35: Speculation about the ancient temple

Returning to the new town, the sky had completely darkened. The roar of the Dadu River became even clearer in the night.

The two found a small roadside eatery and ordered a few home-cooked dishes. The owner, a man in his fifties, was very warm; seeing they had out-of-town accents, he chatted with them for a bit.

"Boss, let me ask you something," Lin Feng said, taking a couple of bites of rice and pretending to ask casually. "Around here, are there any old temples or Taoist monasteries that are popular and have a long history?"

"Old temples?" The owner wiped the table and thought for a moment. "There are plenty! This place has many mountains, and many people believe in that. Heading east, there's Lingyan Temple; I heard it's been around since the Tang Dynasty. Driving up the mountain to the south, there's Ziyun Temple; the old folks say it's very efficacious. Oh, right, on the mountain across the river, there's also one called Hailuo Temple. It used to be quite large, but it later fell into ruin."

The owner spoke of them as if they were his own treasures, rattling off four or five names and pointing out their approximate locations. Wang Dalong quickly took out his phone, opened his notes, and rapidly jotted down these names and locations.

"Thanks, boss." Lin Feng continued eating, a preliminary investigation map already forming in his mind.

After finishing their meal, the two returned to the town's only reasonably clean guesthouse. The room was simple, but Lin Feng didn't mind. He spread out a local tourist map he had just bought from the owner and marked the temples and monasteries Wang Dalong had noted with a red pen.

Lingyan Temple, Ziyun Temple, Hailuo Temple, Wofogou... Red circles were scattered across the mountainous areas on both sides of the Dadu River, centered around Anshunchang.

"Brother Feng, there are so many. Which one should we go to first?" Wang Dalong leaned in to look at the map, feeling lost.

"Use the process of elimination." Lin Feng pointed at the map and began to analyze. "The Taiping Rebellion Leader was defeated at the Dadu River in 1863. Therefore, any temple built after that can be directly excluded."

He took out his phone and quickly searched for the history of the temples the owner had mentioned. His enhanced brain allowed him to process information at an astonishing speed.

"Lingyan Temple, founded in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the mid-Qing Dynasty. It fits."

"Ziyun Temple, historical records state it was built at the end of the Ming Dynasty. It fits."

"Hailuo Temple, this one is interesting." Lin Feng's brow twitched. "Local county records show that during the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty—just a few years before the Taiping Rebellion Leader's defeat—it was extensively damaged by a fire. Since then, it remained in a semi-abandoned state until funds were raised to rebuild it during the Republican era."

"Semi-abandoned state?" Wang Dalong's eyes lit up. "Isn't that perfect? A dilapidated temple, all the monks gone, no one watching—it's the perfect hiding place! If the Taiping Rebellion Leader took his men there, threw the gold and treasures into the underground palace, and blocked the door, who would ever find it?"

"It's possible." Lin Feng nodded and drew a heavy circle around "Hailuo Temple." "A decaying, neglected temple is indeed more suitable for a secret mission than a thriving one."

He continued filtering information. Soon, most of the seven or eight candidate locations on the map were eliminated, leaving only Lingyan Temple, Ziyun Temple, and the most likely candidate, Hailuo Temple.

"Tomorrow, we'll go to Hailuo Temple first," Lin Feng decided. "It's closest to us, and its 'semi-abandoned' status makes it the most suspicious."

Meanwhile, Lin Feng's Bilibili post announcing his search for the Taiping Rebellion Leader's treasure had fermented for a day and a night, creating a massive wave online.

[[Pinned] Feng God has arrived at Anshunchang by the Dadu River and is conducting a preliminary survey. Keep up with the progress, brothers!]

[LMAO, I spent the whole day slacking off and reading Anshunchang travel guides; I feel like I'm part of the treasure hunt too.]

[Any brothers on the front line? Give us a live stream! Even just a shot of Feng God's or Fat Brother's back would do!]

[Forget it, poster above. Feng God has camera shyness. But then again, can it really happen this time? The Taiping Rebellion Leader's treasure—that's a legendary tale.]

[I bet fifty cents it'll be all talk and no action again. Last time was just luck. This time he's facing a treasure that even the Chuan Army couldn't find; I don't believe he can do it.]

[Haters get lost! Feng God is the GOAT! He never fights a battle he's not prepared for! Waiting for Feng God to shock the world again!]

