Chapter 86: Straight into the Black Hole

Xiao Huo's voice came through the satellite phone: "Sister Gu, we have found the location indicated by the red agate on the key. After digging away the surface grass roots and gravel, we uncovered an octagonal wellhead, about three meters in diameter, which was plugged with mud and stones. The well rim, about a foot wide, is carved with Tibetan seal scripts. A rough translation reads: 'Exert all strength to vanquish demons, sacrifice life for righteousness; the power of the hidden spring forever seals the demon's eye.' Now, the brothers have started digging the well. Please rest assured."

The three raised their binoculars. Within the lens, Xiao Huo was waving vigorously toward them. Next to Xiao Huo, a group of people were swinging shovels and pickaxes, digging with all their might. Strangely, Gao Xiang was not participating; instead, he was walking around the crowd with his arms crossed.

The excavation was not going smoothly. Xiao Huo called back successively to report that the rock crevices were filled with a mixture of rice gruel and sawdust, bonding so firmly that even the tips of the pickaxes could not penetrate them. Three hours had passed, and they had only dug a little over a meter deep.

"Plant explosives, micro-blasting. Be careful not to damage the well wall," Gu Qingcheng ordered over the phone.

Xiao Huo replied, panting: "The well was chiseled directly out of the mountain body; even if we wanted to damage it, we couldn't. Under the current circumstances, blasting is our only option."

Following that, short, crisp sounds of explosions continuously echoed from the opposite ridge, and wisps of blue smoke drifted across the valley of Mount Niseri.

"I really have no idea what the scene inside the black洞 looks like. I only hope we are still in time to do something, rather than facing a chaotic and ruined aftermath." Gu Qingcheng paced back and forth anxiously, frequently gazing into the distance through her binoculars at the opposite side.

Long nights bring many dreams; if this took too much time, it would inevitably attract the attention of others and bring unnecessary trouble.

"There's no need to fear chaos. As long as there is a mandala, all chaos can be eliminated, because the mandala is the symbol of so-called 'order', standing in direct opposition to 'chaos'. Slow progress, changing plans, harsh environments, and so on—these are all forms of 'chaos'. What we need to do is transform 'chaos' into 'order' by establishing a mandala—am I right, Guan Wen?" Because of Guan Wen's presence, Bao Ling remained calm throughout.

"Right," Guan Wen smiled and replied.

Regarding the mandala, it can be explained as follows: a mandala can represent almost all real or conceptual things. The human body, a temple, a royal palace, a city, a continent, a thought, an illusion, or even a specific political structure can all be mandalas and expressed through the artistic form of the mandala.

The demoness deluded people's minds with infinite illusions and disrupted the normal lives of the people in Tibet, serving as the origin of "chaos." They risked their lives to enter the black hole precisely to end this chaotic situation and restore Tibet to the serene era before the demoness appeared.

Guan Wen was not an official practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, but his understanding of the doctrines and tenets at this moment was no less than that of high monks and great virtue masters who had practiced for decades. Furthermore, spiritual practice depends on one's own comprehension rather than the length of time spent sitting in meditation and chanting scriptures.

He knew that in Tibetan Buddhism, every single thing in the world is shaped according to the primitive structure of a mandala's image. However, this structure is invisible to the naked eye of mortals, yet it truly exists within the void. For example, the world is a mandala, with Lhasa as the center and snow-capped mountains surrounding it; Lhasa is also a mandala, with the Jokhang Temple as the center, surrounded and crowded by various temples and dwellings; the Jokhang Temple is also a mandala, with the main altar as the center, guarded by the remaining halls. Extending this reasoning, all things in the universe are mandalas. Therefore, the mandala is an indispensable tool for Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, containing all the fundamental principles of the universe.

This profound principle shares a wonderful similarity with the Han Buddhism concept of "a grain of sand contains a world, a flower represents a Buddha land." Since the demoness shattered the existing mandala of Tibet, he must reconstruct the mandala with the pen in his hand to mend the damaged world.

Gu Qingcheng looked back at Guan Wen, nervously tapping her fingernails: "I always have a lingering sense of foreboding that something major is about to happen. We haven't heard from the Green Dragon Society in a long time. Those fiends who have been eyeing Mount Niseri with covetous glares surely won't just let it go. Who knows when they might—"

Just as she was speaking, a burst of cheers and shouts erupted from the opposite ridge, and a column of white water shot straight up into the sky, rising more than ten meters high and scattering in all directions.

Over the phone, Xiao Huo shouted excitedly: "Sister Gu, the well has been unblocked! I can't believe it, the water is actually spewing out a lot of gold jewelry..."

Guan Wen suddenly understood. Before the wars of the past, the monks of Tashilhunpo Monastery had thrown their treasures into that well and then plugged it with huge boulders. This was a method that served two purposes: it deeply buried the treasures in anticipation of the monastery's future revival, while also blocking the spring so that the water pressure was suppressed, accumulated, and forced to change direction, turning into the sealing force of the black hole's portal.

Modern people assume that such physical knowledge did not exist in ancient times and could not be achieved with ancient technological levels, but clearly, the archaeologists were wrong.

"Let's go." Guan Wen rushed toward the cliff edge, being the first to grab the rope and slide down.

As soon as they reached the outside of the black hole, they felt a piercing chill, and the hairs on their bodies stood on end.

Guan Wen did not advance recklessly; instead, he switched on his high-powered flashlight and shone it inside. The original ground inside the cave had disappeared, revealing a two-meter-wide stone staircase extending darkly downward.

