This is an amazing country.
This is the country with the strongest religious atmosphere in the world. Because of the great advocacy of spiritual liberation, there are still hundreds of religions. Buddhism, one of the three major religions in the world, originated here.
From the 6th to the 5th century BC, Sakyamuni founded Buddhism in ancient India. After that, Buddhism spread widely in Asia and around the world, and had a significant impact on the social, political and cultural life of many countries.
The Nalanda Monastery was once the holy place of Buddhism.
It was once the highest institution of learning and academic center of ancient Indian Buddhism, and attracted thousands of scholars from all over the world to study there. Xuanzang, a great monk from the Tang Dynasty in China, was one of them.
Unfortunately, in the 12th century, Nalanda Temple was destroyed by the invasion of Muslims.
Today, only an abandoned site remains.
At this moment, because of the events related to Master Xuanzang, the investigation team sent by the Xunzhou Bureau is in a city near the ruins of Nalanda Temple, conducting investigation, research and analysis according to the requirements of their superiors.
In an ordinary small room, various documents and electronic equipment are scattered everywhere.
Three members of the investigation team were frowning beside various documents, while the rest of the members had their own tasks and were not here.
"This complicated history really gives me a headache. Even if I upload it to the headquarters and call in a bunch of experts to help, it's still not easy."
Huang Meilin couldn't help but stretch as she spoke.
The orange-red sunlight highlights her graceful body curves.
Sitting at the desk near the window for a whole day made her feel extremely tired.
Looking out the window at the setting sun, Huang Meilin curled her lips. Another whole day had passed like this.
"Hey, wanna go out for dinner together?"
Huang Meilin asked her colleague who was lying on the ground beside her and comparing two paper documents.
Although most of the food in India was really not good enough for her, she didn't care about anything when she was really hungry.
A full day's work left her feeling empty-bellied.
"I've already sent the field team out to buy groceries. They should be back soon. Let's just get on with the task at hand."
The man lying on the ground pushed up his glasses and politely declined Huang Meilin.
He almost collapsed from eating Indian food last night, so today no one can make him eat food prepared by anyone other than the field team.
Hearing this, Huang Meilin was about to ask other colleagues.
But she found that her colleague, who was studying pictures of cultural relics unearthed from Nalanda Temple at another table, waved at her without even looking up.
Obviously, this also means a polite refusal.
"Alas, when will this task at hand be completed?"
"When will the field team come back?"
Seeing this, Huang Meilin wailed and lay helplessly on the chair.
They were an investigation team sent to India by the Xunzhou Bureau, whose specific mission was to investigate a series of suspicious historical records centered on the Nalanda Temple.
Because it was proven that Master Xuanzang possessed extraordinary powers, their investigation team was sent here to investigate Nalanda Temple, which was of vital importance in Master Xuanzang's life. By the way, they should try to cooperate with the diplomatic team to retrieve the relics of Xuanzang's body enshrined there.
But this task is indeed too difficult.
The history of India is too confusing and vague. The entire Indian subcontinent once had hundreds of ethnic groups, and later experienced the rule of various feudal dynasties and colonial empires.
India has never had a unified territory in its history, and its history is basically a history of contention among foreign invaders.
They do not have a unified culture, nor do they have a clear historical heritage.
It can even be said that the "Great Tang Records on the Western Regions" written by Master Xuanzang has become the main basis and material for India to sort out its own history.
Therefore, the investigation team was overwhelmed by the historical investigation here. The scattered records made it difficult to know where to start.
Fortunately, due to its special status, Nalanda Monastery has a large amount of cultural relics and research materials from scholars from various countries.
By combining these viewpoints analyzed from cultural relics with fragmentary historical records, we can barely carry out investigation and analysis work.
But even so, this job is indeed a bit torturous.
"Xiao Huang, your task is already easy."
"Among the people traveling with you, whether it's the diplomats who are responsible for negotiating the retrieval of Xuanzang's body and relics, or the archaeologists who applied to participate in the excavation work at the ruins of Nalanda Temple, none of them have it easier than you."
