Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Within the Jade Palace of the Kunlun Mountain, Meng Qi was sitting upright on the Cloud Bed. He was surrounded by the rising fog as though he was heading to a universe filled with despair and oppression.
With the help of the Hao Tian Mirror Fragment, he went through the many worlds via Spiritual Wander. He had noticed something strange at the Old Universe where he left the Myriad World Talisman. There seemed to be tattered remains of Ananda, the Devil Buddha’s reflected self, the Little Mustache of the Reversed Buddha’s Palm!
This seemed to imply something conspicuous. After some thought, Meng Qi began to investigate, worried that the Devil Buddha had already escaped!
The Old Universe was different from the typical universe. In the Old Universe, its nature was similar to the Real World. It was like a world within the thirty six ancient wells outside of the Jade Palace. The capability of the six great Devil Gods was almost on par with the Creator Brahma and was only slightly less than the Legendary level. Furthermore, the Core of Chaos, Universal Being, and Mother God of Darkness were even equipped with features from the Nirvana Realm. They were undeniably strong opponents. More importantly, they seemed to be the negative projections of some Nirvana Realm Individuals and Great Mediums who were brimming with chaos, bloodlust, and insanity, transforming the universe into a complete world of despair and oppression. Once any outsider was involved, problems were bound to arise.
Moreover, the Core of Chaos was highly likely to be the Heavenly Lord Yuanshi’s Evil Reflected Self. Although the Lord had never been sensible, the Lord had an instinctive desire for the Principles of Karma. If he engaged in the investigation personally, he would very likely be coveted by Heavenly Lord Yuanshi. That would consequently put him at risk.
Hence, Meng Qi decided to apply a relatively indirect approach to investigate the case. Publicly, he would approach the Faceless Pharaoh who he had previously worked with to incarnate as a common human and fake his death. This would turn the heads of the Demon Gods, distracting them with the actions of the Faceless Pharoah. In actual fact, it was to create the Eye of Desire in order to fulfill the hopes of the Karma and utilize the Arts of Two Pristines to influence Gu Liang to investigate the matter of the Anti-Buddhist Sect.
The plan was very basic. Yet, the Demon Gods, other than the Faceless Pharaoh, had very simple minds and were easily fooled. On the other hand, the Evil Wise Man, Warden of the Maze of Time and Space and Door of All Doors, could be disregarded as he was in fact Meng Qi’s projection.
The Myriad World Talisman from before had been picked up by the human incarnation of the Faceless Pharaoh. It had been quite a smooth partnership between the two. With the Faceless Pharaoh’s help, Meng Qi had successfully built the image of the Door of All Doors that was intended to travel across infinite time and space and was later deemed as one of the seven great Demon Gods. As he was about to fine-tune the image to make it resemble closely to the Devil Buddha’s Stamp of Additional Self, it was then that he uncovered the existence of the Reversed Buddha’s Palm.
Despite a pleasant partnership, conflict still resided. For instance, the Faceless Pharaoh’s human incarnation, who was a fraudster, frequently sold counterfeits in the Myriad World Mall or swindled them through exchange groups. As a result, the incarnation was executed countless times by system of the Heaven’s Punishment. However, he would quickly come back to live, healthy and strong. This only ended when Meng Qi sealed him up.
The condition to their partnership this time was to undo this seal!
If he had the audacity to repeat his mistake, Meng Qi would not spare him anymore!
According to Gu Liang’s investigation, Meng Qi could roughly grasp the significance of the whole incident. After loosening up the seal, the Devil Buddha had apparently bailed him here in order to escape. Besides that, he even attempted to create a new reflected self to leave himself road for retreat and break out of the shell of the golden cicada. Therefore, the story of the Little Mustache of Reversed Buddha’s Palm was created three hundred years ago. At the same time, Buddhism was vanquished and the culture of the Far East plummeted as the Fall of Thousand Buddha was used directly to overthrow the Supreme Emperor of the Old Universe. He became the new Demon God who seemed to appear only via projections.
