"Boss, are you sure you don't need me to drive you?" asked Hun Lun.
"It's the weekend, you should take some time to return to your family," Li Yun instructed.
With the filming out of the way, Li Yun wanted to use the last few days in Panda City to go hiking. He had visited the different temples after every filming, but all the temples were too touristy. It didn't help that many of the places were destroyed due to wars and earthquakes and were rebuilt by later dynasties.
During filming, he had visited the Bronze Goat Temple, but there were still many explored areas around Qingcheng mountain, the Laotse Tower being one of them. Situated at the highest elevation of the mountain, the pagoda towered around the tree canopy of the mountain, giving tourists plenty of angles to take quality photos.
Near the top, there were several large furnaces. One of which was burning a mixture of coal and wood to provide heat in the midst of the chilly late autumn weather. Having reached the top, the few tourists climbing up the long flight of stairs were already short of breath and had to hold onto the rail for support.
In the middle of the temple, Li Yun used spirit detection to sense anything unusual. However, nothing happened. He had half expected it. In 2008, the earthquake destroyed much of Laotze Tower, and it was later rebuilt. Some antiques were real, but they didn't have the quality of qi that he was looking for. Even if the cauldron had 1000 qi, the temple wasn't going to allow him to take it with him.
Li Yun exited the pavilion and walked to a narrow path to the right. There was a group of tourists preparing to head up a winding path covered with dense bamboo. He had booked a small tour of the trail last week based on suggestions from the locals.
"All right, is everyone here?" Asked Cai Le, the tour guide. He counted the heads, but was still missing some numbers. Five minutes later, he blew a whistle to get everyone's attention who was still talking. "All right! Welcome everyone! This is just a signal in case anyone strays too far. Welcome to Mt. Qingcheng trail, my name is Cai le, I will be your tour guide for today. I am a botanist at Panda City University, but I have been giving this tour for 15 years, so feel free to ask me any questions you have regarding history, birds, pandas— anything you can think of!"
The tourists nodded along as Cai Le continued to talk about himself and the basic rules to follow as they headed up.
"If you're on the tour, it means that you have already visited all the pavilions and temples, if not, I highly suggest you walk both the front and back of the mountain to experience the wonders of Mt. Qingcheng," said Cai Le as he started walking up the path. "This tour will be 4 hours long, and we will stop occasionally for pictures and questions. You will start seeing bamboo forest up ahead." Further up the path, Cai Le repeated the same information most guides gave to tourists about Mr. Qingcheng. "It's considered the birthplace of Taoism as a religion, founded in 143 A.D. It was the pursuit of true Tao that prompted many Taoists to start the farming village in Mt. Qingcheng. We will see some farmland as we head up the trail."
While Cai Le spoke, Li Yun randomly grabbed different plants and ate them, walking behind the tour group to avoid people noticing. The taste of fresh plants was different from the dried version he had ordered online. The more he consumed, the more he realized why the ancients preferred mountains over valleys. There was a lot more yang energy, or as some people described it, the purple qi.
The four sacred mountains that represented Taoism were Mt. Wudang in Weir City, Mt. Qiyun in Yellow Mountain City, Mt. Longhu in Eagle Pond City, and Mt. Qingcheng near Panda City. Naturally, the Taoist would not pick the highest peak of Mt. Everist in the Himelayas because the altitude was too high and contained too much yin energy. The snow line in the region was around 1737 meters. The elevation of Mount Qingcheng was 1260 meters. Of the four mountains, Mt. Wudang was the tallest at 1615 meters. People often misinterpret what it meant by selecting the highest peak. The ancients obviously meant the highest habitual peak.
These mountains were chosen specifically because they possessed the best quality of wu xing - the minerals of the mountain, the life-giving sun, the light gentle wind, the fertilized land, and the natural springs. It was mainly for agricultural purposes. Because of the layout of the Mt. Qingcheng area, it was possible for ancient engineers to utilize the topography and create an irrigation system that lasted over 2,000 years and survived the earthquake in 2008. Some say it was because of the ancient knowledge of feng shui.
