Chapter 22: The Temple
The darkness of the forbidden zone was not something Xu Qing was unfamiliar with.
Whether it was the ruins of the city or this jungle.
He had lived for more than ten days in the former, and he had experienced several nights in the latter.
At the moment, hidden within the crevice of a giant tree, he half-squinted his eyes, silently exhaling the Spiritual Energy mixed with the rich heterogeneous qualities within the Forbidden Zone in his false sleep.
After entering his body, these spiritual energies were separated by the Hai Shan Technique, with the pure portion nourishing his entire body and the heterogeneous portion integrating into his shadow.
Xu Qing had already gotten used to this change.
Even vaguely, he had a feeling that cultivating within this forbidden area might be due to the shadow, or perhaps it was because this place was dangerous and one was intensely vigilant at all times.
With a high level of mental concentration, the speed of cultivation all increased a lot.
Nowadays, it was not far from the fourth layer of the Hai Shan Technique.
"It's like sharpening a sword ......," Xu Qing muttered in a low voice.
He didn't know any great principles, but he remembered the blacksmith in the slums, who had once told someone that a good knife needed a better whetstone before its sharpness could be completely revealed.
At the moment, the dangerous forbidden zone seemed to have become Xu Qing's whetstone.
In the midst of this grinding cultivation, for a long time, Xu Qing, who had ended a week of days, silently opened his eyes.
He raised his head and gazed along the tree crevices at the blackness of the night outside, and the night of the forbidden zone, the roars from the foreign beasts rose and fell from afar, echoing the jungle as the gods and devils murmured.
The coldness was even more omnipresent, invading all living things here, and it also burrowed into the cracks of the trees where Xu Qing hid, permeating his body.
It was cold.
This scene gave him a feeling that he had returned to a ruined city, and slowly a wisp of loneliness permeated his body.
But as for loneliness, Xu Qing was already familiar with it. After a long while, he closed his eyes again and continued his cultivation.
Just like this, time passed.
Because he had found the right place to rest, this night was quite safe, except that in the middle of the night, Xu Qing, who was in the middle of his cultivation, heard the sound of footsteps from the outside world in his ears.
It was very disorganized, as if many people were marching forward in a row.
Xu Qing's complexion slightly condensed, his eyes narrowed as he looked to the outside world, but it was pitch black outside the tree slit, there was nothing.
However, Xu Qing's heart sank violently, because at the moment the footsteps came, the hissing sounds of the foreign beasts within the nearby jungle actually disappeared in an instant, which caused Xu Qing's vigilance to rise, abruptly.
He recalled the singing footsteps he had encountered the last time, but the feeling he got at this moment was somewhat different.
"It's not like the footsteps during the song that day, and there's no song present."
Xu Qing analyzed quickly, not acting rashly, but forcing himself to calm down, holding his breath and gazing at the dark night outside.
Gradually the sound of footsteps became clearer and clearer, and it seemed that a group of people were gradually approaching in a line.
At the same time, a gust of cold that was beyond the realm of gloom, as if it could freeze the body, also violently invaded at this instant.
This kind of cold, Xu Qing was no stranger to it, whether it was the song of that day, or those weird existences that haunted the city's ruins at night, it was this kind of temperature that was emitted.
However, the degree was different, the song of that day could have frozen his soul, but today's cold only made him physically ill, not to the extent of losing his movement.
"It's a similar type of existence to the Ruins Creepy!" After Xu Qing made a judgment, he gripped the iron sign with a death grip, took a deep breath, restrained his inner fluctuations, and forcefully closed his eyes, not going to open them.
Do not look, do not touch, do not encounter.
After Xu Qing closed his eyes, the sound of footsteps suddenly rushed, getting closer and closer, as if countless people were circling around the large tree where he was.
Xu Qing's mind shook, trying to restrain himself from wanting to go and open his eyes to see what the other side really looks like impulse.
Until a long time ...... when the moment of the early sun rising in the vault of the sky, the sound of disorganized footsteps finally did not continue to wander, slowly far away.
The sky, brightened.
Xu Qing did not open his eyes at the first time, he waited for a few more moments before slowly opening and closing his eyes, and saw the mouth of the tree slit where he was, where a thick layer of ice clearly existed, and his entire person, was frozen inside.
Through the layer of ice, the sunlight sprinkled down on Xu Qing, he exhaled a breath, his left hand pressed on the ice surface, and violently pushed, the clicking sound of the ice layer shattered, and fell to the ground.
