From the end of the world

Chapter 582 Small Bowl 1
Xiao Wan said seriously, "Who am I, where did I come from... and where am I going. I remember all these things clearly."

"So... would you mind telling me these things?" I asked.

"Of course." Xiaowan nodded seriously.

"Do you need me to step aside?" asked No. 7.

Xiao Wan glanced at No. 7, thought for a moment and said, "Although no one knew about these things until just now, they are not secrets that need to be hidden."

"However, since this is your private matter, I'd better leave on my own initiative." Number 7 pointed to the road sign in the distance outside the gas station. "I'll stand over there and wait for you to finish talking. I won't eavesdrop on what you are saying. When you're done here, just call me."

Xiao Wan was not polite and said politely: "Thank you, Ms. No. 7."

No. 7 nodded and walked to the distant road sign. Although her hearing could easily detect any sound from our side from that distance, since she said so, let's just believe that she will temporarily make herself deaf.

Xiao Wan turned her face towards me and said, "Well... I'm going to start talking."

"I'm ready," I said.

"First of all, Brother Zhuang Cheng, just as we have judged in the past, my true identity is not the daughter between you and Zhu Shi, but a person who has a close relationship with Zhu Shi and his mother Zhu Jiu." Xiao Wan said, "I once speculated whether I might be the infant Zhu Jiu in the doomsday era, and you seemed to have thought about whether I might be the incarnation of Zhu Shi's dream... Both answers are actually correct, but neither is completely correct."

"In other words, you are both the infant form of Zhu Jiu and the incarnation of Zhu Shi's dream?" This answer was indeed something I could never have imagined. "What on earth is going on?"

"Well... Strictly speaking, I can't be considered Zhu Jiu..." Xiao Wan seemed to be troubled by how to define herself, "... Anyway, please listen to my explanation."

She seemed to have spent some time sorting out the information in her mind, and then she told me the story -

Let’s start from when Zhu Jiu entered the “doomsday era”.

Xiaowan now has the childhood memories of both Zhu Jiu and Zhu Shi, but according to her own way, whether it is Zhu Jiu's memory or Zhu Shi's memory, it seems to her like reading a book, and it is difficult to completely believe that it is her own. But at least, she can narrate what happened in the past from the perspective of the parties involved.

As a patient with amnesia, Zhu Jiu's soul naturally entered this afterlife world that mimicked the apocalypse in the past. And just like me at the beginning, facing this space and time full of apocalyptic weirdness, she soon fell into a huge life-and-death crisis.

Although she was born into a demon hunter family and had received systematic demon hunter training, Zhu Jiu did not have decent combat power as a demon hunter. According to the level system of chengzhuhuokong, she could only be rated as a zhu at best. Without the family heirloom, the Yama Sword, her combat power was actually only limited compared to that of ordinary people.

Yes, there are also demon hunters at the Zhu level like her who have little combat power. Although I have always used the Chengzhuhuokong level system as a "system for evaluating combat power", the evaluation standard of this system is not combat power, but the distance walked on the path of cultivation. The "Zhu" level symbolizes that even if a demon hunter stops practicing in the future, he will not automatically regress back to an ordinary person. It is a state of truly gaining a foothold in the field of demon hunters.

Even if you have mana, it does not mean that you can definitely burst out attack and defense power beyond that of ordinary people, but you must first convert it through "magic spells". If you want to strengthen your body, you must first learn "magic spells to strengthen your body"; if you want to summon fire, you must first learn "magic spells to summon fire".

The situation where one can manifest magical powers just by thinking about it because of powerful magic power is mostly only seen at the Great Perfection level and above, which is beyond the common sense of demon hunters. Zhu Jiu's personality is destined to be incompatible with most spells related to "combat". She is more suitable to become the White Impermanence who eliminates weirdness by non-combat means.

Fortunately, the weak also have their own way of surviving. After a series of twists and turns, and with indispensable luck, Zhu Jiu finally managed to survive. However, she was also unlucky in that she did not meet any survivors other than herself. What awaited her after the danger was not safety, but a more desperate situation.

Madness began to eat away at her soul.

