Chapter 1 Overcoming the Mechanism

“The main reason for inviting everyone here is to overcome the mechanism of the Ajanta Caves themselves.”

Nebula said in a deep voice, “The caves will mutate and alter intruders. It’s pointless for individual or small numbers of transcendents to enter.

Only a large number of transcendents entering together

will have a chance to disrupt the Ajanta Caves themselves.”

David nodded. “And the strength of the transcendents entering must be above the baseline, otherwise they may hold us back and have adverse effects, right?”

“Yes.”

Seeing Nebula nod in agreement, the expressions of the others in the room relaxed a little.

Fighting gods face-to-face is one thing, but acting as support is another.

The latter is much less risky than the former.

After explaining the reason, everyone present had no further objections, left the meeting room, and came to the command hall,

issuing orders and instructions

to their colleagues and subordinates in their respective organizations.

The entire command center immediately became busy.

Outside the building, helicopters and fighter jets sped through the sky,

and a steel torrent of armored vehicles and tanks advanced slowly towards the east.

The war machine was slowly starting—if the player team failed, they would resort to the last resort.

In an atmosphere of solemnity, the transcendents walked out of the building, boarded the hovercrafts, and drove towards the northeast.

On both sides of the road, many Mumbai civilians knelt on the roadside, reverently kowtowing towards the hovercrafts filled with players,

not knowing whether they were worshiping the players like gods and Buddhas,

or praying for their suffering relatives and friends.

After leaving the urban area, the hovercrafts suddenly accelerated, and in less than an hour, they arrived at Ajanta Village in Aurangabad County, next to the Godavari River.

The civilians in this village had already been evacuated, and various organizations had set up Ajanta Village as a front-line base, establishing military camps outside the village and stationing an advance force here.

Li Ang and the other players got out of the cars. Overlooking the buildings of the military camp, they could easily see the towering, cloud-piercing, mountain-like luminous hemisphere in the distance.

Buddha-country...

Even without spiritual sense, Li Ang could feel the divine power emanating from the luminous hemisphere, so abundant that it almost overflowed.

Interesting.

Li Ang and the others got out of the hovercrafts.

Staff from the Global Supernatural Alliance drove armored vehicles closer, took out heavy metal boxes from the armored vehicles, and distributed the metal boxes to all players.

Each metal box contained protective suits—these full-coverage protective suits looked a bit like lightweight spacesuits, with decompression layers, thermal layers, ventilation and cooling layers, airtight layers, thermal insulation layers, and protective layers from the inside to the outside.

The outermost surface of the protective layer was covered with gold foil, cloth, and metal patterns, like intricate and gorgeous patterns,

to weaken the erosion of divine power.

Most players were plain and simple pragmatists. Although these protective suits didn't look very aesthetic, everyone took the boxes and put on the protective suits.

Only Abel, bare-chested and covered in demonic tattoos,

and the Twilight Knight, wearing heavy armor, were among the few who refused the protective suits,

simply detaching some of the metal patterns from the protective suits (with slightly weaker divine power resistance) and wearing them on their bodies.

After preparing,

a total of more than sixty players were divided into two teams. The first team, led by Michael, entered the divine kingdom first to explore and observe.

The rest waited outside the sphere of light.

“Mr. Li!”

An employee of the European Heavy Industries Group trotted over tremblingly, carefully handing a metal briefcase to Li Ang. “This is your deposit.”

Li Ang opened the briefcase, glanced at the magic scrolls inside, nodded, and waved for the other party to retreat.

The latter breathed a sigh of relief and hurried away as if he had been granted amnesty.

“Heh,”

Hohenheim turned around and smiled when he saw this. “European Heavy Industries is going to bleed this time.

More than sixty masters from various forces,

two aircraft carrier formations, nearly one hundred thousand ordinary soldiers,

a large portion of each expense has to be counted on their heads.

And hundreds of cities around the world, with varying degrees of lockdown.”

“This is just the beginning. If we can’t solve it, the consequences may become more and more serious.”

The Truth on the Side said lightly, looking at Li Ang, “I am more curious about how much European Heavy Industries gave you this time.”

“A consumable scroll of perfect quality, as a deposit. And a piece of equipment of perfect quality, as the final payment.”

Li Ang said casually, “If we can rescue the important missing persons from European Heavy Industries in the camp at the foot of the mountain, there will be an additional thank you.”

“Well… similar to the conditions I received.”

The Truth on the Side nodded. He was also a transcendent who did not rely on real-world organizations, and his ranking on the personal combat power list was extremely high before.

