The afterlife blew up Gensokyo

"Wait, I think I remember now. You're the Phantom Thief who disappeared hundreds of years ago and once roamed the entire Western world—Peter Pan?"

After Inpandi's words, Sally, who was sitting in her seat, suddenly spoke up in surprise.

"Legend has it that the phantom thief broke into heaven and deceived God, stealing several precious treasures from God's hand, and was therefore punished by the wrathful Lord... You're still alive?"

“We’ve been living perfectly well all along. Jehovah is just a sore loser and a big ego, otherwise we wouldn’t have needed to hide here and there.”

The cunning rabbit pouted unhappily.

"That's right, I am Phantom Thief Peter Pan, but that title is a thing of the past."

"You sound like you have quite a rich life experience..."

Listening to the two people in front of him responding to each other, Shi Bai's lips twitched slightly.

"But even so, you still seem quite unconventional... Judging from the previous situation, it seems you plan to continue scamming? What is there in those vampire families that's worth scamming? And going to all that trouble, pretending to be a mysterious merchant and a demon king..."

"We already said, we're saving the world!!"

The cunning rabbit seemed quite dissatisfied.

"Do you know that the Scarlet family among the vampires is plotting a terrifying conspiracy? If the Scarlet family succeeds in that conspiracy, the world will be plunged into crisis."

"Oh, the world isn't that fragile, thank you."

"Hmph, you frog in a well, do you even know how big the world is?"

With her arms crossed, she glanced at Shi Bai, the cunning rabbit giving her an expression that said, "You're ignorant, I'm too lazy to argue with you."

"The world is much bigger and more mysterious than you imagine. If you knew what the Scarlett family was plotting, you might not think that way."

"Uh... what conspiracy?"

Someone looked like a curious child.

"As a great demon, you should be able to clearly feel the changes that have taken place in the world over the years, right? Spiritual energy is disappearing, mystery is fading, and if things continue to develop as they are now, perhaps in a few hundred years, this world will be completely dominated by humans."

He straightened up slightly and began to speak earnestly.

"I call this era, in which humanity completely dominates the world, the end of the Dharma era. This may be the inevitable change in the history of world development. Those who cannot adapt to the world will eventually be eliminated by it."

"Hmm... so what?"

Shi Bai nodded.

"But in this new era, a wrong existence has emerged: vampires. They are completely unaffected by the world, and the current end times are paradise for them."

When he said these words, there was a hint of solemnity in Inaba Tei's voice.

“We’ve been in the Western world for many years, and we know the situation here better than you do. Less than 100 years after the cataclysmic changes, the vampire race has grown rapidly and its power and influence have been increasing... This is a very dangerous sign.”

"Hmm... I admit that the existence of vampires is a mistake in itself, but how are vampires related to the safety of the world?"

Because of the words of that cunning rabbit, Shi Bai couldn't help but think more highly of the other party.

"So you're right, a frog in a well is a frog in a well. The truth of the world is far more terrifying than you can imagine. If it weren't for the fact that we used to know each other, I wouldn't have revealed this kind of information."

After downing the beer in one gulp, the cunning rabbit slammed it onto the table with a "thud," then confidently reached out to Shi Bai again.

"How about this, give me 100 cases of beer, and I'll tell you the truth about this world from the ancient mythological era!!"

"The ancient mythological era..."

Shi Bai tossed a box over with a rather subtle expression.

"Of course, do you know what the ancient mythological era is? That was a magnificent era that was hundreds of millions of years ago, far away from the present day."

After opening the box and taking a look, Pan Di nodded with satisfaction, then mysteriously held up a finger in front of him.

"What I'm about to tell you is something you absolutely mustn't be afraid of, because it could very well overturn your worldview. Are you mentally prepared?"

"What is the truth about the world from ancient, distant times...?"

Taking a deep breath, Sally nodded seriously, feeling inexplicably flustered by the words of the cunning rabbit in front of her.

"I'm ready."

Meanwhile, Mengyue closed her comic book, looked up, and focused her gaze on Inpandi.

"Then let's begin. This is an earth-shattering historical fact recorded on a stone carving we found in an ancient ruin... This world was once completely destroyed and shattered."

"!!!"

"........."

