Embers Ad Infinitum

Upon hearing Jiang Baimian’s question, Garibaldi’s body involuntarily trembled again. After a long while, he swallowed his saliva and said, “S-she’s a mixed-blood. She’s not very beautiful, b-but there’s something very charming about her. Any expression of hers can m-make you…”

Garibaldi glanced at the two ladies in front of him and couldn’t continue.

“They can generate desire in you?” Bai Chen asked rather directly.

“Yes, yes.” Garibaldi lowered his head in shame. “Even if you are extremely exhausted, you can still feel it.”

“The fact that you’re still alive means that you have a pretty good body,” Bai Chen commented coldly.

Long Yuehong imagined the scene and felt that Garibaldi probably wouldn’t recover without a year or so.

Jiang Baimian rolled her eyes and looked at the ceiling. “Describe her appearance.”

Garibaldi composed himself and began to recall.

According to his words, the Old Task Force obtained the ambusher’s general appearance: She was less than 1.7 meters tall, and her hair was black, curly, and long. Her eyes were light brown, and her nose and lips didn’t have any obvious characteristics. If not for her unique bearing and good figure, she would be the kind that blended in with the crowd if she walked on the street.

This lady’s bearing wasn’t always so unique. Most of the time, she was very restrained, just looking slightly more charming.

As for what her name was, Garibaldi didn’t know. He only knew that Old K called her ‘Hedonist.’

Garibaldi had also heard Old K talking to another ‘Hedonist’ outside the door. His attitude toward that person was clearly different from his attitude toward this person.

Both of them were women, but Old K’s attitude for one was respectful and the other reverence. The difference was obvious.

Therefore, Garibaldi suspected that the person who ambushed the Old Task Force was a relatively special Hedonist in the Church of Paragon Desire. She might be able to advance to a higher level at any moment.

Jiang Baimian sighed with emotion when she heard that. “They actually think highly of us.”

The ‘us’ here didn’t refer to the Old Task Force, but Pangu Biology. This was because the Church of Paragon Desire wasn’t targeting Jiang Baimian and company. In all the intelligence, they had already left the city. Otherwise, with the Old Task Force’s previous performance, they wouldn’t have just sent a ‘Hedonist’ that would be scared away by Zennaga. It definitely would’ve been a Mind Corridor-level Awakened.

Normally speaking, a large faction emphasized the secrecy, means, and channels available to the other party when it came to the enemy’s intelligence network, not strength. When the Church of Paragon Desire was fishing for other intelligence personnel from Pangu Biology, sending such an outstanding one among the Hedonists indeed showed the importance they had toward them.

Jiang Baimian looked at Garibaldi and asked another question, “What exactly did you say?”

Garibaldi immediately turned ashamed. He lowered his head and blushed as he stammered, “I said whatever I needed to say… I-I didn’t want to. You won’t understand. In that sort of situation, in order to obtain satisfaction and in order not to endure the dreadful suffering, I cou-could even mutilate myself—do anything. S-she was like a devil from the abyss.”

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong looked at each other and shook their heads, indicating their incapability to understand.

Jiang Baimian controlled her expression and nodded. “It’s better to explain everything to the higher-ups so that they won’t overlook any problems.”

Garibaldi’s emotions eased a little when he saw that his colleagues didn’t blame him. He recounted the information he had told the Church of Paragon Desire in detail.

As he spoke, his expression suddenly turned adrift. He yawned a few times, and his tears and snot seemed to be about to flow out.

His body twisted slightly as if he was in pain.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Baimian sighed and turned to look at Shang Jianyao.

Shang Jianyao shot forward, raised his fist, and knocked Garibaldi unconscious. The Old Task Force then used the ropes prepared for wilderness survival to tie Garibaldi up tightly. Then, they covered his mouth and threw him onto the bed.

Not long after, Garibaldi woke up. He kept twisting and struggling, but nobody paid him any attention.

After he calmed down a little, Jiang Baimian said, “Bear with it. You don’t want to be crippled, right?”

Garibaldi understood that he was addicted, but he couldn’t control himself. He had the strong urge to bang his head against the wall.

