Chapter 7: Returns
The value of san went to zero on the spot.
A chill rose from his tailbone and went straight to the sky, and Zhang Yuanqing was like a cat that had exploded its fur, bouncing high on the spot as a national curse came out of his mouth:
"F*cking mud horse!"
This was a person's unconscious outburst instinct when they were strongly stimulated or startled.
He finally realized why his shoulders were so sore, and also understood why the corpse by the window was carrying a bronze mirror with him.
It was to observe whether he had been plopped on his shoulder by a resentful spirit.
When did it lay on my shoulder, when I walked into the quad, or when I entered this room?
Who gave me the courage to go out and explore, Leung Jingju?
It was as if my mind had exploded, all sorts of thoughts popped up in a flash, and panic struck me like a wild tidal wave.
Although he knew that something weird and scary existed in this temple and had prepared for it in his heart, he still surged with unspeakable panic when he actually faced the ghosts and monsters head on.
By the way, I have charms ...... Zhang Yuanqing trembling hand pulled out the yellow paper talisman in the left pocket of his punching bag, and pasted it on his shoulder with a dead horse.
Zhen Zhen talisman slapped on the shoulder, he raised the brass mirror, carefully shine to, that face white lips black, with a pair of dead white pupils of the man, still lying on his shoulder.
It is useless, this thing is not considered a corpse type of yin thing .......... The last trace of luck is also gone, Zhang Yuanqing feel more and more sore shoulders, hands and feet cold.
These are not illusions, it is a real loss of Yang Qi.
At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the corpse at the bottom of the table in the main hall, as well as this senior who died tragically under the window, and next, he would probably die here like the two of them.
A bone-chilling chill surged in his heart.
"Ta-da!"
Suddenly, at this fateful moment, in the corridor outside, there came the sound of light footsteps.
The footsteps were light, but very clear in the silent deep night.
....... Zhang Yuanqing's heart was flabbergasted, and he quickly squatted down, crouching by the body under the window.
The sound of the footsteps was somewhat familiar, very similar to the sound he heard when he entered the temple.
"Da da da da ......"
The footsteps were getting closer and closer, coming this way, Zhang Yuanqing did not dare to breathe, his body was tense, and he could vaguely hear his frantic heartbeat.
When the footsteps passed by the window, Zhang Yuanqing still couldn't hold back and glanced at the floor of the room, the moonlight shone in, forming a lattice window shadow on the floor.
The window was not high, only up to his waist, with a normal person's height, passing by the window, would definitely be reflected by the moonlight on the floor, but he did not see anything.
This meant that the thing passing by the window had no body.
Fortunately, the footsteps passed by the window without stopping or entering the house, fading away.
Hoo ....... Zhang Yuanqing silently breathed a sigh of relief and gazed at the distant footsteps, hearing them cross into the yard and make the "rustling" sound of trampling on the grass.
Then it stopped, and a few seconds later, the footsteps sounded again.
This time the footsteps were not simply walking, but stepping with a certain pattern and rhythm.
What was it doing in the yard?
Zhang Yuanqing propped up his cold body and stood up with a slight effort, and through the tattered windowpaper, he fixed his eyes to look out.
Under the moonlight, in the deserted grass, a pair of brand-new, Western-style red dancing shoes, tap dancing in the night.
Moonlit night, deserted temple, red dancing shoes, solo dance.
This scene looks both absurd and bizarre, but also permeated with an unspeakable ....... Loneliness?
How could there be a pair of Western-style dancing shoes in a Ming Dynasty mountain temple?
This broken temple is getting weirder and weirder ....... He quietly squatted back and waited patiently.
Time passed by the minute, the resentful spirit lying on his shoulder continued to seize his yang qi, the stiffness of his body became heavier and heavier, and the soreness of his shoulder turned into a stabbing pain.
He felt that if he continued like this, he would either die from the flow of yang qi, or die from his injuries with his shoulder bones shattered.
