Chapter Thirty-Two: The Temple

"Changsheng..."

"Qin Changsheng..."

"Qin Changsheng, open your eyes. It's me, Cao Mengmeng."

That line sounded oddly familiar, didn't it?

Qin Changsheng snapped his eyes open, only to be met by three faces filled with worry.

Cao Mengmeng, whose face was the closest, let out a breath of relief the moment she saw his eyes flutter open. This was immediately followed by a wave of resentment, her teeth gritted tight: "You bastard! I actually thought you were dead!"

So, that was my fault, then?

Qin Changsheng was speechless. His mind was flooded with thoughts of how sorry he was to be human. Yet, seeing Cao Mengmeng so visibly emotional on his behalf, he felt a strange warmth stir in his chest.

The other two stood behind her: Wu Yutong, who remained silent with her head bowed, and Dong Huan, the tall, six-foot-tall lad from the Northeast.

"Oh, brother, you’re finally awake." Seeing him stir, Dong Huan hurriedly wiped sweat from his forehead, looking visibly relieved.

"Good... good morning." Looking at the three of them, that was all Qin Changsheng could manage to squeeze out after a long pause.

His single sentence left the three of them in silence for five seconds.

"Sigh..." Cao Mengmeng sighed helplessly and reached out to pull Qin Changsheng to his feet.

Qin Changsheng felt utterly drained, as if he had tumbled down a mountainside, his bones and muscles aching all over. Cao Mengmeng couldn't pull him up on her own, and it took Dong Huan stepping in to help before the two of them could finally get him upright.

"I’m so glad you’re both okay." Seeing Dong Huan and Wu Yutong, Qin Changsheng was genuinely delighted. Before this, they had been buried in the ruins with their fates uncertain; now, they both appeared to be in one piece.

"Brother, next time you decide to collapse a building, remember to consult with us first." Though Dong Huan looked physically unharmed, his spirit seemed deeply wounded. "When I saw things going wrong, I grabbed this girl and ran, and then the building just came down! Did you have any idea how desperate I felt?"

"..." Qin Changsheng had no rebuttal.

When he brought the entire building down, his only thought had been to survive. If he hadn't done so, everyone, including himself, would likely have been engulfed in the sea of fire unleashed by the Mifa Hero and West Wind Gale.

The choice he made at that moment had indeed disregarded the lives of Dong Huan and Wu Yutong, and he had no words to defend himself.

However, after staring at him for a moment, Dong Huan finally patted his shoulder gently. "Forget it, I don't blame you. We all survived, and that’s what matters most."

Qin Changsheng felt a profound sense of gratitude. To think that he could be forgiven by those he had essentially pushed into the line of fire—Dong Huan's magnanimity made him feel deeply ashamed by comparison.

"Wait, if we all survived, where are we?"

Qin Changsheng suddenly realized the scenery around them was strange. He had previously been outdoors, standing upon the Qiantang Tide; even with the transparent celestial dome overhead, it had been reasonably bright.

But now, the four of them were surrounded by absolute darkness, as if standing in the center of a black hole.

Qin Changsheng reflexively checked his arm. The brand-like numbers were gone, his skin smooth and unblemished, without a single scar left behind.

The countdown was gone. Did that mean everything was over?

But if it was over, why was he here?

Qin Changsheng tried to recall what happened before he lost consciousness. He only remembered throwing the mountain of corpses into the Qiantang River, followed by a dark vortex that expanded from the center, swallowing everything in its path.

He had been swept into that vortex himself.

After that, he remembered hearing a voice, a voice that said...

"Whoosh!"

Before Qin Changsheng could recall the details, a white flame suddenly ignited in the darkness, startling all four of them.

The flickering flames were pure white, giving off an unreal, black-and-white cinematic quality. The light illuminated their surroundings, allowing Qin Changsheng to see the ground beneath their feet.

It was pitch-black basalt, with what looked like molten magma flowing beneath the surface, and hot, crimson steam rising from the gaps between the rocks.

Upon closer inspection, the basalt wasn't natural; it was carved with intricate patterns and a script Qin Changsheng had never seen before—similar to Chinese characters, but so heavily stylized that they were impossible to decipher.

Just as Qin Changsheng tried to figure out where they were, a chorus of countless voices erupted from all around. Each had a different tone, yet their cadence and rhythm were so perfectly synchronized it was as if they were all spoken by a single person.

The voices chanted:

"Heaven and Earth are mysterious and yellow; the universe is vast and desolate!"

Before Qin Changsheng could grasp the meaning, with several *whooshes*, rows of white flames ignited all around them, instantly dispelling the darkness.

Only then did Qin Changsheng realize that, besides them, there were many others lying on the ground. It looked like a strange, grand hall. The first white flame they had seen was in the center, perched much higher than the rest.

It was a stone dais in the middle of the hall, surrounded by tiers of steps, with the white flame burning atop the stone platform at the very center.

Qin Changsheng quickly scanned the illuminated area. Along the edges of the hall stood numerous towering statues, all facing the center. The pressure radiating from them from on high filled him with an inexplicable sense of panic.

He noticed that while the statues varied in form, they all shared one common trait: they had no faces.

Each statue’s face was a blank slate, devoid of any features.

The faceless statues formed a circle, enclosing everyone in the center of the hall—a sight so bizarre and eerie that it made one wonder: could those voices have come from these statues?

At that moment, the people lying on the ground began to wake up, slowly climbing to their feet.

Qin Changsheng saw that they were dressed in normal, everyday clothes, and every face bore an expression of confusion.

As everyone slowly came to, confused voices began to fill the hall:

"Where is this?"

"What the hell? Who are you people?"

"Wasn't there seventeen hours left?"

"Did we actually survive?"

"Amitabha, heaven be praised..."

The voices were chaotic, but Qin Changsheng managed to extract one vital piece of information from the din.

These people, just like them, had experienced the life-and-death ordeal. They were all survivors!