Lying on the stretcher was a half-corpse. Its legs alone were longer than a person. Its iron-blue hair, skin, and muscles were all desiccated and withered, clinging shrunken to the leg bones.
The corpse's skeletal structure bore some resemblance to a human's, but its ilium was much larger, its pubis and ischium more pronounced. The femur of the upper leg was extremely long, robust, and curved outward. Its patella was larger, the gap between the tibia and fibula wider, and the first metatarsal (the big toe) was more separated from the second.
With just a cursory glance, Li Ang roughly memorized the half-corpse's skeletal structure. He then compared it with the skeletons of various modern and ancient organisms in his mental database.
It was not a known species.
Li Ang shook his head imperceptibly. Fearful of drawing attention, he didn't dare look any longer. He lowered his head and, holding Wang Congshan's hand, blended into the crowd of evacuating tourists.
Those people disguised as firefighters, the establishment personnel, and that group of bald monks... are they the official team for handling supernatural phenomena? I wonder what they're doing with the corpse...
In the square before the Daxiong Bao Hall, a 'firefighter' glanced at a muscular monk who was spacing out. Frowning, he asked, "Mage Hui Bin, is something the matter?"
The muscular monk, who had a strikingly handsome face, snapped back to reality. He smiled gently and responded, "Nothing's wrong. I was just a bit distracted."
The firefighter nodded. "We mustn't delay. We'll need your help, Mage Hui Bin."
"Understood."
Mage Hui Bin gestured for everyone to move back. The firefighters swiftly sealed the entrance to the square before the hall and took out their walkie-talkies, instructing those outside to completely seal off Jing'an Temple.
Once the area was cleared, Hui Bin stood before the corpse, held his breath, and concentrated. The muscles all over his body seemed to ripple as if alive, his gray monk's robe straining, almost to the point of bursting.
"HAA!"
Hui Bin bellowed deeply. Veins bulged on his face and his arms corded with muscle as he clenched his teeth, reached out, and wrapped his arms around the half-corpse on the ground.
The floor tiles beneath his cloth shoes cracked like a spiderweb and crumbled. As if lifting an immense weight, Hui Bin slowly hoisted the half-corpse. He shuffled his feet, moving toward the center of the square before the Daxiong Bao Hall, toward the newly erected Fu Hui Treasure Ding.
The Fu Hui Treasure Ding was cast from cupronickel, weighed over 15 tons, and stood 10.23 meters tall. It rested on a base carved from a single block of ancient bluestone, looking majestic, sacred, and exquisitely beautiful.
Holding the corpse, Hui Bin moved along the rim of the Fu Hui Treasure Ding and slowly lowered it into the vast vessel.
As the corpse collided with the cupronickel walls of the ding, a deep, sonorous THUD echoed. A shrill, piercing scream emanated from within the cauldron, and billows of thick, turbid black smoke wafted out from the decorative holes on the ding's surface.
The treasure ding, weighing over ten tons and once as stable as Mount Tai, began to tremble after receiving the corpse. It swayed and shook on its bluestone base, threatening to topple over.
The surrounding 'firefighters' and monks watched the Fu Hui Treasure Ding intently, their expressions tense and uneasy, fearing an accident.
After a long while, the Fu Hui Treasure Ding calmed. The shrill screams gradually faded, and no more black smoke emerged.
Hui Bin leaped onto the bluestone base in a couple of strides and peeked into the Fu Hui Treasure Ding. Seeing a pile of black residue, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. His muscles shrank back to their normal size as he turned to the 'firefighters' and said, "The evil entity has been refined by the Fu Hui Treasure Ding."
The 'firefighter' heaved a sigh of relief, picked up his walkie-talkie, and spoke to his colleagues outside. "Mission accomplished. Lift the blockade. Remember to inform the internet surveillance department to periodically check for and delete any online content related to today's events at Jing'an Temple."
"Understood," responded the voice on the other end. "Also, the Chinese Heterodox Academy just sent over an analysis report. They believe this desiccated corpse, ejected from deep beneath Qianhua Road to the surface, was a Monster Beast that went extinct as early as the Song Dynasty."
"Its name is the Mountain Demon."
His plan to investigate Buddhist Magic Artifacts at Jing'an Temple today wasn't successful, but seeing personnel from what was likely an official organization still made the trip worthwhile.
After Li Ang and Wang Congshan parted ways, he returned to his living room. He continued to collect urban legends, craft small items, and live an ordinary, routine life.
According to the System's description, the minimum interval between any two missions in the kill-or-be-killed game—whether regular, compulsory, or scenario-based—was 15 days, unless a player actively triggered a mission to shorten this period. The maximum interval between two missions was 20 days.
In other words, even if a player did nothing but hide at home after completing a mission, the System would definitely issue a compulsory mission 20 days later.
More than 15 days had passed since the Hidden Mountain Village mission, so the System could assign a new mission at any moment. To avoid any mishaps, Li Ang applied for five days of sick leave from school and stayed home, intently waiting for the next mission.
Just as he was using a machine tool to polish a newly made AK-47 drum magazine made of Trait steel, the System's prompt sounded in his ears again.
[Mission Type: Scenario Mission (Team)]
[Mission Name: Lonely Mountain Cold Temple]
[Mission Objective: Survive 7 days within the Lonely Cold Temple]
[Mission Time Limit: 7 days]
[Mission Reward 1: 200 Additional Experience Points]
[Mission Reward 2: 400 Game Coins]
[Mission Reward 3: One (1) Rare-Quality Random Item]
[Mission Reward 4: One (1) Rare-Quality Random Scroll]
[Teleportation in 5 minutes. Teleport immediately?]
HISS— Li Ang couldn't help but draw a sharp breath. This mission, like the one in Hidden Mountain Village, was a Scenario Mission, but weren't these rewards a bit too generous?
A Rare-Quality item and a Rare-Quality scroll, plus Experience Points and Game Coins—all combined, these were worth more than double the rewards from the Hidden Mountain Village mission.
When something is this abnormal, there's usually a catch. If the mission rewards are proportional to its difficulty, then what horrors, worse even than Black Zombies, will I be facing this time?
Li Ang felt a bitter taste in his mouth. If I were in Black Africa, Mexico, or some other lawless region, I'd have gotten my hands on all sorts of military-grade heavy weaponry through illegal channels by now. I wouldn't need to be struggling like this with just an assault rifle.
More importantly, this Scenario Mission was a team mission. So far, aside from that muscular monk from Pure Temple, he hadn't met any other Transcendents with special abilities.
Who will I meet on this mission? Individual players lying low like me? Official personnel backed by the state? Transcendents affiliated with foreign armed forces? Or modern Cultivators who've inherited the legacies of ancient players?
Question after question surged in his mind. Li Ang's expression remained as tranquil as still water as he methodically gathered all his equipment in the living room. Just as the five-minute countdown ended, he stood in the center of the living room, waiting for teleportation.