The Buddha's Relic

Li Weiyi gripped the Yellow Dragon Sword tightly in his hand, looking out through the cracked cabin window. The boundary between the sky and the ice had blurred beyond telling. Only the occasional bolts of lightning, streaking past, could tear open rifts in the wind, snow, and cloud, briefly illuminating this chaos. Thunder rumbled, the wind howled. Ice-blade snowflakes lashed madly against the hull, like the dense crack of gunfire. That bear-like creature had vanished without a trace, impossible to find. "University student, there's no need to be so nervous! No matter how strong that bear-like creature is, before such brutal weather it's just as fragile as the rest of us. Facing a blizzard this violent, it must have long since hidden back in its lair." Xie Jin was the younger paternal cousin of second mate Xie Tianshu. Though he too had partly gotten his position through connections, he had after all been selected through proper channels, and naturally believed it was his own ability that had gotten him there. Thus he never considered himself the same kind of person as Li Weiyi, and thought very highly of himself. Of course, however much he looked down on this callow university student, he wouldn't ordinarily have singled him out at every turn like this, in a way that seemed utterly graceless. The main reason was that Xie Tianshu had long since instructed him in this matter; within it lay the open and covert struggle between the first mate and the second mate. Li Weiyi held the opposite view, but had no wish to argue with Xie Jin, and answered with silence. He continued to scan vigilantly outside the window. "Tap! Tap! Tap..." A cool, aloof female voice came from the direction of the stairs: "That bear-like creature is no longer a normal Earth lifeform. Bullets can't even pierce its bones—how could a mere blizzard do anything to it?" Cai Yutong came down the stairs and appeared before the members of the security group. She was a female chemistry PhD who had unexpectedly gone viral online for her striking looks, studying at the nation's foremost institution, Capital University. The security group members all knew this great beauty was aboard the research ship, but she was such a homebody, spending most of her time in the lab, and for many of them this was their first time seeing her in person. She looked exactly as she did in the online videos, without excessive beauty filters. In fact, the real person had even more poise. "Dr. Cai, let me help you carry that. What are these?" Xie Jin quickly stepped up, his manner gentlemanly, but his eager, fawning expression spoiled the effect. He reached out both hands to take the box Cai Yutong was clutching tightly. Cai Yutong didn't let him touch it, and in a tone that kept everyone a thousand li away: "Some concentrated acid strong enough to dissolve a corpse, plus some freshly made explosives. You'd better not touch it." Xie Jin pulled back the hand he'd extended, wary and embarrassed, and said with a stiff smile: "Marvelous. As expected of a chemistry PhD—knowledge is power." Cai Yutong, holding the box, walked toward the window where Li Weiyi stood, and said: "I know you—the sports-track freshman at Capital University. And what should you be called?" "Li Weiyi." Li Weiyi hadn't expected that she would actually know him. "I was asking what you should call me." Cai Yutong's manner and tone were very cold and aloof. She was tall as well, over 1.7 meters, her features so delicate that no matter how one looked, they were beautiful. Li Weiyi said with an embarrassed smile, "Senior." "Give me a hand. Gently—keep it steady," Cai Yutong said. Li Weiyi hurriedly leaned the Yellow Dragon Sword against the wall, and, careful with both hands, together with Cai Yutong held up the box and set it steadily down on the floor. Between fellow alumni, even if they had never known each other before, meeting away from home always carried a special bond and trust. Li Weiyi's academic grades weren't top-notch, but he had practiced martial arts since childhood, and his physical condition far exceeded that of ordinary people. According to his coaches and PE teachers, he had the potential to contend for world championships in multiple events. His recruitment as a sports talent was by no means a sham. Xie Jin returned to the group of security members, keeping the smile on his face throughout. Seeing the security members who had once been so flattering to him now exchanging winks and glances, with strange looks in their eyes, Xie Jin naturally felt a measure of shame and anger in his heart, and the smile he had faked on his face could no longer hold. Then, seeing how familiar and close