Temple in the Mountains

The morning sun began to rise.

Amidst the lush, verdant mountain forest, on a patch of grass near the riverbank, a camping tent trembled slightly, emitting a soft rustling sound.

Outside the tent, a campfire had burned down to charcoal ash, with occasional wisps of smoke curling upward.

"The air in the mountains at dawn is truly refreshing."

Qi Tian emerged from the tent, straightened his clothes, and stretched his limbs. Looking at the greenery of the forest and the flowing river, he couldn't help but feel in high spirits.

After washing up briefly by the river, Qi Tian prepared some instant food. Once he had finished his simple meal, he began to pack up the tent.

After spending over half an hour getting everything packed, Qi Tian went back to the river to fetch some water to douse the fire. For safety's sake, he even dug up some wet soil from the bank to bury the remains of the fire.

Everything settled, Qi Tian shouldered his hiking backpack, looked back at the campsite, and nodded with satisfaction before taking a pendant from around his neck.

The saying goes that men should wear Guanyin and women should wear Buddha, but the pendant Qi Tian wore was a jade Buddha statue.

"According to the resonance of the Buddha Pendant and the fragmented memories from my recurring dreams, that temple should be around here. But why couldn't I find it all day yesterday?"

Qi Tian held the Buddha Pendant, his thumb gently brushing over the textured carvings, his heart filled with confusion.

Five years ago, on his eighteenth birthday, Qi Tian received this Buddha Pendant from his grandfather. Since that day, he had frequently dreamt of a golden Buddha statue and a small temple nestled in the mountains.

After graduating from university, he finally had a rare vacation amidst his busy work schedule, so Qi Tian decided to search for the temple from his dreams.

Ever since this idea took root, a voice in his subconscious had been telling him to head to the very mountain where he now stood.

This was a remote area in Guangdong Province, near Yangcheng. The surroundings were sparsely populated; the nearest village was over ten kilometers away, and it was even further to the bustling town.

Qi Tian had arrived here yesterday afternoon. According to the inexplicable resonance of the Buddha Pendant, this mountain range was indeed the location of the temple from his dreams.

However, after searching all afternoon, he couldn't find any buildings. As night approached, he had no choice but to camp on the spot, hoping to continue his search today.

"Huh? There's smoke over there."

Qi Tian saw smoke rising from a spot in the forest across the river, partially obscured by trees. He felt a surge of surprise and doubt, as he had already walked through that direction yesterday.

"I didn't see any buildings yesterday. Could there be people?"

Qi Tian pondered for a moment, then walked upstream along the riverbank for a distance, where a protruding boulder spanned the small creek, allowing him to cross to the other side.

After crossing, Qi Tian headed toward the direction of the rising smoke, entering a patch of forest.

Just then, the morning sun was obscured by dark clouds, and the entire forest dimmed. Especially within the woods, the sudden change to a gloomy environment made Qi Tian's heart race.

"What's going on? It was a clear, cloudless sky just a moment ago, so where did these dark clouds come from?"

As the sun was covered by the clouds, the Buddha Pendant hanging around Qi Tian's neck flashed with a faint, fleeting glow. Immediately after, an inexplicable tremor stirred in his heart, accompanied by a strange sensation of his heartbeat quickening.

He then found himself involuntarily accelerating toward the direction where the smoke had risen.

After walking for about ten minutes, a walled building appeared in the distance.

As he drew closer, he discovered a vegetable patch behind a courtyard. Inside the fenced area, there were plenty of fresh vegetables, and he could even see traces of water from a recent watering.

Looking at the wall before him, the familiar feeling from his dreams told him that this was the place he had been searching for.

Qi Tian bypassed the vegetable patch, walked around the perimeter of the wall, and arrived at the main entrance.

"Golden Buddha Temple." Qi Tian whispered, looking at the tightly shut wooden doors and the wooden plaque hanging above them. The tremor in his heart intensified.

He hurried forward, stepped onto the stone stairs, knocked on the wooden door, and called out.

"Excuse me, is anyone there?"

No sooner had he spoken than a faint sound came from within, followed by the approach of footsteps.