Shi Bai glanced at Sariel and Mengyue beside her, her lips twitching. She seemed to understand what they were talking about, and her expression became increasingly subtle. Meanwhile, the cunning rabbit continued her serious narration.

"The world once existed as a flat earth with a round heaven. After that great cataclysm, it evolved into the world we know today. The ancient beings who lived in that era were themselves the sun, moon, and stars of that world. You cannot even imagine their power... They saw day when they closed their eyes, night when they closed them, winter when they blew, summer when they exhaled. They neither drank nor ate, nor breathed; their breath was the wind. Their bodies were a thousand miles long, and their name was the God of Zhongshan... This is just a small part of what was recorded at that time, but it shows how powerful the beings of that era were!! Perhaps only beings like them could be called gods!!!"

"If it's a thousand miles long, just how heavy is that God of Zhongshan?!"

A gasp rang out from outside the carriage, the curtain was pulled back, and Huan Yue, who was sitting outside acting as the coachman, looked utterly shocked.

Because of Emperor Pan: "..."

Good grief, we say we kill without blinking an eye, and you ask us if our eyes are dry... Is this demon outside just here to cause trouble?

Didn't I scare you again before? Is it necessary to be so petty?

His expression froze for a moment for no apparent reason, because Pan Di ultimately chose to ignore the other party.

"...But even such a world, with so many powerful beings, was ultimately destroyed. The entire world irreversibly headed towards its collapse and shattered end, facing the most helpless future. It was from the broken ruins of the original world that our current world was born."

"Is it possible for any being to survive a world-ending catastrophe?"

While she couldn't help but yearn for it, Mengyue, who had been listening quietly, couldn't help but ask a question.

"Impossible, because the present world cannot accommodate any existence from that ancient mythological era."

Seemingly completely unprepared for such a question, after a slight pause, Pan Di shook his head without hesitation.

"Leaving aside the Zhongshan God, who is seen as day and night and whose body is a thousand miles long, if the Golden Crow, which resides on the Fusang Divine Tree in Tang Valley, were to appear in this world, this world would have a second sun, and for this world, that would be... and so on..."

As if suddenly remembering something, Pan Di froze on the spot.

She seemed to have witnessed something like a second sun appearing in the sky before, but back then it wasn't just a second sun appearing, but ten suns appearing simultaneously... Did beings from ancient mythology really survive in a world-ending situation?

Even Pan Di himself was startled by his own conjecture.

(As expected of the lucky white rabbit, she actually stumbled upon part of the truth about this world... Is this girl cheating? I never thought that the stone carving she erected out of remembrance wouldn't be destroyed when the world shattered...)

Shi Bai's lips twitched violently involuntarily.

The cunning rabbit in front of me was indeed quite clever, able to deduce all this from just a few clues, because theoretically speaking, what it said was basically correct.

—This world is simply incapable of containing Xiaoye and Xiaoxi.

When the Heavenly Realm underwent its upheaval, the Golden Crows and their companions had not yet ventured beyond the Heavenly Realm. Even a slight projection of their own power had caused such a severe impact on the world. If they had actually broken out of the Heavenly Realm, at least half of all living beings in the world would have perished.

Therefore, Xiaoye and Xiaoxi have had to live in the Heavenly Realm, which is truly worthy of the name "Heavenly Prison." If they want to truly break free from the Heavenly Realm's constraints and come to this world, this world must take another step forward, which is the direction that Shi Bai has been striving for so far.

..................................................................

"...So that's roughly the situation."

Pan Di temporarily put aside the terrible conjecture in his mind and exhaled.

"According to the stone inscriptions, the world was destroyed because those ancient and powerful beings prevented the arrival of a new era, which is why the world was destroyed... and the current situation of the vampires is exactly the same!!!"

"........."

Shi Bai silently turned to look out the window at the wrong answer he had recorded based on his own conjecture due to his limited knowledge at the time.

"In the face of the tides of time, anything that dares to stand in its way will turn to dust. No one can stand against the world itself. The fading of mystery and the arrival of another cataclysmic change have already foreshadowed that the next era will surely belong to humanity. But the existence of vampires has prevented the arrival of this era."

Pan Di took a deep breath.