"Young people nowadays... If I were stronger, I wouldn't need you, a little guy, to join the investigation team."
Such a voice suddenly came from the computer on Huang Meilin's desk.
She looked in the direction of the sound.
What I saw on the computer screen was a huge conference room with many gray-haired old men inside, looking down and studying something.
Obviously, this is a team of experts arranged by the Xunzhou Bureau in the country.
In addition to studying historical records and cultural relics related to Xuanzang, these experts will also simultaneously assist the investigation team in India in conducting investigation and analysis work.
Among them, there was an old man with completely white hair, who was leaning in front of the screen. With a serious look on his face, he criticized and educated Huang Meilin who was far away in India: "Work hard first. If you really feel hungry, you can eat the compressed dry food you brought with you."
Huang Meilin looked at the big face on the computer screen and pouted helplessly: "I know, teacher, I will continue working now."
He is a leading figure in the study of Indian history and Buddhist history in China.
She dared not disobey her teacher in the slightest.
As soon as she finished speaking, she continued to look at the copy of the paper document in her hand obediently.
[1890, Nalanda Temple Ruins, Southwest Corner, Area 3, 21st Excavation and Subsequent Investigation and Research. ]
[During the excavation of Building No. 3 in the southwest corner of Nalanda Temple, it was found that this building has the largest area and is the most magnificent. It is undoubtedly the most important core building in the ruins of this temple complex...]
[The related cultural relics I participated in excavating are: Standing Statue of Avalokitesvara (gilded copper), Standing Statue of Sakyamuni (alloy copper), Seated Statue of Vairocana Tathagata (inlaid silver)...]
[These statues have clear facial features, slightly bulging eyelids, straight noses, tightly closed lips, slightly thick lower lips, and mysterious smiles at the corners of their mouths, which are typical South Asian looks. Their production spanned more than 700 years from the 5th to the 11th century. Their style can be roughly divided into three periods: budding, mature, and declining...]
This was the conclusion reached by a British scholar in 1890 after he personally participated in the excavation of the Nalanda Temple ruins, based on a series of murals and texts found in the unearthed cultural relics, combined with some fragmentary Indian history.
Because the scholar died young and did not make any groundbreaking discoveries in the translation of pictographic characters, this report was not widely included.
This document, which can be said to be out of print, was found in the corner of a room where the Indian archaeological department stored materials related to Nalanda Temple.
This kind of information that cannot be found on the Internet is one of the reasons why they came to India to investigate in person.
The first half of the article describes the British scholar's participation in archaeological excavations, while the second half focuses on the meaning of the symbols, texts, and images found in the various statues and murals.
According to the analysis of this British scholar, the meanings of most of the texts, symbols, and images are basically full of religious connotations, and when translated, they are generally scriptures from various ancient Buddhist scriptures.
This is basically the same as most of the research conducted at the Nalanda site, nothing special.
However, some of the texts, symbols and images were difficult for the British scholar to understand.
He found a frequently appearing decoration on the surface of several artifacts. It was a rectangular block of unknown origin with a pattern similar to the sun pattern engraved on it.
The British scholar has only found such decorations in a few unearthed artifacts.
According to his speculation and research, this rectangular block that appeared several times was a box, but he was completely confused as to the sun pattern on the box.
He searched for a long time among the many cultural relics unearthed from Nalanda Temple, but did not find a similar box.
Later, because there were too few box decorations with sun patterns, and all of them oxidized and lost the patterns shortly after being unearthed.
And he couldn't think of any special explanation for these patterns.
Therefore, the scholar did not conduct further research on this pattern in the end, and this insignificant discovery was left unresolved.
But for Huang Meilin, the record in this document is undoubtedly a major discovery.
It was so serious that she couldn't help but breathe fast.
Huang Meilin swallowed subconsciously as he carefully observed the hand-painted cultural relic pattern attached to the back of the document.
Such a pattern...
Such a sun pattern! That's right! This is the symbol of eternal day! The British scholar from more than a hundred years ago didn't know what this pattern meant, but as a member of the Seeking Day Bureau, she knew it very well.
