Although I didn’t make any prior contact, Mazao, Zhu Shi, and Mr. Zhu were already waiting in front of the mansion’s entrance.
Maybe it was due to the mana fluctuations I sent out not long ago. Because they anticipated my imminent return, they had prepared to welco . As I looked at their figures, I surprisingly felt a bit of "hosickness."
In terms of my own subjective sense of ti, the ti since separating from Mazao isn’t very long, but how would it be for Mazao? More than four months is not exactly a long ti, yet I can’t help but worry if the feelings between Mazao and myself have cooled sowhat.
Little Bowl also showed a timid and guilty expression. Zhu Shi and Mr. Zhu are very familiar to her, but that familiarity is only at the informational level. The ones who truly have a close relationship with them are Zhu Jiu and Zhu Shi from childhood, not herself. In truth, if she reveals the truth, they might even consider her an evil spirit occupying soone else’s nest. I am not completely unable to fathom her current state of mind.
From a distance, Mazao also saw . Her eyes fell on my face, and her expression revealed the joy of reunion after a long absence.
In my mories, the frequency of her smiling is low. Although she no longer has the lancholic look from our first eting, her expressions have overall not been very varied. But now, upon seeing , she revealed a big, unexpectedly joyful smile, with tears of excitent even at the corners of her eyes. Seeing her react like this, strangely enough, my heart felt calm instead.
Naturally, she also saw Little Bowl beside . Emotions such as surprise, confusion, and joy appeared one after another. After hesitating for a mont, she rushed over to , and hugged tightly.
"Zhuang Cheng!" she called out loudly with pleasure.
"I’m back, Mazao."
I held her tightly, feeling her soft body and warmth, breathing the fragrance from her hair. She also buried her face deep in my chest, rubbing and breathing greedily, as if trying to imprint her presence back onto .
Then, Mazao reluctantly withdrew her face from my chest and looked at Little Bowl. Little Bowl imdiately stepped forward and hugged Mazao, also loudly shouting, "Sister Mazao!"
"Little Bowl!" Mazao hugged Little Bowl tightly.
The petite girl and the even smaller girl embraced each other tightly. They shared a long period of ti that is beyond my estimation, filled with many unknown hardships. Under the assault of the Doomsday Demon, they could only part ways, once believing they were separated by life and death, never to see each other again.
Yet now, through countless miracles, they finally reunited.
Mazao raised her face again, her gaze moving between and Little Bowl, seeming deeply unsure about how to handle the double joy situation, as though she didn’t know how to hug both and Little Bowl at the sa ti. Little Bowl shifted Mazao’s body, pushing her towards . Eventually, it beca a sowhat awkward position with Mazao hugging and Little Bowl hugging Mazao from behind.
Mazao, sandwiched like a sandwich, stood for a mont, then as if giving up thinking, drunkenly hugged my body with a silly smile on her face.
This appearance is completely unlike the legendary "Evangelical Witch" of the "Doomsday Era."
Zhu Shi and Mr. Zhu also ca forward.
Zhu Shi didn’t lose his composure like Mazao but looked at and Mazao with a very happy expression, and gave Little Bowl a curious look. Mr. Zhu also observed Little Bowl’s appearance with an unsure and puzzled expression.
"Welco back, Zhuang Cheng," Zhu Shi said sentintally.
"This girl, could she be..." Mr. Zhu looked at Little Bowl.
Little Bowl buried her face in Mazao’s back, as if afraid of eting Mr. Zhu’s gaze.
"She is Little Bowl," I said, "We’ll explain about her later. Mr. Zhu, please also tell us what has happened during the ti I’ve disappeared."
Mr. Zhu’s expression beca serious, and he said, "Alright, let’s go inside first, and sit down to talk."
-
We sat down in the hall of the mansion. Mr. Zhu explained to what had happened during this ti, while Mazao continued to hold onto and wouldn’t let go, supplenting the explanation alongside Zhu Shi.
Initially, Liu Shuying and I tead up to launch an attack on the headquarters of Taoyuan Village, as Huang Quan and Xu Gou appeared simultaneously to assist the Taoyuan Village Master, ng Zhang. Because the Taoyuan Village Master and Huang Quan had anticipated our attack, they set up a wide-range barrier and other asures, causing the mana fluctuations to not be imdiately detected by the Luoshan Headquarters. By the ti the Great Impermanence levels at Luoshan Headquarters noticed the movents here, the battle was already over.