"The ultimate goal of the vampires is to dominate the world, assimilate all of humanity's elite into vampires, and feed the lower-class humans as food. Faced with immortality and immense power, what choices will the nobles, who wield power, influence, and wealth but have short lifespans, make? I believe you can guess the answer yourself."

"Such grand ambitions..."

Sally's brow furrowed deeply as she inexplicably gasped.

She wanted to refute it, but after thinking about it for a long time, she found that she couldn't find any rebuttal at all. Especially when she recalled what happened to Ellis, she realized that this situation was indeed very likely to happen, without a doubt.

After all, even a young man like Ellis, who was not yet 20 years old, was obsessed with the idea of ​​immortality and did something as crazy as patricide. Not to mention those decrepit nobles who were already half-buried but still held supreme power and refused to relinquish it.

What frustrated her even more was that she found she couldn't find any way to solve the problem.

P.S.: I just finished typing and realized I forgot to use my sword today... I hope the guild leader won't kill me.

Chapter Fourteen: Majesty (▼皿▼＃) Majesty

"So, what method do you plan to use to stop the vampires?"

Patting his head, Shi Bai asked Inpandi in front of him with a somewhat helpless expression.

"Scamming, cheating, and stealing?"

"Hmph, wasn't what we just said clear enough?"

He pursed his lips, seemingly somewhat displeased.

"Legend has it that in ancient times there were gods who could write marks with the sun and moon. Who could do that nowadays? It's impossible. Even the Ghost King among the Ghost Clan couldn't do that, right?"

"I can actually do it now... okay, so what?"

Under the disdainful gaze of the cunning rabbit in front of him (▼皿▼＃), Shi Bai's lips twitched slightly.

"Young people shouldn't be so ambitious. What we're talking about is all true. The originator of the vampire race, God, created this race with unlimited potential by obtaining that ancient relic. You may not believe it, but you must have reverence for it."

Because Pan Di had this (▼皿▼＃) expression.

"The splendor of that era is beyond your imagination, but even such powerful beings were dragged down and destroyed along with the world simply because they blocked the tide of the times. Aren't the vampires of today just a replica of that era?"

"But the vampires aren't that powerful now, are they? After all, if it really comes to that, the gods definitely won't stand idly by. The vampires' actions are tantamount to stealing their faith. Can the gods tolerate that? Jehovah alone would never tolerate it. What do you think those religions were originally established for?"

Shi Bai sighed, stroking his head.

"Of course, maybe that so-called Vampire Lord is a bit stronger, but so what? They are ultimately creatures that can't stand the light of day. If the vampires really dared to do that, they would become the enemy of the world in the shortest amount of time... Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Ignorance is bliss. What if vampires could overcome their fear of sunlight?"

With a pout, the cunning rabbit opened another can of beer for himself.

"This is a secret we spent a long time uncovering from a renowned vampire family. Several hundred years ago, the vampire lord took their clan's sacred artifacts and sailed to the East. What do you think was his purpose in going to the East?"

"........."

Thinking of a stone demon mask whose whereabouts are still unknown, Shi Bai fell silent.

"Does he want to develop a tribe in the Eastern world as well?"

Before Shi Bai could speak, Sally spoke up with a worried expression.

"The emperors of those countries in the Eastern world are extremely eager for immortality, so..."

"No! This is just the surface purpose; there's a much deeper purpose hidden within!"

After taking a big gulp of beer, the cunning rabbit once looked solemn.

"This is top-secret information about the vampires that I accidentally discovered while evading Jehovah's pursuit... The vampires' sacred artifacts are incomplete; they are missing a crucial item. If we can find that item and complete the set, vampires will have no weaknesses and become the ultimate beings!!"

With a "thud," someone's head slammed directly onto the table.

"What's wrong with you?"

Turning to look at Shi Bai, he saw that Emperor Pan seemed quite dissatisfied.

"You've been acting strange ever since we started talking about these top-secret matters. If it weren't for our past relationship, do you think we would have shared such top-secret information with you?"

"It's nothing, I just have a headache."

"With my face down on the table, I replied rather dejectedly."

"Oh, if you have a headache, then just cut off your head and it won't hurt anymore."

The cunning rabbit wore a cold expression.

"........."

"In short, the vampires have been plotting a rather large conspiracy for hundreds of years."

She turned her gaze away from the guy she considered unambitious, quite displeased, as Pandi continued to speak.