Chapter 324 : No Backbone
Jiang Mo and her companions planned to revisit the temple that night, so they hadn't gone far. As daylight faded and the sun set in the west again, they climbed back up the sand dune. There they found only broken walls and ruins, with no trace of the temple.
"It's gone," Jiang Mo said with a frown.
Zhu Baiyi's perception was much clearer than Jiang Mo's. She discovered that the temple had completely vanished from the morning's timestream. Closing her eyes to sense for a moment, a faint pull told her that the temple's current location was very distant. She opened her eyes, glanced in the direction where the temple now existed, and without much explanation said: "Follow me." As she spoke, she was already soaring northward through the air.
The other three had no time to ask questions and simply followed in pursuit.
The four cultivators were of considerable cultivation level and had no need to hide, so they naturally flew extremely fast.
Comparatively, Yun Qingyue had the lowest cultivation among the four, and under such rapid flight, she soon showed signs of falling behind.
Qingyu noticed this and was about to lend her disciple a hand when she realized Jiang Mo had already extended hers. She gave the two a complicated look but ultimately chose not to interfere, pretending not to notice as she continued flying forward.
Meanwhile, Jiang Mo had already slipped her arm around Yun Qingyue's slender waist. But before Yun Qingyue could bashfully push her away, Jiang Mo's ears had already turned red, and the hand around her senior sister's waist felt extremely awkward. After a moment's hesitation, she withdrew it and instead took hold of her senior sister's wrist: "Senior Sister, let me bring you along—Sect Leader is flying too fast."
Yun Qingyue wasn't one to stubbornly insist on her pride, so she agreed, though her gaze lingered for a moment on Jiang Mo's crimson ears. The latter naturally sensed this, and her already red ears immediately turned an even deeper shade, nearly dripping blood.
The system witnessed all this and mercilessly mocked in her consciousness: "No backbone!"
Jiang Mo felt somewhat annoyed hearing this, but honestly, she was indeed timid. Even though she wanted to be close to her senior sister, she didn't dare be too presumptuous. For instance, holding hands was acceptable, but stealing kisses or copping a feel was crossing the line.
Fortunately, she knew her boundaries, and even though Yun Qingyue had clearly seen through her intentions, she hadn't pushed her away.
With Jiang Mo's assistance, Yun Qingyue managed to keep pace with the others. Several streaks of light flashed rapidly across the sky, and the occasional cultivator passing through the desert below who witnessed this scene thought their eyes were playing tricks on them.
In the blink of an eye, they covered a thousand li. By the time the sun had completely set and the fiery clouds on the horizon had lost their initial brilliance, Jiang Mo and her companions finally spotted the familiar temple again. This time it no longer stood in the vast yellow sand but was perched atop a magnificent snow-capped mountain. The red walls and yellow tiles of the temple were particularly eye-catching on the towering, majestic snowy peak, and in the last rays of sunlight, it seemed to possess an additional measure of divine sanctity.
Jiang Mo and her companions hovered in midair, still looking up at the temple with upturned faces, and momentarily felt an inexplicable sense of pilgrimage. Had they not personally experienced the previous night, who could have imagined all the strange occurrences within this temple?
Lost in her thoughts for a moment, Jiang Mo murmured: "This temple is truly..."
What it truly was, she couldn't quite articulate, but it ultimately came down to a sense of dissonance—the daytime monks' devoutness and kindness, the Abbot's terrifying transformation witnessed at night, and the monsters described by the survivor. The temple exuded strangeness at every turn. Yet beyond the fear it inspired, seeing it in its current state also inevitably aroused a strong desire to investigate.
Yun Qingyue could largely guess what she was thinking and returned the grip on her hand with a reassuring squeeze: "It's alright, as long as we harbor good intentions, this temple won't harm us."
Good intentions?
Jiang Mo blinked thoughtfully, and upon reflection, realized there was truth in these words—yesterday they had politely knocked and asked for shelter, and the temple monks hadn't made things difficult, simply letting them in. The quarters at night had also been safe; in other words, had the Nine Abyss Sect disciples not conducted their nighttime exploration, perhaps they would never have encountered those strange events.
And then there was Elder Qi. Initially when she entered the Great Buddha Hall and encountered the old monk, he had never made a move. Only after she repeatedly attacked him and extinguished the Buddha-light on his body did he release the ferocious monster beneath his Buddhist nature!
Thinking about it calmly now, she realized that those people's fates had been self-inflicted. Though her group had also come with investigative intentions, they had entered the temple without malice, and when they left in the morning, they hadn't been hindered.
With this realization, Jiang Mo suddenly felt much more at ease, and when she looked toward the temple atop the mountain again, her eyes seemed to brighten.
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Before the last light of day had completely faded, they once again knocked on the temple gate. The dull sound echoed far across the snowy mountain.
They waited a few moments before the tightly closed gate opened, and a smooth, bald head poked out—who else but the young novice who had seen them off just that morning? However, his gaze toward them was unfamiliar, showing not the slightest surprise at seeing them again. He blinked, sizing them up for a moment, and just like yesterday, asked: "What brings the benefactors to our gate?"
