"The Temple doesn't have trees. That temple is hidden within the snowy mountains. Legend says it only reveals its true form for two days a year, and those with insincere hearts can't see it at all."

Sean's aged voice spoke calmly. The Temple held immense significance for him. Because he knew the Temple's connection to that little girl, Chen Pingping had spent a great price to bring him back to Qing. Also, because he knew the Temple's location, Ku He, who had gained the most benefits from the Temple, wanted to kill him to silence him. The little Emperor of Northern Qi, on the other hand, hoped to receive divine aid from the Temple.

But what was the Temple? Just a temple.

Sean suddenly felt that his glorious and violent first half of life was a lie, and only the iron bars of his latter half were real. The old man watched the sky outside the cave grow darker, and said woodenly, "Lord Fan, do you believe there really is a god in this world?"

Fan Xian was silent, thinking of his rebirth, thinking of that box, and nodded: "I believe in the existence of gods more than anyone else in this world."

"What is God?"

"If I knew what God was, I would be God."

Sean looked at him with admiration and said, "It's rare to see someone so young who can see so clearly." He paused and said, "But back then, His Majesty was still young, so he didn't see clearly."

Fan Xian knew the story was finally about to begin, and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous and expectant.

"Do you know what the world was like thirty years ago?"

"The Wei kingdom was dominant and could unify the world at any time."

"That's right. At that time, this old man was already the leader of the Tiqi in the Great Wei Kingdom and His Majesty's confidant." Sean recalled the past, but his expression was a bit strange. He didn't seem to be immersed in the glory of those days, nor did he hold any grudges. Perhaps because he was about to die, he was just indifferent and calm. "In those days, the world belonged to the Wei Kingdom. All the talents were in the court, but the ones who truly supported this court, besides the late Emperor, were two pairs of brothers."

Fan Xian looked at the old man, who seemed to be able to hold on. He felt a little relieved and responded softly, "One pair is naturally you and Zhuang Mohan."

"That's right, my brother is much more successful than me." Sean's expression softened. "And he is more sentimental than me. I've been imprisoned in Qing for twenty years, and he still remembers me. I owe him."

"Why doesn't anyone know you're brothers?"

"The reason is simple. My reputation is too fierce. I don't know how many upright officials I've killed in secret. As a scholar, he naturally doesn't like me, and I don't want to have anything to do with him." Sean replied calmly.

Fan Xian paused slightly and changed the subject: "Who is the other pair of brothers?"

"It's Zhan Qingfeng and Ku He."

"Zhan Qingfeng? The father of the founding Emperor of Northern Qi, a famous general of that era?" Fan Xian was finally shocked. It turned out that Ku He's relationship with the Northern Qi royal family was so close! No wonder he tried so hard to protect the current Empress Dowager and Emperor, and the royal family was so respectful of Ku He's lineage.

"Ku He is Zhan Qingfeng's younger brother. From a young age, he was determined to be an ascetic, cultivate the Dao of Heaven and Man, and strive to enter the Temple one day." Sean said with sarcasm: "Most people believe in the Temple, but who has really seen it in the past thousand years? It's just that those ascetics preach in various places, living even more miserably than beggars."

"But the Temple really exists," Fan Xian reminded him.

"That's right." Sean closed his eyes tightly. "At that time, the late Emperor passed away, and the young Emperor ascended the throne. Although this Emperor was quite good to us ministers, for some reason, he was extremely afraid of death and kept thinking about cultivating the art of immortality."

Fan Xian said, "At that time, Northern Wei was dominant, and as Emperor, he didn't have to worry about anything, so he naturally couldn't help but think about these things."

Sean continued, "So at that time, Ku He took the opportunity to enter the palace and persuaded His Majesty to send an envoy to search for the traces of the Temple at sea, saying that if the immortals of the Temple taught His Majesty the immortal method, he could naturally live forever. When His Majesty heard this, how could he refuse..." He smiled bitterly and said, "As His Majesty's confidant Tiqi leader, this matter naturally fell on my shoulders."

"Ku He is the proposer, and he is extremely fanatical about the Temple, so he naturally won't stay out of it." Sean said lightly, "Gathering the strength of the Great Wei Kingdom, I don't know how long we searched before we finally found a clue, so Ku He and I led a team of a thousand people to the north."

Although the dying old man spoke calmly, Fan Xian knew that the process at that time must have been quite complicated. The Temple was worshiped by the world, but it was ethereal and without a trace. Being able to find concrete clues was itself an amazing thing.

