Mt. Qingcheng: Passing Four Temple Gates, Part III

The tale of my Sichuan travels is written as a continuous story and starts on the entry "In Chengdu" on Nov. 5th, 2008. For context and continuity, feel free to start back at that point and read on forward first if you have not already done so.

As Larry fell off the edge, he flipped onto his back and landed into a half-full dumpster. “Larry!” I rushed over to Larry as he lay there, immobile. Is he okay?

Larry groaned. “I’m alright, I’m alright.”
Baba had turned back and saw what the commotion was all about. “Lucky guy! If that dumpster wasn’t there to break your fall, you might be in real pain right now! Worse yet, you could’ve rolled down the ravine!”
“It's also a good thing he landed on his back - the pack cushioned the fall.”

Larry looked a little shell-shocked. I gave him a hand and helped him up, lifting him out of the dumpster, which had contained wooden planks and other discarded construction materials. It was rather fortunate he had his pack on; otherwise it may have really hurt.

By then, the monks in the 3rd temple had rushed out as well, hearing all the commotion. “Are you okay?” they asked.
“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” Larry coughed out. We follow the monks through the 3rd temple, where they gave us candles to help us on the journey. New item! I felt like I was Link in the video game series Zelda, where you solve puzzles, find and pick up useful items in different rooms, and work to pass successive dungeons.

And so we continued on, though slightly subdued. Larry’s spirit seemed a bit broken, feeling a little less than invincible, and was nowhere as gung-ho as before.

The path had pretty much become a staircase going down the mountain, surrounded by a forest of very tall, upright trees. We turned off our flashlights to conserve the battery – we had no idea still how much further we had to go. Instead, we used the candles the temple keepers gave us, and though they were bright, they did not do a good job of providing directional lighting. As we neared the 4th temple, I tripped slightly on the repetitive stairs. Normally, it would be easy to regain balance on such a slight misstep, but my loss of stability was amplified by the weight of my bag. The next thing I knew, I was going down!