Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo

"After losing to the Old Fist God years ago, Shan Liangyi must have undergone multiple reincarnations and accumulations. The Xuanwu you know should only be one generation among them," said Gua Tianshi. "Originally, Shan Liangyi would never consider leaving a successor to the next generation, even if that successor has the potential to become Impermanence.

"The reason is simple, because Shan Liangyi has infinite time and opportunities. As long as he continues to reincarnate and accumulate, he will eventually reach his ideal state. Perhaps a successor is a candidate for Impermanence, but so what? Instead of waiting for them to become Impermanence someday, it's better to harvest them and immediately start the next reincarnation.

"But this time, he consciously left a Xuanwu successor who is a candidate for Impermanence in this generation. It's not because his patience has grown, quite the contrary, his desire to defeat the Old Fist God has reduced his patience. To pursue efficiency, he decided to release them into the world so that when he reincarnates into the next generation, he can directly devour the Xuanwu successor who became Impermanence."

According to this explanation, although from the perspective of Water Navy Xuanwu, the Old Fist God killing Shan Liangyi happened in the 'future' beyond his own generation, from Shan Liangyi's perspective, it might have been the 'past' from countless generations ago.

Shan Liangyi perceives time in a completely foreign way, different from humans with linear cognitive time. Even as someone who has opened the third door and attained the Legendary Realm, I find it unimaginable.

Since Water Navy Xuanwu and I are separated by the current generation of the Old Fist God, and considering "two Liangyi successors with the same attribute won't appear in the same generation," it is possible that in the Old Fist God's generation, Water Navy Xuanwu would be unrecognizable and unobservable as a Liangyi successor, akin to how the world before the Fantian incident was unable to validate the abnormal world.

However, what happened to Water Navy Xuanwu is a minor distortion covering an individual human, whereas before the Fantian incident, it was a world-scale distortion.

As for how Water Navy Xuanwu himself feels, I do not know. I can't help but think of the famous quantum mechanics concept "Schrödinger's cat," where people outside the box cannot determine the cat's state inside, nor can they imagine how the cat, theoretically in a superposition of life and death, perceives its own existence.

Such unknown and chaos might make Shan Liangyi Gua Tianshi's greatest nemesis, from Gua Tianshi's perspective.

Gua Tianshi's divination is a rational deduction based on worldly principles, while the progression of Doomsday is the progression of the rationality of the world's history twisting and collapsing. So, strong people who have opened the third door all have the ability to make Gua Tianshi's divination fail, especially someone like Shan Liangyi, who can freely travel between the past and future, disrupting the temporal order.

Perhaps not just Water Navy Xuanwu, but even Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang and I were consciously "farmed" to this day by Shan Liangyi.

Fundamentally, given Shan Liangyi's usual practices, the Green Dragon Inheritor should be whom he devours early on. Yet, Meng Zhang smoothly grew to a level rivaling Xuanming, and even nearly created "Paradise," an extraordinary creation that would astonish even Shan Liangyi. I also had a long time to continue growing after making a name for myself without Shan Liangyi's interference.

This is likely because Shan Liangyi hopes to reap the maximum benefits before challenging the Old Fist God. Apart from the unforeseen event of Ying Lingyun transferring the White Tiger Seed to Water Navy Xuanwu, the remaining three Liangyi successors all became Impermanence, with Meng Zhang and I standing out even among them. Such high quality may make us the best among generations of Liangyi successors in this world.

"As long as one has the power of the third door, even if you change much history by returning to the past, you won't be transferred to a parallel world, but will instead genuinely alter the historical progression of this world," Gua Tianshi said. "But if the target of the change is history related to another third door powerhouse, it won't go smoothly. So Shan Liangyi couldn't kill the Old Fist God during his weak period via time manipulation to deny the current powerful Old Fist God.

"Forcing such attempts would only have two outcomes: either the Old Fist God from the future senses the possible historical changes and delivers a punch across time to kill Shan Liangyi; or although successful, it only creates a new parallel world stream, having no effect on the Old Fist God who defeated Shan Liangyi…

"If Shan Liangyi wants to truly have his revenge, he can only accumulate strength earnestly, advancing to the era after the Old Fist God defeated him to settle the score."

I understood his implied meaning, "And in such a hard-prepared fight, Shan Liangyi losing face by fleeing just becomes even more unnatural, right…"

Gua Tianshi nodded, "Knowing Shan Liangyi as I do, even if the Old Fist God had utilized the divine seal at the time, it wasn't enough to frighten such a proud person away. While his state might not have been complete, he absolutely wouldn't endure such an enormous disgrace now."

After careful thought, I asked, "Shan Liangyi should have considered the possibility of the Old Fist God growing stronger after defeating him, right? Why didn't he reincarnate a year or two after being defeated by the Old Fist God, but instead to a century later in modern times?"

In fact, I think the most terrifying trait of Shan Liangyi doesn't lie in his free recuperation of Liangyi successors' Power Seeds, nor in his third door strength, but exactly in the apparent 'Reincarnation' power, which seems unrelated to enhancing battle power.