Xu Qing slowly drilled out, first observed the surroundings, saw the jungle, those wolf corpses that were still there yesterday, now all disappeared, and the ground ...... has a large number of footprints.
It is human footprints.
Densely packed, as if hundreds of people have walked.
And the matter of hundreds of people of this size, entering the forbidden zone together, Xu Qing had not heard of it.
Especially ...... these footprints, they were really footprints, not shoe prints.
Xu Qing was silent, for a long time to take back his gaze, for the forbidden zone's weirdness, he felt a little deeper, at this moment, taking advantage of the dawn, the forbidden zone's danger to be reduced than the night, Xu Qing did not give up exploring, a swing away.
A few hours later, Xu Qing finally reached the farthest point where their group had gone last time, the small canyon where the Thunder Squad had picked the Seven Leaf Grass.
Inside the canyon was the same as when they had left, sunlight spilling down onto the ground along the tops of the trailing vine canopy above them, and gusts of floral scent filled the air, isolating the outside world's ferocity and danger, as if it were a paradise beyond the world.
Arriving here, Xu Qing breathed a slight sigh of relief, raising his head to look towards the other end of the canyon, the cluster of temples that existed further away.
Gazing at it for a moment, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze, and after a brief respite, his body sped on, heading straight for the temple cluster.
The jungle outside the canyon was even more lush, and the sunlight was getting less and less here.
It was unknown if it was because this ancient temple complex still exuded the splendor and pressure from their era, so there were very few dangers as they approached out of the canyon.
The lush jungle seemed to be a lot milder in its scent as well.
Even in the piece of jungle closest to the temple complex, it was actually not too different from the trees Xu Qing had seen in the outside world, no longer hideous and no longer dark.
And there were some of the seven-leafed grasses here, which were picked by Xu Qing.
Everything here, let Xu Qing some surprise, but vigilance did not reduce, carefully approaching.
Until another hour had passed, and as dusk was approaching, he walked out of the jungle and came to the front of this temple complex.
There were very few trees here, and the sunlight poured down extensively, causing Xu Qing's eyes to go into a bit of a trance.
Reflected in his eyes was a huge domed building that was dozens of feet tall.
Even if it was collapsed, even if it was dilapidated, even if it was permeated with moss, the temple piled up by neat blocks of stone that were much larger than his body was filled with a sense of vastness.
Walking within it, stepping on the broken giant bricks on the ground, it was as if Xu Qing had arrived in a land of giants.
The remnants of the walls could be seen everywhere, each one radiating an ancient sense of age, as if they were telling Xu Qing about their experiences.
Even further ahead, there was a collapsed statue.
The lower half of this statue was already gone, transformed into countless pieces that were difficult to piece together, the head was still intact, but its appearance was already blurred.
Nonetheless, it was more than thirty zhang in height, and it was conceivable that before it had collapsed, it was at least two hundred zhang or more.
Standing in front of it, Xu Qing's presence was quite inconspicuous.
At this moment, there was a wind blowing, like the sound of a Qiang flute, reverberating in a desolate manner, and as if it had isolated time and space, so that the splendor that had once existed was only left to be gazed upon by future generations.
Xu Qing quietly looked at the statue and was silent for a long time.
He thought of the ruins of the city outside the slums, and wondered if, in a number of years' time, the people of that era would be as careful as he was now to enter the forbidden zone, as if looking at history, to see that city.
After a long while, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and searched through this temple complex, not finding that special stone that Team Lei had mentioned.
When he was inside the residence when he arrived, he had already inquired about this special kind of stone that emitted a seven-colored glow.
It seemed to grow naturally, and there was no regularity in the time it appeared.
After searching unsuccessfully, Xu Qing had some regrets, his body deftly jumped up, a few undulations to the top of a temple, standing there he looked in all directions.
Behind him, was the outer area of the forbidden jungle, although he couldn't see the end, but he could see part of it, and counting the time, today was the fourth day that the bone knife, who had purchased the insurance policy in his own place, had said.
Yesterday, when Xu Qing was within the jungle, he didn't see any mist, and today there was still none, so he didn't need to go to the rescue.
So he turned his head to look at the other direction of the temple group, where ...... it was the depths of the forbidden jungle.
Contemplating for a little while, Xu Qing raised his head and noticed that it was getting late, he was prepared to explore a small area towards the depths, rush back before dark, rest here tonight, and return early tomorrow morning.
With his intentions in mind, Xu Qing's body immediately moved, jumping down from the temple and heading towards the depths.
His nerves intensely tightened the moment he stepped into the depths of the jungle, his vigilance and caution heavier.
