Zhou Yi had just returned when Qin Xie bombarded him with questions.
"How's that stone statue? Any abnormalities? Or is there some secret unknown to others? Why didn't it escape capture by the Mechanical Knights? And why did it make that gesture at you..."
"I know you're eager, but try not to rush me."
Zhou Yi made a halting gesture.
The other party then contained himself.
Zhou Yi sat down on the sofa, twisted open a bottle of orange juice, took a couple of sweet sips, and then told him, "The Leshan Buddha is fine, it doesn't seem to mind those Mechanical Knights crawling all over it."
"The Leshan Buddha? Is that the name of the stone Alien?"
Zhou Yi counter-questioned, "It's recorded in the Dead Sea Documents, haven't you read them?"
Qin Xie shook his head, annoyed, "The Dead Sea Documents are extensive, and the text is very abstruse, difficult to understand even after translation by Mechanical City, so I mostly just look at the pictures. Many of the images are quite good..."
"Actually, I've also looked through a fair number of the Dead Sea Documents, but indeed was unaware of this Leshan Buddha. Seems I still need to read more."
Zhou Yi said, "That's normal; the content covers everything, and the Big Buddha is just a very small part of it, a niche entity."
"It's named Big Buddha, so it's a monk?"
Qin Xie gestured a circle above his head with his hand, "Will it produce a Wisdom Cloud like the monks in Snow County?"
Zhou Yi shook his head, "It's a classical monk, primarily focused on practice and pilgrimage."
The other party's brows relaxed, "No wonder it ignored those Spider Cars hanging on its body, not only because this area is covered by Forbidden Weapon Aliens, but also because it is a practicing monk. Over in Snow County, one of the routine practices of the monks is endurance, they will tolerate and tolerate, only going berserk when they can't stand it anymore."
On this island of Forbidden Weapon Relics, the compass had become ineffective. It could only confirm the direction of the island; the specific coordinates of the Flying Star would need to be searched for by the questers themselves.
Jade City moved slowly across the island. Chapters fırst released on novel•fire.net
Zhou Yi watched the outside through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The island had a good ecological environment, with vast forests spread out. In the central region stood a huge ring. Around the giant ring were a few scattered remnants of buildings, not many.
It looked like the ruins of a dilapidated town.
Qin Xie brought the binoculars to his right eye, "That ring is the landmark of the relics. The Forbidden Weapon Alien is located just below to the right of it; that cluster of buildings, that's it."
With the help of Red Kestrel's high-altitude vision, Zhou Yi saw the target clearly on the remote control screen.
The giant ring was in fact a large Ferris wheel, next to a sizeable, well-arranged set of buildings.
There was a neat high wall encircling it, inside were four square low buildings close together, and a separate mountain-shaped office building.
They were not tall but occupied a large area. Inside, there were clear crossroads and lush greenery, in addition to a large sports field with a lawn.
This was the true face of the Forbidden Weapon Alien—both in scale and structure, it resembled a prison.
But there were no signs or text to be seen, so its true name remained unknown.
In the prison's sports field, the inmates were active. But they were all highly blurred, only shadows could be seen, as if the prison had some kind of shielding action in place.
Zhou Yi returned his gaze to the Ferris wheel.
The Leshan Buddha had said it saw the Flying Star fall beneath the Ferris wheel.
But it hadn't gone to check.
Firstly, because its most important task was cultivation, and secondly, because that was the body of another building life, which it couldn't approach. Building lives must maintain a distance from each other to avoid conflicts.
Red Kestrel's five electronic eyes took a round of shots around the Ferris wheel.
It was known as the Ring-shaped Alien, one of the four major building lives of this relic.
Zhou Yi controlled Jade City, crossed over hills, passed through forests, and stopped near a grassland not far from the Ferris wheel.
They couldn't get any closer.
There was a boundary sense area between the building lives, where they coexisted peacefully at a certain distance.
If that boundary line was crossed, it would trigger a survival crisis for both parties. Since they couldn't communicate with each other, this crisis would provoke a fight once ignited.
Zhou Yi and his group took the elevator downstairs and officially set foot in the town ruins.
To his surprise, there were still human residents here.
Outside the Ferris wheel on the grassland were stone and wooden huts huddled together, and not far away, there were vegetable gardens, berry bushes, and small patches of farmland. The locals, dressed in simple hemp clothing, were cultivating various crops.
Upon Jade City's arrival, they appeared astonished, each looking up to size it up.
Before Zhou Yi could speak, two local youngsters came over to start a conversation on their own, one of them pointing to the high-rise building, "Do you live in there?"
"Amazing! Incredible!"
The locals showed an admiring expression, "We have those too, but much smaller than yours; no one dares to move in. The Shadow Buildings here are very scary."
Different from the cautious and reticent Sand Port people, the new humans here seemed lively in spirit. Their guard was low, and they were bold, relaxing as if living in a stable environment.
The local environment nurtures its people, with a prison covering them; security was indeed guaranteed.
Even if a sea lord caused trouble, they'd be caught and jailed.
The locals' life pressure was much lower than the outside world.
Zhou Yi asked, "Have you always lived here?"
Another person said, "We've been living here since we were little, and our parents came here before us. Lately, we've seen more outsiders arriving; you all must be here for that Flying Star, right? Others have asked us about it before."