New concept of the mysterious way to ascend to immortality

Chapter 185 Is this the [Gods' Space Squad]?
As the ground trembled violently, the surrounding air seemed to boil, and strange sounds, both near and far, flooded the mind, corroding the spirit like a deadly poison.

Upon closer listening, each word of these "Zen sounds" is indistinct, like the incoherent babbling of a hysteric person, neither clear nor understandable.

However, if you give up delving into these details and treat these "Zen sounds" as background noise, you may unexpectedly have a sudden enlightenment and understand some Buddhist teachings.

The Zen-like voice that Yuan Zhu was hearing at that moment was advising him to open his heart and actively seek and accept the "Buddha's Cocoon," integrating it into his very being. Only then could he enjoy great freedom and happiness, comprehend the secret method of attaining Buddhahood in this very life, and experience countless kinds of joy...

Unfortunately, this kind of erosion was quite insignificant to him now. Before these 'sound viruses' could spread in the spiritual world, they activated the [Soul Crystal] first.

Before the [Soul Firewall] could act, a 'Holy Light Mental Field' was created in the mind to protect the soul from pollution and erosion.

The wondrous sounds of Buddhist teachings and Zen meditation receded like the tide, allowing him to maintain his rationality and remain unaffected in his judgment.

"Hmm...why does it feel less intense than the sounds from the Misty Mountains?"

Little Spicy Strip: "Because you didn't turn on the blocking function at all while you were on the bus, but instead cooperated fully with receiving mental pollution? And now with the [Zen Sound], you instinctively hate the [Buddha Maggot], so you subconsciously chose to resist it."

The tremors on the floor beneath his feet gradually subsided, but the air still seemed to be boiling, with a lingering 'Buddhist aura' spreading through it. Yuan Zhu ignored these 'things' and instead looked at his two temporary teammates.

A fleeting energy fluctuation appeared on Meng Xiyue's body, actively clearing and shielding away the 'Zen Sound Pollution'. As for A Miao, she did not show any adverse reactions from beginning to end.

Yuan Zhu: "What happened just now..."

Meng Xiyue: "There are some high-ranking Buddhist monks causing trouble. Perhaps they are fighting? Or maybe they are attacking the vault's defense system to rob it? But we can tell that they are quite far away from us. We chose the right direction to escape!"

Yuan Zhu: "Next, shall we continue to move away from the direction from which this 'Zen sound' is coming? Let's find another safe spot and wait for rescue."

A-Miao objected, tossing the small pumpkin in her palm: "You're too passive. You should continue as you are now, seeking out some more valuable gifts from fate."

Meng Xiyue recalled the 'internal map' she had just seen, and after a simple analysis using the [Skull Servo], she had an idea: "Ha! I've thought of a good place, come with me."

Trusting her, Yuan Zhu and the other person, who had just finished washing the living room, decided to follow. Before long, the three of them went up the stairs to the second floor, and after a series of twists and turns, finally stopped outside a room with a locked door.

Yuan Zhu glanced at the sign on the door: "Monitoring Room".

Meng Xiyue: "Correct! Break down the door quickly so I can take a good look at the records stored in the [monitoring room]. Maybe we can find the cause of the incident. If the [bank's] surveillance system is still functioning, we can still see what's happening right now."

Ah Miao gave her a thumbs up, then pulled out her gun and fired without saying a word, smashing the door lock.

Yuan Zhu, like a little spicy snack, praised him from the side, saying, "You're such a little genius, you even figured this out, awesome!" Then he kicked open the door.

Meng Xiyue walked in, basking in the praise, and exclaimed, "Ah, look, how familiar this taste is!"

Yuan Zhu peeked over and followed the gaze, then discovered a great treasure. A gigantic head of an unknown creature, at least 3 meters tall, with pale green skin, was placed in the center of the room.

Around this head were other alien creature heads of varying sizes, interconnected by a bunch of wires, blood vessels, and nerve tentacles, looking incredibly bizarre.

The room was enormous, yet there wasn't a single 'screen display' in sight; it was filled with heads of all sizes. He looked up behind him and saw a row of rat heads with their eyelids removed, staring blankly into the ceiling above him.

"I go!"