The conditions he received were much better than those of Sesshoin, Wang Bu Liuxing, and others.

After weighing it slightly, The Truth on the Side opened his mouth and said to Li Ang, “Can two perfect-quality items get you to help?

Our Devil Scientist Alliance also has some tricky projects recently. I don’t know if you are interested in cooperating.”

“Yes.”

Li Ang nodded and said, “I have no other advantages, just integrity.

I’ll do as much as I’m paid. As long as the price is high enough, I’ll even kill the client for you.”

???

Who would spend money to kill themselves? Do you think this is the American police? The suspect threatened to commit suicide. After the California police arrived, they were unable to dissuade him and shot him dead with eight shots?

Hohenheim and The Truth on the Side looked at each other, both feeling a little pained.

They had actually heard some rumors about Li Ang before, knowing that Li Ang used to be a very contractual tutor, and was particularly "famous" in certain fields—top-level transcendents, as long as their identities are made public, their information will inevitably be leaked.

This is unavoidable.

Hohenheim and The Truth on the Side only thought that Li Ang was talking nonsense and joking.

Xing Hechou’s expression next to him was quite strange.

After Li Ang’s identity was exposed, many of his past events were also known.

For example, the Dusheng Village incident a long time ago was confirmed to be related to Li Ang.

And the culprit who caused the Dusheng Village incident, the construction boss Lu Maodian, happened to be the employer who hired Li Ang to investigate the Dusheng Village incident.

Only Xing Hechou knew that Li Ang was serious about killing the employer and was not joking.

As they chatted idly, they saw a team led by Michael flying out of the sphere of light and landing in Ajanta Village.

Michael and the others confirmed that there were no major changes in the Buddha-country and that the hazmat suits could effectively resist the erosion of divine power.

After making full preparations,

the two teams merged into one and headed towards the Vindyaya Mountains where the Ajanta Caves were located.

————

The Vindyaya Mountains are located in a horseshoe-shaped valley. Previously, in order to make things easier, European Heavy Industries cleared all the forests and shrubs around the valley, compacted the soil, and leveled the ground as the foundation for a temporary base.

Standing on the opposite bank of the river, you can still see some standing telephone poles connecting cables to the inside of the sphere of light.

As the distance narrowed, the surface of the Buddha-country sphere of light also became clear.

It was not a perfect sphere without any flaws. On its outermost side was a layer of condensed but not dispersed misty smoke.

The smoke was formless and intangible, with thousands of glittering lights scattered within, like dust floating in the air.

Below the smoke, wisps of soft silk threads like gold were floating, fleeting, dying and being born, being born and dying.

Michael took the lead and stepped into the Buddha-country, followed by Hohenheim, The Truth on the Side, and others.

Wearing a protective suit, Li Ang raised his palm and gently approached the spherical Buddha-light.

Before it was completely close, his palm felt a weak but steady suction force coming from within the Buddha-light, gently sucking his palm towards the Buddha-light.

Li Ang paused for a moment, did not resist this suction force, and took a step naturally, "squeezing" into the Buddha-country as if he were squeezing into a gel.

As soon as he stepped into the Buddha-country, Li Ang noticed tremendous changes.

The sunlight overhead no longer emitted warmth, and the air suddenly became oppressive and silent.

A layer of dust and smoke floated above the ground near his ankles.

The surrounding visibility was only about fifty meters.

Although his feet were still stepping on solid ground, he always had a feeling of weightlessness, as if he had stepped on air.

In addition to these, the most prominent feature of the Buddha-country was people.

Thousands of missing people stood there blankly.

They put their hands together, facing the caves, with their heads slightly lowered,

their expressions peaceful and indifferent, or gentle and smiling.

Corresponding to this were their drastically thinned and emaciated bodies.

This was not the most terrifying thing.

Some sharp-eyed players had already noticed that the clothes of a small portion of these missing people had changed.

From the daily clothes they were wearing when they disappeared, they had changed into yellow, red, and gold monastic robes,

and although they were as thin as firewood, they showed a smile that was even more gentle and kind than those of eminent monks.

"Fuck."

In the crowd with unsightly expressions, someone blurted out a swear word.

The others did not remind him to pay attention to the pure land of Buddhism.

These missing people who had changed into monastic robes at some point were just ordinary civilians some time ago.

And there could not possibly be servants or housekeepers in the Buddha-country who were so considerate as to award monastic robes to outstanding believers, and also shave their hair and clean them into bald heads.

