A Scroll of Infinite Glory

Chapter 308 Great Compassion Remains Untainted, Severing the Evil Body

Inside the border town prison of the united regime.

In a solitary cell, with an iron door, a small window, a bed, and a table, Dr. Jin Meng sat on the bed, looking down at her hands.

The warden had already sent someone to temporarily attach a pair of mechanical arms to him, but the presence of these mechanical arms also suppressed his spiritual power, allowing him to only move with the physical abilities of an average adult male.

Di-

The electronic lock on the iron gate was opened, and Fifth Mirror walked in.

"Hmm? Instead of taking me to the interrogation room today, Mr. Fifth came directly to see me. It seems he's finally determined to kill me."

Dr. Jin Meng wore a mocking smile. "It took you several days of effort to realize that you can't make me submit."

In fact, given his crimes, killing him on the spot would not have been a problem. The reason he was spared and even given arms was simply to take advantage of his research and development capabilities.

Although the data on the crystallization virus has been sent to several advanced laboratories of the United Nations regime, so far they have only been able to develop methods to stabilize the condition of infected individuals and prevent it from worsening. No one knows when they will be able to provide a complete cure.

Objectively speaking, Dr. Kim Mong's ability to develop the crystallizing virus on her own demonstrates a research capability that, if combined with the experimental personnel of the United Nations regime, would certainly be much more efficient in providing a cure.

The interrogations in recent times have all been conducted from this perspective, and some technical means have also been used, but unfortunately, no satisfactory results have been achieved. This Jin Meng is just too stubborn.

"I still want to give it a try."

Fifth Mirror asked, "Why do you harbor such deep hatred for psychic energy?"

Dr. Jin Meng immediately retorted, "I have no hatred for psychic powers at all; I just think what you've done is completely wrong."

"Psionic energy can exist in the hands of elites, and can be controlled by capable researchers and decisive adjudicators, but it should not exist among ordinary people, who are not even qualified to come into contact with psionic energy."

"The emergence of the phenomenon of spiritual disasters is clear evidence of this!"

Fifth Mirror frowned slightly, but said in a calm tone, "So, you're very knowledgeable about the development of the spiritual calamity?"

Dr. Jin Meng sneered: "Of course."

"In 2012 AD, the first spiritual disaster, the 'Bone Woman,' occurred in Japan, where psionic chips were beginning to become widespread."

"The atmosphere of folk ghosts and urban legends in Japanese culture is exceptionally strong. When the Bone Woman was causing trouble, the media initially thought that someone might be using technology to modify the human body to simulate ghost legends. Later, after experts staked out and captured and studied her, they discovered that she was an abnormal creature without a physical body, which originated from the emotions of ordinary people."

"After experiencing similar events, a large number of ordinary people accumulated their emotions over the years. With the help of the existence of psionic chips, these emotions were transmitted and gathered to create a group of mischievous spiritual beings."

"After the concept of spiritual disasters was formally proposed, similar events were quickly discovered all over the world: Beelzebub, a demon born from a long-standing aversion to dirty and chaotic environments; the dragon turtle, born from the unbearable burden of years of overtime and high-intensity work; and the giant wolf of the underworld, born from public anxiety about the security environment..."

"The spiritual disaster has accompanied humanity for three hundred years, causing countless losses to society. Even more than fifty years ago, during what was hailed as the most prosperous period for humanity, the spiritual disaster phenomenon could not be eradicated and was instead carried to the Martian ecosystem."

"I originally thought that after the great catastrophe, the public did not know how to reflect, and you should also have an opportunity to reflect. I did not expect that you would still promote the popularization of psionic chips and even continue to invest social resources to seek technological upgrades of psionic chips."

Jin Meng sneered repeatedly, her expression excited. She suddenly stood up and approached Fifth Mirror.

He was even taller than Fifth Mirror. "You disappointing bureaucrats are practically putting the people under your rule on a hot pot to steam. One day this pot will explode, and then it will be too late for you to regret it."