When I was banished to the void, I sensed the simultaneous disappearance of the mana fluctuations from Liu Shuying and Taoyuan Village Master ng Zhang, but the latter was not dead. The disappearance of the mana fluctuations might have been due to severe injury, or a thod used to revive him afterward, or perhaps the one fighting us was essentially an incarnation, among other possibilities. In any case, Taoyuan Village Master ng Zhang reappeared in Luoshan Headquarters’ observations a month later.
As for Liu Shuying, he vanished from the mortal world, and Luoshan Headquarters could only confirm that he was not dead but couldn’t pinpoint his specific movents. Xu Gou entered a latent state again and disappeared without a trace.
As for , Fa Zheng also ntioned that everyone knew I wasn’t dead, just unaccounted for. Weichi located in the "Doomsday Era" through Divine Seal Fragnt technology a month later, and passed this information to Mazao and the others.
Mazao spent that month tirelessly searching for traces of and even tried using the Return marks left on to transport directly to my side. However, having undergone the baptism of the void, although the扫帚 star power on didn’t disappear, all the Return marks were washed away. This is why, upon learning that I returned to the real world, Mazao didn’t imdiately use the Power of Return to transport to my side.
After receiving intelligence from Weichi, Mazao cald down. She knew she couldn’t transport to the "Doomsday Era," and since I was in the "Doomsday Era," it ant Little Bowl, isolated and helpless, had a chance to receive my help, which surprisingly was good news that could allow her to find solace in hardship.
At the sa ti, she had a thought—since she could co from the "Doomsday Era" to the modern world, and I could go from the modern world to the "Doomsday Era," it indicated that there was a thod for traveling between the two "eras." So she changed directions, delving deeply into investigating ways to move between different eras, hoping I could find a thod to bring Little Bowl to the peaceful modern world.
Although she felt uneasy and lonely, the existence of hope and a direction for effort allowed her to decide to be strong, enduring those negative emotions while continuing her exploration.
However, good tis didn’t last long. Four months after my disappearance, Ming Zhuo began to act.
With at most nine years of life left, every second was incredibly precious in Ming Zhuo’s eyes. During those four months, he repeatedly investigated my whereabouts and possibly attempted to exorcise the Xuanming Fire and my fla within himself, finally confirming that I had genuinely disappeared from the reality tiline, at least not returning anyti soon. So, he completely tore up the oath he swore to and brazenly attacked Mazao where she was.
Here’s my honest thought: I think he’s really cautious to an extre degree. If it were , I might not have been able to resist acting after a maximum of one or two weeks, but he actually waited for nearly half a year. Perhaps this also reveals, indirectly, his apprehension towards .
Subsequently, he encountered two significant obstacles.
The first obstacle ca from Fa Zheng.
In the past, I never took the cooperative relationship with Fa Zheng to heart, but Fa Zheng valued this alliance more than I anticipated. The oath Ming Zhuo swore to was made right in front of him, and for soone who valued rules like him, the seriousness of such behavior couldn’t be underestimated. So, upon sensing Ming Zhuo’s malicious mana fluctuations headed towards those beside , he unhesitatingly struck out.
But if it were just to this extent, it might still have been within Ming Zhuo’s expectations. Ming Zhuo, as a representative figure for Extraordinaryism, and Fa Zheng, as the leader of the Governance Ideology, surely knew each other’s temperants. His thoughts at that ti were probably to act quickly, snatch the people, and run, ensuring Fa Zheng couldn’t catch him in the act.
Fa Zheng placed great emphasis on evidence, so Ming Zhuo mostly thought that as long as he left no direct evidence, the rule-bound Fa Zheng couldn’t do anything to him.
What ultimately led to Ming Zhuo’s failure was the second obstacle he never anticipated.
That was Zhu Shi.
Since Zhu Shi began communicating with the Yama Sword with Mazao’s help, it had been over seven months.
Although there was still a distance from fully communicating with it, in this state, Zhu Shi had roughly reached eighty percent communication progress with the Yama Sword, able to manifest its true divine might. In the anticipated scenario, a fully communicated Yama Sword could allow the wielder to exhibit Great Impermanence level combat power. In contrast, the current Zhu Shi can unleash Great Impermanence-level White Tiger Killing Power in two to three instances as if using a Killing Move.
If it were so other attribute’s Power of Great Impermanence, it would be impossible to achieve substantial results against a seasoned Great Impermanence like Ming Zhuo in actual combat. However, the ferociously intense White Tiger Killing Power forcefully intercepted Ming Zhuo.
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