Jiang Mo and her companions exchanged glances without betraying any emotion. Zhu Baiyi stepped forward and said: "Night has fallen. We're passing through and wish to seek shelter at your esteemed temple for the night. Might the young master be able to accommodate us?"
Upon hearing this, the novice's face immediately showed an expression of difficulty: "This is not for me to decide. I must report to the Abbot. Please wait a moment, benefactors."
After saying this, he closed the temple gate just as he had yesterday, and then his footsteps pattered away.
Hearing the footsteps gradually fade behind the gate, and knowing it would take a moment for the novice to return, the four took the opportunity to converse. Jiang Mo was the first to lose patience, her face scrunched in confusion: "What's going on? This novice doesn't remember us?"
Zhu Baiyi didn't seem surprised. She lowered her eyes in thought before saying: "This temple appears to be caught in some kind of cycle."
The cycle she spoke of was not the cycle of life and death, but a temporal cycle. Simply put, the temple, including the spirits within it, was trapped in a time loop. They had no past, no future, endlessly repeating the same day... Or perhaps their perception was stuck repeating the same day, which was why they wouldn't remember the group, and when faced with similar situations, they would have similar reactions.
Jiang Mo only half-understood, but before she could inquire further, footsteps approached from behind the temple gate. A moment later, the gate opened again, and unsurprisingly, two familiar faces appeared—the same monks who had received them yesterday.
The two monks similarly showed no recognition, and their actions mirrored yesterday's efficiency. After pressing their palms together in greeting, they again said: "The Abbot has agreed to accommodate you. Please follow us into the temple, benefactors."
As they spoke, the young novice pushed open the gate, revealing the temple's interior once more.
The scene within was exactly as it had been yesterday, without the slightest change. Yesterday, not a grain of sand had been visible within the temple; today, not a single snowflake could be seen. Though standing outside the gate one could feel the cold of the snowy mountain, the moment they stepped inside, both snow and cold were kept firmly outside. The temple remained as warm as before, neither hot nor cold.
The temple existed as a world unto itself. Looking at the Great Buddha Hall in the distance, Jiang Mo began to vaguely understand Zhu Baiyi's words.
The two monks led the way, and the four once again passed by the Great Buddha Hall. This time, none of them looked into it. Yet despite this, they still felt a gaze following them all the way.
Perhaps not everyone had forgotten them?
This thought flashed through their minds, but no one turned back at that moment. They pretended not to notice and continued following the monks. As expected, they were led to the same guest quarters as before, with the same explanation as yesterday: "The hour grows late. Please rest early, benefactors. We must attend the evening service now."
They naturally didn't detain the monks, politely seeing them off before turning back to look at the quarters, their hearts sinking—though they hadn't pushed open the doors to check, in just this short time, they had already discovered that all these rooms were empty!
Jiang Mo stepped forward first, walking with familiarity to the room where the survivor had been that morning, and pushed the door open.
The room's furnishings were simple and neat. The table, chairs, and bed were not only arranged in perfect order but also appeared untouched for a long time. As for the survivor who had been huddled in the corner that morning, along with all the bloodstains, they had vanished without a trace. It was as if that person had never existed, as if the memories of that morning were merely Jiang Mo's illusion.
Those memories were certainly not illusions. Jiang Mo's expression grew serious as she frowned, and finding nothing after her inspection, she proceeded to push open several other doors. Those were the rooms that had been occupied that morning, but now they were all empty without exception, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
"This..." Jiang Mo finally accepted this reality, her expression showing surprise, apprehension, and a faint trace of regret.
The Nine Abyss Sect people had no connection to them, and Jiang Mo didn't care about their fates. After they decided to stay, whether those people lived or died had even less to do with her. But what she had seen in the temple that morning wasn't just Nine Abyss Sect disciples, but also Tan Xin!
Yes, she had seen Tan Xin in the Great Buddha Hall. Unfortunately, she had only glimpsed him in passing and hadn't immediately recognized him among the crowd of shaved heads. It wasn't until after they had left the temple and it had disappeared that she vaguely recalled that the familiar profile belonged to Tan Xin—by then she could do nothing, only hoping the young monk would be safe remaining in the temple. Yet upon returning, they discovered everyone had vanished.
Jiang Mo's heart sank involuntarily. Even though her friendship with Tan Xin wasn't particularly deep, they had faced dangers together several times. She certainly didn't want him to come to harm, but unfortunately, the outcome wasn't as she'd hoped.
"Come on, let's return to our quarters first. It might not be safe out here," Yun Qingyue took her hand and led her into the room.
Jiang Mo's mood was somewhat low. She looked at her senior sister, then at Zhu Baiyi, and asked: "Those people from this morning, is there still a chance they survived?"
No one could answer this question, but they all understood what she cared about. Yun Qingyue wasn't as pessimistic as she was and comforted her: "It's not certain. Tan Xin is, after all, a Buddhist disciple. He came and stayed for his own reasons."
Jiang Mo thought about it and realized it had been his choice, and indeed there wasn't much she could do about it. She nodded and let go of the matter. Then, changing the subject, she asked: "So, are we going out tonight?"
Zhu Baiyi and Qingyu exchanged glances and answered in unison: "Yes!"