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Arriving to the farm area, Li Yun sensed something odd about the area. It wasn't a dark yin energy, but rather a tunnel like suction. Li Yun looked around the area, but couldn't understand the nature of the farm. What was it?
The local was tending the tea trees and waved politely to the tourists. They were used to seeing tourists, but as it was a lesser-known tour, they only see tourists a few times a week. It was always a welcome distraction.
The group traveled into a small temple located a bit further away down a dirt path. The temple was almost completely vacant except for the altar area that had few offerings, most likely from the locals. Li Yun wasn't able to discern what entity the stone statue was depicting.
He stood in the middle, wondering if he should use spirit detention. Something in his head cautioned him about using it.
"Do you know who's statue this is?" Li Yun asked the tour guide.
"I have always wondered that myself," Cai Le responded. "The locals don't seem to know as well."
Later that night, Li Yun walked to the temple himself. As he moved away from the main temple, there was less and less light. He looked ahead toward the darkness. It was time to experiment with his Wu Xing.
Wu Xing Status
Fire: 76
Water: 76
Earth: 76
Metal: 76
Wood: 76
Li Yun had 25 action points left, he was really tempted to dump all into one of the elements. He had experimented with dumping everything in Shen before, but there wasn't any added benefit. He wondered if there would be any boost for adding one to a particular element.
According to Taoist principles, fire was associated with touch, water with hearing, earth with taste, metal with scent, and wood with sight. Li Yun decided now would be appropriate time to add everything to the wood element.
Wu Xing Status
Wood: 100
With the wood element completed, Li Yun noticed that he could adjust the dilation of his eyes. His pupils adjusted as he played around with the light setting. Suddenly, his brain felt a dizzying sensation.
"Okay, bad idea," he thought, stumbling to rebalance himself. Maybe it was fine to adjust it a few times, but he should not overdo it. Not only did it cost a bit of energy, but the changes were also beyond what his brain could process, causing a stabbing pain in his brain.
After waiting for a moment, he adjusted his pupil one last time until his eyes were completely black. The sight of the forest was gorgeous, like a sepia image of the rainforest from the 50s. It looked better through his own eyes than using the night vision goggles. Although there wasn't much color, it was enough for him to navigate the night.
Li Yun used to be afraid of traveling alone, but as the count for Wu Xing increased, his senses were a lot better than before. He felt more confident about traveling alone.
The path leading to the temple wasn't too difficult, but it took some time to get back to the temple. Arriving at the edge of the farmland, again, he felt a strange sensation. The energy field seemed to be the strongest inside the temple. As he walked inside, he looked around and stared at the statue of a fat bearded man.
His footsteps cautiously moved to the middle of the temple where he felt the pulling force. There was nothing unusual other than the feeling of the suction stopped.
"Strange…" Li Yun moved away and felt it again.
It was like being in the eye of a tornado. Despite it being the center, it was actually the calmest location of the storm. He moved back to the center, and carefully considered his next option. His fingers quickly tapped up a timed message to Rouxi, Cai Le, and Hun Lun. He was aware of how dangerous it was to use Spirit Detection in the middle of nowhere. If anything happened, his best bet for recovery was the tour guide who offered the tour every week.
Once everything was set, Li Yun activated Spirit Detection.
“Start,” Li Yun thought. He waited, but nothing happened. "What a big disappoint-"
Grumble~
The grumbling and sharp vibration shook Li Yun, almost knocking him to the ground.
"The hell?"
The violent vibration stopped for a moment. Suddenly, the giant statue started to move and Li Yun's face dropped in a horrified manner.
"Ah, sh**!" he swore under his breath.
His knees gave in, trembling and gluing his feet in place. He forced himself to move, but he wasn't sure if he was somehow bound to the face or if his body was in shock from fear. His head to look back at the entrance, but was different from the bamboo forest.
There was nothing but darkness and twinkling stars. It was as though the temple was flying in space, traveling to a distant land. To what distant land, Li Yun wasn’t sure. His only thought was that everything was a hallucination. It was the only possible explanation.
Rumble~
He turned back to look at the giant statue, hoping it was friendly. A word appeared on top of the statue, "False god statue," in red.
"F***!"