Big Bodhi

At dawn.

Pulling aside the verdant branches, a young man steadily glanced at the pure stream of water under his feet, and a slender figure was vaguely reflected on it.

“Where am I?”

The young man bent his body, fetched up a handful of water in both hands and splashed it on his face.
The bone-chilling sensation pierced his cheeks, making him much more clear-headed than before.

The mountain stream was located under a blind spot of the sun and didn't encounter sunlight all year round.
That was also the reason why the water in this stream was so cold.

Bong!

Suddenly, a long and majestic chiming of a bell rang across the mountains.

[E/N: 'Bong' is a resonant sound made by a large bell.
It is similar to the sound made by the Big Ben clock.]

The young man barely got up when a feeling of powerlessness invaded him, almost compelling him to kneel into the narrow stream.

He lowered his head and looked at himself carefully.
The black brocade robe, that he was wearing, made of silk and satin, was tattered due to the sharp edges of branches.
His long black hair had no hairpin, and they trailed chaotically over his stunning snow-white face.

The shoes made of gold silk embroidery thread were also tattered from the bottom.
While the white jade pendant hanging by the ribbon on his neck had long disappeared.
In its place, only a beautiful red string hung from the ribbon, which could also fall at any moment.

“My name is Ji …”

The young man frowned.
He barely remembered his surname, but a sharp pain came from his glabella, causing those fuzzy memories to once again plunge into darkness, and his mind entered into the state of former confusion.

Bong!

The second bell rang again, but it was much sharper than the previous one and was accompanied by a strange and eerie feeling, which could make people shudder.

The young man grasped his head in pain, and squatted down, directly burying his head into the cold and transparent stream.

After a few breaths, he raised his head from the cold water, and felt that the sharp pain at his glabella was relieved by a huge margin.

[E/N: The 'breaths' here doesn't mean he was breathing in the water.
In ancient chinese measurements of time, they also use breaths to describe how many breaths it will take to measure time.]

He stretched out his sleeves and casually wiped the drops of water on his face.
Looking around, he found himself a seat around the edge of the mountain, and let out a sigh of relief.

Bong!!

The third bell rang across the mountains.

The sharp and vicious chime directly invaded the deepest part of his mind through his ears, causing the young man to shiver subconsciously.

“What the hell are these sounds? The bells of ordinary mountain temples are not this strange,”

Before his aggrieved mutterings fell, a powerful undetectable soundwave came from far away, throwing the young man several meters away, and slammed his body against a towering rock.

Blood spattered due to the impact.

After a while, the young man sat up with effort and tremblingly stretched out his hand to touch the left side of his forehead, which was radiating with immense pain.

Blood slid down his cheeks, and throbbing pain ran through him from the wound, almost making him faint.

However, when he raised his head and saw the invisible ripples spreading out from the high mountains again, he had no time to hesitate.
He rolled over with all his strength, moving straight towards the narrow and deep mountain stream beside him.

In the next moment, a more intense sonic ripple swept across the vicinity, and huge chunks of debris fell and splashed into the water, hindering the flow of the stream.

…

Plop…
plop…

“My name is…
Ji Yuenian.”

The young man lo