Chapter 1088: Chapter 87: Borrowed Offerings

"The reason I invited all of you this time is mainly to overcome the mechanisms of the Ajanta Stone Caves themselves."

Nebula said in a low voice, "The caves will carry out aberration changes targeting intruders. A single or a small number of Transcendents going in is meaningless,

only when a large number of Transcendents enter together

do we have a chance to disrupt the Ajanta Stone Caves themselves."

David nodded. "And the Transcendents going in must be above a certain baseline in strength, otherwise they’ll just drag us down and become a liability, right?"

"Yes."

Seeing Nebula nod in acknowledgment, the other people in the room relaxed a little.

Fighting a Deity face to face is one thing; serving as support is another,

and the risk of the latter is much smaller than that of the former.

After the explanation was over, no one present had any objections. They left the conference room and went to the command hall,

issuing orders and directives

to colleagues and subordinates of their respective organizations.

The entire command center instantly became busy.

Outside the building, helicopters and fighter jets streaked across the sky,

and a steel flood of armored vehicles and tanks slowly rolled eastward,

the War Machines were slowly starting to move—if the player teams failed, they would resort to the final measure.

Amid a grim, killing aura, the Transcendents walked out of the building, boarded hovercraft, and headed off toward the northeast.

On both sides of the road, many Mumbai civilians knelt by the roadside, bowing devoutly toward the hovercraft packed with players,

and no one knew whether they were bowing to the players as if to gods and Buddhas,

or praying for their suffering family and friends.

Once the hovercraft exited the urban area, their speed abruptly increased. In less than an hour, they arrived at Ajanta Village in Aurangabad County by the Godavari River.

The civilians in this village had long since been completely evacuated. Various organizations had designated Ajanta Village as a forward stronghold, building a military camp outside the village and stationing an advance detachment there.

Li Ang and the other players got off the vehicles. Looking past the buildings of the military camp, they could easily see in the distance the towering, cloud-piercing, mountain-like luminous hemisphere.

Buddha Country...

Even without using Spiritual Sense, Li Ang could feel the Divine Power within the luminous hemisphere, so thick it was almost spilling out.

Interesting.

Li Ang and the others stepped down from the hovercraft.

Staff from the Global Occult Coalition drove armored vehicles over and hauled out one heavy metal crate after another from the cargo bay, distributing them to all the players.

Inside each metal crate was a protective suit—these full-coverage suits looked a bit like a lightweight version of a spacesuit, composed from inside to outside of a pressure-reducing layer, insulating layer, ventilation & cooling layer, airtight layer, heat insulation layer, and protective layer.

The surface of the outermost protective layer was covered with gold leaf, fabrics, and metallic decorations that looked like intricate, ornate patterns,

serving to weaken Divine Power Corrosion.

Most players were plain, no-nonsense pragmatists. Even though these protective suits didn’t look particularly stylish, they still took the crates and put the suits on.

Only Abel, bare-chested with demon-like tattoos covering his body,

and the armor-laden Dusk Knight, plus a few others, refused the suits,

merely prying off some of the metallic decorations from the protective suits (with slightly weaker anti–Divine Power Corrosion effect) and wearing them on their bodies.

Once preparations were complete,

more than sixty players were split into two teams. The first team, led by Michael, would enter God’s Kingdom first to carry out exploration and observation.

The rest stayed outside the light sphere to wait.

"Mr. Li!"

An employee of the European Heavy Industry Group jogged over nervously, trembling, and carefully handed a metal briefcase to Li Ang. "This is your deposit."

Li Ang opened the briefcase, glanced at the Magic Scrolls inside, nodded, and waved the man away.

The latter let out a breath of relief and hurried off as though pardoned.

"Heh,"

Hoenhem turned back with a smile when he saw this. "European Heavy Industry is bleeding hard this time.

Over sixty experts from various factions,

two carrier battle groups, nearly a hundred thousand regular troops,

a big chunk of every expense is getting pinned on them.

Not to mention the partial or full lockdowns in over a hundred cities worldwide."

"This is only the beginning. If we can’t resolve this, the consequences will likely grow worse and worse."

Side Truth said mildly, then looked at Li Ang. "I’m rather curious, how much is European Heavy Industry paying you this time?"

"One perfect-quality consumable scroll as a deposit, and one perfect-quality piece of equipment as the remaining payment."

Li Ang said casually, "If I can rescue the key missing personnel of European Heavy Industry in the camp at the foot of the mountain, there’ll be an extra bonus on top."

"Mm... pretty similar to the terms I got."