Li Weiyi and Cai Yutong were, another feeling welled up in his heart. If his previous targeting of Li Weiyi had been at Xie Tianshu's behest... then at this moment, he was truly beginning to feel some jealousy and resentment! Over there. Cai Yutong opened the box and explained how to use the items inside and the precautions to take. Her gaze often met Li Weiyi's at close range, and her lovely hair, in the cold wind, could brush against Li Weiyi's face, carrying wafts of fragrance. "Senior, you're handing this entire box over to me?" Li Weiyi asked. Cai Yutong was not good at social niceties, and asked in return, "I'm a scientific researcher—do you want me to go fight that bear-like creature?" "That's not what I meant... I, I just think the security group members could all learn how to use them," Li Weiyi said. Cai Yutong looked toward Xie Jin and the others. Xie Jin said with a smile, "Dr. Cai, this junior schoolmate of yours is a master of martial arts. See that sword? In his heart, that sword is probably more useful than your things here—he looks down on them." A security member who was very close to Xie Jin chimed in: "I heard that practicing traditional martial arts can cultivate inner force and true qi. Little Li is the first mate's junior martial brother, and was able to be specially recruited into the security group—so he must be that kind of person." Anyone could hear the provocation in the two men's words. By deliberately pointing out that Li Weiyi was Zhao Meng's junior martial brother, they were telling Cai Yutong that this university student before her was unreliable, just someone who had gotten in through connections. Li Weiyi said calmly, "There's no such thing as inner force or true qi. Practicing traditional martial arts only strengthens the body—it's nothing so mystical. Everyone should believe in science." He had started practicing martial arts at the age of five, training through the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer, so Li Weiyi's skill in the martial way was naturally extremely high. But he merely had greater strength than ordinary people, faster speed, and more practiced moves and techniques. There was fundamentally no such thing as inner force or true qi. When the old sect master had spoken of the decline of the martial way, Li Weiyi had once asked. The old sect master only sighed, saying that he had been born out of his time; that his physical body had already approached the critical limit, and had he been born in ancient times, he would surely have been able to cultivate some extraordinary achievements. Li Weiyi then pressed further: Why could one cultivate extraordinary achievements in ancient times, but not in this era? And how far back was this so-called "ancient times"? The old sect master was deliberately mysterious, saying only: "Myths have fallen; the infinite is imprisoned." Though Li Weiyi didn't understand, at that time he firmly planted the martial-way ideal of "pursuing the extraordinary"—to delve deeply into the martial way, to break through the mortal body, even if it meant going against the tide of the era. Young people always have a stubborn drive that refuses to admit defeat. The more his elders spoke of hardship and difficulty, the more they told him he couldn't do it, the more determined he became to do it. ... Xie Jin said, "Little Li, don't be so modest! We're all on the same side—there's no need to hide it. Show us a move or two. I don't believe a man as upright and incorruptible as the first mate would specially recruit a slacker. We're dying of curiosity about inner force and true qi—let us have a look?" Xie Tianshu's instruction to have Xie Jin target Li Weiyi had, at its most fundamental, the goal of undermining Zhao Meng's prestige. If Li Weiyi proved to be all show and no substance, a fraud, then Zhao Meng—who had specially recruited him into the security group—would surely plummet in the crew's estimation. This was not the first time Li Weiyi had been given a hard time, and he wasn't made of clay—he too had the youthful spirit of "I won't trouble you if you don't trouble me, but if you trouble me, don't blame me for what follows." He said, "Since Brother Jin insists so repeatedly, we can have a little sparring match." A chorus of cheers and jeers rose in the boarding hall. Even Cai Yutong, who was always indifferent to everything, showed a hint of interest. Xie Jin had been waiting for this chance for over a month, and moreover it was in front of the great beauty Cai Yutong—so naturally he was in high spirits, and said with a smile full of poise, "All right then, but let's agree beforehand: we stop at the point of contact, and absolutely mustn't