Lord Shadow

YONG

ON TOP OF THE SHAOHUA MOUNTAIN

TEMPLE OF XI

The Temple of Xi is one of the most mysterious organization of the orthodox sect in the martial arts world.

It has been challenged many times in the past but no one has ever been able to defeat them and it possess a commanding voice in the word of martial arts.

While many martial artists considered them as a sect of martial arts, the Temple itself did not consider themselves like that

Like the Cloud Abode in Yongxian valley their reason for practicing martial arts is different from the rest of many of the martial artist in the martial arts world.

Many martial artists learn martial arts as a means for power and fame.

Some practice and learn it as a means of protecting oneself and some of them learn martial arts because they have the lofty ambition of ruling the martial arts world

These are the normal martial artist and many sects have these kind of members who seek such thing. They have such people in the orthodox sect and in heterodox sect.

But if there is two organization of martial arts world that did not seek such thing, it would be the Cloud Abode in Yongxian Valley and the temple of Shi on top of the Shao Hua Mountain.

The Cloud Abode in Yongxian Valley is mysterious and their disciple rarely come out from the valley because they practice martial arts as a means to attain immortality.

While the disciple of the Temple wanted to achieve Enlightened state where they could be One with everything and Eternal

One wanted to become Immortals. One wanted to become Enlightened of the Truths of All Worlds.

Hence, because of this reason, the Cloud Abode is hidden from the uninitiated, and the Temple disciple rarely come out from their mountains and valleys.

But while the Cloud Abode location is a secret inside the misty fog of the Yongxian Valley, the Temple of Xi is not closed and its location is not a secret.

Inside the walls of those Temples is a city of monks.

There are many masters of martial arts that learn the martial arts of the Temple. It is even said that all origins of martial arts could be traced back to the Temple.

There is a story about that in the mythological records of the Temple.

In mythical story it is said, one monk from that Temple was granted a divine enlightenment by the Heavens and went to meet the Monkey Demon that was trapped under the Five Finger Mountains

The Monk met the Monkey and the Monkey taught him martial arts but all the Monk could understand is only superficial move.

The Monk said that Monkey Demon could turn into anything he wanted, possessing the power to travel beneath the Earth and soar to the Heavenly Realm

The Monk then return to the Temple and write all of those that he remembers onto a Steele.

When he wanted to espouse on the magical side of martial arts, he was struck by lightning and turns into motes of light as his soul ascended to the Heavenly Realm

A few hundred years later, one of the Monk understand all of those that was written in the books after meditating for only a second, and was tasked by Heaven to release the Monkey Demon to help him find a sutra that could open the path to ascension.

At least that is how the stories go.

Whether it was true or not, nobody knows. But the Monks of the Temple did not dare call it a lie. The reason why is because there is a marble altar of mysterious origins in the Temple.

It is one of the most well-kept secret of the Temple.

It is even guarded by three grandmaster of martial arts that have prolonged their longevity to guard the area.

In the Secret Hall of Enlightened Ones That See All Truths, there is an altar of marble stone.

The marble stone could not be broken by any weapons and neither could it be lifted or moved.

Every qualified monk in the Temple has tried to move the marble stone but no matter how strong they are; they could not move it.

In the history of the Temple, there is only one monk that have managed to move it for one meter

He was called Divine Monk Xuanwu.

He was active in the martial arts worlds a hundred years ago.

When he has finished experiencing the mortal life, he returns to the Temple and tried to move the marble stone.

It moves for a meter but then he could no longer move the marble altar.

He then sits cross legged and close his eyes and the cloud opens up and he ascended to the Heavenly realm

Since then, those who think they are qualified could go inside that secret chamber and try their luck.

But it was not the altar that made the Monks believes in the myths of the Demon Monkey and the Enlighted Monk that lead to the Sutra of Heaven Ascension.

It was what is on display on top of the altar.

It was a flute.

This flute is very magical and very terrifying.

Those who have low martial arts, if they are in contact with the flute would be invaded by terrible dreams and nightmare and wood even affect their hearts and body condition.

The Temple called the flute the Demonic Flute.

