Chapter 171

We searched toward the ancient temple ahead, in the tangled weeds there were no human footprints at all, only tangled weeds and scattered rocks, occasionally we would see some animal bones half-buried in mud, judging by the shape of the skeletons, there were even large animals like yak and ox, whether they died of old age here or were leftovers eaten by some other fierce beast, we did not know.

On the way to the temple gate, the lama briefly explained something about this abandoned temple; in ancient Tibetan legends, the World-Conquering Treasure Pearl King, entrusted by the Princess of Jiaodi (Jiaodi: ancient Tibetan term for Han lands), with the help of the Lotus Master, slew the demoness who had hidden in the Kunlun Mountains; in the orally transmitted epic poem passed down for thousands of years, there is a detailed description, and the poem mentions that the demoness was originally a rebirth of the Ghost Mother of the Demon Kingdom.

Since ancient times, this mountain hollow not far from the Kunlun Divine Spring has been a cursed place; herders and livestock passing through often mysteriously disappear; the local living Buddhas have more than once sent iron staff lamas and Vajra protectors to investigate the cause in the mountains, but to no avail.

Until the Qianlong era, when a massive mountain landslide occurred, someone discovered an unnamed ancient tomb exposed on the slope below, positioned with its back to the mountain and facing the lake, the stone door of the tomb had collapsed, wide open on all four sides, but the local herders were superstitious, none dared to enter, they only peered inside from outside, seeing only a great deal of ancient timber within.

The stone path outside the tomb was half-submerged in the lake, the stone figures of sheep and tigers used as tomb guardians were all damaged, and the inscriptions and epitaphs on the steles were completely gone, making it impossible to know who was buried in the tomb; those who lingered nearby often brought misfortune upon themselves.

The living Buddha sent lamas into the cracked ancient tomb to investigate; they dug out some human bones from the surface, everything else had rotted away, and they also unearthed a stone tablet. On it was carved a scene from ancient Tibetan legend: "The Ghost Mother Strikes the Bowl."

The locals believed that all the disasters that had occurred here before were surely related to the Ghost Mother demoness of the Demon Kingdom, and perhaps this was her final burial place; later the imperial court learned of this, and because ethnic unrest in Tibet was frequent at the time, to win over hearts and display the emperor's sage virtue and benevolence, the court funded the construction of a temple here dedicated to offering to the "Great Mighty Diamond," to eliminate demons, and also requested the living Buddha to send personnel to oversee all affairs in the temple, great and small.

After the "Great Phoenix Temple" was completed, its incense flourished for a time, many herders came from afar to circumambulate the mountain and lake, but strange occurrences in this region continued without end; many people reported seeing a stranger in green robes at night, lingering by the lakeside, and by dawn, someone would inevitably drown in the water; regardless of whether the victim was fat or thin, as soon as their head was submerged, even if immediately rescued, only skin and bone remained, shriveled like tree bark.

More than once, people witnessed a huge green hand, as large as a cartwheel, stretch out from the water, seize people and livestock by the shore, and drag them under; the lamas dammed the watercourse, trying to dry the lake to find the source, but saw only piles of dry bones at the bottom; chanting sutras and performing grand rites had no effect, so they resorted to sealing the tomb crack with stone slabs and abandoned the temple; in Tibet, where Buddhism thrives, abandoned temples are extremely rare; henceforth people warned each other to stay away from this ominous forbidden land.

By the 1970s, these events had been forgotten by all but a few elderly lamas; others began coming to this grassy meadow to cut winter grass for convenience, and the stretch of stone road we discovered was the very stone that had sealed the tomb crack back then, inscribed with the Great Sun Sutra of the Esoteric Wheel-Turning Mantra, which must not be stepped on; the lama told us this, shaking his head repeatedly and sighing, muttering softly: "Alas, nowadays few still take the Buddha's words seriously."

The big guy, hearing this so strange, whispered to me: "Lao Hu, could what he said really be true? Nonsense!"

I neither affirmed nor denied, thinking back to the recent frequent volcanic activity at the base of Kunlun Mountain, which had caused a major earthquake, perhaps it had re-shattered the sealed tomb; but since everything inside that tomb had already been cleared out during the Qianlong era, this place now only contains a "ruined grave," and I only know that one should not linger long at a ruined grave; as for the strange legends in this temple, I could not make heads or tails of them.

To avoid leaving any clues, we four spread out equally and advanced toward the broken walls of the temple, but along the way we found no suspicious signs; at this moment, the first squad led by the platoon leader also emerged from the weeds, they had found nothing either, so the two squads temporarily merged and entered the "Great Phoenix Temple."

This temple was severely damaged and collapsed, only a few rings of broken walls and remnants remained, vaguely revealing its former scale; at this moment, a large, round moon emerged from the heavy leaden clouds, bright as day, illuminating the ruined temple in full light, while the heavy snow on the mountain beams continued to fall without cease, the cold wind blowing down chilled people's lungs to the bone, their internal organs seemed to freeze into ice lumps, who still had the heart to admire this half-moonlight, half-snow wonder?

