"There are no trees in the temple. The temple is hidden within a snowy mountain. Legend has it that it only shows its true face for two days a year, and if one is not sincere, it is impossible to see it."
Xiao En's old voice was calm as he spoke. The Temple had a very important meaning to him. Because he knew the relationship between the Temple and that little girl, Chen Pingping had paid a great price to capture him back to the Qing Kingdom. It was also because he knew the location of the Temple that Ku He, who had benefited the most from the Temple, wanted to silence him. The Northern Qi Emperor had extravagantly hoped to receive help from heaven from the Temple.
But what was the temple? It was nothing more than a temple.
Xiao En suddenly felt that the first half of his life was fake. Only the second half of his life behind bars was real. The old man looked at the darkening sky outside the cave. "Master Fan, do you believe in the existence of God?" he asked with a wooden expression.
Fan Xian was silent. He thought of his rebirth and the box. He nodded. "I believe in the existence of God more than anyone else in the world."
"What is God?"
"If I knew what God was, then I would be God."
Xiao En looked at him with admiration. "For someone as young as you to be able to see so clearly is rare." He paused. "But His Majesty was still young at the time, so he did not see clearly."
Fan Xian knew that the story was about to begin. He couldn't help but feel nervous and expectant.
"Do you know what the world was like 30 years ago?"
"The Kingdom of Wei was powerful, and could unify the world at any time."
"Correct. At that time, I was already the leader of the Wei Kingdom's Red Cavalry, and His Majesty's confidant." Xiao En recalled the past, but his expression was strange. He didn't seem to be immersed in the glory of that day, nor did he bear any grudges. Perhaps because he was about to die, he was indifferent and calm. "The world of that day was the world of the Kingdom of Wei. All of its talents were in the court. But the ones who truly stirred up the court, aside from the previous Emperor, were two pairs of brothers."
Fan Xian saw that the old man's expression seemed to be able to hold on, and he felt somewhat reassured. "One of them was you and Zhuang Mohan."
"Correct. That brother of mine was more promising than I was." Xiao En's expression softened. "And he's more sentimental than I am. I was imprisoned by the Kingdom of Qing for 20 years, but he still remembers me. I owe him."
"Why doesn't anyone know that you two are brothers?"
"The reason is simple. My reputation is too vicious, and who knows how many innocent people I've killed in secret. As a scholar, he naturally doesn't like me, and I don't want to have anything to do with him," Xiao En replied calmly.
Fan Xian paused and changed the subject. "Who are the other pair of brothers?"
"It's Zhan Qingfeng and Ku He."
"Zhan Qing Feng? The father of the founding Emperor of Northern Qi, a famous general of his generation? "Fan Xian was shocked. It turned out that Ku He was so close to the royal family of Northern Qi! No wonder back then, he did his best to protect the current empress dowager and Emperor, and the royal family respected Ku He so much.
"Ku He is Zhan Qing Feng's younger brother. Ever since he was young, he was determined to become an Ascetic Monk, cultivating the Way of the Heavens. He strived to one day prove his Way and enter the Temple." Xiao En said sarcastically, "Most people believe in the temple, but who has actually seen it in the past thousand years? It's just that those Ascetic Monks preach the Way everywhere, and their lives are even more pitiful than those of beggars. "
"But the Temple really does exist," Fan Xian reminded him.
"Correct." Xiao En closed his eyes. "At the time, the previous Emperor had passed away, and the young Emperor ascended to the throne. Although this Emperor treated us courtiers fairly well, for some reason, he was strangely afraid of death. All day long, he wanted to practice the art of immortality."
Fan Xian said, "At that time, Northern Wei was the strongest, and as the Emperor, he had nothing to worry about. It was only natural that he would think of these things."
Xiao En continued, "So at that time, Ku He took the opportunity to enter the palace and persuade His Majesty to send a diplomatic mission out to sea in search of the Temple. He said that if the immortals of the Temple taught His Majesty immortal magic, then he would naturally be able to live forever. When His Majesty heard this, there was no reason for him to refuse... "He smiled bitterly." As His Majesty's trusted aide and leader of the Crimson Cavalry, this matter naturally fell on my head. "
"Ku He was the one who proposed it, and he was extremely fanatical about the Temple. Naturally, he would not stay out of it." Xiao En said lightly, "After gathering the strength of the entire Wei Kingdom, and searching for who knows how long, we finally found a clue. So Ku He and I led a thousand men north."
Although the dying old man spoke calmly, Fan Xian knew that the process must have been quite complicated. The Temple was worshipped by the people of the world, but it was illusory and without a trace. To be able to find a definite clue was in itself a very astonishing matter.