In the agony of pain, the dance in the courtyard disappeared.
Zhang Yuanqing still did not dare to venture out and waited for a few more moments before cautiously probing his head and looking through the window towards the courtyard.
The yard was filled with moonlight, the barren grass stood still, and the bizarre dancing shoes left.
"Whew ......."
He exhaled a mouthful of cloudy air as if relieved, and just as he tried to stand up, his knees sank and he fell to the ground.
The adrenaline receded as his taut nerves loosened, and he realized that he was in worse shape than he thought.
His shoulders were on fire and stinging, his bones seemed to be cracking, his knee joints were stiff, and his blood was as if it had frozen.
Trembling, he grabbed the bronze mirror, and in the grayish mirror, Zhang Yuanqing saw that his face was pale, his complexion was depressed, and his pupils were dim. Where is this a normal person, clearly a sick child who has run out of gas.
On his shoulder, the resentful spirit with dark lips gazed at him in a weird and silent manner.
If he continued like this, he would surely die, but what could he do? He couldn't touch the resentful spirit on his shoulder with anything.
The intense pain in his shoulder bone forced him to lean his back against the wall to support his body.
Looking sideways at the corpse of the worker's predecessor, one person and one corpse were in the exact same position.
"So it's like this ......." Zhang Yuanqing smiled bitterly.
It was as if he saw his end and heard the sigh of death.
However, Zhang Yuanqing did not give up his desire to survive, his brain was still active, like an overloaded cpu, searching for hope to live in a desperate situation.
In a flash of lightning, the corpse under the table in the main hall flickered through the ponderous and chaotic flow of information.
"The two corpses have different degrees of cracked shoulder bones, the shoulder injury of the corpse in the main hall is not fatal, the Padded Shoulder Grievance Spirit spared him? No, it's impossible for a spiteful spirit to show mercy ......"
"Why did he hide under the table ......."
"The red dancing shoes secretly followed me when I entered the temple, but when I entered the main hall, it left ........"
Thinking of this, Zhang Yuanqing's dark and cloudy pupils lit up with a hopeful light.
Return to the main hall, immediately return to the main hall!
He immediately got up and left the house with a staggering pace, each step was hard, as if he was carrying a huge mountain.
"Plop!"
He fell in the courtyard and fell in the barren grass, unable to get back up.
Zhang Yuanqing's teeth chattered as they banged up and down, making a "pitter-patter" sound, feeling like he was in a bitter winter.
The "bitter cold" took away the heat and eroded the will.
Zhang Yuanqing crawled little by little in the direction of the main hall, using all his strength, he held his head high, letting his eyes always reflect the outline of the building in front of him.
This way, the hope in his eyes would not be extinguished.
It was only about a minute's walk from the main hall, but at this point, it felt as distant as the ends of the earth and the corners of the sea.
Finally, the moment he climbed into the eaves of the main hall, an illusory scream rang in his ears, his shoulders lightened, and the negative effects of coldness, dizziness, and stiffness instantly disappeared.
Zhang Yuanqing rolled over onto the plinth, stumbled around to the front of the main hall, pushed open the lattice door, and slammed himself into the threshold.
The candlelight was like beans, dispelling the gloom and bringing a warmth that made people feel like spring breeze.
He lay on the floor in a wide berth, his chest heaving and huffing, and lay like that for two or three minutes before he felt that he had finally come to life.
"Too terrible, too terrible ....... My speculation was right, the main hall is a safe shelter."
Based on the difference in the shoulder injuries of the two skeletons, he judged that something must have stopped the spirits from hunting down the man in the temple.
And the worker under the table curled up and died, which fit the psychology of a person hiding in times of extreme fear.
In the mind of this former worker, the main temple was safe.
And the fact that the Red Dancing Shoes had given up on chasing him sideways verified this speculation.
For the rest of the time, Zhang Yuanqing stayed in the main hall until the pain in his shoulder subsided and his body temperature returned.
As expected, he never encountered any danger again.
