy is likely to be generated according to the predictor’s own subjective feeling of time.

"Gua Tianshi is a super-ancient Great Impermanence that existed before humans first used fire. He is also the oldest Great Impermanence known in the world. The time he has experienced is at least measured in units of 100,000 years. Even if this ancient existence says just one 'soon', its scale is likely to exceed the lifetime of a mortal.

"And speaking of today, more than a hundred years later, there is evidence that the afterlife is exerting influence on the world of the living... Zhuang Cheng, I believe you have already observed the phenomenon of countless souls disappearing inexplicably in the world of the living." "You mean... the amnesia incident?" I said.

"I'm not sure what you call this phenomenon, but I can tell you the conclusions I have drawn from my own investigations so far." No. 7 said, "In the afterlife that is constantly collapsing under the advent of the apocalypse, in order to maintain its own existence, it summons a large number of souls from the world of the living to fill its interior. The more severe the apocalypse process in the afterlife, the more severe this phenomenon will be.

"Among the survivors wandering in this 'apocalyptic era' today, some are ghosts who were originally wandering in the afterlife, and some are living victims who were caught up in this summoning phenomenon."

The speculation that the souls of patients with amnesia all go to the end of the world is also true!
However, unlike what Ma Zao and I had originally calculated, the place they were heading to was not strictly speaking the apocalyptic era, but the world after death.

There is too much heavyweight intelligence. Just like swallowing a large amount of food without digesting it properly, so much information stuffed into my brain makes my mind numb. However, this state may be just right. What I need now may be this state of being able to think "calmly".

In the past, Xuan Ming had asked the Lord of Divine Seal about the details of amnesia, but even the latter was unable to give an answer. However, No. 7 said that he had now investigated it himself.

Number 7 would not do such a stupid thing as lying in front of Xiao Wan, and coupled with the clue that "the Lord of the Divine Seal may not know Xiao Wan's background"...

Could it be that the Lord of the Divine Seal's power, which is close to omniscience, cannot cover the world after death?
"I see... This is why the survivors in the apocalypse cannot grow normally." I finally figured it out. "Because this is the world of the soul, the appearance of the soul depends on a person's self-perception...

"And because of the influence of madness, people cannot accumulate their own memories, and their minds cannot grow. Children are always children, young people are always young people, and old people are always old people..."

Number 7 nodded and said, "Yes. However, some of the souls from the world of the living may be linked to the growth of their own physical container. Just like water changes according to the container, the soul will also change according to its own physical container.

"Some souls with overly strong self-assertion will not change in this way. However, if they have enough experience in this 'end of the world' to allow their spirit to grow, their souls may grow to a level more mature than their bodies in the world of the living - until they forget all this.

"Similarly, if the mind falls into an extremely crazy state, the appearance will also become extremely crazy. Therefore, people who fall into the state of karma demons will change into twisted and terrifying appearances.

“Appearances are determined by the mind, this is the basic law of this world.

"As for what exactly is the 'madness' that caused those survivors to fall to this point... I guess I don't need to explain it any further, right?"

This is the world of souls. The chaos of time, space, matter and energy is essentially the chaos of souls. Therefore, people who exist here as souls can easily be infected, lose themselves, and eventually turn into a crazy form.

As long as we understand the truth about the "Doomsday Era", things of this magnitude can be easily deduced.

"But... there's one thing you haven't told me yet. Why does the end of the world come to the afterlife first?" I asked, "and... what exactly is the end of the world?"

I think if it was number seven, maybe he would know the truth about the end of the world.

Number 7 paused for a long moment, as if trying to determine whether this involved a "secret that could not be resolved on one's own initiative."

After a moment, she seemed to have made up her mind, and then said: “—For convenience, I will start with the first half of your question.

"This is because the source of the end of the world is human history."

(End of this chapter)