At Xu Taiping's words, Zhong Ling also looked toward the little hill. Then, as though recalling something, she nodded and said:
"I remember this place."
She immediately added:
"Decades ago, there was indeed a temple here, with several clay bodhisattvas enshrined inside and two monks, one old and one young."
"There was a large town nearby then, so the temple received a fair amount of incense offerings. Many common folk would go there on holidays and festivals to pray for peace and safety."
"But a little over ten years ago, a Demon Emperor from the Nine Abysses passed through here. The temple's incense offerings burned him, displeasing him greatly. So he entered the temple in disguise late at night, pretending to seek lodging, and tortured the old and young monks until the following dawn before descending the hill."
"In the end, of the two, one died and the other went mad."
"When that Demon Emperor went down the hill, he even severed the only path up it with a single saber strike."
At this point, Zhong Ling pointed at the sheer cliff and frowned.
"That cliff face was carved out by that Demon Emperor's single saber strike."
Xu Taiping had never expected this seemingly unremarkable, dilapidated temple to have suffered such a tragic fate.
Zhong Ling sighed.
"Things like this happen almost every day in this world. In fact, comparatively speaking, casualties on this scale don't even warrant a report to the City Lords."
Xu Taiping nodded, then turned his gaze once more to the boy and girl still struggling to climb upward and asked:
"Is anyone still living in the temple?"
"Yes." Zhong Ling nodded. "For the first few years after the path was severed, quite a few villagers still climbed up bit by bit to offer incense, using