There is an Eternal Day logo on the box.
Then the box should be the one that Yong Zhou left at Nalanda Temple. The existence of this box was recorded by some people in a few murals and then discovered by the British scholar.
This is undoubtedly an important discovery.
Apart from the jade tablet that was once discovered in the Axe Valley in Shu, this is the second time that the Xunzhu Bureau has actually discovered traces of Eternal Day in history.
This also proves that their direction of investigating Xuanzang, Chaofan, and Yongzhou is correct.
This Nalanda Temple did have some connection with Eternal Day.
So for now, the investigation into Nalanda Monastery has to continue.
At the same time, finding a box with the eternal daylight logo should also be included in the schedule.
Thinking of this, Huang Meilin excitedly reported this discovery to his colleagues around him and the expert team across the computer screen.
Everyone took this discovery very seriously.
Director Zhang Shouquan, who was rushing over in a hurry, even appeared on the other side of the computer screen.
According to the director's instructions, all members of their investigation team in India must keep an eye out for any news about the box with the Eternal Day logo.
At the same time, the Xunzhou Bureau will mobilize its forces to begin investigating various cultural relics around the world, especially those related to China and India.
If that box has vanished into thin air in the passage of history, or has been recovered by Eternal Day, then let’s not talk about it for now.
If the box becomes a cultural relic and is passed down, then the Xun Zhou Bureau must find it.
As this hard-to-find item is clearly related to Eternal Day, the Xunzhu Bureau is naturally determined to obtain it.
This is not only to gain a deeper understanding of Eternal Day through the box, but also to be able to access a higher level of power through the box.
Zhang Shouquan still remembers it clearly.
On Minai Island, the Supernatural Research Alliance gained a supernatural being with unfathomable strength simply because they picked up a hammer left by Yong Zhou.
It would be a lie for Zhang Shouquan to say that he was not jealous.
Although the family already has a clear system of extraordinary cultivation that can be practiced, no one has too much high-end combat power.
Perhaps after finding that box, they will be able to possess a higher level of supernatural powers.
………………………………
At this time, at the entrance of Nalanda Memorial Hall, a member of the Xunzhou Bureau investigation team was discussing something with the security guard at the entrance.
He was a member of the field team and had wanted to enter the Nalanda Memorial Museum as he had done a few days ago to continue studying the various ancient artifacts unearthed from the Nalanda Temple, but he was suddenly informed that the museum was temporarily closed today.
There was even a cordon at the door.
Soon, the negotiator returned along the same route and got into the car to meet up with his colleagues from the field team.
"Those security guards weren't professionals, so I had a rough idea of what was going on here from a side view."
"The relics of Xuanzang's body enshrined here suddenly disappeared out of thin air more than ten minutes ago. They have already reported this to their superiors."
"Because there were no witnesses and no surveillance, they didn't do much and were waiting for someone from above to come over."
The man, who had just returned to the car, quickly reported what he knew.
This made the field team leader sitting in the co-pilot seat frown and say: "The relic suddenly disappeared?!"
"Then the diplomatic team and we are in trouble!"
As soon as the diplomatic team arrived in India, they went straight to the Indian Parliament building and discussed with President Draupadi Murmu every day about returning the body and relics to China.
While the negotiations were still ongoing, the corpse's relics suddenly disappeared.
It's impossible not to suspect them.
The relics of Xuanzang's body were presented to India to express the friendship between the two countries, and they have extraordinary significance.
Moreover, in this country where Buddhism is flourishing, Xuanzang's body relics also have a special status.
At this moment, they suddenly became the first suspects in the disappearance of Xuanzang's body and relics.
Even if India will not do much due to China's strength, but seeing India's gangster nature of directly reaping the benefits of foreign-funded enterprises in the past, the members of their investigation team will at least be placed under house arrest.
"Drive back immediately and make sure that the comrades in charge of researching the documents are not harmed by those fanatics among the Indian people before the news of the disappearance of Xuanzang's body and relics leaks out."
The field team leader said this with a stern look on his face.
Regardless, just prepare for the worst.
(End of this chapter)