The more Charlie analyzed it, the more he felt that this must be true, so he completely gave up on the idea of looking for cultivation resources here.
Afterward, Charlie arrived at the gate of a Taoist temple. The temple gate was magnificent, carved entirely from white marble. In the center of the gate were three large gold-plated letters that spelled out “Sanqing Temple.”
The Sanqing Temple, as its name suggests, is a Taoist temple dedicated to the Three Pure Ones in Taoism. The Three Pure Ones are the supreme deities in Taoism and the founders of the sect. These cultivators, who traveled to Antarctica, did not forget to build the Sanqing Temple, indicating that they inherited the Taoist heritage. However, this made Charlie suspicious. The Four Directions Treasure Banner and the Great Wild Goose Pagoda were jointly built by the monk Xuanzang and the Taoist cultivators. What he received under the aurora was the inheritance of the Great Sun Tathagata’s hand seals. It seemed that Buddhism and Taoism had a deep integration in this regard.
However, he still did not understand what similarities there were between Buddhism and Taoism in terms of achieving immortality.
Charlie arrived at the Sanqing Hall, where three lifelike statues stood: Yuqing Yuanshi Tianzun, Taiqing Daode Tianzun, and Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun.
He had visited many Taoist temples and monasteries, but he had never seen a statue with such perfect realism. The facial features, limbs, and expressions seemed more lifelike than a real person, and the statue was majestic yet approachable, as if three gods were standing before it, smiling and watching over it.
Although Charlie did not yet understand the relationship between Buddhism and Taoism in cultivation, he personally preferred to believe that he had inherited Taoism. Therefore, he considered the Three Pure Ones of Taoism to be his ancestors. Therefore, before leaving the Hall of the Three Pure Ones, he knelt and kowtowed three times before the statues of the three celestial beings.
However, just as he was about to leave the Sanqing Hall, a circle with golden light and numerous talisman carvings suddenly appeared beneath his feet. The circle shimmered beneath his feet, and the golden light illuminated his body. The golden light grew stronger, and the reflection of the golden light from his body became even more intense and dazzling. In the blink of an eye, Charlie could no longer see his own body. When he looked down, all he could see was the dazzling golden light.
A moment later, Charlie suddenly felt as if his body had been drained, and his entire being seemed to merge with a dazzling light. Then, something very strange happened. He suddenly realized that the golden light around him began to disappear, and he was no longer in the Sanqing Hall, but in a mysterious room he had never been in before. This room was square, about ten zhang on each side, with a total area of about one hundred square meters. The room was made entirely of wood, from the floor to the beams and ceiling. Looking out through the wooden window, he could see smooth, parallel stone walls.
Charlie was shocked. He went to the window and looked out, only to find himself suddenly inside the square pagoda for some reason.
What’s even stranger is that when you look down, you appear to be at a very high position, but when you look up, you don’t appear to be on the top floor. And when you look inside, this floor is a completely enclosed, independent structure with no stairs connecting the upper and lower levels.
Just as Charlie was wondering why he had suddenly come here, the wooden floor in the room suddenly changed appearance. On the flat ground covering nearly 100 square meters, a complete compass pattern appeared, shining with golden light.
Unlike the compass used for feng shui, this compass has a halo in the center of the pattern, as well as in the eight directions of Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui, and Qian, exactly like the halo I just saw in the Sanqing Hall.
As Charlie was pondering the purpose of the nine light rings, nine mental cultivation mantras suddenly appeared in his mind. Strangely, he instinctively knew that these nine mental cultivation mantras corresponded to the nine light rings, and that each light ring needed to be activated by silently reciting the corresponding mantra.
He knew that these nine mental techniques must be some kind of revelation given to him by this place. To confirm his suspicion, he stepped into the center of the compass.
Standing in the center of the compass’s halo, Charlie silently recited the corresponding incantation. Then, the halo emitted an even more dazzling and intense light, then began to rotate slowly. Just as before, when the light was so intense that he could no longer see the outline of his body, Charlie once again felt as if he had been instantly emptied.
The next second, when he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the underground city in Antarctica, but in a cave he had never been in before. The cave was clearly carved out of rock by humans, and its surface was as smooth as a mirror, like an underground city. The entire cave was empty except for a halo of light shimmering beneath his feet.