In mythology, King Yan is a deity of the underworld, responsible for managing the order of life and death reincarnation. "Resurrection from the dead" is undoubtedly a violation of the order of life and death reincarnation, and if there really is a divine entity managing death in this world, it is very likely that they would not ignore such a "resurrector" like Mazao.
And in the memories accompanied by Yinyue’s "illusion", Luo Mountain seemed to stem from a place called "Naraku". Naraku—in Buddhism, it is another name for hell. It’s as if it is said, at some point in history, Luo Mountain truly existed in the afterlife world. Combining titles such as Impermanence, Lu Youxun, ghost soldiers (the old title for agents), and the name Luo Mountain itself, the underworld feel of Luo Mountain is so extensive that one cannot help but think more about it.
It’s as if Xuanming was really the mythological Fire God E Bo and the legendary Business Ancestor, this King Zhuanlun is also very likely to be the mythological King Zhuanlun.
In the information provided by the Zhu family, there was some brief introduction to these eight Great Impermanence, but almost zero introduction about this King Zhuanlun. In Luo Mountain, King Zhuanlun is considered the most mysterious Impermanence, hardly appearing in public, leading some demon hunters to doubt the real existence of this Great Impermanence; many demon hunters also believe he truly possesses the power to "manipulate life and death reincarnation," attracting numerous followers.
Could this Great Impermanence be the mastermind directing the Divine Spear against Mazao? Because Mazao violated the order of life and death reincarnation, does he want to kill him?
Lu Youxun once said that if Mazao is sent to the masterminds, his fate would only be death, which seems to verify this train of thought. And if we let followers of King Zhuanlun guess, they might give a similar opinion.
Moreover, the Black Rope Heart-locking Ring Lu Youxun gave me in the past seems to also be a prop related to the worship of Ten Hall Yama, where "black rope" refers to Black Rope Hell, which is not unrelated to King Zhuanlun. If I were to nitpick, it is that King Zhuanlun isn’t in charge of the Black Rope Hell, but King Songdi is.
Moreover, Luo Mountain itself is synonymous with the underworld, even if Lu Youxun has props of Ten Hall Yama worship, it’s not enough to prove he is a subordinate of King Zhuanlun...
Unconsciously, I seem to have become somewhat obsessed. Maybe I’m overly fixated on King Zhuanlun, even though he’s not the only suspect. But for some reason, the name "King Zhuanlun" inexplicably draws my attention a lot. Is it because he is the only Great Impermanence holding the title of a Yama King?
Speaking of incongruous names, I think that Great Impermanence named Liu Shuying is no less odd. Among those names that don’t resemble human names, only his contains both first and last names.
For now, I’ll momentarily withdraw my attention to regain a neutral and objective perspective. King Zhuanlun may not necessarily be the enemy, but regardless of whether he is or not, my resolve will not waver.
Even if the enemy is the real King Yanluo, he will not take Mazao from my hands.
Mazao seemed to have become tired from using the blessing power over a long time, so he went to sleep in the latter half of the night. I did not sleep all night, focusing my energy on investigating the Fufeng Base and practicing my own power.
Speaking of the Fufeng Base, although there were not many people seen when Fufeng brought us to the residential area before, a comprehensive investigation using "Fireflies" revealed that there are actually many people at this base.
Most people are in the work and training areas, with the ratio of demon hunters to agents being about fifty-fifty. There are also some in the cafeteria and residential area, etc. In addition, just like the secret base of the Human Bureau, the Fufeng Base has also set up anti-detection barriers in many areas, where some "Fireflies" were directly eliminated when they approached. I don’t know if there is any detailed identification mechanism, although the "Fireflies" were destroyed, no alarms or similar things were triggered.
Incidentally, it’s possible that Fufeng, thinking to help us avoid others’ attention, intentionally avoided base members while leading us. Judging by his personal arrival to assist us, it seems within this branch of Luo Mountain, he might be the only one aware of mine and Mazao’s real identities, with perhaps only Dong Che added now.
However, it also seems impossible to always prevent others from seeing us, as Fufeng arranged superficial identities for us the next morning.
