Embers Ad Infinitum

Translator: CKtalon

The Old Task Force parked the jeep and pushed open the door to alight one after another.

Jiang Baimian half-closed her eyes and sensed the area in two ways at the same time.

“Nothing special,” she said very calmly.

If she could immediately discover the anomaly in the last Buddhist Holy Land, it would only incur her suspicion that something was wrong.

Shang Jianyao smiled. “That’s because your method is wrong.”

He took off his tactical backpack and took out the Six Senses Beads.

A faint green light illuminated the surroundings, giving the area a serene feeling. Coupled with the setting sun’s rays and the darkness of the environment, it added an eerie and bizarre feeling.

All kinds of horror films and ghost stories from the Old World’s entertainment flashed across Long Yuehong’s mind.

Shang Jianyao walked toward the old pagoda tree with the Six Senses Beads in hand. However, the green light didn’t reveal any ‘anomalies.’

From the tree to the ground, it was no different from before. It was only dyed the color of the Six Senses Beads.

This wasn’t like Shang Jianyao’s time at the Holm Fertility Center. After the Six Senses Beads were activated, it directly illuminated the white aura hidden in a liquid nitro canister.

“Doesn’t work.” Shang Jianyao shook his head in disappointment. He then put away the Six Senses Beads and found the small jade Buddha.

This didn’t bring about any changes either.

“It doesn’t work either.” Shang Jianyao said to the small jade Buddha with a pained expression, “As an item that bears the heavy responsibility of a Buddhist Holy Land, you can’t degenerate just because you left the steelworks factory ruins. Think about it. What else did you do in the end? You activated the

‘stored’ scenes in Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company, attracted Eidolon Nun’s attention in Redstone Collection, and had ‘Her’ imbue some of ‘Her’ aura into you. After that, you relied solely on your aura to scare Doctor!”

Shang Jianyao looked like he wanted to reason with the small jade Buddha. Unfortunately, the small jade Buddha ignored him and didn’t accept his ‘persuasive education.’

Jiang Baimian sighed silently and tried not to let him get carried away. “Forget it, forget it. It has actually done a lot. There’s no need to call it ‘small jade Buddha’ when it’s useful, but call it ‘trash’ when it’s not useful.”

Without waiting for Shang Jianyao’s response, Jiang Baimian deliberated and said, “Besides, didn’t we previously guess that the Five Great Buddhist Holy Lands are interconnected? We had to reach the steelworks factory ruins first and obtain the small jade Buddha before we could see the hidden past in

Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company. Only by obtaining the green aura from Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company did we discover the abnormality at the Holm Fertility Center and find the white aura.”

Upon hearing this, Bai Chen looked to the side in high vigilance and said, “But after we entered Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School, the white aura didn’t come in handy.”

“That’s right.” Long Yuehong agreed. “Besides, the reason we obtained the green aura in Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company isn’t that we triggered the hidden scenes but that Hey cleared the corresponding psychological trauma.”

The loops weren’t tightly intertwined, and there were even disconnects.

Jiang Baimian nodded and voiced her thoughts. “If it weren’t for the fact that Hey cleared the psychological trauma corresponding to Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company in advance, I think we could still obtain that special green aura after triggering that hidden scene.

“Back in Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School, it was because the white aura at the Holm Fertility Center entered Hey’s Sea of Origins and fused with the rift corresponding to Xiaochong, solidifying it, that it didn’t play its role when we fell into Master Zhuang’s dream. Fortunately, we had the number that

directly connected to Master Zhuang. Otherwise, we would’ve been wiped out there.”

She meant that it was purely an accident that there had been no overlaps. The Old Task Force had relied on other resources and methods to barely clear the obstacles.

“In order to activate this Buddhist Holy Land and make it reveal its hidden secrets, we need to use a certain item obtained from Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School?” Shang Jianyao stroked his chin. “But we didn’t obtain anything in Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School. We only experienced Master Zhuang’s

dream and learned that his body of descent, suspected to be Du Shaochong, had once studied in Dajiang City’s Elite Middle School.”

“I not for this, we wouldn’t have come to Swamp Ruin 1.” Bai Chen felt that this was a connection in a sense.

Long Yuehong muttered, “Maybe it’s because we didn’t use a normal method to unravel Master Zhuang’s dream of Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School and directly made a call that we didn’t obtain the key item that can trigger the anomaly here.”