Fifth Mirror nodded: "I understand. So you see yourself as a hero."

Jin Meng stared at him: "I don't want any empty hero's title, but... I'm the one who's saving humanity!"

Fifth Mirror sighed deeply, his voice filled with sorrow, and murmured, "How could this have happened?"

Jin Meng was slightly taken aback when she saw his expression, then burst into laughter: "Don't try to be mysterious or put on airs. You can't sway me. Are you trying to say that you're sad about my talent? I can already guess what you're going to say."

Fifth Mirror closed his eyes: "I am grieving for myself; I am about to break my vow again."

boom! !

Jin Meng suddenly knelt on the ground, becoming much shorter than Fifth Mingjing. Her knees slammed hard against the ground, sending out sharp pains, and her whole body trembled.

Fifth Mirror slapped his head with his palm, his five fingers gripping the top of his head, pulling his hair and forcing his face to tilt upwards.

"It's no use!"

Even as she cried tears of pain, Jin Meng maintained a mocking expression on her face and said through gritted teeth, "No torture, no technique, can change the will of a Level 4 psychic."

That's right. Even with the most advanced technology, if it could barely control the mind of a Level 4 psionicist and hypnotize them, it would only result in a sleepwalking-like state, rendering them incapable of research and development. Anyone could tell at a glance that their expression was abnormal.

For a long time, there has been a saying in the spiritual practice of psionicists: "After entering the fourth level, the psionicist's determination is the most solid thing in the world."

Fifth Mirror lowered his head, his voice gentle: "Even Vajra can be destroyed, and even Bodhisattvas can regress, let alone a lump of karmic obstacles?"

His eyes remained closed, and his tone was flat, but suddenly a horizontal line appeared in the middle of his forehead, revealing a horizontal eye.

The moment Jin Meng saw those eyes, she suddenly felt a splitting headache, as if her brain was churning and something was gradually drilling out of her head.

That round little thing, which originally existed within the structure of the human head, was now pushing forward, squeezing out everything in its way, whether dry or wet, painful or numb, soft or hard.

Until the last thin barrier is torn apart.

"ah!!!"

Amidst Jin Meng's screams, a small gash appeared on her forehead, the wound opening wide to reveal her black eyeballs.

The third eye.

Even amidst this excruciating pain, Jin Meng felt her vision suddenly expand.

The eye on his forehead met the third eye of Fifth Mirror.

In that instant, all the pain vanished. Jin Meng felt her spirit rise and detach from her body, plunging into the vast and unknowable heights.

Everything around him was changing; he was no longer in the cell.

Suddenly opening her eyes, Jin Meng heard her own crying and saw a huge figure in front of her.

The giant's face was terrifying; it had only one pair of eyes, and the lower half of its face was completely bald and had a bluish tinge.

No, that's not right. It was just an ordinary adult, a nurse wearing a mask.

He himself became a baby.

He was born in a border hospital of the coalition government and grew up to become a doctor there.

His psychic potential isn't particularly high, but even at the first level, it's enough to grant him a powerful memory, making him capable of many tasks.

Compared to the distant past when there were no psychic powers, this generation, with their powerful memories, can save a lot of energy on repetitive reading and rote memorization during their schooling. Subjects such as history, law, and chemistry are much easier for them.

After graduation, he became an ordinary doctor with a decent income and started dating.

That day, he was preparing for his date that evening when suddenly, a strange noise came from behind the hospital.

It seems something on the cell tower exploded, and the virus spread along with the noise.

He saw his colleague fall suddenly in panic, his knee joint swollen, with bluish-purple crystals, and his trouser leg burst open.

Startled, he jumped to his feet. Should he call the police? Activate the hospital alarm? Call his parents? Tell his girlfriend?

His disordered thoughts suddenly made his head feel heavy, and his head throbbed with pain. When he reached up to touch it, he felt a hard crystal on the back of his head.