"If the main hall is a safe house, then my hope of surviving is undoubtedly greatly increased, and even if the Padded Shoulder Grievous Spirit sucks my essence again, I can still escape back to the main hall. But if I encountered both the spiteful spirit and was chased by the red dancing shoes, I don't think I could escape back to the main temple.
"And the most bizarre and scary source of this temple is definitely not just the spiteful spirit ......."
He didn't get complacent because he had defused a life and death crisis, this ancient temple wasn't that simple.
One should know that before him, an entire construction team had died here.
After resting for a long time, he gradually let go of his fear and was hesitating whether to continue to go out and explore.
That voice in his head sounded once again:
Mainline Mission One: Survive for three hours (Completed)
Main quest two: Explore Spirit Realm 0079, progress: 20%
Origin Heavenly Father, congratulations on completing a mainline quest, the rewards are being settled for you .......
Acquired item/prop: Corpse Suppressor Talisman (can be viewed in the item bar)
Gained experience value: 15%
The item bar has been unlocked.
You will be given 36 hours of rest time, 0079 The Spirit Realm will open next time: 35:59:40.
The scenery in the main hall distorted up like water that was wrinkled by the wind.
When the scene was clear again, Zhang Yuanqing saw the snowy energy-saving lamps, the spacious king-sized bed, the desk, the ps5 console, and the open window, with the wind blowing in and the curtains swaying slightly.
He had returned to earth.
"Back?"
He looked left and right in shock to make sure he was really back in his room, before his knees gave out and he dropped himself onto the fluffy bed.
Taking a deep breath, he actually felt that the air smelled sweet.
It is so good to be alive, it is so good on earth.
After a few minutes of slowing down, Zhang Yuanqing sat up, pulled down the zipper of his punching bag, and found that the Corpse Suppressor Talisman was indeed gone.
Zhang Yuanqing naturally floated the idea of "fetching items", and the next moment, a fluorescent blue grid appeared in front of his eyes.
There were five squares in total, and the first one was filled with yellow paper talismans.
It was a marvelous experience, when the item bar was unlocked, this function seemed to have become his instinct, he didn't need to learn it, he naturally knew how to open the item bar.
"In addition to the Corpse Suppressor Talisman, I also gained 15% experience value, but my level is still zero, which means that I haven't become a Night Wanderer yet, and I'm still an ordinary person."
"Surviving for three hours already almost killed me in there, how can I do the second quest? Is this S-rank difficulty? ......."
The more Zhang Yuanqing thought about it, the more desperate he became, feeling like he had been punked by Bing.
This broken card was indeed life-changing, but it was also really difficult to navigate.
He was very self-aware that he was just a college student who hadn't even killed a chicken, and it would be difficult to survive the subsequent second mission on his own.
As a good socialist youth with the right roots, he definitely had to rely on the country and the government at this time.
So he took his cell phone, intending to dial his cousin's number, and when his fingers touched the screen, he suddenly paused.
Because Zhang Yuanqing thought that he might have a better choice.
He immediately rolled out of bed and found the business card left by the man with the big back in the desk drawer.
The business card had a name and contact information written on it.
Tonight's encounter made him think of Bing's strange disappearance, and if he didn't make it out alive, then he was also strangely missing.
It was certain that Bing had long been in contact with the so-called Spirit Realm, so perhaps his disappearance was a result of entering a certain Spirit Realm?
Speculating on this idea, the investigator from the Sheriff's Department was credible.
There was another reason why he chose to contact the big-backed man, and that was because the other party said that he might have disappeared as well, which was a damn good way of implying that he would enter the spirit realm.
Combined with the fact that his cousin was unaware of this, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to deduce that those three men were special people who specialized in handling similar incidents.
After thinking clearly, Zhang Yuanqing followed the number on the business card and dialed the other party's cell phone.
After a few seconds of beeping, the opposite party picked up the phone and a voice with a mature male low voice asked:
"Which one?"
