Chapter 1 Lying Corpse

The half-mummified corpse on the stretcher had thighs longer than a person was tall. The bluish-black hair, skin, and muscles were all dried and withered, shrunk and clinging to the leg bones.

The corpse's skeletal structure had some similarities to that of a human,

but its ilium was much larger, and the pubic and ischial bones were more prominent. The femur of the upper thigh was extremely long, strong, and curved outward.

The patella of the knee was larger, the gap between the tibia and fibula of the lower leg was wider, and the first metatarsal (the big toe) was further separated from the second metatarsal.

With just a quick glance, Li Ang roughly memorized the zombie's skeletal structure and compared it in his brain's database with the bones of various modern and ancient creatures.

Not a known creature.

Li Ang shook his head almost imperceptibly, afraid of being noticed. He didn't dare look any further, lowered his head, took Wang Congshan's hand, and hid in the crowd of tourists retreating outward.

Those officials disguised as firefighters, and that group of bald donkeys, are they the official personnel handling supernatural phenomena?

I wonder what they're carrying the corpse for...

On the square in front of the Great Hero Hall, a "firefighter" looked at the muscular monk who was in a daze and frowned, asking, "Venerable Huibing, is something the matter?"

The muscular monk with a naturally charming face came back to his senses and said with a gentle smile, "Nothing, just a little distracted."

The firefighter nodded. "Time is of the essence. Please lend a hand, Venerable Huibing."

"Mm."

Huibing waved his hand to signal everyone to retreat. The firefighters hurriedly closed the gate of the square in front of the hall, and at the same time took out a walkie-talkie to notify the outside to completely seal off the entire Jing'an Temple.

Once the area was cleared, Huibing stood in front of the corpse, holding his breath and concentrating. The tendons and muscles all over his body seemed to throb with life, and his gray monk's robe was stretched as if it would burst.

"Ha!"

Huibing shouted in a deep voice, veins bulging on his face, blood vessels swelling in his arms, clenching his teeth, and reaching out to hug the half-mummified corpse lying on the ground.

The floor tiles beneath his cloth shoes cracked and crumbled like a spider web. Huibing lifted the half-mummified corpse as if he were carrying a thousand pounds of weight, slowly moving his feet and walking to the center of the square in front of the Great Hero Hall, to the newly built Fu Hui Treasure Cauldron.

The Fu Hui Treasure Cauldron was cast from white copper, weighing more than 15 tons and standing 10.23 meters tall. It stood on a treasure cauldron base carved from a whole piece of ten-thousand-year-old bluestone, solemn, sacred, magnificent, and exquisite.

Huibing hugged the corpse and slowly sent it into the cauldron along the edge of the Fu Hui Treasure Cauldron.

The corpse collided with the white copper cauldron wall, making a muffled and long "dong" sound.

A shrill scream came from inside the cauldron, and streams of turbid, thick black smoke escaped from the decorative holes in the cauldron.

The treasure cauldron, weighing more than ten tons, had been as stable as Mount Tai, but after receiving the corpse, it gradually trembled, swinging back and forth on the bluestone treasure cauldron base, almost tipping over.

The surrounding "firefighters" and monks watched the cauldron, their faces tense and uneasy, afraid that something unexpected would happen.

After a long time, the treasure cauldron calmed down, the shrill screams gradually dissipated, and no more black smoke emerged.

Huibing monk jumped onto the bluestone base in a few steps, peered into the cauldron, and after seeing a ball of black slag, finally breathed a sigh of relief. His muscles shrunk back to normal, and he turned to the "firefighters" and said, "The evil spirit has been completely refined by the treasure cauldron."

The "firefighter" breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the walkie-talkie, and said to his colleagues outside, "Mission accomplished, lift the lockdown, and remember to notify the network regulatory department to conduct regular inspections and delete content related to Jing'an Temple today from the internet."

"Roger." The voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie said, "By the way, the China Paranormal Society just sent an analysis report. They believe that this corpse, which was ejected from the depths of Qianhua Road to the surface, is a demon beast that became extinct as early as the Song Dynasty."

"Its name is Shanxiao."

——————

Today's plan to go to Jing'an Temple to inquire about Buddhist instruments was not successful,

but seeing personnel who were suspected to be from official organizations could be considered a worthwhile trip.

After Li Ang and Wang Congshan parted, he returned to his own living room, continued to collect urban legends, make small productions, and live a plain daily life.

According to the system description, the shortest time interval between two missions (whether regular, mandatory, or scripted) in the arena game is 15 days, unless the player actively triggers a mission to shorten the time interval.

The longest time interval between two missions is 20 days.

In other words, after a player completes a mission, even if they do nothing and hide at home, the system will definitely issue a mandatory mission after 20 days.

The mission at Yinshan Village had already exceeded 15 days. The system could issue a mission at any time. In order to avoid accidents, Li Ang directly applied for 5 days of sick leave from the school, hiding at home to wait for the mission to arrive.

Just as he was using a machine tool to grind the special steel drum he had just made for the AK47, a system prompt sounded in his ear again.

Mission Type: Script Mission (Team)

Mission Name: Lonely Mountain Cold Temple

Mission Objective: Survive for 7 days in the Lonely Cold Temple

Mission Time Limit: 7 days

Mission Reward 1: Extra Experience Points 300

Mission Reward 2: Game Coins 500

Mission Reward 3: Rare Quality Random Item * 1

Mission Reward 4: Rare Quality Random Scroll * 1

Teleportation in 1 minute, teleport now?

Hiss—

Li Ang couldn't help but gasp. This mission, like the one in Yinshan Village, was a script mission, but the mission rewards were too generous, weren't they?

A rare quality item, a rare quality scroll, experience points and game coins. All things added together were more than twice as generous as the mission rewards in Yinshan Village.

Something abnormal must be happening. If the mission rewards were equal to the mission difficulty, then what kind of demon would he have to face this time that was even more terrifying than the black zombies?

Li Ang felt bitter in his heart. If he were in Black Africa, Mexico, or other lawless places right now, he would probably have obtained all kinds of military-grade heavy weapons through illegal means long ago. Why would he need to be struggling with assault rifles like this?

More importantly, this script mission was in the form of a team. So far, besides that muscular monk from Qingjing Temple, he had not seen any other extraordinary people with special abilities.

Who would he meet in this mission?

Individual players like him hiding? Official personnel with the background of the national machine? Extraordinary people affiliated with foreign armed forces? Or modern cultivators who inherited the legacy of ancient players?

Questions flooded his mind, but Li Ang's face was calm as water. He packed up all the equipment in the living room in an orderly manner, and stood in the center of the living room, waiting for teleportation, just as the one-minute countdown was about to end.