External Wuchang 1

"Join Luoshan..."

Zhu Shi paused for a moment before sighing.

"Is it still not allowed?" I asked, feeling concerned.

"It's not that it's not allowed. If you truly have such incredible power, whether you want to join Luoshan or do anything else, I have no reason or qualification to stop you."

"So, you think I'm faking my power?" I found her reaction completely understandable.

But she shook her head, "I don't doubt your account of the previous battle."

I wish you would doubt it.

I was already planning to demonstrate it on the spot.

"Before, I opposed you joining Luoshan because I believed you had serious flaws in combat; now it's the complete opposite. Being powerful also has its downsides." Zhu Shi seemed to be considering something, then looked at the scattered remains on the ground, her expression filled with sorrow. "I'll explain the detailed reasons to you later. For now, let's deal with the aftermath of the Fallen Demon Hunter."

Agent Kong seemed to be an acquaintance of Zhu Shi. Seeing an acquaintance turn into an evil being and die, her emotions must have been very complex.

"I'm sorry, I didn't intend to kill him before," I said.

"You don't need to apologize to me. I know it wasn't you who killed him, but some other unknown reason. Even if you did kill him, the fault lies with Agent Kong, not you." As she said this, a look of shame appeared on her face. "Besides... I am the Demon Hunter responsible for this area. This killing karma should have been mine to bear."

I had felt a bit of unwarranted guilt for causing the death of Zhu Shi's acquaintance, but now she felt guilty towards me. It was then that I remembered Agent Kong, while still in disguise, had told me that one of Zhu Shi's reasons for not wanting me to join Luoshan was that she didn't want me to kill people.

That statement probably wasn't just casual talk from Agent Kong; Zhu Shi did have a very naive side.

Agent Kong wasn't killed directly by me, but his death was definitely linked to me. And unlike the previous Fallen Demon Hunter, Agent Kong had always struck me as human. I should probably feel guilty about killing someone, yet I felt nothing.

Instead, I felt more regret that with Agent Kong's death, many truths I didn't understand were buried in darkness.

The Fallen Demon Hunter incident clearly still held many mysteries. Where did Agent Kong get this power? Why did he suddenly self-destruct at the end? Why did the previous Fallen Demon Hunter recognize me? What was the deal with the ritual array in the Fifteenth Floor room and the cave? I felt like I had speedrun a game and discovered many uncollected items, but unlike in a game, reality couldn't be reloaded. It seemed I could only throw myself into the next adventure.

I also deeply regretted not being able to enter the Shadow World through Agent Kong again.

I couldn't describe the internal state of the Shadow World in human language. I couldn't even fully grasp what it felt like to be there myself. If I had to compare my existence to a piece of software, entering the Shadow World would be like forcibly opening a video program with a text editor, almost turning me into incomprehensible gibberish.

So, I had to endure it with all my might to maintain my proper existence and thoughts there.

When Zhu Shi heard me talk about this before, her gaze towards me became even stranger, as if she couldn't understand what I was saying at all. I didn't understand it either; I was just going with the flow.

I had originally planned to observe more there, but I worried Agent Kong might escape during that time. Plus, if I caught him, I could get him to open the passage again, so I hurried back. I never expected...

After bidding farewell to Zhu Shi, I found other scattered remains of Agent Kong nearby. Of course, they weren't large pieces of a body, just a finger that had fallen off during the explosion and was charred by fire. Out of a sense of lack, I picked it up and took it with me. Perhaps because it was charred before his death, it still retained the appearance of the Fallen Demon Hunter form, making it quite a souvenir.

Calling it a "souvenir" might make me seem a bit twisted. I might encounter many strange events in the future. Compared to those, this charred finger would certainly not be much. But at least for me, right now, this thing held some significance.

A day later, this morning, Zhu Shi and I agreed to meet in a park near the university.

Perhaps she had done something on her end. Although I had caused a huge commotion by slicing through the unfinished building, no official personnel had come to talk to me. Or perhaps she was the official person responsible for talking to me.

She was still wearing a white blouse and a black skirt, carrying a large black guitar case, dressed like a band member.

Compared to yesterday, her complexion was much calmer. She seemed to have processed the emotions from her acquaintance turning into an evil being and dying, or perhaps she had simply locked them all away deep inside.

