Ice Age Apocalypse: I Hoard Billions of Supplies-Chapter 1228: Lord of the Charnel Ground
Chapter 1228: Lord of the Charnel Ground
Zhang Yi was someone who hated trouble.
He did not want to put himself in dangerous situations, so although he was very curious about the mysterious Snowy Plateau Region, he would not go there lightly.
Repeated excursions into mysterious realms had filled him with reverence for unknown things.
Only when something was low-risk and high-reward would he enthusiastically take part.
So Zhang Yi had Yang Xinxin study the Snowy Plateau Region’s human history, to prepare in advance.
However, one thing was certain: compared with other regions, the Snowy Plateau Region did have a major advantage.
Its esoteric-civilization traditions were relatively well preserved.
Although mixed in with many chaotic legends and myths, careful unraveling still produced a wealth of useful information.
By contrast, historical records from other regions, especially the esoteric parts, had largely been set aflame during certain special periods in history.
...
The next day, Zhang Yi prepared to return to Jiangnan.
That morning, Pagyi Gesang sent people again, inviting Zhang Yi to come alone for a discussion.
Zhang Yi’s mouth lifted slightly when he heard this; he knew Pagyi Gesang was finally getting down to business.
Zhang Yi nodded and agreed, then followed a maid to Pagyi Gesang’s residence.
Pagyi Gesang dismissed his attendants, leaving only Zhang Yi with him in the room.
Suolang Deji led a group of loyal bodyguards, cautiously stationed at various positions around the courtyard, keeping a twenty-meter distance from the house to ensure no one could approach.
After a few polite remarks, Pagyi Gesang looked at Zhang Yi with a meaningful expression and asked,
“Mr. Chaos, have you read the scroll I gifted you?”
Zhang Yi nodded. “I’ve finished it. Chief Pagyi, what exactly are you thinking? I don’t like beating around the bush. Say it plainly.”
Pagyi Gesang gave a deep, contemplative smile. He sat on the sofa while Zhang Yi took a seat beside him.
“I have a question I want to ask you. As one of Huaxu Kingdom’s few Epsilon-level superhumans, can you tell me how many paths there are to becoming Epsilon-level?”
Zhang Yi lifted his head and glanced at him.
“As far as I know, there are two ways.”
“First, those born with innate talent; once given sufficient resources, they will naturally possess Epsilon-level combat power. These people are innate Epsilon superhumans who only need cultivation.”
“Second, top-tier Delta-level superhumans who, after acquiring Divine Source-like materials, break their genetic locks and, with enough resources afterward, ascend to Epsilon.”
Zhang Yi tapped the sofa arm with his right hand, his eyelids lowering.
“I’ve also heard of a third way, that is the Lord of the Charnel Ground in the Southwest Region. It’s said he was born an Epsilon; shortly after the Apocalypse he became the strongest in the Southwest Region.”
This was likely what Pagyi Gesang wanted to discuss.
Zhang Yi had heard this from Deng Shentong, but no one knew the mechanism.
After the Apocalypse, people had experienced so many strange events that they’d grown numb.
Pagyi Gesang nodded. “I didn’t expect Mr. Chaos to have such extensive intelligence sources, and to know something about our Southwest Region’s Lord of the Charnel Ground.”
“But the Lord of the Charnel Ground’s rise is even more unfathomable than you might imagine. It is, truly, a miracle!”
Zhang Yi stared at Pagyi Gesang with burning interest.
“Chief Pagyi, say what you must. How does it concern me?”
Pagyi Gesang inhaled deeply. “Please be patient. I believe you will be interested!”
His gaze took on a note of reminiscence as he began to tell Zhang Yi about post-Apocalypse conditions in the Southwest Region.
As outside rumors said, before each incarnation of the Lord of the Charnel Ground passed away, he would leave instructions to indicate the direction of his reincarnated successor.
Often within ten years after his death, the Snowy Plateau Region would produce a youth who, from birth, knew the text — able to recite tens of millions of words of the Epic of King Gesar.
“Finding that reincarnated body doesn’t yet make him the Lord of the Charnel Ground. He must be personally brought back by the Sangha Monastery’s great lama, the Khenpo, and then undergo an empowerment ritual to be formally granted the incarnation’s identity.”
Zhang Yi asked curiously, “Empowerment?”
Pagyi Gesang nodded.
“The Khenpo will, in the presence of many enlightened monks and the local chieftain family’s elders, lead him into the Sangha Monastery’s Great Sun Hall for the empowerment ritual. Through three thousand six hundred prayer wheels turning the cycle of reincarnation, his past divinity is awakened.”
Zhang Yi listened baffled; he wasn’t very familiar with religious rites.
“Can you be more concise? I don’t really understand the Snowy Plateau Region’s religious culture.”
Zhang Yi smiled.
Pagyi Gesang paused, then gave a helpless smile.
“All right, I’ll be brief.”
From the day the world froze, the Snowy Plateau Region suffered terrible calamity; countless plateau inhabitants died in the cold wind.
As the dharma-protecting deity of the esoteric sect, the Lord of the Charnel Ground prayed to the Buddha.
He wore coarse cloth, his torso bare, hair loose and feet unshod, prostrating along the Great Snow Mountain. He personally turned the Sangha Monastery’s three thousand six hundred prayer wheels, begging the Buddhas for protection.
“When I was young I received Western education. Don’t laugh, Mr. Chaos — though I am a chieftain of the Snowy Plateau Region, I’m not very devout inside.”
Pagyi Gesang said with an embarrassed smile. “The Lord of the Charnel Ground’s actions moved people, but at the time I didn’t believe any miracle would come.”
“But,” his tone shifted and his eyes became reverent, “on the day he prostrated and prayed on the mountain road, and in the Great Sun Hall of Sangha Monastery implored the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, we all witnessed a miracle!”
His voice brimmed with piety; even his fat face seemed to glow.
“The long-dormant Great Snow Mountain burst forth with brilliant Buddha-light at midnight!”
“I saw Sangha Monastery rise, shrouded in clouds and radiance, and there amid the clouds stood the Lord of the Charnel Ground like a god.”
“He gained unparalleled, transcendent power; with a wave of his hand he even cleared the raging snow!”
Zhang Yi remained silent, listening to Pagyi Gesang’s tale.
It was the sort of story hard to believe, like a strange tale.
Yet hearing Pagyi Gesang say it made it difficult not to accept.
“You mean the Buddhas blessed him. Or perhaps he was a Buddha in himself — truly the reincarnation of the Lord of the Charnel Ground?”
Zhang Yi stared and asked slowly.
Pagyi Gesang nodded.
“Yes! In the past I, too, did not believe these things, even though I grew up on these stories.”
“But now I am utterly convinced.”
“And in our ancestral scrolls there is even such a record.”
“When the representative of light and justice, King Gesar, returns — it means the Demon Kingdom will reappear among men!”
“The Great Snow Mountain will collapse, the Demon Kingdom’s seal will loosen, calamity will surge from the abyss, and the world will enter a new cycle!”
Author's Note
