Embers Ad Infinitum

Long Yuehong—who had been looking over—abruptly shrunk his head back, and his heart involuntarily beat faster.

A dead person!

The crate carried down from the seventh floor contained a dead person!

Jiang Baimian turned her body and pressed her back against the wall at the side of the corridor. At the same time, she stretched out her left hand, grabbed Shang Jianyao’s shoulder, and dragged him to their door.

Bai Chen nimbly took a step back and returned to the room.

In the indescribable silence, the sound of friction and the sound of wooden boards opening and closing came from the stairs one after another.

Jiang Baimian leaned forward slightly and carefully peeped out. She saw the two wooden gray-robed monks lift the crate again and walk down.

Throughout the entire process, even if there were accidental stumbles and the dropping of the crate, they didn’t speak or communicate at all. What was even stranger was that they didn’t observe their surroundings to confirm if anyone had seen them.

After the two gray-robed monks disappeared at the stairwell, Jiang Baimian turned her head and gestured for the other three Old Task Force members to return to the room with her.

Upon seeing his team leader close the door, Long Yuehong whispered in shock and fear, “Is this the consequence of being lured into the seventh floor by the devil?”

Becoming a corpse!

Jiang Baimian touched her cochlear implant and barely understood what Long Yuehong was saying. She then said in a deep voice, “He wasn’t necessarily lured by the devil.”

Upon seeing Long Yuehong’s expression change slightly, Jiang Baimian added, “It’s also possible that he entered the seventh floor for other reasons. In short, the corpse just now should be a monk. From the fact that he has no hair, we can make a preliminary judgment. His cause of death seems to be suffocation.”

As for how he suffocated, Jiang Baimian couldn’t come to a conclusion from a mere glance from that distance.

Regardless, Long Yuehong could only rejoice. “Fortunately, we didn’t trust the person who knocked on the door and rashly entered the seventh floor. Otherwise, we would be the ones being carried down in the crate.”

“In that case, I want to apply to match a song.” Shang Jianyao imagined the scene Long Yuehong described.

Unfortunately, nobody asked him which song he wanted to match with the scene.

Jiang Baimian ignored him and replied to Long Yuehong, “The one who killed that monk—or perhaps even lured him up—is unlikely to be the door knocker.”

“Uh…” Long Yuehong was momentarily confused.

Bai Chen pursed her lips. “Indeed. If the person who knocked on the door wants us to go to the seventh floor, he should restrain himself a little over the next two days and not cause any bizarre deaths. Otherwise, coincidentally seeing it might completely dispel our thoughts.”

“That’s true…” Long Yuehong slowly nodded.

Shang Jianyao added with a serious expression, “According to the information that Buddha’s Nirmanakaya and a devil are located above, who is the door knocker and who is the existence that killed the monk?”

Long Yuehong almost blurted out, “Of course, it’s the devil who knocked on the door to lure us over.” But on second thought, wasn’t this saying that the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya had caused the bizarre death of the monk who entered the seventh floor and that the Old Task Force happened to bump into the matter, thereby scaring them off?

In this way, who was the Buddha and who was the devil?

Jiang Baimian had been thinking about this question. “If Buddha’s Nirmanakaya planted us with the notion of heading up via the door knocking, then the one who killed the monk to stop us would be the devil. But if Buddha’s Nirmanakaya wants to see us, can’t he just go through the Enlightened guarding the seventh floor? This is simple, convenient, and fast! Could it be that even the Crystal Consciousness Church’s Enlightened doesn’t know his purpose in seeing us?”

“It’s also possible that the situation on the seventh floor is more complicated than we imagined. Perhaps the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya has nothing to do with knocking or killing. He’s just doing his best to suppress the devil and maintain balance,” Bai Chen shared her thoughts.

“That’s right, that’s right. Perhaps he has also split into 81 forms. Some want to lure us up to be killed, some want to use us to do something, some want to stop all of this, some want to mediate, and some want to strike on the wooden fish and chant Buddhist scriptures…” Shang Jianyao became more and more excited as he spoke.

Although Jiang Baimian felt that this sounded ridiculous and crazy, she felt that Shang Jianyao’s words might be the truth when she considered the price of the Subhuti domain. She then exhaled and said, “Associating with an existence at this level is often equivalent to danger. It’s better if we don’t do it.”

Long Yuehong wished he could raise both his hands and feet in agreement. Bai Chen also felt that this was the most rational choice.

Shang Jianyao glanced at Garibaldi—who had fallen asleep again—and sighed. “If that’s the case, I’d like to ask him how he accommodated himself.”

It wasn’t easy to encounter Awakened that shared the same price while being at a higher level, but all of that was Shang Jianyao’s guess. It might not be true.

At night, Jiang Baimian used the radio transceiver again and roughly described her encounters over the past two days.

In order not to be discovered by Zennaga and the other monks, she didn’t mention the Five Great Holy Lands. She had also previously instructed Shang Jianyao and the others not to think about such matters.

