186: Chapter 186 The Corridor of Faith

The thin air at an altitude of over four thousand meters made every breath feel like a slight burning sensation. The sunlight was intense and direct, and the sky was a near-falsely clear, deep azure. The plateau wind was the true master here, whistling incessantly, whipping up gravel and fluttering prayer flags, creating a sound like a thousand whispers.

The ruins of the ancient temple were nestled in a sheltered hollow, leaving only broken walls. Faded mural fragments faintly revealed the outlines of Buddha statues and mandalas, and weathered mani stones were scattered beside the collapsed stupa base. Unlike the intense vitality of the Maya jungle or the cold, sharp nature of the Nordic fjords, the energy field here was permeated with a texture of "detachment" and "emptiness"—the earth's energy was stable and desolate, and the traces of faith were like dust in the wind, omnipresent yet fleeting.

The local coordinator was a young scholar named Tenzin, fluent in both Chinese and Tibetan, with a gentle yet sharp temperament. He wore ordinary outdoor gear, with a string of primitive prayer beads hanging around his neck. He expressed understanding of the team's research intent (under the guise of "Research on Ancient Architectural Acoustics and Environmental Energy Impact") and provided a wealth of precious oral records regarding the temple's history, legends of its abandonment, and local folk memory.

"According to the oldest accounts, the temple was not destroyed by war or natural disaster," Tenzin said, pointing to the walls of the ruined main hall. "It was after three days and nights of 'Silent Thunder' and 'Rock Mumbling' that the monks felt the 'karmic connection had ended,' voluntarily left, and gradually let it fall into ruin. The 'Thunder' reportedly had no sound, but made one's bones feel numb; the 'Mumbling' was like stones whispering in a language no one understood."

The camp was set up in a relatively flat valley one kilometer away from the ruins. The climate here was harsher than the previous two stops, with a huge temperature difference between day and night, forcing the team to tighten their work rhythm.

On the first day, preliminary environmental scanning and Taylor's sound collection took place simultaneously. Valentina and Joe focused on monitoring micro-seisms, geoelectricity, and the acoustic focusing effects that might be generated by the interaction between the omnipresent wind and the special terrain (such as the hollow and the remaining walls). Alex began a perception survey, accompanied by Tenzin.

Walking among the ruins, his feet treading on soft sand and gravel, his [Information Texture Discrimination] seemed to become clearer and sharper in the thin air, as if the interference had been reduced. He could clearly perceive the smooth energy layers polished by time and wind on every broken brick, as well as the deeper, primitive "memory" belonging to the clay firing and the artisan's hammering.

However, when he approached the central area of the former main hall, where a huge gilded Buddha statue was said to have once been placed, his perception captured something completely different.

It was not the "energy imprint" of the Maya ruins, nor the "guiding structure" of the Nordic stone carvings, but an extremely vast, extremely faint "energy vacuum" or residual trace of a "purification field" that seemed to diffuse throughout the entire site, yet had the central area as its "source".

The energy background of this area was exceptionally "flat" and "inert," as if it had been "swept" or "suppressed" once by some powerful and pure force, in the same imperceptible (to the human body) but efficient way described as "Silent Thunder." All "clutter" energy belonging to conventional matter, biological activities, and even some geomagnetic fluctuations had been extremely weakened or "smoothed out." What remained was a stable sense of emptiness that was almost an "absolute baseline." And on this "empty" baseline, very occasionally, a faint "ripple"—almost like an illusion—would emerge—that might be the "Rock Mumbling," the extremely slow "breathing" or "writhing" of deeper geological structures—or something else—that had been purified, producing extremely amplified, faint disturbances against this "empty" background.

"In the central area, there are traces of large-scale 'historical flattening and purification of the energy field'," Alex reported to Lin, trying to describe it with more scientific terminology. "The intensity is extremely high, and the mechanism is unknown. On this baseline, there are deep disturbance signals with extremely long cycles and extremely low intensity. The characteristics... are hard to classify, but they are definitely not normal geological activity."

This discovery was taken very seriously by the team. Valentina immediately adjusted the instruments, focusing on scanning the material composition of the central area (looking for possible traces of high temperature or radiation) and the integrity of the underground structure, and attempting to capture any ultra-low frequency vibrations or electromagnetic signals with cycles measured in hours or even days.

Taylor's sound collection was filled with awe and confusion. The wind here was cut into countless strands by the terrain, weaving through the broken walls, emitting complex harmonies that sometimes wailed and sometimes shrieked. She recorded a passage of blessing scriptures chanted by Tenzin in a low voice; the sound echoed in the empty ruins, carrying a peculiar resonance. But when she tried to record the "silence" itself, she felt an indescribable "pressure"—it was not a sound, but a sensory "thinness" and a feeling of "being watched," which made her hold her breath involuntarily.

On the second day, the team decided to attempt a more active detection. With Tenzin's tacit consent and avoiding the taboos of ancient local rituals, Alex set up a small, specially modulated energy field "probe" array in the central area. These probes would not emit high energy, but like extremely sensitive tentacles, they would attempt to make extremely subtle "contact" or "synchronization" with that "empty" energy baseline and the possible deep-seated "disturbances".

