Chapter 188

"Kama! Kama! Kama!"

"You will become the sacrifice to replace Parvati, and will be cruelly killed by that king called 'Wrathful Lord'. After your death, he will truly fall in love with Parvati. The two of them will ascend to heaven in the blessings of priests and monks, becoming eternal lovers."

"Bharata did not achieve peace in this process. From the beginning, Progenitor Daksha had no intention of resisting; in order to rise higher, he would order the ignorant people to the battlefield."

"The immortals also knew about this future, but they all tacitly allowed it to happen!"

"Hundreds of ordinary people thought they could protect their homes. But from the beginning, Dasha intended to use them as sacrifices."

"Once Mohenjo-daro is breached, they will stand by and watch all the atrocities... The more thoroughly it is destroyed, the happier the immortals and priests will be."

"This is your fate and the fate of the city-state!"

Kama slumped to the ground, her eyes wide open.

The immortal's voice reverberated in her ears like thunder, and the future revealed in his words almost made her laugh out loud because of its extreme absurdity.

Kama didn't know what expression was on her face; she just stammered, "But... but..."

She kept stammering "but," but couldn't say anything!

The sage under the Bodhi Tree sighed, "Kama, if you are willing now, I can deliver you from this Sea of Suffering."

"You can stay in Fangcun Mountain and no longer care about the troubles of the world, let Parvati meet her destined lover."

"As for Mohenjo-daro's affairs, they are naturally none of your business."

Kama asked, half bewildered and half astonished, "Why me?"

She did not come from a noble background.

"Why can't it be you?" The sage under the Bodhi Tree chuckled. "Where in the world are there so many 'obvious' and 'why' questions?"

You should say, 'Why can't it be me?'

These words were a wake-up call, but Kama's lips trembled as he asked, "What would have happened to Parvati and the 'Wrathful Lord' if I hadn't been there?"

The immortal beneath the Bodhi Tree fell silent for a barely perceptible moment.

But Kama thought he had found the answer.

Ah... does that mean if I don't go, Parvati will be torn apart by the Wrathful Lord?

Her face contorted with a mixture of humble pleading and extreme pain.

Stay here. After all, none of this concerns you anymore. There's no one in this world who cares about you anymore. If you have no ties to anything, why not live for yourself from now on?

What about Parvati?

Are you an idiot, Kama? Parvati is nothing like you. She has such a powerful father, doesn't she? Then let her father bear the pain of losing his daughter!

Kama wept as she painfully pounded her knees: she didn't want to die, but she also didn't want to see Parvati die.

Because in those long ten years, Parvati had become the sole meaning of her life.

Kama stood up, trembling and weeping.

For the first time, she stood up, clasped her hands together above her head, and said, "Praise be to the immortals... Thank you for revealing my destiny and future..."

Kama's mind went blank; she almost thought the words were coming out of between her teeth.

Just saying that one sentence made her sway precariously.

"But I still have to go back... because, because without me, Parvati ..."

Kama wiped the tears from his face, but the tears just wouldn't stop flowing.

If I were to die, who would be sad? Only Sati.

The immortal under the Bodhi Tree seemed to let out a long sigh of relief.

"Okay, I respect your wishes."

Kama seemed to have given up completely. She calmly put her hands together again and asked, "Could you tell me your name?"

"Hehe." The immortal under the Bodhi Tree chuckled again. "My name has long been abandoned. If you are destined to know it in the future, you may come to know it. If you truly wish to praise my name, then call me 'Patriarch Bodhi'!"

Patriarch Bodhi, Patriarch Bodhi...

This was completely different from the names of the immortals that Kama knew, yet Kama inexplicably felt that this was the proper name for the immortals.

"Please, Master, send me back." Kama knelt down and bowed again.

"Very well! Since that's the case, I won't force you," the immortal said softly. "But if you truly feel resentful, then call my name..."

When the white mist dissipated, Kama had vanished without a trace.

Hebe sat under the tree, lost in thought.

Did I say something wrong?

Kama was about to be fooled by himself when he suddenly asked about Parvati.

She was now certain that Kama before her was essentially the prototype of the god of love who was burned to ashes in mythology.

The problem is that the original work differs from reality. In the original work, Shiva doesn't use Kama's arrow to ignite his love; he's just an ascetic who renounces the world, at most never interacting with Parvati until their deaths.

But in reality, does this Wrathful Lord, whose identity is still unclear, seem like an ascetic?

From Kama's thoughts, Hebe only gleaned the image of a supreme god of the super-powerful realm.

Over the past decade Hebe has managed to build a rudimentary server, but the illusion inside the Three Star Cave has not been properly set up. Hebe made the white deer run very fast just now, with the intention of getting Kama to come over quickly.

On the other hand, what exactly did Kama imagine just now that caused him to suddenly display such a strong spirit of sacrifice?

Hebe.

Never mind, I'll just ask when the time comes.

The sky was clear and hazy.

Inside the sacrificial hall, the priests and immortals filed in one after another.

Kama opened his eyes, his face still showing traces of tears.

When the Progenitor Daksha saw this, his expression was somewhat displeased. "Kama, you are about to be married, yet there are tears on your face. Why is that? Isn't this something to be happy about?"

"Praise be to the Lord!" Kama said calmly, clasping his hands together. "I only shed tears in a dream that I would have to part with Sati in the future."

The Progenitor Daksha and the Kashyapa Immortal looked at each other in bewilderment.

The Kama before them seemed different from before, but neither of the two immortals could pinpoint the difference.

Dasha grunted, "Then you'd better get ready. We'll set off in two hours."