He was so frightened that he ran out of the office and collapsed at the hospital entrance. In his last moment of consciousness, he saw two men and a woman walking past on the road outside the hospital.

A tall man in a tracksuit, a woman in a white baseball cap, and a man in the middle wearing glasses.

The bespectacled man was confident, relaxed, even elegant, with an outstanding temperament. He strolled leisurely, seemingly carrying a sense of mission to save all living beings.

For some reason, he stared at the person in the middle and suddenly realized where the crystallization virus was coming from.

"I don't know him... Why, why did he want to hurt us?"

The young doctor lay face down on the ground, his body filthy, unable to utter a single word; he was dead.

He opened his eyes again and was born in the province of Indra.

He grew up here in a relatively wealthy family. From a young age, he was influenced by his surroundings and worked hard, hoping to obtain the qualification of a psychic before he turned eighteen.

He wasn't particularly intelligent than others, but with his parents' encouragement and his elders' expectations, he studied for two hours more and did five more practice tests every day, sleeping only four hours a day. Finally, at the age of seventeen, he received a mission: in just two more months, he would be qualified to undergo "baptism" and obtain a psionic chip.

But at that very moment, war broke out.

Lord Sukaruna, leading an army of 100,000 monks and 300,000 intelligent mechanical troops, crossed the Burmese mountains and launched an overwhelming offensive against the united regime north of the Burmese mountains.

The coalition government suffered defeat after defeat, and news programs featured daily reports of victories from the front lines and interviews with a major contributor.

Dr. Jin Meng contributed his "Bodhi Crystal" technology, enabling Hachiyoin to mass-produce and deploy it.

Under the rule of the United Regime, all those who were sinners who had stolen spiritual energy but were not qualified for baptism encountered the Bodhi Crystal. Countless people wept bitterly, fell ill and fainted. Those who were not infected were also filled with fear, which gave rise to many spiritual disasters.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Sukara raised an army and advanced rapidly. The other three mountain lords joined the war one after another. The Grand Master, Nichiren Sekai, had been fighting against the leader of the united regime for a long time. All places needed a huge amount of war resources.

At the age of seventeen, he obtained a psionic chip. From then on, he could simply sit at home, turn prayer wheels, and upload the data to the psionic network. However, he had to turn the wheels for twenty-three hours a day. Any slackness would be recorded by military law, and he would be subject to punishment.

He didn't know the final outcome for those important figures on the front lines, because he died suddenly in the fourth month of the war.

I remember back then, the media was still promoting Dr. Jin Meng's newly developed technology, and he spoke eloquently about it.

"Once the new technology is put into use, it is foreseeable that the Eight Leaves will unify the world, and we will usher in a new era for humanity..."

He opened his eyes again; the day he was born was 2012 AD...

The Fifth Mirror watched all of this with its "Great Compassion Unblemished Heavenly Eye".

He brought Jinmeng a hundred new lives, watching that old, arrogant delusion, from its glorious, solid human form, be distorted by the impact, screaming in pain and resentment, until it was twisted into a pile of ashes.

A new idea is born from the ashes, inheriting everything from the past, yet different from it.

Jin Meng's trembling body calmed down at some point, and the third eye on her forehead rolled around before gradually closing.

Fifth Mirror withdrew his hand and closed his Heavenly Eye, opening his original eyes.

Jin Meng clasped her hands together and shed two streams of tears.

Everything I had experienced before was so vivid in my memory, whether it was people or things, as if it were a true reincarnation.

But upon returning to the cell, a series of data and observations flooded Jin Meng's mind.

The birth of a spiritual disaster is that people have suffered similar persecution. The fault does not lie with the victims. Even spiritual disasters such as the dragon turtle, apart from making all people and things sluggish and sleepy, do not cause any casualties.

Furthermore, it was precisely because of the existence of the spiritual disaster that the various regimes before the cataclysm placed greater emphasis on taking into account the people's livelihood in their development plans.