harm the harmony between us." But in his heart, he had a different thought. Once they crossed blows, what "stopping at the point of contact" would there be? In front of a great beauty, no one could possibly admit defeat. It could only be one side beating the other down, beating them into submission. The two faced off briefly. After closing the distance, Xie Jin let out a low shout and lunged in with a preemptive attack, both hands forming claws. As he darted to the left, his right leg snapped up into a rising knee. A security member exclaimed, "Black Dragon Eighteen Forms!" This was a type of fist style that had been banned from study by the military for being too vicious and ruthless. The opening move Xie Jin used was precisely the Azure Dragon Claw from the Black Dragon Eighteen Forms, and it was executed with full mastery, clearly the product of years of hard practice. This was no "stopping at the point of contact"—he was plainly preparing to at least tear off one of Li Weiyi's arms. A muffled thud. Amid the flashing shift of bodies, before those present could even see clearly what had happened, Xie Jin had already toppled stiffly to the side. Only Li Weiyi's right hand, in a blade-hand chop, was still slicing diagonally through the air. Li Weiyi knew nothing of the Black Dragon Eighteen Forms; he only knew that as long as one was fast enough and strong enough, any move the opponent made was just flashy nonsense. And besides, no one knew when that bear-like creature would attack the research ship again, so he had to end things quickly; he didn't want to delay the life-or-death matter at hand because of Xie Jin's fooling around. The security members all stood up, looking at one another, quite shaken. Even if Xie Jin had lost so miserably because he had underestimated his opponent, his physical condition was right there for all to see. To be struck down and unable to rise by a single slanting palm-chop from Li Weiyi—the speed and power of that blow truly astonished them. Cai Yutong stood by the window several meters behind Li Weiyi. When Xie Jin had struck just now, even she had felt a wave of danger and pressure rushing at her face. But how had he been laid out in an instant? "All show and no use?" The thought had merely surfaced in her mind, but before she knew it, the words slipped from her lips as if she were talking to herself. Xie Jin's neck throbbed as if it were cramping, his head spinning and ears ringing. When his hearing finally recovered, the first thing he heard was Cai Yutong's remark, which nearly made him die of anger on the spot. "Thud! Thud! Thud..." The sound of running came from the stairs. The short student who loved to recite poetry and tell myths came rushing excitedly into the boarding hall, saying: "I know! I know! That bear-like creature is the legendary Ghost Bear Emperor. They say it's a polar bear king that mutated after absorbing the aurora and large amounts of carrion, gaining a spirit-like intelligence akin to ghosts and gods." Silence. A long, long silence. The short student smiled awkwardly, and looking at Xie Jin, who was being helped into a corner, exclaimed in surprise, "What are you all doing? Have you already been attacked?" Another stretch of silence. "I'll leave things here to you—I'm heading back to the lab first." "Boom!" Cai Yutong had just reached the stairway when, from the deck outside the hatch, came that familiar heavy landing sound, and the floor of the boarding hall quaked violently. Everyone's expression changed drastically, and they all grabbed their weapons. It's here! ... The leadership of the Longji took the elevator down to the bottom-level cabin. As he walked, Director Yang explained: "The underground palace of the Ganlu Temple relic pagoda was sealed in the Song dynasty, and wasn't opened until a thousand years later, in 1960. The archaeology team packed up the entire rectangular stone reliquary that was unearthed and transported it back to the lab." "Inside the stone reliquary was a small silver coffin. When the silver coffin was opened, there was a still smaller golden coffin." "Only when the golden coffin was opened did the Buddha relic, preserved in a crystal container, finally appear. Everyone, please come in!" Why the sudden mention of the Buddha relic? The doors of Lab 705 opened, and everyone filed in with even deeper puzzlement. The lab was filled with all kinds of precision instruments. On the countertop at the very center was the crystal container holding the Buddha relic. Inside the container, the Buddha relic was about the size of a soybean, pale red in color. Director Yang stood beside the relic and asked with a smile, "You are all erudite—what do