There was no one else around, so we could talk freely. Now, as a Luoshan Demon Hunter, she was going to formally discuss my future with me.

She first asked me to actually demonstrate my ability to transform my body into flames. After I complied, she walked around me, observing, with a look of disbelief.

"...While I didn't doubt your words and was mentally prepared, is... are my eyes okay? Am I really not dreaming?"

"Is this skill really that amazing?" I asked curiously.

"It's beyond 'amazing'; this is a divine skill," she evaluated. "Transforming one's body freely into natural elements is considered the power of 'Manifestation' in the world of Demon Hunters. Simply put, it's 'Elementalization.' This skill is seen by Demon Hunters as a characteristic of gods or immortals. While there are other ways to forcibly imitate such divine skills, they generally come with certain conditions, costs, or limitations. It's impossible to do it as naturally as you do."

With a sense of unreality, I replied, "So, you're saying I'm a god or an immortal?"

"...That depends on how you've mastered Elementalization." She also seemed to find it a bit far-fetched.

Hearing this, I recalled my past experiences and explained them to her.

The process of me learning Elementalization—or rather, my "Second Form"—was not complicated.

Zhu Shi and Agent Kong seemed to view Flame ability users more like "mortals wielding powerful weapons" rather than "supernatural beings." In my normal form, I did feel that way.

In the past, I always felt an invisible barrier between myself and fire. When I manipulated flames, it was like giving orders to subordinates; there was always a delay between "I issue the command" and "the flames receive the command." No matter how much I practiced, it felt like I was just improving the rapport between myself and the flames, not truly controlling them at will.

Logically, my flames were my spirit, so there shouldn't be this indescribable delay. Thus, I formed a hypothesis: there was a difference between "my spirit" and "the spirit that has transformed into flames."

From there, I had an idea: I couldn't control flames at will because I was still human, not fire itself. So, why couldn't I become fire?

To implement this idea, I chose a very simple and crude method.

I set myself on fire.

Unless I willed it, the flames would not harm my body. I could directly fill every crevice within my body with flames, experiencing the sensation of becoming one with the fire.

Until one day, I discovered that the distinction between myself and the flames had finally vanished.

I myself had become fire.

The process was actually quite hazy even to me.

After hearing my account, Zhu Shi was dumbfounded.

"Your method..." she said with difficulty after a long pause, "I can only say that while true gods and immortals cannot articulate the process of their own Elementalization to others, they themselves are certainly very clear about it. For the former, it's an innate state; for the latter, it's the result of enlightenment."

"As for you, who can suddenly learn something without rhyme or reason just by practicing it... based on my knowledge, there's no other example of your approach."

"I see..."

It seems I truly have no connection to gods or immortals. However, as a superpowered individual, I am clearly very special.

I don't know if I should be happy about my "uniqueness." This specialness seems to mean it's difficult for me to find other examples, increasing the difficulty of figuring out the reason for my superpower's awakening.

"I probably understand why you never encountered abnormalities in the past now," she said with relief. "Abnormalities attract each other, but extremes lead to opposites. Your power is too immense, so abnormalities actively avoid you. Not only do intelligent abnormalities with instincts avoid you, but even abnormalities that exist as phenomena inexplicably cannot interact with you.

"And this is a special phenomenon that occurs with the vast majority of Great Wuchang, and a very small number of Demon Hunters whose power is too great."

I heard a new term and couldn't help but become curious: "What is 'Great Wuchang'?"

"The so-called Great Wuchang are the strongest Demon Hunters who reign at the apex of Luoshan," she explained. "They are powerful and few in number; currently, there are less than ten Great Wuchang stationed at Luoshan."

"You say they are powerful... how powerful specifically?"

As I asked, I also speculated in my mind. Considering that organizations like Luoshan haven't become rulers of this country, nor have they left their own records in history, the power of the Great Wuchang shouldn't exceed the level of ancient armies, at most, it wouldn't exceed modern armies.

However... even I am confident I can defeat an ancient army. Can the strongest Demon Hunters really not do that?

Or am I underestimating armies? Have armies since ancient times possessed trump cards to suppress superpowered individuals like me?

And then, Zhu Shi said something utterly absurd:

"Excluding certain special examples that might have existed in history, to my knowledge, the Great Wuchang generally possess the power to destroy an entire country single-handedly."