Jiang Baimian turned to look at her team members. “He will have some level of resistance after bearing with it a few more times. With that, some of the company’s drugs will be effective. It won’t be so easy to commit the same mistake again in the future.”

She was clearly explaining to Shang Jianyao and the others, but she was actually giving Garibaldi hope.

Those who fell into the Church of Paragon Desire’s hands might not die, but it was sometimes worse than death.

Accompanied by Garibaldi’s painful struggling, the Old Task Force stayed in the room until 10 p.m.

An ordinary gray-robed monk came to deliver dinner—it was oatmeal with bland sausages.

“Get some rest.” Jiang Baimian glanced at the remaining two beds, looking like she didn’t need to say anything else about how they would be assigned.

At this moment, her vision blurred as she saw a deep corridor. She saw gray-robed monks hurriedly pressing their palms together.

This scene overlapped with the scene in the room, but it was also clearly separated.

“Did you see that?” Jiang Baimian asked in a deep voice.

“There are many ‘towers,'” Shang Jianyao replied.

At the same time, Jiang Baimian also noticed that the walls around the room seemed to turn illusory. They reflected stupas, iron towers, and steel refinery ‘towers’…

The changes continued.

Long Yuehong felt like he had obtained the vision of many people and saw a different scene: There were dark corridors, simple rooms, futons, gathered monks, statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Wisdom Kings on the outer wall of Sikhara temple, and the night view of the streets around the temple…

They overlapped one another, causing Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao, and the others to feel an uncontrollable sense of dizziness.

“This is…” Jiang Baimian recalled the Buddhist scriptures and Old World entertainment information she had studied and frowned slightly. “Heaven’s Eye? Someone gave Heaven’s Eye to see the scene that all the monks in the temple are seeing?”

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Shang Jianyao didn’t forget to clap at this moment. He looked excited.

After a short wait, the four Old Task Force members ‘saw’ the gray-robed monks gather in the hall where the Buddha statue was sitting.

They were mainly of Red River ethnicity. Some were bald, some had inch-long hair, and their eyes were of various colors.

Among them was Zennaga.

Jiang Baimian saw a monk sitting in front of the Buddha statue through the Zen Master’s eyes and also saw the Zen Master through the other people’s eyes.

The monk sitting in front of the Buddha was very old. The muscles on his cheeks drooped, and his eyebrows were completely white. He swept his green eyes and said with a smile, “I view consciousness like a crystal, just like my take on Tathāgata. I’ve already entered the paradise of Buddha Subhuti. I’ll allow all of you to gain the sight to behold the New World.”

The old monk stood up as he spoke, and the scene in front of Jiang Baimian and the others changed again.

At the very center was the dark, wide, and deep hall. Beyond the hall were many tall buildings. The periphery seemed to be covered in glazed glass, and their shapes were like towers.

Between these buildings, bridges crossed in midair, and there was an endless stream of vehicles. The people inside were all Buddhist worshipers.

At this moment, pieces of paper of various colors fell from the sky, and balls of dreamy light bloomed.

Among them was a crystal-like sun.

Beneath the sun was a tall tower that penetrated deep into the clouds.

In the wide and dark hall, the monks chanted the name of Buddha in unison. “Namo Annutara-Samyak-Subhuti…”

Amidst such a scene, the old monk had already reached the top floor of Sikhara temple at some point in time.

He stood at the edge and used his Heavenly Eye to look at the monks. He then smiled and said, “I shall rid myself of my mortal coils, see through everything, and enter the New World.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the old monk suddenly jumped. His figure plummeted rapidly and hit the ground with a bang.

In Jiang Baimian and the others’ rapidly fading visions, they saw the old monk lying at the bottom of the platform. His head was cracked, and red and milky white gushed out.

“…” At this moment, all the Old Task Force members—including Shang Jianyao—were stunned.

The first part of what they had seen could barely be considered magical, dreamy, solemn, and sacred. Now, it felt like a murder case or a ghost story.

Is this what it means to rid one’s mortal coils? Why is it so heretical and terrifying? Long Yuehong inexplicably suspected that the monks in the temple would rip off their human skins at any moment to reveal their green faces and white fangs hidden beneath.

After a few seconds, everything disappeared. Shang Jianyao sighed and said, “Why didn’t he choose to hang himself?”