Chapter 7: Return
The san value instantly dropped to zero.
A chill rose from the tailbone straight to the crown of Zhang Yuanqing's head. Like a cat with its fur standing on end, he jumped high on the spot, unconsciously letting out a curse:
"F*ck!"
This was the instinctive vocal response when a person experiences intense stimulation or fright.
He finally understood why his shoulder had been so sore, and why the corpse by the window carried a bronze mirror.
It was to check if a vengeful spirit was clinging to one's shoulder.
When did it start clinging to my shoulder? When I entered the courtyard house, or when I came into this room?
Who gave me the courage to explore outside? Was it Liang Jingru?!
His mind exploded like a pot, all sorts of thoughts bursting forth in an instant, terror washing over him like a tidal wave.
Although he knew this temple contained eerie and frightening things, and was mentally prepared, when actually faced with ghosts and monsters, he still felt an indescribable panic.
Right, I have a talisman. Zhang Yuanqing trembled as he pulled out the yellow paper talisman from the left pocket of his jacket, slapping it onto his shoulder as a last resort.
Slap!
The corpse-subduing talisman hit his shoulder. He raised the bronze mirror, carefully looking at the reflection. The pale-faced man with black lips and lifeless white eyes was still clinging to his shoulder.
It didn't work. This thing wasn't considered an undead yin object. The last glimmer of hope was gone. Zhang Yuanqing felt his shoulder becoming increasingly sore and painful, his hands and feet growing cold.
These weren't illusions, but the real loss of his yang energy.
At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought of the corpse under the table in the main hall, as well as this predecessor who died tragically by the window. Next, he might end up like the two of them, dying in this place.
A bone-chilling chill welled up in his heart.
"Tap tap!"
Suddenly, at this critical moment, light footsteps came from the corridor outside.
The footsteps were light, but very clear in the silent night.
Zhang Yuanqing's heart tightened, and he quickly crouched down next to the corpse under the window.
These footsteps sounded familiar, similar to what he had heard when entering the temple.
"Tap tap tap"
The footsteps drew closer, coming this way. Zhang Yuanqing didn't dare to breathe, his whole body tense, faintly hearing his own frantic heartbeat.
As the footsteps passed by the window, Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help but glance at the floor of the room. Moonlight shone in, forming a lattice shadow on the ground.
The window wasn't high, only reaching waist level. Given a normal person's height, passing by the window would surely cast a shadow on the floor, but he saw nothing.
This meant that whatever passed by the window had no body.
Fortunately, the footsteps passed by the window without stopping or entering the room, gradually fading away.
Whew. Zhang Yuanqing silently let out a sigh of relief, focusing on the fading footsteps. He heard them enter the courtyard, making a "swish swish" sound as they stepped on the overgrown grass.
Then they stopped. A few seconds later, the footsteps resumed.
This time, the footsteps weren't simply walking, but stepping with a certain rhythm and pattern.
What is it doing in the courtyard?
Zhang Yuanqing supported his cold body, standing up with some difficulty. Through the tattered window paper, he peered outside.
In the moonlight, amidst the wild grass, a pair of brand new Western-style red dance shoes were tap dancing in the night.
Moonlit night, abandoned temple, red dance shoes, solo dance.
This scene looked both bizarre and eerie, yet with an indescribable sense of... loneliness?
How could there be a pair of Western-style dance shoes in a Ming Dynasty mountain god temple?
This ruined temple was becoming increasingly strange... He quietly crouched back down, waiting patiently.
Time passed minute by minute, second by second. The vengeful spirit clinging to his shoulder continued to drain his yang energy. The stiffness in his body grew worse, and the soreness in his shoulder turned into a stabbing pain.
He felt that if this continued, he would either die from complete loss of yang energy or die from his shoulder bones shattering.
In the midst of this painful torment, the dance in the courtyard ceased.
Zhang Yuanqing still didn't dare to raise his head. After waiting a while longer, he carefully peeked out, looking into the courtyard through the window.
The courtyard was filled with moonlight, the wild grass standing silently. Those eerie dance shoes had left.
"Phew"
He let out a sigh of relief, about to stand up when his knees gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.
After the tension in his nerves relaxed and the adrenaline subsided, he realized his condition was worse than he had imagined.
His shoulder burned with a stabbing pain, feeling as if the bones were about to split. His knee joints were stiff, his blood seemingly congealed.
Shakily grabbing the bronze mirror, in the dusty surface, Zhang Yuanqing saw his face was deathly pale, his expression haggard, his pupils dim. This was no normal person, but clearly someone whose life force was nearly exhausted.
On his shoulder, that vengeful spirit with black lips stared at him eerily and silently.
If this continued, he would surely die. But what could he do? He couldn't touch the vengeful spirit on his shoulder at all.
The intense pain in his shoulder bones forced him to lean against the wall to support his body.
Turning his head to look at the worker's corpse, the postures of the living person and the corpse were identical.
"So that's how it is," Zhang Yuanqing smiled bitterly.
He seemed to see his own fate, hearing Death's sigh.
But Zhang Yuanqing hadn't given up his desire to survive. His brain was still active, like an overclocked CPU, searching for hope of survival in this desperate situation.
In a flash of inspiration, the corpse under the table in the main hall flashed through the chaotic stream of information.
"The shoulder bone fractures of the two corpses are different. The shoulder injury of the corpse in the main hall wasn't fatal. Did the shoulder-clinging vengeful spirit spare him? No, the vengeful spirit wouldn't show mercy..."
"Why did he hide under the table..."
"The red dance shoes were secretly following me when I entered the temple, but when I entered the main hall, they left..."
Thinking of this, a glimmer of hope lit up in Zhang Yuanqing's dull and murky pupils.
