Eternal Night

Chapter 878 An Encounter with a Containment Object Civilization

After that, Wu Pifu had no more dreams.

At his level of strength, he would never dream unless he wanted to, and he could even do without sleep. That's why the previous inexplicable dream seemed so abrupt and bizarre.

The strangest thing is that Wu Pifu doesn't remember the contents of that dream at all!?
That's the most incredible part—how could he forget the information from his dream?
Wu Pifu naturally couldn't hide this situation, and immediately told the others about the strange dream. Since all three excellent external brains were present, they would naturally have to be used now.

"Dream?"

Upon hearing this, all three external brains immediately became serious.

In the dream world, the meaning of dreams is extraordinary. It may mean pollution, the root of all things, a harbinger of something, meme contamination, possession by a strange spirit, or even... a nightmare!
Xu Shilan, Huang Rong, and Beelzebub listened carefully to Wu Pifu's account of his dream, but when they heard that he couldn't remember the details of the dream at all, the three of them were somewhat embarrassed, but at the same time, they were also somewhat awed.

Wu Pifu's strength was already close to the edge of the sublimation stage, and at this point he already possessed some of the characteristics that only the sublimation stage had.

The most core characteristic of the sublimated body is self-perfection. Wu Pifu is no longer susceptible to being misled by information. He can remember anything that exists, and he will not be deceived by anything that does not exist.

"Is it a meme?" Huang Rong pondered deeply and said, "Recently, we have explored a lot of world ruins and various dead worlds. Although we haven't encountered any dangers or strange occurrences, it's hard to say that there might be some terrible memes hidden among them. And Brother Ant has been using the Pokémon system to protect us. You have borne the brunt alone, while we haven't. Is that why it has erupted at this time?"

After silently sensing for a while, Wu Pifu shook his head and said, "No, if it were memes, supernatural beings, or pollution, I would definitely detect it, but I don't feel anything and it hasn't caused any harm."

Xu Shilan then said, "What kind of omen is that? After all, our goal is the Buddhist secrets, and Buddhism is an ancient civilization based on idealism, so..."

“No.” Beelzebub suddenly frowned and said, “Buddhism is not idealistic. Buddhism is most skilled in the path of physical transcendence, and the first Buddha has even realized the most special root of all phenomena. What you said is wrong.”

Xu Shilan and Huang Rong looked at each other. One of them came from the human society during the Fourth World War, but through the information collected by the mainframe and the supplementation of human civilization by a large number of Night Watchers, she knew about the religious thought of the Buddhist system. The other came from the Southern Song Dynasty, and was well-versed in literature and poetry, and knew about various ancient religions, humanities, martial arts and Jianghu affairs.

Therefore, both of them knew that the Buddhist religious system placed the greatest emphasis on consciousness and awareness. Although there were various martial arts or extraordinary skills that trained the physical body in reality or in the world of martial arts, Buddhism emphasized the useless physical body and the stinking skin bag. Only by shedding the physical body could one attain enlightenment. So when Beelzebub said that Buddhism valued the physical body the most, it was really hard for them to understand.

In fact, not only Xu Shilan and Huang Rong, but even Wu Pifu frowned at this moment.

He discovered a key point... He also had some memories of Buddhism. In the 21st century, Buddhism was not a weak religion; it was one of the major religions in the world, and its religious culture was widely spread. He also knew that Buddhism placed the most emphasis on consciousness and followed the stream of consciousness school. For Buddhism, the physical body was not important at all; what mattered was consciousness.

But before that... he was completely unaware of it!?

In fact, he had heard about Buddhism's emphasis on the physical body in many past experiences, but he didn't find it strange at the time. The one time he heard it most clearly and in the most detail was about the martial arts of the Zhenwu lineage, where the Tathagata Sutra, which contains Buddhist ideas, is a body-forging divine skill. In the dream world, Buddhism also mostly manifests its extraordinary abilities on the physical level. For example, in the first confrontation with the Eternal Mother, it showed the pollution and control of the physical body, turning the body into a paper figure. Later, in the battle with the Golden Arhat Jun Tu Botan, its extraordinary path was also based on the physical body. At the same time, in the Buddhist reverse dream world, the Buddhist monks and nuns also use human bodies to make magical artifacts...

Based on past information, Buddhism appears to be an ancient civilization specializing in the extraordinary physical body.

This created a huge contradiction with the understanding of Wu Pifu, Xu Shilan, and Huang Rong, but before Beelzebub revealed it, the three of them were completely unaware of it.

Even Beelzebub seemed somewhat confused: "Wait a minute, Buddhism's forte in transcending the ordinary is the physical path, and their six realms of reincarnation and the five signs of decay in gods are also based on the physical path. Yes, I'm not wrong, Buddhism is indeed most skilled in physical transcendence, but... White Lotus, and many other Buddhists I knew before, they told me... no, after they said that, they seemed to quickly change their tune. No, the information I investigated is wrong too... my memory is wrong..."

