Chapter Fifty-One: Mount Nisiri

Tears streamed down Caidan Dajie's face like a spring, his lips quivering as he silently recited prayers. This courtyard had also been his shelter; now that it was destroyed, the world of his former life had vanished completely. The pain of losing his home left him reeling, barely able to stand.

“Hurry, let’s go! Don’t get entangled with the monks!” Guan Wen whispered urgently, dragging Caidan Dajie along with Gu Qingcheng through a small gate and away from Tashilhunpo Monastery. Behind them, the monks clamored in pursuit, their shouts echoing in the air.

They intended to return to the family inn, but halfway there, they saw Gao Xiang driving an off-road vehicle toward them, with Baoling in the passenger seat.

“Guan Wen!” Baoling leaned out the window, waving.

The three immediately got into the car. Without hesitation, Guan Wen instructed Gao Xiang, “West, head to Mount Niseri.”

By now, Tashilhunpo Monastery was in utter chaos. The fall of the ancient tree had destroyed the entire courtyard, surely alarming the monastery’s leaders and triggering endless rounds of investigation and questioning. There was no telling when the uproar would subside.

Guan Wen paid no heed to these troubles; his goal was the cliff on Mount Niseri—the abandoned, ancient precipice.

Once they were a safe distance from the monastery, Gao Xiang glanced back and briefly recounted the situation in Lhasa: the enemy had used toxins to incapacitate everyone—Venerable Chiyan, the important figures, the sages of the five countries and twelve monasteries, all had fallen victim. Gao Xiang, who had long roamed between Tibet, Nepal, Thailand, India, Sikkim, and Bhutan, always kept a variety of antidotes with him and managed to save himself in time. He had called Baoling, learned she was at the inn, and rushed to pick her up.

“Baoling and I are good friends, but only friends—nothing more,” Gao Xiang emphasized sincerely, lest Guan Wen misunderstand. Yet it was clear: Baoling’s heart was unmoved, while Gao Xiang’s feelings ran deep. It must have been painful to admit his failure in love to both Guan Wen and Baoling.

“To have a friend like you, I’m happy for Baoling,” Guan Wen finally relaxed; he had worried Baoling would feel awkward seeing Gao Xiang again.

“Forgive my past rudeness. I hope I’ll have a chance to make it up to you,” Gao Xiang said, his left hand on the steering wheel, right hand extended toward Guan Wen. The genuine shame on his face made Guan Wen feel embarrassed himself.

As the two men shook hands earnestly, a shy smile appeared on Baoling’s face as well.

“Gao Xiang, we’re heading for the cliff. According to what I’ve learned, the key clue to defeating the evil lies beneath it,” Guan Wen said. He didn’t elaborate on what Bing Qiuhan had told him, for he knew the phantoms leaving the Thangka Room were visible to him alone—not even Gu Qingcheng, standing so close, had noticed.

Baoling’s eyes lit up. “Good. Let’s go there. All nightmares should end now!”

With so many companions, she no longer dwelled on her own nightmares, but instead felt her confidence and courage swell.

“Is the master’s wound serious?” Gao Xiang’s sharp gaze had already spotted the injury at Caidan Dajie’s side.

Caidan Dajie lowered his head in silence, as if his soul had departed, slowly taking a wooden token from his pocket and gazing at it in a daze. This was the same token Basang had used to summon Guan Wen to the monastery, but now the small insect that once inhabited it had curled tightly, embedded in the tree’s growth rings.

“It was your brother, Chizan, who nearly took the master’s life,” Gu Qingcheng said, her tone tinged with reproach.

Gao Xiang looked even more ashamed, apologizing repeatedly, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Old Dao, Chizan, and I are just ordinary friends. When I called them to protect Baoling at the inn, it was only because they were nearby—nothing more. In this world, sometimes too many friends can bring unexpected trouble, since so many are adept at hiding their true selves. Like you—sorry, Miss Gu, I meant no offense…”

In this tangled struggle, no one could claim innocence, for both Gu Qingcheng and Old Dao had hidden their identities until the final moment.

“Let’s turn the page,” Gu Qingcheng smiled.

Gao Xiang, humbled by defeat, and the sharp-tongued Gu Qingcheng both felt it best not to press the issue. Now, united in their quest to banish evil, solidarity mattered more than blame.

“The Tree Master foresaw your arrival. He assigned me, and ordered Basang to bring you here. This wooden token was cut from the ancient tree’s trunk. It is the first and last signal sent by the Tree Master. He said only a true practitioner would understand its meaning.” Caidan Dajie turned the token over and over, but the small insect inside remained motionless.

The car rounded a bend, leaving Tashilhunpo Monastery far behind as it climbed the winding road toward the summit of Mount Niseri.