Xiao Huo and Gao Xiang led their men back, each face carrying an inexplicable excitement.

"Let's go, everyone stay alert. I'll take the lead." Xiao Huo led the way, and the group slowly stepped down the stairs.

The discovery of the treasure did not cause Xiao Huo to lose his composure; he didn't even mention a single word about the treasure again. Instead, holding a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, he stepped forward steadily, step by step.

The steps and cave walls were wet, as if they had just been washed by water. This also confirmed that the portal of the black hole had been held back by the water pressure; once the spring was unblocked and the pressure vented from the other end, the portal of the black hole was thrown wide open.

After descending about three hundred steps, the space ahead suddenly opened up, revealing a huge circular area resembling a massive open-air amphitheater. The spot where they stood was the highest entrance of the amphitheater. Looking down from here, the lowest end of the amphitheater shimmered with water light, while the huge two-meter-high, two-meter-wide steps on all sides emitted a faint white glow from within.

"This place is truly bizarre—Sister Gu, what should we do?" Xiao Huo asked.

"Go down, wait until we reach the end of the steps," Gu Qingcheng replied softly.

In fact, not just the stone steps, but every inch of this place emitted a white glow, as if low-wattage frosted light bulbs were installed inside. Of course, based on Guan Wen's experience, he could judge that it was a wondrous phenomenon created by luminous moss.

Descending another two hundred steps, they stood by the edge of a pool more than a hundred meters in diameter. The water in the pool was very clear, and thick gray water weeds swayed slowly at the bottom.

Directly ahead, a pebble path barely wide enough for one person led straight to the center of the pool. In the center of the pool was a circular platform, upon which lay an elderly man wearing maroon monastic robes at an angle.

"Everyone be careful, do not act alone," Xiao Huo raised his hand and ordered.

Two men approached the pond, splashing the pond water while turning back with smiles: "The water is very clean, the water quality should be the same as the place we drilled through. Whoever is thirsty, come and take a couple of sips—"

Gu Qingcheng suddenly shouted, "Come back quickly, don't touch that water... No, it's the water weeds!"

Her warning came a moment too late, because two plump, vigorous water weeds suddenly burst through the air. One bit into the arm of one man, and the other directly clamped onto the head of the other, instantly dragging both men into the water.

"Fall back, fall back!" Xiao Huo yelled.

The two men did not struggle at all; the exposed skin turned as thick and black as ink the instant they entered the water. As soon as they fell in, more water weeds coiled around, wrapping the two corpses tightly. Within just two minutes, they vanished into the water, even their clothes completely dissolved.

The water surface returned to calm, exactly as it had been when they first arrived at the pond's edge.

"That's just a kind of man-eating water weed, everyone don't be afraid. Immediately divide into two teams and scatter the medicine I gave you earlier along the edge of the pond," Xiao Huo instructed calmly. With a wave of both hands, his men immediately deployed around the pond, scattering a colorful powder into the water.

During this process, although everyone was extremely cautious, one person still got a little too close to the edge of the pond, was dragged into the water by the water weeds, and lost his life.

After the medicine was scattered, Xiao Huo looked at his wristwatch, biting his lip silently as he waited. Soon, the water weeds in the pond began to thrash wildly like a massive swarm of dancing serpents, with the highest ones even probing more than ten meters above the water surface. After another moment, the water weeds slumped powerlessly, floating on the surface. Their previous vibrant gray-black color had turned into a withered yellowish-brown.

"Alright, who goes across first?" Xiao Huo asked Guan Wen.

"Me." Guan Wen stepped onto the path without the slightest hesitation, going first.

"Thank you for trusting me this much," Xiao Huo followed closely behind, then turned back to tell everyone, "Wait here, everyone. Once the danger is lifted, I will send a signal."

This time, Gao Xiang stepped forward: "I'm a man too, let's all go together."

Thus, the three of them went together, following the path straight to the center of the pool.

The diameter of the platform exceeded twenty meters, and the ground was smooth, resembling a massive piece of gray crystal.

Guan Wen walked toward the aged monk, squatted down in front of him, and looked at that pale, emaciated face. In his previous hallucinations, he had seen this face, but he had never had a deeper conversation or understanding.

The elderly monk raised his head, and the two silently scrutinized each other, communicating their thoughts through their gazes.

"You've finally come."

"Yes, I heard your call and rushed over. I'm sorry, we went through too many twists and turns in our exploration and arrived too late."

"No, not too late. As long as the Rakshasa demoness has not broken through the seal's imprisonment, it is never too late."

"What should we do next?"

"I don't know, that is a question you should consider. As for me, I am an utter failure. I could only continue the Crystal Demon-Subduing Array set up by the wise men of previous generations to suppress her, but I could not eradicate her at the root. I am an unqualified demon-subduing master; I have no face to meet the predecessors whose souls have ascended to heaven."

"Predecessor, you are being too modest. Without you, the demoness would have soared into the sky and wreaked havoc across Tibet. History does not record your name, but in the hearts of thousands of demon-subduing masters, the name of Master Doge Gyatso will forever be remembered."

"Forget that name. When I decided to lead seventy wise men into this place, we no longer had individual names; we shared only a single name: 'The Seventy Wise Men of Tibet.' Only by joining forces to unleash the 'Thought Divine Dragon Demon-Subduing Hand' could we force the Rakshasa demoness—who had already escaped from the earth veins—back into her original form and seal her into the earth veins for a second time. They are all dead, body and soul obliterated, scattered like smoke. Now only I remain here, persistently waiting for the successor to arrive. Look over there—"