Chapter 1208: Chapter 808: The Desolate Temple in the Mountains
But this also made Yang Xiao understand that Adila had also realized there was an issue with Shari’s identity. If someone had to die tonight, Shari was the best candidate.
This wasn’t about personal grudges, it was the optimal choice from the perspective of the team’s interests.
And through observing Shari, it seemed she hadn’t realized the hidden murderous intent in Adila’s words.
Shari shivered, huddling close to Aisha, her eyes staring in terror at the coffin behind the trailer.
At this moment, Yang Xiao suddenly recalled something: before undertaking the task, a martyr of the Esoteric Sect had made a prophecy: "It is right beside you."
Back then, Yang Xiao didn’t understand, but now Shari’s various anomalies seemed to confirm this point—
The Ghost had infiltrated, and it had infiltrated right from the start of the mission.
Trouble was coming for their team tonight, casualties were unavoidable, and the only thing Yang Xiao could do was try his best to keep himself safe and not become the one who was killed.
The group hurriedly left the town entrance, following the map’s guidance, they turned onto a small path, and from here the road became difficult to navigate.
What was puzzling, however, was that after the two teams separated, the contents of the coffin suddenly became calm. They walked for another ten minutes, and no one heard the sound of nails scratching the coffin.
Logically speaking, this was a good sign, but there was no trace of joy on the faces of Yang Xiao and others.
Another change had occurred; no one knew what exactly was going on inside the coffin.
"It’s quiet now..." Shari’s tense expression slightly relaxed as she followed closely beside Aisha.
Originally, she intended to shrink behind Aisha, ideally sticking together as they walked, but Aisha refused, reasoning that if they were too close, it would hinder their movements if danger arose.
Musa tentatively brought the incense closer to the coffin, taking the opportunity to observe the direction of the incense smoke. But after watching for a while, he saw nothing unusual. The incense smoke drifted away with the night breeze, and everything seemed so calm.
The mountain road was longer than expected, and there were uphill sections. The team couldn’t move fast, and despite their good stamina, both Yang Xiao and Adila were exhausted from the long trek. Musa proactively offered to replace Yang Xiao.
At this moment, they had only traveled a little over half the distance on the map, but the incense had also burned halfway. At this rate, it would be difficult to complete the task before the incense burned out.
It’s important to know they not only had to reach the cemetery but also find the corresponding tomb to bury the body, all before the incense burned out.
Otherwise, the consequence was obvious; the thing inside the coffin would come back to life.
Now, they couldn’t afford to avoid the superstition that women shouldn’t support coffins. On some difficult uphill sections, Aisha and Shari were called to help push from behind.
Soon, they arrived at an intersection with two roads, one ahead and one to the right.
Guided by the map, Yang Xiao was anxious. According to the map’s instructions, they should take the right path, "No, at this speed, we won’t be able to reach the destination on time, let alone find the grave to bury the body."
"Then... what do we do?" Aisha, pushing from behind, was also exhausted, panting heavily, barely able to speak.
No one was slacking off; this was a matter of life and death, after all.
Under the faint light, Yang Xiao focused on the map, noticing that the route to the right formed a strangely angled arc, circling around something.
Strangely, however, from Yang Xiao’s ground observation, there were no particularly prominent peaks nearby.
If they chose the other unfamiliar path, the one straight ahead, it would significantly shorten their distance to the destination.
"Take this road," Yang Xiao decided promptly. It wasn’t the time to hesitate, they were out of time.
The advantage of having many experienced players was now evident: no one objected, and there was no unnecessary noise. After Yang Xiao made the decision, everyone chose to follow.
Since taking the original route would surely lead to mission failure, everyone was willing to take a gamble.
Yang Xiao didn’t choose randomly; he found that although the road ahead was overgrown with weeds, its outline was still visible. It had once been maintained.
The width of the road indicated that it was wide enough for a carriage to pass through.
Moreover, it had been finely maintained, as there were no large stones on the road, making it relatively smooth, which would facilitate carriage passage.
It’s important to know that stones on mountain roads would be very dangerous for carriages, and in this era, it wasn’t easy to construct such a road, which is why Yang Xiao was willing to take a risk.
After overcoming a difficult uphill section, before they could catch their breath, they were stunned by the scene in front of them.
In front of them was a small flat area, like a small square, and at the end of the road stood a mountain gate.
A structure with a broken enclosing wall lay quietly here, ominous and desolate, silent, without a hint of light or human presence.
"Is this... a temple?" Even Adila’s face showed a strange expression at this moment.
Yang Xiao compared the map. The map was detailed, marking important landmarks along the way, but there was no record of this large temple-like building.
This abandoned structure, like a sleeping giant beast, exerted endless pressure. If not compelled by the mission, Yang Xiao and his group would never set foot in such a place at night.
But now, they had no choice; to reach the destination on time, they had to pass through this building.