Unfortunately, due to the existence of Gautama Buddha’s seal, the Reversed Buddha’s Palm could never turn into a true reflected self of the Devil Buddha. With more than two hundred years of unceasing efforts, he repeatedly found the Anti-Buddhist Sect and eventually created a rough form of it. However, it was at this point when Meng Qi destroyed the energy of the Devil Buddha to unleashed himself from then seal, causing the production of the reflected self to be halted abruptly. This was also the reason the Anti-Buddha had not answered any prayer since decades ago.
The Anti-Buddhist Sect followed the oracles of the previous Anti-Buddha and spent tens of years of hard work to attempt to revive him. As a result, they were close to achieving the black and red reverse swastika. This benefited Meng Qi. The moment his Door of All Doors devoured the stamp, it could instantly turn it into a real Imprint of Additional Self and required no touch-ups. This implied that it was able to absorb all the three hundred years of hard work of the Devil Buddha within a blink of an eye.
Things were going smoothly as Gu Liang snuck into Villa No. 9. When the Faceless Pharaoh distracted the attention of the Demon Gods away from him, he successfully approached the sacrificial altar. That allowed the explosion of the image of Meng Qi’s Door of All Doors between the illusionary and real world, consume the black red reverse swastika and complete the transformation.
The coachman who sent Gu Liang to New Scotland Yard appeared like a common person who only believed in God. However, he was in fact a surveillant sent by the Fallen God to spy on the police station. If the Eye of Desire had not covered Gu Liang up, he would have become a dried corpse by now.
…
As the carriage passed by the street, Gu Liang was dwelling in deep thought as he studied the pedestrians on the street. Some of the passersby were in suits and shirts, some were wearing traditional Chinese gowns, some had gauze hats and long dresses, and some were walking around while lifting their dresses. Every person held their respective appeal and charm and the diversity carried the aura of the modern day.
Before long, he arrived at a restaurant. As Gu Liang got off his carriage, he noticed a familiar figure on a motorcycle that was skidding toward him.
“Gu Liang, it’s been a while. It’s been almost a year since you disappeared without a trace,” the man was Chen Yu, Gu Liang’s classmate in the police academy. Back then, they were pretty close. However, due to some incidents, Gu Liang had lost the spirit to keep in touch with his peers and their friendship had eventually faded away.
Gu Liang contained his perturbed expression and forced a smile, “Ah, Yu, have you been deployed to the Patrol Police Department? The one under the New Scotland Yard or the district?”
The Far East Region consisted of thirteen provinces and seven special areas. All of the students of the police academy yearned to stay at the headquarters at the New Scotland Yard or within the city and were unwilling to be deployed to other districts or provinces. With his exceptional grades in all subjects except for shooting, Gu Liang was picked to be a trainee officer at the New Scotland Yard alongside Chen Yu. However, both of them were assigned to different departments.
“Ah, I have left the Patrol Police Department and I’m now working as the head of the Patrol Department in Yanghe District,” Chen Yu heaved a deliberate sigh, apparently boasting.
“Well, that’s not bad,” Gu Liang replied nonchalantly. His attention had evidently drifted away.
Chen Yu coughed as he rubbed his chevron with his right hand. There were two arrow-shaped badges which signified that he was now a high-ranking officer.
It was the anniversary gathering between his peers from the police academy who were working in the New Scotland Yard and the city. Gu Liang decided to join them just so that he could pass time.
Looking at Chen Yu’s act, Gu Liang chuckled, “That’s great! You have been promoted only after a year of joining the force!”
“It’s just a small accomplishment,” Chen Yu said conceitedly while he grinned. He then said with a muffled voice, “Rumor says that Hong Wanzhang has got a lot of benefits thanks to his superintendent daddy. Today, he’s the Head Officer of the Criminal Forensics Department. Tsk, what luck.”
