Translator: RogueKat | Editor: RogueKat
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His sanity value drops to zero on the spot.
A chill rose from his tailbone, shooting straight to the top of his head. Zhang Yuanqing, like an agitated cat with its hair standing on end, jumped up high in place, blurting out a curse: "Fucking hell!"
This is an instinctual reaction when a person experiences strong stimulation or fright.
He finally understood why his shoulders were so sore, and why the corpse by the window had to carry a bronze mirror with it.
It was to observe if any Vengeful Spirits were clinging to his shoulders.
When did it crawl onto my shoulder? Was it when I entered the courtyard, or when I entered this room?
Who gave me the courage to go out and explore?
His mind exploded with various thoughts that rushed over him like a tidal wave of terror.
Although Zhang Yuanqing had braced himself for the strange and terrifying things that lurked in the temple's shadows, and when he came face to face with a ghost, a primal fear gripped him like a vice.
Right, I have a talisman... Zhang Yuanqing's trembling hand pulled out a yellow talisman from his jacket pocket and tried to stick it on his shoulder as a last-ditch effort.
Slap!
The corpse-sealing talisman stuck to his shoulder. He lifted the bronze mirror and shone it carefully. The man with a deathly pale face, dark purple lips, and lifeless white pupils-less eyes, still clung to his shoulder.
It was useless. This thing wasn't a corpse or a yin creature…
With that, any last shred of hope vanished, and Zhang Yuanqing felt his shoulder becoming increasingly sore and his hands and feet growing cold.
It wasn't an illusion; his yang energy was truly draining away.
At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the corpse under the main hall table, as well as the senior who died tragically under the window. He might very well end up like them, dead in this place.
A bone-chilling sensation washed over him.
"Tap, tap!"
Suddenly, at this critical moment, faint footsteps could be heard coming from the corridor outside.
The footsteps were light, but in the silent night, they were crystal clear.
…Zhang Yuanqing's heart skipped a beat. He quickly crouched down beside the corpse under the window.
The footsteps sounded somewhat familiar, similar to the ones he heard when he first entered the temple.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
The footsteps grew closer and closer, approaching the room which Zhang Yuanqing was in. He held his breath, his body tense, and he could hear his own racing heartbeat.
When the footsteps passed by the window, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't resist the urge to glance at the floor in the room. The moonlight shone in, casting a grid-shaped window shadow on the floor.
The window was not high, only up to the waist. With a normal person's height, passing by the window would definitely cast a shadow on the ground. But he didn't see anything.
This meant that whatever passed by outside the window did not have a body.
Luckily, the footsteps passed by without stopping or entering the room, gradually fading away.
Phew... Zhang Yuanqing silently breathed a sigh of relief and listened intently to the fading footsteps, hearing them step into the courtyard, making a rustling sound as they trampled on the weeds.
Then, they stopped. A few seconds later, the footsteps resumed.
This time, the footsteps were not just walking but had a certain rhythm and cadence.
What is it doing in the courtyard?
Struggling to support his cold body, Zhang Yuanqing stood up, slightly exerting himself. He looked outside through the tattered window paper, focusing on the scene.
Under the moonlight, amidst the wild grass, a pair of new, Western-style Red Dancing Shoes, were dancing a tap dance in the night.
A moonlit night, a deserted temple, Red Dancing Shoes performing a solo dance.
This scene looked both bizarre and eerie, and yet conveyed an indescribable sense of...loneliness?
How could there be a pair of Western-style dance shoes in a Ming dynasty mountain god temple?
This dilapidated temple was becoming eerier and eerier... He quietly crouched back down again and waited patiently.
As time passed by, the Vengeful Spirit on his shoulder continued to drain his yang energy. His body grew increasingly stiff, and the soreness in his shoulder turned into a stabbing pain.
He felt that if this continued, he would either die from his yang energy being completely drained, or from his shoulder bones breaking.
