Chapter 17 Xiangweng Temple ③ The Mummified Body Fell Down.
Lan Shuyin glanced helplessly at Xuan Bingbing.
Sometimes, she admired her friend's unconventional way of thinking.
How did you come up with this idea of swearing?
Xuan Bingbing met her gaze and playfully stuck out her tongue, "Didn't you say that Xiangweng Temple was completely moved away and this place has been abandoned for a long time?"
"I heard about it too." Lan Shuyin reached for the incense while whispering nonchalantly, "Never mind that for now, let's find that tower."
"It's right there."
Xuan Bingbing took the incense, slightly raised her chin towards the right rear of the main hall, and spoke in a voice so soft it was almost blended into the wind.
Looking in the direction she indicated—
A seven-story stone pagoda, entirely black, stood silently in the twilight.
"But there are people watching, how are we going to get across?" Xuan Bingbing muttered softly.
"Don't look like you've done something wrong. Be natural and come with me."
Just as Lan Shuyin was about to pick up the incense to light it, the volunteer who had been sweeping the floor suddenly came over and handed her another incense stick, his gaze lingering on the incense sticks in her and Xuan Bingbing's hands for a moment.
"The custom here is that each person offers two sticks of incense."
The other person spoke in a flat tone, and then turned and left.
Although she found the custom strange, she decided to follow the local customs when entering a temple. Lan Shuyin quietly lit incense, offered it, and then stepped into the main hall.
The hall was filled with old prayer flags, but the altar was empty. Only the mottled and faded monsters and cloud patterns on the murals around the hall could be vaguely discerned as traces of the past.
The densely packed cipher text swirled within, and Lan Shuyin couldn't understand a single word. She pretended to turn around once, then quietly slipped out through the back door and headed straight for the seven-story stone tower.
As soon as she got close, Lan Shuyin sensed that something was wrong.
It wasn't because of the stone tower itself—the tower was indeed covered with dense, indistinguishable runes, resembling neither seal script nor incantation, showing a sense of vicissitudes over the years.
What truly made her uneasy was the ground around the tower.
Unlike the neat courtyards elsewhere in the temple, the footprints on the muddy ground around the stone pagoda were messy and disorderly, not like the orderly marks left by devout circumambulators, but rather like someone had trampled on it wantonly.
Xuan Bingbing noticed it too, and asked with a puzzled tone, "Why is it so messy?"
While Xuan Bingbing was examining the footprints, Lan Shuyin had already found the entrance to the stone tower.
A low white stone door frame, the door tightly closed.
I thought it was locked, but when I reached out and pushed it, I found it was only slightly ajar.
Lan Shuyin gave Xuan Bingbing a look, and the latter immediately understood, squeezing through the low doorway one after the other.
The space inside the tower was unusually small, and the beams of light from the headlamps pierced the darkness, appearing as faint as if swallowed by thick dust and deathly silence.
A strange and rich fragrance filled the air, so strong it was almost suffocating, pressing heavily into the lungs, making each breath feel indescribably oppressive.
Right in the very center of the tower stands a statue of a living deity.
Or, on the surface, it looks very much like the golden body of Nirvana left behind by some great being.
She was not sitting cross-legged, but standing still in a strange "Yu Bu" posture, as if she had been suddenly frozen in a moment of ritual.
Its body was shriveled and shrunken, with a dark golden leather texture, wrapped in a tattered, deep purple silk robe embroidered with exquisite star patterns.
What's most unsettling is her face—it looks as if it's been brutally sliced off by some force.
It has no facial features, no appearance, only an uneven golden cross-section, like a blank mask that refuses to be looked at, silent yet terrifying.
This kind of incompleteness is far more visually striking than any grotesque appearance, as if all emotions and stories have been completely erased, leaving only a suffocating void.
"This is..." Before Xuan Bingbing could finish her shocked words, she saw Lan Shuyin raise her camera and press the shutter repeatedly.
“What we’re doing is illegal, so we won’t post the pictures online,” Lan Shuyin explained in a low voice, her hands still moving. “But we have to take pictures for the client as proof of delivery.”
She took a few more pictures from different angles, and suddenly let out a soft "Eh."
"What's wrong?" Xuan Bingbing asked, tilting her head as she continued to examine the strange flesh statue.
"It looks like there's an inscription?" Lan Shuyin spotted a black stone tablet about half a person's height in the corner.
"Hmm?" Upon hearing the words "inscription", Xuan Bingbing immediately walked towards her.
The inscription on the stele was illegible and blurry. Lan Shuyin had just bent down to touch the inscription—
Click!
A screeching sound of a mechanism turning abruptly shattered the silence!
The stone slab beneath our feet suddenly collapsed!
"ah!"
"Yinyin!"
There was no time to react; the entire ground suddenly flipped downwards.
Lan Shuyin felt her body suddenly lighten, lose weight instantly, and plummet uncontrollably downwards.
The wind whistled in her ears, and she felt as if she had fallen into a cold, steep slide. It was pitch black all around, and she could only feel the dizziness of the rapid descent.
In the blink of an eye, Lan Shuyin fell heavily onto a patch of damp mud.
With a "thud," she curled up and rolled over in pain, unable to breathe for a moment.
The headlamp fell off her head and rolled to the side, its beam sweeping haphazardly through the darkness, illuminating the claustrophobic stone walls—
It also illuminated four faces, equally covered in dust and filled with astonishment.