Guan Wen gazed out at the Tibetan landscape, speaking slowly and deliberately, “Since receiving the wooden token, I’ve come to realize that banishing evil is the only true path. If we fail this time, one of us must do as the Tree Master did—abandon the body, preserve the soul, and pass the teaching of ‘banishing evil’ to the next generation. Master, you must understand, we no longer have time to linger in grief.”

“This is the only relic of the ancient tree. Seeing it, I know where my roots lie—” Caidan Dajie didn’t finish. The wooden token in his hand gave a soft snap under his fingertips, breaking and falling to the car floor before dissolving into powder.

Startled, Caidan Dajie realized the fragment at his fingertips had also crumbled, scattering in a fine shower.

The car window was open. The mountain wind swept in from the left and out the right, instantly carrying away the powder and the tiny curled insect, dispersing them into nothingness.

“This… Could it be… Has my master truly left me forever?” Overwhelmed, Caidan Dajie pounded his chest with a fist, letting out a deep, mournful roar like a tiger grieving beneath the moon.

Tashilhunpo Monastery was now far behind them. Awaiting the five travelers were dark mountains and a powerful, chilling wind.

To Guan Wen, casting off the old and embracing the new was the only way for society to progress. Bound by old rules and customs, it would be hard to leave behind the suppression of the supernatural and pursue the new path of banishing evil for good.

The abandoned cliff lay at the summit of Mount Niseri, its peak flattened by nature into a natural platform twenty paces long and wide. To the west, the cliff dropped away without barrier, and gray hawks soared and wheeled on the winds beyond.

The car stopped. Baoling first covered her eyes tightly, and only after several minutes did she lower her hands and look around.

“This is the place.” Her words, simple as they were, brimmed with meaning, revealing all her fear, regret, entanglement, and pain. It was easy to imagine: when a person steps into the real-life scene of their nightmares, they can’t help but fear the dream will come true, that they will relive its horrors.

Guan Wen reached out, enclosing Baoling’s hands in his own.

Their eyes met, and he forgot everyone else. In his vision, there was only Baoling. “Don’t be afraid. Those dreams are past. No matter how dark our former lives, they are but fleeting shadows. We are here now to shatter those dreams forever and bring peace to the departed.”

Baoling blushed with a shy smile. “Thank you. You are the only one who understands my dreams. With you beside me, even in the darkest, most desolate of nightmares, I can find support.”

Indeed, anyone who has suffered nightmares knows: as long as there is another person by your side, terror can be dispelled and peace restored. But the companion must truly understand her, and her dreams. For Baoling, Guan Wen was the only person in the world who could pierce the veil of her nightmares.

Gu Qingcheng sighed deeply. “Are you two going to pretend the rest of us are invisible?”

Gao Xiang got out first, slowly circling the cliff’s edge. As soon as he appeared, the hawks above the precipice gathered, letting out sharp cries.

“There’s nothing here,” Gu Qingcheng murmured, gazing out the window at Gao Xiang. Since meeting him, her mood had subtly shifted: she spoke little, often falling into long silences. Indeed, all five in the car harbored private thoughts and hidden motives.

Outside, there was only the hard stone of the mountain—no mechanisms, no secret passages. Since the Qing dynasty, countless treasure-hunters had scoured Mount Niseri with steel rods and iron spades, probing every suspicious spot. Nothing could have been overlooked.

“I’m going down to the base of the cliff. My teacher told me the true secret lies below,” Guan Wen declared resolutely.

He led Baoling from the car and stood firmly at the edge.

Baoling slowly walked to the innermost part of the precipice, crouched down, and stroked the cold, hard ground. Turning back to Guan Wen, she said, “It was right here that, under threat from the enemy, I crossed into another space. The impossible shift felt like a montage from a film. But I don’t know—which of the two Baolings, before and after, was the real me? I entered the warmth of a mother’s body, but what became of the one left on the cliff? When I close my eyes, I can feel the cold stones—hard, rough, as if they’re grinding every bone in my body to powder. That helpless fear—there are no words for such pain…”

Seeing Baoling like this tore at Guan Wen’s heart; he longed to transform himself into a thousand patches to mend her wounds, to drive away the terror of her nightmares.

At this moment, Gao Xiang was standing at the side of the cliff, arms outstretched, gazing up at the gathering hawks.

Baoling pointed to where he stood and whispered, “It was there that my beloved was bound to a stake, his flesh cut away to feed the hawks, until only bare bones remained.”

Even knowing it was just a dream, Baoling’s expression grew anguished as she spoke, her hands repeatedly covering her face as she choked back sobs.

“You’ll be safe here. I’m going down to the base of the cliff,” Guan Wen said, holding Baoling’s hand.

“I feel so cold. Something terrible feels about to happen,” Baoling shivered.

“Don’t be afraid.” Guan Wen spread his arms and held Baoling close, warming her with the shelter of his embrace.