1955 Manjusaka, the City in the Sky

Forsaken cities, broken freeways, high buildings that were riddled with holes, and lead gray clouds that fell from the sky in threads like skinny claws that were going to grab all the creatures on the bleak land and feed the prey into their mouths.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Every now and then, explosions echoed in the distance, mixed with the collapses of the skysc.r.a.pers. Gray and red smoke rose on the horizon, like enormous tumors that were floating in midair.

A shuttle that had been through crazy modifications ran without any noise despite the ragged appearance in the middle of the bones of the city, leaving a long pillar of smoke behind.

From the ruins of the skysc.r.a.pers on the two sides of the road, lizards with multiple heads and venomous cysts crawled out and stared at the shuttle greedily.

But before they released their venom, the shuttle flashed by.

Li Yao had been carried to the backseat of the shuttle. He observed the world from a brand-new angle.

The two young fellows’ day had been full of twists and turns. After just surviving the disaster, they were struck right in the head by the devastating diagnoses, only to be given a slim chance of hope by ‘Grandpa Yao’ in the end again.

Right now, Han Te and Liu Li were still unable to calm themselves. Holding each other’s hands, they could not tell whether their hands were warm or cold.

“So, this is what the world looks like now,” Li Yao mumbled.

“The world has always been like this for us. Gray, barren, and full of fights and slaughter. You have to keep your eyes open every second, stay wary of threats from all directions, and search for the slightest food in ruins and crevices. But it doesn’t matter. Grandpa Yao, you are so awesome that you are almost an ultimate ‘old grandpa’. You will certainly live a good life here.”

Han Te shrugged and said, “I’m told that a long, long time ago, before Judgement Day took place, the world was different. It had green mountains, running rivers, and singing birds. That is what the few incomplete paintings I saw from master depicted. Tsk, tsk, tsk. How unbelievable. Could such a world really have existed?

“Grandpa Yao, can you tell me what the world of green mountains, running rivers, and singing birds is like exactly?”

Li Yao responded with silence.

Liu Li jabbed him softly and glared at him.

“Well…” Han Te scratched his hair hard and blushed. “Forgive me, Grandpa Yao. I almost forgot that you lost your body and your memories of the past, and the last remnants of your soul hid in loneliness for hundreds of years… Oi, Liu Li, you’re poking me again!”

He was a young man after all. Hearing that Li Yao would like to do them a favor, Han Te gradually became the carefree and disobedient guy he used to be.

Li Yao was not bothered at all. Smiling, he raised a very critical question. “It’s occurred to me that the resources here are highly insufficient. You can barely find a spiritual puppet for cleaning and maintaining purposes in the ruins of such a vast city. Besides, the radiation everywhere makes it impossible to grow crops on the land. From what I’ve heard just now, the Village of Peace alone has thousands of people, and there are more than ten villages in the hundreds of square kilometers around. How do you survive? Where do you get your food, water, training resources, weapons, and maintenance magical equipment?”

“Part of them come from scavenging and hunting,” Han Te said. “However, you’re quite right, Grandpa Yao. It’s been hundreds of years since Judgement Day. Almost all the city ruins have been explored hundreds of times by the scavengers. You’d be lucky to find half a track in them. As for hunting, the beasts that can easily be hunted have mostly been captured. The remaining animals are all the most ferocious creatures that are as difficult to deal with as those Thunder Salamanders. You’d have to risk your life to catch them, which is not a fair deal at all.

“Thankfully, abundant resources fall from the sky on a regular basis. Food, water, daily necessities, you name it. We mainly live on them.”

“From the sky?” Li Yao was slightly dazed. “Not only do ‘old grandpas’ fall from sky, but tremendous materials, too? Isn’t it too strange?”

“Not strange at all. It’s the gratuitous aid that the ‘angels’ offer to the ‘sinners’.”

Narrowing his eyes, Han Te searched the dark, gloomy clouds on the horizon. Then, his eyes suddenly shone as he pointed at the gray sky and exclaimed, “Grandpa Yao, look, it’s the Heavenly Rail!”

Li Yao looked into the distance. Releasing his senses to the maximum, he saw a super enormous rail that extended from the horizon behind him to the horizon in front of him through the entire sky.

Like a sword that stabbed into the sky and an endless bridge leading to the sea of stars, it could not have looked more splendid and magnificent!

Li Yao immediately recalled the circular rail stations that surrounded the entire planet when he broke into the atmosphere of the planet.

