Embers Ad Infinitum

Bai Chen's driving speed slowed down, allowing Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao on the other side to continue observing the situation in Building 4.

The place had completely collapsed, but it didn't affect the surrounding area at all, and not even much dust was scattered.

It's like an invisible hand is restraining all this, creating phenomena that violate the laws of physics.

"Because we took away the little jade Buddha, Building No. 4 collapsed?" Jiang Baimian observed for a while and made a sound.

"Theoretically, it can't be the problem with those two mobile phones, right?" Shang Jianyao didn't press his face to the car window this time, and rubbed his chin with his left hand.

"And this is one of the Buddhist holy places." Bai Chen added.

Obviously, the relationship between the Little Emerald Buddha and Buddhism is closer and more intuitive than other things.

As the vehicle turned, Long Yuehong also saw the current situation of Building 4 and said hesitantly:

“But isn’t this kind of collapse too weird?

"After losing the power to maintain it, shouldn't it suddenly disintegrate and cause the earth to collapse?"

Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment and said:

“Perhaps this was the original state of Building 4. The Little Jade Buddha allowed it to maintain its status for more than 60 years against the norm.

"Now it's just coming back, not collapsing, so there's very little movement...

"This is one explanation. Another explanation is that the person who maintains the specialness of Room 302 through the Little Jade Buddha is still watching Building 4. In order to prevent the bones from being damaged and the scene to be messy, he chose to work from a distance to let the The collapse was orderly and quiet, like building a huge tomb."

Bang bang bang, Shang Jianyao clapped his hands.

Long Yuehong thought carefully for a while and felt that the latter situation was more acceptable.

After all, the concepts involved in "past state", "current state", and "return" are too high-end. Even if the "awakened ones" have very special powers, they still can't seem to complete it.

As her thoughts flashed, Long Yuehong saw Shang Jianyao put his hand into his pocket and took out the small jade Buddha.

"Wait! Wait a minute!" His eyes widened and he almost stuttered.

It’s better to take out the weird items that come from weird places after leaving the ruins of the steel factory!

Otherwise, who knows what accidents may occur!

"It doesn't contain any aura or power." Shang Jianyao didn't care about Long Yuehong's fear at all, and shook the small lake green jade Buddha as the pendant.

"When you got it, the breath or power dissipated? Did this cause the collapse of Building 4?" Jiang Baimian thought about it and made a guess.

"Earlier." Shang Jianyao recalled all the details just now, "When I encountered it, it was already an ordinary jade ornament."

Long Yuehong looked around and found nothing unusual. She breathed a sigh of relief and joined the discussion.

He looked at Shang Jianyao and said:

"It should be you who inspired the aura of the 'Six Senses Pearl' and eliminated the weirdness in the master bedroom, and the corresponding power began to drain away."

Hearing this, Bai Chen asked a question in confusion:

"Is the master bedroom in Room 302 covered in illusion?"

"No, it's not like that." It was Long Yuehong who answered Bai Chen.

He quickly explained:

"I clearly saw Shang Jianyao touch the Little Jade Buddha, but he didn't feel anything. If it was an illusion, wouldn't it be able to erase the existence of matter?"

Jiang Baimian heard this and shook his head:

"A particularly powerful illusion should be able to affect the sense of touch."

"Isn't this too scary?" Long Yuehong thought about it for a moment and felt that such a thing was extremely scary. "Think about it, if what we saw, heard, tasted, smelled, and touched , are all affected by hallucinations, we can’t tell what is reality and what is fantasy!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Shang Jianyao opened his hands and raised his body slightly:

"Everything is a fantasy, why take it seriously?"

Jiang Baimian then laughed and said:

"The major sects in the field of 'Broken Mirror' probably all have similar perceptions, and it is difficult to confirm what is true.

"Hey, let's not discuss this issue anymore. We have too little knowledge and information. Thinking about it now will only give you a headache. It's better to live seriously and live in the present."

After ending the discussion that had begun to turn towards philosophy, she asked Shang Jianyao:

"Do you think it's an illusion?"

Shang Jianyao had a solemn expression, raised his left palm, and said solemnly:

"It should be the legendary Alaya Consciousness?"

"Reason?" Jiang Baimian asked.

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen quietly pricked up their ears.

"No." Shang Jian Yao was very strong, "Intuition."

