Chapter 5: Temple Worship

Chapter 5: The Temple Visit

Upon entering the Heavenly Maiden Temple, Shen Zhitang, as usual, covered all the wooden-lattice windows with cloth curtains. Sang Xu, unnerved by the encroaching darkness outside, bolted the door. However, the temple's worn cloths were too thin; as the candles burned, their flickering light spilled over the windowsills, faintly revealing many slender, grotesque shadows cast upon the curtains. Everyone huddled closer to the candles, trying their best to keep the light from reaching the windows.

High on the altar sat the statue of the Heavenly Maiden, a deity with three eyes, four heads, and eight arms. Each of her four faces bore an identical benevolent smile, and her eight arms held various ritual implements—some clutched bows and arrows, others thunderbolts. Most striking were the four golden pills she cradled in her hands.

Han Rao and the others looked visibly excited at the sight of the statue, while Sang Xu subtly frowned.

The statue exuded kindness and benevolence, its downcast eyes seemingly filled with compassion for the world. Yet, a blood-stained jade cup placed on the altar added a chilling duality and an unsettling horror to the Heavenly Maiden's image.

"So, the Heavenly Maiden is the Mother of the Dipper," Shen Zhitang murmured softly.

"What goddess?" Ye Xin, unversed in such matters, was utterly bewildered.

"She's a deity who governs the stars and the moon," Shen Zhitang explained. "According to Taoist texts, she also oversees the underworld. This temple being built here suggests that the villagers of Guimen Village are followers of the Mother of the Dipper."

"Whether she's the Mother of the Dipper or the Heavenly Maiden, any god who can get us out of here is a good god," Han Rao declared. "Let's begin."

"The temple enshrines the Heavenly Maiden; we must worship and offer blood and food."

Following the ancestral instruction, it was time to present the offerings.

Han Rao set Ye Xin down and prepared to sacrifice the chicken, with Shen Zhitang assisting. Han Rao first stunned the chicken, then slit its throat to drain its blood. Sang Xu kept a close watch on An He; since entering the temple, she had stood in the shadows, her head obscured, making her expression unclear. Ye Xin, dragging his leg, wandered around the temple but dared not stray too far from Han Rao and the others.

After Han Rao and Shen Zhitang finished sacrificing the chicken, they placed it on the altar and poured the chicken blood into the jade cup. They then called over Sang Xu and Ye Xin. The four of them knelt together at the feet of the Heavenly Maiden, kowtowing three times with resounding thuds. Yet, the temple remained utterly still; the Heavenly Maiden retained her compassionate expression, and no passageway appeared.

"What's going on?" Everyone exchanged bewildered looks.

Ye Xin asked Shen Zhitang, "Is the offering wrong? Sister Tang, does the Mother of the Dipper have any specific requirements for offerings?"

Shen Zhitang shook her head. "I don't know either."

Sang Xu noticed a tattered booklet on the altar and picked it up. It was titled "The Noble Record of the Big Dipper."

Opening it, he found the text inside murky and hard to decipher, but it seemed to outline how to perform rituals. Everyone crowded around to look, flipping through several pages until Sang Xu reached the section on taboos regarding offerings.

"Blood of the dragon and phoenix: greatly auspicious. Blood of insects and rats: greatly inauspicious. If a taboo is inadvertently violated, offer the blood of the Sang family of Guimen as a possible remedy."

"Chicken represents the phoenix; we offered the right thing," Shen Zhitang said, puzzled.

Ye Xin asked, "Perhaps the deity is particular and doesn't accept a 'counterfeit' phoenix?"

Just then, everyone suddenly heard a chewing sound from behind.

They turned to see An He crouching in the shadows, eating something.

"Don't mind her," Han Rao whispered.

"Wait..." Sang Xu, sharp-eyed, noticed her hands were covered in chicken feathers. "She seems to be eating the chicken."

Hearing them, An He looked up, her eyes blank, and giggled strangely. Everyone saw that her mouth was smeared with blood and chicken feathers.

"Where did she get the chicken?" Ye Xin asked, horrified.

They turned back to look at the altar and saw that what lay on the long table was not the chicken they had brought but a stiff, dead rat.

It was wrong—the offering was wrong!

Looking up at the statue, they saw that the Heavenly Maiden's face had changed without anyone noticing. All four identical heads were now turned toward them, faces contorted in rage. At the same time, the cloth curtains covering the windows suddenly fell away, and the candlelight flooded out, seeping through the window paper like a tide. Countless thin shadows appeared outside the windows, and numerous hands slapped against the wooden lattice, as if trying to tear through the windows and break in.

"Holy shit, holy shit," Ye Xin exclaimed. "Where would we find someone from the Sang family to draw blood from?"

Han Rao said, "No time to worry about that. Let's all try dripping some blood."