In great excitement, Han Te pointed at the sky and shouted, “That is the Heavenly Rail. Tremendous resources or even living people are projected from there often to help us survive through the difficulties. At the end of the interconnected Heavenly Rails, there’s Manjusaka, the City in the Sky, where angels live! One day, I will leave the wretched Land of Sins for the City in the Sky and the most brilliant universe beyond like my sister did!”

This was not the first time that Li Yao had heard the name Manjusaka, the City in the Sky, from him.

“Please explain,” he said briefly.

“Manjusaka, the City in the Sky, is the place built and inhabited by the ‘angels’,” Liu Li said. “It is also the gate between the Land of Sins and the universe.

“According to the seniors in the village, a long time ago, most of the people in the Martial Meritocrats Sector were unpardonable, ravenous criminals, whose attack against each other eventually led to Judgement Day that destroyed the surface of the entire planet. Those people are our ancestors.

“But not all people were as greedy and evil as them. Some of the kindhearted people with clear minds escaped from the catastrophe that would last hundreds of years. With the enormous s.h.i.+ps they built, they fled before Judgment Day and travelled in the sea of stars.”

“Do you know what’s in the sea of stars?” Li Yao asked.

“Not exactly.” The two little fellows shook their heads. Liu Li said, “Whatever there is in the sea of stars, the kindhearted people have never abandoned their home and their compatriots. After Judgment Day, they returned to the planet that was scarred and ruined.

“Right now, they call themselves angels and have established the enormous Heavenly Rails and Manjusaka, trying to eliminate the pollution and radiation on the ground and repair the heavily-wounded planet.

“Before the Land of Sins is completely restored to its original appearance, they send all the necessary resources, weapons, and training arts to us via the Heavenly Rails, helping us to survive through the difficulties on the harsh land.”

“Do you really believe such legends?” Li Yao asked. “Since ‘angels’ can roam the sea of stars, why don’t they take all of you away?”

Biting her lips, Liu Li replied, “The angels have their limits, too. Perhaps their s.h.i.+ps are not large enough, or they do not have enough resources to save each and every one of us.

“Besides… we are all ‘sinners’. The cursed blood of our ancestors with the genes of brutality flow in our veins. Just look at what happens in the Land of Sins, and you will understand. Pillaging, slaughter, arson, war. Most of the ‘sinners’ are even more brutal than the most brutal mutated beasts. Before they are completely purged, we are naturally unworthy of stepping into Manjusaka. Otherwise, what can be done if they cause trouble in the world of the angels?

“The so-called ‘Judgment Day’ was our ancestors’ own fault. The ‘angels’ do not owe us anything at all. It is generous enough of them to offer tremendous resources to us as aid so that we can survive. What qualifications do sinners such as us have to demand more from the ‘angels’? Wouldn’t that make us insatiable scoundrels?”

“That must be what the seniors in the village told you,” Li Yao sneered. “Where did they learn it in the beginning? Let me ask you again. Do you really believe in such legends? The seniors in the village naturally learned it from their own seniors. Generation after generation, the nonsense must’ve been pa.s.sed on for hundreds of years!”

Han Te grinned and said, “Is there any difference whether we believe it or not? In any case, the ‘sinners’ who struggle to survive in the Land of Sins depend on the charity of the high and mighty ‘angels’ to live. As long as they offer the resources, it doesn’t matter what the legends are!

“However, hehehe, now that I have recovered some of my strength, I will definitely enter Manjusaka like my sister did to become a well-respected ‘angel’. Then, everybody in the village will live a good life. They will have food, water, and clean air aplenty!”

Li Yao was rather curious. “Your sister… is in Manjusaka, the City in the Sky? Can sinners turn into angels?”

“Yes.” Liu Li nodded heavily. “Han Te’s sister is very awesome. She is a real genius among geniuses and even stronger than my dad. She went to Manjusaka a long time ago. She is the greatest pride of the Village of Peace!”

Li Yao found it odd. “According to what you said earlier, the Village of Peace seems to be in the middle of a crisis right now. Why can’t you ask Han Te’s sister for help?”

Liu Li blushed, not knowing how she should respond.

Han Te’s face turned red in embarra.s.sment, too. He was lost for words for a long time before he finally made up his mind and said, “The connection between the City in the Sky and the Land of Sins is intermittent. I have no idea where my sister is specifically, but it doesn’t matter. I will certainly go to Manjusaka someday and ask my sister about everything!”