Return to the main hall, return to the main hall immediately!
He immediately got up, staggering out of the room. Each step was very difficult, as if carrying a mountain.
"Thud!"
He fell in the courtyard, collapsing into the overgrown grass, unable to stand up again.
Zhang Yuanqing's teeth chattered, making a "click click" sound, feeling as if he were in the midst of a bitterly cold winter.
The "severe cold" robbed him of warmth, eroding his will.
Zhang Yuanqing crawled bit by bit towards the main hall, using all his strength. He held his head high, keeping the outline of that building always in his sight.
This way, the hope in his eyes wouldn't be extinguished.
The walk from the main hall had only taken about a minute, but now it felt as distant as the ends of the earth and sky.
Finally, the moment he crawled under the eaves of the main hall, an illusory scream sounded in his ears. His shoulder suddenly lightened, and the negative effects of cold, dizziness, and stiffness instantly disappeared.
Zhang Yuanqing rolled and crawled onto the platform, staggering around to the front of the main hall, pushed open the lattice door, and threw himself over the threshold.
The candlelight was like a bean, dispelling the gloom, bringing warmth as comforting as a spring breeze.
He lay sprawled on the ground, his chest heaving as he panted heavily. He lay like this for two or three minutes before feeling he had finally come back to life.
"Too scary, too scary... My guess was correct, the main hall is a safe shelter."
Based on the different shoulder injuries of the two skeletons, he deduced that something must have prevented the vengeful spirit from pursuing the person inside the hall.
And the worker curled up and died under the table, which fit the psychology of someone hiding in extreme fear.
In this worker predecessor's mind, the main hall was safe.
And the red dance shoes giving up the chase indirectly verified this guess.
For the time that followed, Zhang Yuanqing stayed in the main hall until the pain in his shoulder lessened and his body temperature returned to normal.
Indeed, he encountered no more dangers.
"If the main hall is a safe house, then my chances of survival have undoubtedly greatly increased. Even if the shoulder-clinging vengeful spirit drains me again, I can escape back to the main hall. But if I encounter both the vengeful spirit and get chased by the red dance shoes, I probably won't make it back to the main hall."
"Moreover, the most bizarre and terrifying source of this temple definitely isn't just the vengeful spirit."
He didn't become complacent after averting one life-or-death crisis. This ancient temple wasn't that simple.
It's worth noting that before him, an entire construction team had died here.
After resting for a long time, he gradually put aside his fear, hesitating whether to continue exploring outside.
The voice in his mind sounded again:
[Main Quest 1: Survive for three hours (Completed)]
[Main Quest 2: Explore Spirit Realm 0079, Progress: 20%]
[Primordial Heavenly Lord, congratulations on completing one main quest. Calculating your rewards now.]
[Obtained Item/Tool: Corpse-Subduing Talisman (Can be viewed in inventory).]
[Gained Experience: 15%]
[Inventory has been unlocked.]
[You will receive 36 hours of rest time. Spirit Realm 0079 will next open in: 35:59:40.]
The scenery inside the main hall began to distort, like a water surface rippled by wind.
When the image became clear again, Zhang Yuanqing saw bright energy-saving lights, a spacious bed, a desk, a PS5 game console, and open windows with curtains swaying slightly in the breeze.
He had returned to the human world.
"I'm back?"
He looked around in bewilderment, confirming he was truly back in his room before his knees gave way and he collapsed onto the soft bed.
Taking a deep breath, he found even the air sweet.
It's good to be alive. The human world is good.
After a few minutes, Zhang Yuanqing sat up and unzipped his jacket, finding the corpse-subduing talisman was indeed gone.
Zhang Yuanqing naturally had the thought to "retrieve item," and the next moment, a fluorescent blue grid appeared before his eyes.
There were five slots in total, with a yellow paper talisman lying in the first slot.
It was a very strange experience. Once the inventory was unlocked, this function seemed to become his instinct. He didn't need to learn how to open the inventory; he naturally knew how to do it.
"Besides the corpse-subduing talisman, I also gained 15% experience, but my level is still zero. This means I haven't become a Night Walker yet; I'm still an ordinary person."
"I almost died in there just trying to survive for three hours. How am I supposed to complete the second quest? Is this what S-level difficulty means?"
The more Zhang Yuanqing thought about it, the more desperate he felt. He felt that Brother Bing had tricked him.
This damn card could indeed change one's life, but it was also truly difficult to master.
He was very self-aware. He was just a college student who had never even killed a chicken. It would be difficult for him to survive on his own in the subsequent second quest.
As a proper socialist youth, at times like this, one should rely on the country and the government.
So he picked up his phone, intending to dial his cousin's number. As his finger touched the phone screen, he suddenly paused.
Because Zhang Yuanqing thought he might have a better option.
He immediately got out of bed and found the business card left by the man with the pompadour in the desk drawer.
The card had a name and contact information.
Tonight's experience made him think of Brother Bing's mysterious disappearance. If he hadn't been able to come out alive, he would have mysteriously disappeared too.
It was certain that Brother Bing had already encountered the so-called spirit realms, so his disappearance might have been due to entering some spirit realm?
Following this line of thought, the Public Security Bureau investigators were trustworthy.
There was another reason he chose to contact the pompadour man: the other party had said he might disappear too, which was hinting that he would enter a spirit realm.
Combining this with the fact that his cousin didn't know about it, Zhang Yuanqing had reason to deduce that those three were special personnel specifically dealing with similar incidents.
After thinking it through, Zhang Yuanqing dialed the number on the business card.
The phone rang for a few seconds before the other side answered. A low, mature male voice asked:
"Who is this?"
(End of Chapter)