He quickly emptied the jade cup of its contents, cut his palm with a kitchen knife, and squeezed a cupful of blood into it. Placing the jade cup back on the altar, the Heavenly Maiden's statue remained enraged.

"It's useless!" he said, anxious sweat pouring down his face.

Ye Xin also tried, dripping his blood into the jade cup, but the Heavenly Maiden showed no change. They heard the courtyard gate being breached outside, as if countless footsteps were rushing toward the temple door. The fragile wooden door was slapped loudly, cracking under the pressure.

"We're done for, we're really done for this time," Shen Zhitang said, sweat beading on her forehead.

Han Rao glared at An He in the shadows and raised his gun, preparing to shoot her. Just then, she dropped to all fours and crawled out of the darkness. As the candlelight flickered over her face, everyone saw that her features had distorted—her head had become thin and elongated, its outline eerily resembling the shadows outside.

An He lunged forward, and Han Rao fired a shot, blowing off half of her head. Han Rao's marksmanship was unexpectedly good; Sang Xu noticed he hadn't even aimed but still hit An He. He wondered where Han Rao worked as an armed guard to have such skill with a gun.

Turning back to the altar, Sang Xu frowned, bit his finger, and dripped blood into the cup. As a last resort, Shen Zhitang also dripped a drop of her blood into it.

The statue remained unchanged.

"It's useless!" Shen Zhitang cried, tears streaming down her face.

Yet, as soon as she spoke, they heard a sharp click from behind the statue.

Looking up at the statue again, they saw the Heavenly Maiden's angry expression slowly fade, returning to her original benevolent appearance.

Ye Xin's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly climbed onto the altar, squeezing behind the statue.

"Come quick! There's a small door here!" he called out, poking his head out.

Then, he pulled his head back.

Many frenzied arms reached through the temple door, and the rickety wooden door swayed precariously. Shen Zhitang quickly followed, slipping through the small door. Sang Xu also shouldered his bag, grabbed a candle, and followed behind. Last was Han Rao, who reloaded, fired another shot to force An He into a corner, and then hurried through the small door.

Once inside, they sealed the door shut. Ye Xin pushed something stiff against the door to barricade it, finally bringing a moment of calm.

Shen Zhitang held up the candle, its faint light revealing a long passage ahead. Han Rao leaned against the wall, panting. As the candlelight flickered over the small door, they saw that the object Ye Xin had used to barricade it was a yellowed human bone.

By now, everyone was accustomed to such sights; compared to the horrors outside, corpses and bones were far less frightening.

"Thank heavens," Ye Xin muttered fervently. "Namo Amituofo, may the Mother of the Dipper be merciful, may Mazu protect us, may God be with us. Is there someone from the Sang family among us?"

"Are you crazy? We're all outsiders; how could we be locals?" Han Rao retorted.

Shen Zhitang speculated, "After entering the dream, we each randomly assumed the role of a local. Brother Jian Guo became the one-eyed elder's grandson, Brother Han is a butcher, Ye Xin sells vegetables, and I am a carpenter's daughter. My 'father' is surnamed Sang, so perhaps my role identity was recognized."

"So what exactly happened to An He?" Sang Xu asked.

Han Rao sighed and said, "There's a taboo in the dream: if something seems mysterious, don't be curious, and definitely don't try to look. If you look, you'll fall—transformed, becoming one of them."

So An He was transformed? Sang Xu frowned slightly. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Han Rao and the other two exchanged awkward glances. Finally, Han Rao spoke up: "Sorry, we genuinely forgot. This village is so terrifying; I was too focused on finding a way out and didn't remember to tell you. Look, An He didn't know either. I didn't expect her to have entered the dream before and still not know this taboo."

It wasn't that they didn't know; they intentionally didn't tell him. Sang Xu understood this clearly.

Earlier, Han Rao had said he didn't want him to die too soon, implying that he believed Sang Xu would die.

Before An He's incident, he had never mentioned this taboo. Did he want Sang Xu to die?

"Why?" Sang Xu was filled with doubt. "In such a dangerous place, wouldn’t it be better to have more people?"

Ye Xin spoke cautiously, "Hey bro, don't be mad."

Sang Xu shook his head. "It’s fine. Everyone’s scared, so slip-ups are bound to happen. Let’s just help each other out from now on."

Hearing that he didn’t seem to hold a grudge, the three of them nodded repeatedly, visibly relieved.

Han Rao looked ashamed and said, "My bad, dude. I messed up. Don’t worry, I’ll have your back from here on out."

Ye Xin glanced at Han Rao and Shen Zhitang and suggested, "Maybe we should just spill the beans? If it weren’t for Brother Jian Guo along the way, we’d be dead long ago."

Shen Zhitang nodded in agreement. Seeing they were both on the same page, Han Rao said, "There’s something I didn’t tell you. In this dream, besides trying to survive, we also have to find something called the *Heaven-Mending Pill*. Only by taking the *Heaven-Mending Pill* can you truly extend your lifespan. Otherwise, you’ll still die."

