Daomu Biji: Restart

We rested on a big rock while the people behind us came up one right after another.

I took out my binoculars and used a bright flashlight to illuminate the area in front of me. From this distance, I could see that this ancient building with flying eaves was very old. It was a mystery how it had managed to stay so well preserved up until now.

I used my flashlight to illuminate the rock walls in the mountain crevices on both sides and found that they actually contained a lot of plateau moss, which indicated that the area wasn’t closed off enough. In this relatively open environment, wooden buildings would easily be damaged.

The damage wouldn’t be that of decay, but more of the wood in these buildings turning to fine dust because of the drastic changes in temperature.

But that wasn’t the case with this building. Although the surface had been severely oxidized, the shape of the building was still well preserved.

I had never seen flying eaves like this before. The earliest wooden building in China was generally considered to be the Nanchan Temple⁽¹⁾, which had been preserved since the Tang Dynasty. No one had seen similar buildings that could be dated earlier than that period. The flying eaves on this building looked to be from an earlier period than the Tang Dynasty because they weren’t as delicate.

"Do you know anything about this?" I asked Wen Binghui.

"I have just two things to say,” he replied. “First, the roof tiles on this building are standard of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The differing thicknesses of the tiles and this kind of curvature shows that this tiled building had just recently been invented. In fact, the main body should have been built in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. Second, the flying eaves are from the Eastern Han Dynasty. If you look closely, you’ll find that they’re made of ceramic, which is a characteristic of the Eastern Han Dynasty. This thing must have been refurbished at that time."

"How do you know everything? Are you sure? " Fatty asked him.

"If I make a mistake, I'll offer you my head."

"Can’t you just give me money? I don't want your head."

I smacked Fatty to get him to stop talking and then asked Xiuxiu, "How is it?"

"The signal isn’t moving anymore. The monster appears to be under the building in front of us." As she spoke, she turned off the satellite phone.

"Is this the old lair of the ancient gods?” Fatty asked. “Are we already beneath the Kunlun Mountains? Let’s use our magical powers. I'll become a moth and you become a maggot and then we’ll go and investigate."

"If I become a maggot, can I keep up with you?" I snapped at him before looking ahead. "Be careful, there’s something here that wants to give us the heavenly gift. Although we have the bronze pieces protecting us, this thing has been plotting against us in various ways. The signal that led us here was both fast and slow for a while, so maybe it was deliberately leading us here. This may be the old nest of an old black mountain demon."

Everyone remained silent as I looked up and continued, "I suggest that we wait until dawn. Once the sunlight filters down here, we can continue exploring. Fatty, you’ve got the most accurate aim among us. Climb up the cliff on the left and cover us with your gun."

Fatty narrowed his eyes in thought, "I’m a little leery of climbing up cliffs now—hey, what's that smell?"

He sniffed the air, and when we looked into the darkness, we found that there was fire coming from the depths of the woods in the direction of that wooden building.

Fatty thought for a moment. "Did that flare just now set the forest on fire?"

Everyone just stood there but the fire was indeed getting bigger and bigger. As I was standing there in a daze like an idiot, Doctor Xiao suddenly took off her backpack.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"The last clue may be in this building,” she said. “Boss Hua and your friend may also be in this building, but it could also be a trap. I’m being paid to be expendable, so I have to do a good job of it. I’ll try to put out the fire, so watch me and analyze the situation."

With that said, she started to run into the forest. I could tell by her movements that she was very good at sports, but she didn’t practice martial arts.

I gave Fatty a look, and he picked up a stone and threw it at the back of her knee, causing her to fall to the ground with a thud.

I started to take off my clothes at this time but quickly found that Xiuxiu was doing the same. We both looked at each other, and then Xiuxiu said, "It's not fair to you, Big Brother. You’ve already handled your matter. Let me go."

"It's not fair to anyone, but I'm luckier than you, so I should go."

"When it comes to this matter, no one has absolute luck."

"Not necessarily." I pulled out a grenade belt that had seven grenades on it and checked it over before saying, "Fatty, cover me."

Fatty patted Xiuxiu, "Let Mr. Naïve go. When the situation is unknown, he’s more crafty than you are. You’ll get your chance to be a hero in the second wave."

As he pulled the bolt back on his gun, I ran over to Doctor Xiao to help her up. She looked at me and was about to say something, but I quickly interrupted her, "No time to talk. I can put out the fire with a grenade. But you’ll have to use your clothes to stop the flames from spreading for half an hour.” With that said, I quickly rushed towards the place where the fire was burning.

Soon, I entered the forest and found that all of the trees were growing out of the crevices in the rock. There was a thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground here, which was really easy to catch fire.

With very light steps, I quickly rushed to the area that was on fire. I saw that the wooden building was dozens of meters behind it and the fire was already very big. Three or four trees had already completely burned up, making the fire particularly bright. Under the firelight, the building almost felt like a dungeon in the raging flames of hell.

I found a bunker—it was really just a big rock—pulled out the safety pin on one of the grenades, and then threw it at the center of the fire.

****

TN Notes:

(1) Nanchan Temple is a Buddhist temple located near the town of Doucun on Wutaishan, Shanxi Province, China. It was built in 782 during China's Tang dynasty, and its Great Buddha Hall is currently China's oldest preserved timber building extant. Info here.

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AT LAST! FINALLY DONE!

I think Tiffany is a liar liar pants on fire lol. This is definitely up there with Tibetan Sea Flower since it totally stopped in the middle of the action. No rants or table flipping this time; I'm too jaded I guess. I will probably take a few days off to get my mind right and then see if Yvette would be willing to let me help out with Notes in Rain Village Part 2. I'd like to do at least 1 chapter a day since NPSS already has 25 chapters out so we'll see how that goes. As always, stay classy people