Through the gap between the two wooden doors, Qi Tian could see a figure approaching. It looked vaguely like an old man.

A few seconds later, the sound of a bolt sliding echoed. One side of the wooden door creaked open, and an old monk with a hunched back poked his head out, his cloudy eyes scanning Qi Tian.

"May I ask who you are, benefactor?"

Seeing the old monk who had opened the gate, Qi Tian quickly spoke up.

"Greetings, Master. My name is Qi Tian. I was passing by and saw a temple, so I wanted to come in to offer some incense and take a short rest."

Qi Tian suppressed his inner doubts, smiled at the old monk, and explained his intentions.

Hearing that he was here to offer incense, the old monk opened both wooden doors wide. He stood before the entrance, straightened his posture, pressed his palms together in front of his chest, and bowed slightly.

"Amitabha. Please, benefactor, come in."

Seeing the old monk bow to him, Qi Tian quickly followed suit, pressing his palms together in return before following the old monk into the temple.

This small temple occupied no more than an acre of land. Aside from the main Buddha hall and a small courtyard, there were only two rooms on the east and west sides.

As soon as Qi Tian stepped into the temple, the sky cleared instantly. Sunlight shone through the surrounding eaves, casting a direct beam into the courtyard's atrium.

The sudden clearing of the sky and the sunlight hitting the stone floor of the atrium startled Qi Tian once more.

It was normal for the sun to be blocked by wind-blown clouds, but the clouds that had covered the sky just now were clearly dark and heavy, dimming the entire sky significantly. For it to change so abruptly without any transition was truly strange.

However, the strangest thing was the Buddha Pendant around his neck. After entering the gate, the cool sensation it usually provided against his skin vanished, replaced by a slight warmth. At the same time, he felt an urge to dig up the stone slabs covering the atrium where the sun was shining.

Qi Tian followed the old monk past the atrium, suppressing that urge, and entered the Buddha hall inside.

On a stone-built altar, a Buddha statue with peeling gold lacquer came into view. The three-meter-tall figure sat cross-legged on a stone lotus pedestal, also coated in gold lacquer. It seemed this was the origin of the name Golden Buddha Temple.

Beneath the Buddha altar stood a wooden table, with three prayer mats arranged in parallel below it. On the tabletop sat an iron incense burner, holding three half-burned sticks of incense and two red candles.

The old monk stood before the Buddha statue, performed a pious bow, then drew three incense sticks from a pouch on the table. He lit them with the flame of a red candle and turned to hand them to Qi Tian, who was standing behind him.

Qi Tian offered a word of thanks and took the incense from the old monk. Unfamiliar with the rituals of worship, he simply held the incense between his fingertips and bowed three times toward the Buddha statue before inserting them into the burner.

After he finished offering the incense, he discovered that the old monk who had been standing beside him had suddenly vanished. He scanned the prayer hall, but he was now the only one left.

The entire process had taken less than ten seconds; in the time it took to insert the incense, the old monk had disappeared without a trace.

"Rumble."

Just as Qi Tian began to wonder if he had encountered a ghost, the courtyard outside the prayer hall, previously bathed in sunlight filtering through the eaves, suddenly collapsed as the bluestone slabs gave way.

A deep, abyssal darkness descended, plunging the entire temple into a gloom as thick as night.

Immediately after, a "click-clack" sound erupted from behind him. When Qi Tian turned to look, he saw cracks spreading across the body of the Buddha statue on the stone dais, accompanied by a resonant chanting that pierced straight into his soul.

The next second, a beam of golden light shot out from the fracturing statue and plunged directly into the Buddha Pendant around Qi Tian's neck.

The sudden turn of events startled Qi Tian into taking two involuntary steps back, just as a massive suction force began to emanate from the depths of the collapsed courtyard.

"Whoosh."

The Buddha Pendant erupted with golden light, drawing out Qi Tian's soul, which instantly transformed into a streak of radiance that vanished into the collapsed courtyard without a trace.

All of this occurred in the blink of an eye. Once the phenomenon faded, Qi Tian's body, left standing in the prayer hall, collapsed limply as if all strength had abandoned it, and the entire temple vanished into the mountain forest.