Chapter 39: Buddhist Corporation

Chapter 39: The Buddhist Corporation

For Wu Shihu, Chief of the Third Division of the Tianfu Heavy Industry Operations Department, tonight was destined to be sleepless.

He had just received word that the Bodhi Corporation would escort that Chongzhen Imperial Edict to the White Dragon Temple, deep within the district, come dawn.

This indicated that the men dispatched by the Shudao Logistics Security Department would move within three double-hours.

And he himself had to reach Matsienwei within three double-hours, doing everything in his power to stop Shudao Logistics.

"A scrap of paper, damned if I know what's worth fighting over."

Wu Shihu muttered to himself; he truly couldn't fathom why the group's upper echelons would mobilize such a massive effort just to trip up Shudao Logistics.

In his view, this was utterly a thankless task.

This operation alone had him leading a full banner of ten men; the travel and ammunition costs alone were a tidy sum, not to mention the potential pensions and disability compensations.

Furthermore, Matsienwei was the turf of those bald heads; if a fight truly broke out, a few buildings blown up, a hundred or eighty civilians caught in the crossfire, they'd surely come demanding answers afterward.

Although the Buddhist Fan-chuan lineage held little power in Shu, if they truly fell out, the group's business in the Western Fan regions would inevitably suffer greatly.

It was a complete loss for no gain.

Wu Shihu had pondered long on the road here, yet still couldn't grasp what the Lord meant by that phrase, "a dispute of pride."

"With this money, I'd probably have made Rank 7 Soldier by now, transferred to a Division to be a Chief."

But Wu Shihu only dared grumble in his heart; after all, this was a decision from the group's top brass, and he had no standing to question it.

Moreover, he had just been bestowed the surname "Wu" by the Master's family, formally becoming a disciple of the Yanzhou Wu Clan; this job had to be done, and done perfectly!

Thinking of this, Wu Shihu activated the comms implant in his ear canal and roared over the tactical channel: "All of you, pull yourselves together! Reach Matsienwei within half a double-hour!"

"Understood!"

..............

After leaving the Qudeng Bar, Li Jun didn't rush to act; instead, he hid in an alley on the Bodhi Corporation's periphery, logging into the Security Department's database via the info-terminal on his wristguard to pull up the company's files.

This was the first time Li Jun had learned the basic situation of these companies under the Buddhist sect.

Throughout the entire search, a single thought incessantly filled his mind.

Drain your present life, control your next.

The Buddhist corporations' scope of business was vast, with three main pillars: the Afterlife Business, Land Leasing, and Labor Export.

The Afterlife Business was primarily realized through the Huangliang Buddhist Kingdom.

This Huangliang Buddhist Kingdom was a super-large-scale Huangliang Dream; its mainframe usually took the form of a pagoda, immense in volume and staggering in operating power.

Compared to Zhao Dou's small-scale dreams where timelines endlessly repeated, whether in intricacy of construction or stability of the illusion, the gulf between them was heaven and earth.

Even the Huangliang Dreams of the Six Ministries of the Imperial Court fell far short of the Buddhist Corporation's Huangliang Buddhist Kingdom in functional completeness and comfort.

And the profit model of this business was an eye-opener for Li Jun.

Simply put, believers donated worldly possessions to have their consciousness uploaded into the corporation's constructed Huangliang Buddhist Kingdom upon death.

Depending on the amount donated, they could freely choose to reside in any of the Thirty-Three Heavens.

In the highest Four Formless Heavens, believers could achieve omnipotence—thought became reality, desire became possession.

Likewise, the duration of a believer's stay in the Buddhist Kingdom was tied to the amount of incense money donated.

When time ran out, the consciousness would be ejected from the Buddhist Kingdom, left to arise and perish on its own.

A beautiful name for it: undergoing tribulation.

Land Leasing, as the name implies, generated revenue by renting out the various fields and properties under the temple's name.

Real estate needs no elaboration; the Buddhist sect's vision in this regard was unparalleled in all the Great Ming.

Although during the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, multiple preferential policies targeting monks were abolished, the effect over the years had been negligible.

As for fields, they complemented the other pillar business, Labor Export; after all, who can beat workers who only demand food, sometimes mobilized purely by moral obligation?

Even the Daoist sect, which also rose on the backs of believers, couldn't manage it; hence their strategy focused on the upper class, serving high officials and nobles.

The Bodhi Corporation, within the Buddhist Western Fan lineage, belonged to the Labor Export category, mainly participating in ruin excavations requiring manpower.

This time, they had unearthed the Chongzhen Imperial Edict from the Moya Temple ruins.

As for how to combat the Buddhist and Daoist cultivation sequences, the database introduction was extremely brief, only a few scattered notes. Li Jun guessed this might relate to why Buddhism had long since withdrawn from Shu.

Beware conversion, beware Dharmapalas, beware the Huangliang Buddhist Kingdom.

Might as well have said nothing, fuck.

Li Jun closed the terminal and looked up at the Bodhi Corporation.

The entire company structure was a five-story brick-and-wood building, vast in footprint, its walls a uniform dark red, devoid of any electronic surveillance. Even the signboard was a handwritten wooden plaque in Fan script.

There wasn't even a single electric lamp at the main gate; lighting relied solely on two standing windproof copper lamps, as tall as a grown man, on either side. Their dim candlelight barely illuminated a five-meter radius.

Two burly Fan men stood guard at the entrance, but from their half-lidded eyes and slightly swaying bodies, they were in a half-asleep state, vigilance near zero.

The reason for such laxity was simple: in Matsienwei, a city teeming with Buddhist faithful, who had the gall to target a Buddhist company?

Even the mechanical bandits and prosthetic highwaymen passing through for supplies only dared keep their heads down, sticking obediently to the main commercial district.

A tiger like Li Jun was the first in many years.

In the shadows cast by the candlelight on the ground, the two guards suddenly gained a third.

*Crack.*

Two crisp snaps rang out simultaneously; Li Jun seized them by the napes and propped the corpses against the wall.

Behind the Bodhi Corporation's main gate, it was equally dark; night wind poured in from the entrance, making the candle flames on either wall flicker wildly, like dancing phantoms.

Fortunately, Li Jun's current physical constitution possessed entry-level night vision, barely allowing him to make out the first floor's layout.

The entire first floor was vast; everywhere the eye fell were wooden tables, chairs, and stands, tabletops piled with scriptures and Buddhist implements, walls painted with vast murals of Buddhist tales.

Not a soul in sight.

A sudden thought struck Li Jun.

This wasn't a company; it was a Buddhist temple!