Embers Ad Infinitum

Shang Jianyao looked back and saw that there was indeed nobody in all the rooms. He could only sigh and look at the blood-red door ahead again.

“At this point, we can only go in and ask Xiaochong face-to-face!” The rash Shang Jianyao spoke in a low voice on behalf of many.

After overcoming all kinds of difficulties, he stretched out his hands, pressed them against the door, and began exerting strength.

The blood-red door slowly opened, revealing darkness inside.

Shang Jianyao strode through the door in one go. He was immediately enveloped by pitch-black darkness.

“Xiaochong! Xiaochong!” Shang Jianyao shouted.

His voice spread far and wide, but it didn’t reverberate. This made this place seem like a vast wasteland instead of a room.

“Xiaochong! Xiaochong!” Shang Jianyao persisted.

Nobody replied.

Just as Shang Jianyao tried to materialize a loudspeaker, he heard whimpering.

It was a woman crying not far away.

“Xiaochong, you actually have a female personality?” Shang Jianyao was shocked and envious.

The woman cried softly and ignored him.

Shang Jianyao made a guess. “Could it be an aggrieved personality produced from bullying? Uh, why does this cry sound so familiar? I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere…”

“Ah yes!” Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm. “I heard it in that Ashlandic compound!”

The young scientist who was suspected to be from the Eighth Research Institute, Lin Sui.

Shang Jianyao instantly became excited. “Xiaochong, you had a crush on Lin Sui after you came of age, causing you to split into a personality that imitates Lin Sui?”

The sobbing female voice stopped and faintly said, “I’m Lin Sui.”

“Huh?” Shang Jianyao was confused.

Fortunately, he wasn’t stupid. He had a calm and rational side, and he had been influenced by Jiang Bohemian, so he quickly thought of a possibility. “I didn’t open the real blood-red door just now. Did I enter an illusion created by you? You really came to stop me! Are you November’s Kalendaria, Shattered Mirror?”

The female voice sighed faintly. “If you continue forward, you can leave this place.”

“Uh…” Shang Jianyao was stunned again before he came to a realization. “You’re secretly leaning toward changing the situation?”

Lin Sui didn’t answer his question and began sobbing.

Shang Jianyao kindly asked, “Were you forced?”

Lin Sui was still sobbing not far away. She was sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, and sometimes to the front and back. There was no confirmed location. As for her consciousness, Shang Jianyao couldn’t sense it at all.

“Since you won’t say, I won’t ask.” Shang Jianyao was very polite and changed the topic. “Why did you want to maintain the status quo back then? Why have you changed your position?”

Lin Sui’s voice sounded faintly. “Continue forward.”

Clearly, she didn’t want to answer Shang Jianyao’s question.

Shang Jianyao wanted to persuade her with all his might, but the other party sobbed again as if she were hiding something sad.

“Alright, alright. I’ll leave now.” On the one hand, Shang Jianyao was polite and civilized. On the other hand, he was worried that he would anger Lin Sui and be attacked if he continued pestering her.

He strode forward and walked a few meters forward like a blind person. An even fainter black blob vaguely appeared in his vision like a washed ink stain.

The blob of darkness stood there as if it were the exit.

At this moment, Lin Sui was still sobbing in the darkness’s depths.

Shang Jianyao kindly consoled her. “I don’t know what kind of pain you’ve suffered, so I can only advise you to be more open-minded.”

As he spoke, he spread his hands, raised his body slightly, and looked up diagonally. “Everything is but a dream. Why so serious?”

Lin Sui fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “I taught them this sentence.”

“…” Shang Jianyao was momentarily speechless.

Lin Sui began to sob softly again. In a few seconds, even her cries disappeared.

Only then did Shang Jianyao walk toward a darkness of lesser intensity.

When he came close, he realized that it was indeed a door—a weak light emitted from the gap.

Shang Jianyao opened the door and walked out, but he didn’t return to the corridor. Instead, he appeared in a lush, green field.

The sky here was clear. There were pagodas and bodhi trees everywhere. Gold, silver, agate, glass, and other items were scattered everywhere.

Further away was a mountain. At the top of the mountain was a gigantic Buddha—which seemed to be made of gold—sitting cross-legged on a lotus platform.

Around the mountain, monks in yellow monk robes and red kasayas sat there, attentively listening to Buddha’s preaching.

Some of them had deep wrinkles, and some had iron-black faces that reflected a Buddhist glow. The thing they had in common was that they were indifferent to Shang Jianyao’s approach.

“So the Buddhists are all here.” Shang Jianyao had previously wondered why there were no monks in the New World outside the tower.

