Time until the Eastern Emperor Bell rings: 620 years
Winter, the fourth year of Yongle, Ming Dynasty.
Heavy snow.
Amid the Kunlun Mountains, a gray figure slowly walked through the endless snow. The gale swept up flurries, burying the two clear trails of footprints without a trace.
The figure crossed the mountains and finally stopped before an ancient ruined temple.
This temple seemed to have stood for a thousand years. Its outer walls had nearly all collapsed, and heavy snow covered the remains, making the outline of the buildings impossible to discern. Half a battered door stood alone before the ruins, letting out a piercing creak in the howling wind.
"Has it already been nearly fourteen hundred years..."
The gray figure stared at the temple ruins and murmured, "Even longer than I imagined."
He reached out to push open the half-broken door, but with a crisp snap, it broke apart and fell into the snow. The grating creak vanished completely, leaving only the endless whimpering of the wind and snow.
He sighed and stepped into the ruins of the temple.
Guided by his memory, he arrived before a snowdrift. With a light stamp of his foot, the snow before him shattered on its own and scattered across the ground, revealing the clay Buddha statue within.
Over fourteen hundred years had passed. Even the outer walls had collapsed and rotted away, yet this clay Buddha statue had somehow retained its original form!
At the statue's abdomen, a crack had already spread across it, nearly splitting its front in two. As the snow collapsed away, the crack widened once more, as if something were about to burst out from within!
The gray-clad figure merely stood quietly amid the ruins, watching the scene without the slightest intention of intervening.
Crack—!!
With