Side Truth nodded. He also did not rely on any real-world organization, and his ranking on the individual combat power leaderboard used to be extremely high,

so the terms he received were much better than those offered to people like Life-Killing Hospital and Wanderer Wang.

After a brief calculation, Side Truth said to Li Ang, "Would two perfect-quality items be enough to get you to lend us a hand?

Our Demon Scientist Alliance has some quite tricky projects recently. I wonder if you’d be interested in cooperating."

"Sure."

Li Ang nodded. "I don’t have many virtues, but I am honest.

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

???

Who would pay money to have themselves killed? Do you think this is the United States police? The suspect threatens to commit suicide, the California police arrive, ’fail’ to talk him down, and fire eight shots to kill him?

Hoenhem and Side Truth exchanged a look, both feeling a bit of a headache coming on.

They had already heard some stories about Li Ang, knew that he used to be a home tutor with a very strong Spirit of Contract, and that he was particularly "famous" in certain areas—once an Apex Transcendent’s identity is public, some information will inevitably leak,

that’s unavoidable.

Hoenhem and Side Truth simply assumed Li Ang was talking nonsense and joking around,

but Xing Hechou, standing nearby, had a rather strange expression.

After Li Ang’s identity was exposed, many of his past deeds came to light as well,

such as the long-ago Dusheng Village incident, which was confirmed to be connected to Li Ang,

and one of the culprits behind the Dusheng Village incident, the construction boss Lu Maodian, just so happened to be the employer who had hired Li Ang to investigate Dusheng Village.

Only Xing Hechou knew that Li Ang was serious about killing his employer—he really wasn’t joking.

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

Michael and the others confirmed that there were no major changes inside the Buddha Country, and that the protective suits could effectively ward off Divine Power Corrosion.

Once everything was fully prepared,

the two teams merged into one and advanced toward the Vindhya Mountains where the Ajanta Stone Caves were located.

————

The Vindhya Mountains are situated in a Horseshoe-shaped Valley. Previously, for convenience, European Heavy Industry had cleared all the forests and shrubs around the valley, compacted the soil, and leveled the ground to serve as the foundation for the temporary base.

From the opposite bank of the river, one could still see some standing utility poles with cables extending into the interior of the light sphere.

As they drew closer, the surface of the Buddha Country’s light sphere also became clearer.

It wasn’t a perfectly seamless, primordial sphere; on the very outside was a layer of misty vapor, condensed yet never dispersing,

formless and intangible, with countless shimmering motes scattered within, like dust drifting through the air.

Beneath the mist floated strands as soft as golden silk threads, flickering in and out of existence, vanishing as they arose, arising as they vanished.

Michael took the lead and stepped into the Buddha Country, with Hoenhem, the Side Truth, and the others following behind.

Li Ang, clad in a protective suit, raised his palm and gently brought it close to the spherical Buddha light.

Before it even fully touched, his palm felt a weak yet steady suction coming from within the Buddha light, gently pulling his hand toward it.

Li Ang paused for a moment, did not resist this suction, let nature take its course, and stepped forward. His whole body "squeezed" into the Buddha Country as if squeezing into gel.

The instant he stepped in, Li Ang sensed an earth‑shaking transformation.

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

A layer of dusty mist floated at about ankle height above the ground.

The visible distance around them was at most fifty meters.

Even though his soles still trod on solid ground, there was always this disorienting sense of weightless suspension, as if his foot had stepped into thin air.

Aside from that, the most striking feature of the Buddha Country was the people.

Tens of thousands of missing persons stood vacantly on the ground.

Their hands were pressed together in prayer before their chests, facing the stone caves, heads slightly bowed,

their expressions either serene and indifferent, or gently smiling.

In stark contrast to this were their rapidly emaciating, skin‑and‑bones, frail bodies.

And that still wasn’t the most terrifying thing.

Some keen‑eyed players had already noticed that a small portion of these missing persons had undergone a change in clothing.

The everyday outfits they had worn when they disappeared had turned into robes of yellow, red, and gold,

and although they were gaunt as skeletons, they wore smiles kinder and more benevolent than those of eminent monks.

"Fuck."

Amidst the crowd of dark‑faced onlookers, someone couldn’t help but curse,

and the others didn’t bother to remind him to mind his tongue in this pure land of the Buddha Sect.

The ones in front who had somehow changed into monk robes had only been ordinary civilians some time ago.

And there was no way there’d be servants or Butlers in the Buddha Country so attentive as to reward outstanding believers with monk robes, and even shave part of them bald and clean their heads.