The changes before them could only be caused by the mutation of the Buddha-country itself...

Someone couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment: "Turning people into Buddhas, does this Shibi King want to become a Buddha and become an ancestor?

Could he be some kind of demon king, Mara, or Wu Tian, the sixth heaven master of the desire realm?"

"How is that possible?"

Hohenheim shook his head upon hearing this and said to the companions from Great Britain who were also somewhat surprised and flustered: "Don't scare yourselves.

Look closely, these missing people who should have changed into monastic robes are much thinner than the others,

and their health is worse.

Obviously, it is because too much faith power is produced, approaching the end of their lives—the monastic robes on their bodies should be the product of the interaction between the faith power produced and the Buddha-country itself.

This just proves that Shibi King’s control over his own Buddha-country is insufficient, resulting in waste.

It is not a symbol of becoming a Buddha and becoming an ancestor.

Okay, there is no point in watching any further, let’s go quickly.”

After saying that, Hohenheim took out a flashlight from the void, illuminated the path ahead, and walked forward slowly with Michael.

Although he told his companions not to panic, Hohenheim also felt a little uneasy in his heart.

Shibi King ruled the city of Devavati in the ancient Indian Jambudvipa Continent, governing 84,000 subordinate countries, being kind and benevolent, having compassion for all living beings, and unable to bear to see a pigeon being swallowed by a hawk, so he cut off his own flesh to feed the hawk.

Therefore, he moved Indra and became a Buddha.

This story comes from the so-called "Jataka Tales," which are stories about the previous lives of the Buddha before he became a Buddha.

Theoretically, the era of Shibi King was extremely long ago, earlier than the Buddha.

But this also involves the dispute between Hinduism and Buddhism—Indra, who elevated Shibi King to Buddha, is the Dharma protector of the Buddha.

And Indra was originally the highest deity of Hinduism, but was later incorporated into Buddhism and resided under the Buddha.

In addition, Shibi King and the Buddha himself also have inextricable connections, and there is even a saying that Shibi King was one of the Buddha's previous lives...

Hohenheim's thoughts were chaotic and meandering.

Among the players present, there were not a few people who had equipment and props such as [Human Seed Bags], which could transport living things on a large scale.

But the connection between these missing people and the Buddha-country was constantly strengthening every moment.

Directly transporting civilians, or using [Human Seed Bags] to wrap them up and "move" the people out of the divine country,

would cause the user to suffer a backlash from the connection, prematurely declining.

Thinking of this, he looked up and saw Michael wearing silver armor, holding a long sword, walking at the forefront of the team.

The majestic power constantly涌out from his body, like an invisible big hand, slowly separating the densely packed ordinary people standing there to both sides,

opening up a path for the players behind like an arrow.

The malicious suppression of the surrounding world on the players was also mostly borne by him alone.

No matter how many times he saw it, this kind of easy and effortless performance was exaggerated to an excessive degree.

Hohenheim sighed inwardly.

Shibi King's Buddha-country was indeed developing rapidly in the direction of a complete divine kingdom.

Each of the sixty-odd people present was the backbone and pillar of their respective organizations.

Their strength was so strong that they could directly shake modern armies on the battlefield.

But the suppression of these outsiders by the Buddha-country was all-round.

Those few who were relatively weak were already having some difficulty breathing,

and those who were slightly stronger were also breathing somewhat irregularly.

Only a few people, such as Disordered, The Truth on the Side, and David, were still walking on flat ground, breathing normally...

Wait, where is Li Risheng?

Hohenheim looked to the left and saw that Li Ang had slightly detached himself from the team at some point, and came to an ordinary person wearing a monastic robe. He was touching him up and down, skillfully taking out his mobile phone and wallet from the pocket of the monastic robe, and checking them.

"???"

Hohenheim and several other players looked over, with shocked and astonished expressions.

Xing Hechou couldn't help but ask, "Brother Li, what are you doing?"

"Borrowing flowers to offer to the Buddha."

Li Ang said matter-of-factly, "As a devout believer, I'm helping the Buddha open Huabei on his mobile phone, using the money in Huabei to offer gifts to the Buddha, and then extracting a 20% commission from it.

It's a very normal thing, right?

Even if you are thrifty and calculate carefully, you still have to look decent when meeting gods and Buddhas."

???

Is borrowing flowers to offer to the Buddha the literal meaning?

Are you the kind-hearted person who opens mobile phone loan software for migrant worker brothers on airplanes, using the migrant worker brothers’ own money to help the migrant worker brothers upgrade to first class?