By the time we returned from Cultural Street, it was completely dark.
The guests rested in their respective rooms at the Zen temple, and the photographers turned off their equipment.
Meng Xu intercepted Qiguan Yuan in the corridor.
He had just finished a phone call with the local tourism department, and his expression was a mix of exhaustion and excitement.
He asked, "Where are you going next Teacher Qiguan? Have you finished your business? If not, I can coordinate with the production team to accommodate you."
Qiguan Yuan said, "I would trouble you to arrange a large temple, any one will do, as long as it's a temple. The larger the scale, the better."
Meng Xu nodded. He would naturally grant any request from his benefactor, let alone such a small one.
He will definitely arrange for the most suitable temple.
Meng Xu his phone to search for temples within a 100-kilometer radius and chose the largest and most popular one, called Cidu Temple, which is located northwest of Dunhuang, about a 40-minute drive away.
He handed his phone to Qiguan Yuan and said, "Then we'll go tomorrow morning. The production team will contact the temple in advance. Let's finish Teacher Qiguan's business as soon as possible."
The next morning, the guests traveled to Cidu Temple in two separate cars.
On both sides of the road stretched endless Gobi Desert, with only a few jujube trees occasionally flashing by.
Cidu Temple is built on the mountainside of a low hill, with red walls and golden tiles, and is indeed quite large in scale.
Several tour buses were already parked in the parking lot in front of the mountain gate, and pilgrims came in an endless stream, including tour groups holding tour guide flags and individual tourists carrying their own incense baskets.
After getting out of the Qiguan Yuan stood in front of the mountain gate for a moment.
The plaque above the mountain gate bears the three gilded characters " Cidu Temple," and the couplet on either side reads, "Compassionate guidance saves all beings in the three thousand worlds; the sun of wisdom shines eternally through countless eons."
It looks like an ordinary Buddhist temple.
Step over the threshold.
The moment his foot touched the blue brick floor, Qiguan Yuan stopped.
A powerful Power of Marriage wafted over me.
It wasn't the faint, almost nonexistent willpower he had felt at Fallen Fate Chan Monastery.
It was thick and overwhelming, like the Power of Marriage that had been compressed for too long.
This Power of Marriage is scattered and volatile, without any clear path or direction, as if it had been forcibly extracted and trapped within the boundaries of this temple.
They collided and intertwined, twisting into invisible turbulence in the air.
Qiguan Yuan's face immediately darkened.
He was all too familiar with the Power of Marriage.
The first uprising of the Tree of Fate in the Heavenly Realm was like this.
Disorganized, violent, and beyond anyone's control.
The riot struck his lower back, leaving a silvery-white scar.
Later, Yun Yin made a special trip to the Northwest for this matter, but when he returned, he found nothing. Instead, the uprisings of the Tree of Fate became more and more frequent and more intense each time.
Finally, fearing that the Tree of Fate would completely explode and harm him, Yun Yin used half of his cultivation to forcibly sever the connection between the northwest direction and the Tree of Fate.
The riot did subside after the cut was made, but the Yun Yin's cultivation level was reduced by more than half.
This is why, when the Tree of Fate later unleashed its karmic backlash, even Yun Yin, a Primordial God, couldn't withstand a single blow.
Even if Xiu Yun Yin were at his peak, he wouldn't have been able to withstand that attack; at most, he would have been severely injured and fallen into a deep sleep, but he would never have been completely destroyed.
Therefore, in a sense, the cause of this riot led to the death of the Yun Yin.
For the past eight hundred years, Qiguan Yuan been investigating relentlessly, searching every temple, every historical site, and every remaining thread of karmic power in the Northwest, but he has never been able to find the root cause of the surge in Power of Marriage.
Now he knows.
The northwest region was cut off from communication by the Yun Yin, so he couldn't sense anything here.
The Dust-Settling Red Cord binding his wrist, which had been loosely wrapped around his wrist bone, suddenly tightened, clinging tightly to his skin.
The light on the red rope no longer flowed slowly, alternating between bright and dim, but remained motionless like a taut bowstring, waiting for Qiguan Yuan to raise his hand at any moment.
If Qiguan Yuan were to make a move, it could easily reduce this temple, which it felt uncomfortable with, to ashes.
Pei Yubai noticed Qiguan Yuan's emotional change immediately.
Even when Qiguan Yuan is unhappy, he always has that lazy demeanor, speaking slowly, walking slowly, and even his brows carry a hint of languor.
But at this moment, standing inside the gate of Cidu Temple, not a single part of him was relaxed.
All the smile in his eyes vanished.
Pei Yubai stood beside him, without asking what was wrong, but simply took his hand out of his pocket, placed it beside Qiguan Yuan, and touched the back of his hand.
Qiguan Yuan didn't look at him, but instead turned his hand and grabbed his fingers.
He was losing control of his emotions when it came to Yun Yin's death.
Lu Zhao naturally sensed it as well.
He lagged two steps behind Qiguan Yuan, and his face turned three shades pale when he sensed the chaotic Power of Marriage.
For the Old Man of the Yue Lao, other attacks might be manageable, but a surge of the Power of Marriage is an absolutely troublesome matter.
Because the essence of the Yue Lao is the Power of Marriage, a chaotic Power of Marriage is to the Yue Lao what blood in a person's body suddenly starts to rush uncontrollably through the blood vessels.
Lu Zhao had never encountered such a situation before. In his eight hundred years in office, he had only dealt with routine matters such as whether a marriage was a good match, how to match a true couple, and how to cut off a bad one. The Power of Marriage surging was something he had only read about in the records of the Heavenly Realm.
I've also heard about it from some seniors.
Viewers in the live stream couldn't see the flow of the Power of Marriage, but they could see the changes in Qiguan Yuan's expression.
Qiguan Yuan stood at the door, his silver hair fluttering slightly in the mountain breeze. His face, which had always worn a faint smile since the show began, was now devoid of any smile.
The person was still the same, but the aura around them had changed. The gentleness and languor had vanished, leaving behind something deeper and more profound.
It sends chills down my spine even through the screen.
The comments section started scrolling uneasily.
[What's wrong?]
[What did Yuanyuan see? Her expression is so serious.]
[I've never seen Yuanyuan like this before. He's always been so gentle and quiet, it's almost like he's afraid to speak.]
[The atmosphere suddenly became scary, did something happen? What did Yuanyuan see?]
The guests also noticed that something was off.
Shen Yuzhou had already taken a few steps toward the main hall, but after glancing back at Qiguan Yuan's expression, he immediately stopped.
Cheng Yanqiu cast a questioning glance at Pei Yubai, Pei Yubai shook his head slightly, indicating that it was not convenient to explain at the moment.
Jiang Wantang Ji Shiyu leaned closer to Ji Shiyu placed his hand on her shoulder and patted her gently.
Lin Yanru and Su He'an exchanged a glance, and without saying a word, they tacitly retreated to the middle of the group.
Qiguan Yuan's sudden cold expression silenced everyone, making them afraid to make any further moves.