After connecting to the Wi-Fi, Sophia found that the signal there was extremely strong. She hurriedly scanned all the QR codes to donate some money so that this trip wouldn’t be a waste.
After everyone had donated money and burned incense, the old monk led them to drink the holy water under the cliff.
The so-called holy water was a stream of clear spring water that poured from the top of a cliff. It was crystal clear and wasn’t frozen, and each of them scooped a little bit of the water to drink. Regardless of whether the water was holy or not, the mountain spring water tasted pretty sweet and they drank the water to quench their thirst.
Sophia took a big gulp and tasted the sweetness of the water. Just when she was about to take a second scoop with the gourd ladle, she saw Judge running over happily wagging its tail. With a howl, it dipped its muzzle into the holy water and started taking big gulps of the water while also blowing bubbles into it. Everyone instantly didn’t want to drink the holy water anymore.
Everyone started retching.
After drinking the holy water, Sophia felt that her mouth tasted like feces. Although the holy water was a stream of flowing water, the water that Judge had drank had probably already flowed away.
Next, the old monk invited them into a room to have tea by the fire. The room had a coal stove lit up. Judge was rubbing itself on the side of the coal stove, covering its body with soot.
Just when Sophia and Michael sat down, the monk looked at Michael and said, “Sir, you look familiar.”
“Maybe we were fated to meet,” Michael said.
“Because I’ve seen your movie,” the monk added.
Michael was speechless at that.
After the tea was brewed, the monk poured everyone some and chatted with them casually.
It got dark early in the mountains. After they sat around for a while, the sky outside grew dark and it started to snow lightly. The monk invited them to stay the night at the temple.
At night, after having a vegan meal, the sky wasn’t completely dark yet. Sophia led the dog outside to play near the temple and Michael followed her, stomping heavily on Judge’s pawprints in the snow.
The temple was very small and was built on the mountains. There were also a few dilapidated houses built along the mountain, and only two or three rooms for guests. The monks had to carry their provisions up the mountain using manual labor, so it was definitely hard to live on the mountain.
As the snow fluttered in the wind, Sophia held a small umbrella to keep them from falling onto her. The sky was gradually getting darker and it was becoming misty, and visibility was decreasing. Sophia seemed to spot something dark at the top of the opposite mountain. After taking a closer look, she discovered that it was a pagoda.
The pagoda had seven floors and seemed to be very run down. It had sunk into the mountain with no way up, and there were cliffs on top, below and around the pagoda. She couldn’t figure out how it was built and why they would build that pagoda in the first place.
It was almost impossible to repair anything in the mountains as manpower was needed to carry all the materials. That pagoda looked valuable, but it had been built in such an awkward location. It looked like there was no one living there, and there was no way up to it either.
“Master, why is the pagoda built halfway up the mountain? And why isn’t there any road leading up to it?” Sophia asked the monk.
Michael also took a look with his binoculars. There was indeed a black pagoda, which seemed like it had been pushed directly into the steep mountain by something divine. It would definitely be difficult to build a road to it as there were no flat surfaces around it.
The monk shook his head while smiling and began to talk about the origin of the pagoda. That mountain was called Dragon Mountain and Dragon Temple was built on top of it, in which a respected master who was famous lived. The temple used to be popular and had a lot of pilgrims, who had raised funds to build the road up the mountain and a seven-storey pagoda. That seven-storey pagoda wasn’t there initially, but in the Dragon Temple.
One day, Buddha had wandered here and found the master meditating in the temple. To test the master to see whether he had compassion, Buddha hatched a plan.
No wonder the road up the mountain is in such bad condition and was not repaired! Sophia murmured to herself. She asked another question, “This place has a great scenery and has a lot of potential. The road can be repaired, and you can build a suspension bridge or cable car connecting to the pagoda.”
The monk soon left because of the cold, but Sophia looked at the shadowy pagoda opposite her, thinking about the words of the monk. Go with… the flow? Let everything follow its course. She repeated the words again and again, then suddenly laughed.
Suddenly, the suffocating feeling in her chest was lifted by a lot. Just relax and let things run their course…
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