Chapter 47 Blasphemy
Yang Yuning sensed Qi An's yearning and remembered that she seemed to have always been very interested in the remnants of pre-apocalyptic civilization.
When they took the bus last time, Qi An had been looking around with excitement.
He suggested, "Why don't we stop for a while, and I'll accompany you up there to take a look?"
Qi An's eyes lit up instantly as she looked at Yang Yuning, "Really?"
Yang Yuning immediately felt that they should go!
He used the walkie-talkie to report to Yu Shuang.
Yu Shuang, however, did not agree immediately because that mountain peak still looked far away. If Yang Yuning and Qi An went on foot, the round trip could take several hours or even half a day.
This was dangerous, and it would also delay the convoy's schedule.
Qi An knew the danger as well, and she hesitated, which was rare for her, because thinking from another perspective, this might be the only time in her life she would pass by this place!
She was indeed curious and truly wanted to go.
Zhao Bohan was also very tempted, but as a patient, he hesitated even more.
After a few minutes of such a stalemate, Qi An gritted her teeth and said, "I'll use the drone to check. Let's find a smaller hill closer to that mountain and launch the drone for filming."
As soon as this plan was proposed, everyone was pleased!
Yu Shuang smiled and said, "Go ahead, but it's best to be back within an hour."
Since it was just noon, the convoy could stop for a one-hour break.
Zhao Bohan threw off his blanket, "I'm going with you."
However, Su Qingran rejected him flatly, "The Deputy Team Leader can watch the recording!"
Yang Yuning found a safe spot to park the armored autocannon vehicle.
During their time at the ranch, everyone had worked together to thoroughly clean the vehicle. After several days for the odor to dissipate, people could now comfortably enter the interior.
Replacing the crushed off-road vehicle, this truck had become the new lead vehicle, with a cabin spacious enough to lay down a bed for sleeping.
To everyone's surprise, Li Yi actually wanted to go and see the Buddhist temple as well!
His own teammates were quite astonished, and Jia Wenxuan curiously pursued the matter.
Just before setting off, Li Yi lowered his voice and said, "Before the apocalypse, my parents said they were going to bring me here for a trip."
Jia Wenxuan fell silent, and Li Yi followed Qi An and Yang Yuning.
The mountain path was muddy, but Qi An's load was practically all carried by Yang Yuning. Fully focused, she wasn't slow either, and half an hour later, they climbed a gently rolling hill.
The drizzle was barely noticeable anymore, and the thick clouds in the sky had cleared away significantly, signaling that the sun was about to break through.
Qi An put on her headset and launched the drone.
Dozens of temples were scattered across the peaks. Mindful of the time limit, Qi An only gave a bird's-eye glance to the temples on the other mountains, lowering the drone only at the foot of the central peak.
Through the drone camera, it was truly the best-preserved complex of ancient architecture she had ever seen in the apocalypse!
Most of the brick and stone structures bearing modern traces had collapsed, but the winding stone staircases, the white stone memorial archways at the mountain gates, and the mottled, ancient wooden halls were still striving to emerge from the overgrown vegetation, displaying their exquisite beauty as relics of civilization!
Qi An's drone fluttered like an ignorant bird, intruding into the silent and ancient sacred place, hovering and sighing in awe before the giant bronze incense burner and prayer wheels wrapped in vines, and the copper wind-bells hanging from the eaves, lingering and reluctant to leave.
The real-time footage was displayed on Li Yi's tablet. Watching intently as well, he couldn't help saying, "My grandma believed in this stuff. She used to keep a white porcelain statue of Guanyin in her room, and she wiped it every day, treating it like a precious treasure."
As he spoke, his voice was low, and the coldness and hostility that usually surrounded him faded considerably, with even a trace of nostalgic fondness in his gaze.
Yang Yuning couldn't help looking at him, "Do you believe in it too?"
His Brother Yao believed in it, often wearing a string of Buddhist prayer beads around his wrist.
Brother Yao said that the more chaotic the times, the more people needed faith to maintain their confidence in life. However, no large-scale sects had risen in China; the folk beliefs were all over the place—Celestial Lords, ancient gods, the one and only Lord...
Some people even worshipped the Black Tide virus!
Quite a few people in the military believed in it, after all, it was the Black Tide virus that bestowed upon humans their enhanced abilities.
Li Yi snorted, "I don't. I've never seen any deity protect any of their believers from being contaminated!"
Despite his words, when Qi An's drone was about to enter the hall, his expression grew even more serious, almost devout.
The drone flew into a south-facing main hall. The floor tiles inside were also covered by moss and weeds, and the embroidered fabrics on the altar table had rotted away, but right in the center stood a golden divine statue...
The statue had been drenched from head to toe in an unknown black gelatinous substance!
Qi An's heart skipped a beat, and the other two were stunned as well. The drone veered to the left, and sure enough, they saw that the exquisite painted murals on the hall walls had long been covered by messy, twisted graffiti!
Qi An's drone flew out of the main hall, rising to get an overhead view, but she didn't spot any traces of corrupted insects.
Those graffiti marks were not new.
This was the second hall of the ancient temple. With a complex and heavy heart, Qi An continued to fly forward, reaching the very center of the temple, before the magnificent and solemn Great Buddha Hall.
This hall seemed as if someone had maintained it. There were not many weeds in the courtyard, but the entire main hall—starting from the courtyard's floor tiles, to the steps, to the corridor pillars—was completely covered in graffiti!
Unlike the messy scribbles in the villages, these graffiti marks were abstract, neat, and followed a certain pattern, possessing even a bizarre, eerie beauty, almost like written words!
Qi An's drone came to a halt. For some reason, her heart hammered wildly, and she felt a strong sense of dread!
Yang Yuning had closed his eyes long ago; these graffiti marks had a very high contamination potency.
"Stop looking, this place has been defiled by the urine of bugs!" he said in a deep voice, anger tinged in his tone.
The anger in Li Yi's eyes, however, seemed even deeper and more ferocious. He cursed, "Do corrupted insects dare to desecrate even the gods?"
Facts proved that corrupted insects indeed dared.
The drone tentatively bumped open the main entrance of the hall, but no divine statue was to be seen; only a lotus pedestal sat in silent repose.
The golden ornaments on the wooden partition behind the original location of the statue had long been gouged out, and the colorful ribbons and incense candles were nowhere to be found. Between two lacquered carved pillars hung a brightly colored abstract mural.
This mural... the moment Yang Yuning laid eyes on it, he snapped his eyes shut and took several steps back, his contamination level instantly skyrocketing from 30% to 49%!
Qi An, however, looked at the entire painting.
Right at the center of the mural was a pitch-black circle.
Twisted lines extended from around the circle, making it look like a dark sun.
Outside the dark sun were concentric rings of circular patterns radiating outward as if emitting some kind of energy.
Below the sun was a golden, diagonal trapezoid shaped like a lifting platform, resembling a throne!
Farther out, encompassing the throne and the sun, were dots all over the sky, unsure whether they represented stars.
And between the stars and the energy released by the dark sun, there were very inconspicuous red line segments.
Did these represent... humans?
Qi An wasn't sure if those were humans, but she was absolutely certain that this was a religious mural, a pilgrimage map for the contaminated!
This grand hall had been transformed by the corrupted insects into their own temple!