The old and indifferent voice echoed continuously in the cave. The sky and mountains outside the cave gradually darkened. Fan Xian listened silently, asking questions at appropriate times, and his brain was running rapidly. Through Sean's memories, he redrew a rough map in his mind of the route the team that went to the Temple took.

……

……

Time seemed to have returned to more than thirty years ago, and the faint Huangshan scenery outside the cave had also turned into a world of wind and snow. In the old man's memory, Fan Xian seemed to see an expedition team of thousands of people, trudging through the endless wind and snow, in the wild and barbaric northern land. Those people wore leather boots, wrapped in thick leather clothes, and only their eyes were exposed, but they still couldn't stop the bone-chilling cold wind from pouring into their bodies.

At the front of the team were the two leaders of this team, Sean, who was in his prime at the time, and Ku He, the young and extremely pious ascetic.

The team went further and further north, getting harder and harder, and there were fewer and fewer people. Some people froze to death, some fell into ice valleys and disappeared, some were killed by fierce birds tearing their skulls from the sky. In short, as the expedition progressed, the team became shorter and shorter, and the atmosphere became more and more strange.

The world was white. Because they had stayed in this boring and harsh environment for too long, some people in the team gradually went blind and were ruthlessly abandoned by Sean in the wilderness. In the distance, some cold-resistant scavenging wolves were waiting for the death of those blind people.

Everything happened quietly, even such a tragic thing as death.

The team walked for a long time and finally came to a large mountain in the far north. There was only a narrow path between the mountains leading inside, and the snow was extremely thick, long ago covering the color of the mountain itself, looking like just endless ice mountains.

After the team, which was reduced to about a hundred people, entered the mountain, they found that behind the snow mountain was still a world covered in ice and snow, and even the animals became very few. The team tenaciously set up camp, wanting to find the traces of the Temple here, but many days passed without any discovery.

Winter came, heavy snow, mountain closed, sunset, food exhausted.

The strongest people lived to the end. In an endless long night, Sean and Ku He sat back to back in the tent, surrounded by stacked corpses. The fire had not gone out. The remaining tents in the team and the clothes of those dead people gave the two strong men the last bit of warmth and hope.

—————————————————————————

"That was the wrath of Heaven."

In the cave, Sean opened his eyelids with some difficulty. The scarlet color in his pupils became more and more intense, but endless fear appeared in his eyes: "The Temple knew that mortals were trying to find them, so Heaven was furious and descended endless darkness."

Fan Xian glanced at the old man and said softly after a while, "That's called a polar night." He confirmed the location of the Temple in his heart again.

Sean naturally didn't understand what a polar night was, but that memory was obviously extremely profound for him. He said blankly: "At that time, Ku He was eating human flesh extremely sweetly and stingily, while praying to Heaven extremely piously. I couldn't help but despise him in my heart. Unexpectedly... maybe in the end he really moved the immortals in the Temple, so the sky... suddenly brightened."

Fan Xian couldn't help but look at Sean, wondering how these two people were able to survive in the polar night that lasted for several months? Even if there was human flesh to eat and tents to burn, the loneliness and struggle between the two would probably drive people crazy.

Sean suddenly laughed and said, "The sky suddenly brightened. At that time, Ku He and I had reached the end of our lives, but suddenly we found hope. I don't know where the strength came from, supporting us to continue living."

"Then you found the Temple." Fan Xian picked up the dagger and put it beside him, asking softly, "What does the Temple look like?"

……

……

Many years ago, outside the snow mountain, two people who were reduced to only bones walked out of the tent with great difficulty. Their sunken eye sockets and sallow complexions, and the rotten and swollen gums revealed when they breathed, were all conveying a message - these two people were about to die.

The daylight was finally no longer so stingy and only came out for a while. Some animals woke up again from their deep dens. Although the two strong men were at the end of their ropes, they were still much more fierce than those beasts, so they gained a lot of supplements and stood up again.

That day, they squinted their eyes and stared blankly at the snow mountain in front of them, but they didn't know where the Temple they were looking for was.

All there was, was a vast expanse of white, truly clean.

Suddenly, a ray of heavenly light struck down from the azure sky. The light at that place on the snow mountain underwent a very strange distortion. Very abruptly, a beautiful temple appeared out of thin air in the mountains.

This magnificent temple was built against the mountain, with black stone walls and light gray eaves, solemn and indescribable.

Ku He stared blankly at the mountains, then suddenly collapsed to the ground excitedly, crying loudly in the direction where the temple appeared, incomparably mournful. Sean was dumbfounded in place. After a long time, he woke up, sat down on the snow, and didn't have the strength to stand up for a long time.

This was the Temple.