Jiang Baimian tersely grunted. “It’s useless to speculate. The important thing is to test our gains from Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School and see the effects.”

“How?” the ruthless Shang Jianyao immediately asked. He then revealed an excited expression and shouted at the old pagoda tree, “Du Shaochong! Du Shaochong!

“Xiaochong! Xiaochong!”

Nobody replied. There was nothing abnormal.

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and said, “We are teachers from Elite Middle School. We are here for a home visit!”

That’s excessive… Long Yuchong shivered.

Within Pangu Biology, every floor had a corresponding school that provided compulsory education. There weren’t many students, with only about one class per grade, each having ten to twenty people. The teachers and parents were very familiar with each other because of this. Some of them were even

neighbors or could be associated via a few contrived degrees of separation. Therefore, home visits were part of every detail of life and became horrific matters of the past for students.

The old pagoda tree’s branches swayed with the wind without changing.

“It doesn’t work.” Shang Jianyao shrugged at Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian thoughtfully said, “We aren’t done trying, Didn’t we just obtain an incomplete skeleton yesterday that belongs to Du Shaochong?”

“That’s right!” Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm.

Bai Chen’s expression changed slightly. “The mastermind got someone to bury the skeleton in the laboratory ruins so that someone could identify it and bring it here when they dig it out in the future?”

Eventually bringing it to the last Buddhist Holy Land.

Shang Jianyao smiled. “Have more confidence. You could just say that it’s for us to dig it out and bring it under the old pagoda tree.”

“Is this the missing link? What does that person want?” Long Yuehong was confused and worried.

Jiang Baimian slowly exhaled. “We’ll know once we try. Take out all the remains.”

The four Old Task Force members took out the bones in their tactical backpacks and placed them under the old pagoda tree one after another. During this process, they had one person approach while the other three stayed far away to prevent any accidents from happening.

But after the incomplete corpse without a head and the name tag with the identity labeled were piled up under the old pagoda tree, reflecting the shadows of the branches under the setting sun, this Buddhist Holy Land remained no different from the beginning.

Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment before saying, “Let’s search this area before it gets dark.”

This referred to the area around the old pagoda tree, excluding Linhe Village itself. This was because it was darkening, so there was definitely no time.

After a careful and serious search, the four Old Task Force members confirmed that there was nothing abnormal about the old pagoda tree. There was nothing around it either.

“What should we do…” Shang Jianyao muttered to himself.

suddenly, he took a few steps forward and sat cross-legged under the old pagoda tree.

“What are you doing?” Long Yuehong asked in surprise.

Shang Jianyao replied seriously, “Simulate the scene from back then. Maybe Master Zhuang sat here to preach or pass away.”

He then chanted a Buddhist proclamation. “Namo Annutara-Samyak-Subhuti…”

As his voice echoed, the sky tumed darker.

Apart from that, everything was normal.

As Jiang Baimian watched this scene, countless thoughts surfaced in her mind before slowly settling.

After a while, Bai Chen said to her, “Team Leader, it’s almost dark. Shall we find a place to camp?”

Jiang Baimian snapped to her senses and exclaimed, “There’s no rush. Let’s try one more time.”

“What do we try?” Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao asked in unison.

Jiang Baimian looked at the old pagoda tree and slowly said, “I remember the name of this Buddhist Holy Land is ‘Under the old pagoda tree in Linhe Village, Dajiang City,’ and not ‘the old pagoda tree in Linhe Village, Dajiang City.’ In other words, the real Buddhist Holy Land isn’t this tree but the place

under the tree.”

“But we’ve already searched and didn’t discover anything,” said Long Yuehong.

Jiang Baimian suddenly laughed. “Have you really searched everywhere? Not necessarily. At least we haven’t dug up the land under the tree to see if anything is buried.”

Shang Jianyao—who was sitting cross-legged—jumped up. “Where’s my shovel? Where’s my shovel?”

He anxiously ran to the jeep, took out two shovels from the trunk, and threw one to Long Yuehong.

The two of them got busy while Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen guarded against any accidents.

After digging for a while, Shang Jianyao suddenly smiled. “There’s indeed something!”

He pulled up his shovel and brought something out of the soil.

The object rolled to the tree root and stopped.

It was a white human skull with black eye sockets..