The online debate was overwhelming, and several mainstream media outlets even reported on the matter with sensational headlines: "Internet Celebrity Streamer Makes Bold Claim to Solve the Century-Old Mystery of the Taiping Rebellion Leader's Treasure" and "A Carefully Planned Stunt? Or Genuine Ability? Controversy Rises Again Over Lin Feng and His Treasure Hunt Journey."

Far away in a modern office, Jiang Wanqing frowned as she looked at the news on her screen. An assistant handed her a printed document.

"Dr. Jiang, we've checked. This Lin Feng has indeed arrived in Ya'an, Sichuan. Through their live stream room, we can clearly see that the two are currently near Anshunchang."

"What on earth is he trying to do?" Jiang Wanqing rubbed her temples. "The legend of the Taiping Rebellion Leader's treasure has long been classified by the archaeological community as mostly folklore. Even if it existed, it would have been exhausted during Chuan Army General's excavations and years of looting. If he conducts a 'live stream treasure hunt' with such fanfare and it triggers large-scale private digging and destruction, the consequences will be unimaginable."

"Do we need to intervene?" the assistant asked.

Jiang Wanqing was silent for a moment before shaking her head. "First, notify the local Bureau of Culture and have them keep an eye on the situation around Anshunchang. I want to see what Lin Feng is really up to."

She had an intuition that this time there might actually be a discovery... Early the next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Lin Feng and Wang Dalong drove their off-road vehicle toward Hailuo Temple, following the map and navigation instructions.

Hailuo Temple was located halfway up a mountain on the other side of the river. The road ended at the foot of the mountain, so they had to hike up. The mountain path was rugged, covered by vegetation until only a narrow trace remained.

"My legs don't even feel like mine anymore," Wang Dalong panted, leaning against a tree. "I've really sacrificed too much for this illusory treasure."

Lin Feng, however, was in great shape. His enhanced constitution allowed him to climb such mountain paths without breaking a sweat or losing his breath. He walked ahead, using a trekking pole to push aside the branches and leaves blocking the way.

After about half an hour of climbing, a cluster of ruined buildings finally appeared in sight. The yellow courtyard walls had more than half collapsed, revealing the dark, gaping doors of the halls. The roof tiles were mostly gone, and several wild trees grew stubbornly from the ruins of the main hall, looking exceptionally eerie.

The entire temple was shrouded in an atmosphere of deathly silence.

"We're here," Lin Feng whispered.

Wang Dalong's spirits lifted. Ignoring his breathlessness, he took out his camera, ready to record this "historic moment."

The two of them, one after the other, cautiously stepped over the collapsed courtyard wall and into the abandoned temple. The courtyard was overgrown with weeds, and the wooden doors of the main hall had rotted away, with only half hanging on the frame, making a strange "creaking" sound in the wind.

Lin Feng's gaze didn't linger on the ruined buildings. He went directly behind the main hall and began searching for the entrance to the underground palace. According to ancient temple layouts, the entrance to an underground palace was usually located under the base of the main Buddha statue or at a specific spot behind the hall.

He soon found several exceptionally regular square stone slabs on a relatively flat patch of ground behind the main hall. These slabs were out of place compared to the surrounding ground; although weeds grew in the cracks, it was clear they had been laid by hand.

"Found it," Lin Feng's voice betrayed his excitement.

He signaled Wang Dalong to come over, and together they cleared the weeds and loose soil from the slabs. A circular iron ring embedded in a stone slab was exposed.

This was it.

Wang Dalong's heart pounded with excitement, as if he could already see mountains of gold and silver treasures waving at him.

Just as Lin Feng was about to pull the iron ring, a rustling of footsteps accompanied by a few coughs came from the temple entrance.

The two stopped their movements, immediately exchanged an alert glance, and quickly hid behind a ruined wall.

Several figures in uniforms appeared at the temple courtyard gate. Leading them was a middle-aged man wearing glasses, holding a document. Behind them followed several men who looked like workers, carrying shovels and rolls of caution tape.

"This should be the place." The middle-aged man pushed up his glasses, looked at the document in his hand, and then looked up at the ruins. "The leadership has instructed that starting today, we will conduct rescue protection and archaeological surveys of the Hailuo Temple ruins. No one is allowed to enter without permission. Xiao Li, you guys set up the caution tape first."

Hiding behind the wall, Wang Dalong watched as the group skillfully set up the yellow caution tape, encircling the entire temple ruins. His mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg.

"I... holy crap!" he whispered, his voice full of disbelief. "What... what's going on? We've been... intercepted?"