Big Buddha Temple is the mountain sanctuary Shen Tang visits in search of Master Zang, the elusive figure connected with the extraordinary circumstances surrounding her life. The temple’s significance lies in its double character: it is a famous, heavily visited tourist destination, yet it also contains a secluded spiritual world that Shen Tang can enter only by climbing 999 steps. Her journey through the crowded public temple and into Master Zang’s private rooms transforms the location from a difficult destination into a threshold where her questions are answered and her next course is quietly redirected.

Setting and Physical Approach

Big Buddha Temple is described as a particularly spiritual temple near Shen Tang’s starting point, drawing tourists from elsewhere as well as local visitors. The incense is strong, and the approach is so crowded with adults, children, and elderly people that Shen Tang immediately understands what it means for the temple to be truly busy. The crowd turns the pilgrimage into a shared physical ordeal rather than a private, contemplative visit.

The mountain has no alternative route upward. Everyone must climb the same 999 steps, and the lack of another path forces Shen Tang to abandon the car at the foot of the mountain. Although she initially tells Gu Qing'an to wait below, Gu Qing'an insists on accompanying her. The fixed staircase gives the temple a ritualized entrance: arrival requires effort, patience, and movement away from the ordinary convenience of the road.

Sacred Public Space

At the summit stands the famous Big Buddha Temple, presented as solemn and dignified. Its atmosphere is powerful enough that merely looking at it makes people feel respectful and afraid to act recklessly. Shen Tang responds in the expected ritual manner by bowing to the central Buddha before beginning her search, acknowledging the temple as more than a tourist site or scenic destination.

The public sanctity of the temple initially conceals the person Shen Tang has come to find. When she asks a little monk whether Master Zang is present, he smiles and says that no master with that surname is there. The answer creates uncertainty because Gu Huaian’s information had seemed reliable. Shen Tang considers whether Master Zang might already have left, or whether the monk simply does not know about him. The temple therefore operates through layers of access: the obvious religious community does not necessarily reveal the secluded teacher within it.

The Hidden Retreat and Master Zang

Shen Tang eventually follows directions toward a more secluded area. Tall trees surround a row of wooden rooms, fallen leaves cover the ground, and the mountain trees remain lush. Wind chimes hang beneath the eaves and make a clear sound as they sway. This setting marks a sharp transition from the crowded staircase and public temple to a quieter, more private space. Shen Tang’s previously tense heart relaxes, and she recognizes that worrying about unrelated matters is no longer useful.

A voice from inside one of the rooms welcomes a guest from a distant place. Shen Tang pushes open the door and finds a faint sandalwood fragrance, an old white-haired man seated on a cushion, and Master Zang smiling as he looks toward her. She sits opposite him and explains that she has come to request something. The room’s stillness and its separation from the busy temple establish Master Zang as a concealed guide whose authority comes not from public display but from controlled access and calm recognition.

Master Zang immediately identifies Shen Tang as someone who has come from a different realm and asks whether she has decided to stay in this one. The question places the temple at the center of her unresolved dilemma over worlds, belonging, and the future she intends to choose. It also makes the visit more than a search for information: the temple becomes the point at which Shen Tang’s hidden identity and the consequences of her decision are directly acknowledged.

Encounter, Departure, and Narrative Function

Master Zang does not answer every question openly. When Shen Tang asks whether he is all right, he dismisses the concern, gives her a small booklet, and tells her to read it at home now that she is awake and then leave. His intention to send her away is unmistakable, and he hastily moves toward the inner chamber while Shen Tang still has questions. The temple thus withholds as much as it reveals; its guidance arrives through an object and a partial conversation rather than a complete explanation.

Before Shen Tang leaves, Master Zang produces a brand-new banana phone from inside his robe and asks whether he should scan her or she should scan him. The unexpectedly modern device, and his possession of WeChat, puncture the solemn mystery surrounding him without dissolving it. The encounter joins the temple’s ancient spiritual atmosphere to the practical communication tools of contemporary life, making Master Zang both remote and oddly accessible.

Shen Tang leaves Big Buddha Temple with the corners of her lips curved upward. She feels that her doubts have been resolved in one visit and that the journey was worthwhile. Her curiosity about the booklet remains, however: when she opens it, she immediately closes it again. The temple therefore ends its role by granting her direction without making every secret comfortable to confront. As a narrative location, it is a threshold of ascent, revelation, and controlled departure, where the crowded world gives way to hidden knowledge and where solemn spirituality coexists with an unexpected WeChat exchange.