The old and indifferent voice echoed endlessly in the cave. Outside the cave, the light of the sky and the mountains gradually dimmed. Fan Xian listened in silence, and at the right moment, he asked questions. His brain worked furiously. Through Xiao En's memories, he drew a rough map of the route that the procession had taken to the Temple.
…
…
Time seemed to have returned to more than 30 years ago. The calm air of the Yellow Mountain outside the cave had turned into a blizzard. In the old man's memories, Fan Xian seemed to see an expedition consisting of a thousand men. Through a sky full of wind and snow, they struggled to make their way through the incomparably wild north. They wore leather boots and thick leather clothing. Only their eyes were exposed, but they still could not stop the bone-chilling wind from pouring into their bodies.
At the front of the procession were the two leaders of the group: Xiao En, who was in the prime of his life, and the young, pious Ascetic Monk Ku He.
The further north the procession went, the more difficult it became. The further they went, the fewer people there were. Some people froze to death, some fell into icy valleys and disappeared, and some were crushed to death by birds of prey in the sky. In short, as the expedition progressed, the procession became shorter and shorter, and the atmosphere became more and more strange.
The world was a sheet of white. Because they had stayed in this dry and cruel environment for too long, some of the people in the procession gradually became blind. They were heartlessly abandoned by Xiao En in the wilderness. In the distance, some direwolves that could withstand the cold waited for the blind people to die.
Everything happened quietly, even if it was something as tragic as death.
The procession walked for a long time, and finally came to a large mountain in the extreme north. There was only a narrow path between the mountains, and the snow was so thick that it had long since obscured the color of the mountain. It looked like an endless chain of ice mountains.
When the remaining hundred or so people entered the mountain, they found that behind the snowy mountain was still a world covered in ice and snow. Even the animals were few and far between. The procession set up camp with great tenacity, hoping to find traces of the temple here. But many days passed, and they found nothing.
Winter came. Heavy snow sealed the mountain. The sun went down.
The strongest survived to the end. In the endless night, Xiao En and Ku He sat back to back in a tent. Around them were piles of corpses. The fire had not been extinguished. The remnants of the tent and the clothes of the dead gave the two of them a last glimmer of warmth, a glimmer of hope.
— — —
"That was the wrath of the heavens."
In the cave, Xiao En opened his eyes with some difficulty. The scarlet color in his pupils became more and more intense, but there was endless fear in his eyes. "The Temple knows that mortals are trying to find them, so the heavens are angry and have sent endless darkness."
Fan Xian looked at the old man. After a while, he said quietly, "That was called the polar night." He confirmed the location of the temple in his heart.
Of course, Xiao En did not know what the polar night was, but that memory was clearly deeply engraved in his mind. He said with a perplexed expression, "At the time, Ku He was eating human flesh in an extremely sweet and stingy manner. He was praying piously to the heavens. I couldn't help but despise him. Unexpectedly... perhaps in the end, he really did move the immortals in the temple, and so the sky... suddenly brightened. "
Fan Xian couldn't help but look at Xiao En. He wondered how the two of them had been able to survive in the polar night that lasted for months. Even if they had human flesh to eat and tents to burn, that kind of loneliness and struggle between the two of them would have probably driven them mad.
Xiao En suddenly laughed and said, "The sky brightened in an instant. At that time, Ku He and I were at the end of our lives. But suddenly, we found hope. We didn't know where the power came from, but it supported us to continue living."
"And then you found the temple." Fan Xian picked up the dagger and put it by his side. He asked quietly, "What was the temple like?"
...
...
Many years ago, outside the snowy mountains, two people so thin they were only bones. With great difficulty, they walked out of their tents. Their sunken eyes and sallow complexions, and their swollen gums as they breathed, all revealed one thing: they were about to die.
The light of the day was finally not so stingy. After coming out for a while, some animals awoke from their caves. Although the two of them were already arrows at the end of their flight, they were still much more ferocious than the wild beasts. So they were able to replenish themselves and stand up again.
That day, they narrowed their eyes and looked at the snowy mountains in front of them in a daze. They had no idea where the temple they had been so painstakingly searching for was.
Here, there was only a vast expanse of white. It was very clean.
Suddenly, a ray of light shone down from the dark blue sky. The light from the snowy mountains twisted strangely. Very suddenly, a beautiful temple appeared out of thin air in the mountains.
This grand temple was built against the mountain. The black stone walls and the light gray eaves supported each other. It was indescribably dignified.
Ku He stared at the mountains in a daze. Suddenly, he fell to the ground in agitation. He looked in the direction of the temple and burst into tears. Xiao En stood there dumbfounded. A moment later, he woke up and sat down in the snow. He didn't have the strength to stand up for a long time.
This was the temple.
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