Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 336 - 62 Finale The Death of the Medicine Buddha

Chapter 336: Chapter 62 Finale: The Death of the Medicine Buddha (Part 1)

Chapter 336: Chapter 62 Finale: The Death of the Medicine Buddha (Part 1)

“Li Yan, how do you see this era?”

The Qiao Xing in the vehicle pursed his lips, his appearance already quite rugged, and now with a stern look, he resembled a sculpture carved by Michelangelo.

“Is that question very important?”

“Of course. You can speak frankly, don’t hold back on anything.”

“It’s terrible, the worst era. To put it bluntly, I have no nostalgia for any of this.”

“Right… no hot water, no fine food, no clean air,” Qiao Xing nodded thoughtfully, “Decadence, nihilism, passion, freedom, those were my most intense feelings when I was living in the wilderness. But what about establishing order in the ruins, kindling torches in the darkness? Does such a harsh winter also have a different kind of charm?”

“I think you misunderstand me, what I’m calling lousy isn’t the harsh environment of the winter.”

“Oh? Then why?”

“Forget it, it’s nothing.”

The huge red fireball sank into the horizon, and the temperature around rapidly cooled down. The armored convoy passed through the wilderness and mountains and finally arrived in front of the neatly repaired mountain peak before them.

The withered mountain was adorned with sprawling temples, brightly lit, and the flower beds held cold-hued pagodas, with golden lights sprinkling the sky above the mountain, and staggered staircases intersecting on the red-roofed white-walled pavilions.

And more so, there were barren bridge piers, chunks of highway asphalt scattered everywhere, giant city ruins standing over ten meters high, as well as the massive Vajra Guardian statues with half their heads destroyed in the plazas, all of which proved that Black Star’s war machines had once dropped an immense amount of explosives to bomb the area.

The location of Danzuo Automobile Headquarters, before the harsh winter, was the site of the famous Tibetan monastery Ganzhao Temple, which now is a city ruin with highways extending in all directions, and the largest human settlement in Zone B. At its peak, it housed over two hundred thousand people, and even now, over a hundred thousand people made their stop here.

After Li Yan got out of the car, the first thing he saw was a steel beast lying quietly on the ground, Black Buddha.

And a pilot wearing a leather cap.

The pilot’s gaze swept over Li Yan, whose own gaze bypassed him, staring at the Black Buddha war machine filled with the stench of brutal warfare.

Qiao Xing patted Li Yan on the shoulder and said, “This way.”

He looked a bit uneasy, but Li Yan didn’t seem to care. He withdrew his gaze from the Black Buddha, smiling at Qiao Xing as he was about to leave, when the pilot unexpectedly approached. He passed by Qiao Xing and greeted Li Yan, “Hello, my name is Sergei.”

Flashes of A Fleeting Glimpse of a boy in an abandoned laboratory at Great Demon Lake passed through Li Yan’s mind, and he nodded in response, “Li Yan.”

“Mr. Li, where are you from?”

“Sergei, we have things to do.”

Qiao Xing urged him.

Sergei, or rather Ramu Jue, waved his hand, “It won’t take long, Colonel Qiao. Are you afraid I’ll run away? Or are you afraid he will run?”

As he spoke, Qiao Xing’s expression darkened.

Suddenly, Li Yan took the initiative, “Tell me, do you believe in religion?”

He asked Ramu Jue.

Ramu Jue raised an eyebrow, “Why do you ask?”

Li Yan replied with a smile, “You have the scent of incense on you.”

The final ripple of black in his eyes had just dissipated; a trace of having launched A Fleeting Glimpse.

“Yes, I am a follower of the Medicine Buddha. I’ve lived here for a long time.”

Li Yan gestured towards Ramu Jue to Qiao Xing, as if to say how lenient you Black Star war machines are with your prisoners of war.

Qiao Xing glared fiercely at Ramu Jue but said nothing.

“Mr. Li, you haven’t answered my question yet, where are you from?”

Ramu Jue’s smile was as infectious as ever.

Li Yan kept a straight face, “You’re asking me? I was born in an underground laboratory. Then the nuclear war broke out, and those around me either died or turned into bloodthirsty living zombies. I barely survived and escaped from that hellish place.”

Ramu Jue looked down, “I’m truly sorry for touching upon your unfortunate childhood.”

“It’s okay, it’s all in the past,”

Li Yan appeared very magnanimous.

“I’m different,” Ramu Jue licked his lips before slowly beginning, “I come from a group of butchers with blood on their hands.”

Li Yan’s pupils constricted as if pierced by a blade, but he quickly composed himself. Smiling at Ramu Jue, he said, “Well, good luck to you.”

Ramu Jue nodded lightly, “Good luck to me.”

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Without further conversation, the two of them passed each other by.

“Oh, by the way.”

“`

Li Yan seemed to recall something suddenly and pointed toward the huge ruins in front of him, where countless ant-like figures were bustling about.