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian and others to speak, he added:

"In my opinion, the situation inside Room 302 is like two overlapping worlds, which are related to each other to a certain extent, but in the eyes of people who have not opened the alaya consciousness, they have no influence on each other."

"Have you read too much old world entertainment materials?" Long Yuehong couldn't help but complain.

"Stones from other mountains can attack jade." Shang Jianyao did not deny it, and even smiled.

While they were talking, the Jeep was back on the road leading outside the ruins of the steel plant.

Jiang Baimian did not interrupt, and after a while he spoke slowly:

"The state you just described reminded me of something."

"What?" Bai Chen, who was driving, asked curiously.

Different from the previous few missions, the expression on her face and the emotion in her words were obviously a little more.

Jiang Baimian replied in a deep voice:

"New World."

There was a sudden silence in the jeep.

"Team leader, what you mean is that the new world actually overlaps with the gray earth, and there is a certain connection, but most people can't see it?" Long Yuehong knew what Jiang Baimian wanted to say, but she still subconsciously sought Confirm from now on.

Jiang Baimian nodded gently:

"Perhaps only those who have explored the 'soul corridor' to a certain extent can sense it, so a door to the new world appears in the corresponding room."

"What about the door to the new world in reality? Does it exist?" Bai Chen raised a new question.

"I don't know." Jiang Baimian shook his head, "At least Teacher Du Heng and many people believe in its existence."

In the dust, almost everyone believes that there is a door to a new world deep in a certain ruins, which can free them from the threats of "careless people", famine, aberrations and monsters.

Every ruin hunter has similar expectations when entering ruins, not just to collect resources.

"Maybe that's a node?" Shang Jianyao expressed his opinion.

No one agrees with him, and no one refutes him, because it cannot be proven to be true or false.

Seeing that the exit of the ruins of the steel plant was close at hand, Jiang Baimian decided to end this topic:

"Hey, please put the little jade Buddha away and study it carefully later.

"Well...make a four-layer package with tinfoil, plastic, paper, and rubber bags."

After Shang Jianyao had finished handling the Little Jade Buddha, Jiang Baimian thought about it and said:

"We are now going to Hongshiji. On the way, we will send a telegram to Lao Ge and ask him to buy tools to repair the internal data of the damaged mobile phone and meet us there.

"Before entering the ruins of Tieshan City, I hope to find some useful intelligence or clues from those two mobile phones to reduce the risk of subsequent actions."

"Okay." Long Yuehong and Bai Chen had no objections.

Shang Jianyao took out the small speaker and wondered what song to listen to next.

…………

Three days after the "old tune team" left the ruins of the steel plant, a group of people with strange behavior arrived.

There were six or seven of them, all wearing dusty, patched clothes. Their hair was shaved very short, with only a thin layer, which looked almost non-existent from a distance.

Every seven steps these people took, they would kneel on the ground, face the blast furnaces in the ruins of the steel plant, and do a prostrate prostrations, with extremely pious expressions.

In this way, they entered the ruins of the steel factory, then walked around the factory area and knelt down on the outside.

After a while, these people arrived at the second family area, not far from Building 4.

The leader was already quite old, with few but obvious wrinkles on his face, and the thin hair on his head was turning white at the roots.

He is from Hong'an, and his expression is like that of an ancient well, with no ripples visible.

——The Red Bank people are a branch of the Gray Earth people who migrated to the Red River Basin. Their skin color is more brown, and their hair is a little naturally curly.

Looking at the collapsed Building 4, these people stopped moving forward and just stared at it, not moving for a long time.

After an unknown amount of time, the old man leading the group let out a long sigh:

"The omens have appeared and a great disaster is coming..."

He spoke in dialect with a dialect accent.

…………

In the evening, the continuous heavy rain still did not stop, and it was dark as if it was already midnight.

"I remember there is a small city ruin nearby. You can camp there." Bai Chen looked at the wipers swinging back and forth and made a suggestion.

"Okay." Jiang Baimian expressed absolute trust.

Then, she lowered her head and continued to study the two maps in her hands.

They were the maps of Hongshiji and the ruins of Tieshan City respectively. Jiang Baimian wanted to memorize them repeatedly to reduce the possibility of getting lost during his actions.

The jeep drove for a while, and finally a group of black figures crawling in the rainy night appeared in front of them.

Bai Chen was about to identify the road and look for sturdier buildings to take shelter from the rain, when Shang Jianyao in the back row suddenly said:

"There's someone over there.

"Close to twenty."