Whether to stay in the Doomsday Era, for me, is perhaps still too early to make a decision. I still don’t know much about the truth of the Doomsday Era, I haven’t found Little Bowl, and many questions remain unanswered.
It might even be that the Doomsday Era I am in is not truly the future, but rather, as I once speculated, this could actually be the post-mortem world, where I accidentally passed through the Naraku Gate, which Ming Zhuo had tried to break through countless times to no avail.
At present, it is best for me to focus on the mission I have given myself, which is to reunite with Little Bowl first. After all, whether to go or stay, I ultimately cannot leave Little Bowl to wander alone in the Doomsday Era.
For this, I must first regain the Power of Word Spirit, so that I can successfully inquire with the wandering soul on the second floor.
I arrived at the large round table on the first floor of the safehouse, pulled up a chair, and sat down, gazing at the flickering white light of blessing. The cartographer previously mentioned that a large blessing can calm the chaotic phenomena of the surrounding time and space, so might not this smaller blessing possess the same mechanism, just too weak to manifest it?
From the light of the blessing, I can sense a pure natural rhythm, in other words, an orderliness similar to the modern world. The failure of the Power of Word Spirit is due to the chaos of the time and space environment. If there is a way to strengthen this blessing, perhaps it could create an environment where the Power of Word Spirit could be used.
I tried to touch this blessing with my mind.
From the first moment I saw the blessing, I had the idea to try this, because the blessing, resembling a flame of light, falls within the scope of my superpowers, whether it be fire or light. Previously, I refrained from acting on this idea to avoid unforeseen incidents during my journey. Now that conditions are right, it was time to test it out.
Upon a slight touch, I quickly came to two conclusions based on the feedback I received.
First, my superpower cannot affect this blessing. Although it is currently unanalysable what this blessing really is, it only resembles fire and light visually, when it is actually another kind of mysterious substance that is fundamentally indescribable.
It’s not that I can manipulate anything that looks like fire or light. It’s just like drawing a fire on a computer using graphic software, I cannot manipulate the fire in the image—for that matter, perhaps I’ve never tried, maybe I could manipulate drawn flames? Anyway, it’s sufficient to grasp the concept.
Second, I detected that the extremely small area surrounding the blessing, approximately a few centimeters radiating from the center, is relatively more stable. Without carefully reaching out with my mind, it’s hard to notice.
Aside from this, although it doesn’t concern the blessing itself, it is pertinent to mention as it relates to me personally.
It seems my soul has undergone slight pathological changes.
As the saying goes, "like entering a room of fish, one doesn’t notice the smell after a while," when people stay in a place filled with strong odor, they gradually ignore the smell. Typically, it is difficult for people to detect their own odor or bad breath for similar reasons. I have stayed in the Doomsday Era for a slightly long time, and unconsciously got affected by some chaotic changes.
I noticed my soul’s surface seemed twisted like it was moldy. This is only a metaphor, as the soul is not a material, and it is challenging to describe it to those who cannot perceive souls, much like describing colors to someone born blind. If my soul were a pastry, this pastry now has frayed edges.
Perhaps it is the distortion I absorbed while analyzing and adapting to the chaotic time-space, for those who stare into the abyss will find it staring back into them.
With a thought, flames burned on my soul, and the "frayed edges" disappeared in an instant. The pathology was only superficial, and such distortion was not enough to truly affect my soul.
Intuition tells me that if such pathology invades deeply enough, it would gradually erase my memory, alter my personality, and drive me into madness. The altered soul would change the nature of mana, thereby rewriting the nature of my existence, turning me into something other than myself.
It can almost certainly be said that this is the so-called "infection of frenzy."
Such unnoticed, subtle changes, even Great Success Rank demon hunters, without countermeasures at hand, are easily susceptible, ultimately helplessly becoming Sin Demons.
However, for Impermanence, this kind of soul pathology is no more than a minor cold.
Even without this current crisis, I would have detected soul pathology far before it reached a point of no return and resolved the issue in one breath. This is not arrogance or overconfidence; it is the conclusion derived from calm reasoning.
So now, I can’t help but question—can this "natural phenomenon" occurring in the Doomsday Era really turn Impermanence into a Great Demon?
Even if unable to deploy Fatian Xiangdi in the Doomsday Era, it should not lead to Impermanence being engulfed by external forces, becoming a muddle-minded Sin Demon like other survivors.