This was because he knew that the level of danger here was far too much greater than the outskirts.
In reality, it was true that after only half an hour, Xu Qing's figure reappeared within the temple's boundaries.
His face was somber, with residual palpitations lingering in his eyes.
However, the leather bag was bulging, as if it had been filled up inside.
He had only traveled less than a mile before, and saw quite a few vintage Seven Leaf Grasses that seemed to have not been picked for a long time, which surprised Xu Qing, as this kind of vintage Seven Leaf Grasses were worth a lot of money.
However, when he was picking it, he obviously felt that the concentration of the heterogeneous quality had multiplied, if it wasn't for the fact that his shadow could absorb it, it would have been difficult for anyone else to move an inch.
And he also saw far away from the last time in the forbidden land in the weird jellyfish .......
And this kind of jellyfish, there are more than ten heads here, only much smaller, but the body of the cold atmosphere is still very obvious.
Luckily, most of these jellyfish were hanging on the trees and sleeping, and when Xu Qing saw them, he carefully avoided them.
But as he moved forward, he had a very strong feeling that it seemed like in the depths of this jungle, there were countless gazes, like substance, with greedy intentions from unknown directions, that were falling on him.
All of this made Xu Qing feel a pinprick in his back.
And here, is only the edge of the depths of this forbidden area, the range within it is much larger, can not imagine how many horrors exist in the end.
Xu Qing didn't dare to continue forward, and retreated without danger.
Until he retreated to the temple's range, the feeling of having a needle in his back only dissipated.
It was as if this divine temple was a boundary, stopping the malice from the depths of the forbidden zone.
Xu Qing took a deep breath, and while the sun was about to set, he found a temple that was barely intact and stepped inside in this final afterglow.
He found a rock crevice to burrow into, preparing to spend the night.
Team Lei had said that this place could briefly hide from danger.
Inside the temple he also checked, it was very empty, permeated with a strong sense of the passage of time, whether it was a sword-wielding stone statue enshrined in the main seat, or the numerous portraits carved on the surrounding walls, all of them turned blurry in the quicksand of time.
At the same time, there was not much foreign beast feces and traces within the temple.
If all of them were absent, or diffused a lot, Xu Qing wouldn't even choose.
Because this was not normal, the only thing that was relatively safe was this presence of traces but not many.
After all, although the temple was within the jungle, there were very few trees here, so it made sense that the foreign beasts that were used to jungle life would not come often.
Soon night came.
As the hissing of the outside world surfaced, Xu Qing silently exhaled.
Time passed, consistent with his judgment, the temple complex at night, there were very few foreign beasts, and although the hissing was present, it mostly came from a distance.
But as with yesterday, when Xu Qing vomited into the middle of the night, bizarre and disorganized footsteps, once again appeared!
This time, the location where they appeared was outside the temple.
"Again?"
Xu Qing's brows furrowed, he didn't know why these footsteps appeared twice in the place where he was, vaguely a little uneasy, after thinking about it, he didn't open his eyes as he did yesterday.
Only this time the footsteps, not as yesterday as gradually far away, but more and more.
Constantly converging down, bursts of coldness filled the air, as if outside the temple at the moment gathered countless bizarre, to come to invade the temple.
Xu Qing's heart sank, and he gripped his iron sign with a firm grip, his mind rapidly constructing the environment of this temple as well as the way to deal with it once he encountered danger.
And right at this moment, the sound of footsteps converging outside suddenly disappeared, turning silent.
This silence, instead of letting Xu Qing breathe a sigh of relief, on the contrary, it gave him a feeling of a storm before it arrived, his entire body hairs were about to explode, he vaguely sensed that the weirdness that converged outside the temple seemed to be hesitant to enter at the moment.
In the next instant, in the silence, the weirdness outside finally chose to step into the divine temple, and Xu Qing heard the sound of footsteps stepping inside the divine temple, stepping on the stone tiles.
Snap.
The sound was like a boulder that fell into Xu Qing's mind, causing Xu Qing's heart to sink, but at this very moment, a burst of murmuring sounds suddenly echoed within the temple, carrying an incomparable holiness.
What's more, a wisp of golden light suddenly spread out from the temple walls, reflecting the entire temple, but also diffused in Xu Qing here, so that the world under his eyelids closed eyes, from the original darkness in a flash of light.
And under this golden light, Xu Qing's eyes stung, and for the first time, when he encountered this kind of weirdness, he opened his eyes.
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The new book was released a week, updated nearly 90,000 words, this amount for the small mengxin, not easy ...... everyone want to encourage it ah
