Chapter 16 Like G.o.d Overlooking the World
Other than the vajra scepter, many people also found damaged censers, ruler s.h.i.+elds, bells, and the like.
Amongst them, the woman with the wan complexion who Ye Fan had sympathized with had found a particularly impressive item: a completely intact strand of prayer beads. There were six beads, each sparkling with a strong golden color. They appeared just like crystal as they shone, each the size of a dragon eye.
“Do you think they’re made from sarira?” questioned the people beside her in amazement.
These six beads were all golden-colored and appeared very much like magnificent gemstones. People easily a.s.sociated it with an ancient Buddha’s left-behind sarira. After all, this was something found within the Great Thunderchant Temple; its material would definitely not be simple.
These strung-together prayer beads were found by that woman on top of the stone Buddha’s head. The six beads were held together by a translucent string. Each bead had a drawing of a person on it, each person in a different position from the rest.
Along with Ye Fan’s bronze lamp and an alms bowl found by Zhou Yi, this was the third completely intact item they had found. However, the bronze lamp was still the one that was the most eye-attracting, as it was the only thing that had remained completely dustless. The lamp had remained forever bright; anyone could tell that it was definitely extraordinary.
Within the temple were many heated gazes that would occasionally turn towards the bronze lamp. Although Ye Fan felt them, his expression didn’t change and he still remained calm throughout it all.
The Great Thunderchant Temple’s palace hall had already been completely searched over everywhere. Nothing more could be found, so everyone left.
The most dispirited of them all was Pang Bo. Over a dozen people had found ancient items. He was amongst the first to enter, but in the end, he failed to find anything.
Once again standing in front of the ancient temple, Pang Bo’s eyes immediately lit up. His used large strides to walk back to the temple. Piling a bunch of large stones beneath his feet, he climbed on top and took the copper plaque that said Great Thunderchant Temple, immediately causing quite a few to be completely dumbstruck.
Everyone quickly realized that this copper plaque was definitely not normal. It had received the constant grinding of sand and wind throughout time, yet not even a speck of dust was on it. Considering that amongst all the objects only the ancient bronze lamp had been also dustless, the copper plaque almost a.s.suredly also extraordinary.
“It really is heavy.” Pang Bo dragged the copper tablet back. He had just left the temple when the stone Buddha began to shake. With a resounding cracking noise, the entire stone Buddha actually broke into pieces.
Right afterward, the six-syllable Buddhist chant rang out, “Om mani padme hum….”
The grand Buddhist chant resounded throughout the room, shaking the sky, causing heaven and earth to tremble!
Merciful, dignified, masterful, and mysterious: the Buddhist chant was matchlessly vast; it cleansed the filth of the mortal coil. Even the surroundings of the ancient temple were completely immersed in a holy and auspicious light.
This time, it was definitely not a hallucination. Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and all the others all heard it. They were shocked speechless and frozen in place.
At the same time, all the relics that everyone had found within the palace hall, whether they were damaged or not, all began to emit a soft, brilliant light, causing people to be extremely apprehensive.
But in the end, the ancient temple’s stone Buddha shattered into dust with a loud rumbling noise. Soon after, the entire Great Thunderchant Temple also collapsed, turning into fine powder that blew away in the breeze.
Poof!
The ancient Bodhi tree also disintegrated. No part of its wood remained; it simply turned into dust that covered the sky, slowly drifting down.
Afterwards, all the relics’ light dimmed, once more appearing like nothing more than ordinary objects.
Everyone was completely dumbfounded, not knowing why such a thing would happen. Was it caused by taking all the relics and the copper plaque?
All that was left of the ancient temple was a dust-covered floor. Ye Fan stared at it for a while before saying, “After removing the various relics and the ancient temple’s signboard, the already neglected Great Thunderchant Temple lost the meaning of its existence, or maybe it’s simply due to the erosion of the wind.”
Zhou Yi was normally a very refined person, but at this time, even he was very excited. His eyes contained a strange light as he said, “Now I definitely believe in the existence of G.o.ds in this world. By coming here and following the traces that they left behind, it might be a great opportunity for us.”
G.o.ds, Buddha, Immortals… these preposterous legends no longer seemed so ridiculous to everyone. The facts before their eyes had completely toppled their previous notions and common sense. It was not impossible for G.o.ds to exist….
“Following the footsteps of a G.o.d to move forward…it sounds easy, but I don’t have any hope for that.” Pang Bo cast a slanting glance towards Zhou Yi. “Our survival is still the most urgent thing. This barren land doesn’t have villages or shops. There’s no water or food. Once another seven or eight hours pa.s.s, I’m afraid our situation will definitely take a drastic turn for the worse.”
“We have all kinds of signs that this planet really is Mars and we all know that the environment on Mars make it impossible for anyone to live on it.” Li Xiaoman quietly arranged the few events in her head. Calmly, she continued, “If there really are G.o.ds, then that might explain everything. This must only be a small piece of special land on Mars.”
Just after he finished saying this, a burst of rumbling sounds came from the russet soil; the empty ground began to tremble as if thousands of horses and men were galloping over, and yet also like an angry ocean’s madly surging waves.
“Sandstorm… Mars has huge superstorms!” Kade’s expression drastically changed as he shouted in his broken Chinese.
Each year, a quarter of Mars would be enveloped by a wild sandstorm. Typhoons on Earth might only travel sixty meters a second, but storms on Mars traveled 180 meters a second and were supersized. The storm could engulf the entire planet.
Not even talking about a human, even a heavy-duty tank would be thrown into the sky.