Amid his agonizing pain, the dancing in the courtyard disappeared.
Zhang Yuanqing still didn't dare to raise his head. He waited for a while before cautiously poking his head out and looking into the courtyard through the window.
The courtyard was filled with moonlight, and the weeds stood still. The eerie pair of dancing shoes had left.
"Phew..."
He breathed a sigh of relief, but as soon as he tried to stand up, his knees gave out and he fell to the ground.
As his tense nerves relaxed and adrenaline subsided, Zhang Yuanqing realized that his condition was even worse than he had imagined.
His shoulder was burning with a stabbing pain, his bones felt like they were about to break, his knees were stiff, and his blood felt like it had frozen.
Trembling, he picked up the bronze mirror. In the dusty reflection, Zhang Yuanqing saw that his face was deathly pale, his expression listless, and his pupils dim. He looked more like a sickly person at death's door than a normal human being.
On his shoulder, the Vengeful Spirit with the black lips stared at him silently and eerily.
He looked over at the worker's corpse and saw that their posture was exactly the same.
"So that's how it is..." Zhang Yuanqing chuckled bitterly.
He glimpsed his own demise and heard the haunting sigh of the Grim Reaper.
But Zhang Yuanqing's unwavering desire to live propelled his brain to work like an overloaded CPU, relentlessly seeking hope amidst the dire and desperate situation he found himself in.
In a flash of inspiration, he remembered the body of the deceased under the table in the main hall amidst the chaotic flow of information.
“The degree of shoulder bone fracture in the two bodies is different. While the shoulder injury of the body in the main hall was not fatal. Did the Vengeful Spirit spare him? No, the Vengeful Spirit wouldn't have shown mercy..."
"Why did he hide under the table..."
"The Red Dancing Shoes followed me secretly when I entered the temple, but they left when I entered the main hall..."
With these thoughts, a glimmer of hope lit up Zhang Yuanqing's dim and murky pupils, brightening them with newfound clarity.
"Back to the main hall! Back to the main hall right now!"
"Thud!"
Zhang Yuanqing immediately stood up and left the room, his footsteps staggering as he moved, each step feeling as if he was carrying a mountain.
He fell into the courtyard, landing in a patch of weeds, unable to stand up again.
His teeth chattered as his body shook, making a “clattering” sound. He felt like he was in the midst of a bitter winter, the “harsh cold” sapping away his warmth and eroding his willpower.
Zhang Yuanqing slowly crawled towards the main hall, using all his strength. He held his head up high, keeping the building's silhouette always in his vision so that the hope in his eyes wouldn't be extinguished.
It usually took only about a minute to walk from the main hall, but at this moment, it felt as far away as the ends of the earth.
Finally, the moment when he crawled into the corner of the main hall, he heard a ghostly and tragic scream in his ears. His shoulder suddenly felt lighter, and the negative effects of cold, dizziness, and stiffness disappeared instantly.
Zhang Yuanqing rolled and crawled to the base of the main hall, staggering to the front and pushing open the lattice door, falling into the threshold.
The candlelight was dim but dispelled the gloom and brought a warmth that felt like a breath of fresh air.
He lay on the ground on his back, his chest heaving as he gasped for breath. He stayed like that for 2-3 minutes before feeling like he had come back to life.
"That was scary, way too scary... My speculation was correct. The main hall is a safe haven."
Based on the difference in shoulder injuries between the two skeletons, he concluded that something had stopped the Vengeful Spirit from chasing the person in the hall.
The worker under the table curled up and died, which is consistent with the psychology of hiding when one is extremely frightened.
In the mind of this worker, the main hall was a safe haven.
And the fact that the Red Dancing Shoes gave up chasing him further validated this speculation.
For the next period of time, Zhang Yuanqing stayed in the main hall until the pain in his shoulder subsided and his body temperature returned to normal.
Sure enough, he did not encounter any more danger.