"*Heaven-Mending Pill*?"

"Yeah," Han Rao explained. "Not sure if you noticed, but the Mother of the Dipper statue outside is holding four golden pellets. Those are the *Heaven-Mending Pills*. According to the statue’s hint, there are four of them in this dream, and they’re likely connected to the Mother of the Dipper."

No wonder they got so excited when they saw the Mother of the Dipper. No wonder Han Rao hadn’t wanted him to survive before An He’s incident.

They didn’t know how many *Heaven-Mending Pills* were in this dream—the fewer outsiders, the better. But now that they knew there were four, telling him the truth didn’t matter anymore.

Sang Xu appeared easygoing on the surface, but inwardly, he was calculating. Though the outsiders were fellow travelers, they weren’t entirely trustworthy. He had to have a backup plan for himself.

"How long does one *Heaven-Mending Pill* extend your lifespan?" Sang Xu asked.

"Two months," Han Rao replied.

"Then if you keep taking them, couldn’t you live forever?" Sang Xu pressed.

"Theoretically, yes," Shen Zhitang also mused. "But I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any elderly outsiders."

Could it be that they all died in the dreams because they were too dangerous? Sang Xu frowned as he pondered.

They walked along the passage for an hour before stopping to rest. The passage had been sloping downward the whole time, not like a way out of the dream, but more like a path to the underworld. But at this point, they had no other choice—they had to press on, like it or not.

After a long silence, Sang Xu asked, "Are the locals real people?"

"Don’t know," Han Rao shook his head. "They feel real, right? But when you return to the real world and look up the places you’ve been in the dream, you’ll find they don’t exist. I once had a policeman check the population database for locals I’d seen in a dream—nothing came up. Anyway, it’s better to treat them as fake."

Sang Xu nodded. Everyone went to sleep, taking turns keeping watch. When it was Sang Xu’s turn, he deliberately put some distance between himself and the others, took out his cloth bag, and ran his fingers over the sandalwood urn.

"Are you there?" he whispered.

After a moment, a dismissive snort sounded by his ear.

Sang Xu looked around but saw nothing.

In a flash, he caught a glimpse of a shadow at the edge of his vision. He turned to look, but it was gone. Thinking it over, he took off his glasses. His vision blurred instantly—his eyesight was quite poor. This time, he finally saw the shadow.

It reminded him of scenes from horror movies, where ghosts always appear in the blurry background.

It was a tall, slender figure in red, with waist-length jet-black hair, two strands of which were braided into long plaits. Its face was hidden behind a fierce, ancient Nuo mask, and a string of crimson tassel earrings dangled from its right earlobe. It leaned casually against the passage wall.

That was Zhou Xia.

What exactly was he? According to the old man, he wasn’t a ghost but a human-like being with a different form of existence. If Sang Xu saw the face beneath the Nuo mask, would he lose his mind like An He?

"I have a question for you," Sang Xu said softly.

The shadow suddenly vanished. Sang Xu felt the air grow colder, and then the fierce Nuo mask was right in his face.

Not far away, Shen Zhitang, still asleep, rubbed her arm and muttered, "So cold…"

"You only get one question," a low, pleasant voice sounded by his ear again.

Sang Xu began to understand the old man’s arrangement. The old man knew he was going to die and had made arrangements for his grandson, Sang Xiaoguai. Though Zhou Xia was a ghost, the old man’s plan showed Zhou Xia was reliable. The old man just didn’t know his grandson had been replaced by the outsider Sang Xu.

The old man had repeatedly warned him to stay on Zhou Xia’s good side—and for good reason.

Stay on Zhou Xia’s good side, borrow his power to escape the dream. Sang Xu had his strategy figured out.

Only one question—what should he ask?

Han Rao and the others were definitely still hiding things from him. What dangerous secrets were they keeping?

Did this passage really lead out of the dream?

One question after another flashed through his mind. Sang Xu took a deep breath and asked the one that concerned him most right now:

"Do you have AIDS?"

After all, physical health was the most important thing.

Sang Xu had just been intimate with this person—he had to make sure he didn’t have any serious infections.

Zhou Xia asked, "What?"

Considering how primitive this village was, it was probably very old, and Zhou Xia was clearly older than all the villagers. Chances were, he wouldn’t understand what AIDS was. Sang Xu rephrased it in a way an older person might understand:

"Do you have syphilis?"

Silence.

The passage was dead silent.

Zhou Xia let out a cold laugh. "You insolent brat."

With that, the Nuo mask vanished.

Sang Xu: "…"

Zhou Xia was gone. Whether Sang Xu wore his glasses or not, he couldn’t see the red-clad figure anymore.

The plan to stay on Zhou Xia’s good side had failed just one minute after it was set.