The change before their eyes could only have been caused by some mutation of the Buddha Country itself...

Someone couldn’t hold back his shock and said, "Turning commonfolk into Buddhas—does this Sibi King plan to become a Buddha and Patriarch?

Don’t tell me he’s some kind of Demon King of the Sixth Heaven of the Desire Realm, Mara, or ’No‑God’ type existence?"

"No way."

Hoenhem shook his head at that and said to a few companions from Great Britain who were equally startled and flustered, "Don’t scare yourselves.

Look carefully. These missing persons who’ve had their robes changed are even thinner than the others,

their health is worse.

It’s obvious they’ve produced too much Power of Faith and are close to burning out the last drop of oil—their monk robes should be a product of that Power of Faith interacting with the Buddha Country itself.

This precisely proves that Sibi King’s control over his own Buddha Country is insufficient, and wastage is occurring.

It’s not some sign of becoming Buddha and Patriarch.

Alright, there’s no point in staring any longer, let’s move."

With that, Hoenhem drew a flashlight out of the void, lit up the path ahead, and advanced slowly with Michael.

Though he’d told his companions not to panic, Hoenhem still felt a faint sense of foreboding.

Sibi King ruled the Depilatory city of Ancient India’s Jambudvīpa, governing eighty‑four thousand vassal states. He was compassionate and kind, took pity on all beings, and could not bear to see a dove devoured by a hawk, so he cut his own flesh to feed the hawk,

thereby moving Di Shitian and ultimately becoming a Buddha.

This story comes from the so‑called "Jataka tales," narratives of the Buddha’s past lives before his enlightenment.

In theory, Sibi King’s era was extremely ancient, long before the Buddha himself.

But this involves a dispute between Hinduism and Buddhism—Di Shitian, who elevated Sibi King to Buddhahood, is the Buddha’s Dharma Guardian God,

and Di Shitian was originally the supreme Deity of Hinduism, later absorbed into Buddhism and placed beneath the Buddha.

Furthermore, Sibi King and the Buddha himself are entwined in countless ways; some even say Sibi King was one of the Buddha’s former incarnations...

Hoenhem’s mind was in turmoil, thoughts circling endlessly.

Among the players present, quite a few possessed equipment and items like the Human Bag, able to transport large numbers of living beings.

But the connection between these missing persons and the Buddha Country was strengthening with every passing moment.

Directly carrying the civilians away, or using a Human Bag to bundle them and "shift" them out of the God’s Kingdom,

would cause backlash from the very link itself, dooming the user to premature death.

Thinking of this, he looked up. Michael, clad in Silver-white Armor and wielding a Longsword, was walking at the very front of the group.

Vast power surged endlessly from His body, like an invisible giant hand that gently parted the tightly packed, standing civilians to either side,

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

The malicious suppression this world exerted on the players was also being borne, for the most part, by Him alone.

No matter how many times one saw it, this level of performance was absurdly excessive.

Hoenhem sighed heavily in his heart.

Sibi King’s Buddha Country was indeed rapidly developing toward a complete God’s Kingdom.

The sixty‑odd people present were each a pillar of their respective organizations,

their strength sufficient to shake modern armies head‑on on the battlefield.

But the Buddha Country’s suppression of these outsiders was all‑encompassing.

The few with comparatively weaker strength were already having trouble breathing,

those slightly stronger had somewhat disrupted breathing as well.

Only a handful, such as Lose Control, the Side Truth, David, and a few others, still walked as though on level ground, their breathing steady...

Wait, where was Li Rising?

Hoenhem looked to the left and saw that Li Ang had somehow drifted a bit from the group and was now standing before a robed civilian, hands roaming skillfully as he took a phone and a wallet from the monk robe’s pockets and rifled through them.

"???"

Hoenhem and several other players looked over, faces full of stunned disbelief.

Xing Hechou couldn’t help asking, "Brother Li, what are you doing?"

"Borrowing flowers to offer the Buddha."

Li Ang replied as a matter of course, "As a devout believer, I help the Buddha’s phone open a Huabei credit line, use the Huabei money to make offerings to the Buddha, and then take a 20% commission from it.

That’s perfectly normal, isn’t it?

You still need to crunch the numbers carefully—when you pay respects to gods and Buddhas, you have to at least look the part."

???

"Borrowing flowers to offer the Buddha" was meant literally?

So you’re the kindhearted gentleman who, on a plane, helps migrant workers install loan apps on their phones, then uses the migrant workers’ own money to upgrade them to first class?