From the mythological records of the Temple, it was said that the Demon Monkey left the flute here before he ascended to Heaven

His words were that this flute is waiting for its owner.

When its true owner come to the Temple, thunder would fill the skies of the world, the land would shake and wind would change courses.

He would then be able to reign over ten Demons that have made binding oath to the Demon Monkey.

The Demon Monkey said he is sowing Karma

The Enlightened Monk who was the master of the Demon Monkey then created a magical formation and bring out a small pagoda that could fit on his palm.

When he throws the pagoda, it turns larger as it envelops the are of the Temple. That is the Pagoda of Bearing Evils and inside that pagoda is the Secret Hall of Enlightened Ones That See All Truths

And just like the marble altar no one had ever been able to take that flute away. Those who tried lifting or touching it, all of them were assaulted with terrible images of demons

After many trials, they found out that there will always be ten demons in the nightmares of the monks

There is a demon with human body with tiger head, a Bear with red fur wearing a divine armor, a skeleton wearing a woman robe, a nine tailed vixen demon, her eyes are full of illusion and she could transform into anything she wanted, a demon that have many eyes, and a squeaking demon that possess human body with a rat head.

Then there is a beautiful woman dressed in golden splendor like she is a Queen of a great Empire.

Her beauty could tempt even the heart of the Monks to commit into indulgence and their basest desire and broke their ill power.

Then there is a Demon dripping with blood, full of bloodlust and anger and a large python that was the size of a mountain.

And one of the most terrifying of the demons is a gigantic spider that rules millions of other spiders crawling through Heaven and Earth.

These are the images that would appear in any of the monks or people who tried to touch the flute.

Since then, it was forbidden to touch that flute since the Abbot believes only the true owner of that flute could take it away.

And the Pagoda as also sealed, the knowledge about it was hidden

As time passed no one knows and even remembers about the Pagoda anymore other than the high ranking elder of the temple and the one tasked in guarding the Pagoda.

The Pagoda itself was forbidden to enter for normal monks.

However, the spring of this new year, the entire Temple was once again reminded of the Pagoda.

Abbot of Xi was meditating when in the spring of this year their Pagoda of Bearing Evils was shaking with great intensity.

It almost seems like the Pagoda is about to be broken from the inside.

It broke the meditation of the Senior Monk and even the grandmaster that was guarding the temple was shocked as they saw how the Pagoda was shining in gold.

All of the monks even the newer ones were dumfounded when they saw the shaking coming out form the Pagoda and the feeling of a great evil is about to descend.

While that were happening on top of the mountain, the villagers who were searching for bamboo shoots on the foot of the mountain told the story to their villages of how the Temple of Xi was bathing in golden lights from the Heavens.

Many of the villagers around the Shaohua Mountain thought that one of the Monks of the Temple of Xi has gained enlightenment and ascended to Oneness with their Enlightened Ones

What they did not know is how panicked those monks were on top of the mountain.

They saw how black aura coming out from the windows of the Pagoda and slowly coming out to assault the people of the Temple.

If not for the magical formation laid down by the Enlightened Monk that black aura would fill the entire mountain.

As the black aura touch any of the monks they will fall into a trance of misery and fall into the depth of Hell that they created in their mind.

It was then that the Pagoda shines a great golden light that dispel the weird condition and eradicate the black aura.

Then as the golden light is still shining, a voice sounded from the Pagoda, filling the ears of every monk of the Temple.

‘Go to the Fiv-‘ but before the voice finished speaking the golden light dimmed and the voice stopped abruptly.

The Abbot since then have bene meditating on those words and the magical experience.

Since then all of the monks of the Temple finally know that there is a reason why that Pagoda was banned and what is inside it.

This matter did not spread outside of the Temple but as season pass, the Abbot is feeling more unease.

‘What was the voice was trying to say?’ He asks himself.  

he was not the only one meditating on those words.

Some of the Elder Monks believes that the voice is the voice of the Enlightened Monk of eons ago while some believe it was the voice of the Monkey Demon.

Since then Temple of Xi has closed their gates as they try to ponder the message.

***

Next chapter we will be going back to Azief part