Nighttime...
To the south of Yellow Wind Ridge's Stone-Pillow Flat, inside a dilapidated temple that should have had its main hall in a cavern carved into the rock wall, the headless monk sat cross-legged on a worn straw mat. He gently plucked the three-stringed instrument in his hands, and amid the leaping notes, a faint trace of sorrow could be heard.
Ting-ting-dang, ting-dang, ting--
Ting-ting-dang-dang, ting-dang-dang, ting--
The mottled rock wall behind him was already covered in signs of weathering. The murals that should once have been brightly colored had long since become like the wrinkles on an old man's face.
At the mouth of the cavern, several broken stone pillars stood crookedly. The reliefs on their surfaces had long since blurred beyond recognition, though lotus flowers and Buddhas could still be faintly distinguished.
Though the cavern was dim, it was not damp in the slightest. The air was instead filled with the faint, decayed dryness of sand and dust.
On the other side of the cavern, the main hall had already collapsed halfway. Moonlight streamed in through the cracks left by the collapse, casting mottled shadows across the ground. Beside those patches of light, a battered Buddha statue lay half-buried in the ruins. The exposed half of its body had weathered away, yet a trace of compassion could still be seen beneath its lowered eyelids.
Though the night was clear, with a bright moon and sparse stars, the wind and sand still howled outside the cavern, occasionally sweeping clouds of hazy dust inside.
Just then!
The broken door of the stone cavern was suddenly shoved open. Amid the swirling dust, a massive figure stumbled inside.
"..."
Seeing this, the headless monk instinctively stopped moving his hands. He raised his nonexistent "head" toward the newcomer and "looked" at him before