Although he knew perfectly well that these heads were all "skull servos" processed by the "Knowledge School," Yuan Zhu still couldn't help but feel his sanity soar, his hair stand on end, and a chill run down his spine upon suddenly entering a room filled with such bizarre heads.

Meng Xiyue showed no discomfort whatsoever. Instead, she rubbed her hands together with great interest and went to the largest 'landed head'. After touching it a few times, she picked up a helmet-like object from the table next to her and put it on her head.

He kept muttering to himself, "Let me see what happened!"

Meng Xiyue closed her eyes and, in a way that Yuan Zhu couldn't comprehend, began to caress the back of his pale green, bald head. It was like a hair salon girl giving a shampoo and massage, or a middle school student muttering curses while skillfully using a mouse.

She was currently staring at the 'operation interface (【Magic Network】)' in the spiritual world, connecting with the 【Skull Servo】, and clicking back and forth in the air with her five fingers.

Soon, at the top of the wall behind Yuan Zhu, the largest rat head in the row of neat rows suddenly emitted a bright light in its eyes. It converted the information transmitted from the skull servo into signals that the [Rat Head Player] could recognize and process, and finally transformed it into an image in the form of 'gaze'.

[True. Rat-Eyed Light] Live Broadcast! It gave the originally terrifying room filled with heads a bit of the feel of a [monitoring room].

...

At this moment, the projection on the wall only shows images, not sound, and the images are somewhat distorted.

This was his first time experiencing the 'Rat-Head Player' up close, and the image was completely different from that of Earth's video recorders. There was no static in the projection; instead, it used a dreamlike state or the meaningless distortion of a mentally ill person's image to replace the absence of 'recording.' After a series of incomprehensible distortions, the projected video gradually became clear.

This is a bird's-eye view, presumably from the interior of the first floor of a bank. Four individuals with distinct abilities are visible in one corner of the frame. At their feet lie four ordinary people who appear to be their companions.

As soon as the projection started, the eight people were already inside the bank, with the surrounding staff all asleep in their seats or lying on the ground.

Of the four ability users, the most striking is the dark-skinned, muscular monster, large and conspicuous, even stronger than the butcher of the "Happy House." Next is a "pumpkin-headed" figure clad in plant-based armor, clearly an alien.

Next was a well-proportioned and equally strong red-haired barbarian, but with an oriental-style hairstyle and clothing that had a touch of Taoist and martial arts flair. Finally, there was a short man wearing a cloak and a mechanical helmet.

What were they trying to determine first? Then they had a conversation and discussion, and then they began to "awaken" their four unconscious companions, followed by another rough explanation.

The four ordinary people, two men and two women, initially showed distrust after regaining consciousness. They shook their heads and refused to cooperate. After being forcibly educated, the one with the pumpkin head snapped his fingers at the four of them.

A simple suit of armor woven from green vines was forcibly donned on the four people, manipulating their bodies and forcing them to stand up. The four ordinary people shouted and screamed in protest, but to no avail; their bodies were forcibly controlled by the armor.

At this moment, the cloaked figure whose head was covered by a mechanical helmet seemed to be saying something. However, the image was affected and not clear, so it was impossible to understand what the other person was saying. But the other three teammates seemed to be listening attentively.

This scene felt strangely familiar; Yuan Zhu felt as if he had seen it somewhere before.

He looked at Ah Miao, who was also observing intently beside him, and asked, "Do you think these people might be robbers?"

A-Miao wore a thoughtful and interested expression, as if she were playing some kind of puzzle game, and replied to Yuan Zhu, "I don't see any of them who look like high-ranking monks from the 'Buddhist sect.' Four ability users who know each other well and cooperate tacitly; and four ordinary people who look unremarkable, don't know each other, and show obvious distrust. An interesting combination, isn't it? I feel like I've heard of it somewhere before?"

Yes! It feels familiar too, isn't that the standard setup of the [Space of Gods]?
Through the projected image, he saw one of the 'newcomers' roll up his sleeves with a look of distrust after listening to the senior's explanation, and look at a certain 'rune mark' on the inside of his arm.

Then he remembered that the [Happy Home] seemed to have something similar. This setup was basically a [Demon God] sending the team into the [Real World] for a mission trial.

A-Miao suddenly said, "Ah! It's the [Space of Gods]! I've heard similar stories before! Interesting."

