Volume 3, Chapter 106 – Advance

Outside, in the main world.

Aurora held the medical report Master Guangyuan had brought her. After reading for a while, she looked up and asked, “So including you, every one of you has some strange creature living inside your spine, feeding on your blood and essence?”

Guangyuan nodded. “Exactly.”

The three promised checkup units had already been delivered. He had personally overseen it, having the thousand monks of Tiger-Subduing Temple pass in front of the machines one by one, and the result they found was horrifying.

Aurora looked back down at the report and saw that the marked unknown organism was extremely tiny. If not for the fact that this set of equipment from Starwater Company had been designed specifically for puppet worms—divine-vein demons—and every index was cutting-edge, an ordinary hospital might not have detected anything at all.

“According to Daoist Bai’s conjecture, this is a sequela of the Black Heaven Dharma.” Guangyuan lowered his head and chanted a Buddha’s name. “I want to persuade them to abandon this heretical Dharma. I ask for your help, donor.”

The little old man looked honest enough, but in truth he was quite good at currying favor.

Aurora did not think much of Guangyuan, but for Bai Xiang’s sake she still forced herself to agree.

Of the thousand monks at Tiger-Subduing Temple, most had been chanting the Black Heaven Dharma for years and were now “core believers.” Extracting the parasites from their spines would not be hard, but getting them to abandon the heretical Dharma would, under normal circumstances, be very difficult.

Only Aurora, with a giant corporation at her back and countless means at her disposal, could treat their “Buddha addiction.” Compared to that, those internet-addiction boot camps were child’s play, not even worth mentioning.

So she did not find it troublesome. Her agreement was mainly for “Daoist Bai’s,” for “Big Sister Bai’s” sake.

Thinking of Bai Xiang, Aurora felt her body grow warm even though she was sitting in a wheelchair. Her thighs rubbed together unconsciously under her long skirt.

She had a morbid obsession with Bai Xiang. She did not know this was Bai Xiang’s beauty and herIllusory God working together. These days, whenever she rested, her thoughts drifted to Bai Xiang for no reason. Sometimes she even had outrageous dreams and had to shower after waking up.

The feeling only grew stronger over time. Even when Bai Xiang left, taking away the “blood-crystal” stone that could relieve her pain without sparing a thought for her feelings, Aurora did not resent Bai Xiang. Every time the pain washed through her, she felt she was suffering in Bai Xiang’s place, and there was a faint sweetness in her heart, a sense that she was helping Bai Xiang.

Reаԁ οn ΚаtRеαdіnɡCafе

After Master Guangyuan left, Aurora received another video call from her father.

“The signal is getting worse and worse.” Lori Aurora’s face appeared on the screen. “Those things have seized a large number of orbital satellites and stations. Their goal isn’t destruction, it’s control.”

“It’s that serious?” Aurora was shaken.

She had thought it was just a large-scale internal breach, the same kind of thing as “some bio lab’s test subject escaping and going on a rampage for revenge,” only on a frighteningly wide scale and with suspected traitors organizing it from behind the scenes.

But as Lori Aurora described case after case and showed her those “turned around” space stations, she finally began to feel afraid, realizing this might not be something that could be easily suppressed.

“There’s worse news.” Lori rubbed a hand over his face. “The Sami Federation…”

“The entire Sami Federation cut all contact with the outside world forty minutes ago. Their explanation is that they have internal issues to deal with. My guess is… all right, I’m not sure exactly how bad it is, but we did detect suddenly spreading radiation sources inside their borders.”

Radiation sources… that meant they had used nukes inside their own country.

A chill climbed Aurora’s back.

“What about the councilors we bought?”

“All missing.” Lori shook his head. “I’ve already held a board meeting. I argued for abandoning all assets in the Western Hemisphere and moving headquarters to Maozhou. Even being a bit closer over there is fine.”

“What did they say?”

“It didn’t pass… the Yu people refused, and so did those federal types.”

“Greed overriding reason.” Aurora muttered coldly.

Rеαⅾ οո ΚαtRеаdіոgCαfе

Lori truly cherished her. When she was a child, he had personally taken care of her and taught her his philosophy of life. One lesson she remembered best was, “The law of survival is not the same as mathematical expectation.”

