Adventure Behind the Bronze Door Episode 2 Recap
> Adventure Behind the Bronze Door Recap
Jin Wantang recounted a story about Ma Pingchuan, the wealthiest man in his village. After becoming rich, Ma Pingchuan chose an auspicious burial ground for his family members. One day, he discovered the soil there had turned black, and nothing would grow, as if cursed. Considering it a bad omen, Ma Pingchuan decided to move the graves. However, after digging deeply for a long time, they couldn't find the coffins.
It wasn't just Ma Pingchuan; many prominent families in the village found their ancestral graves had vanished. His subordinates reported this to him, but Ma Pingchuan initially didn't believe it. That changed when he returned home and saw a young man sitting on the roof of his house, making him feel a chill down his spine. The young man Ma Pingchuan encountered was Zhang Qiling, who moved with effortless grace.
Zhang Qiling told Ma Pingchuan that only he knew where the vanished ancestral graves and coffins were. Ma Pingchuan, half-believing, followed him to the burial ground. Guided by Zhang Qiling, Ma Pingchuan saw that the transformed landscape was shaped like a giant scorpion. Zhang Qiling explained that this area was the site of an ancient town buried by a mudslide, built in a peculiar scorpion shape.
The grass had died because of a defense mechanism laid during construction; triggering a switch released a large amount of poisonous gas from machinery, killing all surface plants overnight. Zhang Qiling stated that the ruins below had "eaten" the coffins, which had sunk into the outer wall as if attracted by something. He also predicted that within a few months, nothing would grow for dozens of miles around, and everyone in the area would meet a miserable end.
After some questioning, Zhang Qiling calmly stated he had seen Ma Pingchuan's family coffin in the ruins and had come to inform him.
He then, with a dagger held to Ma Pingchuan's throat, instructed him to have his men prepare several things within the hour: a short knife weighing six jin, lamp oil wicks and a bag of charcoal powder, means to seal several holes in the ruins' pores, and five-zhang-long bamboo poles to be filled with lime and hammered into the mud around the area's edge, densely packed with only about one finger's width left above the mud.
Zhang Qiling then handed Ma Pingchuan a letter addressed to his family's hometown, instructing him to mail it if he didn't return after seven days. Some time passed, and the village returned to its usual quietude. The young man never reappeared. Ma Pingchuan, worried something had happened to him, sent people to the address on the letter, only to find a large empty house. He then mailed the letter.
Wu Xie saw Zhang Qiling's name on the envelope and confirmed it was indeed him. Jin Wantang provided a crucial clue: Ma Pingchuan later suddenly decided to move his family to a small country outside the borders, Nilaisi, specifically its capital, Dejia, near the Mosang snow mountain, and never returned.
Jin Wantang's contact had recently returned from there and saw lots of Ma family's ancestral items, including some agate beads like those found at the dug site, being sold cheaply near their house, confirming the location. With this being the only clue Wu Xie had found about Zhang Qiling, he was eager to find him and decided to leave soon for that border country. Jin Wantang begged to accompany him, claiming familiarity with the area and potential business opportunities.
Wu Xie appeared to agree but secretly planned to go alone. He discussed his plan with Wang Meng, admitting he knew Jin Wantang was likely trying to trick him but insisted on going because it was a clue to Zhang Qiling's past. He instructed Wang Meng to keep his ID safe from Jin Wantang and manage the shop while he was away, stating he would mail back goods later. Wu Xie arrived in Dejia and searched many places without success.
Towards evening, he visited a small restaurant near the address he had for the Ma family. Noticing some old items displayed in the restaurant, Wu Xie inquired about the Ma family's whereabouts. The owner, mistaking Wu Xie for someone else trying to collect a debt from them, readily revealed that the Ma family had moved to Mosang. The owner explained that when the Ma family left, they used some antiques to settle debts with him.
Wu Xie then called Wang Meng, instructing him to transfer all available funds from the shop's account to his card. Despite Wang Meng's concerns about the shop's finances, Wu Xie insisted, stating he had found a new clue and was heading to Mosang, also hoping to find some business opportunities there. With the funds secured, Wu Xie flew to Mosang.
Upon leaving the station after the long journey, Wu Xie felt lost in the vast unfamiliar place, wondering how he would find one person among so many. Just then, he noticed a painting on a wall depicting a young figure contemplating a stark, reddish-gray mountain range. Recognizing the figure immediately, Wu Xie found the artist, Chen Xuehan, and urgently asked where he had seen the person in the painting.
The artist revealed that the painting was a copy of an original he had seen at the Jila Meditation Center and suggested Wu Xie ask the practitioners there for more information, noting that the original had been painted by a great practitioner before the person in the painting left Mosang. Chen Xuehan guided Wu Xie across the vast snowfield and over mountains and valleys until they reached the Jila Meditation Center, an inhabited area.
Inside a tent warmed by charcoal sat an elderly, sharp-minded sage named Yu Da. Seeing the photo on Wu Xie's phone, Yu Da, after a moment of thought, spoke Zhang Qiling's name. Wu Xie eagerly pressed him for more information. Yu Da recounted first meeting Zhang Qiling many years ago. Zhang Qiling was a handsome young man, and Yu Da was a child.
Zhang Qiling was warming himself by their door, stating he had come from the deep part of the mountains near the cliff. Yu Da was surprised, but when he saw footprints by the cliff, he believed him. Zhang Qiling asked Yu Da to show him the 127 rooms in the meditation center, saying he needed to look for something "unclean." As they toured the rooms, Zhang Qiling seemed more familiar with the retreat than the locals.
In one room, Zhang Qiling found a mummified body. He told Yu Da that the person was his friend, Deren, expressing surprise that he had died there. Yu Da mentioned they had no one named Deren in the retreat's records at that time. Zhang Qiling asked Yu Da to arrange for Deren's proper burial and stated he would stay at the retreat.
Yu Da later checked records and learned that the name Deren had a peculiar significance in the retreat's history; from its founding, there had always been a practitioner named Deren who would take on a disciple also named Deren, until this line seemingly ended with the mummified Deren, who died without taking a disciple. This made Yu Da suspect the retreat was not ordinary. Zhang Qiling stayed at the retreat for a period.
Yu Da, seeking to understand the mystery, approached Zhang Qiling, but found that Zhang Qiling himself didn't fully know, as he suffered from a condition that caused him to periodically forget everything from his past, leaving only fragmented memories. He had been searching for answers to these fragments to piece together his history. Through effort, Zhang Qiling and Yu Da reconstructed some of Zhang Qiling's fragmented memories from his arrival at the retreat.
Many years ago, Zhang Qiling had been preparing to enter the snow mountain and made an agreement with the last Deren: he would return from the mountain with a great secret, but his memory might be severely confused upon return, with only fragments remaining. Deren was to wait for him at the retreat and record his fragmented accounts of what happened in the snow mountain before Zhang Qiling forgot them completely.
However, when Zhang Qiling returned from the mountain, Deren had already passed away, without finding a successor. Zhang Qiling, perhaps concerned he would forget his remaining memories, asked the young Yu Da to temporarily take over Deren's duty of recording everything that happened on the mountain on scrolls. Yu Da said Zhang Qiling had told him the reason for coming to the snow mountain when he first arrived, though he could not now recall the specifics after so much time.
Yu Da told Wu Xie that he had recorded and organized Zhang Qiling's fragmented memories from that time in scrolls, which he kept in what had been Zhang Qiling's room. He invited Wu Xie to go look at them there.