Three men and one woman. They had obviously also fallen here by accident, and were now sitting or standing, their expressions a mixture of wariness and surprise.
The short-haired woman among them was the first to react, casting a concerned look at them, "Are you alright?"
"It's alright, I can hold on." Lan Shuyin used the outstretched hand to prop herself up through the pain.
Xuan Bingbing quickly got up and moved close to her, her eyes scanning the other woman warily. "You fell down too?"
"Otherwise what?" The short-haired woman gave a wry smile. "We arrived half a day early, but we were careless and stepped on a trap."
Lan Shuyin caught her breath and quickly sized up the other person.
Although the four looked disheveled, they were fully equipped, unlike ordinary tourists.
The tall, burly man pointed to the ceiling and said in a somber tone, "That stone slab can only be lowered, not raised. We've tried many times, but we just can't open it."
He continued, "This place is like a completely enclosed stone chamber. We searched it carefully but couldn't find any exit."
Lan Shuyin picked up the headlamp, its beam carefully sweeping across the surroundings.
The stone walls were damp and cold, tightly sealed together, and the air was filled with a musty and earthy smell.
“We can’t just sit here and wait to die,” she said, steadying her breathing. “These kinds of secret chambers built by our predecessors usually don’t have hidden mechanisms. Have you checked the floor and every single brick in the walls?”
Another man, a bespectacled, refined-looking man who had been sitting the whole time, chimed in, "I've done a quick search and found nothing unusual."
He hesitated for a moment, then looked toward the corner of the stone chamber. “But that wall seems a little different. I haven’t had a chance to look at it closely yet.”
He was referring to a slightly darker-colored stone brick, but after Lan Shuyin examined it carefully, she found that it was just a trace left by water seepage and nothing special.
She searched for a while longer, but still found nothing.
This stone chamber was like an airtight dungeon, keeping them firmly locked inside.
But Lan Shuyin was not discouraged and continued to squat on the ground, carefully tapping each brick surface.
Seeing her persistence, the tall, burly man showed an appreciative expression and took the initiative to introduce himself, "My name is Zhang Hao, I work in geological exploration. These are my teammates, Chen Yi, Qi Weiwei, and Zhong Jinguo. We are here to conduct research and investigation on cultural relics."
The atmosphere eased slightly.
Lan Shuyin continued working without looking up, replying, "My name is Xuan Yin, and her name is Lan Bing. We are adventure bloggers. We heard there was a statue of a god here, so we wanted to come and see it for ourselves."
“The statue…” Zhang Hao’s expression shifted slightly as he tentatively asked, “Do you know what that statue up there is?”
“Some eminent monks in Buddhism have incorruptible bodies after their death, which are then enshrined by their disciples and believers as a symbol of their spiritual achievements,” Lan Shuyin said calmly. “Judging from their appearance, they are probably similar to incorruptible bodhisattvas.”
Zhang Hao exchanged a complicated look with his teammates, slowly nodded, then slowly shook his head, "It is indeed a body, but it is definitely not the kind of physical deity that you described, who voluntarily meditated and naturally achieved enlightenment."
He paused, his voice unusually low in the secluded stone chamber, "That golden statue, officially named 'Venerable Xiangweng,' also known as the True Body of the Yin Spirit, was created using extremely cruel methods. I cannot go into the specifics, but it was far more cruel than the methods used by the old Tantric sects to make human skin drums and kapala."
“The purpose of creating it was to receive worship from believers,” Zhang Hao continued. “Legend has it that Venerable Xiangweng governs the underworld. Worshipping her can ensure a peaceful life, and after death, one will receive preferential treatment in the underworld and enjoy endless wealth and glory in the next life.”
“Wishes made through this method are quite effective,” Qi Weiwei added softly, her tone tinged with sarcasm. “But don’t those people ever consider that a soul that died in agony could possibly bless someone else?”
Zhang Hao nodded and said, "More than a hundred years ago, this place was very isolated, and it was common to control people's thoughts in this way. Originally, the tower was opened for people to admire every sixty years, but after it was opened, the authorities strictly banned such horrific behavior."
"So we'll just leave her here?" Lan Shuyin asked.
“It’s not that we don’t want to move it,” Zhang Hao said. “About ten years ago, a professional survey team came with permits and equipment to relocate and protect it, so that it could be laid to rest.”
He paused abruptly here, and under the halo of the headlamps, everyone's faces appeared dark and indistinct.
"And the result?" Xuan Bingbing couldn't help but lower her voice and ask.
Zhang Hao took a deep breath, his voice a little hoarse, "When they tried to move the body, one worker died on the spot. The cause of death was suspicious and medically inexplicable. Other participants also suffered a series of accidents in the following year, either dying or going insane."
His gaze swept over Lan Shuyin and Xuan Bingbing's shocked faces, and he slowly said, "So it's not that we're not moving, it's that we dare not move."
"Later, some thieves also tried to steal from her, but she stood there like a curse, a warning. This time, we only dared to do external scanning and recording, and didn't dare to get close and touch her at all... We didn't expect to trigger the mechanism."
Lan Shuyin opened her mouth, the shock of the story made her want to say something, but in the end she remained silent.
Any evaluation at this moment seems pale and powerless.
For a moment, silence fell over the stone chamber.
A note from the author:
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