“It’s never a good thing to compare,” Gu Liang put on a faint smile. The old him would have been disheartened by this news, but things have changed now.
Chen Yu parked and locked his bike before entering the restaurant together with Gu Liang. It was already bustling with their peers and colleagues. There were men and women, many were wearing chevrons that indicated their high rankings. Everyone was in a jovial mood of chatter.
“Gu Liang, you have been missing for a year. Do you think your classmates are despicable?” a female colleague, who was assigned to the Human Resources Team of the Administration Supportive Department, called out as a jest without much thought of what she had said.
Yet, the other peers did not see that as a joke. They seconded jointly, “Yes! Gu Liang, where have you been for the past year? If Fang Yu did not insist to be able to find you, we wouldn’t have invited you.”
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“I got involved with a major case and have been occupied with it for the entire year,” Gu Liang spoke the truth.
Just then, a plump man wiggled his fingers and blurted, “Yo, we have a genius among us now. Someone has been recently transferred and somehow gotten his hands onto a big case. He must have been put in a lot of hard work into it. How many ranks have you got yourself promoted?”
The voices fell as he strapped on his chevron. A stream of giggles followed.
Fang Yu from the Human Resource Department, twitched her face inconspicuously and explained hurriedly, “Gu Liang was right. He has been occupied by a huge case for the whole year. He has already been promoted. I reckon he is a senior inspector now.”
She looked at Gu Liang in uncertainty.
Senior inspector? Hong Wanzhang, Chen Yu and everyone else were astonished.
Where did a high-level inspector stand? Well, he stood very high in the middle of the entire police rank!
Many of the officers who had endured an eternity of hardship could only manage to achieve at most as an inspector.
It has only been a year and Gu Liang has been promoted to a senior inspector?
It seemed as though Gu Liang had finally recovered the humor of a normal human being. He grinned as he revealed his chevron. It was not a star patch but a crown-shaped one with his police ID etched beside it.
A crown? Hong Wanzhang stood up abruptly. Shoulder badges like this were not an uncommon sight to him as his father owned one.
He is a superintendent!
In just a year, Gu Liang had been promoted to a superintendent!
Even Fang Yu was shocked and dumbfounded at this unexpected turn of events.
Gu Liang chuckled and navigated himself to an empty seat. He shrugged, “It was an extensively big case.”
He actually enjoyed it as his peers gawked at him.
This felt almost as if he was cultivating his little universe.
…
After the party ended, Gu Liang entered the carriage amid the earnest farewell of his peers and colleagues. He wore a pleased smile on his face as the carriage was driven away from the crowd.
When he returned to the villa, two armored knights approach him and greeted him respectfully,
“Welcome, Hierarchy.”
Gu Liang rubbed his forehead and exclaimed, “You are dismissed.”
After that incident, aside from being a superintendent of the Special Operations Division, he was also the Hierarchy of the Anti-Buddhist Sect.
He entered through the metal gates and strode into the villa. With a glass of red wine in his hand, Gu Liang overlooked the garden and the lawn.
There was a group of disciples of the Anti-Buddhist Sect who were dancing to the Seventh Set of Radio Calisthenic. The gore and brutality from before were gone. On the other side, the elder ladies from the congregation were moving along to a piece of unique music coming from the gramophone.
“You are my small, small apple…”
Upon hearing the song, Gu Liang buried his face in his hands and secretly sighed in disappointment.
I’m a superintendent who is admired by his peers. How did I become the Hierarchy of a cult?
Worse, the cult that was basically a joke!
What is the Door of All Doors doing? It converted the Anti-Buddhist Sect into a useless and harmless assembly!
Gu Liang felt himself sinking into depression at the thought of assembling them everyday from the Far East District.
At the very least, there was still comfort from the little universe…
…
As the reflected self of the combination of the Anti-Buddha and the Door of All Doors returned to its position, Meng Qi was swamped by darkness as he continued the Spiritual Wander.