The wind swept through the valley, occasionally sending loose stones tumbling down with creaks and groans. The wind echoed with a mournful wailing, as if someone were crying. I looked around in all directions as we prepared to continue toward the rubble-strewn ground. Since John Chou had said there used to be buildings there, we might find some clues.
It was only now that I learned Isabelle Frost had intended to use her power to destroy this valley last night, but John Chou stopped her.
"Can you tell us the reason now, John Chou?"
Isabelle Frost stared intently at John Chou, who was walking ahead. The straight path to the rubble would take at most an hour, yet I couldn't understand why John Chou didn't just fly over, instead choosing to walk leisurely through the valley.
"From my observations, this place is more like some sort of secret mechanism."
I blinked. Indeed, this land under the Vajrayana sect always carried an air of mystery. I once watched a movie about this place called 'XX Code', all about deciphering secrets. It gave me a headache—these brain-teasers, while I can understand them, are still uncomfortable to watch.
"What kind of mechanism exactly?"
I asked, and John Chou laughed.
"There are twenty-one peaks here, all complete mountains. The smaller ones are just offshoots. Don’t you know the Goddess Tara has twenty-one forms?"
I let out a surprised sound—I really didn’t know that. John Chou continued.
"She's a goddess worshipped on this land. The twenty-one are her twenty-one manifestations. Buddha has forty-eight aspects, representing all kinds of beings in faith. I won't bore you with more details. In short, except for these twenty-one peaks, the other mountains have more or less some vegetation growing on them.",
"How do you know so much about this?"
Isabelle Frost asked in confusion. Vincent Swallow just smiled.
"I once traveled across this land for a long time. The lamas became my enemies because I heard the legends here early on, but I never knew the exact location, nor did anyone else. Only in recent years did I finally learn it. Unfortunately, my strength never recovered. But now, the timing is just right."
Vincent Swallow kept leading us forward. My mind was a tangled mess. The deeper we went, the less sunlight reached us. It was getting colder, especially following Vincent and Isabelle, the two ghosts. It felt like there was an air conditioner ahead.
"It must be that the power in your kasaya has weakened."
Vincent Swallow turned and said. I shivered. Sure enough, some of the kasaya's power had already been consumed.
Vincent Swallow stopped before a mountain peak and began to float upward. About halfway up, he found a small black stone. Landing, he smiled, and I watched curiously as he weighed the stone in his hand. Vincent tossed it to me.
As soon as I caught it, my eyes widened. The stone seemed hollow, but when I squeezed it, it was impossibly hard—unbreakable.
"It's a human bone."
I jumped in fright and tossed the black stone away. It landed with a crisp clack. Swallow picked up the bone, which looked just like a stone, and glanced at Isabelle.
"It's the bones of the Eternal Life Society."
I stared in shock. Swallow nodded.
"Actually, I noticed it yesterday—the black bones scattered here. It means they must've encountered something and died fighting. Later, the Eternal Life Society probably sent even stronger Blue-Faced Men. Though they took everything visible, they found nothing. In the end, they left a marker, like the village chief Bamo said. The villagers moved here over ten years ago, since it's close to the highway, and to keep lone travelers from wandering into Sky Burial Valley. They've even helped with rescues."
I grunted in response.
Half an hour later, we reached the stony ground. The Old Man was still investigating something.
"Find anything?"
Swallow asked. The Old Man walked over slowly.
"Nothing at all. The aura of the Taotie is completely gone. We can't sense it, and the mutual sensing spell left by Tunjiu in our bodies shouldn't be this ineffective. There's only one possibility: Taotie isn't in this world anymore. Even if it went to the underworld, we should still sense something."
The Old Man said this, and Swallow just laughed.
"So there may be another space here that we can't sense. We need to find the entrance to that space if we want to get in."
The Old Man nodded, but looking around, there was nothing but gray-white gravel. Only a few black stones lay quietly scattered—and those were human bones.
"Even your word-spell writing is useless here?"
Swallow asked. The Old Man grunted, then traced two characters in the air: 'Direction.'
The characters quickly turned into two white streaks of light, shooting out in all directions before vanishing.
"Devoured. There's nothing we can do."
The Old Man looked defeated and sat down. The sun shone on parts of the area, so I ran into the sunlight, but it was as cold as ever. I stared suspiciously at the sunlight on my skin—no warmth, only a chilling cold. I shivered.
Swallow and Isabelle started searching the area too. After a while, hunger gnawed at me, and the sun still didn't warm me.
A breeze swept by, and I shivered again. In the distance, Tunjiu approached, drinking as always. The Old Man hurried over, took a swig from Tunjiu's bottle, and looked a bit more comfortable.
"Wandering around like this won't work, Swallow. Why not try using brute force to blast open an entrance?"
Tunjiu said, and Swallow laughed, shaking his head.
"The Eternal Life Society people who came here on assignment weren't stupid. If they've already tried it, there's no point in us wasting our energy."
Swallow spoke, and with a thought, ghostly energy blasted away a pile of stones, revealing tightly packed sand beneath. It looked like the ground had been crushed into sand, and the earth below was dense.
"Must've been crushed by a huge force. The stones are just what's blown here over the years."
I crouched on the ground, shivering. The sunlight was dazzling but gave no warmth. Isabelle had to lead me back to the car. Soon, Tunjiu and the Old Man returned. We set up a gas stove and heated some frozen vegetables and jerky. Even after a bowl of hot soup, I still felt cold. The sun seemed fake—I suddenly stared wide-eyed.
"Why isn't the sun warm here at all?"
As soon as I spoke, Swallow seemed to think of something, gazing at the distant peaks in confusion.
"On a plateau like this, the sun should be blazing at this hour—hot enough to burn. But for you, or for us ghosts, it doesn't do a thing."
Swallow and Isabelle instantly became two red streaks, shooting to the mountaintop. The sky filled with a dense web of red ghostly energy, interwoven like beams of light.
Tunjiu and the Old Man seemed to realize something too.
"Maybe there's some kind of mechanism here. If we can trigger it, we might find the entrance to that hidden space."
As they spoke, Swallow and Isabelle returned.
"So fast. Did you find anything?"
"Nothing. All we know is we're inside a space we can't see. The sunlight up high does suppress us ghosts a little, but down here, it does nothing—as if something's blocking it."
I looked around in confusion—there was nothing. Tunjiu gulped his drink and spoke.
"If, as Swallow guessed, the twenty-one peaks represent the twenty-one faces of the goddess Tara, it makes sense. Each peak is different. But if the Eternal Life Society came here, they'd know the legend of Tara. Wait..."
Tunjiu seemed to realize something and asked,
"Swallow, do you know exactly how many years ago those Eternal Life Society people died here?"
Swallow shook his head and looked at Isabelle.
"You'll have to ask my sister."
Tunjiu looked at Isabelle, who nodded and said,
"At least five hundred years ago."
Tunjiu immediately understood.
"Five hundred years ago, the goddess Tara—also called Dolma—was already part of local legend, but not as deeply rooted as now. If the twenty-one peaks really represent her twenty-one faces, we just need to find the right one. I can try."
As he spoke, Tunjiu took the kasaya from my shoulders. The robe floated in the air, and Tunjiu and the Old Man stood on it, flying toward the distant peaks.
"So what if you know?"
I asked in confusion. Swallow just smiled.
"Tunjiu's a Buddhist, after all. He spent time on this land, so he knows the hidden meanings and secret mantras of Tara's twenty-one faces."