After a long ti, the temple courtyard remained silent.
The monks were shocked by the woman’s words, and for a mont, they looked at each other, not knowing how to respond.
The wisest and eldest monk said tily:
"But you said they have perished, when they recreate the world, will they still be them?"
"A ship needs all its parts replaced once every hundred years; after thousands of years, is the ship that has had all its parts replaced still the original ship?"
"Perhaps even its na has been forgotten in the pages of history?"
After a long silence, the woman said, "I will not let the day of extinction truly co."
"I will constantly calculate, calculating the past and future of civilization, to bring the best outco to the present."
The wisest and eldest monk was moved by the woman’s persistence, and finally he sighed helplessly, pointing to another mountain peak, which lood in the distant mist.
"From this mountain to that mountain, three eternities lie in between. If you can cross the river of ti, go to that mountain peak over there; there, you will find the answers you seek."
"Why can’t you tell the answers?" The woman asked anxiously, stepping forward.
The wisest and eldest monk simply tapped the chi lightly, giving no answer.
The sound of the chi echoed long and far in the temple, then spread to the mountain, reaching places even further away.
From that mont on, the woman embarked on a long quest.
As the monk said, between the two mountains lie three eternities.
In the first eternity, the woman arrived at the Stone Path, a vast, boundless, barren gorge, the cliffs of which stood tall like giant walls, blocking any possibility of humans crossing to the other side of the gorge.
Clad in a cloak, and with the blazing sun hanging high, every inch of the gorge’s ground was scorched, fissured, desolate with no bounds, farther out were dried mountain ravines, and even farther, still dried mountain ravines. Every step the woman took was extraordinarily difficult, the blazing sun and desolation tornting her body and heart.
The woman bore no complaint or regret; from the mont she made up her mind to embark on the journey, returning was no longer possible.
Who knows how much ti has passed, perhaps tens of millions of years, the woman’s perception of ti already blurred. Finally, she saw an Oasis on the distant horizon.
Ecstatically, she ran towards the Oasis, sprawling on the ground to gulp the water source, picking wild fruits from the trees; it was her first encounter with life in millions of years.
As she journeyed through the Oasis, the woman encountered many wild people dressed in grass skirts, witnessing them singing and dancing around their captured prey, witnessing them kindle the first fire in mountain caves, witnessing them snuggle by the green lake, gazing at the splendid star river.
Among them, there was a wild person whose eyes were particularly deep when gazing at the stars.
Through simple conversation, the woman learned that he was the leader of the wild people, whom they called the Pioneer.
"Where are you going?" the Pioneer asked.
"I want to cross this gorge," the woman replied.
Upon hearing this, the Pioneer shook his head with a sigh:
"You won’t be able to leave this gorge this way."
The woman was puzzled and quickly inquired why.
The Pioneer said, "I once tried to lead my people through this gorge, until I returned here once more."
The woman understood what he ant and visibly showed her dejection.
"It’s not a bad thing; here, they can find happiness, plenty of food and water, dance after every hunt."
"Won’t they feel empty?" the woman asked.
"What is emptiness?" The Pioneer was confused.
The woman opened her mouth, but could say nothing further.
Just as she felt lost within herself, the Pioneer suddenly pointed to the towering mountains beside them, which stood tall like giant walls, thwarting any possibility of crossing the gorge.
"We may not be able to cross this gorge, but I believe we will certainly leave it one day."
"Soday, I will lead my people out of here."
After who knows how long a ti, the woman bid farewell to the wild people’s tribe, gathered her courage, and resud her journey.
With the blazing sun hanging high, she once more crossed dried mountain ravines, which scarred the earth deeply on the gorge, cutting a striking figure.
Amidst the endless blazing sun and desolation, she circled the gorge fully, as the Pioneer said, and returned to that Oasis.
She once more t the wild people, the Oasis still remained. Yet thousands of millennia later, a strange disease spread in the tribe, affecting the wild people with headaches, tornting them beyond life, leading to them repeatedly smashing their heads with stones until they cracked open and died.
The woman tried to heal these wild people, slicing open their skulls, only to reveal endless emptiness.
She couldn’t find the Pioneer once more, only discovering inscriptions etched into the mountainside, along with sothing resembling wings, made from feathers and wax adhered together.
Pioneer: "I’ve understood the emptiness you spoke of, it truly is a terrifying thing."
"We mustn’t stop, we must constantly forge ahead, even if we face wild gales and fathomless abysses."
"Even if we end up shattered to pieces."
The woman donned the wings left by the Prophet, those wings fused with her being, and with a powerful swing, her form gracefully soared up with the wind, flying over the infinitely high mountains, as the boundless gorge shrank into a black dot in her view, seemingly easy to cross. At that mont, the blazing sun transford into a dal, each feather of her wings shimring with golden light.
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