Mazao and I are nominally Governance Ideology demon hunters temporarily staying at the Fufeng Base due to task requirements, with the same stance as Dong Che, though the latter is probably more akin to being under house arrest. Fufeng clearly also wants to continue pulling me over to the Governance Ideology side, but for now, it seems he’s not in a rush, instead aiming to subtly influence me. This aspect is quite similar to Lu Youxun.
According to my observations, although this Luo Mountain branch base is newly established for the containment of Divine Seal Fragments, it seems that only a very few people actually know about the existence of the fragments, perhaps only Fufeng himself is aware, similar to the situation with Mazao and me.
Then, let’s talk about the issue of practicing my powers.
Although I have practiced my powers in the past, now there is a newfound sense of necessity in my heart. Not only because I have to face Impermanence as an enemy later on, but even without that, I have already felt a severe lack in my skills from the battles with other Great Success Ranks.
Or perhaps, I should have realized by now... it seems I often get hit directly by the enemy’s attacks.
It’s partly because I rely heavily on my defense being much stronger than an ordinary demon hunter. However, both Chen Long and Yinyue are far superior to me in battle experience and skills, making it difficult for my attacks to hit them; conversely, they can hit me if they intend to.
In many fictional combat stories I’ve seen before, characters with super-regeneration abilities are often beaten to a pulp, and those with undying abilities frequently sustain fatal injuries. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is that the creators want to create such scenes to showcase the characters’ regeneration and undying abilities; but ignoring this point and just from the perspective of "actual people possessing such abilities," it is indeed easy to develop a careless mentality of "since I won’t really die, what does it matter if I’m hit".
This is a mentality I must be wary of, as the enemies I’ll face in the future will likely have attack powers that cannot be casually endured. Being hit by Divine Spear’s "Guaranteed Hit and Penetration" attacks is one thing, but at least I need to learn to dodge those attacks that do not have special hit-rate enhancement effects.
Indoors, it’s certainly not convenient to practice dodging and evasion skills, so I first focused on developing my superpower.
If suddenly asked to develop a new skill, of course, I can’t develop one immediately, so I mainly explored the special properties of Flame Power in other aspects. For instance, during the Spiritual Synchronization with Lu Youxun and the young girl Lu Chan, they have more or less expressed that if there is malevolence during the process, it would trigger a backlash from my Flame Power.
Yes, not just my malevolence towards them causing harm, but even their malevolence towards me does the same. This unique property has somewhat caught my attention. Generally speaking, as long as I don’t harbor that intention, the flames will not harm the targets I come into contact with, yet during Spiritual Synchronization, the nature of the flames seems to change due to the other party’s intentions.
It’s said that during the witch trials of the European Middle Ages, witches were placed on the pyre and told that if they were innocent of deceit, the flames would not burn them alive. This practice was both torture and a trial. Of course, this was superstition, a thuggish rationale, but my flames seem to actually possess a similar trial function.
Even if it’s not "those I consider enemies," but merely "those who consider me an enemy," they might still be burnt by the flames. Perhaps because they place themselves in opposition to me, thus my flames manifest an opposing stance in their spirit—my flame’s subjective spiritual attribute indeed reveals itself in strange places.
This property previously might only affect "targets that interfere with my spirit," but as long as I wish, it could potentially be applied to ordinary targets too. If used well, it could become a sort of malevolence detector. If I ever want to know whether someone harbors ill intentions, just a burn with the flame would reveal the truth.
Maybe I could even test it on Fufeng and Dong Che—no, better not. I haven’t completely mastered this ability yet. Just as Lu Youxun once said, even close friends might harbor subtle malevolence unknowingly. I must first explore methods to set a threshold for the expected malevolence that triggers the flame’s retaliation.
As noon approached, Fufeng came to our room again, saying he wanted to show us around the base.
"You might live here for a while, so you should at least familiarize yourself with the layout," he said.
I don’t think he was unaware of my using "Fireflies" to wander around the base; he probably just wanted an opportunity to talk to me. If he really just let me and Mazao stay in the base, eating and sleeping without care, how would he try to persuade me to join the Governance Ideology.
This is after all their territory, and I’m not so socially inept as to reject such a basic invitation outright, so I followed him out. Mazao naturally followed closely behind me.
And we hadn’t walked far when Dong Che seemed to have anticipated our path and appeared on our necessary route.