The stationed troops have this saying: "Past Kunlun Mountain, through the Ghost Gate, arrived at the unfreezing spring, tears turn to ice, Kunlun slope, wolves freeze to death." The mountain slope where the abandoned temple stands is exactly a great wind mouth, icy winds with ice shards pour in from all directions, forming a strange wailing sound that hovers above the desolate grass and ancient temple; most strangely, although the temperature here is very low, the green plants nearby still survive, and the lake never freezes, and contains neither fish nor aquatic plants; legend says that in ancient times, even without wind, there were three-foot waves here, and long ago most of the lake area had already dried up, leaving only a small patch of rippling water, hence it is considered the former existence of the "Ghost Lake La'ang Co."

As soon as the small squad entered the temple's enclosing wall, the platoon leader had the lama give everyone a detailed introduction to the temple and surrounding terrain; after they had a general understanding, the platoon leader still divided the people into two groups, he personally led a group to the rear of the temple near the ancient tomb entrance; the second group was responsible for searching the temple ruins, must clarify the situation, avoid unnecessary ethnic conflicts; if by dawn they still had not found the missing squad, superiors would dispatch an entire battalion from the military district to launch a search and rescue.

After the platoon leader finished arranging everything, he led his few men straight through the broken stalls; actually, the ancient tomb behind the temple is not spacious, only the size of two ordinary houses; we saw the sealing stone outside the temple front because the earthquake caused the geological fault to widen, the entire mountain slope's strata were torn open, connecting with the tomb chamber at the other end.

We did not dare delay, had the lama guide us, and searched inside and out of the ruined temple; in the central position we saw a broken statue of a human-bodied, bull-faced, multi-armed deity, face fierce and angry, this is the Great Mighty Diamond with the power to subdue evil and aid goodness.

Beneath the Great Mighty Diamond statue lies a stone slab over one meter thick, this is what was unearthed from the rear tomb of the temple, very old and decayed; I used cotton gloves to wipe off the dirt on it, revealing the carving; I, the big guy, and Xu the clerk all found it very curious, wanting to see what the Ghost Mother looked like; we saw that the carving on the stone had almost worn away, no color remained, but the stone grain pattern was clear enough, allowing us to make out about six or seven tenths of its original appearance.

A naked woman, three eyes, six arms, her whole body adorned with strange ornaments, these ornaments twisted in shape, seemingly related to the serpent god; beside her stood a huge water bowl, the bowl body bearing cicada-wing patterns, inside the bowl sat a black, plump child, also with three eyes and six arms, holding a serpent-shaped short staff, striking the bowl's body; the background in the picture is countless piles of cow skulls stacked like mountains.

The lower half of the stone slab may have darkened and rotted due to long-term burial in soil, eroded by water and earth, so we could only see this upper half; we just took a rare look, nobody felt the Ghost Mother was anything fearsome; Xu the clerk said: "This image is disrespectful to women, fortunately the evil feudal forces have already been overthrown, Tibet's millions of serfs have stood up and gained liberation, all thanks to Chairman, may he live long."

I said that was certainly true, so we must remember the well-digger when we drink water, the Chairman's teachings must not be forgotten, we must always keep the string of class struggle taut; after saying these fitting words, I turned to ask the lama: what does this whatever-whatever Ghost Mother do? Is she the watchdog of the feudal ruling class?

The lama led us toward the lakeside behind the temple, walking and chanting sutras, explaining the Ghost Mother's origin; originally, in the epic poems recounting the deeds of the heroic king, the greatest enemy of the Ling Kingdom was the Demon Kingdom, the Ghost Mother is a person of extremely high status in the Demon Kingdom, akin to an empress, specifically responsible for the rebirth of the Demon Kingdom's monarch after death; the Ghost Mother is also reborn each time after death; to completely eradicate the Demon Kingdom's royal lineage, one must kill the Ghost Mother, otherwise the nightmare of the Ling Kingdom will never cease.

In that era, people viewed death in many levels; the Ghost Mother's death must be the total annihilation that ends her cycle of rebirth; upon hearing this, we were unwilling to listen further, we quickened our pace, and suddenly I thought: the Nine-Story Demon Tower buried deep beneath the great glacier is none other than the tomb of a Demon Kingdom noble; now another damned Ghost Mother has appeared here, does this mean that a vast surrounding area was once the mausoleum of the ancient Demon Kingdom?

The area behind the ruined temple is even more desolate and dilapidated; the old lama had never been there; at present, everyone remained cautiously alert; I usually don't care, but being here, stepping on this ancient legendary wasteland, I couldn't help but tense all over; the rear temple lake now only remains a small pond; herders came to report to the People's Liberation Army that oxen were dragged into the water here, and there are still many traces of struggling and dragging on the ground, not resembling the work of enemy spies in disguise.

The water in the pond is almost entirely black, rotten grass and sludge, a stench that hits the nose; the four of us stood by the pond's edge, none daring to take a big breath, it was truly damn foul; the big guy pointed at a black object in the water and said to me: "That looks like a military cap."

The big guy stood by the pond, extended his bayonet-equipped rifle, intending to hook up the object resembling a sheepskin fleece cap in the water for inspection; I was about to stop him when the foul water in the pond trembled slightly, as if a huge green hand was quietly emerging from the bottom, trying to seize the big guy and drag him under; I immediately raised my semi-automatic rifle, already chambered, my finger had not yet touched the trigger, when suddenly a burst of urgent gunfire came from the northwest; the other squad might also have encountered a sudden situation.