you make of the microscopic world?" Seeing the confusion in everyone's eyes, Director Yang began by tossing out an idea to draw out their thoughts: "On the microscopic scale, many classical physical laws no longer apply, and are replaced by the laws of quantum mechanics—such as quantum entanglement, quantum superposition, the tunneling effect, and so on." "There's a saying that if humanity wants to leave the Earth, to leave the solar system, it's certainly not by going out through conventional interstellar space, but rather requires exploring the microscopic world. Just as we can use cell phones to send a voice thousands of li away—not by shouting louder, but through the transmission of information at the microscopic level." "The space wormholes we've never been able to find may not be rare at all in the microscopic world." "In short, the strangeness and mystery of the microscopic world will certainly challenge our conventional understanding." "Some say humanity's understanding of the ocean is only five percent—so how much is our understanding of the microscopic world? One in a hundred million? I'd say not even one in a billion." Everyone present stared at him coldly, with the looks one gives an academic heretic. Director Yang understood that saying more would be useless, so he pointed to the high-powered scanning tunneling microscope aimed at the Buddha relic and said, "Seeing is believing!" "Let this old man see just what you've been muttering on about so mystically." Professor Xu had endured him for a long while already. He was the first to step forward, gazing at the Buddha relic under the microscope. After a moment. This old professor, nearly sixty but still hale and hearty, his legs trembling, slid down and slumped to sit on the floor, his eyes full of shock and confusion, then murmuring some words the others couldn't understand. Zhao Meng was intensely curious: Professor Xu, who could regard even monsters like the bear-like creature and Jiuying with calm—how had he been frightened like this? It was just a relic! What had he seen? After helping Professor Xu up, Zhao Meng was the second to step up to the microscope. Inside the crystal container, the Buddha relic was only the size of a bean, but under the microscope... it was like a vast, pale-red planet—towering, precipitous mountain ranges, dried-up ancient riverbeds, desolate and boundless, magnificent and spectacular, shaking one to the core. It was like standing in space, gazing down at the boundlessly vast, hazy Mars. A tiny relic actually held another world within it. This was simply inconceivable! No, wait... Something so tiny—what one saw under a microscope should have been the relic's crystal structure. Why was it like this? Suddenly. Zhao Meng felt suffocated, seeing an even more inconceivable sight on the Buddha relic. At the ends of the ancient riverbeds lay a vast, deep-red dead sea, its vivid seabed as if dyed by fresh blood. A bronze warship of ancient design and bizarre appearance rested quietly on the shore of the dead sea, from where it came unknown, to where it would go unknown. It had lain silent for far too many years; even the hull had become covered in rust, with only the strange masts and canvas sails still clearly discernible. Director Yang, standing to the side, increased the microscope's magnification. Zhao Meng immediately saw more clearly, and his scalp tingled involuntarily. In his field of view, the bronze warship became immeasurably huge. The deck was strewn with countless bones—there were white skeletons of humans clad in armor, and also the corpse of a phoenix and the skeleton of a python, and beyond them an endless sea of tombs and forest of steles. The phoenix corpse and the python skeleton were especially enormous. A single feather from the phoenix corpse was dozens of times larger than those armored human skeletons. It had fallen at a spot on the deck near the ship's tower, one wing covering the forest of steles, the other wing draped over the nine-story-tall ship's tower. He didn't know if his eyes were playing tricks, but Zhao Meng clearly saw that the phoenix corpse's feathers were giving off a faint glow. The microscope's magnification was limited; too many things couldn't be seen clearly. But one could imagine that if there were a chance to board this magnificent and mysterious great ship, the sights one saw would only be more astonishing—perhaps even opening the door to a fantastical and mysterious world. The great ship... No. It was clearly only 460 nanometers long, like a speck of dust that had settled on the Buddha relic. Without a microscope, like the billions upon billions of specks of dust on Earth, it went unnoticed.