He then manifested the half-human, half-mechanical Zen Master Redemption aspect. He pressed his palms together and bowed at the Buddha. “Namo Annutara-Samyak-Subhuti, please enlighten This Penniless Monk and dispel my confusion.”

The Buddha sitting on the lotus throne with his back against the bodhi tree didn’t respond. He said to all the monks in a solemn and grand voice, “Birth and destruction, everything is empty…

“The impermanence of all walks of life is the law of life and destruction. Life and destruction for oneself, destruction for joy…

“The main body is silent, separate from all things, and hence named Nirvana…

“Everything that happens is impermanent. The living must die. If you aren’t alive, you won’t die. This destruction is the most joyous…”

Zen Master Redemption scratched his head repeatedly. He wished he could show Shang Jianyao’s true colors and wreak havoc in this Pure Lands to wreck the Buddha’s preaching.

He kept asking questions, but the Buddha ignored him and only talked about the principle of destruction and transcendence.

“Sigh, just like Shattered Mirror, he’s unwilling to face the fact that he betrayed Master Zhuang and secretly switched sides…” The honest Shang Jianyao muttered his guess.

He could only head toward the golden door condensed from Buddhist glow at one end of this ‘Pure Lands.’

…

At the vortex-shaped building’s entrance, Jiang Baimian returned in about ten minutes with a targeted plan.

She would stick to being in the periphery of the small city, constantly looking at the tall tower as she walked straight ahead. In any case, no matter which direction she went in, she would end up in the area where the nuclear power plant was as long as she approached it.

After coming here, Jiang Baimian wouldn’t get lost and end up at the nuclear power plant since there were only two large buildings. When she arrived at the edge of the vortex-shaped building, she used the same tricks and circled back to the door.

Jiang Baimian carried Shang Jianyao on her back and carried the crate with her hands. She quickly passed through the front desk and the reception area and arrived at the area she couldn’t enter yet.

She tried to go a meter deeper, and she immediately felt her head throb. She had no choice but to return to her original spot.

Without hesitation, Jiang Baimian placed the crate containing the nuclear warhead to the side. She then unbuckled her belt and separated Shang Jianyao from her back, allowing him to lie on the sofa nearby.

After doing all of this, Jiang Baimian sat down cross-legged, took out her waterskin, began eating the energy bar, and took a short break.

She was waiting for Shang Jianyao to enter the depths of Master Zhuang’s mind world and open the blood-red door.

When the time came, she might be able to get an opportunity to enter the area ahead. The Eighth Research Institute’s final results might be hidden there.

In order not to miss the brief opportunity, Jiang Baimian didn’t plan on continuing to search the ‘Common Research Zone’ and other places upstairs. She was prepared to take a short break and attempt to advance every minute to determine if she could venture deeper.

In any case, the last thing she would obtain from exploring upstairs should be a pile of information and the situation of certain researchers. With them, Jiang Baimian could establish a professional team and spend more than ten to twenty years to reproduce the Eighth Research Institute’s final results. But now, the final results were most likely in the area in front of her. Why should she waste additional time?

Such a slow remedy couldn’t meet the urgency!

…

After leaving the Pure Lands, Shang Jianyao returned to the aisle.

Not far in front of him, a blood-red door stood quietly.

Everything he had encountered seemed to be an illusion. From the moment he saw the door, he seemed to have fallen into an illusion.

Shang Jianyao turned around and realized that the doors on both sides of the aisle were open. Furthermore, there was nobody—it was identical to before.

“Impressive!” Shang Jianyao praised Shattered Mirror.

In contrast, there were two doors on both sides of the blood-red door. One had a taichi Yin-Yang fish drawn on it, and the other had a large number of dots and lines painted on it. There was also a gap in the glass.

At this moment, a face with red eyes appeared in the small window on the right door. This face was silver-black in color and shimmered with a metallic glow.

“Robot! The New World also has robots? Master Zhuang’s memories?” Shang Jianyao suddenly became excited.

The robot’s face said through the window on the door, “Do not proceed any further. Don’t destroy everything that’s present now!”

“Which Kalendaria are you?” Shang Jianyao asked politely.

The robot’s face suddenly warped and turned into an LCD screen. It said in a slightly mocking tone, “I’m not a Kalendaria; we’ve met.”

“I’m stumped.” Shang Jianyao shook his head frankly.

The LCD screen chuckled. “I’m Future.”

Shang Jianyao came to a realization before asking curiously, “Why aren’t you opening the door? Are you locked up?”