She planned on applying to head to the steelworks factory ruins after returning to the company to see what secrets this holy land hid.

Just as the telegram was about to be sent out, they heard meowing coming from some street in the area around Sikhara Temple.

Ao! Ao! Ao! Ao!

It was slightly mournful as if it were enduring some kind of pain.

All of a sudden, different but equally shrill cat meowing was heard in several places. They undulated and echoed each other.

“There are also cats in heat during this season…” Bai Chen looked out the window and muttered to herself.

“It’s not at its apex yet.” Jiang Baimian ended her work and looked up.

Bai Chen nodded. “It can only be found in the Red Wolf Zone. There are no living cats in the Green Olive Zone, except for those with special abilities.”

Many people in the Green Olive Zone didn’t have enough to eat every day. They would try to take a bite of any rats they saw.

Just as Bai Chen said that, Shang Jianyao had already rushed to the window and opened his mouth. “Meow!”

“…” Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen were surprised but not surprised either. It wasn’t Shang Jianyao’s first time doing such a thing.

When the group first came to the surface last year, he howled in a symphony with a distant howl.

As Jiang Baimian waited for the company’s confirmation reply, she looked at Shang Jianyao, wanting him to know his place.

At this moment, she saw Shang Jianyao take out a blue-white loudspeaker.

Loudspeaker…

While Jiang Baimian’s gaze was a little blank, Shang Jianyao brought the loudspeaker to his mouth. “Meow!”

The meow echoed far and wide, causing the horny cats to stop meowing.

“Howl!” Shang Jianyao called out in another way, his voice shaking the clouds.

People with equipment were indeed different.

The next second, Zennaga’s voice sounded in Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian, and the others’ hearts. “Patron, please be quiet. It’s not appropriate to disturb others at night.”

“Indeed, it’s rude.” Shang Jianyao admitted his mistake and said, “I’m sorry.”

He stuffed the blueish-white loudspeaker back into his tactical backpack.

Silence at last… Long Yuehong heaved a sigh of relief inwardly.

When it was time to sleep, Jiang Baimian looked at Shang Jianyao—who was lying on the bed—and suddenly asked, “Will it work?”

“Very difficult.” Shang Jianyao sighed.

Ah? Long Yuehong—who was on night duty—was confused. After more than ten seconds, he vaguely understood what his team leader was asking.

He realized that it wasn’t solely because Shang Jianyao’s illness had acted up. He might’ve wanted to use his inability to stop his brain from spasming to attract the attention of Slumber Cat or Nightmare Horse.

No, I can’t think about it anymore. Otherwise, Master Zennaga will hear it… Long Yuehong quickly turned his attention to what tomorrow’s breakfast was. Sigh, there’s nothing to think about. It’s either oatmeal with bread or oatmeal with toast.

…

22 Booney Street, Golden Apple Zone, home of the Reformist leader, Gaius.

As the son-in-law of the Elder, Sheriff Wall came to visit again. He entered the study and saw his hooked-nose father-in-law sitting opposite the desk.

In fact, Wall didn’t quite understand why his father-in-law—the commander of the Eastern Army Corps—didn’t return to the army after coming to First City to attend the council of elders and convene a citizen assembly.

“Speak. What new information do you have?” Gaius leaned back in his chair, slightly relaxed.

Wall didn’t hide anything. “I learned from an informant named Old K that the team which came into contact with Marcus and stole some secrets came from Pangu Biology.”

“Pangu Biology…” Gaius repeated and said with some relief, “No wonder they’re interested in the matter in North Anheford. That’s indeed their focus and not a ruse.”

Wall was puzzled by his words.

…

Early in the morning, dawn had just arrived.

The Old Task Force heard a knock on the door.

“Breakfast is here.” Although Long Yuehong despised the fact that there were only a few types of breakfast offered in Sikhara Temple, he could accept repeating the same food every day when he was hungry.

He walked over and opened the door.

It wasn’t the young monk they were familiar with outside but a rather stoic, gray-robed monk.

This monk was also of Red River ethnicity. He had rather deep facial features and green eyes. Similar to Zennaga, he was also very thin, but not to the point of being only bone.

“Patrons, the new Chief invites you over.” The gray-robed monk placed his palm vertically in front of his chest and bowed.

“Why?” Shang Jianyao asked first.

The gray-robed monk replied unhurriedly, “About the strange sounds you’ve heard over the past few nights.”

Is he giving an explanation or dealing with it? Jiang Baimian nodded as she thought about it.

She didn’t reject the gray-robed monk. As prisoners, they had no right to refuse.

Following the gray-robed monk, the four Old Task Force members left the room and walked to the stairwell.

The gray-robed monk looked back at Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian, and the others before taking a step up the stairs as if to say, “Follow me.”

We’re going to the seventh floor… Jiang Baimian nodded indiscernibly.

The seventh floor! Her pupils suddenly dilated, and her outstretched foot froze in midair.