If different generations of Liangyi successors can coexist in the same era, it means different generations of Shan Liangyi could also coexist in the same era.

Who knows, in the future when I think I have killed Shan Liangyi, a second Shan Liangyi in the same era might immediately become 'activated,' and he would be 'the one who was defeated by me, trained hard to become stronger, and reincarnated into his current self.'

Even if we really defeat it again, who knows if the third and fourth Shan Liangyi will jump out right after, and as the encounters increase, their powers might also grow stronger.

From my understanding of the Power of Reincarnation, he is entirely capable of doing so, but when facing the Old Fist God, he did not exhibit such absurd nature. It's likely that the Old Fist God did something else besides killing Shan Liangyi at the time.

"This is also a part of my confusion. It's possible that he actually doesn't have the ability we imagined, to control the timing of his reincarnation at will. Or he might have considerations we cannot yet fathom," said Gua Tianshi.

I had no choice but to keep this question to myself for now. No matter what, as long as we use "True Death" to kill Shan Liangyi, even with the Power of Reincarnation, he might only be able to die completely.

"Do you have any other questions?" Gua Tianshi looked at me, "As you can see, my current self is this useless body, severely injured and crippled. Even if I could fully recover, I would be unable to assist you in dealing with Shan Liangyi, let alone prevent the unknown schemes the Old Fist God might be planning. Only the little experience and intelligence accumulated in my mind may provide you some benefits."

Indeed, I had a question I wanted to ask Gua Tianshi for clarification.

Gua Tianshi's actions in protecting Little Bowl and the others clearly showed that supporting his foresight abilities was not just exceptional Divination Technique, but also sharp and outstanding wisdom. Even without using foreknowledge to directly learn about my opening the third gate, he could deduce its possibility by observing the subtle changes in Shan Liangyi, and prepare corresponding safety measures in advance.

I shared some important information with Gua Tianshi, including the fact that the Old Fist God currently holds the Current World Divine Seal, and the Old Fist God might want to open the fourth gate to change the world, then asked, "Gua Tianshi, in your view, what exactly is the Old Fist God's wish?"

Gua Tianshi's expression became extremely serious.

"Zhuang Cheng... do you know what the Old Fist God's Fatian Xiangdi is?" he suddenly asked.

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

"Let me put it this way..." Gua Tianshi said after some contemplation, "Ever since the Old Fist God debuted from the abnormal world, there was a spirit infecting others around him. Not leadership charisma, but a quality that unconsciously changes others' subconscious, originating from a powerful soul. This power made those around him exceptionally combative.

"Specifically, at that time, the Old Fist God was often attacked by humans and abnormal creatures, and this was the situation he pursued. Even demon hunters from prominent families with good manners and upbringing would inexplicably become irritable in the presence of the Old Fist God, unable to resist provoking him openly, or covertly scheming and plotting against him."

Sounded like the Old Fist God was like the protagonist of a fantasy tale where conflicts happen wherever he goes... I was dumbfounded.

"After he stepped into the Great Success Rank, this phenomenon intensified," Gua Tianshi continued, "Back then, the Weichi Family, who imprisoned Qilin, provoked the Old Fist God like this and was annihilated.

"Perhaps it's hard to believe when I say it, the Weichi Family, Evil as they are, was actually a very low-key secluded family. They generally wouldn't provoke strong people for no reason. Although there was some friction with the Old Fist God in the past, after he reached the Great Success Rank, the Weichi Family was entirely focused on reconciling with him.

"At that time, the Old Fist God wasn't yet lacking opponents. As long as the Weichi Family maintained a proper attitude, he wouldn't have flattened them. But you can imagine what happened afterward."

A powerful soul infecting those around... this phenomenon, the past Taoist preacher of Taoyuan Village also exhibited in front of Xiaoqiao.

After opening the first gate to achieve the Great Success Rank, the range of this infectious influence rapidly expands, possibly starting as a social phenomenon on a city scale; and after opening the second gate to become Impermanence, it again undergoes qualitative change, affecting the natural ecosystem in the form of Fatian Xiangdi.

In recent years, the gradually burgeoning urban legend culture worldwide, apart from the influence of increasingly frequent abnormal activities, I also suspected my thoughts might be secretly at work. As for why it turned into phenomena of high temperature and drought after becoming Fatian Xiangdi, I suspect it's the influence of the Vermilion Bird Seed. Originally, it might have become a "promoting further active abnormal events" kind of Fatian Xiangdi.

As for what effect my own Fatian Xiangdi would have if performed again, I haven't tried it yet, could find time to try it later. However, I am not without any predictions — considering the nature of the Power of Manifestation integrating and mimicking natural things, most likely nothing would happen by default, and based on this, could simulate any Fatian Xiangdi.

"Hearing you say this... could it be that the Old Fist God's soul infection power became something outrageous after opening the second and third gates, making you think if he actually opens the fourth gate, it would inevitably lead to terrifying consequences?" I asked.