Chapter 13: A Dream Visit?

As soon as I entered the temple, I saw that the guest room on the left had mostly collapsed. It must have fallen into disrepair over the years.

The floor was covered in dust. It was obvious that no one had been here for a long time.

I looked around and got a bad feeling.

"Old monk! Old monk! Xingkong? Kongkong?"

No one answered. My voice didn't even echo in the empty little temple.

I took another couple of steps, then suddenly spotted something!

A huge... claw mark!

I froze, my foot faltering as a terrible premonition surged through me.

No way...

I gritted my teeth and went farther inside. The deeper I went, the worse things looked. There were traces of blood on the floor, but they had already been covered by dust. If my eyesight hadn't been so sharp, I wouldn't have noticed them at all.

Following the blood trail, I made my way to the main hall and saw a huge corpse lying beside its entrance.

I hurried over and looked at the enormous corpse, nearly six meters long.

After examining it for a while, I was fairly sure that the remains, now nothing but bones, belonged to a black bear.

I left the corpse alone and hurried into the main hall.

As soon as I entered, I saw a dried corpse sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion.

"Old monk!"

I froze. His face had withered, and his body had caved in, but I recognized his monk's robes at a glance.

I went over and crouched down.

The old monk's breastbone was broken, as if something heavy had struck him. His chest had caved in, but even in death, his hands were still pressed together in prayer.

"Phew... Heh. You really didn't keep your word."

I gave