“What about them?”

Ramu Jue didn’t answer and brushed past the direction Li Yan was pointing at.

The look in Qiao Xing’s eyes seemed as if he was about to tear Ramu Jue limb from limb, but he ignored it as if he saw nothing.

“We should go, Colonel Qiao,”

Li Yan said.

Qiao Xing collected his composure and nodded stiffly.

The group walked into the huge temple built against the mountain, which was eerily quiet despite being several times larger than Kuang Zhuoma’s office building. Scattered personnel were coming and going, most of them armed professional soldiers with stern expressions on their faces.

It didn’t take long for Li Yan to see the machine that Qiao Xing had mentioned. It was an operating platform as large as a wall, connected to several culture tanks, with its dense array of gauges and meters making one dizzy.

“This is it.”

Li Yan approached the machine for a closer look. Then, Qiao Xing finally spoke, “If you can’t fix it, feel free to say so. However, if you can’t help us out, it would be difficult for me to speak to the upper echelons of the Big Ben Research Institute on my personal reputation alone.”

“I can fix it. Give me one day. When are the people from Big Ben coming?”

“They will arrive by dawn tomorrow. I’ll assign some assistants to you. You can ask them for anything you need during this time.”

Li Yan nodded.

“I’ll go arrange that now.”

Qiao Xing turned to leave.

“By the way, may I take a look around here?”

“…It’s best not to. This place is full of secrets.”

“Okay.”

Li Yan didn’t say anything more. The gauges in front of him were indeed damaged, but he couldn’t yet discern the specific problems. Of course, he didn’t consider this an issue.

“I come from a group of butchers with their hands full of blood,”

the sneering coldness from the pilot’s lips surfaced in Li Yan’s mind.

Li Yan looked around, noting the wall panels made of concrete and a graphite layer, reinforced with lead-zirconium alloy. He wondered if even the “Crazy Shocker” could stand strong faced with such walls.

He glanced at the toolbox provided by the Black Star war machine, picked up a wrench perfunctorily, then stuck it in between the gaps of the operating platform, and like a monk deep in meditation, he moved no more.

It was now deep into the night.

Only a few hours remained till dawn.

The sound of Ramu Jue’s rubber boots tapping on the smooth floor rang out crisp and clear as he carried a leather case, the gold in his eyes lingering long – a side effect of taking two bottles of the highest fifth-order experimental drugs in succession.

On the way, there were those that started following Ramu Jue from Danzuo Automobile to Great Demon Lake, including Medicine Buddha, who was revisiting the place. They could no longer suppress the complex feelings in their hearts upon seeing the familiar Thangkas and tiger skins on the walls.

“Rinpoche, can we really witness the miracle of the Medicine Buddha with our own eyes today?”

“Yes, to be precise, tomorrow morning. We will see the real Medicine Buddha in the huge temple that was built back then.”

Ramu Jue’s eyes narrowed into slits as he led his men all the way to the top floor, which used to be his palace as Rinpoche but now served as Liang Zhengyong’s office.

“We’ve done as you requested, so you should also keep your promise and hand over the last bottle of the experimental drug to me,”

Liang Zhengyong said without looking up from the record book in his hand.

Ramu Jue opened the leather case to reveal the golden bottles of medicine inside. Liang Zhengyong only managed a glimpse before Ramu Jue shut the case again.

“Wait for a few more hours. I’ll give it to you after I meet Su Ling at dawn. It won’t make much difference to Commander Liang to wait a little longer since I have already paid the deposit,”

Ramu Jue said, referring to the deposit which included bone marrow genetic samples from a total of eight Yak Zombies from Great Demon Lake, encompassing Spring Yak Yakov, Winter Yak Vera, and Summer Yak himself. In reality, without this bait, Ramu Jue reckoned that Black Star’s war machine might not have been able to lure the people from Big Ben to travel thousands of miles to area B.

Liang Zhengyong grunted in acknowledgment and turned a page of the record book, “I haven’t asked yet, what about the living Yak genetic structure from Autumn? Did it die in the previous wars?”

“The Autumn Yak experiments have never been successful, so there’s no such thing as a living Autumn Yak. As for the Autumn Yak genetic samples from the Soviet era, they probably have fallen into the hands of Big Ben Research Institute by now. During that time, area B was very chaotic; some hired Hunters came to Great Demon Lake for an expedition and stole them. That person claimed to work for Big Ben.”

Liang Zhengyong happened to turn to the page with the secondary objectives added by Qiao Xing. He glanced at Li Yan’s photo and for a moment was surprised at the lavish hunting party arranged by Qiao Xing, but still he flipped the page nonchalantly.

“So, Black Star has no more chances of getting the Autumn Yak samples, aside from the bottle in your hand now?”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“Good, hopefully you won’t find an excuse to delay after dawn.”

“Of course not.”