Falling into a situation where no one around calls her name and she is completely alone, the personality based on social relationships can easily show symptoms of decomposition over time. Even the so-called stay-at-home people often connect with society through the Internet and logistics, but in the "doomsday era" there are not even such basic conditions. True loneliness slowly corroded the surface of Zhu Jiu's mind, and madness penetrated from tiny holes, twisting her mind.

After a while, Zhu Jiu forgot her name and her past, and wandered in the afterlife in a daze. After a while, the demonization phenomenon inevitably happened to her, and she began to transform from a human into a strange creature. However, in her heart, there was still a wish, or an obsession. Because this idea was deeply rooted in her consciousness, even at the last moment - when all ideas were to be uprooted and dug out, its deep traces were not completely eliminated from the bottom of her heart.

The "certain spirituality" attached to her also became active and joined Zhu Jiu's transformation into a demon...

"—'some kind of spirituality'?"

Hearing this, I asked curiously: "What is that?"

"That was the part of herself that Zhu Jiu's daughter, Zhu Shi, lost when she was young... or rather, the part of herself that she gave up voluntarily. It carries Zhu Shi's yearning for love, her innocent longings, her weak and childish heart... all the elements that have nothing to do with 'becoming an independent demon hunter', and symbolizes part of her childhood." Xiaowan said.

"Just like the medal that Lu Youxun abandoned in the past... the 'dream of realizing justice' attached to that medal?" I asked, "Why does that obsession cling to Zhu Jiu?"

I had told Xiaowan about Lu Chan's affairs before the virtual realm was broken.

In the past, Lu Youxun abandoned his medal as a "National First-Class Demon Hunter", and Zhu Shi also abandoned all his beloved puppets in his childhood. In my opinion, these are two events that can be connected. Since the dream obsession that Lu Youxun abandoned is attached to the medal, then Zhu Shi's abandoned childhood obsession should also be attached to those puppets.

This is also the biggest reason why I think "Zhu Shi's dream incarnation cannot appear in the afterlife"... However, if it is actually attached to Zhu Jiu, then the matter is another matter. Zhu Shi's childhood obsession actually entered the afterlife in this form...

"Because for Zhu Shi in his childhood, the first object that could serve as a symbol of his childhood... was not those dolls, but his mother who allowed him to live a childish yet happy life and doted on him in every way." Xiaowan said.

Hearing this, I remembered what Zhu Shi had said in the past.

——"For me, the most profound and warmest memory of my childhood is probably the memory of holding my favorite doll and being held in the arms of my favorite mother."

Xiao Wan also seemed to be reminiscing, and after a short pause she continued: "...Zhu Shi threw away all her dolls as a symbol of bidding farewell to her childhood, and her obsession was therefore attached to these dolls.

"After that, Zhu Jiu secretly collected all the dolls that his daughter had discarded, hid them in a white box, and carefully cared for and maintained them.

"Zhu Jiu's childhood was devoid of warmth and happiness, so she hoped that at least her daughter could live a warm and happy life. This may also be a kind of empathy that parents often have for their children. Even though Zhu Shi's childhood had such a dramatic change, Zhu Jiu still secretly hoped that one day she could return all the happiness and these dolls to her beloved daughter.

"During this process, the obsessions attached to those puppets gradually transferred to Zhu Jiu, the 'first object', and later followed Zhu Jiu into this 'doomsday era', and were finally involved in Zhu Jiu's transformation into a demon.

"Speaking of this, Brother Zhuang Cheng, do you still remember the definition of 'incarnation'?"

I nodded.

The ability to manifest one's own soul as an "avatar" was originally only available to gods. The girl Lu Chan's "dream incarnation" was also materialized by the power of the divine seal fragment. Although the son of divinity can also use the power of "incarnation", it cannot be manifested alone and must be done with the help of a spirit container.

Combining this knowledge point, I came to the next speculation: "So, Zhu Jiu became Zhu Shi's childhood dream... and became the vessel for the spirit of his daughter's childhood self?"

"It may not be accurate to call it a container. This is because the process of transformation into a demon will completely reorganize the soul of the person involved, and eventually turn it into a strange shape." Xiao Wan said, "A normal container for summoning spirits may be like a complete glass cup, used to catch water. But at that time, Zhu Jiu was like the cup itself was shattered into glass slag, and completely mixed with the water.

"And just when she was about to be completely reorganized into a karma demon, Sister Maha appeared."

(End of this chapter)