This item felt cool and smooth in the hand; it was a jade pendant. An extremely detailed carving of a palace adorned its surface, with auspicious clouds and celestial cranes nearby, giving it the feel of a heavenly palace. It was clearly a treasure at first glance.

"Young friend Jiang, remember, no matter what happens, you must come here to see this poor Daoist after nightfall tomorrow, or the world will be in grave danger!" Ling Xiaozhi warned again.

"Ugh—"

Before the words were even finished, Ling Xiaozhi's expression changed drastically in an instant, and then his whole body began to tremble. Blood foam even welled up at the corners of his mouth. "Young friend, leave quickly! Your presence here may prematurely awaken this evil being! Also, tomorrow... tomorrow at daybreak, do not enter this Sanqing Temple. Although this evil being is suppressed, it will still be influenced in the vicinity of the Sanqing Temple. I'm afraid I will be detrimental to you all!"

"Daozhang, take care!" Jiang Cheng didn't waste any more words. He cupped his fist at Ling Xiaozhi and left with Fatty and Ye Qiutang.

Compared to before, the road back was very quiet. The three walked cautiously, fearing an ambush by the missing monks.

Even though it wasn't a long distance, it took the three a full half-hour to return to the west wing. As soon as they approached the courtyard gate, Fatty suddenly stopped. Bloodstains were visible on the bluestone slabs on the ground.

The bloodstains looked fresh and extended all the way into the courtyard gate.

Looking through the courtyard gate, the door to the west wing was tightly closed, and the original candles inside had been extinguished at some point.

"Something's not right. You guys wait outside. I'll climb over the wall and take a look."

Before Fatty could finish speaking, a person jumped down from a tree close to the courtyard wall. "Miss, you've finally returned!"

It was the skilled man with the saber, Jiang Cheng vaguely remembered him being called Commander Zhao.

Seeing that Commander Zhao was injured, Ye Qiutang immediately stepped forward to check. "What happened? Where are the others?"

"Ah! Don't even mention it. Let's go inside and talk. This isn't the place to talk." Commander Zhao looked around vigilantly, the evil monks had left a psychological shadow on him.

Jiang Cheng and the others naturally headed towards the厢房 directly opposite the courtyard gate, but Commander Zhao stopped them. He raised his blood-stained saber and pointed in another direction. "Not here. We were worried about the monks finding us, so we moved to another 厢房. The reason I'm guarding here is to wait for you."

Following Commander Zhao for a while, they arrived at a secluded 厢房. The environment here was obviously much worse. It probably hadn't been cleaned in a long time, and the ground was covered with weeds and fallen leaves.

Before they could even get close, the door to the厢房 was pushed open from the inside. The old man with white hair showed a gradually relieved expression after seeing Ye Qiutang. "Miss, you...you're alright. That's great. If we hadn't heard from you, I was planning to have Commander Zhao go look for you."

"Where is Mr. Song?" Ye Qiutang was most concerned about Song Tianming. After all, what Jiang Cheng had thought of, she had also thought of. She didn't believe in the abbot or that Ling Xiaozhi. Anything could happen in this ghost place.

But after seeing Song Tianming, Ye Qiutang, Jiang Cheng, and Fatty were all stunned. The previously vigorous Song Tianming was now lying on the bed, on the verge of death.

His face was twisted strangely, as if he had been struck by a weapon like a club. His brow bone was fractured. Even more terrifying were his eyes, which were now two bloody holes. Hearing someone approaching, Song Tianming coughed violently, spitting out blood foam from the corners of his mouth.

"Mr. Song!" Ye Qiutang rushed over immediately, grabbing Song Tianming's exposed hand. The other's pulse was already very weak.

"Senior Song!" Jiang Cheng, returning to his senses, looked at 总管 Murong, who was closest to him. "What exactly is going on?"

Before 总管 Murong could speak, another person's cursing rang out. Commander Zhao's hand holding the knife was trembling with anger. "It's all because of that damned Hui Qing! She...she's a fake! All that talk about sudden repentance, it's all fake!"

"After we separated, Hui Qing said she knew a place where we could hide, but who would have thought that it was a trap! More than 20 monks were lying in ambush there, and they caught us completely off guard when they suddenly rushed out!"

"That's right, those monks looked familiar to me! They were all those evil monks from the Merit Hall before, and the one leading them was Monk Hui De!"

Jiang Cheng understood. No wonder he didn't see Monk Hui De in the Merit Hall tonight. So he was waiting for them here!

Fatty was also furious when he saw Song Tianming in this state. "Where's that Hui Qing? Did you catch her?"

"It was good enough to escape at the time, where would we have had the time to care about her, but I slashed her with my knife!" Commander Zhao raised his arm and pointed for Jiang Cheng and Fatty to see. "I slashed her right here. Even if she doesn't die, she'll lose half her life!"

Jiang Cheng carefully examined the few people in the room and noticed something very strange. Apart from Song Tianming, who was seriously injured and only had half a breath left, the others were all fine. Even the old woman standing behind the table with a terrified face had only scratched her skin and bled a little.

After all, this Song Tianming was the leader of the 方士 School. Even if his skills were poor, he was only slightly inferior to Commander Zhao. How could he have fallen to this state?

Worried about causing unnecessary suspicion, Jiang Cheng asked the question relatively subtly. Commander Zhao sighed, looked at Song Tianming on the bed, and frowned slightly. "This matter is also strange. The monks' target was very clear. They sent out almost half of their men to besiege Mr. Song, and they were all the strongest monks. The remaining ones seemed to be attacking us fiercely, but I could see that they were just holding the three of us back, preventing us from supporting Mr. Song."

"Then how did you escape in the end?" Looking at Song Tianming's miserable appearance, Jiang Cheng couldn't figure out how they broke through the encirclement and managed to save Song Tianming.

Commander Zhao's expression became strange. "Speaking of this is even stranger. After they knocked down Mr. Song, they were about to kill him, but suddenly, all the monks stopped moving, then suddenly looked in one direction, and then, as if they had seen something particularly terrifying, they suddenly screamed and ran away."

"Also, they ran very fast, and even dropped their clubs and weapons."

Speaking of this, Commander Zhao breathed a deep sigh of relief, his voice filled with some relief. "But luckily, those people went crazy, otherwise, how could we have survived."

"Cough...cough cough..."

Song Tianming coughed violently, then looked in Jiang Cheng's direction with his pair of bloody eye sockets, his weak voice gradually sounded, "Young...young friend Jiang, you did it, didn't you?"