The reason why psionic energy has become the mainstream of scientific and technological research is because psionic energy is the most likely way to quickly solve problems in the field of human technology.

Without psychic abilities, even today, human society's education, social security, elderly care, and other aspects would likely still be progressing at a snail's pace, or even regressing from time to time.

On the contrary, people are very enthusiastic about war-related technologies, even without psionic abilities; the existence of intelligent mechanical troops is the best example.

If psionic energy were to disappear entirely from Earth, the power of intelligent machines would be enough to wipe out humanity on the surface several times over.

On the other hand, the united regime has focused on gene technology for the past fifty years, and has upgraded its psionic chips to have the effect of optimizing genes.

The general public's ability to control their psychic powers is getting stronger with each generation, and the phenomenon of "psychic disasters" within the territory of the united regime has actually been greatly reduced.

If there are problems with the technology, improvement is the right way. If we throw the baby out with the bathwater, then humanity will not be able to go back to the primitive era. After all, primitive people could throw spears, which was a terrifying technology that far surpassed that of any other species at the same time.

I'm afraid I'll have to revert to a form like a paramecium to be sure I don't have the ability to destroy myself.

These were things that the old Jin Meng knew, but he had already made his own choice, finding excuses for his own gain. These excuses fueled his obsession, making things half true and half false. All the realistic factors, though they were heard, did not take to heart.

"I made a huge mistake..."

Jin Meng bowed down before Fifth Mirror, weeping bitterly, "I wish I could die right now!"

Fifth Mirror helped him up: "If you die now, can it be considered repentance?"

Jin Meng suddenly realized: "I should research a solution to save everyone."

Fifth Mingjing nodded, led him out of the cell, and had someone send him to conduct collaborative research.

Outside the prison gate, Yan Zhen walked over, clasped his hands together, and said with a smile, "Congratulations, Master Mingjing, for clearing another person's sins."

Yan Zhen stood next to Fifth Mirror and looked at the aircraft that had sent Jin Meng away. He said, "Great Compassion Untainted, truly wondrous. If you were to say that I could destroy a mind or change a personality, I could do that too, but that would definitely damage some memories, affect inspiration, and destroy the foundation of spiritual energy. Like him, it seems that he has truly repented, and he is not affected in any other aspects. Only you can do that."

Fifth Mingjing sighed: "I have broken my vow again. I should abstain from food, drink, sleep, and speech for three days in meditation. Please ask Elder Yan to send someone to supervise me."

Yan Zhen said, "Why do you have to do this? The World-Honored One went to the Himalayas to practice asceticism, and used his alms bowl to imprison Shiva. One day, he broke the golden bowl and Avalokiteshvara jumped out. You have cut off sins and accomplished good deeds. It is a good deed and should not be regarded as a sin."

Fifth Mirror smiled and said, "Elder Yan has thoroughly studied the three teachings and transcended them. With no attachments in his heart, he has no fear. I, on the other hand, am just an ordinary person. I should use precepts to restrain myself. It would be fine if I were just killing an evil person, but to alter one's mind in this way is like being a demon. If I start this, I fear I might fall into depravity one day."

Yan Zhen waved his hand and said, "Then go ahead. When my genetic information becomes more advanced, I will definitely invite Gautama to have a chat with you someday."

"Would the enlightened one really come to advise me? If he does, then he is merely an incarnation of Master Yan."

Fifth Mingjing flicked his prayer beads, put his hands behind his back, and slowly left.

"By the way, Mr. Yan, please keep a close eye on Mr. Guan's situation over the next three days."

Yan Zhen pondered, "He won't be in such a hurry within three days. If it can be delayed a little longer, after Jin Meng has cured the infected, perhaps we can use the crystallized virus to try and research it in the direction I mentioned."

Yan Zhen had no reservations about using the technology that had previously threatened his own company.

"Adapting to changing times is the right approach. As the situation here changes slightly, our plans also change. I just wonder if Brother Guan will have any new plans besides assassination once he gets there?"

(End of this chapter)