In barely a split second, the entire sky of stars immediately disappeared. An endless russet sandstorm completely covered the sky. A superstorm that seemed like it could engulf the entire planet had now begun.
“Something’s weird. There’s no storm here...”
Just as everyone was frightened that they were about to engulfed by a descending disaster, everyone found that the distant storm which covered the sky did not have an effect on their calm environment.
Using the five-colored altar and the Great Thunderchant Temple as an axis, a hazy circular cover over a thousand meters long seemed to cover this area. The sky in this place was isolated from the rest of the world.
Li Xiaoman’s words ended up being true. This place really was a small piece of land with the supernatural ability to obstruct the storm. This was indirect proof of the existence of G.o.ds. It was even possible that a G.o.d had placed this place under protection.
“Not good. The hazy cover is dimming, it looks like it’s about to disappear!” A female cla.s.smate who was looking hopefully up at the sky suddenly had her face became as white as snow.
The hazy light cover over the sky was gradually dimming. It might completely disappear in just a few moments. Everyone’s face changed color. With death so close, n.o.body could remain calm anymore.
“What do we do, are we…really going to die here?” some people were quavering.
“I don’t want to die…” A couple women were weeping.
“If the light cover completely fades, we’ll be crushed by that superstorm!” Even the male cla.s.smates were completely terrified. Once this piece of land disappeared, there would no longer be a s.p.a.ce for them to survive.
Rumble…
The storm was rumbling like m.u.f.fled thunder; even the ground seemed to be shaking. Sand blew wildly everywhere, and their fear grew even greater.
Ye Fan’s expression was still sober and calm. Looking at the sandstorm that covered the sky, he calmly opened his mouth and said, “Now there might only be one way to survive.”
“We can still save ourselves? Hurry up and tell us how?!”
“Once this piece of land no longer exists, where else could we find a place to survive?!”
In this life and death crisis, everyone was incomparably anxious. Quite a few people’s minds were in complete chaos.
“Follow the path taken by the G.o.ds and leave this uninhabitable place,” said Ye Fan.
Some people immediately understood Ye Fan’s thinking, but quite a few people still didn’t understand.
“Not bad, this might really be our only way to survive,” Zhou Yi nodded, appearing to agree.
According to Ye Fan’s thinking, in the extremely distant past, there was a G.o.d who set up an ancient starry path from Earth to Mars; but that didn’t mean that this was the final destination.
There was still a five-colored altar atop Mars, and it was very possible that it could connect to an even more distant part of the starry sky. This was the path the G.o.d had once walked. With the desperate straits they were in now, following this ancient road might be their only hope of survival.
At this time, everyone quickly understood, and they quickly rushed towards the five-colored altar.
Although it was just a thousand meters away, everyone felt like it was extremely distant, as if an extremely vast body of water was separating them. This short distance was connected to their life and death; if they didn’t reach the five-colored altar before the sky’s light cover completely shattered, they would all undoubtedly die.
The vast ruins of the Heaven Temple meant that rubble was everywhere. This was a route that was difficult to travel over. Due to moving too quickly, some people sprained their ankles in this place but they didn’t dare to stop. Resisting the pain, they continued moving forward quickly, unwilling to fall behind.
Even if they could all make it to the five-colored altar, whether or not they could open the ancient path of the starry sky was still unknown. This was a huge shadow that enveloped people’s hearts. After all, everything on Mt. Tai had been done pa.s.sively, so they didn’t know how it had occurred. But at this moment, they didn’t have any other option. Their only chance of life lay there, and they could only first rush over and then think of a method later.
“AHH!” A woman suddenly screamed as she was running. With a cras.h.i.+ng sound, she fell onto the ground and no longer moved.
A frozen expression of terror remained on her face. A thumb-sized hole was dripping blood from her forehead. Right before she died, she seemed to have seen something completely terrifying.
“What happened?!” Everyone’s hair stood on end, and their hearts were full of fear. A vivid life was abruptly ended in such a way. She had been with everyone just a second ago, but now they would forever be apart.
“Don’t get near her!” Ye Fan yelled to stop two male cla.s.smates who wanted to approach her. He recalled the snow white skull they had come across on the way here…the center of its forehead had also had a finger-sized hole. It appeared to be the same cause of death…a bad premonition welled up within him.
“We blasphemed against the Great Thunderchant Temple. Could it be… the G.o.d is punis.h.i.+ng us?” said a woman in a trembling voice, her heart filled with fear.
“Even if G.o.ds really exist, Buddha is very benevolent,” Zhou Yi interrupted her, preventing her from enveloping herself in even greater fear. “There’s no way we can bring her, we can only let her rest in peace here. Right now we have to hurry up to the five-colored altar.”
No one hesitated any longer. This was a life and death moment; they could no longer attend to the woman’s corpse.
Dong!
Suddenly, the melodious sound of a bell rang out. The sound was vast and dignified, and it shook the very air.
An extremely bright golden glow came from w.a.n.g Ziwen. His whole body was enveloped by a dazzling golden radiance, as if he were wearing a thick layer of golden battle armor. It was extremely awe-inspiring, appearing to be a golden divine flame.
The broken bronze bell within w.a.n.g Ziwen’s hand was gently trembling. The grand sound and golden glow were both caused by it.
“What happened?”asked Liu Yunzhi, as he was the closest to him.
“Just now, something attacked me.” w.a.n.g Ziwen was ordinarily very refined and gentle, but at this moment, with a divine flame enveloping him and making him appear to be wearing golden armor, he seemed extremely imposing, just like a G.o.d overlooking the world.