262 The Fire of the Wrathful Lord

At nine o'clock in the morning, the wedding procession rolled along the cobblestone streets of Mohenjo-daro.

The wind blew through the curtains of the float, but the girl with gold ornaments on her forehead never turned around.

Led by the Progenitor Daksha and Kashyapa, nearly twenty sages with titles surrounded the floats on both sides, while nearly a hundred priests of noble lineage and ancient family backgrounds followed behind.

This was a grand wedding procession, but at the same time, the killings on both sides of the Indus River did not stop.

The Progenitor Daksha did not issue an order to withdraw his troops and stop the war, and the soldiers who were fighting fiercely on both sides of the strait did not intend to retreat.

The actual battle situation can no longer be described as "not optimistic".

Because Dasha had not provided them with weapons or armor, and as for subsequent food supplies, they could only find solace in the occasional news from the rear.

The soldiers on the front lines struggled like birds trapped in mud, fighting against an enemy they could not possibly defeat.

They fought silently against the terrifying Aryans, slashing each other's necks and bellies with their scimitars, drawing their bowstrings and shooting at each other's eyes. Then they were silently hacked down, trampled by the giants in the Aryan army, until they uttered their final cries of pain before dying.

Most of them were just indistinct whispers, or calls to wives and daughters far away at home, or calls for parents.

But what about other forms of pleading? What about wailing? Nothing at all.

At least in this era, the Bharata are still incredibly stubborn.

Such tough nuts to crack were not completely eradicated until after the Kuru War during the Dharma era.

They fervently believed that their deaths would bring their loved ones to life; but they were unaware that long before this, the common people of Mohenjo-daro had begun to starve to death in droves.

Dasha picked up a milk ball and put it in his mouth; he was in a good mood.

Why is it good? Because the wedding procession safely passed through the war zone, which was a battlefield not long ago, but now even the wind is quiet.

The Aryans kept their promise and turned this war zone into a ceasefire zone.

Of course, there is another very important reason besides that.

This war zone has always been controlled by the priests' private armies.

Or rather, they were servants passed down through generations of sacrificial families.

If everything proceeds smoothly according to the course of history, then when the caste system is established and the priests become Brahmin monks, these private soldiers will also be promoted to Kshatriya.

During this ten-year war, these private soldiers enjoyed the best treatment; their bows, armor, and swords were all blessed by priests and even immortals.

While others were dying in droves, they had already received a message from Daksha and were transformed from a well-organized army back into scattered guards of priests.

This was also the bottom line for those Aryans.

They accepted surrender and "marriage alliances," but they could not accept that the immortals, while enjoying the right to perform sacrifices, also held military power.

"Hmph hmph hmph, hahahahaha!"

Dasha laughed happily, his robust body shaking the cart floor.

A plate of milk balls was knocked over and fell to the ground, where it was immediately trampled into mud, and no one cared.

"Master, why are you suddenly laughing?" Kashyapa Immortal, clasping his hands together.

"It's nothing, Kashyapa, I was just thinking about something happy," Progenitor Daksha replied. "We have been the priests of Brahma for a long time. If we cannot climb to higher places in the Snow Mountain Pure Land, the Maya Illusionary Power that we have gained will always be so limited."

"Great Kashyapa, I'm telling you the truth. Don't you think there are a bit too many immortals these days?"

"Praise be to Brahma, praise Progenitor Daksha!" Kashyapa dared not discuss this topic further.

"Hahaha," Dasha laughed, shaking his head.

In his opinion, Kashyapa Immortal was good in every way, except for two minor flaws. One was that he was too timid and afraid of taking responsibility; the other was that his reactions were sometimes a beat slow.

"Great Immortal Kashyapa, you dare not say this, but I do," Dasha said smugly. "The number of Maya Illusionary Power is limited, but the number of immortals is constantly increasing."

"Initially, there was only me, the master of this world, and you Seven Great Immortals. But now, several hundred years have passed, and if you include those ascetic cultivators living in the forest, there must be at least forty or fifty of you!"

"Even if they practice asceticism there, without creating Brahma Artifact or casting blessings or curses, they have already been granted the title of immortals, and their asceticism will still retain the Maya Illusionary Power."

"Kashyapa, isn't this great calamity a perfect opportunity to eliminate them? Let the world return to the Dharma."

Dasha spoke with righteous indignation.

"At that time, even if the clash between the 'Wrathful Lord' and Brahma has no result; even if Sati fails to lead us to higher realms, we will still live long in this world."

Spiritual Terrace, Square Inch Mountain, Slanting Moon, Three Stars Cave.

Under the Bodhi Tree, Hebe listened with great interest.

She had always suspected that these immortals, who had risen from asceticism, were not entirely at ease.

Since the immortals obtained computing power from the Pure Land server by mining with their brains, thus gaining a form of immortality, their "magical power" and "immortality" must naturally be inseparable from computing power.

Dasha's words also confirmed Hebe's conjecture.

The world is simply about increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.

The immortals' cyber longevity comes from the computing power of the Pure Land server. The depth to which they mine within the server determines the upper limit of the computing power, which is why talented ascetics like "Vyasa" and "Parvati" are needed to lead the mining.

Their efforts to push for the Bharata Lostbelt update are based on this very reason—with the appearance of "Shiva" and "Vishnu," the Pure Land server will be expanded, the Dharma will be revised again, and more computing power will be available.

Alternatively, the only option is to expel other programmers from the ranks of the immortals.

Is this the dark truth behind programmers' mid-life unemployment...? Luckily, I'm not a programmer.

Hebe couldn't help but smile, but she quickly raised her head and looked towards the distant west.

His long, thin eyebrows gradually furrowed, and a hint of confusion appeared in his deep green eyes.