Yuan Zhu was also intrigued, and despite the lack of sound, he still wanted to see what would happen next. However, the video feed cut off as soon as the group of eight left the room where the 'rat-head monitor' was located.

Meng Xiyue didn't seem to uncover the next surveillance footage of the 'perfectly connected time'. Instead, Yuan Zhu and A Miao were forced to watch the distorted, brainwashing color blocks shift...

During the tedious wait, the two began exchanging information: "Miaomiao, with your extensive experience, can you judge the quality of these four ability users? I noticed that one of them, a pumpkin-headed individual, happens to be the same race as the one behind the [Astral Bank]. Could this be a 'robbery' orchestrated by an internal employee?"

A-Miao analyzed, "Why couldn't it be a special security team? Along the way, you've seen a lot of corpses of ability users controlled by the [Buddha Cocoon]. There should be two parties involved in this incident. The [Astral Bank] is just the venue; one side is the Buddhist forces, and the other side is this assembled team. As for these four people, it's hard to judge the red-haired one's system, but judging from his physique and demeanor, he seems to be a martial artist. The alien pumpkin people's abilities should revolve around racial advantages. That black strongman looks a lot like a frog-type ability user who [proves the Dao through strength]. The final mechanical helmet should be related to [mechanical, alchemical, and steam-based] abilities."

In their judgment, this strange eight-person team should have nothing to do with the Astral Bank, and the existence of Pumpkin Head was probably just a coincidence.

The hole they crawled through into the bank was likely made by this group. Furthermore, this group didn't seem to intend to rob the bank; judging from the traces they left behind, they were heading straight for the 'Buddhist entity'.

They forged through mountains and built bridges over rivers without stopping for a moment, blasting holes in walls without leaving a trace of robbery, and fought their way from inside the bank to the outer business area. At the same time, they physically destroyed all the 'Buddha Cocoon' hosts they encountered, sending them to their deaths.

Before the two had talked for long, Meng Xiyue dug up new information.

This time, the projection was extremely short. It showed a spacious corridor, with thick walls suddenly shattering and splintering from within, followed by the gradual dissipation of a translucent, fiery claw-like power device.

The shortest man in the cape and mechanical helmet emerged from the hole, and then the circular hole was punched and partially collapsed, revealing a muscular black man with exaggerated physiques.

Then came the red-haired barbarian, the pumpkin-headed man, and four reluctant, ordinary teammates whose expressions betrayed their nervousness and fear.

Then, a series of 'emerald spears' flew towards them, only to be intercepted by a 'semi-energy behemoth' that appeared out of nowhere. This behemoth's body was wreathed in flames, its overall form sometimes solid and sometimes ethereal, much like a ghost, and it stood in front of the mechanical helmet.

After the energy behemoth imprisoned the spear, another foreigner with red hair in a bun bent over slightly to gather strength, then accelerated away from the screen with a super speed boost, returning more than ten seconds later.

Next, it was Pumpkin Head's turn to act, though Rat Head's surveillance didn't record its actions. But soon, three 'identical' Pumpkin Head security guards from the [Astral Bank] joined the group like mindless puppets, picking up the 'Jade Polishing Spear' from the ground and becoming cannon fodder security guards, following the four newcomers.

At the end of the scene, the same giant energy beast wreathed in flames suddenly swung its fist and slammed it into the wall, creating an explosion. It then controlled the direction of the 'explosion,' transmitting it all to the other side of the wall, creating a splash effect.

A-Miao: "I'm not sure about the others, but the one wearing the helmet should be a [Steam] ability user, from the Classical Alchemy School. The 'Flame Beast' he summoned should be a [Steam Totem]. It was popular in Running for a while, but it has now been incorporated into the [Industrial God Kingdom], so it's not very common now."

Yuan Zhu: "【Steam Totem】? This thing is already obsolete?"

A-Miao: "That's right! [Steam Totems] are portable spiritual entities created by humans by combining [steam engines and alchemy]. The current mainstream is to further elevate [Steam Totems], build factories for them, perform ascension offerings, incorporate concepts such as [brand names], create assembly lines, and create an [industrial deity]. The advantage of this type of classical [Steam Totem] is that it is simpler and more stable, and can move with the individual, allowing them to carry and release power with them."

(End of this chapter)