The process was long and quiet. Alex sat cross-legged in the center of the array, eyes closed in concentration, his [Information Texture Discrimination] deeply integrated with the probe data stream, extending like a giant, invisible auditory organ deep into the underground and energy dimensions.

Hours passed, with only the near-linear environmental background data recorded by the instruments. Just as the team thought this attempt would also return empty-handed, a change occurred.

It was not a sudden explosion, but like a drop of ink slowly spreading in a huge pool of clear water. First, the probe array captured an extremely slow, holistic, weak fluctuation of the energy baseline with a cycle of about forty-seven minutes. The amplitude was so small it was almost within the margin of error, but the regularity was exceptionally clear. Immediately afterward, in Alex's perception, deep within that "empty" baseline, something unimaginably huge seemed to slowly turn over. When its "body surface" rubbed against the surrounding rock layers, it produced a series of "information ripples" that were extremely complex, but whose energy level was so weak they almost dissipated into nothingness.

These "ripples" were not sound, nor were they electromagnetic waves; they were more like a pure "topological information" about "deformation" or "state." They permeated upward, and while passing through the "purified" rock layers and that "empty" baseline, they were greatly simplified and attenuated. By the time they reached the surface, only a few traces of "modulation" on the microscopic structure of the environmental energy field remained, which could not be directly interpreted by conventional instruments.

However, these "modulation" traces had a stunning, mathematically structural similarity to some of the most abstract and elusive "non-standard information carrier" samples from the Team K archives that Alex had encountered in pre-departure tests! They also possessed extremely high "information density" and "hidden order within non-periodicity," and were equally difficult to carry directly via physical media; they were more like the shadows of some "process" or "relationship."

Almost at the same moment Alex realized this, a low cry came from Valentina: "Recorded! Ultra-low frequency strain wave, cycle about forty-seven minutes, source depth... unbelievable, it might exceed the depth of the crust! Accompanied by unclassifiable, extremely weak spatial magnetic field topological distortion signals! This... this cannot be any known geological or human activity!"

The data was recorded frantically. Tenzin stood on the periphery, looking at the silent ruins and the focused team, a look of mixed realization and awe on his face, whispering something in Tibetan.

Taylor recorded it all with her camera: Alex's motionless figure, the strange waveforms jumping on the instrument screens, the tense and excited faces of the team members, and the ancient, heart-wrenchingly deep blue sky above the ruins.

On the third day, the team conducted final reinforcement and analysis of all the captured data. The conclusion was shocking and clear: this plateau temple site had once been located above (or had directly beneath it) an extremely special geological/energy "node." Historically, one (or more) intense "non-natural energy/information release" events ("Silent Thunder") from deep within the Earth or an even harder-to-understand source might have occurred, its effects "purifying" or "suppressing" the local surface energy environment. And after that, the deep "source" or "node" itself might not have disappeared, but entered a state of extremely slow, low-power "periodic activity," with its weak "information ripples" occasionally seeping upward and being highlighted by this "purified," exceptionally "quiet" environmental baseline ("Rock Mumbling").

The temple had likely chosen to actively leave because it perceived this power that could not be understood or incorporated into its doctrinal system—not out of fear, but perhaps closer to a kind of awe and a desire to keep distance from an "existence" that transcended cognition.

Thus, the three pieces of the "Echo Puzzle: History Chapter" were collected:

1. Maya Jungle: Left behind local material/energy "imprints" caused by an "event," and weak periodic "leaks" that might be connected to it.

2. Nordic Fjords: Revealed an "interactive interface" where ancient humans used specific locations and astronomical phenomena to actively "observe" or "mark" periodic environmental anomalies.

3. Plateau Temple: Pointed to a deep "source/node" that might still exist, in a state of extremely low-frequency activity, and its long-term "purification" effect on the surface environment.

These three vaguely outlined the tip of an iceberg of a grand picture of some hidden "non-natural" activity on Earth (or a wider scope), which spanned different continents, different civilizations, and different time scales, yet might have internal connections.

Carrying the plateau's sunlight, thin air, dust of faith, and heavy data and conjectures, the team began their journey home.

On the return flight, both Alex and Taylor were exceptionally quiet, each digesting the extraordinary experience of the past month that spanned three continents. Taylor's notebook was filled with sound notes, sketches, and emotional fragments. Alex repeatedly reviewed the subtle differences and internal connections perceived in the three explorations, feeling that his [Information Texture Discrimination] ability was like a blade repeatedly quenched, becoming more introverted and sharp.

"What's the first thing you want to do when we get home?" Taylor asked softly, leaning on Alex's shoulder.

"Take a nice hot shower, and then..." Alex thought for a moment, "Listen to all the sounds you've collected this month. I want to know how these three places sound in your 'archaeology'."

"I also want to hear your 'perception report'," Taylor said, "in a way I can understand."

"Deal."

The plane flew through the clouds, and below was the vast Pacific Ocean. The direction of home was just ahead. A grand "sound archaeology" journey through history and legend had come to a temporary pause. What they brought back was not just data and clues, but another profound expansion of their understanding of the world, and a closer connection between the two born from their shared adventure.