Beelzebub muttered to herself for a long time, when Wu Pifu interrupted her, saying, "Alright, stop worrying about it. We can talk about idealism and consciousness-only later. Now that we've encountered this dream, but there's nothing else going on, and we can't figure out what the dream's omen is, do you think we should continue investigating?"

"of course yes!"

Xu Shilan, Huang Rong, and Beelzebub all said in unison, "What are you thinking? This is a Buddhist secret!"

Wu Pifu only asked a question. Although he was quite interested in this dream, he also knew that the Buddhist secret treasure was extremely rare. It was the most precious treasure in the entire dream world, so he naturally did not want to give it up.

Nothing was said that day, and the group spent the night in this rare and naturally abundant fragment of the world. The next day, they got up early, and after getting ready, Wu Pifu led them to the void to sense it. Then, pointing in the direction of the two sandalwood beads, they took a step forward regardless of whether it was deathly stillness, life, or a strange aura.

Perhaps it was because of his previous dream, but Wu Pifu felt a little hazy about the fact that he had been in this broken realm for ten days. Although he remembered every fragment of the world he had explored, every world ruin he had walked through, and every monster he had fought, he still had a sense that his memories were not real.

At this moment, he didn't have time to think much. After confirming the direction, he took a step forward, and the group arrived at a ruin from the world fragment they had just been in.

This is yet another world remnant, and a very small one at that. The entire world is estimated to be less than 5,000 square meters, which is less than the size of a football field.

The ruins of this world should have been a completely devastated neighborhood with some building foundations, but it has been completely flattened into a street. There are many skeletons on the ground, most of them humanoid, but some skeletons are deformed, such as elongated skulls, multiple arm bones, and tail bones.

Just by looking at the scene, one can basically imagine what this world in the past went through. It was either like a biohazard or a large-scale mutation of the people. In short, this world was destroyed, and the ruins left behind tell the story of the despair of that time.

The area was clear at a glance, so there was nothing to explore. A few minutes later, Wu Pifu led everyone to the boundary of nothingness to continue sensing and moving forward.

The subsequent formation is nothing special; it consists of a large number of world fragments, with the occasional world fragment appearing with breathable air and a small amount of plants. However, nothing of value is encountered along the way. Pyramid-like tombstones encountered on the first day of arrival are extremely rare exceptions.

The day passed quickly, and as evening approached, Wu Pifu began to search for places with more life force, trying to find a place to set up camp. He searched for more than ten world fragments, but they were either world ruins or had extremely harsh environments. By almost nine o'clock at night, they still had not found a place to stay.

Of course, even setting aside Wu Pifu, Xu Shilan, Amadeus, and Huang Rong were physically strong enough to keep them awake for days and nights, so there was nothing for everyone to worry about.

Then, Wu Pifu discovered a place with relatively strong vitality. Although it was a bit far away, with his strength, he naturally didn't need to take a detour. With a surge of internal energy, the group quickly passed through the void and chaos, and arrived at the place in a short while.

What intrigued everyone was that this place was a desert, with yellow sand everywhere, and the area was quite large, at least several thousand square kilometers. However, this world, which had not a single plant in sight, was actually teeming with life.
"...Underground? Is that a human?"

With a slight sense, Wu Pifu immediately understood the reason for the abundant life force of this world fragment: there were signs of humanoid creatures underground in this desert, and his perception indicated that the underground structure was not a simple cave or pit, but something resembling a building.

The others were startled, then immediately overjoyed. Xu Shilan asked, "Are they intelligent life forms living in the Shattered Domain? Or a settlement? Remnants of a civilization?"

Huang Rong immediately asked, "Brother Ant, how many are there?"

Wu Pifu frowned and looked at the ground. After a few seconds, he said, "There aren't many people, only a little over a hundred... They've discovered us. There's a surveillance system on the surface, and they have high-tech weapons. Wait, we mean no harm, don't..."

As the voice spoke, dozens of turret-like structures emerged from the desert and began to shine brightly without warning.

In the blink of an eye, all the turrets exploded. Wu Pifu appeared behind these turrets. He reached out to the ground with a somewhat unpleasant expression. Through his further perception, he discovered that in addition to the more than one hundred intelligent beings in the building below, there were more than thirty other intelligent beings imprisoned, similar to experimental subjects.

The people below are very likely not human.

Before Wu Pifu could exert his strength, a thought message was suddenly transmitted to his and the others' minds.

"Mr. Wu, please do not attack. This is a branch base of my civilization. They are just fulfilling their duties. Now, I will have them open the entrance. Please do not damage my civilization's property, okay?"

Wu Pifu frowned; he had heard that voice before.

The voice of the only remaining individual from the contained civilization who once spoke to him!

This is... a containment research facility for a contained civilization?

(End of this chapter)