Chapter 292 The Yungang Buddha Statues (2/2)
”It said that it saw a couple of hooligans causing trouble in the neighborhood that night, so it decided to step in.”
Gao Peng nodded to himself. ”So why didn't it flee from Yuzhou City immediately after killing them? Why did it hide in a porcelain shop instead?”
Stripey fell silent for a moment, then it said, ”The statue said that it wanted to leave Yuzhou City by following the western side of the city, but it got lost, so it decided to rest in the store during the day and resume its journey at night.”
At first, Gao Peng had assumed that the statue was searching for an elemental artifact or some sacrificial offering in the city to help it evolve.
Hearing that it had only gotten lost and stopped at the porcelain store to rest somewhat diminished the mystery around the statue.
However, despite its cold, impassive exterior, the bronze statue was still a monster.
...
Every news outlet in the Huaxia region was abuzz about the Yungang Grottoes.
Although the Huaxia Government issued quick responses to silence the matter, news about the grottoes still managed to leak, making everyone antsy.
Every news channel had captured footage of the grottoes from various angles.
In them, one could see that the grottoes' walls, which had once been a dull gray, were now awash with a golden light. Small stone statues were caught peeking out from their shrines and staring curiously at the reporters. Some of them were a bit shy and timidly hid from the cameras.
They appeared to be a new species of monsters that had evolved from stone statues. The short Buddha statues seemed like children, filled with curiosity and wonder about the world around them. On the other hand, the adult-sized statues appeared more mature and dignified.
Some of the Buddha statues sat cross-legged in the grottoes and generally ignored the reporters as they chanted their Buddhist verses.
It was as if a whole new world had popped up out of nowhere.
”These Buddha statues are actually alive. That's just incredible. I remember visiting the Yungang Grottoes once. Back then, they were all just inanimate mounds of stone.”
”Really gets you thinking. Will we become extinct one day?”
”Man, this world really has it out for us humans...”
Everyone began expressing their wonder and fears about this after watching the news.
Some even began discussing the possibility of taming these statues to become their familiars.
”In accordance to the agreement made between the Allied Government and the Buddha Statues of the Yungang Grottoes, the Allied Government has agreed to delineate the 20-mile area around the Yungang Grottoes as the statues' critical habitat and has forbidden anyone or any organization from entering the place to capture these creatures for their own means. In exchange, the Buddha statues of the Yungang Grottoes will be providing their assistance to the base city of Bingzhou in their efforts to curb the monster invasion that has troubled the city for weeks...”
Gao Peng turned off the television.
He had seen the monsters' stats in the news.
[Monster Name]: Yungang Buddha Statue
[Monster Level]: Level 6-40
[Monster Grade]: Normal, Excellent, Perfect
[Monster Attribute]: Earth, Rock
The news footages had captured mostly Normal-tier to Commander-tier Buddha statues. The highest monster grade among them was Perfect. Gao Peng hadn't seen any Epic-level monsters, but then again, the reporters hadn't ventured that far into the grottoes.
Even though Gao Peng hadn't seen any Lord-tier Buddha statues on the news, he had a feeling that they did exist in the caves. Otherwise, the Huaxia government wouldn't have been so secretive about the whole affair.