What did that mean?

Lori had given an example: suppose a group of people were stranded in the wild and suddenly a god descended before them, offering two choices.

The first option: every day they could catch one animal, enough to eat.

The second option: every day, there was an eighty percent chance of catching two animals, enough for everyone, and a twenty percent chance of catching nothing.

Aurora had chosen the second without hesitation. Her reasoning was that “the expected value of the second option is far higher, and anyone who doesn’t take it is a fool.”

But Lori told her, “You are very wrong.”

The reason was simple. Survival is not a numbers game. There is much more to consider than math.

Eighty percent may sound high, but as long as the sample is large enough, the group is bound to hit that twenty percent empty-handed outcome one day.

And once they do, they will spend twenty-four hours unable to eat their fill.

If they cannot eat their fill, they will go hunting the next day on empty stomachs, further reducing their success rate.

They might even start fighting and killing among themselves over food. All of that was unknown risk.

And the key point was that their core goal was not to make money, not to “earn more game.” Their core goal was survival.

If the goal is survival, then option two runs counter to that. Under no circumstances should it be chosen.

Reаԁ оո ΚαtRеaԁinɡСafе

Now the situation was similar. The situation was changing too fast and was too complex. Lori’s first priority was no longer pure profit or loss, but survival.

Yet those shareholders were still calculating losses and gains. Was that not sheer stupidity.

“It doesn’t matter whether they agree or not.” Lori’s face was dark. “Some things I’ve already started doing. This is thanks to you. We should thank you for getting close to her.”

Aurora’s cheeks flushed. “This is what I should do.”

“Where is she now?”

“She disappeared into that village… I’m guessing she’s slipped into the so-called Illusory Realm.”

“Keep an eye on that place, and on the other companies. We’re not the only smart ones, but we have to be the ones furthest ahead.”

“I will.”

Lori thought for a moment, still uneasy, and added a reminder. “And… watch out for that Prince Saiwei.”

“Starting a war right after taking power does not fit survival logic either.”

…

At the same time, under a sky shrouded in dark clouds, a plane was flying swiftly toward Baco City’s airspace.

In the center of the cabin, Master Hua’an was bound in chains. A circle of monks still sat around him, chanting sutras.

With every syllable recited, the chains on Master Hua’an’s body drew in a wisp of black mist from the air. Pain twisted his features, and sweat poured off his bald head.

Rеαԁ on КаtReαԁіոgCαfe

“Foolish.” Hua Li watched coldly. “Your persistence is meaningless. It is only a matter of time before you are converted.”

Master Hua’an ignored him. Even though the resistance was grueling, he still held to orthodox sutras, using them to resist the corrosion.

“Senior brother.” A monk in a green robe walked over. “He may be the only one who knows where Patriarch’s sword is hidden. We’re almost there… if he doesn’t speak, are we just going to wait?”

They would get a result sooner or later, but great changes were coming, and every moment was now extremely precious.

“Of course not.” Hua Li smiled. “Before we departed, I received word that Xuan Yi failed to convert the imperial daughter of the Xuan clan and died in the process. And as soon as that person arrived in Luohou, she went straight to Tiger-Subduing Temple. She is clearly investigating the temple and its secret dealings with the Blackrock Demon Kingdom.”

“Senior brother means she is very likely to infiltrate the demon kingdom?”

“Exactly.” Hua Li nodded. “And do not forget, she has three other sword embryos on her. If we leak this information to her, I don’t think she will sit idle.”

“Immeasurable Mo Buddha… perhaps following her, we may gain something too.”

The green-robed monk intoned a Buddha’s name, deeply impressed by Hua Li’s scheme.

He did not know that as he left, Hua Li glanced at his back, and the subtle emotion in his eyes was no different from when he had looked at Master Hua’an.

Mo Buddha wanted the Patriarch’s sword as well.

Hua Li’s gaze swept coldly over the monks.

Whether they could break free of Mo Buddha’s control and truly drag Golden Cicada Temple’s orthodoxy out of the mire would depend entirely on this trip to the demon kingdom.