"If the main hall is a safe haven, then my chances of survival have undoubtedly greatly increased. Even if the Vengeful Spirit drains my essence again, I can still escape back to the main hall. But if I encounter both the Vengeful Spirit and the Red Dancing Shoes, I estimate that I won't be able to make it back to the main hall."
"And the eeriest and frightening source of this temple is definitely not just the Vengeful Spirit..."
He didn't become complacent just because he had resolved a life-and-death crisis. This ancient temple was not that simple.
It's worth noting that before him, an entire construction team had died here.
After resting for a while, he gradually put aside his fear and was considering whether to continue exploring outside.
A voice sounded in his mind once again:
【Main quest 1: survive for three hours (completed)】
【Main quest 2: Explore Spirit Realm No. 0079, Progress: 20%】
【Congratulations, Yuanshi Tianzun, on completing a main quest. Your rewards are being calculated...】
【Obtained item: Corpse-Sealing Talisman (Can be viewed in the inventory).】
【Experience points gained: 15】
【Inventory has been unlocked.】
【You will have 36 hours of rest time. Spirit Realm No. 0079 will reopen in 35:59:40】
The scenery inside the main hall twisted and distorted, like the surface of the water being ruffled by the wind.
When the image became clear again, Zhang Yuanqing saw the bright LED lights, the spacious bed, the desk, the PS5 game console, and the open window. The wind blew in, causing the curtains to sway slightly.
He was back in the human realm.
"Back already?"
He looked around in astonishment, confirming that he had really returned to his room. Then, his knees went weak and he collapsed onto the soft bed.
Taking a deep breath, he suddenly felt that the air was sweet.
It's great to be alive, it's great to be back in the mortal realm.
After resting for a few minutes, Zhang Yuanqing sat up and pulled down the zipper of his jacket, only to find that the corpse-sealing talisman was gone.
Naturally, the thought of "checking his inventory" came to Zhang Yuanqing's mind, and in the next moment, a glowing blue box appeared before his eyes.
There were a total of five slots, and the first slot contained a yellow paper talisman.
It was a strange experience. Once the inventory was unlocked, this function seemed to have become his instinct. He knew how to access it naturally without having to learn it.
“I gained 15 experience points in addition to the Corpse-Sealing Talisman, but my level is still zero, which means I haven’t become a Night Walker yet and am still just an ordinary person.”
"I almost died just trying to survive for three hours. How am I supposed to complete the second task? Is this what an S-rank difficulty looks like...?"
The more Zhang Yuanqing thought about it, the more desperate he felt, realizing that he had been tricked by Brother Bing.
This damn card could indeed change his life, but it was also difficult to control.
He was aware of his limitations as a college student who had never even killed a chicken. It would be difficult for him to survive the second task on his own.
As a patriotic and idealistic young person, he knew he had to rely on the government in times like this.
So he picked up his phone, intending to call his cousin, but his finger suddenly stopped when it touched the phone screen. Because Zhang Yuanqing thought that he might have a better option.
He immediately got out of bed and found the business card left by the man with the slicked-back hair in his desk drawer. It had the man’s name and contact information.
Tonight’s experience made him think of Brother Bing’s mysterious disappearance. If he hadn't made it out alive, then he would have disappeared as well.
It was certain that Brother Bing had already been in contact with the Spirit Realm for some time now. Perhaps his disappearance was due to entering a certain Spirit Realm?
Based on this speculation, the investigators from the Police Department were credible
He chose to contact the man with the slicked-back hair for another reason. The man had said that he too might disappear, which damn well implied that he would enter one of the Spirit Realms.
Combined with the fact that his cousin was unaware of all this, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to believe that the three of them were special personnel who dealt with similar incidents.
After thinking it through, Zhang Yuanqing dialed the number on the business card and the phone rang for a few seconds before someone with a deep, mature male voice on the other end picked up and asked: "Who is this?"