"Musa, you follow me as the vanguard. Shari Aisha, you two pull the cart, and Adila will cover the rear."
After making the arrangements, Yang Xiao held a map in one hand and a lantern in the other. Musa carried the incense, and the two of them led the way towards the building.
As they got closer, Yang Xiao confirmed it was an abandoned temple. However, its desolation was not due to the monks’ normal departure but a result of a disaster.
At the entrance, they saw the heavy gate lying on the ground. The gate bore marks of impact, and the broken door hinge indicated that this sturdy door had been forcefully rammed open.
Upon entering the temple, overturned incense burners and torn monk robes were visible everywhere.
The doors and windows of the residential monk quarters had also been damaged. Upon closer inspection, old bloodstains lingered on the mottled stone walls.
This looked more like a military disaster.
This ancient temple had been thoroughly looted, the monks captured or killed, leading to its decline ever since.
Images of the pitiable monk slaves immediately sprang into Yang Xiao’s mind; tongues cut and ears pierced, reduced to slaves.
Continuing further in, they arrived at the largest building. Although heavily damaged and showing signs of having been set aflame, it was still evident that it had once been the main hall, the most crucial Buddhist Hall within the temple.
Now, the wooden structure of the Buddhist Hall had been almost entirely destroyed, only incombustible stones remained. As they stepped on the charred stone slabs, the sight before them was filled with shattered Buddha statues; each fallen from its altar, pushed to the ground, some with faces marred, and some decapitated, their heads nowhere to be found.
What puzzled everyone most was the absence of the largest and grandest Buddha statue, which should have sat in the place of honor. There was no sign of its remains being toppled or destroyed nearby, as if it had vanished into thin air.
Yang Xiao approached with the lantern, his gaze slowly sweeping over the stone platform. In the next moment, his eyes were drawn to something—two remaining toes embedded on the stone platform.
The toes were as large as a fist, made of stone, firmly embedded in the platform, burned to a blackened state, difficult to see unless viewed up close.
At that moment, Yang Xiao recalled a scene he had seen in the Outer Buddha Hall, where a statue named "Lan Jia Mo Cuo" was missing two toes.
It was also the left foot.
A match!!
That evil statue had been stolen from this temple, and it wasn’t originally an evil statue but a regular Buddha statue.
The eerie appearance resulted from deliberate alterations.
Undoubtedly, it was Patuo Monk and, more specifically, the leading deceased High Monks!
This was indeed a war, an extermination by one religion against another.
The unsettling truth was, there were four similar "evil statues" in the Outer Buddha Hall.
Does this imply that at least four other sects were annihilated, and even after death, their deities were maligned as "demons," imprisoned in the Outer Buddha Hall?
By that calculation, the monks’ blood debts were terrifying. Yang Xiao concluded that the deaths of those "High Monks" were just the beginning.
Soon, while Yang Xiao was deep in thought, the others discovered something as well. Aisha found a pattern behind a smashed faceless Buddha statue.
It was two triangles, one large and one small, nested together.
More precisely, on the back of the shoulder.
Besides this unassuming little Buddha statue, the shoulder-back positions of the other Buddha statues were severely damaged, which reminded Yang Xiao of the monk slaves in the temple.
Some of the monk slaves had a brand behind their shoulders. Yang Xiao had seen a triangular mark on an old monk slave’s back. With the evidence at hand, Yang Xiao was further confirmed in his hypothesis.
The monks in the town temple resorted to violence, annihilating other religious sects, and subsequently seizing the deities worshipped by them, imprisoning them under the name of "demons" in their Outer Buddha Hall.
They specifically rewrote scriptures to distort facts, aiming to annihilate the opposition’s faith physically and spiritually with ruthless tactics.
Such methods are incredibly malicious, enough to make one shiver just thinking about them.
Without lingering any longer, they found the path and immediately left through the back of the temple. On the way, Yang Xiao detailed his findings to everyone.
Musa took a deep breath and nodded repeatedly, "No wonder the doctrines in the temple scriptures were so chaotic; they absorbed parts of the doctrines from the slaughtered cults and integrated them. These people... these people are truly insane."
At the same time, Yang Xiao also recalled the warnings from the Esoteric Sect martyr—alluding to Taixiao being a thorough cult with no established doctrines, yet capable of seizing others’ beliefs.
"So that’s how it is..." At the time, Yang Xiao didn’t understand, but now he realized everything.
Passing through the destroyed temple saved Yang Xiao and his companions a substantial amount of time, and after traversing a section of overgrown downhill path, they finally reached their destination for the night.
Looking over, chaotic stone monuments and dilapidated wooden tokens scattered across the uneven hillside, with burial pits of varying sizes, lacking any pattern.
This place hardly counted as a cemetery; it was a barren, terrifying Chaos Burial Mound.
And what’s horrifying is that this Chaos Burial Mound is located not far behind the exterminated temple.
